Stella's Last Walk

I write with shaky fingers as tears stream down my face. 

No dog lies at my cold feet. 

The only trace is a well-worn patch on my office floor. 

Stella was frequently mistaken for a puppy at age six. 

Her golden coat hid the tumors. 

She went from healthy to dying in a matter of weeks. 

There was nothing we could do other than make her last week perfect 

and her death painless at home.

Stella came into our lives when my husband was having health problems. 

That mischievous fluff-ball chased away tears and retrieved laughter. 

 Now that my husband is well, it seems unreal that this lively bundle of joy is gone.

As my daughter said, 

“I was supposed to say goodbye to her when I went away to college five years from now.” 

At an age when even good friends alternate from kind to cruel as hormones ebb, 

a loyal pet was a safe harbor.

Stella demanded walks in all weather, keeping us fit.
We took her on our sabbatical to England. 

She tongue mopped the kitchen floor and shredded garbage for easy recycling. 

 Dirty socks were matched with their owners. 

She had good taste in music, teaching my children to be more careful with their iPods.

Our house sounds quiet. 

 We notice her absence even more than her presence in our busy lives. 

 Once we were welcomed with genuflections of ecstasy. 

 The worst part now is coming home.

Nothing is left but these photos of our last walks at Popham Beach and Bailey Island. 

That final week was a gift, a time to take Stella to special places, 

knowing that when we returned that she’d still be inside us. 

My daughter labeled those final days“sehnsucht,” 

a longing for what we cannot experience, sort of the opposite of déjà vu. 

She discovered this uniquely German word and taught it to me.

The hardest act of love is letting go.

Stella by Starlight 7/16/04-9/24/10

Advice for New Bloggers 101

Skiing at the Brunswick Naval Air Station

My third anniversary seems the right time to share my experience of blogging, especially since my friend Maria Padian asked for advice as a newbie blogger. Do comment with more tips. As I said to Maria, the best part of blogging is the community.

My blog started as a place to gather material for my novels and to stay in touch with friends and family while living abroad. In 2007 my family was moving to England for a year. At lunch with my literary agent in NYC, she encouraged me to start blogging right away. She thought I’d enjoy it. I did, but it took months to build a following.

Back in 2007 the blogging community was barely connected. People were always asking, “What’s a blog?” This was in a time before “followers” and hyperlinked Blogger profiles. RSS feeds were brand new. Dial-up modems were common. Photos slow to load. WiFi rare. System crashes common. I typed in a shoebox in the middle of the road….

Nonetheless, my blog proved to be an invaluable writing tool and a storefront for my artwork. In England I was still working on my American novel S.A.D., and the Maine posts provided inspiration and material, like my lobstering jaunt. Now I revisit the Oxford posts to work on my English novel A MATCH FOR EVE (working title). I’ve sold paintings and photos as well, but the commercial side of blogging is secondary. I don’t sponsor advertisements, and I avoid commercial sites.

Most of all, it’s the community that makes blogging worthwhile. Writing and art are solitary occupations; you are my connection to the world. I look forward all week to my Wednesday blog days. There are true friendships in cyberspace. If you don’t believe that, then you aren’t a seasoned blogger.

 Now that I've broken the ice, let me share some blogging tips:

READ other blogs before you start to get ideas. Start commenting.

BLOGGER PROFILE: anyone can create a profile for free, even if your blog is hosted outside Google Blogger or you haven’t started. List all your interests; these are hyperlinks. Use them to find other bloggers who share your interests. Be sure to include an email so people can contact you. Enable share profile; it defaults to hide it.

BE YOURSELF: blogs are personal so get ready to share. Pick suitable content. Assume the last person you want to read it will. Be honest but don’t be snarky or mean. People may still identify you under a fake name.

DON’T SELL: a sales pitch is a big turn off. Many author blogs are boring because all they post are signings, fan mail, sales figures and reviews of their books. If you post good content, people will be interested in your books.

