Vicki Lane's Blog, page 529

Flowers with Box Turtle

Do you know how to determine the sex of an Eastern  box turtle? (Sounds like a gotcha question or the lead-in to a joke, doesn't it?)
There are several indicators (see this link ) but the easiest is eye color -- red or orange for the gents and brown for the ladies.
Now to decide which color we have here . . .

Lilies of the Field

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 
(Matthew 6:26)

In June wild day lilies line the road and creek sides -- free for all to enjoy.
I'm pretty sure that this floral exuberance is one of the reasons I fell in love with the North Carolina mountains back in 1973.

The Calfie -- with, I hope, Pictures

A few days ago Claui heard a great commotion -- a very young calf bawling in distress -- up in the woods near the barn and she went to see what was up. There was a calfie semi-trapped under some limbs and a gray creature of some sort (maybe a coyote -- Claui didn't get a good look) was on it. The mystery beast ran off at once and Claui carried the baby down to the milk barn and called John. When John tried to reunite baby and mother, the mother would have none of it. So Claui and Justin have a calfie to raise.
Luckily, there's plenty of milk. . .
There were bite wounds on the little girl's hind legs but they've been treated and are healing. And she took to the bottle right away.
For the time being, she has a stall to herself so they can keep an eye on her wounds and keep her safe. Ali Ali would like to be friends but after her experience, the baby is wary of his type. 
She likes people just fine though-- this lucky unlucky calfie.

A Lucky Unlucky Calfie

[image error] A few days ago Claui heard a great commotion -- a very young calf bawling in distress -- up in the woods near the barn and she went to see what was up.   There was a calfie semi-trapped under some limbs and a gray creature of some sort (maybe a coyote -- Claui didn't get a good look) was on it.
The mystery beast ran off at once and Claui carried the baby down to the milk barn and called John. When John tried to reunite baby and mother, the mother would have none of it. So Claui and Justin have a calfie to raise.
Luckily, there's plenty of milk.  . . [image error]  There were bite wounds on the little girl's hind legs  but they've been treated and are healing.  And she took to the bottle right away. [image error] For the time being, she has a stall to herself so they can keep an eye on her wounds and keep her safe.
[image error] Ali Ali would like to be friends but after her experience, the baby is wary of his type. She likes people just fine though-- this lucky unlucky calfie. [image error]  

Breaking News!

Herself, my redoubtable editor, has emailed to say that  the team at Bantam Dell will be publishing Under the Skin as a trade paperback, * rather than a mass-market original,*        * and that it will be out October 18 -- a week earlier than the date they'd set previously!

Well.  I'm pretty thrilled by this, for several reasons. As I think I've mentioned before, it was never up to me in what format my books would be released.  I was perfectly thrilled to be published by a big New York publisher  and, I reasoned, the mass market paperback was cheap enough that perhaps more folks would take a chance on an unknown writer. 
But as time went on, and I begin to hear readers complaining about the small size of the print in my books and, as I learned that many of the top reviewers simply exclude mass market paperbacks from consideration, I began to feel a tad wistful.
I'm seeing this as a step up -- and a token of Herself''s confidence in me. I hope that those of you who read my books won't be deterred by the price hike. Plenty of time to begin saving those extra pennies.
The change hasn't shown up on Amazon yet. I don't know what the price will be -- nor what they'll do about those dear souls who've pre-ordered the cheaper version.

AND, it'll be out a week earlier. Good news after this very, very long wait for Elizabeth to find out about that peculiar message on the answering machine. . .

* Trade Paperback: A trade paperback book is a product between a mass market paperback and hardback. It uses the better quality paper of hardback, but the soft cover of mass market. The size is usually 6" x 9". Nowadays, these are priced around $15.


* Mass market: Literally, it means books of wide appeal that are directed toward a large, national audience. By application, it's the size and construction of a book which is generally 6-3/4" x 4-1/4" and contains pulp paper in a perfect binding. Mass market Original or  Paperback Original simply means that the book was not first published in Trade or Hardcover. Price about $8.  

From Sunrise to Supper on a Hot June Day

You know you're in for a hot one when the sunrise looks like this. . .
Asiatic lily Time to retire those shoes. . . Day Lily Promising clouds -- empty promises, alas!
John made deep dish pizza -- baked on the grill. . . A very nice way to end a hot June day!

Two Little Girls

I came across this picture of my mother, taken in the early Twenties.  The fancy basket makes me think she could be dressed for a May Day celebration or perhaps she's going to be the flower girl in a wedding. 
There are quite a few pictures of her in similar get ups -- the high socks, the short frock, and the exuberant bow. It must have been a fairly common look at that time.
The Oz books were of that time and Dorothy wears a similar outfit.

I grew up reading the Oz books --  borrowing them from friends, the school library, and finally, getting my own -- which I still have.  Ozma of Oz is  probably my favorite of them all -- the sea voyage, Billina the talking hen (with her wonderful common sense,) the trees that grow lunch pails, and the exquisite (though not very nice) Princess Langwidere (languid dear) with her wardrobe of exchangeable heads.
The books are, in my opinion, far better than the famous movie which has always seemed just plain silly to me. (Except for the Witch and her Flying Monkeys!)
Time for some re-reads!

Japanese Irises

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Door to Another World

I always think of books as doors into other worlds -- another time, another place, another person's experience. If the book is well written, I'll expect to absorb the details of that other world, to assimilate them into my own experience.

So I'm sometimes reluctant to begin a book that will drop me into a place I know I wouldn't want to be -- present day Afghanistan, for instance, or Wall Street, or Nazi Germany. So much more pleasant to read about nice people in a charming village in the Cotswolds.

Occasionally though, usually after hearing enough recommendations, I'll brave up. And usually I'm rewarded. For example,I'm glad to have read Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities and Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. My fund of experience has been deepened -- and all without the bother and danger of travel to unfriendly places.

My recent visit to Nazi Germany was equally rewarding.

This beautifully imagined tale, fittingly narrated by a compassionate and poetic Death, centers around a young German girl and her foster family  -- and their decision to hide a Jew.  It's a beautiful story of how strangers become a family, how the the most ordinary of people can rise to heroism, and how the written word can change lives.
I'm glad I went through the door.

Signs of the Season

Outbreaks of cows. . . Hydrangeas beginning to blue. . . Pears swelling. . . First cutting of hay. . .   Pensive Turkey Vulture. . . New set tobacco. . . Wild daisies. . .