S. Smith's Blog

Oregon Trail In Reverse

And so it’s been a year and a half since my last post. The foundation has shifted. Everything is different. We’ll see how it goes.

A blog or two back I mentioned my newfound grandmahood. We have, in fact, done it. I retired last July, we left a home of 30 years, and drove 2,000+ miles across America to live closer to my daughter and son-in-law and newly minted grandson.

I take care of him 20-30 hours a week, usually 10 hour stretches. It’s a lot. I’ve grown old. So I haven’t had much energy to blog. And no promises even now that it won’t be another year before I sit here again. But I have a moment here, now, and I’ll try to be brief and toss out some photos, and maybe that will help me to actually publish this. I’m going to jump straight to the gardening to keep things simple.

This place we bought has a little acreage so I have more room to garden. We didn’t get as much land ready as I’d hoped, nor the soil as prepared as I’d wanted, but I planted anyway.

The soil is VERY sandy, with a capital S, my old garden started out very much clay. My biggest threats back in my old garden were slugs, aphids, and cabbage moths. Here, I meet a new predator weekly. So far we’ve grown to know potato beetles, Japanese beetles, giant June bugs and most recently tomato hornworms. It’s been interesting.

With the climate here, it was wait wait wait for it to be warm enough to plant and then overnight things grow (because it doesn’t cool down at night!) Anyhow, it’s been different and interesting. Here’s a little of what has succeeded so far.

I’m currently in northern Indiana, so if anyone with a similar climate, sandy soil, or is familiar with the aforementioned insects has any advice, I’d love to hear it! Or if you just want to talk gardening, grandparenting, moving, or say hi, comments are open!

The People of Sparks

I recently finished reading the sequel to The City of Ember, The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau.

I read City of Ember years ago and had seen the movie. I really liked it as it reminded me of my own books. I especially remember loving the ending where the kids come up into the green world full of trees and plants and the blue sky. But I don’t think I knew there was a series…

The People of Sparks begins shortly after where Ember ended. I wish I could say more to this, but it’s really been too long. I mostly remember that I enjoyed the book, but not many details. Sparks is less about the new strange aboveground world (although there’s quite a lot of that at the beginning; What’s gasoline? What’s antibiotics?) and more about the friction caused by a sudden mass of refugees overwhelming a small village with limited resources.

Unlike the last book I wrote about, Where the Crawdads Sing, People of Sparks is a much simpler writing style and for a seemingly younger audience. It took a false start or two for me to get into it because of this, but once I got going there was no problem. It was a good read and still included a few twists and turns I didn’t see coming. And I loved the ending being with a lightbulb and a sense of hope, as I remember the cover of the first book having a lightbulb on it and it ending with hope. I’m a sucker for happy endings.

I went ahead and looked up the next book in the series and downloaded it from my local library so I wouldn’t have to wait over the weekend to check it out from my school library. I discovered that the next book in the series is a prequel, so that will be interesting. Sometimes people have suggested I write a prequel to the Seed Savers series…

Have you read The City of Ember or any of the sequels? What do you think?

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!

A New Chapter

[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://authorssmith.files.wordpress...." data-large-file="https://authorssmith.files.wordpress...." src="https://authorssmith.files.wordpress...." alt="" class="wp-image-8265" style="width:359px;height:auto" />Photo by Ryutaro Tsukata on Pexels.com

Right around Christmas a wonderful thing happened. I became a grandma for the first time!

My daughter and son-in-law live 2,000 miles away, but since I’m a teacher and the baby was due in December, I was able to fly out and enjoy 10 days of his newbornness. That, and of course, help the new parents as they dealt with not being able to get a night’s sleep, cooking, laundry, and everything that comes with a new baby (first baby) in the house.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had been many years (too many) since I’d held a baby, helped feed and change a baby, etc. But some things come back naturally. I loved my “shift” of sitting up til midnight each night holding him so that he stayed calm and mom and dad could sleep. I finished a Netflix series I was watching, watched 3 or 4 Christmas movies I hadn’t seen in a long time, and reread a Dan Brown book, all while enjoying a new tiny little life resting comfortably on me. Who could ask for a better way to spend a week?

