2020 woes - throw in Shad fly swarm and Gypsy moth infestation, by J.C. Kavanagh

Book 2 of the Award-winning Twisted Climb series

Bugs. They're everywhere in Ontario, Canada.

In June, it started with the shad fly. A swarm of millions. We encountered the swarm near our home in south-central Ontario, and travelled several kilometres until we were clear of them. EW.

Driving into a swarm of shad flies

Smushed shad flies on my truck

... and on the antenna. What the heck?

Shad flies, also called May flies or fish flies (cuz they smell like fish when they're dead),
on the grill of my truck.

The next day, it took me a solid three hours of brush scrubbing and rinsing before the last of the critters were washed off my truck. Again I say - EW!

And then came the gypsy moth caterpillars...

First, they were crawling over trees, eating leaves, decimating forests.

Then, after 'hatching' from the pupae stage, the moths fly in your face, body-slam your back (can they see?), and lay eggs everywhere. Everywhere!

Mating moths (white-coloured female, brown-coloured male) beside tear-shaped pupae

The female gypsy moth and their egg patches

In Canada, duct tape is used for just about anything...
though this property owner forgot to put the 'sticky' side, out.

The gypsy moths (Latin name Lymantria dispar dispar), originated in Europe and were first detected in Ontario, Canada, in 1969. There have been multiple outbreaks over the years and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources staff agree that this infestation is the worst one since 1990. Gypsy moth caterpillars are voracious eaters and prefer oak, maple, basswood, beech and white pine. They will eat the leaves/needles of these trees, stripping them to bare branches. While defoliation won't kill the tree, the damage will cause a significant decrease in the tree's natural growth. Surprising fact: only the caterpillars eat - the adult moths survive for about two weeks with the sole purpose of mating / laying eggs. I was recently camping at Killbear Provincial Park near Parry Sound and I can say first-hand the infestation there is horrible. Gypsy moths were everywhere. EW!

Personally, moths, caterpillars and shad flies don't bother me. But spiders... oh they bother me a lot. So it was with great goose-bumps and shudders that I included big, black, hairy, hand-sized spiders in Book 2 of The Twisted Climb series, Darkness Descends. Uncovering a spiders' nest is just one of many adventures encountered by Jayden, Connor and Max. If you love action / adventure / suspense / drama and a hint of the paranormal, you'll love The Twisted Climb books. No EWs involved. Well, maybe a few. Enjoy!

J.C. Kavanagh, author of

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

The Society of Happy People

 

I do the usual things when considering a blog topic: review some of the lessons learned about my writing; explore the lives of important or interesting people and analyse the momentous events of the day. I also check the calendar for important dates. To my surprise, I learned that August is ‘Admit You’re Happy Month.’

I discovered some intriguing facts about this important occasion. Its roots go back to the founding of the Society of Happy People on August 8, 1999, by a lady named Pamela Gail Johnson, from the Dallas area in Texas.

In 1998, it occurred to her that many happy people exist, but keep their happiness to themselves and wondered where all these happy people are.

She originally thought that her idea made for a good essay, but with a little encouragement from friends, started the Society of Happy People. She still manages the Society, and her official title is “Chief Happiness Officer.” Despite describing herself as an introvert—she enjoys cooking, yoga, chatting with friends and her book club—she keeps busy as a Keynote and Motivational Speaker. For over two decades, she has inspired and motivated thousands of people to find and keep more happiness, optimism and positivity.

Adults typically smile twenty times a day, compared to children, who smile four hundred times a day. However, she states, “no matter how often you smile, the more you smile, the better.” Smiling is contagious; one smile starts another. It has definitive cognitive effects: smiling retrains the brain to think more positive thoughts.

For "Admit You're Happy Month,' Johnson has organized a “31 Day ~ 31 Happiness” Challenge. The goal is to make people take stock of their lives and to do things that make them and others happy. The Society presents a “Happy Challenge” each day which is posted on social media—Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. 

Smile, and be Happy!!

Mohan Ashtakala (www.mohanashtakala.com) is the author of "The Yoga Zapper," a fantasy, and "Karma Nation," a literary romance. He is published by Books We Love (www.bookswelove.com)

Serendipity or Fate? ... by Sheila Claydon

Click here to find my books at Books We Love

The characters in my books always have problems and, as is the nature of romantic fiction, they always overcome them...eventually! Their problems are varied and, because I've written quite a few books now, there are many of them. Often the book description will point the reader towards what to expect and the beginning of the blurb in Saving Katy Gray is a good example of this.

