Deborah Adams's Blog, page 27

EarthTalk® From the Editors of E – The Environmental Maga...

EarthTalk® From the Editors of E – The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that a shortage of batteries is slowing down the development of solar and wind power here in the U.S.? If so, what are we doing to ramp up battery production if anything? — J. Wilson, Chicago, IL

As the climate crisis worsens and public outcry can no longer be ignored, policymakers are tasked with ramping up the production of renewable energy. The Biden Administration has announced its desi...

All’s Fair in Love and Humor

a guest post by Dorothy Rosby

Humor is subjective. I know this because some people don’t laugh at my hilarious jokes. Dorothy Rosby is a professional humorist (I’ll bet she’d find my jokes funny), and she’s generous enough to share some tricks of the comedic trade. But wait! There’s more. She’s also offering a free copy of her new book ‘Tis the Season to Feel Inadequate. Read about it now. Operators are standing by.

I’ve been writing a humor column for more than twenty years a...

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Malcolm Glass and I met eleventy-leven years ago, when he was teaching creative writing at Austin Peay State University. It was in one of his classes, during a writing exercise, that I first used the town of Jesus Creek in a piece of fiction. Malcolm was already  a  we...

Is that a coyote in your urban neighborhood?

EarthTalk® From the Editors of E – The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Why are coyote sightings so much more common in urban areas these days? Should I be worried about kids and pets outside? Is this a bad sign for the environment at large and is there a humane way to deter these carnivores from residential areas? — Max B., Norwalk, CT

Coyotes, known as the Song Dogs of North America, are the sole canid predator endemic to North America. They can be found as far nort...

EarthTalk® From the Editors of E – The Environmental Maga...

EarthTalk® From the Editors of E – The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Why are coyote sightings so much more common in urban areas these days? Should I be worried about kids and pets outside? Is this a bad sign for the environment at large and is there a humane way to deter these carnivores from residential areas? — Max B., Norwalk, CT

Coyotes, known as the Song Dogs of North America, are the sole canid predator endemic to North America. They can be found as far nort...

Tips for Writing Places Where You Don’t Live

a guest post by Amber A. Logan

We’ve all heard the advice to “write what you know,” but is that always the best way to tell your story? And what about “write where you know?” Do we have to limit our settings to that tiny little spot on the map where we live? Amber Logan, author of The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn, shares her thoughts on the subject. Below the post, you’ll find information about Amber’s book and how you can win a free copy.

If we, as writers, were only able to writ...

Dead on Arrival: What to do Once a Novel Dies on Submission

a guest post by Jessica Stilling

It wasn’t until the last night of my Novel Writing class I taught while working on my upcoming novel Between Before and After, that two students confessed their deepest novel writing secret. We’d been discussing the perils of trying to get published and what it’s like to have an agent for the better part of an hour when one student broke the ice and confessed. Once she’d confessed, two other students came forward and said they too, had dealt with this ...

What’s Biden Doing Re: Climate?

EarthTalk® From the Editors of E – The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What is the Biden administration doing to fight climate change? — W., Seattle, WA

Joe Biden hopes to go down as the greenest president in U.S. history, and he may well achieve that distinction if his plans pay off. Within the first week of his inauguration, Biden put his best foot forward in the fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement that Trump had abandoned, and established...

Writing as spiritual practice: a guest post from Jim Ringel

In yesterday’s post, I reviewed Hidden Buddha by Jim Ringel. His bio notes that “Jim Ringel is an unconventional Buddhist who writes the Lama Rinzen mysteries as part of his own spiritual path.” I’ve asked him to explain how that works, and to provide some ideas to help the rest of us use the same approach on our paths. His response is below.

BUY THE BOOK:
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Perhaps it’s contradictory to suggest...

Review of Hidden Buddha by Jim Ringel

Hidden Buddha opens with protagonist Lama Rinzen’s line “I am being watched,” and proceeds to ratchet up the suspense with every succeeding paragraph.

Readers who’ve tried to quiet their minds will recognize the dilemma: that meditating mind is being observed, but who is the observer?

In this case, we are never quite sure whether Rinzen is being stalked by an inner mind, by the ghost of an old teacher, or by the ever-deepening characters that swirl through the story: a mystery woma...