This is one of my occasional participations in David Abrams’ Sunday Sentence project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”
“Women who love us, he thought, do things for us in ways they think we’ll love.”
Source: Subtle Bodies by Norman Rush
The trees in the photo above are on the south side of the lake, on the opposite shore from where my little cabin stands. It’s tempting to say that the beavers only want all of the trees on the cabin side of the lake, but that’s not true. The cabin-side oaks are younger, which perhaps is more appealing to the beavers since they require less work to bring down. But then they have to take all of their harvest across the lake to their lodge. In any case, here is evidence that they’re not discriminating in their deforestation plans.
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I pre-recorded an interview for episode 324 of the Charlotte Readers Podcast about One-Match Fire. My portion begins around the 5:50 minute time. They had sent me questions, and I read my responses into their recording line, then I read a small selection from the novel’s prologue. The difference in the audio tone suggests I need to get a more professional microphone than what my earbuds have.
They say that no one likes the sound of their own recorded voice. I’m not going to disagree with that.
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One-Match Fire was also reviewed at Lori’s Book Loft. Go to the January 26, 2023, entry if you care to read what she had to say about it.
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I have a couple more podcast interviews recorded and several more in the works. I had no idea the extent of the hustle that being a novelist required. This is the “author” part of being a “writer.’
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Books read in January:
Somehow I got a lot of reading done last month.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout – Finishing this book took up half of the month. I didn’t like the way it was presented. It was mostly short anecdotes — sometimes no more than a sentence or two long — that made it hard to find a continuous narrative to follow and bring me back. Nor could I make sense of the breaks between the clips. Some were just a few lines apart. Others had symbols between them, and the symbols varied. If they signified something, it escaped me. The story was mostly about Strout’s character Lucy Barton sequestering herself with her ex-husband in Maine during the early days of the Covid pandemic. Honestly, it felt to me as though Strout had a bunch of leftover notes that hadn’t made it into any of her other novels, and she just dumped them into here.
After Elias by Eddy Bouel Tan – A find from browsing the shelves at my local library. This was a good read. It follow a man in the days before and after his intended wedding (with some flashbacks) to a man who was a commercial airline pilot. Much of the plot centers around the pilot’s last words just before the plane crashes in the Arctic Ocean. Did he crash the plane deliberately, or did his words have some other meaning?
Three O’Clock in the Morning by Gianrico Carofiglio – A novel by one of Italy’s most famous authors, this one perplexed me. The plot, such as it is, involves a father and his college-age son wandering the tough streets and establishments of Marseille in an effort to keep the boy awake for 48 continuous hours as a treatment (?) for his epilepsy (or perhaps to confirm he is “cured” of it). Their conversations range from family to poetry to math to sex to gambling to philosophy and literature. It felt like the author wanted to visit these topics and needed plot contrivance to do so. The title comes from a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Rouse Up. O Young Men of the New Age by Kenzaburo Oe – The author is one of Japan’s Nobel laureates. This is a big, ambitious novel, centering around the protagonist’s relationship with his mentally handicapped son who happens to be a musical savant. This is a thinly disguised account of the life of Oe who also has a handicapped son who is a musical savant. The title comes from a poem by William Blake.
Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill – This one did not work for me. It is an account of a marriage, told by the wife, but much like the Strout novel above, it is told in snippets, many of which don’t contribute to the plot so much as give the mental state of the narrator. I believe that Offill is highly regarded, but I don’t see myself taking up another of her novels if it will be as disjointed as this was.
Patrimony by Philip Roth – Taken from my own shelves, this is a nonfiction account of Roth dealing with his father’s late-in-life battle with brain cancer. It is unsparing, and the portraits Roth gives are rich and satisfying — the word “obdurate” comes up more than once in describing his father. I re-read this to glean insights about the relationship between fathers and sons since I’m working on a sequel to One-Match Fire.
