Evolutionary Plume

Leipzig, Germany and Die Feen at the Oper

We were slugs. We woke up slow and by the time we were dressed, we were hungry so on the advice of the staff at the Radisson Blu, we sought out Meredo near Nikolai Kirche.

We bypassed Nicholas Strasse because for once the area wasn't mobbed since all the stores were closed so we backtracked and I wanted to see a building so we came in by the side to where a man was playing songs from Fiddler on the Roof on an accordian. Turns out he played right beside the restaurant Meredo where we planned to eat, so were serenaded throughout ourmeal.

After lunch we ducked into the Nicholas Kirke to see the beautiful decor and as we left we spotted a display of pictures from the 1989 uprising that started in Leipzig and spread to the rest of Eastern Germany during the fall of the USSR, very sad.

Then we continued on the the Hauptbahnhof to get Bob some limes and while we were there, we found the reservation center open and so made reservations on the ICE trains for several portions of our trip.

Then since it was nearing our early ticket time and I needed to get ready, we returned to the hotel and just relaxed.

Die Feen  by Richard Wagner turned out to be a wonderful opera. We bought a brochure telling the story. During the first break, we ran into Mary, our friendly Englishwoman who we'd met the day before, during the second break we played around taking photographs. Afterwards, we went to our room and crashed because we were moving on to Dresden, Germany the next day.

Lutherstadt-Wittenburg with Side Trip to Worlitz Park May 23, 2014

Bob had read about Worlitz Park being a birding hot spot and oldest garden in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage site so we wanted to go. We got up, dressed and showered and went for breakfast.

Afterwards, we hired a taxi that the hotel clerk called for us and we met it outside Luther's House next door (entry to the Best Western is a bit difficult) since there's no driving on the main street (although the rescue vehicle's can enter by lowering a post in the middle of the road, which is cool).

The drive to the park was spent discussing with our taxi driver whether he could move to the United States. I told him to look at the jobs pages for each of the states and check his qualifications and apply since he'd need a green card and that's easier done if he is hired somewhere, but Bob explained it isn't that easy to get a green card. The young man explained he had experience with electrician, mechanical and computer skills but not much about his education which I told him was in demand but Bob warned him most electrician jobs required an apprenticeship. He was working three jobs, his last position paid him 7 Euros and he wanted to know about the associated earnings in the US which we said varied, $40 an hour for electricians, $50-100,000 for computer specialists. We had a friend who had a PhD in Engineering who had moved to the US and continued to pay his German Social Security taxes because he wanted to return and retire in Germany. When we were let off, we arranged to have a taxi return to pick us up at the same spot at 5 pm.

Worlitz Park turned out to be a wonderful experience. It involved a long walk (with bathrooms located at three points inside the 700 sq. hectare property, over a large number of canals.

Many lakes were connected by the canals. The trees were a mix of deciduous and evergreen of many species, the walkways lined with wild roses, or grasslands mixed with wild flowers and even at one point a farm field of some cereal, a very bluish sort of wheat or barley, maybe.

 

On the property are a Castle House, a Castle, several houses, a building like an observatory with statues inside, many statues, and lots of decorative bridges.

We birded through the property finding many fun new birds. The Cuckoo enticed us on one side of a treed area where we couldn't find him until he flew over to the other side. His call is quite deep and resonant.

 

Later, I loved catching sight of the Great Crested Grebe found in the furthest part on the left side of the park (from the entry) in the lake. Their crests are raised and lowered and quite decorative. We searched through Scandanavia and England for these and it was fun to finally see them.

We had about an hour upon our return to town and we decided on drinks instead of touring the castle. We found our meeting point then walked a short way to the Landhouse Worlitzer hotel where we had Radeburger beer and a eis, apple strudel with hazelnut ice cream and vanilla cream.

The waiter had halting English better than our awful German and we learned the word for fork, gabel or kunchgable which is a dessert fork. Eventually, we were so humorous a man at the next table said why don't you speak English since I can speak both languages. He shared he was on vacation from Hannover and they were to take a dinner cruise through the park that night. He was surprised that with my family background I hadn't learned German and when I thought about it it was because German wasn't taught in our high school, we only had a French and Spanish teacher and though I wanted to learn Spanish, it was full so I took French.

We returned to the hotel and had dinner and another dessert and headed to bed.

