Rain Trueax's Blog, page 46

Imbolc

Yes, once again we have gotten here, not just past the hump of Winter Solstice but to the Celtic celebration, Imbolc, which I have written about in another blog many many times but perhaps not with the emphasis on what it means for creativity. 

Imbolc (ewe's milk) is when we get our first lambs as it is the traditional time for lambing in the Celtic lands from where the celebration originated. Our ewes are heavily pregnant in the days before February 2. We wait for those first little sounds from the newborns, the crooning of the mothers. We hope to not hear the lost sound of a lamb where no mother is speaking back to it.

See how heavily laden she is-- so ready with the weight of that belly as it has dropped-- photo taken January 31, 2013
Besides longer days and new growth and life, this is a time of creativity in a spiritual and an inner sense or so the sages say. We can dream dreams with these long nights but the gradually increasing day's length means activity is about to burst forth. We can think about what is within and find ways to bring it out. Suggestions for Imbolc are reciting poetry, lighting candles, starting new plants, or gathering in circles.

I saw an interesting topic in the MOA (Meet Our Author's) at Amazon. Well the topic wasn't but something that arose within was.-- how long does it take to write a book? Some asserted that if it did not take a year, then the book wasn't worthy. Others felt that someone who turns out say five books in a year has to be doing inferior work. One suggested that if a person worked a 12-hour day, there was no way there would be time for writing a novel. I put a brief comment there but decided I'd prefer to expand on it  here as it is part of creativity and bringing forth our own light.

Basically I can address this from where it comes to my own writing and what I have heard others say about theirs. Yes, some take years to write their books while others, with equal skill, can bring out several books in a year. Some people have written only one masterpiece and it was finally recognized as such when they were in old age-- thinking Helen Hooeven Santmyer's-- And the Ladies of the Club or Norman Maclean's, The River Runs Through It. Not that it took them a lifetime to write the one great book, but it took that long to have it recognized.

There are traditionally published authors who write under several names to avoid having readers think they are writing too much. They might write under different genres for the same reason or because it's fun to vary what they do.

So my opinion is that if someone has an idea for a book and knows its trajectory, they can easily write 1000 words a night if nighttime is all they have for their own fiction. The catch, of course, is to have that initial idea. Sometimes long hours at work drains the creative juices. It's not the time to write that is lacking. It's the time to work out the fictional plot and characters.

If they wrote 1000 words a day, varying it a bit, they would have their rough draft in a couple of months. Then would come editing, editing and re-editing. If they wish to go the traditional route, they then have to write a query letter, synopsis and maybe outline to interest a publishing house or agent in their work. I won't say it's easy to do this when working long hours but it's not impossible-- if the person has that initial idea and knows where it's going.

As for me, I often go days writing nothing where it might seem nothing is happening on my book idea, but it's going through a lot of phases in my head or in notes. When I am writing, I can easily do 5000 words in a day. But then I need to reread and think about where that got the story and whether it worked. It was not hard at all with A Montana Christmas to write so fast because I knew those characters and where the story was a novella, it didn't have the complexity of a full length novel.

My current work in progress has taken characters I knew vaguely from a prior story but had to get to know them a LOT better. I began writing their interactions, what they were doing, who else they were involved with, when did they laugh, when did they cry, and as that unfolded, so did more and more of the story. Although i have the time to spend a day writing, I don't have that every day. 

On those days I am busy elsewhere, i think about these characters and where they might be at the time. I think about them most especially right before bed as I consider what they did that day and where might that lead them. It's easy in such a time of intense writing to lose track of my own life if I don't make the effort to stay in touch with 'me.'

A lot of what I write has been fully formulated before I sit at the keyboard but I am open to changing something if the next step reveals what came before was a mistake. It's so easy with the computer versus the days when all of what I wrote was done on a typewriter, one of those lovely old black ones where you had to strike the keys hard. If I wanted to readjust things with it, it required cutting apart paragraphs and taping them into new places. Love the modern world where it comes to tools that help creating happen faster and easier.

If you are wanting to write fiction but haven't yet done it, think of the story that is in your head, the nuances, the additional parts you might be able to flesh out, use the darkness of these long nights for that but then start writing. A thousand words a day is not a bad goal as it's pretty easy to do. Even if your ideas don't seem like much, write them down-- one thing often leads to another. You can assess its value later. The main thing for those who want to write is-- write.

