Suzette Haden Elgin's Blog, page 11

Poem; "Mindstorm"; final draft...

Mindstorm

Inside my mind,
thunderstorms
-- all of them --
are tightly linked
to my son's death.

Inside my mind,
the lightning strikes me.
Inside my mind,
the thunder
rolls over me.
Inside my mind
the storms bind me.

Michael died in a weathertime
of storm after storm after storm.
Day after day, night after night,
the thunderstorms never let up.

And then the first morning of the auction
to sell his tools and his machines,
there was a ferocious fierce storm. Again.
But the auction went right on,
right through th...

Poem; "Mindstorm"; seventh draft...

Mindstorm

Inside my mind,
thunderstorms
-- all of them --
are tightly linked
to my son's death.

Inside my mind,
the lightning strikes me.
Inside my mind,
the thunder
rolls over me.

Michael died in a weathertime
of storm after storm after storm.
Day after day, night after night,
the thunderstorms never let up.
And then the first morning of the auction
to sell his tools and his machines,
there was a ferocious fierce storm. Again.
But the auction went right on,
right through that storm,
as if it didn't matter a...

Poem; "Mindstorm"; fourth draft...

Mindstorm

Inside my mind,
thunderstorms
-- all of them --
are tightly linked
to my son's death.

He died in a weathertime
of storm after storm after storm.
Day after day, night after night,
the thunderstorms never let up.

And then the first morning of the auction
to sell his tools and his machines,
there was a ferocious fierce storm. Again.
But the auction went right on,
right through that storm,
as if it didn't matter at all.
I can still see and still hear that storm
that started off the auction
of my son's...

Writing science fiction; description trouble...

I'm having a hard time writing the parts of this new novel that describe the settings and the characters. Which is very strange -- because I can, with my mind's eye, see all of those settings and characters in vivid detail. That should mean, logically, that all I have to do is write down what I see, right? But I'm having endless trouble doing that in a way that would be interesting to readers. I keep writing descriptive sentences [and paragraphs:] that sound like specifications from technical ...

Personal note; status update...

I know I haven't been posting here, and I'm sorry about that. Between writing the novel and writing the March/April newsletter, I'm having a hard time getting anything else done. Plus, our weather just won't let up on us here. It keeps snowing and sleeting and freezing-raining.... and they're predicting another winter storm for us for Monday, with a foot of snow expected, followed by yet another one on Wednesday. And no sunshine predicted as far as the eye can see; just gloom and gloom and mo...

Personal note; status report...

The Weather

Well, here we are, and we are blessed; there was no power outage here. Poor Oklahoma really got it, and we're worried about our friends there; northwest Arkansas lucked out. It's been so cold here that Thursday morning's sleet and freezing rain quickly turned into nonstop snow, and it was the fluffy non-sticking kind that doesn't pile up on the power lines. We're totally snowed in -- and George is determined to go out and put the blade on the tractor and do something about that. I ...

Recipe; The Perfect Dessert...

The Perfect Dessert


Ingredients

1 can Del Monte Pineapple Tidbits [just pineapple and pineapple juice; no sugar, no chemicals:]
1/2 cup Myers's Dark Rum


Instructions

1. Dump the can of pineapple tidbits, with all its juice, into a small container with a lid.

2. Add the 1/2 cup of Myers's Dark Rum.

3. Stir. Be sure that the marinade of pineapple juice and rum is covering all the pineapple.

4. Put the lid on the container and marinate at least 12 hours.

========
That's it -- and you cannot imagine how go...

Personal note; weather update...

The news is not good. The winter storm was supposed to be only one day, but now they're saying it will go on through the whole weekend and will "deal a devastating blow to the power grid" -- we're in for widespread power outages, maybe for several days or more. This means George has to spend much of today down at the mobile home doing things to the drains.

Last year's ice storm came along at just this same time; we're all praying that this year's won't be as severe.

Personal note; good news and not-so-good news...

They are predicting a "major winter storm" for us here, with freezing rain starting after midnight Wednesday night, and then sleet, freezing rain, and snow Thursday and Thursday night. Maybe 7 inches of snow; maybe an inch of ice. They've been waffling for days -- in the "scientific forecaster discussion" -- about whether it was really going to happen; now they're sure it's going to happen. Miserere. Bah humbug.

We're all set for this one, even if it turns out to be major enough to mean power...

Recommended link; "The Obama Record"...

If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend going to http://www.andrewtobias.com and reading Robert P. Watson's detailed list of what President Obama has accomplished over the past year, posted there.