Katy was used to losing things. First she'd lost her childhood home, then her career and reputation, and finally, and most dreadfully, her identity, so she knew she should be used to it....

Katy has more problems to overcome than most of my characters but, eventually, she finds a way, as do the characters in books 1 and 2 of the trilogy. What had never occurred to me until recently, however, is that when characters find a solution to their problems this can often help the reader. It was my daughter who prompted this thought with two books she has recently read.

In the past 2 years she and her family have lost a loved one following a long illness, coped with the resultant mental health issues, helped a friend who was in an abusive relationship and then, finally,  had to completely reorganise their lives due to the demands of Coronavirus. This has included children being upset about having to miss important exams, training programmes being cancelled, reduced income and, to top it all, my daughter having to leave home and family every day and put herself at risk as a frontline worker. Yet, despite all of these drawn out problems she has remained unbelievably resilient while all the issues she has been dealing with have slowly resolved themselves, and we are so proud of her.

That is not the issue, however. We know that many, many people face similar and even worse problems, but what we don't know is how often they read about themselves in a work of fiction.  Entirely serendipitously my daughter, looking for some escapism from her stressful life, recently picked up two novels entirely at random. Unknown to her one was about an abusive relationship and how the heroine began to recognise and then deal with her problems, while the second was about the loss of a loved one and how the resultant grief was played out across 3 generations.  When she started reading she had no idea that the stories were about the issues that had affected her own family but the more she read, the more everything resonated. By the end she had not only totally identified with all the characters, she also felt much better about herself, how she had handled things, and perhaps even more importantly, why other family members and friends had acted as they did.

It made me wonder if fictional characters sometimes help readers to resolve their own problems more effectively than non-fiction help books. There is, of course, an important place for these, but when someone is dealing with trauma they often don't have the emotional energy to read the factual stuff and instead turn to the escapism of fiction. This thought has made me look again at the dilemmas my various characters have faced and solved in order to check that I dealt with them realistically. I do, of course, like all writers, always do my research, but the moment of serendipity (or fate) experienced by my daughter, has made me realise anew how very important this is. We writers have a responsibility towards our readers. It goes without saying that they want us to entertain, to make them want to keep the pages turning, even perhaps to teach them something new, but now I've added 'help them to resolve their problems' to the list of things I must think about before I start a new story. The responsibility is really quite daunting!

WWC Online Writers Festival - Free This Weekend

                            Please click this link for author, book and purchase information

Every August for the past nine years, I've attended Calgary's When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers. I've loved the festival's energy, learned about the writing craft and book promotion, and acquired new readers and writing connections. When this year's in-person event was cancelled due to COVID-19, the organizers decided to go online. The festival happens this weekend. It's free and open to everyone.

I wasn't sure I'd get involved with the online version of WWC until I saw the first draft of the 3-day program. The organizers invited past presenters to fill vacant spaces on the proposed panels. Several topics grabbed my interest and I was given spots on these two panels:

Ten Things I Wish I’d Known  

When you started writing, what assumptions blocked your progress, lead you down dead ends, or limited your opportunities and experiences? Panelists share their initial faulty thoughts that slowed their journey into the writing world. 

After almost 30 years of writing, I wish I knew a few more things and hope to learn them from my fellow panelists. I'm familiar with all three from past WWC festivals and they've achieved success in their widely-varied directions. Our panel will take place on Zoom, Friday, August 14, 3:00 pm. All you need to do to attend is go to the WWC website and click on the event link in the program PDF. No registration or payment required. 

Me (right hand side) on a panel at last year's WWC

My second Zoom appearance will be on Saturday, 1:00 pm, Access Denied: A panel for writers on how to handle rejections and critiques, and communicate with editors/agents/publishers,

The agent on this panel will have a lot to share. I've become an expert on this subject during the past 30 years -- but I'm still standing!

