Mental. Imaginers.

Ice Storm 2015 - The Aftermath

2015-02-20T12:31:00.002-06:00

I know there are some smug Northerners out there who think the 2015 ice storm across the Midsouth has been a sort of joke, but I'm a Michigander by birth (a Southerner by choice). This has been as bad an ice storm as I've ever witnessed, or have experienced, anywhere.

In Tennessee it's been made doubly tragic by the fact that the Department of Transportation isn't generally equipped with the plows and salt trucks made standard in colder climes. Drivers aren't as experienced in slippery weather.

There has been loss of life and property as highway arteries have clogged with traffic collisions, multi-car pile ups, and ditch diving.

Huge areas lost power while temperatures on February 15 plunged to 3 degrees and lower.

Air flights were cancelled, airports shuttered.

And for me and my family, the timing was particularly heart-wrenching, as we received the news that my husband's father died. We were ice-locked and travel-blocked at every turn, and unable to go to the funeral.

Old Man Winter has felt particularly cruel this year.

Of course, as it always is with nature, there is beauty among ruins. Loveliness amidst savagery.

I ventured out of the house today; the first time in nearly a week. I went only as far as the backyard, searching through the aftermath with my camera, for a glimpse of hope. I wasn't disappointed.

I'm affectionately calling these photos my "ice collection". Tidier in the house, anyway, than the mouthful of icicle Edith brought in for a new chew toy yesterday.

Wrought Ice

Metal and ice together formed a theme today, unintentionally.

Ice Fortress

I have a small outdoor table with a crosshatch metal surface, and as the slab of ice on top melted enough to slide off, I got this amazing honeycomb sort of thing:

Or is it a chess board for ice fairies?

I also have on my patio a wrought iron chair with a high back that looks to be a throne to me. It's one of my favorite things, and I had no idea how it could interact with nature in all her seasons to give me some wonderful inspiration. It appears in many photos.

Ice Cliffs of Insanity

And

Curlicue on Ice

Then, to my surprise, as I ventured deeper into the yard, my hair got buzzed by a low-flying object. I looked up to find a robin, cheerfully calling, just in front of me.

I quickly snapped.

I realized in that moment, that in the same yard of cold ice and twisted metal, looking all the glory of an apocalyptic wasteland, sat a sunny patch of wildwood. In the wildwood, in a pinprick of light, sat a robin.

I thought of my father-in-law, then. He loved nature, and taught me about birds, and what they eat, what they look like, and was always devising some sort of contraption to keep squirrels away from their seed. He always enjoyed watching birds as much as I ever have.

I didn't get to go to his funeral to say goodbye. My heart has been frozen cold, and sad. But as he went from this life to the next, maybe I didn't need to say goodbye.

He's the song in the robin in my backyard.

I miss you, Len.

Five Romantic Movies to Watch This Weekend, or Any Weekend

2015-02-13T16:39:00.000-06:00

Social media is abuzz with a certain recent movie. So much so, I have seriously considered closing up my social interfacing until the storm passes.

But in the meantime, I thought I would share my top 10 most watchable romantic movies of all time. According to me.

The following list of movies are in no particular order. Many are simply great entertainment, and maybe some laughs (I love comedies). But mostly, for me, they pass the real romance test:

A) Characters worth caring about.

B) Male romantic leads that aren't irredeemably psychotic.

Let me start with the most obvious title of all time. We'll just get this out of the way first, for those few of you that haven't heard of it, or maybe haven't seen it in a while.

1) The Princess Bride, 1987

This is the story of Buttercup and her farmboy, as their relationship grows into something more. It's adventure and fantasy, adapted from William Goldberg's novel (have you read it?)

2) Ever After: A Cinderella Story, 1998

Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott star as Danielle and The Prince. It's a refreshingly charming take on the old fairytale, with the character, Danielle, as a rough-and-tumble tomboy who unwittingly sheds new light on the prince's tired old world.

3) Love Actually, 2003

I'm not just recommending this film because it has just about EVERY SINGLE ONE of my favorite British actors in it. Although, that's partly why. I'm including it as a totally watchable love story because of the so very many expressions of love displayed in a jumble of overlapping relationships. It's funny, and touching, and heartbreaking, but utterly real.