LENGTH: too short is better than too long. People read lots of blogs. Long paragraphs are hard to read, so are colorful fonts and backgrounds. Don’t post every photo from your vacation. Occasional longer posts, like an author interview, are fine. Revise and condense. I know; I’m guilty of long posts like this one!

FREQUENCY: post regularly or you’ll lose your following. An occasional vacation is fine, but let us know when you’ll be back. You can program your blog to publish while you are away in EDIT POSTS under POST OPTIONS. Pick a rhythm that works with your lifestyle, be it weekly or daily. The social side of blogging is time consuming (but rewarding.)

COMMENTING: respond to comments promptly either on your blog or on the commenter’s. Delete ads and abusive comments; don’t respond to them. Visit other blogs and leave comments about that post, but don’t push your blog. If you write thoughtful comments, they’ll come visit you too via your profile. Don't post the same comment every time and everywhere.  This is NOT a good comment: I love your blog, come visit mine - link.

FOLLOW: click on “follow this blog” in the sidebar, which will create an RSS feed in your blogger dashboard. Add a follow widget to your blog from LAYOUT. You can also add “blogs I follow” to your sidebar or reveal it on your profile. Don't wait for followers to find you; go find them.

LINK LOVE: to create a community, link to other blogs in your posts and sidebar. If you read a cool post, share it. Personally, I find awards that require the recipient to post and to pass them as irritating as chain letters. I have my own feature, “blog watch,” where I link to posts of interest with no strings attached. Feel free to use that meme but credit me. If you borrow a meme, always credit the source with a link.

ROUND UPS: to broaden your circle, join a regular blog round up. Visit and comment on all posts. I’m a regular contributor to the monthly Book Review Club hosted by Barrie Summy. You can even host your own.

PROTECT MINORS: do not post photos of children with their names and location. There are sick people out there. Also your kids, as they get older, will value privacy. If you swear or post unsuitable content, Google Blogger will ban you.

RESPECT COPYRIGHT: quote and cite written material.  Add a link if it came from another blog.  Get permission to repost from another blog.  Do not reproduce artwork or photos without permission from the artist or at very least cite the source with a link. Better yet, post your own photos. Add a watermark to discourage copyright infringement.

BOOK BLOGGERS: explain your review criteria and post it in your sidebar along with your contact email. FTC rules in the USA require that you state if you received a free product, like an ARC. Reveal personal connections. Don’t expect publishers to send you ARCs until you have a large following and stats to prove it. Visit your library or join online book swaps if you are short on cash.  Everyone knows that Jane Austen is good; review new authors, who need help getting their name out there. You don't need permission to post book jackets, short quotations (but check with publisher if an ARC), book trailers or links to authors. Story Siren posts helpful blogging advice and excellent YA reviews. She has become a hub of the YA blogging community by facilitating connections. Dovegreyreader scribbles blends personal life (Devon, England) with quality reading; I love her blog.

TRACKING STATISTICS: anyone with a Google account can use Google Analytics for free. There is a link to "Analytics" on your "My Account" page. Follow instructions to install the html code on your blog. Don't worry about low stats. It can take 6 months for search engines to find a new site.

HAVE FUN: blogging should not feel like a chore. If it does, take a vacation or stop. Forced posts or whiny ones are not fun to read. If you have nothing to say, you are spending too much time online. Get out there. Enjoy!

If you have more blogging tips, please add a comment.  So ends Blogger 101.

Note: shoebox line adapted from Monty Python.  I shot the photos at the Brunswick Naval Air Station last weekend.  My son took the photos of me and Stella in the fields.  Dogs aren't allowed on the groomed ski trails.  Maria Padian is a young adult author; check out her new blog, Teens, Writing and Randomness, and say hello.

Snow Country: Picking Bones from Ash by Marie Mutsuki Mockett

It snowed! Now it feels like December. Only last week it was in the 60's.

Check out the contrast:

Even my dog was confused.

Then Stella remembered snow angels.

Burning bush berries add festive color.

A major storm is coming today, the first school Snow Day.

If I’m not online later, you’ll know why.

