Colleen Mondor's Blog, page 14
September 23, 2013
Heading out for Southeast AK.....
I will be in beautiful Haines this week attending the Museums Alaska/Alaska Historical Society where I will present on Thursday ("Rediscovering The Flying North")
Your best chance at seeing some killer photos of Juneau and Haines (from the ferry!) is to follow my on twitter (@chasingray). I will be updating there and at the Shorefast Editions (@shorefastbooks) account all week.
If I can I'll drop a note in here but right now I don't know what the wi fi situation will be. I promise a report from the flip side next week for sure!

September 19, 2013
Star Trek wonderfulness
Offered without comment other than YESSSSSSSSS!
More from io9:
Okay, this is just awesome. One Redditor photoshopped the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation into the original series uniforms, and the results are amazing.
All of our love to deadfraggle and their delightful photoshopping skills, mainly because we want more more more more more. Let's add Wesley Crusher, Tasha Yar (in a dress!!!) Guinan and The Traveler. We beg you, do them all! Please!
Read about the creator's decision behind certain colors for certain characters here.

September 15, 2013
That sound you hear is my keyboard clicking....
My writing life is just crazy right now. Last week I submitted an essay to a site I admire, sent off a proposal for a short essay to a magazine and finished my October column. I also had a couple of articles run on Dispatch (all AK flying of course) and reviewed one book for my November column and another for December. I got an email off to an author whose book I want to write about in Dispatch (just heard back from him last night) and emailed another author to get a look at her book for my annual December feature on books for curious readers at Bookslut. (She's going to give me a look at a copy when I am in SE AK next week.)
And, with the exception of some final tweaking, I finished my presentation for the AK Historical Society Conf on the 26th. (That's in Haines, which you reach by ferry from Juneau and it will be fabulous.)
What I'm reading:
Women Aviators by Karen Bush Gibson, The Civil War in 50 Objects by Harold Holzer and Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection. All of these are for my November column which is nonfiction of an American history persuasion. All are very interesting and reader friendly and I hope more people will think of NF for teens after reading about them.
What I'm Reviewing:
Among Wolves by Gordon Haber & Marybeth Holleman and Owning the Earth by Andro Linklater, both for Booklist.
What I'm Writing:
A post for the Bush Pilot Blog at Alaska Dispatch about Happy Endings (a photo book on aircraft wrecks where everyone lived); another on a flying day trip out of Fairbanks, another on pilot error and what it means as far as being a good or bad pilot. (This is tricky but it's a huge problem in AK.) Plus a couple of other things that I may or may not get written before leaving for Haines on Monday. (I'm waiting on the Probable Cause report on a crash from a while ago so I can cover that but it's been slow in showing up.)
And finally (!) my next book, of course. Still on Denali, still on science and mountaineering. Still really wishing I could write a different ending for this part then the one history has handed me. Sigh.

September 9, 2013
The rawness of Lidia Yuknavich's writing
Last year at the Mazama Festival of Books I heard Lidia Yuknavich speak. I ended up reviewing her YA book Dora: A Headcase in my November column and bought her memoir The Chronology of Water at the festival*.
It has sat on my TBR shelf for a year (I'm not proud of this), but with Mazama rolling around again, I was reminded of Lidia and I grabbed it to read the other day.**
I'm almost done with the book; I've reached the chapters where Lidia discusses her current relationship and as I met her very nice husband at the festival, I know that they live happily ever after. I feel like now I can finally let out a sight of relief. This book -- this book is unbelievable. It is so raw that it hurts to read sometimes, but is so compelling that I have been unable to set it aside. This book is just unbelievable.
Lidia opens with the stillbirth of her daughter and her emotions are purely, completely raw. She holds nothing back, she doesn't hesitate to share every facet of her pain. There is no time for the reader to "meet" this writer, no "I grew up in Small Town and it was small." You are simply there in the midst of the shock and awe that was Lidia's life at that moment. You are there with her and then she never lets you go.
Her childhood was devastating. Her father abused her and her sister. He ruled their house with anger. He ruled every moment that she breathed. Her mother drank herself into oblivion, trying more than once to go all the way forever. This was a kid in peril. She was an athlete (swimmer) who fled on a scholarship as the only way out. She found alcohol and drugs and sex in college. She found them all in a very big way. She descended into a maelstrom that seemed to offer no way out. She wanted that lost space. She tells the reader how she was cruel and thoughtless. She tells how she did not think she was worthy of kindness. She reminds us of a thousand other kids we went to school with. She reminds us of ourselves.
I tried to put the book down five times today. I picked up it again every single time.
Sometimes The Chronology of Water was too intimate for me -- as much as i wrote about my own life in MAP, I couldn't write this much about myself. (It's the sex, I just can't write about sex.) (Granted, I write about aviation so I don't think there's a way to segue into sex there but still.) (Well, there is the Mile High Club but all I'm going to say about that is it is a lot harder to fly an airplane when you're having sex. Think about it.)
Lidia shares it all. She hands her life on a silver platter to readers and she asks for nothing in return. She is clear to point out this is not a book of suffering, not a purging of the soul. (And I hope I have not made it sound that way.) It is the story of a life, that more than once seemed impossible. It is the story of trying to die, of thinking you needed to die, of courting death in all the ways that young and wild and sad and sorry young people do. It's a story that is filled with tears and laughter and stark disbelief. She made it, and in the final chapters (where I am now), she can hardly believe that.
I am reading The Chronology of Water and it is taking my breath away. I've never read anything like it and I wanted you to know.
*You buy a lot of books at festivals. You're not familiar with a writer's work and then you listen to them speak and they are so amazing that you promptly go and buy their book and before you know it you have bought ten books. Really.
**I have just finished up my crunch of books for Booklist and the October column is done and I'm well into November, so I felt safe reading a book off the TBR shelf. I am only now realizing just how much I seem to be over-thinking every aspect of my literary life.
Interview with Lidia here.
Tomorrow I write about airplanes in Alaska. This should not be a surprise for anyone.