Fame or recognition, sales or popularity, that might never come. They aren't what make you a writer. Some might think it's all about the money or being a great artist in your writing abilities. Nope. It's that you write. Now being an author, having that recognition, that might take something else but to be a writer only means one thing-- you are one who writes.

May Imbolc give you some of that light and glow to get your own work going.







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nighttime dreams

 digital painting based on photos
For me, dreams can lead to books or give insights to life. The dream I had the other night would make a good short story, I think (with all on my plate, I won't be the one writing it). Mostly I think my dreams relate to my daily life and when I think about them a bit, I can see how. The following is the recent one.

The boy was exceedingly handsome and a senior in high school. He was developing himself into the person he was yet to be. He had a problem. He was gay, and he lived in a world that didn't accept that as a valid lifestyle. He hadn't acted out on what he knew he was, but he saw it as an issue in his life.

Pizzas seemed to be part of this dream off and on with various toppings and ordered from different places as he or other characters would order and eat one.

The young man had a mentor who was as handsome as he. This man knew of the boy's true nature. I think he also was gay. The youth talked to him about what he saw. He felt that he could hide who he was and never know love. The man said that's not true. He could live secretly and have many lovers, both men and women, but what he would never know is one true love. However, if he revealed his true self, he might still not find that one true love and he would pay a high price in his community.

The day came when the youth learned he was Valedictorian of his school. A very attractive young woman was Salutatorian and she and he sat on some chairs as they were being told how the ceremony would go when they graduated. The mentor stood not far from the boy, and I would assume he was telling him without words to hide his nature and live life as fully as possible while part of who he was would remain hidden from most of the world. He would sacrifice one thing for another. 

When the dream ended, the young man had made his decision and his Valedictorian speech would reveal it. The answer wasn't given in the dream, but I felt that he would stand up, throw out the approved speech and tell the audience that he was gay and why it mattered that he speak his truth. Although I never saw him do it, I felt I saw into his heart for his intention.

When I was awake and thinking about what this meant, I saw it as applying to my life and to us all. We can live the truth that satisfies everybody around us. We can be who they want and while it might not be as extreme as sexual gender, it could be lifestyle, career, how we dress, our religion or a multitude of things. We all have had that choice from youth, but we have it now today no matter what our age. 

Do we want to live our truth openly when it might upset those around us? Will we be rewarded by revealing ourselves? I do not think we always are, and definitely speaking our truth isn't always appreciated. It isn't easy either as whatever the real us might be, it often isn't what culture, family or friends want it to be.

I wouldn't say the dream revealed what should be done either as this boy did have a choice. He could live either way-- but one way was truer to his nature than the other. One had the potential for a fuller life. But there were no guarantees of that. The guarantee was that he could live true to himself or live out a lie. It was his choice. It is the one we all make-- most likely many times in a lifetime.

 Tarot card is from my Gilded Tarot deck...yes, I have more than one such deck-- and yes, I sometimes do readings from them :)

escape to another world

Currently I am very involved in writing. My goal is a story the length of my other historicals which range from 120,000 to 140,000 words. For a writer like myself, never published in paper, I couldn't even get an agent to read a manuscript that length. Publishing houses draw a limit at 100,000 for their slush piles (uninvited queries and manuscripts) and prefer less. But this is generally what I feel is needed to fully tell such a story. Once I get into a book like this, I want to stay with these people and fully develop the plots with all the nuances possible. This one follows a prior Arizona story by about two years. The hero and heroine began as secondary characters that I realized would merit their own story.

Old Tucson
The challenge, when you create a new book, is choosing which characters go along with the main protagonists. For a book this length, you need good secondary characters and some secondary plot-lines. You have this historic period you are setting them into-- which might be your own but in my case is southern Arizona and beginning in the winter of 1886. 

Whether today or yesterday, you find out what their community would be like. What were the political issues back then and did they impact their lives? Who do they talk over their problems assuming they are the type to reveal their thinking to anyone? Who will present barriers to their life? What challenges do they choose and which ones are forced upon them by someone else or nature? What are the fun things that just happen, which you didn't plan, but come out of these characters' interactions?

As you are writing, at a certain point, this world will seem as real as your own. It is as though you have reached into a pool and pulled from it characters that at a certain point become fully fleshed. What began as an idea has become a world as real as your own and it's where the magic lies in writing. It is both the challenge and the joy of it.

