The most watched clouds: Mt. McKinley is under there somewhere.
The best wildflowers: fields and fields of fireweed!
The most cooperative neighborhood: they share a runway in their backyards.
The most critical timing: trains and cars all use the same one-way tunnel under the mountain from Cook Inlet to Whittier.
The best delay: the ship waits for us, and we're only 2 hours late!
To be continued...
We recently returned from a 2-week "cruise-tour" of Alaska. We flew to Fairbanks, where we caught the train to Denali National Park, then continued south to Whittier to board the cruise ship and sail the inside passage to Vancouver. Here's my list of top choices during the first leg of our journey:
Best meal: asiago-crusted halibut and Alaska Pale Ale on a deck at the Fairbanks Princess Lodge, where we overlooked the river and watched sternwheelers plow by and float planes land and take off.
Most eager athletes: sled dogs pull a tractor during the off-season.
Most confusing directions: where the pipeline has to surface because of discontinuous permafrost.
The longest train: yes, that's the engine of our train, rounding the bend ahead, on our way into Denali National Park.
Most impressive animals: grizzlies in Denali (I know, I know, it's not moose!) This mama and her two two-year-old cubs romped about 50 yards away from our park bus, fighting over a small, 4-legged meal. Mama won.
To be continued...
I read a portion of my story from the CBA finalist anthology, Broken Links, Mended Lives to a happy hour audience at Baur's in downtown Denver. Five other finalists read from their works, too. Thanks to so many of my friends who showed up, the readings were a fun event!
We took the scenic route over Independence Pass on our way to Aspen, where the awards were presented. My anthology didn't win, but we enjoyed hearing the results and hearing the speakers, who included the mayors of Aspen and Denver. Thanks for everyone's support, and to my neighbors who joined us there!
To see a list of the 2010 winners of the Colorado Book Awards, go to this website:
http://www.coloradohumanities.org/content/2010-colorado-book-awards-winners-announced
I'm feeling the urge to start a new book, and I thought it'd be fun to log the process here. Right now I have no idea what book will develop from this urge, or when I'll finish the project.
The first step of the process is recognizing the need to start. It's an addiction, this need to write. This urge starts almost as a hunger pang, a sense of being incomplete. What this means today is that I will have to clear (most of) the projects from my desk. Then I'll have to sift through my ideas (currently there are 9 burning my brain), then research, then find my story. If all goes well, I should be able to start writing the first draft of this unknown book in January.
My short story "Losing the Light" appears in Broken Links, Mended Lives. This anthology is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award! These awards, presented by Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book, will be announced June 25th at the Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival.
The anthology's theme is the same as its title. My story is about an intergalactic pilot who travels by transforming to light...until she's recalled from duty, to be replaced by a newer version.
In anticipation of the Colorado Book Awards, there will be a series of readings. I'm scheduled along with other popular fiction finalists on:
June 16, 2010
at 5:00 pm
at Baur's Italian Restaurant, 1512 Curtis Street, in Denver, CO
This is the post I should've posted the end of March. Instead, I got to plant tomato seeds with my two-year-old granddaughter while we awaited the birth of her little sis.
The cats only come out when the children are away.
I've just returned from another round of fabulous workshops, and people often ask me why on earth do I keep going back? Didn't I learn it the first time?
Well, not exactly. Here's what it's really all about:
1. I don't have to cook, find lost household items, or clean the litter box back home, while instead
2. I enjoy the beautiful Oregon coast and
3. get to hang out with like-minded folks and discuss devious things to do to characters while
4. light bulbs are going off in my foggy head, and I find myself in a candy store of ideas(!!) and then
5. I return home with several finished new stories, and most importantly
6. I'm fired up to tackle new projects and new ways of doing them!