It’s time to curl up by the fire with a good winter book. I’ve discovered a new author: Marie Mutsuki Mockett. Her debut novel, Picking Bones from Ash, follows Rumi’s search for her Japanese mother in snow country. Like her protagonist, the author has an American father, a Japanese mother and true talent.

“But when you are talented, you are special. You will have troubles, but they won’t be any of the ordinary ones.” So begins the narrative and sums up my review.

In the northern mountains of Japan, villagers welcome winter with hot sake and dancing devils. Buddhist priests exorcise lost souls, and Shinto spirits can occupy any object. Bridges to the Underworld appear over multi-colored hot springs. Reality vanishes in the sulfur mist of Japan and in the fog of San Francisco.

Mocket’s writing brings to mind other masters of mysticism, such as Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Amy Tan (whose endorsement is on the cover.)   The ghosts of ancestors and past injustices haunt the present. Individuals belong to an extended family, including both the living and the deceased. Such literature drops us into another culture and its system of beliefs.

Mocket does not strand the reader in Wonderland. She explains Buddhism and Shintoism with the voice of a scholar. At times these long passages of exposition risk sounding didactic and slow the pace. More integration would have been better. Expository sections also introduce the reader to the world of Asian antiques and porcelain. Rumi is an antique dealer who listens to the voices of objects, which literally tell her of their past. I loved how this worked in the narrative.

The experience of reading Picking Bones from Ash is quite like soaking in a hot spring in the mountains of Japan (I did so a decade ago.) The heat and vapor rest the body but blur the vision. Time slows; outlines are unclear. There wasn’t much plot or narrative tension in the novel, and yet I kept reading. The writing was lovely and easy to follow. Mockett favors short paragraphs and lyrical descriptions (eg “Snowflakes the size of dandelions bloomed in the air.”) I felt totally immersed in another culture and its landscape. Mockett captures the bi-cultural experience of many Americans.

Although this debut novel was beautifully original and evocative, there were some novice glitches. Rumi and her mother had strong narrative voices, but the dialogue sounded unnaturally formal. None of the romantic relationships made much sense. The section set in Paris felt tacked onto the narrative and unnecessary; two countries would have been enough. The story felt intensely personal, like a memoir. There is definitely a first-novel feel to Picking Bones from Ash, like watching a young bird on its first flight. It can be awkward, but then it soars.

“Eventually the snow stopped falling, and the clouds parted. Moonlight hit the white earth and the air took on a silver quality. Now I could see the outline of trees, the shadows of forests on the snow-covered ground. Sometimes I looked ahead and saw the figure was trudging before me and I felt as though I were watching a negative of a film unfold in slow motion: white earth, black sky, blue trees. It was eerily beautiful and foreign.”

-Marie Mutsuki Mockett

Snow Falling on Maples

We awoke to snow falling on golden maples.

Sticky flakes clung to not yet fallen leaves.

The roads of Bethel shimmered like black rivers.

The sky was church white.  Steeples disappeared into mist, pointing at nothingness.

The mountains obscured, the calendar forgotten.  There is a reason they are called the White Mountains.

No Snow Day for the children of Bethel.

Would teacher care for a frozen apple?

Over Columbus Day weekend, we had hiked up gilded summits.

The sun was warm, the breeze gentle.

A beaver pond reflected the sky, one blue square in autumn’s quilt.

"Busy beavers" napped in their den.  Did they know?

My dog was kitted out in orange,

not to be mistaken for a deer,

although that season hasn’t begun.

Rifle shots echoed across the valley.

It must be time to hunt something.

Waterfowl? 

Many of the leaves hadn’t turned.

Even the early red maples still showed green veins.

We had been treated to a lingering summer.

August had stretched into September, and September into October.

Late summer and early winter: what have you done with autumn?

We drove downriver to the rainy coast.

Snow melted in our wake like a dream.

Blog Watch: This post is part of The Fall Color Project @The Home Garden.  Dave will be posting links to peak fall foliage.  Eternal autumn!

