New Year's Book Giveaway!

If you don't have "Tiger Lily" in kindle format yet, this is your chance to get it free! Or rather, it will be, on January 1.  So run over to Amazon on January 1 and grab a copy: http://tinyurl.com/zd5js4e

The third in the series is almost ready to come out. I've been slowed down by all sorts of detours so I probably shouldn't promise anything but it should happen soon. I will let you know. Happy New Year!

Back to Work

I’m behind schedule. I apologize for that.  “The Forests of the Night”, the next book in the “Tiger Lily” series should have been approaching publication. It’s not, and there are excuses, uh, I mean reasons for that. Health issues, work load (my “other” job), all sorts of stuff. I kept telling myself that as soon as some of this was resolved, I would get the rewrites done. I have now officially lost patience with myself. Whatever else is going on, I’m getting back to work, no more waiting. I will make the time and do the rewrites.  Stay tuned.

The Lower Manhattan Boat Lift

I had no idea tat there was a boat lift on 9/11/2001. I am amazed at how large it was but I am not surprised that Americans came together to help one another. Check out this video: http://biggeekdad.com/2011/09/boatlift/

Getting there

I just finished the first draft of “The Forests of the Night”, the next in the the Tiger Lily series. I had really hoped to have the whole thing done and ready to go before the start of the fall semester but I think I knew that was unrealistic. Now the plan is to get the rewrites done ASAP, but without being too hasty. I’m just sticking my head above the waves here to catch a breath. You know what “they” say: getting there is half the fun.

Hummingbird Moths

The first time I saw a hummingbird moth I thought I had wandered into an alternate universe. In front of me was a winged, jewel-like little creature. It was flitting from flower to flower, drinking nectar. It was using what I thought of as a hummingbird’s feeding strategy. Not only that, but the constant motion of its little wings made a whir like a hummingbird’s. I was young. I thought it was magic.

I’m much older now but I still think hummingbird moths are magic. I know they are the product of convergent evolution, but that doesn’t make them any less magic. Every year now, as spring rolls into summer, I go on stake out in my garden. The hummingbird moths always appear. I have yet to be disappointed.

There are many varieties of hummingbird moths. What I have are mostly clear wings. One thing about these little guys: they are hard to photograph, especially with a slow old camera like mine. They move fast! You can find much better images of them online but the picture here is mine: a magical creature drinking nectar from my bee balm. Magic.

Summer Fun

It’s summer. We are just past the height of the Solstice. My hollyhocks are blooming; hummingbirds buzz through the garden. Twilights are long and the nights are warm. And there is one other ever-present feature of summer: bugs.

Insects are important, of course. They fill critical niches in the ecology. I know this and I regularly send annoying emails to my elected representatives about saving bees and monarchs. Insects can be great if they are outdoors. Recently, however, I have had adventures of the insect kind indoors.

The first was the cricket under the floorboards.  It sounds like a cliché but trust me, that thing gave a whole new meaning to the word “loud”. Think jet engine running up for take-off. In your living room. There was no way I could get the thing out short of tearing up the floor and I’m not sure that would have worked. I could have tried to kill it by saturating the floor and the room with bug repellent but that would have probably killed the humans and left the cricket untouched.

I did research. The bug was almost certainly male, advertising for a mate. (Hello, crickets, try the internet instead.)  We resigned ourselves to hearing the poor cricket’s lonely song for a few days and maybe wearing earplugs. 

Then one morning I saw one of my cats staring at something on the floor. It was The Cricket! I scooped up The Cricket and took him outside and considered the problem solved. Until two days later when I found the second cricket under the scrutiny of my other cat. I relocated this cricket also. But now I’m worried. Was the second cricket a female? If so, did she leave lots of cricket eggs to hatch and swarm through my house forming rock bands or wailing country music under the floorboards at some future date?