When I'm not on a panel, I'll be cruising the WWC program for other panels, presentations and activities to attend. There will be up to five choices every hour from 1:00 pm Friday, August 14th, to 5:00 pm Sunday, August 16th. A number have already caught my eye:

Meet the Mesdames of Mayhem: Fresh from their award-nominated CBC Gem documentary, meet the writers with a century of combined killing time and learn how they freshen up their crime sprees for the 21st century (Sat, 2:00 pm).

Medical Errors and Tropes: A bullet in the shoulder that doesn't hit anything important? Knock-outs without actual damage? Induced comas? What is realistic and what is not? A discussion of common medical mistakes and questions in fiction (Sat, 3:00 pm).

Plus a couple of panels on editing, which I'm in the midst of doing now for my novel-in-progress. In addition, I've requested a one-on-one Zoom meeting about developing my social media strategy.  

Two fellow BWL authors will also be involved this year.  

Nancy M Bell: Blue Pencil Café
                         Pitch Sessions
                         Editors: When Can They Help and How? (Sat 12:00:00 pm)
                         The Dos and Don’ts of Successful Pitching, (Sun 3:00:00 pm)

David Poulsen: Crime Thru Time (Sat 4:00:00 pm)
                          From the Mean Streets to the Deadly Wilderness (Sun 1:00:00 pm) 

At last year's WWC festival, David and I participated in a fun panel with two other Calgary area crime writers.  For a (virtual) taste of what you'll get this weekend, you can listen to the podcast of High Crimes in Your Own Backyard.   

Partying at a previous When Words Collide festival. This year, WWC is hosting a Virtual Pool Party

 
 

 
   

  

Don't Dis the Duc by Karla Stover

      

murder on Hood Canal   murder in Tacoma, WA.       old-fashioned Gothic

In my book, Murder, When One Isn't Enough I sent my characters on a boat trip to the Skokomish Indian Reservation. It's located in what is called Hood Canal's Great Bend, more or less across the water from Tahuya and near Potlatch State Park. In front of the reservation is Annas Bay and in the bay is the Indian Hole. When the tide goes out, boaters can let their craft float over the hole and toss their anchors up on the beach. I can't find out how deep the hole is but the beach is where I went with my family to dig geoducks.

A geoduck is a type of very large clam (the shell is 6 to 8 inches and the neck can be up to 3 feet long) native to primarily Washington State and British Columbia. According to "Wikipedia", part of the name refers to genitals. Pealing the skin off the neck is like removing a condom. When we got one--and digging them isn't easy because the neck sticks out of the sand but the body is deep down--Mom ground the meat and made chowder.

A few years ago, my niece, who worked in Washington D.C. was asked by her boss to cater a typical Puget Sound dinner. When the geoduck was delivered, the chef didn't know what to do with it and she had to call her mother and have her mom tell him how and what to do with it.

For those people who remember the TV show Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe dug one (what the Chinese call Elephant Trunk Clams) but broke the shell--a no-no and sign of a novice. He took it to Shelton and had a restaurant chef cook it for him. Another place they showed up was in Betty McDonald's book and movie, The Egg and I. According to her biography, she was on the set when the movie was made and I don't why she let them be called gee-o-ducks when she knew the proper pronunciation is gooey ducks.

In my fiction reading, I love learning things. Author Mary Stewart did that really well--taught things, that is. I like to do the same--introduce readers to the Pacific Northwest.

Geoducks can live to be over one hundred. I like them and think they're special So did Evergreen Community College in Olympia, Washington when they became the school's mascot.

"Life's too short..."

Download Charlie's story at BWL

            Our world is made up of words. We write them, speak them, hear them, read them. We use them to describe our world, express our feelings, share experiences and expand our imaginations. How we put words together gives people some indication of our intelligence or our education; our current state of mind; our intentions.

            But because our world is made up of so many different ethnic groups and nationalities, words are distinct and certainly subject to interpretation. Whether you write or read or watch television programs, you might come across a word or phrase which is unfamiliar. A simple example: what do you call the rather long, cushioned piece of furniture in your living room? A sofa; a couch; a divan? And to add another dimension to our confusion, in what century are we talking? Is it a settee? What about that cast iron cooking pan? Did you grow up calling it a frying pan or a skillet? Have you ever known it as a spider?