And now? Now I’m thinking maybe it’s time to retire (to be honest, I’m always thinking that), and maybe to relocate, at least for a time, closer to the growing family. I haven’t moved often in my life, so it’s not a comfortable thought, but it seems like a good time. While I’ve been away from the blog (those of you who have noticed), I lost my mom in 2022 and my dad in 2023, so the ties that bind are shifting.

My daughter caught me crying the day before I left while I held my grandson.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Just missing him already,” I replied, trying not to let my tears drop on his little head.

“I know,” she said, starting to cry herself. “And he doesn’t even talk yet.”

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!

Where the Crawdads Sing

I finally got around to reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. It was after I’d seen the movie which isn’t the way I prefer to do it. But after that rather surprise ending–in the movie anyhow–I had to see if it was as surprising in the book.

First off, the writing in Crawdads is beautiful. It’s a lovely book to read. My comparison with the movie would be that we get a whole lot more of the growing up life of our main character Kya. Ah, yes, to be expected. And exactly why books have so much more to offer than their movie versions. I loved the writing and learning about the marshland and another way of life, a culture and a geography so different than my own.

The book definitely held my interest all the way through. I was sorry I’d seen the movie first, because you know what? I think I might have been less surprised by the twist at the end of the book, but now I will never really know for sure. When I finished the movie I wondered if the book might have a different ending because sometimes, you know, book endings and movie endings are actually different. And yes, they do have the same ending, but I think I might have seen it coming more in the book…

Those of you who read the book first or only read the book, what do you think? Was the ending a big surprise, or not so much? Tell me what you think in the comments below. Thanks!

I Have Not, In Fact, Fallen Off the Face of the Earth

The situation is that I went back to teaching full time. I know, “no excuse” say those of you who blog, write book series, and have always taught full time. I simply state my own reason for failing to post.

So I’m checking in to let old friends or new Seed Savers readers know that I am still living and I do still appreciate all of you. My books are still selling and I’m here if anyone wants to be in touch.

I haven’t been “writing” much in the authorish sense of the word. Instead, I’ve been writing lesson plans, student learning goals, professional goals (teacherly), bathroom passes, comments on student papers. Sigh. Also, notes to my husband about which leftovers he should eat for lunch, what he can do to help around the house, etc. You get the idea.

Though I have been wanting lately to write the screenplay for my books to be a streaming series. It’s just a matter of time…

I turned 60 last year, and I find that at the end of a long day teaching, I’m not good for much more than fixing dinner, playing solitaire while watching Jeopardy (I call it multitasking) and then vegging in front of the tv before turning in.

But I do miss it. My son is a writer, and when he tells me about his writing, I miss writing. And when I see that my Facebook, Instagram, and blog look abandoned, I feel bad for anyone who might have just discovered the exploits of Clare, Lily, Arturo, and Ana and may be checking me out only to find out I haven’t posted in 221 days or whatever it is.

So here I am. Letting you know I’m still here. A little older and more tired, but still here. Still gardening. Still canning my fruits and veggies. Still a cat in my lap as I type this. I can’t promise that I’ll follow this up on a regular basis, but I’d like to say I will.

Until next time, I’m still here. I hope you are too.

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!

Mid-Summer Garden

I’m sorry, I thought I’d posted a garden update!

It’s that time of year here in my area, the time when you aren’t yet overwhelmed with the harvest, but you can see it coming. The time where your main task is to water, water, water.

Here’s a little on how my backyard urban garden is doing (in pictures):

My Walla Walla sweet onions that I planted from starts did well in the container, but not as well in other places. The storage onions I started from seeds have not done well. Sigh. I may give up on trying to grow onions from seed.

