Organic gardening, farmers' markets, gourmet and healthy foods, mountaineering, long hikes, snowshoeing, energy efficiency, wild lands, Jeep roads, Christianity, Jewish feasts, American Indian traditions, readin', 'ritin' an' 'rithmatic.
Music
My dad listened to swing, jazz and big band music, so that's what was most often heard 'round the house when I was little. Now I listen most to rock and roll, but play some top 40, swing, jazz and big band music.
I've been in a major U2 mode for about three years, but I do occasionally pop in someone else's CD. Those might be Annie Lennox, Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons, Bob Dylan, Bryan Duncan, Margaret Becker, John Mayer and Paolo Nutini.
Movies
Gimme Capt'n Jack and a bottle of rum! Seriously, the Pirate movies have been a complete blast. But then I've also enjoyed most Burton/Depp collaborations (Corpse Bride not so much: fell asleep). I'm a Coen brothers fan. Loved No Country For Old Men! Additionally, I've watched Braveheart, Tombstone, A Knight's Tale and 3000 Miles to Graceland a number of times. And I'm quite fond of these movies: Amadeus, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento and Rob Roy.
Books
Anna Karenina, Daniel Martin, White Oleander, Running With Scissors, anything by Walker Percy, Kathleen Norris or Barbara Kingsolver. Salman Rushdie's prose is wonderful, but I get lost in that and forget the story.
On writing: Bird by Bird, Turning Life Into Fiction, The Rock that is Higher, Write Tight, Story, Stein on Writing.
On language: English Usage, The Handbook of Good English, Descriptive Word Finder.... the online dictionary and thesaurus.
I blather out thoughts regarding the writing life at
Blogger
and about my interests (the outdoors, fitness, good food, simple living) at WordPress. Come over and say "Hi!"
I was born in the Chicago northshore region, but spent my youth shuttling between there and the Arkansas Ozarks. 'Twas a youth of recurring culture shock brought on by a biting one-step-ahead-of-the-law reality. Well, you know, I wasn't running from the law, but my late father usually was.
Speaking of the law, that 'Yellville, Arkansas' picture in my 'Silly Me' photo album is the last time --circa 1971-- that my family was in close enough proximity to gather in front of a camera. I'm the one in the blue dress. Months after that photo Dad pulled a Jed Clampitt and loaded up the truck and headed to Californie. Actually, he called it a big adventure: we were going to get back to the land!
So, Dad abandoned my eldest sister in Yellville, Arkansas and we settled in Pecwan, the largest village in the Yurok extension of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. (pics in albums section) Soon my second eldest sibling ditched us and ran away to Chicago. Things were not working out in our little hunting-gathering experiment on the reservation. Within a year, Dad's marriage fell apart and he abandoned me in the leaky, drafty, no electricity, no running water cabin.
I wrote a novel about growing up white on a remote Indian reservation. Most of what happens in that saga actually happened to me. Most of it.
So anyway, I went on to open a weaving studio. I sold bolts of fabric to one-of-a-kind clothing designers. I was so successful at garnering press coverage that soon artist buds were asking me to help spin their tales. We used radio, newspaper and TV media to our best advantage, believe me. One thing led to another and before long I found myself a partner in a full-fledged television communications firm.
Another thing led to another thing and I wound up no longer a partner in either the firm or the marriage that spawned the firm.
But once a storyteller always a storyteller and here I am writing stories about strong-willed women who are either abandoned or abused and who struggle through the maze of their life until they reach freedom and healing.
Wherever do I get this stuff?
Listen, you can suck on a lemon until your eyes squint or you can add a little sugar and water and share the happy results with your friends. Lemonade, anyone?
Fast forward to now:
I love to cook and often look at a picture accompanying a recipe and just go off that rather than the recipe. I make my own hot sauce, jams, syrups, stir fry sauce. I sun-dry my own tomatoes and hot peppers and stock my freezer with homemade zucchini bread and home grown veggies. I make my own chili, jerky, pie and pizza. In fact, I pretty much make all my own food from scratch yet rarely is my lunch more than a yogurt or a handful of baby lettuce. (I can cook for an army, but cooking for myself is too much trouble, see.)
My husband and I live on mostly wild acreage that is home to myriad cottontails, red foxes, red squirrels, an ever-growing mule deer herd, wandering elk, and the occasional puma, bobcat, bear and skunk. The property rests on one of the many smaller hogbacks forming the famed Dakota Hogback that runs the east side of the Rocky Mountains between Wyoming and New Mexico. Our little bit of hogback heaven sports grapes, pears, apples, wild plums, wild onions and cactus. We added corn, pumpkins and squash outside and all sorts of stuff in the greenhouse.
Additionally we keep chickens. So if you visit this page, you'll get a dose of back-to-the-land musings, up-to-the-minute wildlife sightings and healthy recipes, because that's what I know best.
Who I'd like to meet: Thinkers, doers, creatives. You.
People like humanitarian Bono; marketer Seth Godin; writers Anne Lamott, Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, and Kathleen Norris; poet Jake Adam York.
I'd like to meet a kinder, gentler me. She's out there.
And from the other side: William Wallace, Vincent Van Gogh, Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Jack Kerouac, Martin Luther King, John Lennon.
My debut novel, The Cuckoo Parchment and the Dyke, has just launched. If you get a chance I'd be grateful if you'd go to my profile to find out more. The story's about Dada, art and artists, and the attempt to instigate revolution by means of art.
Yes, are not jelly fishes the coolest thing ever. We went on a little sojourn to Monterey Bay to the Aquarium... wow. Chana wanted to bring an otter home to add to our pet collection/farm... The Sea horses were additionally cool and very exotic. I could have spent days wandering inside and out... alas I was overruled for eating and curio shopping... :O)