But Not For Long by Michelle Wildgen: Review & Interview

But Not For Long by Michelle Wildgen is a most sensual novel; it engages all the senses, especially taste.  Food plays a central role in the lives of three characters who live and dine together at a “sustainable food” co-op. It is also a story of this Great Recession, played out in a liberal university town in heartland USA.  Gas stations are shutting and charity is strained.  The story unravels over a three day blackout, a time of “almost festive frustration.”

Middle-aged Hal works for a non-profit that brings donated meals to elderly shut-ins.  He grew up hunting deer in the woods but is now a vegetarian.  His hippy-like existence and buying organic leaves him with few savings.  After his mother dies, Hal lavishes attention on an elderly woman, whom he doesn’t even like.  He fears he will be even worse off in his old age than this client, but taking extra time to help her might cost him his job.

Hal’s bisexual housemate, Karin, is as wholesome as fresh milk.  She grew up in a trailer park and now writes a column on small farms for a dairy industry journal (once again the food motif.)  She avoids makeup to win over the farmers but doesn’t know how to milk a cow.  Karin does know a lot about artisan cheese.  The descriptions will make your mouth water.  There is humor too:

“Karin liked her farmer’s hands filthy, her cows named, and her cheese wrapped in limp chestnut leaves.  Anything else was unnatural.”

The newest housemate, Greta,  is more complicated and abrasive.  She’s a fundraiser for a private college and thinks in monetary terms.  As for the food connection, Greta wines and dines wealthy alumni in hopes of landing large donations.  An aging beauty, Greta dresses in silk for work, and her idea of loosening up is not shaving her armpits on weekends.  She is the least likely person to find in this bohemian community.  Ironically, Hal is attracted to Greta and the luxury she represents. 

In the opening scene, a dock has been cut loose, stranding a dog (the real Morrison St. dock by Michelle Wildgen is pictured above.) An empty chair indicates the owner may have drowned earlier.  The dog swims toward shore but struggles to stay afloat.  Who will play hero?  This narrative device is a great way to test the three main characters.  The story launches with momentum and a feeling of unease.  The cut raft is a central metaphor of how adrift the three housemates are in life.

The narrative tension increases when Greta’s alcoholic husband shows up dangerously inebriated on their front porch.  He is the reason Greta is living in the co-op.  What are the housemates to do?

To read But Not For Long is a literary treat, but it requires patience.  The author loves descriptive detail, and the pace suffers from too much back story and exposition.  Yet these pictures Wildgen paints with words are well worth seeing.  In one plotline, Karin visits a young farmer who has lost her husband and fears for the farm’s future.  The images are ominous: an empty beehive of abandoned honey and a dark cave full of ripening cheese.   Still, the fields are full of wildflowers, lavender and clover.  The book begs analysis and slow reading.  Satire makes it fun.

Michelle Wildgen is a master of metaphor and a champion of character.  Irony rules.  She has a message too: modern life is divorced from the sensual, earthiness of life and community.  Eat local farm food and chew with care.  Savor it.

Photo of Michelle Wildgen by Kate Huntington

My Interview of Michelle Wildgen

In addition to being an author, Michelle Wildgen is senior editor of the literary magazine Tin House. She has recently moved from NYC back to Wisconsin where both of her novels are set.  Wildgen is a frequent farmer market shopper.

Sarah Laurence: The economic malaise in But Not For Long feels so current.  I recall that you were writing this novel back in spring of 2008, when I reviewed You’re Not You, your first novel.  Did you change the narrative in response to last year’s stock market crash or was this a coincidence? 

Michelle Wildgen: Let’s see—I was about to say I didn’t revise it in response at all, but come to think of it, it was last fall that I was adding some last pieces about Hal and his nonprofit’s crisis, which does stem from economic fallout, so that facet was at least partially in response. But at the same time, the entire book and its fears about the general infrastructure, the faltering natural world, and the nagging fear that the people supposedly in charge are not really paying attention, was already in place well before that—for the book as well as for quite a few people, I’d guess.

SL: But Not For Long appears to reference indirectly the nonfiction book The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and also the Slow Food Movement.  What was your inspiration?