4) Big Business, 1988

Okay, this is more a comedy than a rom-com, but it has Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler, and Lily Tomlin, and Bette Midler! Find me a combo better than that! The comedy duo plays two sets of twins, switched at birth. In each duo, a sister finds herself lost in a world she doesn't belong in, and entangled in a romantic relationship that just doesn't feel right. But the men that love them discover the woman of their dreams is just a twin away. Seriously, see this movie. I mean it.

5) A Walk in the Clouds, 1995

Yes, that is Keanu Reeves. Please don't go screaming into the night. Give him a chance. I believe this is one of the best films he ever made, and he's surrounded by the amazing talents of Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo Giannini. He learns from them, he really does. Also, the movie is about a soldier, Paul, returning from war to find his wife a total stranger (she never even read his letters!). He happens into a woman, Victoria, who is pregnant, and about to go home to her family's vineyard in shame. They work out a plan, and he throws his whole heart into it. Really. What I like most is that this beautiful film has you fall in love with Victoria and her family, right along with Paul. Gorgeous photography, amazing story.

So there you have it! My top five most watchable romantic movies of all time. Take the time this weekend to admire what love could/should really be.

Life After Ashes - an Anthology, and a Helping Hand

2015-01-16T08:40:00.000-06:00

Urgent announcement today.

A sad note, and a happy one. I'm a contributing author for an anthology entitled "Life After Ashes". Sad, because this Tilt campaign needs to happen for a fellow veteran and his devastated family, and yet I'm happy to be able to something, anything, to help.

So can you.

A press release:

BOOK CREATED TO HELP FAMILY OF A NAVY VET AFTER A FIRE

(16 January 2015 – DAYTON, OHIO – ) An award-winning lineup of over fifty authors are collecting stories to help raise money to help the family of a Navy veteran and fellow author recover after a home-destroying fire. The anthology, entitled Life After Ashes will only be available as a reward to those donating money through a crowdfunding campaign to aid the family before 2 February 2015.

Earlier this month the home of writer, Navy veteran, and single father Greg Campbell burned down. Campbell and his two children, Isaac and Scarlett, lost everything, including childhood mementos, keepsakes and photos of his recently deceased wife, and family pets. To help the family recover, Tia Fix Rumbaugh, Isaac’s stepmother, started a crowdfunding campaign to help the family get back on their feet.

“I started the crowdfunder in a panic,” Rumbaugh said. “My stepson’s house had burned. They were homeless, with only the clothes on their back, and this after my stepson had lost his mother de facto when his Aunt Pam died unexpectedly.”

The anthology started to take shape when author and publisher Steven Saus first offered digital copies of his own books as rewards for backers. “I’d just met Isaac, one of the children who lost their home. Not only is his father an author, but Isaac is an aspiring writer himself and an avid reader. It just seemed natural. Then when other authors asked if they could contribute stories as backer rewards, I knew we had the start of something special.”

Rumbaugh says that this has a great impact for the family. “This anthology isn’t just about raising funds to help the Campbell’s and give people an amazing read from award-winning authors - it’s a cause, it’s a quest, it’s an idea turned into physical hope; hope for Greg, hope for Isaac, hope for Scarlett. Life isn’t all about loss. Life can raise up from the ashes.”

Life After Ashes will have over fifty authors, including Nisi Shawl, Lucy A. Snyder, Gary Braunbeck, Tobias Buckell, Laura Resnick, and many more. It will be available in ePub, Kindle, and PDF formats to anyone who contributes $25 or more to the crowdfunding campaign raising money for the family.

You can find the crowdfunding campaign on Tilt.com at http://bit.ly/helpVetandKids.

–30--

Should you wish to schedule an interview, please contact Steven Saus at 937-234-7287 or steven@alliterationink.com or Tia Fix Rumbaugh at tiafix@gmail.com .

Cover art by Steven Gilberts

Let's turn this project into more than just words. Let's make them words of hope.

Snow, and a Sky Full of Singing

2015-01-14T16:57:00.000-06:00

We got the first bit of snowfall this winter, in Nashville, that actually stuck around for an hour or so, before dissolving as though it had never been there.