My basil is wonderful, as always, and I need to make pesto to freeze to take advantage of it. Last year I dried some for the first time ever. For some reason my cilantro isn’t growing well. I think I experimented too much this year on mixing up my own potting soil. Again, I should probably not do that again.

My cabbages all got ripe at the same time and then split! Argh. My sister and I decided to pool ours together and make sauerkraut.

The beans are always a treat. They just keep going and we enjoy them fresh for dinner. These are all bush beans because they are so much quicker than pole beans.

Also I included a mini pumpkin plant that I let grow. It was a “volunteer” and although I didn’t know what it was at the time, it’s looking good and I enjoy using them to decorate. All of the volunteer sunflowers that I replanted along the fence are also doing well and got super tall. I know it’s only a matter of time before they fall over. But since it hasn’t rained, they are still reaching for the sky!

And last but not least, I’m getting a few tomatoes and cucumbers! Just enough of everything to keep it interesting.

How’s your garden growing?

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!

My New Story!

Kindle Vella went live yesterday and with it my new story, Until the Last Star Goes Out. I was away camping!

Since Kindle Vella is brand new, here’s the lowdown: this is a new platform meant especially for people who like to read short bits on their phones and mobile devices. The stories are in episodes and episodes are purchased with tokens.

All of the stories on Kindle Vella can be started for free. They are also giving away free tokens! I think it is 200. You will find that up in the right-hand corner next to the little yellow key symbol. The tokens unlock each episode.

To find stories you might be interested in, you can browse through the Vella store, or put in tags to search. When you follow a story it will appear on your store page under Your Stories. You will be notified when the author publishes a new episode.

At the end of each episode you can give a thumbs up if you enjoyed the read (or if you are trying to support your favorite author :)).

Once a week, if you purchase tokens (or claim your free ones?) you will be given a “fave” to award to a favorite story and that helps the story get noticed.

Ready to get started? Please check out my story and hopefully give it a thumbs up, fave, or tell someone else about it. Thanks!

Find my story here.

In a dying world, three siblings search for a legendary rock believed to hold life-saving powers.

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!

Summer Ramblings

So much to catch up on since my last post!

Last time I wrote I was still feeling the effects of having had Covid. Then I had to finish out the school year. After that I took on two weeks of summer school. All the while, of course, working on the yard and garden, etc.

Well, and wouldn’t you know it. After a year that brought us a pandemic, statewide wildfires that blotted out the sky for days, an ice storm that left us five days without electricity, in June we had an unprecedented heatwave. Even in July or August it would have been unprecedented. Let’s just be clear. I live in a place where 90 degrees is considered hot.

We had three days in a row like this: 105, 113, 117 degrees Fahrenheit. It was unbelievable.

So where is this post going exactly? Check out the title again. Rambling.

Let’s go back to the extreme heat. For 12 years we’ve had a modest 12 foot round swimming pool in the back yard. This year the leak seemed worse so we went about to patch it at the end of May. It did not survive our attempts. Hottest summer ever and we have no pool. I know, poor me. But here’s what I’m getting to: while searching for a replacement liner (did you know there’s a worldwide pool liner shortage…no surprise, right?) I discovered portable, inflatable hot tubs!

I used part of my summer school earnings to get one. Obviously we didn’t heat it up during the extreme heat. It arrived the night before the three day scorch. Yay!

Also, on the first day of the heatwave I actually canned cherries. A limb had broken out at the family farm so I dropped any other plans and went and picked for an hour. Good thing we have a tiny window AC in the kitchen.

I’ve had exactly four days free now since summer school ended and I am working on “catching up.” Adding the hot tub to the backyard has displaced all of my usual potted plants so I’ve been working on digging out all the mint that had overtaken some garden space, as well as the raspberries which had become diseased in order to make room.

I’ve also been trying to get more and more drip irrigation set up. We are on day 24 without rain so we need to keep things alive in the best water conservation way possible.

I also need to get back on social media (groan), take classes to renew my teaching license (sigh), do a video interview for a job application, the list goes on.

That being said, I love summer! And we officially got to stop wearing masks a little over a week ago so that’s been really great.

