A Quick Weather Update

Normally, I’d have the mints, among the cold-hardiest of the annuals I grow, in the ground by now. This year I’ve barely been able to start hardening them, and the ground certainly is not diggable. Yes, that’s the remains of last October’s snow behind them. Yes, I know mints are perennials. Most aren’t here. The lone exception is what I call Alaskan mint (though it’s not native) which has flowers at the leaf axils instead of terminally. But I like to have as many kinds of mint as possible, and that means buy the plants early, while selections are good.

I miss the strawberry mint, though. It was my favorite last year, but this year it seems unavailable.

North Pole Weather 5/13/13

It’s not been the coldest spring on record, but it’s about the coldest I remember. Yes, there is a little grass showing, where there are trees, shrubs or buildings to absorb the sunlight and radiate the heat back to the snow. Yes, the snow stake in the back yard says the snow pack is finally going down by several inches a day. It may even be bare by afternoon. (Vain hope. As of 11 pm it’s down to 3″ and the temperature’s 26°F.) The fact remains that in most years I would be raking leaves out of the perennial beds and hardening the mints by now, maybe even leaving them out at night. This year there’s still so much snow I only got to the tables I use for hardening yesterday!

It is still getting lighter. The days are increasing by 7 minutes a day, and by the middle of the week we will no longer have civil twilight – the sun will never go more than 6 ° below the horizon. Legally, we could drive all night without turning on our headlights. Not that night is very long. The sun rose this morning at 4:33, and it will set 18 hours and 30 minutes later at 11:04. By the end of the month it will be setting after midnight. (It already is, in Nome, thanks to the rather screwy definition of Alaska Standard Time.) But at least it’s warming up, though we had some snow flurries last night.

The Farmers’ Market isn’t actually open yet, but the vendors had a cleanup last Saturday. The picture is of the vendors’ parking lot. They are trying to pump out the water, but I suspect it will still be pretty wet when the market opens.

And if I needed any more doubts about my sanity, after just finishing the A to Z challenge I’ve signed up for the 2013 Blogathon. Expect some short bits about my experience with self publishing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Weekend Writing Warriors, War’s End

Welcome to another snippet from War’s End. Coralie has just realized she has no more milk for Michelle, who’s been nursing almost continuously. Kelty and Ginger seem to have figured it out, and Ginger is speaking first.

“Coralie, it’s not you, and I have some milk substitute in my kit. Remember what happened the last thing on the ship? Just before we wound up here?”

“That man — he grabbed Michelle from me. She was afraid of him, and — but he was moving away from me! And Michelle was back in my arms! I thought — but he can’t have given her back to me.” Her eyes widened as she remembered the conversation with Elyra.

The conversation was before they were even on the ship, but you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what Elyra said.

For more snippets, click the logo at the top for Weekend Writing Warriors, or the one at the bottom for Snip Sunday.

Jarn’s Journal Year 6 Day 85

Year 6 Day 85

Well, they’ve left.

I keep telling myself not to become attached to individuals of the People, because they age quickly and will die all too soon. On that basis, it is a very good thing that Songbird, Giraffe and WildDog will not be staying with me this year.

I will miss them.

I will even miss Meerkat, who has finally realized I have no interest in her as a mate and set out, very much behind my back, to seduce Lion, who lost his mate to a fever last year. I hope Lion knows what he is in for!

Not that Gazelle, the mate of Little Gnu, is not a good cook and clothing maker, or that her daughter does not remind me of Songbird as I first knew her. Gazelle has also taken to the fish traps, and we eat well even without a hunter.

Little Gnu has turned out to be remarkably adept at knapping stone. Giraffe did make a small spear point for WildDog, but he spent a great deal of time doing it. Little Gnu has almost finished his supply of stone, and every tool he has made is a success. He is not very talkative, but he has managed to make me understand that different tools are best made from different types of stone.

“If I bring you several kinds of stone,” I said, “can you show me what each is best for?”

He beamed as he has not done since the elephant attacked him. I think I may learn more about stone tools than I had intended.