Birds: Starling, Mallard, Wood Duck, House Sparrow, Common Blackbird, Great Tit, Willow Tit, Mute Swan, Hooded Crow, Pied Flycatcher, *Common Cuckoo, Blackheaded Gull, Rock Dove, Common Woodpigeon, *?Red Kite, Barn Swallow, *Mistle Thrush, Tree Sparrow, *Great Crested Grebe, Chaffinch, Green Finch

Travel from Lutherstadt-Wittenberg to Leipzig, Germany, May 24, 2014

The starting event for the day was getting to the train station, riding the crowded train to Leipzig, Germany and then to our hotel. Easy to do just eat breakfast, pack up, take a taxi each way. The main highlight of the trip was seeing both windmills and solar panel parks, Germany is going strong with alternative energy sources.

In Leipzig, we realized our train stop because it is quite noticeably a big city with lots of interesting architecture, I missed the best picture of some storage containers that I hope to get on the way out of town. I took horrid pictures with my phone during the trip but hopefully picking up some of the local companies. Bob had a brilliant guess that one of the crops we've been seeing is beets.

At the hotel, we were told we must wait for our room but they'd check our bags. When we finally return to our hotel, our room key's are waiting for us and we're set to go up, very quick helpful service.

Our first taste of Leipzig involved a walk through downtown central which is closed to traffic to get to Thomas Kirke where they held a Bach motet.

 

 

The service involved a talk by Professor Andreas Schule, a selection from Mendelssohn on the organ, Jesu meine Freude by Johann Sebastion Bach sung by the boys choir with alternating straight lyrics and lyrics sung in a round, a lovely piece by Brahms, a piece by Lesung which encouraged the audience to participate every other verse, the talk, and then a concluding piece by Bach played by the orchestra featuring several vocalists and the choir.

The church is quite huge and the music sounded very well acoustically, especially from our position in the balcony. The end of it concluded without applause which surprised me. While we waited for the performance, we ran into a very nice woman who often attended Covent Garden performances and she gave us some local tips and tips for Dresden.

Throughout the main part of Leipzig, we witnessed couples waltzing, a flutist, a guitar player, a group playing, a man talking to the crowd along with the numerous old buildings which we'll see more of tomorrow.

 

The main standout is the old Townhall and we saw the New Townhall on our way to the hotel and it is equally fine in architecture. 

The most beautiful building is the University of Leipzig across the street from our hotel.

 

After we ate our late lunch, we dressed for our ballet. Bob had a fright when he thought we were late but it turned out to be tomorrow's tickets.

The ballet Deca Dance was a world premiere featuring work by choreographer Ohad Naharin and it turned out to be a standout. 

When we arrived, we were able to pick up our tickets for both performances, go upstairs and find our seat with ease in a very lovely building with extremely comfortable seats with plenty of leg room to allow others to get by to their seats. I hope Orlando's new performance hall is as well designed. A dancer was on stage as we sat, pretty much adlibbing to a jazz selection, but as the audience arrived and the performance actually began, it seemed his piece was more choreographed than expected and fit into the next pieces.

Other dancers showed up and began to mimic him exactly or almost exactly. The next piece was a standout featuring unusual lighting to start with and showed the superb training of the Leipzig Ballet. The performance was very crisp, very sharply conveyed. Other selections followed including a duet, trio, quintet, solos, and male and female group pieces and joint pieces. The crowd pleaser was a selection featuring a surprise invitation onto stage. The Leipzigers selected held their own quite well. Mr. Naharin chose very unusual music with striking differences in quality while having movements tie the pieces together nicely.

The German audiences are always so pleased with their entertainment, applauding quite generously.

Berlin May 21, 2014 to Lubbenau and the Friedlander Museum in Lehde

Today we took an adventure, off to Lubbenau by way of the Ostbahnhof, eastern train center. At the Ostbahnhof we located the reservation office and turned on our Eurail pass, finally. We also found a laundry service that was a great deal less pricy than what we were going to pay at our hotel, oops. One of the fun things about travel is discovering how to feel comfortable.

With forty-five minutes until our train time, I talked Bob into coffee at McDonald's then when to O2 to see about getting my phone set up to use the internet while in Germany. The young lady clerk assured me it was really easy, asked for my passport, 10 Euros, had me open up my phone, pulled out the data chip and the Verizon chip and put their's in instead after getting me all set up.