I particularly recommend such activity in a time such as ours where when you read what is going on in the world, you want to curl up in a hole. I am a believer in being informed and involved in the political choices being attempted or done. Our awareness is critical if we want to remain anything resembling a democracy.

For those who don't know, we are a Republic. We elect leaders to run our system. We vote for them based on believing they follow our own goals and priorities. These are the ones we expect to fight to make this country a good one for us all. When we lose the ability to elect leaders like that, this system is doomed because a lot of what happens once it gets to those leaders too often isn't democracy at all.

This can be very depressing to think about-- whichever political side you take. My opinion is we need to pay attention, be aware of what is happening because what they do does impact our real world. How can we expect to keep a nation that runs on the will of the people if the people can be so easily dissuaded from paying attention? But, the key to a personal, satisfying life, is to do what we can and then let it go. It's a balancing act because how to let it go is the problem.

It is in times like this where I heartily recommend writing fiction whether that be full length manuscripts, novellas, novelettes or short stories. Create your own world and if that's sci fi, fantasy, romance, adventure, pop or great lit, it doesn't matter. 

The ticket is finding somewhere fascinating for you to go with your characters and escaping for awhile from the world in which we actually live. Give your fantasy world some interesting prime characters which might be male and female, mother and offspring, friends, enemies, whatever intrigues you. Then start writing the events as they unfold. Consider if that worked. If it didn't, start over. Whatever the case, you want your mind caught up in their world and not your own as a way to get a break.


Sabino Canyon and another way to escape for awhile-- nature

Going with the flow

A long week-end in Central Oregon with the family was a relaxing time. It was a welcome break to drive over the snowy Cascades (route plotted thanks to the highway cams). It was icy whichever way we went, but the reward was in not only warm family time but blue skies and snow.

We had reservations in Sunriver for a large house we've rented before that has a hot tub, three king-sized bedrooms, each with their own bathroom as well another bath and a half, a very nice kid area with four bunk beds, large sofa, wii, and their own big screen TV. Summer renters have 12 bikes they can borrow and passes for swimming pools and tennis courts.

Our winter activities ranged from cooking, followed by eating, walks, snowshoeing, sledding, ice skating, shopping, photography, drives, museum visiting, games, football playoffs, the Inauguration, and just hanging out.  We flowed in different directions with everybody doing what pleased them most which makes it particularly nice when you have so many age groups-- from just over 5 to almost 70.

Although I don't play games often anymore, the kids convinced me to try Cranium and I was impressed enough that I want to buy it. It's creative, funny, and makes you think. It works for kids and adults although the five-year old felt a bit out of it. At the rate he's developing, it won't take him long to be actively involved.

I enjoy the time with the kids and grandkids, but I was glad also for the time to think more about the story I had begun before I left the ranch. I had written 20,000 words and sometimes it's hard to leave something when you are getting a feel for it; but this time I think a break enriched what will come next. I did a lot of mental planning that I feel quite good about. A friend asked, do you take notes so you won't forget the ideas. I never need that as it's like I see what's coming; and for me, it becomes as real as having watched it in a movie.

Oregon High Desert Museum-- Butterfly and Hummingbird room
We came home to livestock well-tended by the substitute Farm Boss. In the house at first we thought the cats were all okay but then began to wonder if BB, our eldest, was on his way out. He didn't want to eat, only wanted to sleep. We thought if he is, we will let this be as long as he's in no discomfort. We are not sure of his age since he came to us as a stray; but if the veterinarian who first examined him (2001) was right, he's probably 16 or 17. Whatever the case, unless he shows symptoms of something, we will let nature take its course.

When his time does come I will miss my beautiful black hunk. Because of how he came into my life, he's been very special to me. But when you have pets, you have to accept eventually losing them as part of the price. He's had a great life with us although I know he'd rather die in Arizona and be buried there. We actually thought he might die after the long drive down but he was rejuvenated by his desert.


I may never get to see him do this again (as he did this December when in Tucson), and I admit I get teary at the thought. I equally though feel so blessed I ever had him part of my life so whether his life with us continues or ends soon, I know I am the lucky one. Whatever happens, it's part of the flow of life.