Jarn’s Journal is a part of the remote back story of my science fiction universe. The entire journal to date is on my author site.

Quotes from Andre Norton

Here are the contexts of the quotes tweeted from May 2 through May 8. All but the last are from Lore of the Witch World by Andre Norton.

 “Out of darkness comes even greater dark.” Elfreda’s warning to Hertha that vengeance is not the answer. “The Toads of Grimmerdale.”

“In these days we take what fortune offers, we do not often please ourselves.” Hertha, coming to the inn alone and on foot. “The Toads of Grimmedale.”

“A man mostly made his own luck.” Trystan is certainly trying to make his. “The Toads of Grimmerdale.”

“When one is driven by a lash one takes any way to free oneself.” Trystan, recognizing that Hertha’s desire for revenge, though mistaken, is something he can fully understand. “The Toads of Grimmerdale.”

“To seek death willingly is also a sin.” The Abbess, warning Hertha against trying to go again into the Waste to free her baby. “Changeling.”

“We all choose our own roads, some with less cause than you.”  The abbess as Hertha starts into the Waste. “Changeling.”

“Don’t try to ford anything you’re not sure of.” Bowling, Tourist Trap. Timi’s advice to Flame as she sets off to find Roi, but it’s a pretty good general rule.

Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange (Book Review)

Mr. Darcy’s Diary is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s point of view. It does not have as much of a “diary” feel to it as Georgiana Darcy’s Diary, as a real diary would not do a very good job of recording dialog, but as a first person novel with dates indicated (and with the narrator unaware of anything past those dates) it works very well.

It is close to Pride and Prejudice as far as those scenes which mirror those Jane Austen wrote. The scenes with both Darcy and Elizabeth mostly retain the Austen dialog, and the additional scenes in the overlapping time period are mostly those strongly hinted at in the original—Lady Catherine’s descent on Darcy after seeing Elizabeth, for instance. It starts slightly earlier than Pride and Prejudice, with Wickham’s attempt to seduce Georgiana, and continues on for about six months after Austen’s novel ends. I found the extra scenes at the end one of the less satisfying parts of the novel, but I have to say that as a whole it is a very enjoyable read.

Next month I think I will have to reread the original Pride and Prejudice, if only to get my head straight on exactly what Jane Austen herself wrote. After that, I think I will reread what has so far been my favorite retelling from Darcy’s point of view, Pamela Aidan’s Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman.

North Pole Weather 5/6/13

Taken yesterday afternoon in my back yard.

This is getting somewhat ridiculous. The sun rose this morning at 4:58 am, it won’t set until 10:39 tonight, the day is 17 hours 41 minutes long and gaining 7 minutes a day, and we still have a foot and a half of snow on the ground! It’s warming up a little in the daytime, but only to the high 30’s or low 40’s, and we’re still getting snow flurries and hard frosts at night. The white ice on my subdivision road has collapsed (which means frozen in ruts) to my driveway, but it’s still there.

I’m going to be editing the next couple of months, plus selling my books at the Farmers’ Market, attending my 50^th college reunion and visiting out of state, attending a Writers’ Conference, and trying to get my garden in (assuming the snow ever melts), so I’m going to reduce the regular blogging to four days a week: weather Monday, quotation context Wednesday, Jarn’s Journal Friday and Weekend Warriors snippets Sunday. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will be open unless I have something special, like the book review for the Pride and Prejudice bicentennial tomorrow. I’m also hoping to experiment with getting Horse Power on CreateSpace so I’ll have it for the Market. I might have to expand it by adding a couple of the riding scenes from Homecoming and Tourist Trap.

At least it’s getting light. I went to a Judy Collins concert last night,at 7  pm, and drove home in sunlight at 10 pm. Civil twilight now starts after midnight.

Weekend Writing Warriors

It’s Sunday, and snippet time. Click on the logo above to find other participating authors, or on the logo below to get to the facebook page with similar information.

