Zinta Aistars's Blog, page 39

Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt, Kettle Chips, and Triple Crème Brie

by Zinta Aistars



That's me wishing happy birthday to me and giving myself a good dose of pampering. All within a very grown up birthday. After all, it's a Tuesday, not exactly a party day, and I am nose to deadline grindstone all the work day. My one reminder that this is not just an ordinary Tuesday is that I get to park in our own parking lot today. I usually park across the street—with the other little people—as the parking lot next to our office building, small as it is, is meant for direc...

Occupy Holiday

by Zinta Aistars





Soft, lazy rain pattering on the roof. It's a Sunday, last day after a four-day holiday, a Thanksgiving spent in and around Chicago with family. Back home now, and the house is quiet, very quiet, with only the occasional movement of my black calico cat, changing the direction of her curl into a long nap, and my old chow pup occasionally coming by to check for news and finding none.

It will snow soon. This slow rain will turn to soft snowflakes, and I'm ready. Winter will begin...

Catch Me If You Can

by Zinta Aistars






On my long morning commute to the office, I watch the ominous skies. The sky is heavy, gray, and the clouds with full bellies, hanging low. For a moment, a hint of snow swirls across the road, riding the wind, then vanishes again.

It's that between seasons time of year, not quite autumn anymore, not yet winter. Trees are bare, leaves fallen, and all the colors seem to have been washed away. It is a landscape of bleak browns and shades of gray.

It's one of my silent mornings. My...

Zinta Interviews Author Michael Loyd Gray on WMUK Radio

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WMUK 102.1 FM (Kalamazoo's NPR affiliate) radio interview on air Tuesday, November 15, at 7:50 a.m. for a short version ... the extended interview link available here. Michael Loyd Gray talks to me about his newest novel, Not Famous Anymore, and a different kind of writers and book addicts group he wants to start in Kalamazoo.



Michael Loyd Gray

The Arts and More program short version (second story up).


The Smoking Poet interview with Michael, Winter 2010-2011 Issue.


WMUK Arts and More...

There's a Tree on My Roof—and It's All Good

by Zinta Aistars





My son was hanging out in the driveway when I got home from work. He looked like he was just out there enjoying the first stars of the evening. It had taken me a little longer to get home from work, as high winds had tossed me around on the Interstate all the way home. He waited until I got out of the car, pulling my briefcase off the passenger seat.

"There's a tree on the roof."

I blinked, looked at him, took in his perfectly calm, slightly bored countenance. Nothing rattles t...

A Woman's Best Friend

by Zinta Aistars






How can I resist that face? That rusty orange face, muzzle turning white with accumulating years, liquid brown eyes that gaze at me with utter devotion—my old chow pup, Guinnez. After a good run through the muddy woods or a roll in a pile of leaves, he becomes my Guinea Pig. But no swine, this. Guinnez has the loyal chow in his blood, the black polka dots on his tongue as proof, but the pink on his tongue point to, I would guess, a Golden Retriever tossed into the mix. The cho...

Catch as Catch Can

by Zinta Aistars


The Battle Creek Book Club

Catch-as-catch-can adj. Using or making do with whatever means are available; irregular: made a catch-as-catch-can living doing odd jobs.




"At 54, you'd think my days of delicious impulse and dizzy madness would be over. The truth? I suspect they've just begun."

I'd read just that much from my novella-in-progress, titled Catch as Catch Can, and the four women of Shirley's book club in Battle Creek, Michigan, convulsed in laughter and went into immediate...

Mist, Art and a Clean Kill

by Zinta Aistars





I'm not sure how it is that the more I believe in, and try to move toward, a simpler and cleaner life, the busier my schedule seems to become, the more expanded my days. And yet.

Ironically, signing up for an outdoor tai chi class is a part of that effort, but it meant my Saturday would be jam-packed with activity early beginning to late end. I confess, I grumbled a little when my alarm went off on a Saturday morning at 6:30. Technically, when compared with my workday, that IS...

Z on WMUK Arts and More: Talking to Author Joseph Heywood

by Zinta Aistars


[image error] At WMUK radio station with Joe Heywood
WMUK at 102.1 FM, Kalamazoo Michigan's NPR affiliate radio station, has invited me back again to talk to another local author for their expanded Arts and More program, now airing from 7:50 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays. That's two arts stories each time. Perfect! I love doing the interviews, just as I love listening to all the other stories on my radio as I drive from home to work.

I think about what local author or artist I'd lik...

It's Raining Slivers of Gold

by Zinta Aistars





I give up! Every morning when I go out on the deck to sip my coffee, the deck chairs are covered with tiny slivers of papery gold, spilling down from the canopy of tree branches overhead. I sweep them away. Every evening after work, I take my book outside to read for a while after dinner, and I sweep them away.

Tonight, I leave them be. Why sweep away such gold? If the autumn sky insists, I will allow.

Golden leaves cover the chairs, carpet the deck floor, spill across the glas...