The Cascade Mountains

The Three Sisters
One of the greatest things about being in Central Oregon is the many gorgeous views of some volcanic peaks in the Cascades Mountain range. In winter, when they are more snow covered, to see them at the western horizon, they are simply awesome. They are not only beautiful, but recreationally rich with many opportunities for hiking, fishing, canoeing, mountain climbing, hunting, wildflowers, camping, swimming, hiking, snowshoeing, skiing, with a rich history as well reason for active geologic interest.

In 1980, when in Portland, I'd see the smoke from one to the north in Washington that had blown its top. It's a modern city, Portland, and yet when you see smoke rising from a mountain you have always seen with one shape, a mountain you always knew was a volcano, but that now has been reshaped by a massive, shocking explosion, suddenly you don't feel so modern nor so far from primitive forces.

When you understand their volcanic reality, you look at these peaks differently. You understand more that the forces behind making one go from dormant to active are little known. Some of the warning signs can be observed with science; but in the end, it does what it does. For all the humans, who want to think they can control everything, volcanoes are a reminder that they don't.

I often think how this area must have seemed to the peoples who lived here when the volcanoes were all more active. They sometimes spewed lava for miles not to count the ash and all the cinder cones and fumaroles that cropped up. The largest such example of awesome power in our Cascades would be the volcano that left behind Crater Lake-- Mount Mazama literally blew its top leaving behind the beautiful crater that today is one of Oregon's scenic wonders.


 The Native Americans created legends about the exploding mountains and the purposes behind their explosions. I used one of those in my second Oregon historical romance. 

Native Legends

Mt. Washington
Can you imagine what it was like to be here back when you had to run to get away from danger, and there might have been smoke rising but then suddenly there was a massive explosion. Not much warning before the whole world around you changed. All the places you gathered roots or berries, hunted, they were gone and in their place this angry giant. To me, it's an awesome thought-- and could happen again-- although we will hope not soon. They do keep tabs on the South Sister in the photo above as there is a bulge developing-- Magma causing Oregon uplift.

Three-fingered Jack
There is one more geologic mystery of sorts-- although some think they know the answer. The Metolius River emerges from the ground fully formed (although there are springs that add to its size as it flows north. The water stays the same temperature year round (cold very cold). It is a place we have camped with our families over many years and where we still stop when we have time on our way back from Eastern or Central Oregon. If there be such things as vortexes (energy high spots), it's definitely one, a place for beauty, meditation, healing, hiking, and fishing (catch and release).

Central Oregon

A quiet morning, not too early or late, the perfect time for photos with long shadows and sunlight. Feel how cold the Central Oregon air is and still enough to get wonderful reflections. It's about 22º. The air is crisp and clean with the smell of pine in the air. We are on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, where the hills grow steeper. Off and on Mount Bachelor and other volcanic peaks can be seen.

The campground is closed for the winter but there have been others here before, not just 4-wheel drive vehicles but rabbits, ducks and some odd little animal with four legs and a tail it drags. Rat maybe?

Walking across the snow is crunchy, sometimes you'll fall through, but it's only about 8" so not a big deal. Under the pine trees are beds of needles. Where the pines have protected the ground, the going is easier.

Ice rims the edges of the Deschutes River. It and snow mask the true edge, but the river runs free. It'll take more than this to freeze across it. Time over here in the winter is precious. Why don't I want to do it more often?

researching

Basically for the last two months I've gone back and forth between researching and working out plots/characters in my head until last week when I began writing. Writing a contemporary story involves some research but historicals like this one  a lot more (even when I think I know an era and area pretty well). When I write a story based in the past, I do not regard them as historical novels. An historical novel must stay exactly with what happened as best as can be determined. A romance, set in an historical period, has more latitude and should not be taken as a history book by those looking for such. 

What I like to do is figure out general language, but I don't put the character's dialogue into cant or some kind of historical jargon that today's reader is scratching their head figuring out. I don't favor reading such books unless they were written back then. I definitely don't want to write them. I do though like to have a good idea of what the food would be like, how the people lived, the political climate, colloquial expressions, and roughly what was going on in their world before I set my fictional characters into it. 

Although I knew a lot about Tucson, there was more I needed to know especially since this book would be more set in the town with more political aspects because my hero, a deputy United States Marshal, was in more of a political position.


For research, I found several good books on Tucson's history, lots of information online, as well as one book on United States Marshals of early Arizona and New Mexico. The one thing you learn fast, when you research history, is there is often as much fiction as fact in any history. You pick and choose what you want/need from the mix.