September 6, 2013
Coming at you live from Deadline Central
This week has been a rush of many different things, all converging at once in a mix of deadlines and To Do lists. In an attempt to take stock of the situation, here is where I am at:
1. Various sundry personal banking issues concerning the changing of banks have been dealt with. Partly complicated by auto deposit to the old bank which must be cleared prior to closing of that account. So tiresome to have monies in two different places (three if you count the business accounts).
2. Business cards ordered. This was terribly overdue as I missed them sorely at ALA and don't want to make the same mistake at PNBA and the AK History Conference. They are due in the week before I leave.
3. Flight arrangements made to Juneau; ferry arrangements to Haines set; hotel in order, registration paid for the conference; PNBA arrangements sorted as well. I am in Haines the end of the month, Portland the beginning of the next. My husband will be holding down the fort and dealing with boy and dogs and various sundry madness without me.
4. The boy's birthday is the week after PNBA. I realized yesterday that everything for that needs to be worked out posthaste.
5. Articles loaded for the Bush Pilot blog at Alaska Dispatch -- four articles in the queue now, one more I have all the notes for and needs to be written in the next couple of days. Follow-up email sent on another that has been long neglected. I have several stories here to work on and I need to get them done and in before Haines.
6. I'm doing a presentation in Haines. Don't ask me if I'm ready to go with that yet.
7. There is a September 15th due date for submissions to a site that I'm prepping an essay for. I think it's going to be good and i want to get it in. September 15th is really really soon.
8. I've got editing due for a Shorefast Editions project. Other people are waiting on me. Need to get that cranking. Now. (This the priority for tomorrow. I wanted it in last night.)
9. I'm reading WOKEN GODS by Gwenda Bond for my December column (great) and COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black for my October column maybe (also great but if I can't get it read & reviewed in time I'll bump it to the December column). AMONG WOLVES for Booklist (turning this one in next week) and OWNING THE EARTH due by the 17th. (After that just one Booklist review due and that is not until early October so I'll likely bring it on the plane and write the review then.)
10. I've got to get my November column sorted out. Only one review is written for it and it's no easy cake column. It's all nonfiction, serious works (amazing works!) and I want to do them justice. I have to turn it in by October 25th. This one concerns me a lot right now.
11. Man -- this list is not making me feel better.
12. Appointments for the boy next week (doctor) and the week after (dentist). Haircuts need to happen in there for everybody in this house. I missed a nephew's birthday - that gift needs to be packaged tomorrow. (Fortunately he is only 1, so he won't notice.)
13. I did laundry today. That's something.
14. I renewed the domain name for our company (Moro Aircraft Leasing), I scanned and sent an article I promised a month ago. Done and done. Paid bills, refilled prescriptions.
15. Organization is key, but it also shows you how much more you need to do then you thought you had to do. Once it's all listed out there -- boy howdy, that's a lot.
16. New issue of Bookslut is up, with a column by me that includes some very good books. Check them out.
17. More later. Plus a Alaska-y tweets from @shorefastbooks by me. I can tweet from two places at once. It's my superpower. *grin*

September 3, 2013
She "wept at the keyboard almost every day of the writing."
The title of Jesmyn Ward's upcoming memoir is drawn from a quote by Harriet Tubman:
We saw the lightening and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.
From the outstanding interview with Ward in the new issue of Poets & Writers that I highly recommend reading. (The article is not available online I'm afraid.) Men We Reaped was already on my holiday wishlist but now I'm damn near desperate for it. She has to be one of the bravest writers at work today and this story, of too much sorrow in her Mississippi hometown, sounds unbearably perfect.
Also, I'm extremely jealous of the perfect title for this book. Titles are so hard.
[Post title from the article, post pic of Southern Cemetery in Manchester, England.]