I'm not complaining. I hate the stuff. Got my fill of snow all the years I lived in Michigan!

But, I did grab my camera, slip on some shoes, and run out to my backyard to document the strange little dusting that looked more like vanilla sprinkles than snowflakes. Here's one of my pictures, serving as inspiration for another knitting project, soon:

I can't wait to get started on that!

But, in the meanwhile, I've finished my first scarf project, based on the colors from "In a Nutshell".
I ran into a little trouble trying to photograph the scarf: because of the fun fur, no matter what interesting angle I tried, the thing just looked like a tribble.

So I decided to go with a close-up, instead.

In a Nutshell photo

In a Nutshell scarf

Also on my agenda, I finished reading "The Crystal World" by J. G. Ballard as the book in my 2015 challenge that 'came out the year I was born'.

I remembered, a page or two in, why it was also a book I started and never finished. I just couldn't engage, no matter how hard I tried. But I soldiered through, this time.

My reward? The next challenge! 'A book of short stories'. Look at this beauty:

Got this baby right out of my bookshelf, and couldn't even find a reference photo to link online! So I took one myself. I feel like the moment I open the cover, a chorus in the sky will break out.

I shall read with great reverence, indeed.

Knit and Lit

2015-01-07T10:32:00.000-06:00

No, not knitting *while* lit. Although, that might be a fun experiment, sometime. (note to self)

I've long had a fascination with photography. I've never taken a course, which I should do, one of these days. But I do like to fiddle around and see what I can manage, and I've gotten a new camera recently--all mine! A "simple" point-and-shoot type thing, with more settings than I know what to do with.

It goes underwater, too!

I like to take it with me (and my dog, Edith) on walks. I have a grand plan to create knitting projects based around the colors of my favorite photos. Or, am I taking photos that would make great color schemes for knitting? Hm.

Either way, I have a few photos to start with! Here's "In a Nutshell":

I've already begun this scarf, with brown/gray/beige, plus cinnamon-colored fun fur to add the pop of autumn orange.

Next up: "Gravel Path":

After I took this picture, I happened across a yarn called "Cobblestone", with big chunks of fluffy woven right in, and couldn't believe my luck. I can hardly wait to see what I make of that! But I have a personal rule that I finish one project before I start another, so this is in my queue.

I'll be sure to post the finished projects with their photos! Plenty more to come. I'm really enjoying my photography/knitting challenge.

Speaking of challenge, I have updates for my 2015 Reading!

I've finished "Dark Dreams" by Roy Hazelwood and Stephen Michaud - a nonfiction book.

Next up - my selection for "a book that came out the year you were born" - which is 1966:

"The Crystal World" actually counts as 'book written by an author with your same initials', and 'book you started but never finished', but I won't double up and count it as three. Where's the fun in that?!

It has a pretty cover (if rather generic), which suddenly gives me an idea to start knitting scarves based on color schemes from book covers. Hm. Hmmmm.

One more reason to play around in my yarn stash! I like it!

2015 Reading Challenge - Are you in?

2015-01-02T21:47:00.001-06:00

As an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker, I am often so busy creating stories that I seldom have time for my first, real love: reading. I miss it, the way one misses the scent of a favorite stuffed toy, or the comfortable feel of beloved slippers.

I'm making it a priority again this year.

This reading challenge, posted by PopSugar, and brought to my attention by my friend, Robin, makes the task seem fun, rather than guilt-laden for my lack of literary exposure. I'm excited to be excited to read again!

Join in on the fun!

From Tara Block at PopSugar:

"Book-lovers, start your reading engines. If one of your New Year's resolutions is to read more books in 2015, get started now with our ultimate reading challenge. From a book your mom loves to a book with a love triangle, we're giving you a wide range of reads, spanning eras and genres, instead of specific books."

My first book from the challenge is a non-fiction book, chosen from the stack I got for Christmas.

I've read other work from the writing duo, and enjoy their voice. They're able to communicate the fascinating parts, as well as the grim realities, without inflating or making it seem tabloid or gratuitously cheap entertainment.

While I'm on the subject, here's another book I got for Christmas:

I blasted through this amazing book, and will be reading it again. It's a true-to-life (because it IS true) foray into a career that could seem macabre, except, it isn't.