Odd Ducks by Patricia Lawson – A collection of short stories (and one novella), which I don’t normally read, set in and around Kansas City. This won a regional award, and I was intrigued. The characters are odd ducks, on the fringe of societal acceptance, muddling along as well as they can. Well written.
This is one of my occasional participations in David Abrams’ Sunday Sentence project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”
“Be spontaneous” is the most paradoxical and impracticable of injunctions, whether coming from other people, or ourselves.
Source: Three O’Clock in the Morning by Gianrico Carofiglio
Miles in the name I’ve given my treadmill. We’ve been in a relationship for nearly two years. Miles waits in my basement for my semi-regular visits, and together we pound out some distance. I mostly do brisk walking on my treadmill, which I’ve heard is the most ideal form of exercise, though in those two years, as I rebuilt the strength and stamina of my running days, I did occasionally speed up to a trot at the end of my sessions. My time with Miles has been a great opportunity to listen to podcasts, and now I wonder if I could endure the time without them. In any case, I could see the benefit my four or five times a week on the machine was having. Hiking the hills at my cabin was effortless, and even climbing the stairs at the end of the day was done without a thought.
I lost some ground in my fitness, however, when I visited Seattle for Thanksgiving. I may have mentioned that the room I stayed in at my son’s house had a treadmill (and a piano) in it, and I even used it once. But then I caught the respiratory bug that was going around, and despite having the chance to see many of my grands, I spent two whole days there sleeping. When I got home, I fought the bug and got medicine to treat it, but since it affected my lungs, I stayed away from Miles. In late December, when I was over the visible symptoms of the bug, I tried getting on Miles again, but I could only go about fifteen minutes before my lungs felt like they were on fire. So I backed off again and waited a couple more weeks.
I am now tentatively back to my regular sessions on the treadmill, though the time I spend there is reduced as I rebuild to the fitness I had in November before Seattle. (This has resulted in me looking for new, shorter podcasts to listen to.) It’s happening; I can feel the difference when I climb the stairs and such, and this kind of tangible evidence keeps me motivated.
However, if you follow me on social media, you’ll know that I fell off of my treadmill last week. This has never happened before and it only happened this time because I was careless. The shorts I wear when I’m with Miles have pockets, which I don’t normally like in running shorts since I don’t want to carry an ounce of extra weight, and I certainly don’t want it bouncing against my legs with each stride. But I can put my phone in one of the pockets, still within range of the Bluetooth so my podcast is not interrupted, and it will record my footsteps so I have another tangible bit of evidence. Unfortunately, these shorts are a size too big for me. As I walk, they tend to slip down from my waist, and I have to tug them up. One solution has been to tuck my shirt into the shorts. This fabric-on-fabric connection seems to keep the shorts from sliding down (much). The problem is that I don’t usually remember to do this until I am already underway. This was the case on the day I fell off. I made the mistake of trying to tuck in my shirt as I was walking (and listening to the podcast). This was enuf distraction to let me drift farther down the belt, and suddenly I realized I was about to go off the back of it. Keep in mind this was brisk walking, not running, so the speed was not great, but even so, it happened fast enuf that I couldn’t trot farther up the belt in time. My feet went off the back of the belt and the rest of me went off the side.
From what I can tell, I hit the frame of the treadmill with my ribs on the right side. My forearm also rubbed against the moving belt, and though no skin was broken or blood drawn, it burned for the rest of the day. I knelt on the floor for a minute, running a system diagnostic, and realized that nothing was broken or even hurt that badly. So I got back on and finished my session.
It was only later in the day that I began to feel the pain in my ribs, but then it hurt with every breath and most movement. This lasted for about three days. I have been back with Miles twice since then, and the pain in my ribs has mostly subsided. I’m going to return to Miles tomorrow (today is a rest day) and continue to work on rebuilding, but I’ll be certain to tuck in my shirt before I step on.
Pretty classy image above, isn’t it? On my trip to the cabin last week — when the late December temperatures exceeded 70 degrees! — I found more hard work by the beavers. I’m not sure why they favor the trees on the cabin side of the lake. Whatever they harvest there they have to swim across the lake to put in their dens for winter. There’s a forest on the other side of the lake too. But try talking sense to a beaver!
