Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 54

The Tajji Diaries: Confidence and Joy

Scent Tracking

Our friend Mitch Wagner recently adopted a female shepherd/basenji/terrier mix that shares some of Tajji’s “issues. He writes that Minnie “lunges and goes nuts when she approaches another dog when we’re walking.” One of the things we’ve learned from our trainer, Sandi Pensinger, is that this kind of excitement is not fun for dogs. Whatever their specific history, they act this way because they’re overwhelmed. They no longer can calm themselves or communicate friendly intentions...

Legal Fictions: Changing the Law to Stop Changing the Climate

The National Climate Assessment released this week by the White House shows that human caused climate change is already affecting the United States. Looking at it in conjunction with the recent report from the International Panel on Climate Change, it’s easy to see that we need to act, and act quickly.

There are a variety of suggestions on what to do, but Bill McKibben and others who have done the math on how much more carbon we can put into the atmosphere without making the planet unlivable f...

Blog hopping: four questions for the writer, Jennifer Stevenson

Today I’m blog hopping off Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s witty and thoughtful LJ blog hop post, and sending you on to a couple of other fine authors who will answer all these questions, each in their own way.

1) What am I working on?

I’ve been slowly finishing edits for a fourth Slacker Demons novel, but since I extended the deadline on it, I’ve fallen victim to a common problem authors face: suddenly a new book looks soooo much more attractive. At the end of that last Slackers novel is a wedding...

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

I’ve just started in on Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, by Annalee Newitz. This is a nonfiction book that looks at mass extinction events throughout Earth’s history, and will eventually consider what options the human race might have if we find ou...

[food] More Amazing Things To Do With Winter Squash

Ribot, Still Life, 1860

After my last post on expanding the possibilities for winter squash (including pumpkins), I mentioned butternut squash spoon bread in the discussion. The resulting enthusiasm (“You have a recipe?”) has emboldened me to continue.

Butternut Squash* Spoon Bread

*or other sweet-fleshed winter squash; if using pumpkin, adjust for sweetness

1 c. peeled, finely diced butternut squash

1/4 c. flour (we use brown rice flour, but ordinary wheat flour is fine)

2 T. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 t...

Author Interview: Sara Stamey

Sara Stamey

Interviewed by

Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

Today I am letting Sara speak for herself via her BVC author blurb:

“Sara Stamey’s journeys include treasure hunting and teaching scuba in the Caribbean and Honduras; backpacking Greece and New Zealand; operating a nuclear reactor; and owning a farm in Southern Chile. Now resettled in her native Northwest Washington, she teaches creative writing at Western Washington University. She shares her Squalicum Creek backyard with wild creatures and he...

BVC Welcomes Sara Stamey

Sara Stamey’s journeys include treasure hunting and teaching scuba in the Caribbean and Honduras; backpacking around Greece and New Zealand; operating a nuclear reactor; and owning a farm in Southern Chile. Now resettled in her native Northwest Washington, she teaches creative writing at Western Washington University. She shares her Squalicum Creek backyard with wild critters and her cats, dog, and husband Thor.

Sara’s SF novels with Berkley/Ace garnered a Locus Best New Novels listing and pos...

BVC Announces ISLANDS by Sara Stamey

ISLANDS

by Sara Stamey

Romantic suspense and adventure: “Welcome to Paradise,” archeologist Susan Dunne hears on arrival at the Caribbean island to research petroglyphs and solve the mystery of her brother’s drowning. Was John murdered? This sunny tourist paradise conceals shadowy secrets—violent native unrest, sunken treasure, and a bloodthirsty cult masquerading as Voodoo.

Despite threats, Susan literally dives into her investigation of the sunken treasure ship where John drowned. To find the...

Ready, Set…NO!

Dart, as usual, is teaching me lessons.

All three of the dogs stay pretty active, like little elementary school kids with a stack of play dates. However, Connery is a mature boy with lots of seasoning who never did need a ton of proofing, while Rena is on a hiatus from most things (another story altogether.)

Meanwhile, Dart is a spark-bright boy who lives intensely, notices everything, out-thinks himself at every turn, and needs extensive proofing in all possible circumstances. He needs to do,...

Pard and the Time Machine

by Ursula K. Le Guin

People who think of me as a Sci Fi Writer will not be surprised to hear that there is a time machine in my study. So far it hasn’t transported me among the Eloi and the Morlocks or back among the dinosaurs. Fine with me. I’ll take the time I got, thanks. All my Time Machine does is save stuff from my computer and provide interest and occupation to my cat.

In Pard’s first year with us he spent a lot of time on beetles, because we had a lot of them. The box elder beetle is no...