I can't count it on my challenge for 2015, though, because I read it last week! But maybe next time...

"We" - by Yevgeny Zamyatin

2009-05-28T18:37:00.004-05:00

I've only just closed the last page of this fascinating book. I feel as breathless as D-503, the journalist and main character of the story, as he searches for his grip on his reality. What a ride.

The story is chronicled by D-503, a cipher of the One State. He is happily obedient as worker-mathematician, toiling for the Benefactor. But by the meddling in his head of a woman, I-330, he becomes ill with a "soul" that torments him with feelings, laughter, confusion...love.

But she's no ordinary cipher, of course. She has designs. And D-503 finds himself dragged toward his own destruction by the ring in his nose. Has he replaced one dictator for another?

Zamyatin was no stranger to Totalitarianism. This novel emerges from the time of revolutionary Petrograd. It took the Czechs to manage getting it to print. He'd been arrested and exiled from Russia, arrested and internally exiled (when they couldn't keep him out), and put before a judge again who kicked him back out. All for his revolutionary writing.

The claim has been made that Zamyatin is the inventor of the Dystopia, and that might possibly be true in fiction, This book is rife with "cliche" plot twists and turns, but at its time of writing, it hadn't become cliche yet. It was pioneering.

The novel does often read almost as a stream-of-consciousness tale, and at times I truly struggled to tell the difference between D-503's imaginings and what seemed to be reality. Which isn't exactly a departure from what D-503 himself experiences, so I found this forgivable. I've been told the translation can make an astounding difference as to language, tone, and effect, and so I'll share that I read the translation by Natasha Randall, and I found it to be poetically breathtaking.

I struggled for some time to find a tea companion for this novel that truly fits. And I discovered a wonderful new tea at the same time; one I find particularly true to the flavor of "We". Numi's "Golden Chai"-- http://www.amazon.com/Numi-Golden-Spiced-Assam-18-Count/dp/B000FFS91M --is a beautifully delicate balance of traditional chai with a clearly defined ginger overtone that complements the tragic, but septically clean, life of Zamyatin's ciphers with living at the mercy of the One State.

Try both, the book and the tea, and let me know what you think!

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

2009-05-14T16:37:00.003-05:00

A sleepy village in rural England loses contact with the world for an entire day. Strange and mysterious, yes, but alarming? Not so much, for a bunch of proper British folks who wake up and manage to go about their day; cold, but determined. However, a few weeks later, all the females of childbearing age find themselves pregnant, virgin or otherwise. And the babies all share the same feature: golden eyes. And as time goes on, the village discovers that's not all the children share.

The novel is a classic from 1957. It's a little tricky to get hold of, but well worth the effort. It's one of my personal favorites, written at a time when Science Fiction writers were coming into their own. Wyndham is a little ahead of his time as he writes of moral implications and cultural effects. His style is straight-forward and charming, with little mind to the science of the happening, and more on the results in the lives of people.

The title is intriguing! The immediate association, I think, is "Cuckoo" as though "Nuts", or "Wacko", and it certainly fits. However, as a bird, the cuckoo often lays its eggs in another bird's nest...

And the perfect tea companion to this tale of surrogacy is Irish Breakfast Tea: http://shopstashtea.com/050320.html . The tea is also a little tricky to get hold of, but well worth the effort. It's a black tea, strong like English Breakfast, but with an undertaste of malt that comes along after the initial taste to really deepen the experience. Cream and sweetener make this almost a dessert.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne

2009-05-11T16:29:00.003-05:00

I find the classic novel a mixture of charm and density of detail. I read in a biography of Verne how he would spend hours in research, and I certainly see the results of that in this particular tale.

The story is told by Axel, the nephew of Professor Otto Lidenbrock, who reluctantly joins his uncle and an Icelandic guide into an inactive volcano--an opening to a pathway that leads to the center of the earth. Axel disbelieves each step of the way; his uncle is a force of determination.

The novel reads much like a geography lesson. There are frequent pauses for the professor to divulge paragraphs of scientific argument (I kept envisioning Verne as the writer, determined to "prove" to his readers, by way of Lidenbrock, that he knew what he was talking about). Perhaps it was due to his time, knowing though the novel was fictional, it would yet need to stand up to the scrutiny of the ever-expanding scientific knowledge of Victorian England.