When I spent time in the Arizona Historical Museum in Tucson, I took some great photos of old photos (asked permission first). This story follows one set two years later. The earlier one was easier because it happened mostly in the out of beyond country as well as Tombstone with Tucson only the beginning and ending. I researched but didn't have to know as much.


By the end of 1885, terms were being worked out for the surrender of Geronimo for what would be the last time. The outlaws still ran rampant in the back country, Tucson was a small town but growing fast thanks to the railroad coming in 1880 which was the beginning of a big change for the Old Pueblo. The mix of cultures, the ethnic difficulties, the tenor of the times all made for an interesting setting and very enjoyable research. 

Once you know the world in which they will live, that's when you can set your characters into it which is where I am now with my writing.

All photos from Arizona Historical Museum

Covers again-- From Here to There

To say the least I never thought I'd be posting on another cover that had to get changed right now. I thought I had figured out covers; and the one From Here to There had, although complex and not the norm for romance covers, seemed to suit the book.

This particular book has now had more covers than any of my others, I think. When I began (summer of 2011 before I was ready to put out the books), it was with digital painting. I wasn't happy with the first and did a second before I actually ePublished. That was when I learned readers of indie books tended to see my digital paintings as amateur offerings.



It does not pay to get your feelings hurt if you want to put out any creative work; so I rethought my concept. I selected one of my own photos from the area (book is set in Montana on a ranch). It was up for awhile but didn't really work for me even if readers didn't object. At least they didn't take the time to write how much they hated it if they did.


This was about the time I learned about buying images and when I did that, I set two models into one of my Montana photos and thought-- voila.  By then I had gotten into Select and was giving away copies. When I did get comments, it appeared readers thought it was ugly. 


About here is where I learned two things. One I had no idea what readers really wanted and two, I was very stubborn about doing this myself. It wasn't just the cost-- although that's a factor. It was because I knew I could do it and wanted it as part of my overall offering.


So I tried again to get the flavor of this book onto a cover. This time I used two equal images which is admittedly unusual on these covers; but this book is about two love stories. There is first of all the couple today who have realized they began a marriage with no idea what a marriage was all about, and there was the woman's aunt, now deceased, who had left the journal of her own love story for her niece to read. Two images and I had it made. Who could find fault with that?


When the first negative review appeared regarding the cover, it was about the same time I had made the change; so I thought maybe it was the old cover the reader had hated. Recently along came another negative review of the book's cover, and this time there could be no doubt it was this cover.

Stubborn I might be but I do take into account what I read on reviews. It does me a favor when I get such a comment because doubtless there are other readers who simply won't read the book at all because of a cover that doesn't work for them. 

This time though I was pretty much sick of using people on the cover. In December 2012, I had written a Christmas novella which was set a few years later on this ranch. I had used no people on its cover-- A Montana Christmas.

So I went back to an earlier idea-- the land. This book, From Here to There, is about several things. One is the love story of two couples. Two is the mythology of the old and today's West. Third is the love of the land. I found a photo that expressed my own feelings about this part of the West. 

I think probably the phases it has gone through have been good for me because in the end the book has to be about what I feel is most important in it. I can hope it works for the reader but when a story like this one (which is an adult romance) is not just about love between two people but also love of the land, then a cover of the land should work.

Hopefully it will find readers who feel likewise. It has a trailer which I don't think I will change because the trailer has a chance to say it all about the book, not limiting itself to one image (plus, the cover I have at the end has never actually been used on the book-- which means it has had seven covers. 

Will the one at the top be its last? Who knows. I am open to what comes along where it comes to these covers. I might see something that stimulates some other part of the book in my eyes. For now, it is what it is and I like it. In the end though it's what readers think that matters the most for book covers. They are the ones who decide/or not to purchase a book of mine. I should put up all the covers inside maybe. 

Actually I do have a link to an extended trailer at the end of From Here to There because of my great love for that country. It's not on YouTube and only available to purchasers as often trailers that go on too long tell too much of the story which isn't a problem to someone who already read the book. This is its YouTube trailer:

adrenaline rushes or not

After an interesting conversation with a creative friend, I woke up thinking about what we had discussed, actually have discussed many times over the years. She says she operates best in a pressure mode when it can even mean she has a deadline that she is in danger of not meeting.  I've heard this kind of thing from other creative people where they feel without a job or some sort of forced deadline, like say a showing of their work, they won't get as much done.