Anyway, I’m resigned that there is nothing I can do about this matter (short of eradicating the beavers, which I could never bring myself to do). So I’m going to see most of the trees below the cabin taken down in the months ahead. (Actually, I can see this as an opportunity. I always dreamed of my cabin being in a pine forest, and if the clear cutting continues, I’ll be able to plant short-leaf pines around the cabin that will get sunlight. I’ve read that beavers don’t favor pine trees, likely because of the oily sap in them. They’ve left most of the cedars alone. I guy can dream!)
However, there are some tall trees very close to the cabin that I would hate to see brought down by the beavers if it meant they would fall on the cabin. So on our visit, my wife and I wrapped many of these near-cabin trees in chicken wire, as you see above. It’s not the most elegant solution, but if it keeps the cabin from getting damaged, I can live with it.
We had stopped in town on our way to the cabin to get a roll of chicken wire, and I faced immediate sticker shock. I bought the smallest roll I thought would work, and it managed to protect six trees. Then I remembered that I had a pile of this fencing up by the pine plantation. I had originally used it to protect some newer pines I had planted there but they died. It has been sitting there for several years, collecting leaves and having scrub grow up into it. But our work was not done, so we went up there and yanked the rusty, twisted bundles of chicken wire free then took them back to the cabin. After wrestling the messy mass into useable shape, we were able to cover another half dozen trees. (I probably need a tetanus booster, though.)
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So far, I’ve recorded One-Match Fire interviews for three podcasts (with a couple more in the works). They will air in 2023, and I’ll post links when I have them. One podcast I have not (yet) been invited to is otherppl. However, I was listening to episode 800 on my drive back from the cabin, and it turns out I did make an appearance!
I had written to the host, Brad Listi, asking him a question about some discussion he had with his guest in an earlier episode. It was about a sensitive subject, and I didn’t understand what appeared to be a callous attitude to it. But on episode 800 (about ten minutes in) he read my email and then clarified what had been said.
It was weird to hear my email being read on such a high profile podcast. I nearly pulled over to the side of the highway to understand what had just happened. I doubt I’ll be a guest on this podcast anytime soon, but it is a little gratifying as it played out.
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The hope that all of my offspring would come to town for the holidays didn’t get realized. The local-ish family (30 miles down the road) had a Covid party for much of that time. The Seattle son didn’t seem to take my hint to visit his mother, though he has a houseful of his own to give care and attention to. And the New York gang cancelled a short while before because it is always difficult to travel with children, especially at the holidays. And maybe just as well given the disruption to the air travel system that ensued.
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And . . . speaking of grands, there’s another one on the way! My daughter in New York is expecting a girl in April. They’re keeping mum on the name, but I’ll let you know when I know.
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Books read in December 2022:
Before You Go by Tommy Butler – I’m not sure what to say about this one. I picked it up at the used book store to have something to read on the plane to and from Seattle, and then didn’t open it until I was home. I don’t know where this book was going, whether it was a fantasy or magical realism or something else. The fact that the author is a screenwriter probably affected how the plot was developed.
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham – Another book I got for the flight that I didn’t read until I got home. I like Cunningham’s fiction, and this one did not disappoint (though I had a rough start). It’s actually three different novellas with the same characters and some props, but they’re set in vastly different times. It was a worthwhile read, but I had to earn it, which I don’t mind.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon – About a civilization of merpeople (though I don’t think they’re called that once in the story). These people are the descendants of pregnant enslaved women who were thrown overboard in the Middle Passage of slaving times. It’s an interesting premise, but I’m not sure it was developed well. This is one of those novel that would probably be stronger as a short story. It’s based on a song.
This week’s quote is from the chapter “Twice Blest,” and a good bit of this chapter draws inspiration from the Quality of Mercy speech in The Merchant of Venice.