What spares the reader from being completely buried beneath the science lesson is Verne's ability to use his skill for detail on the characters. The fiery temper of Professor Lidenbrock is true-to-form through the entire story, and even the landscape itself takes on a personality that carries throughout.

So what sort of tea might one drink for the reading of "Journey to the Center of the Earth"? I suggest a fruity herbal--a reader will need patience for this tale, not the effects of caffeine. Be ready to slow down, take the novel at the pace with which it's written. And a light flavor is best, something of a berry blend: http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/detail.html/herbal-teas/black-cherry-berry , to contraindicate the dark depths to which the characters descend. And don't forget the sweetener! I think you'll need it.

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

2009-05-07T15:33:00.005-05:00

viv·i·sec·tion

(vĭv'ĭ-sěk'shən, vĭv'ĭ-sěk'-)
n. The act or practice of cutting into or otherwise injuring living animals, especially for the purpose of scientific research.

"The Island of Dr. Moreau" is the fourth in a long list of novels by Herbert George Wells. Wells's voice is as strong in this as any many of his early books; full of meaty imaginings and the kind of view into humanity that makes one wince (see: vivisection, above).

In the story, a shipwrecked man named Edward Prendick journals his experiences as he's stranded on an island with an odd sort of right-hand man and Dr. Moreau, a man of science and questionable sanity. But the three are not the only island inhabitants; animal-human creatures Prendick calls the "Beast-Men" populate the ravines and shadows. How these Beast-Men have come to be is told best by Wells (pick up a copy of the book, if you haven't read it!).

It's been theorized that in "The Island of Dr. Moreau" Wells has made Dr. Moreau God, and drawn parallel religious lines along that theme throughout. But I think that's a too-easy answer. Certainly, Moreau thinks of himself as a kind of god, but Prendick makes no such leap. He falls into some posturing as such, when it becomes a matter of life or death, but is well aware of what's going on, and why.

In fact Prendick ponders on deeper questions later in the book. He's a man who struggles to return to life-as-it-were before he'd glimpsed into something of the truth. He sees fellow man with a kind of veil lifted, and intimates a wondering at the base of our existence. Who are we? And who are we without God?

But nothing deepens the experience of reading a good novel as much as sipping tea while doing so. And my personal recommendation of tea for such a writer as H.G.Wells is Yorkshire Gold: http://www.englishteastore.com/yogo40teaba.html . It's a stout tea, full of body like coffee, but smooth and without bitterness. Did I mention it's stout? One bag will brew 6-8 cups of tea. I brew mine through a coffeepot, couldn't be easier. Add some sweetener and bit of cream, and you've got one terrific taste of Wells-in-a-tea.

Focus on: Trillion Year Spree

2009-05-04T21:14:00.001-05:00

Brian W. Aldiss has written a fantastically exhaustive history of Science Fiction. The first edition, titled "Billion Year Spree" was published in 1973. This latest, from 1986, isn't just revised, it's nearly rewritten and twice the original length.

I have to wonder at the possible length it might be were it expanded yet again to include the last 15 years of speculative fiction, and the current--shall I say meteoric?--rise of of the latest names.

Nevertheless, it's a good reference, and what it lacks in direct plot it makes up for in opinionated narrative. His is a viewpoint of science fiction as literature, if it meets the prescribed convention, and suggests we can mine centuries as far back as the 17th to find bits of scientifiction trope.

It's too easy to think of SF as a most recent blip on the literary radar. To place its beginning with "Hugo Gernsback's lurid magazines in the nineteen-twenties" might serve well for nostalgia's sake, but man, specifically writing-man, has been imagining himself among the stars (or beneath Earth's surface), expanding and contracting against his mortal confines for far longer, of course.

One might say SF is the stuff of myth or legend, of science and environment, of exploration and conquer. It has solidified into a genre in the late half of the century, the "fiction of a technological age". But I like the way Mr. Aldiss sets a parameter for it. In his own words: "Science Fiction must call to account our deepest fears and aspirations."

Isn't that really the best of all literature?