That's when she found it didn't work because the US locks the phones to the service so they are less easily stolen. I guess to make it work, I should have contacted Verizon before I left, but I still have service; it's just listed as being under roaming charges and who wants to pay them? It would be nice for Verizon and Germany's phone companies to work out a deal.

In the process of finding out internet via my phone this way was a no-go, we missed the train and were forced to wait for the next train.

My solution was to have lunch at Subway. Subway had us select our bread size, bread (for me seeded and toasted, for Bob french bread not, meat (for me Turkey, for Bob, steak). We both said no to cheese, I had extra lettuce and cucumbers, Bob had lettuce, tomato, onion, mayonnaise. Bob said his steak was tough, mine was fine. My drink choice of Coca Cola Light was out, so I tried the tea and it was sweetened (what a waste). The food okay, the restaurant was mostly neat and the help well-trained and helpful.

This time we caught the train and I took some photos of scenery sliding past, lots of construction on the trains and played games.

When we got to Lubbenau, Bob was delighted to find a map (he's crazy about maps) and wrote down how to get to the Friedlander Museum. The road takes you into Lubbenau Center (Centrum) and past a church and along the river.

 

Bob wanted to stop for beer when he spied the mini-golf course--it was in the sun in a grassy field and I really thought it would be nicer by the river so I told him he needed to work for it.

Turns out, I had to, too. He decided we weren't going to take the boat out to Lehde, we were going to walk because the Spreewald was a hot spot of birding. The Spotted Flycatcher was our only lifer, spotted by seeing him land next to a tree trunk like a Wood Pecker. There was even a hole but he sat like a flycatcher, fluttered like a flycatcher and matched the photo and behavior. The rest of the birding was sort of punk, although I can see why the area could be wonderful, with lots of reeds and water and trees, including the dreaded cottonwood in full cotton mode, achoo.

After a really warm hike, we found the picturesque Lehde, and a restaurant, the Frolicher Hecht where Bob and I both had the Krombacher pilsner, nice beer, very drinkable. The waitress didn't speak English so between Bob's halting German and my sign language we managed to find out the word for spoon, luffel and have an order of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce delivered, very yummy, with two spoons.

Then we went to the museum which was a fascinating view of a small town located in a narrow strip of land completed surrounded by river. They make their living from growing horse radish, cucumbers, and by making handicrafts like decorated egg shells and handprinted cloth.

 

Because space was in short supply, everyone lived close together and some families had three generations in one home, even sharing the same bed.

 

The local traditional clothing was on display, as well as examples of how they make the boats (they are like pontoons that they pole through the shallow waters), their tools, gardens, and more. We tried to return to the restaurant to find the boat back, but got lost walking through homes/hotels and ended up back on the road.

The train back to Berlin ran late but we returned here to find our clothing clean, water and apples at the groceries and back saying hi online.

Birds: *Spotted Flycatcher, Mallard, Coot, House Sparrow, European Robin, Great TIt, Rock Dove, Starling, Common Wood Pigeon, Chaffinch, Common Blackbird, Black-headed Gull

Day 8: Laundry, lunch at China Chef, Kingsbrae Gardens, visit to Katy’s Cove, St. Andrews, NB

We woke early, then went to the Laundromat where we did two loads of clothes. Excellent washers and dryers so the whole task took about 1 hour fifteen minutes.

Afterwards, we were parked right across from China Chef restaurant so I talked Bob into Chinese food. Most people here were eating breakfast. We ordered almond fried chicken, barbecue pork, vegetable fried rice, spring rolls, and wonton soup. The soup came with three wontons, cabbage, three pieces of sliced pork and had a lovely peanut flavor.

The barbecue pork was quite tasty, with a huge proportion sliced on a bed of cabbage.

The spring rolls were tasty and filled with pork, but I wanted more vegetables and less meat. It came with a lovely sweet and sour sauce made with orange marmalade. The almond friend chicken had a good beer batter coating that was very crunchy and the gravy served on the side.

After lunch we headed to Kingsbrae Gardens for a 2.5 hour walk through the gardens.

In the Kingsbrae Gardens Sculpture Garden, St. Andrews, NB in Canada

We walked through most gardens including the woodland garden where we partically ran over all the wooden bridges because of our familiarity with the bites of red ants and lots of posted signs.