Me, I operate best when I am way ahead of any deadline. I am creative and function best when I create my own deadlines and they are loose. My friend admittedly is an adrenaline junkie (so is Farm Boss) and they both get a lot done, but I don't react well with adrenaline rushes. It makes me feel pressured and upset.

Middle of the night recently, when I woke and knew Farm Boss also was, I asked if he wanted to talk a moment. Frankly I doubt he did, but he said he was awake enough to do it. I then asked what he thought about these two ways of operating. Was one preferable?  Did people who have deadlines and work up against them get more done? Was my more casual approach to deadlines actually meaning I wasn't working fully? Am I missing something by not being an adrenaline seeker?


His opinion was that studies show people are better off to work as I do and not as he does (which doesn't explain why he is so successful). He said to be way out there for what someone is doing has been proven to enable going over the work. with time to evaluate it, and a better product is created than the one rushed to a finish because it had to be.

Maybe so but is that adrenaline rush addictive, and it's why they do it-- not at all about the product but rather the process where they feel it's more exciting? They get a rush that they seem to feel makes them feel empowered.

I hear about those who have publishing deadlines and how they are pressuring themselves to meet them. Some say if they didn't have a job, they'd not do anything. I haven't had a career, but I have always stayed very active for what I do. I easily self motivate and even when I'm fiddling around, it's not as purposeless as it might seem. I have always felt very lucky that I had the time to pursue so many interests. None of them involved sitting around watching television all day.


My friend also finds it frustrating if she cannot take a project to resolution. That doesn't bother me. Yes, I do have a time when I call a work done, but where it comes to my books, every so often I look back over them; and if I see words that would be better than what I had chosen, a slight phrasing improvement, I will do it.

My organic reaction to my creative work reminds me of the carrot I ate the other day where I saw the green top growing before I cut it off and began scraping the carrot. Basically I was eating something alive. I see my books that way. They are alive and if I can come up with something to make them more alive, I will do it.

You'd think those kind of changes could never happen with a paper published author, but it can. I remember one of the successful romance authors taking a book she had written years before and expanding it to what she was then capable of writing. That's the thing. Not only is the work there to be expanded, but so are we. A writer who is always developing can always find better ways of doing things-- but then they have to decide if that impacted the energy, not necessarily bettering, of the original work.

The same thing is true of paintings but my fired clay sculptures-- once they are done, they are done even if I look at an arm and think it's a tad too long. Fired clay can only be destroyed, possibly different coating but it's done-- and the only option is create another one improving on whatever was seen as not quite up to snuff.



Geysers in Yellowstone Park from 2010. These provide about as good an example of creativity as I can imagine. The earth reaches out from the depths with blasts of pure energy-- much as this world originally experienced in its beginning.

Energy of the buffalo

After I wrote a blog on the topic of how we get our own energy, I got fascinated with how many photos I really have taken of buffalo herds. The answer was over 150 from '08 and '10. To me the fascination is their size, relationships to each other, how they move across a valley like a sea, they way they seem beyond anything more than themselves. Buffalo do isolate some of the males due to fights for supremacy, and you will see that lone buffalo off by himself.

They are part of the history of our country, and it's not hard to see why they are not roaming free everywhere today. You try telling a buffalo that an ordinary fence is supposed to limit their territory. People can sometimes walk up close to them (which I sure wouldn't do) and not get gored; but the next person trying it will be tossed in the air and only survive when they are lucky.

In Yellowstone they sometimes walk down the road, blocking all vehicles for however long they decide that's their road. There are times we've driven into the park, had gridlock happen with no clue what was delaying everybody until we finally saw a lone buffalo grazing alongside the road. Usually that happens on the road in from West Yellowstone before visitors realize buffalo are not unusual in the park.

The herds that run free in Yellowstone have their own problems of survival although it's not generally predators until they get old. Still I felt that predators are part of their story and added a couple of photos of wolves (at a distance as right now we don't have a telephoto capable of bringing them closer) and grizzlies (closer as we got lucky our last trip-- and I might add telephoto makes them look closer than they were).

The music I chose was from JewelBeat and seemed apropos given how important buffalo were to the mighty Plains tribes.