Sometimes people need a jolt to learn who they are, and who they aren’t.
I came back from my trip to Seattle with whatever respiratory bug is going around. (Apparently mine is bacterial rather than viral.) I’ve been home for two weeks since and I’d say I’m about ninety percent better now. (Thanks to antibiotics and various OTC cold remedies.) I still have a lingering, unproductive cough, but I’m able to string mostly coherent thoughts together, so that’s a win.
I tried to get back on my treadmill the other day — after about two weeks away and a round of antibiotics to kill this bug — but I could only do about 15 minutes before my lungs were on fire and I had to stop. It’s going to be a slow road back to the gains I had last fall, but I’m confident I will get there.
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I don’t know how these things work, but there may be some problem with people leaving reviews and ratings for One-Match Fire on Amazon. (And I fully realize that this may be because no one cares to leave a review or rating.)
But I wonder if any of you have run into this problem. Have you tried to leave an Amazon review or rating that wouldn’t post? I guess it depends on whether or not you bought the book through Amazon to start with, but if you have, did you hit any blocks?
I’m just curious.
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We may have a full house of offspring gathered here at the holidays. There are still some tentative confirmations, and the respiratory bug may keep some at home, but the signs are looking good.
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It’s generally not wise to talk about works in progress while they’re in progress, but I’ve been doing some really good writing in the last two months. It’s all first draft stuff, and it’s going to need a lot of muscle and coarse language to get it in decent shape, but I feel that I have about 95 percent of something, which is a great feeling since just about all of my creative spirit lately seems to be given over to hustling One-Match Fire into some kind of life.
Regarding that hustle, I’ve recorded two podcast interviews that will come online next year, and I have another interview scheduled later this month with a pretty high profile podcast. And there are some people who told me to get back with them in the new year. I think it’s time to begin plugging the novel as a Father’s Day episode feature.
Though there isn’t much there yet, I have a list of my News & Events over on my webpage.
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And speaking of Roundrock, the area has gotten more than an inch and a half of rain in the last three days. I had intended to make a dash down there yesterday since it looked to be the last of the warmish days on the calendar for a while, but home issues intruded. The lake was low the last time I saw it, so this latest rain will help recharge it. I think the beavers are just fine in their underground lodges, but I always like to have as deep a pool of water as I can near the (human) dam so the fish can overwinter better.
An especially lovely quote from One-Match Fire this week. And it’s no coincidence that it’s rainbow colored, given the chapter it’s from.
My editor had requested this specific quote. (She also told me I should write an entire novel about the Kathy character, but I don’t think I have the insight for that.) My son thinks I need a Social Media Manager, specifically to help me with things like hashtags. He’s right about that.
I posted this to social media on Monday but somehow didn’t get around to putting it here until today.
So, two bits of happy news shone through the cold-induced fog of my weekend, both about One-Match Fire.
First, the publisher released some preliminary sales figures for the months of September, October, and November. This included all of their works, not just mine. And it was qualified as not including sales from smaller ancillary vendors, so it wasn’t a complete picture. Add to that the fact that OMF has only been alive for half of that period. And since I have no idea what is considered a good sales figure for a no-name debut novel, I can’t say whether my numbers are good or sad. But I will say that One-Match Fire has sold in the triple digits. Most interesting is that a number of those sales were overseas. I don’t know how to account for that. Five were sold in Poland; five in Germany, one each in Australia, Canada, and Singapore.
I had been reluctant about courting review sites and podcasts outside of the U.S. and Canada, thinking I didn’t have anything suited for foreign markets, but this makes me think otherwise and opens some new possibilities.
The second bit of happy news was discovering that my novel is on order by my local library system, Johnson County Public Library, and the neighboring Olathe Public Library. I had been grousing a little about how they seemed to not support local authors, but in the back of my mind I knew these things took time. (I had the novel of a friend added to the JoCo Library a few years ago, and it seemed to take months.)
Lucky Rabbit's Foot 