August 29, 2013
Bill Bryson's upcoming ONE SUMMER
I somehow missed that Bill Bryson had a new book on the horizon (due October). From the Booklist starred review:
Bryson's inimitable wit and exuberance are on full display in this wide-ranging look at the major events in an exciting summer in America. Bryson makes fascinating interconnections: a quirky Chicago judge and Prohibition defender leaves the bench to become baseball commissioner following the White Sox scandal, likely leaving Chicago open for gangster Al Capone; the thrill-hungry tabloids and a growing cult of celebrity watchers dog Lindbergh's every move and chronicle Ruth's every peccadillo. Among the other events in a frenzied summer: record flooding of the Mississippi River and the ominous beginnings of the Great Depression. Bryson offers delicious detail and breathtaking suspense about events whose outcomes are already known. A glorious look at one summer in America.
I'm not an automatic Bryson reader but I'm mightily intrigued by the notion of his writing directed toward a wide view/one summer sort of book. Plus, everything about 1927 history appeals to me: The lingering Black Sox scandal, Capone, Lindbergh, the Mississippi flood, etc. I predict this will be a huge book this holiday season and I am adding it to my wishlist right this very moment.

August 27, 2013
Marie Colvin - Badass For Truth
'Commander,' she said, 'this is a very important story to get out. The world really needs to know what's happening here in Syria. We can't just sit by and watch murder take place. The world desperately needs to see what's happening inside Baba Amr. Please, if you don't take us in, then this carnage will slip past into history. Assad can crush you right now. You need people to see this. People will listen to me and they will see Paul's pictures. We can help: we can show the world; we can bear witness.'
From Under the Wire: Marie Colvin's Last Assignment by Paul Conroy (The "Paul" referenced in the quote.)
This was Marie making her argument to a rebel commander to be smuggled into Baba Amr, near Homs, in February 2012. She & Paul Conroy got in. Ten days later, after retreating from the town and returning yet again, she was killed with French photographer Remi Ochlik while under intense shelling from the Syrian Army. The official government death certificate claimed she was killed by an IED placed by the Syrian rebels. Conroy was there and grievously injured in the same attack. His book is about what really happened.

August 26, 2013
Stacks of books to read & review & articles to write & essays & SO MUCH MORE
What I'm Reading:
It's all about Booklist right now--I have two more books to read and review by September 3rd: Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art by Harry Greene and Under the Wire: Marie Colvin's Last Assignment by Paul Conroy.
What I'm Reviewing:
My September column is turned in and my October column is pretty much written. (I could fit another book in if I read one that fits in the next couple of weeks, but it's good to go right now.) I still have one book for Booklist to send in (I'll do that the next day or two) and my "Cool Read" for November (Imperial Dreams) and Eruption! for my December feature on NF titles. (Good volcano books never go out of style.) And Souvenir Nation for my November column.
All of these are read and good to go, and they are on the "To Do" list this week for sure.
What I'm Writing:
Four articles for Alaska Dispatch on accident reports and hunting season (from a pilot perspective) and the aviation alphabet and lots of other stuff. It's sort of never-ending over there (the news is like that), so I just try to stay in front of it as best I can.
BUT.....I also want to get an essay on my next book into an online venue that is soliciting right now. Nothing on this until if/when it ever runs. But it must be done in the next two weeks and I'm working very hard to not shove it aside for the sure things on the table.
Where You Can Find Me Right Now:
The Back Page of ALASKA magazine has a short piece by me about flying over the Yukon River and Brooks Range and Edward Hoagland and "dangerous beauty". It's not online alas, but if you see it in the grocery store you could read it in two minutes!
What I'm Working On Other Than Writing:
A powerpoint presentation about The Flying North and Jean Potter and how we came to reissue her book because I'm standing up in front of historians in one month to talk all about it. This would be the part where I knuckle down. SERIOUSLY.

August 23, 2013
I Stayed Up All Night Reading Robin Wasserman's The Waking Dark
It has been a long time since a book kept me up all night and then gave me nightmares to boot. I read The Waking Dark for my October column Wednesday night and it is going to be a perfect for that time of year -- a classic autumn title that is horrific less for the fantastic nature of its tale and more for the very believable horrors it reveals.
You really could see this one happening.
Lots of folks have compared it to Stephen King and it certainly is reminiscent of his multiple point-of-view novels with smart characters standing up to a vast conspiracy that includes lots of people behaving very badly and some crazy and some blood and some good guys who die as well as a lot of bad ones. BUT...that comparison does nothing to diminish what a great big fun read this is. The characters are all fantastic and the teen protagonists especially are well-rounded, three-dimensional and even those who only appear for a page are two are memorable and cut to the bone.
The plot, from the opening pages of unexplained murder, moves at a breakneck speed and even when you find out what is going on it doesn't slow down until the last pages. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay Wasserman is that she reminds readers what a big good entertaining read can be when it's not relying on fangs, fur or undead, which frankly have become crutches lately for far too many lazy writers.
A more thorough review will follow in my column but in case you were wondering about this one, have no doubt that The Waking Dark is worth every penny. I loved it, from start to finish.