Oh! I almost forgot. Another new venture I’m taking on is Kindle Vella. I have a new book that will be released by episodes on Kindle Vella which will start next week. I’ll keep you updated on that as I find out more. It’s a new platform so there’s more to discover.

How are all of you? Comments always welcome.

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!

Not Quite So Fast . . . Keep that Covid Mask Handy

One month ago I came down with a really bad cold. I’d gone from a runny nose, presumably spring allergies, to major congestion. It ticked me off. How could I possibly catch ANYTHING with the social distancing, masking, and isolation?

Where I live, virtually everyone was keeping to the rules. In fact, I’ve yet to see anyone in a store without a mask on since about, what, November? Other people tell me they see it more and more, but again, I don’t get out much. However, I work in a school. Mostly I’m alone at a computer, and at recess and gate duty I’m masked and distanced. So again, I was super irritated that some bug had actually gotten through to me.

At least I knew it wasn’t Covid. I’d been vaccinated in Jan/Feb.

It was a Saturday and I felt rotten. I took my temp. It was 99 something. High for me, but not considered, you know, a fever. I had a headache. That night I thought I might have experienced a little hot/cold chills. A couple days later I lost taste and smell. Not a big concern, I told everyone, I have lost these senses before with bad colds/viruses.

I have a schedule that gives me a lot of days off in a row and a lot of days on in a row. I was basically wasting all my non-work days being sick. Because I wasn’t feeling better as I neared my work days, I did the drive-through testing at Walgreens. I called my principal and told him what was up and that I’d decided to take a couple of sick days and wait for my results–just to be sure. I admitted that I was physically wiped out.

By now you’ve guessed the punchline. No one was more surprised than me to see the POSITIVE results. Then began the phone calls, the official quarantine, etc. I started researching “breakthrough” cases. Turns out major congestion, slight tickle in throat, headache and fatigue were pretty much standard. There didn’t need to be a fever or a cough.

Turns out the CDC doesn’t much care to study breakthrough cases unless you die. Mostly you hear how “mild” it is. I guess mild means you didn’t die or be hospitalized. Yes, I get it. I’m grateful I’m alive. But it is annoying to hear that it’s mild when you spend weeks and weeks not having much energy. It’s a month later and I’m still not sure if I can work in the garden one day and not expect to be down the next.

I still can smell/taste very few things. I actually have a cough now, weeks after I am no longer contagious. I’m presuming it’s a cold.

Everyone tells me that it will pass. I’ll feel better. I find it hard to believe.

I feel skeptical every time I hear someone voice their relief: “I’m good. I’m vaccinated.” Yeah, me too.

I went to three stores yesterday, very briefly. Under 10 minutes each time. They all still required masks. Good for them. If you live in a place that isn’t so careful, take my advice: keep the mask on. Wash those hands all the time. 

Do I still believe in the vaccination? Of course. We all know that a percentage will slip through. We also know that we don’t know how long the vaccination will last. Please, remain careful and cautious. Because if this is what mild feels like, you really don’t want to go here.

One last thing. It bothers me a lot that people jump all over anything published about the breakthrough cases, like you are trying to undermine the vaccine. People like me are trying to find things out. Put yourself in my shoes, please. I want to hear about the experiences of others who have gotten the vaccination and then gotten Covid. I want to know what to expect if at all possible. And don’t you want to know if in three months time your vaccine “expires”? 

Okay. That’s all. This isn’t usually what I post about, but my readers deserve to know where I’ve been for the last month.

I’ve been here. On my couch.

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!

Earth Day Half-Price Sale

Better late than never (better never late) my 8th grade teacher used to say.

This post ideally should have gone up a week ago, but if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you already know that the Seed Savers ebooks have been discounted all week in honor of Earth Day. Regularly $5.99 each, you can pick them up now for $2.99! What a great time to finish the series if you’ve only just read the beginning.

Find your favorite ebook retailer here.

Happy Earth Day!

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!