            I work only in the English language. I took French in high school and Spanish in college but am fluent in neither. I spent a week in Paris one summer and after perhaps half that time, I began to understand some of the signs and words I came across but I could never begin to understand the spoken language as it is rapid and lyrical and far beyond my high school experience. I envy people who know more than one language. I enjoy reading books set in different countries because although they are written in English, there are words unique to the country of origin. Words like a lift (elevator), a boot (trunk of a car), a jumper (sweater) are so fun to read.

            What are some of your favorite words? Are they part of your culture or unique to the part of the country or world where you live? Do they have to do with your ancestors? Is it a word your grandparent always said? Are they favorites because of their definition, their spelling or their sound?

            We put words together to form sentences, thoughts or messages to impart information. From our earliest introduction to language, we learn to use words to express ourselves and to ask and answer questions about our world. We write answers to test questions and conduct serious social debates.

I want you to think about very short groups of words put together to form what we call sayings or idioms. You can find these everywhere from bumper stickers to jingles and commercial trademarks. Many of the more famous sayings can be found in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. From childhood we began attributing sayings such as “Honesty is the Best policy” to Abraham Lincoln or the famous “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” to President John Kennedy. Wonderful people like Maya Angelou, Gandhi and Mother Theresa have left us a treasure trove of inspirational sayings. Even though you might not recognize its author, quite often you know and understand the saying.

Many words and sayings are used so much they become clichés. While there is nothing wrong with clichés (it’s raining cats and dogs), it is much more fun to use words that are fresh and unique.

One of my favorites is “Not all who wander are lost” which originated with J.R.R. Tolkien in The Fellowship of the Ring. Another is on the back of a tee-shirt. In a vertical row it has the days of the week – “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,” then across the bottom – “See, there is no Someday.” Think about it. Does it speak to you as it did me?

The same questions can be asked about sayings as we asked about words. Where did the saying come from; does it have multiple meanings depending on your ethnicity? Is there deeper meaning than what you might first read into the words?

Years ago I began using a saying on my website which I like to attribute to my new insight into my world at a time when things didn’t make sense. At that time, I wasn’t always in a good frame of mind. Two years after ending a forty year marriage, I was diagnosed with cancer and began another arduous journey. Some days I had a very hard time living this mantra, and yet most days they were the most important words I could say to myself:

“Life is too short to go through it in a bad mood.”

Think about idioms. Write down some of your favorites. Is there a pattern in what you relate to? What would your expression be based on something from your life or something you are working toward in the future? Are your sayings funny or are they related to growing and reaching new levels? Maybe they are about how to live life or something about feelings, emotions and believing.

Above my door where I read it every time I leave the house is another of my favorites:

“It’s never too late to live happily ever after.”

Barb Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

http://www.bookswelove.com/romance-authors/baldwin-barbara/

            

Did you say READ? But WHY? by J. S. Marlo

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I love reading. During those precious hours when I'm alone with a good book, I lose myself into the story and escape reality. It's a wonderful feeling to step into a make-believe world, and it's sad when it ends, but

some of these stories stay with you for the rest of your life.

Reading isn't just a passion I enjoy by myself, it's also a passion I share with my children and granddaughter. I read to my children when they were little, and now I read to my five-year old granddaughter. I make funny voices and it's delightful to see the expressions on her face as the story progresses. She's even started reading to me, and I can see she's enjoying the story at a new level.

We've all heard that reading was good, but what are the real benefits of reading? Well, as it turns out, they are plenty.

- Stimulate brain: reading is a good workout for your brain, it jogs your memory and helps make you smarter.

- Expand vocabulary: books teach new words, broadening your spoken and written vocabulary.

- Increase empathy: reading fiction helps readers understand what other’s are thinking by reading people’s emotions.

- Improve concentration: when you're reading, you're concentrating on one thing, so you're training your body to avoid distraction.

- Reduce stress: when you lose yourself in a story, you distance yourself from the stress of everyday life.

- Help sleep: when your mind is racing and busy worrying about a variety of things, reading for ten minutes can help push whatever is keeping you awake out of your mind.

And my favorite reason:

- It entertains! You're never alone when you're with a book.

So, what should you read? Anything you can get your hands on. There's no accounting for taste. What someone loves to read is as personal as what someone loves to eat.

But BEWARE: reading is contagious. Make sure you transmit the passion to your kids.

Happy Reading & Stay safe. Many hugs!
JS

 

J. S. Marlo's Website