I’m still posting the same scene from War’s End, a WIP. The group has been stranded, how they do not know, on a very hot, wet, jungle planet. They have rigged a shelter and are waiting to see if the rain stops, though by now it is evening. Coralie has been suggesting that they will need a latrine trench, and trying to stop her daughter Michelle’s fussing. She has just asked if there is something wrong with Michelle or with her, and she continues to speak. If you want background, the index (above) has all of the Sunday snippets.

“She feels like she’s starving, and aside from a couple of naps she’s been nursing since we got here. And I thought she was getting plenty, until a few minutes ago. I’ve run dry!”

“That’s how we got here,” Kelty laughed abruptly. “She’s her father’s daughter, all right.”

The others looked bewildered for a moment, and then Ginger began to giggle.

Obviously Ginger and Kelty have suddenly figured something out, but what?

Jarn’s Journal Year 6 Day 50

Year 6 Day 50

I would never hunt an elephant, or encourage the People to do so. Elephants are too close to sentience. This killing, however, was in self-defense and it made sense to salvage the meat, though I can’t say it was particularly good. Very strongly flavored, I thought, but that might have been because the animal was in musth.

Little Gnu is recovering, and I am having a hard time discouraging him from hobbling around with the aid of a stick. I don’t think he will ever be able to walk evenly or run again, and he is very unlikely to be recovered enough to stay with his group when they leave. His mate and daughter are caring for him, and aiding Meerkat in preparing my meals. Which has led me to a possible change in my life.

“WildDog is really enjoying a chance to play with the other children,” Songbird said to me, and her voice was a little sad.

“Would you and Giraffe like to rejoin Rain Cloud’s group?” I asked. “I’ve been thinking perhaps I should take acolytes for no more than a seasonal cycle, and Little Gnu is not going to be able to travel for a while. He will be able to kill small game Patches turns his way, and his mate is a good cook. It is the cooking and clothing I cannot do for myself, and Giraffe should get more practice hunting with others.”

I wasn’t sure how she’d react, but she and Giraffe were both eager to go back to the nomadic lifestyle they had been raised with. Little Gnu’s mate, at least, was glad he would not be trying to keep up with a group traveling to new hunting grounds, and his shaman was delighted. So I have a new household.

I hope this group works out as well as did Songbird, Giraffe and their son. To be honest, I am not sure how much longer WildDog can be kept away from the computer.

A to Z Reflections

I did my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I introduced them quickly, said what point of time they were talking from since their situations changed drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information varied according to what I was talking about. Bold type indicated that more information had been or would be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs were scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

That’s my back yard, showing the raised beds and the snow stake, as of April 30 this year. We ought to have grass showing by now! Instead it’s still snowing.

Well, I did it – though in a way I feel like I cheated. Before I signed up for the challenge I checked the name lists and the glossaries for my books, Homecoming and Tourist Trap. Between them, I confirmed I had every letter of the alphabet but “Q.” That had to be query letter. (No, I didn’t name Zhaim and Xazhar with the A to Z Challenge in mind, though they certainly came in handy.)

Then I started pre-writing and scheduling posts as soon as I signed up. Letting my characters do the talking whenever possible helped, though I did have to double check hair and eye color on some of them for the introductions. Wish I had some pictures, but I’m not a very good artist any more, and the coloring of my characters is odd enough that I couldn’t use photos of real people without a lot of digital correction. But with the prewriting and scheduling, plus the fact that I normally post 5 days a week, the only real problem was that I was taking 6 adult learning classes in April, and I was supposed to be working on edits for the first book of an upcoming trilogy. Next month! (Though I have my 50^th Harvard reunion the second half of May.)

What did I get out of it? I sampled over 400 new blogs (some of which had no recent posts) and found several new blogs to follow. I picked up some new followers myself. I hope I introduced some new people to my books. I trust I did not lose anyone by blogging ten or more times a week in order to keep up with some of my regular features!

Would I do it again? I’m already thinking of how I can use some of the new characters in the trilogy, though I might have to reuse Zhaim and Xazhar. But they’ll both change quite a lot between the two books I have written and the trilogy, so I can guarantee it won’t be a repeat.

Besides, it gave me something to do indoors through one of the coldest, snowiest Aprils I remember.