On the edge of the Woodlands at Kingsbrae Gardens, St. Andrews, NB

On our way back to the room we stopped to check out Katy’s Cove and found it was a nice freshwater swimming hole.

Afterwards, we returned to the room at Tara Manor Inn for a swim (far too cold) and for me to do some work.

Day 6: Golf at Algonquin Golf Club by lunch at Kennedy Inn Shiredown Tavern, St. Andrews, New Brunswick

We had a lovely golf outing at Algonquin Golf Club in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, playing with Dodi and Ann, with cart path only.

View of the Bay of Fundy from the Algonquin Golf Club in St. Andrews, New Brunswick

 

View of the Algonquin Resort from the scenic 17th hole on the Algonquin Golf Course.

This meant lots of walks to and from the cart to the ball. Lovely place with lots of pictures. We skipped the golf course lunch since Bob wanted to try the Harbor Inn. Once there, we were told they were closed until 4pm, so we went on to the Kennedy Inn, found a cute dive of a tavern inside and had a good club sandwich and a reuben for Bob, although the portions of meat were rather scanty. Bob tried Pickeroon’s beer.

I found a cute gift (my usual animal) at 

After lunch we visited the Fundy Discovery Aquarium in its beautiful new building.

Then back to our room at Tara Manor Inn, St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

Day 5: Bar Harbor, ME to St. Andrews by the Sea, New Brunswick, swim, snack at Tim Hortons

Checked out of the Bluenose Inn in Bar Harbor, ME  and headed up the road 128 miles to St. Andrews by the Sea in New Brunswick.

We found a quickie drive off to see Petit Manon National Wildlife Reserve (alas, too close to lunch to take either of the hikes).

We took potluck trying the Bluebird Ranch Restaurant in Machias out. I got to watch Jessie on the Disney channel, pretty silly show. The food average. I had a French dip with fries with the bun kind of soggy, Bob a steak and baked potato and string beans.

We stopped at Middleton to check out the Bad Little Falls

and the Burnham Tavern Museum, maintained by the Daughters of the American Revolution and got a good lecture and tour, finding many cool inventions.

We were stopped at the border for a quick check of our vehicle, then quickly found our hotel, the Tara Manor Inn.

We took a good swim, then got somewhat chilled. Bob was hungry so we got a snack, blt, soup, and donut for bob, soup and donut for me.

Day 4: Mount Desert Oceanarium, Southern part of Acadia National Park, Lunch at Chart Room

We wake leisurely planning to have breakfast at the Looking Glass Restaurant at the Bluenose Inn in Bar Harbor, ME but no one was being seated and all the tables full, the waitresses acting somewhat frenzied.

We skipped it and went to the Mount Desert Island Oceanarium instead. The lectures and walk and demonstrations were very informative and directed more to young people. Afterwards, we again tried downtown to find food, checking out the places where we were told there were often parking places; alas, no go.

Instead, we went on to the Chart Room restaurant in Bar Harbor, ME and had a lovely meal, fish and chip for me, lobster for bob, awesome blueberry pie. After lunch, we took a leisurely drive on the southern part of Mount Desert Island, taking a short walk at Eagle Lake, found the way into Seal Cove, checked out Bass Harbor, found the lighthouse, had a grand time at the natural seawall, and checked out Southwestern Harbor with Northwest Harbor right across the bay.

Day 3: Golf at Kebo Valley Golf Course, Bar Harbor, ME with Lunch

Golf at Kebo Valley Golf Club, Bangor, Maine was a real treat. A couple named Tom and Marilyn joined us for a lovely afternoon.

 

Afterwards, we tried the restaurant (more like a snack shop) at KeboValley Golf Club (see the review) and had a good meal, nice fish and chips and salad and sandwich.

 

Afterwards, we found the grocery store, Hannafords,  and liquor store for supplies.

Maine and Maritime Provinces Trip Day 2: Bangor, ME to Bar Harbor, ME, lunch Mainely Meat, Loop Road, Acadia National Park with Sunset at Cadillac Island, Mount Desert Island

Up fairly early at Bangor, ME, having breakfast at the Best Western White House Inn. Then we set out to find the Cole Land Transportation Museum.

This is a picture of my husband Bob standing before their fleet of trucks (the business was sold just before they built this museum).