MW: In researching co-ops, I found that many were organized according to some principle, and I thought this might be a good one for my co-op. Once I follow that thread it often takes me somewhere interesting, as with the sections at the cheesemaker’s farm, which are some of my favorites. I wouldn’t say either book or organization was a direct inspiration, though absolutely I drew on both for research, because the ideas felt appropriate to this world and pique my interest.

SL: Food, especially from local organic farms, features in both of your novels.  You are also a food writer.  Where did you develop this passion?

MW: I just started cooking in high school because I had read a few recipes or descriptions of dishes that I’d never had; I wanted to taste them, so I learned how to make them. This was before grocery stores improved so much, and I remember arguing with my mother over what a “shitake” was and whether the Acme Click would have one.

Food appeals to me in the same way literature does—in some ingrained way I respond to this, want to know it and experience it in as many ways as I can. It just gives me pleasure to write about food, talk about food, look at photos of food. I’m really very greedy.

SL: Family background haunts the characters in But Not For Long.  What was your family and hometown like?

MW: It’s a curse for a writer in some ways, especially a food-obsessed writer who suspects she really should have been Italian, but I grew up smack in the middle of the middle class in a perfectly pleasant suburb in northeastern Ohio. There wasn’t a lot of drama. And actually that may be part of why I often like to write about people and families whose lives don’t look crazily turned upside down—instead I tend to write about mundane life just as it starts to slip off the edges.

SL: Name some of your favorite novelists.

MW: I love Alice Munro, Antonya Nelson, Laurie Colwin, Lorrie Moore, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, off the top of my head.

SL: What is the best writing advice you’ve received?

MW: Once my teacher, Mary Morris, was just baffled by all of us grad students fretting over making changes to our stories—Because what if it didn’t make it better?—and she said, So what? You save a new copy and number them—Deathless Prose No. 1, Deathless Prose No. 2—and you try out different versions. You don’t like it, you go back. It’s mortifying that I had to have this explained to me, but it totally freed me up, and if you dig around my computer you’ll see endless folders of Novel 1, Novel 2, Novel 20….

SL: What is your next book project?

MW: I know it will be a novel, but I’m still in the pondering stages and it’s hard to say what shape it will take. Things may change, but at the moment I’m thinking I would love to stay funny and satirical, something sharp but light.

But Not For Long by Michelle Wildgen

will be released on October 13, 2009.

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Blog Watch: Through blogging we share our triumphs and our losses.  Congratulations to Donna @ The Doll Sweet Journal on the birth of her baby boy!  My thoughts are with Barrie Summy from our book review club and with Jane Green. Both lost a dear friend recently.

Note: I'll be offline this morning while my new computer is being serviced (missing/corrupted fonts.)

Sundowners

Back at Bailey Island, I watch boats sail by lobster pots. The summer’s heat feels less oppressive with a cool ocean breeze lifting my hair. It’s warm enough to brave the icy Maine waters without a wetsuit.

For a special treat, we’ll have lobster, coleslaw and mudpie parfaits at Cook’s Lobster House. After dinner we watch the sunset. It’s like being on vacation at home. I guess we do live in “Vacationland,” as it says on the license plate.

Rainbow colors reflect in the water. The sky is deeper than the sea.

The pink lavenders after sunset are even more beautiful than the orangey flares that precede them.

The moon shines over the twilight sea. Islands float on the horizon as the boat sails back into the harbor (click images to enlarge.)

photo of Stella (in her summer buzz cut) and me (in summer frizz)
by my friend Jennifer Mirsky

At home, we observe the British tradition of “sundowners”on our deck. My English husband prepares a Pimm’s Cocktail for guests. We grow borage in our herb garden for the edible purple flowers that garnish the cocktail. Beware: it is stronger than it tastes.

Recipe for Pimm’s Cocktail:
1 part Pimm’s No. 1 Cup to 3 parts Sprite (Lemonade soda in Europe)
thinly sliced cucumber, lemon, orange
garnish: fresh mint leaves and borage flowers

Cheers! Savor these last days of summer….