And that’s just crickets. Then there is The Spider. He appeared on the chair in the bedroom in the dim light at midnight. He was fast, so I never caught him or got a really good look at him. What I did see was an arachnid about ten centimeters long. Well, maybe I exaggerate just a bit, but that thing was big! He was hairy. 

I know spiders are not insects. I actually kind of like spiders. Outdoors. The one who lives in the bedroom (and I hope there is only one) has now been named Boris. That’s in honor of The Who’s “Boris the Spider”, which I have been humming.  So yes, it’s summer.

                                   Look, he's crawling up my wall

Black and hairy, very small

Now he's up above my head

Hanging by a little thread

Boris the spider

Boris the spider

(The Who)

Here We Go

For those of you who have been asking about the next installment in the “Tiger Lily” series,  I’ve started it. Now I just have to finish it. “Just."

Occasionally someone asks me where I get my inspiration or where I get my ideas. I’m tempted to respond with the classic, “a post office box in Poughkeepsie,” but that’s too easy.  Or rather, I wish it were that easy; I would rent that box in a flash. My father once gave me some words to ponder.  “Inspiration,” he said, “is the application of the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”  It’s a start, anyway. Here we go.

The First Sign of Spring

Today it has been snowing. It snow-rained, drizzled and snizzled and now it’s snow again. The meteorologists say we could get maybe three inches overnight. I did, however, see the first sign of spring a few days ago. I went back into my woods looking for daffodil shoots. There was still too much snow for me to find anything, but I did come back with the very first sign of the turning season. I thought I felt something on my neck and there it was: a tick. First sign of spring or American horror story?

Sad Haiku

World Poetry Day

Free coffee for words they said

But not for me here.

The Land Persephone Forgot

I recently saw a painting of Persephone, the Goddess of Springtime. She was awakening under the soil, stretching up to break through the earth with flowers and leaves. It was supposed to be reassuring: see! Spring is almost here. Well, Persephone apparently hit the snooze button.  There is so much snow here that if we get more no one knows where to put it.  Classes at my university have been repeatedly canceled or delayed for bad weather. The rotator cuff tears in my shoulder are not getting any better with all the shoveling. People walk around grumbling.

And then yesterday I saw it. I was sitting on the couch, looking absently out through my glass door. Outside the door is barren whiteness of seemingly endless snow. My garden fence is buried under drifts. The bare branches of the lilac trees stretch upward against a grey sky.  Sitting on one of the branches was a male cardinal. 

He was bright red, brilliant against the stark landscape. The cardinal began to sing. Was he calling his mate? Was he the first sign of Spring?  I know cardinals don’t migrate but I wanted to believe that this beautiful visitor meant a change in the weather.  I wanted a picture of him. So I grabbed for my camera. By the time I got to the door, he was gone, of course.

I saw him later, flying above the snow. And today was the first above freezing day since I don’t know when. Slush! Melting snow! Woo hoo! I checked the weather forecast, hoping for more. We are under a winter storm warning. Persephone went back to bed.

"Tiger Lily" free!

Heads up! If you don't already have "Tiger Lily", you will be able to download it for free from Amazon this weekend, February 14 and 15. Happy Valentines' Day!

http://tinyurl.com/m5s4hes

Welcome to Wilderness

Welcome to Wilderness.  That's the title of  my new book of poems. Right now it's available only for kindle but there will be a print edition soon.

 Nature has always been my inspiration, whether the natural world or human nature. Some part of me still believes that poetry was the first form language took for our early ancestors and we have been rewriting ever since. 

Writing poems is easy compared to editing them.  I have been wanting to see this book make its debut for a long time. I believe there is more writing than rewriting here, and more of a connection with nature. Let me know what you think.

http://tinyurl.com/naww79l

I wish I didn't have to write this

It is so sad and also infuriating to hear that terrorists targeted and killed journalists, humorists and cartoonists.  Yes, je suis Charlie.  And also, the pen is still mightier than the sword.