Saturday at the library

I had a really nice time last Saturday at the Newport Public Library's Festival of Five, with four other New England authors.  I got to meet Tova Mirvis, Julie Wu, Nora Hall and Susan Reynolds.  I was so nervous going in but I didn't need to be.  These women are a lot of fun to talk to, and our facilitator, Mary Barrett, did a wonderful job.  We got to toss around questions from Mary and also from people in the audience.  I even got to mention my friend Marcella Burnard's newest book.

And I discovered something.  Anyone who lives in the vicinity of Newport, Rhode Island, heads up: the library has a book store.  A used book store where they sell extra copies and also donated books.  Lots of books.  For cheap. I have to go back there.

A festival! With books!

This Saturday, May 3, I will be at the Newport Public Library in Newport, Rhode Island.  It's their second annual Festival of Five. All five of us are women authors from New England.  I'm honored to be invited.  I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do or say but hey, it should be fun.  If you are in the neighborhood, stop by at 2 PM.  I understand there will be some books for sale!
http://www.newportlibraryri.org/npl/

Of birds and squirrels

At first it was a war.  At least, that's how I perceived it.  I had a suet feeder hung out for the birds.  The squirrels would climb up there and chase the birds away, eat the suet, and then throw the feeder to the ground.  Then they would drag the feeder off into the bushes and take it apart.  Yes, they really did, and on more than one occasion.

Needless to say, I got tired of retrieving the feeder and reassembling it.  I was not happy that the squirrels were chasing off the woodpeckers but I wanted the squirrels to be fed, too, so I put out food on the ground for the squirrels.  The birds ate that more than the squirrels did. 

I decided all would be well if I could keep the squirrels off the bird feeder.  Then the birds would eat from the feeder and the squirrels would eat on the ground.  I put spinners made of old plastic milk bottles on the pole for the bird feeder.  They did discourage the squirrels but my husband thought they were ugly.  He had a point, so I removed them.  Here's an example, with a red-headed woodpecker and a downy.

I tried putting hot sauce and pepper on the suet.  I read that birds don't mind that but squirrels do.  Sure enough, one of the squirrels ate some peppered suet and sat on the feeder pole with his mouth hanging open.  I felt terrible.  And it didn't work for long.  The squirrels realized the hot stuff was only a coating, which they could scrape off.

All of this made me think (and about time, you might say). What I really disliked about everyone eating from the bird feeder was that the feeder would get dumped on the ground and dragged into the bushes.  Aha!  I got some safety wire and wired the feeder so it would stay closed.  And I reinforced the hanger.

It worked.  At least so far the feeder has not gone walkabout.  Birds and squirrels can eat, no problem.  But there is a new development.  Grackles have discovered the feeder.  And grackles, apparently, can be bullies.  They are iridescently beautiful but they chase away other birds and even squirrels.  

The grackles won't let me take their picture so I borrowed these from the public domain, 10000birds.com.

I guess it's always something.

Apparently it's not Spring

At least, not yet.  We had more snow and now lots of wind and there's ice everywhere.  It will melt, of course, but as a student said today, "I think the March lion kinda ate the March lamb."  She may kinda have a point. I know eventually the hummingbirds will return, but for now, I'm still enjoying the woodpeckers.  Here is my downy friend again, enjoying some suet.

It's here!

I went back into my wood patch and there they were, poking up through the leaf litter and semi-frozen soil: little daffodil shoots.  It's here!  Spring is here!

book festival!

I'm thrilled, delighted, flattered and nervous!  I was invited to the Newport, RI Public Library on May 3 to be one of the authors at their "Festival of Five".   I will be one of five women authors from New England to be on a sort of panel/round table to be interviewed and to answer questions from the audience.  I have no idea right now who the other four will be, but I am excited to find out.  I have never participated in anything like this but it sounds like a lot of fun!  I think there will be some books for sale, which means I have an excuse to feed my book addiction.  Right now this is pretty much all I know.  Oh, right, the festival begins at 2 PM and it's open to the public, so stop by if you're in the neighborhood!

woo hoo!

The Amazon promotion is over.  The results were great!  There were free downloads in every country with an Amazon store, except Mexico and Spain.  Hundreds of free kindle copies of "The Sword of the Land" were downloaded, and "Sword" hit number ten in the rankings for epic science fiction and fantasy and also for sword and sorcery (free listings). I hope people enjoy the book!