The directions were a bit iffy, we saw the place but turned the wrong way. We backtracked it and had a good tour. The grounds were well-kept and nice.

Photograph of the covered bridge on the grounds of the Cole Land Transportation Museum.

Inside, two volunteer veterans, old enough to require wheelchairs, offered useful details about the museum, the Cole family, and the Cole family business.

Afterwards, we drove to Bar Harbor, only 60 miles away and checked in at the Bluenose Inn, Bar Harbor, early check in had been requested in advance.

Sunset view of Bar Harbor.

We were pretty hungry by this time and headed straight downtown to get lunch but quickly decided we’d never find a parking spot (our maid had recommended Geddy’s Tavern). Disappointed, we returned to the hotel and received another suggestion from a manager at the Bluenose Inn. Off we went to Mainely Meat for a pulled pork sandwich, fries, beer, and a cherry vanilla ice cream at Udder Heaven.

It was still light out and the waitress recommended that we go to Cadillac Mountain for a good sunset picture, so we decided to take the loop road at Acadia National Park (since it says it only takes 3.5 hours which is a pretty accurate estimate.

Photograph from one of the many beautiful vistas of rocks on the loop road in Acadia National Park.

We had a nice brief walk at the native plant gardens.

We picture opp’ed our way around the island and up to Cadillac Mountain.

On our return to our room, we decided to make use of the swimming pool for a good hour swim.

City Tour of Guayaquil, Ecuador

We woke fairly late at the Hilton Hotel Colon(Bob was up and dressed by 8:30) and I
did my exercises then dressed. We had a lovely breakfast—one of the best we’ve
had in a long time. The buffet had sandwiches (hot or cold), sushi, fresh
fruit, cereals, a full carver ham, bacon, scrambled eggs, eggs benedict (Bob’s
was cooked med. well, pastries and a made to order omelet bar, fried potatoes,
chips and salsas and I don’t know what else. The staff brought tea and coffee.
There was five kinds of juice and a bottle of water was delivered to my table
upon request.

After breakfast, we questioned the main desk about internet
access since it has a strange route to connect on Bob’s new Microsoft surface,
spotted the swimming pool, and asked for a map and how to get to the Anthropology
Museum safely. The answer was to buy a city tour. So we’re set up for a tour at
1pm. We returned to the room to do a little work—I wrote yesterday’s blog entry
and half of today’s, then logged into my class and answered the last question.
I found I was locked out of my Yahoo account and had forgotten to take my
Facebook password. Usually I can gain access to Facebook via Yahoo. Yahoo
allowed me to change my password then refused to send a verification code to my
gmail account. So now I have no access to most of my family members except via
Bob.

The guide called and told us to come at 12:30, so we went
downstairs but we found no sign of the guide. But our contact with National
Geographic was, so Bob went with her to get the coupons for breakfast for
tomorrow and free drink coupons. The driver showed up, and finally our guide
arrived. He lives near the airport and he told us with elections coming to
Ecuador in March, the President was in town. Guayaquil is the largest
population center and tends to not like the President as much, most of the town
is working class and has the bulk of the money. The town has had the same mayor
for the past three years. Apparently they passed a law changing it so that the
mayor could only serve for two terms and our guide intimated that they might
change it so the president could serve more than two terms, or maybe he was
just voicing everyone’s worry.

Our tour took us down to the Carreo Passeo Mirador. It’s a
guarded overlook complete with a play area, some flowers and a view of downtown
Guayaquil. It was overcast, so we could only see the closest buildings of the
old down town. The town has grown quite substantially, with a newer downtown
with larger skyscrapers. It was a bit reminiscent of Panama City, except for
the eerie start of downtown Panama City where 
you cross through salt flats seeing the buildings appear here and there.
Guayaquil is less developed in modern style.

Our next stop took us through town, past an old 1600 church,
along the two cross streets-Simon Bolivar Boulevard and Octubre 9^th
Boulevard. Octubre 9^th is the anniversary of when Ecuador obtained
their independence from Spain. Then we stopped at the town plaza, walking
through to get a few snapshots of the park and trees including an almond tree.
We went past the historic meeting place of Bolivar and the other general where
they agreed to not fight and go their separate ways. Our next stop was the
Museum of Archaeology and Modern Art, bypassing the Walk with its lush
tropical garden that was under construction.

 

The museum has a fine collection of carved rock and pottery
tracing back to the early roots of man’s appearance in South America, 7,000 ya
based on a find of a couple, man’s head crushed by a rock at the Vital site.

Many of the intact pieces of pottery were whistles with an
animal carving. They’d arranged the finds by local and habitat—monkeys in one
area of dry forest, pelican and crabs at the beach. The way people were
depicted was odd, their heads shaped, sometimes flattened boxlike on all sides,
other times pointed. The people used many piercing and other adornments.

One movie showed their kiln technique for working with shiny
mica based finishes. They placed three trees at 120 degrees and lit a fire at
their intersection. The pot to be kiln dried was set over the top and filled
with ashes. When the ashes melted into a finish, while still warm, dots,
streaks and other designs were rubbed out. They also showed the very precise
style of their circular art, star maps, and water flow maps that were incised
into the pottery. A grater used with soft vegetables was made by placing
pointed chips of rock into a pottery slab or the bottom of a bowl.

The modern art portion of the museum featured three
exhibits, Imaginarium by , a collection of paintings based on five themes of
Indian adjustment.

Learning Curve: Microsoft Surface for Vacation Internet Access

The main issue my husband and I face when traveling is weight. The older we get, the less we want to carry multiple computers, or large numbers of electronic equipment or books. My husband's solution was to buy a Microsoft Surface. It's extremely light--even the data chip are a quarter of the thickness and size of an SD chip.

So what have I learned about how to use a Microsoft Surface?

The Microsoft Surface has two user interfaces.

The device opens up and offers a user interface similar to most tablets. The Microsoft control panel and programs feature of most PC with Windows is hidden. But, if you click on a tab titled desktop, you work in a more typical Microsoft desktop user interface. The big issue for me is having multiple windows connected to the internet and you can't work in this fashion easily from the tablet interface. It drove me crazy until I found that handy desktop icon, now I am sane and working with ease. The down side is when you connect to the internet, especially traveling, you're automatically directed back to that tablet style interface. My solution was to just give in, connect to the network on the tablet interface, then open the desktop and relogin on the internet on the Windows Explorer or Bing interface.

The Small Storage Media requires care to use.

The fingertip size of the storage media is easy to use. We found it was easy to transfer files to a device that takes an SD chip using an adaptor. The storage media inserts in a difficult position, right next to the power cord. Of course, you can work for hours on the battery so it shouldn't matter, but you do pretty much have to unplug to pull out the chip. Otherwise, the interface is seamless and easy to use.

The KeyBoard is Touchy but Welcome, the Mouse Needed

For some reason, the mouse buttons on the keyboard are inactive. Maybe its because we are using a Bluetooth connected mouse--the only one possible since the Microsoft Surface only has one USB device that we prefer to use with a printer. Still, for typing up blog posts, thank you for the keyboard is all I can say.

Other than that, we love it. It's as nice as an Ipad, light, easy to carry, easy to use, but has just a bit more power that many travelers will love.

 

 

Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove, Fernandina Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

Morning rather fast paced hike around Urbina Bay, Galapagos, Ecuador, on our National Geographic Cruise in fairly warm conditions. We woke early and gathered our wet and dry shoes, climbed aboard a zodiac raft and landed on shore. The hike led over lava rocks to the site where a Galapagos Hawk sat on a post and allowed twenty+ people to photograph it from every side from quite close (10’ or less). It was a juvenile.

The area of Urbina Bay was uplifted in 1954. There aren’t many bones left by the uplift, although the tour staff have laid out the skeleton of a pelican, skeleton of a house cat, skeletons of Sea Turtles washed up on the island that likely died of dehydration recently. I spotted a new type of crab called a velvet crab. Lots of lava on shore bear testimony this is an active volcano area. The main thrill of the uplift though is the huge remnants of sea coral that was cored by scientists and recorded as being 600+ years old. These outcrops are dead but grasses have begun to grow on them.

The loop trail turns inland for awhile and we managed to come upon the local variant of land iguana, the red bat, dead giant tortoises and several live ones.

The Galapagos are late receiving rainfall since the rainy season was supposed to start three weeks ago, but inland, the greenery has expanded from a dead zone in 1954 to lush greenery with full-sized trees and shrubs, of which many were now in bloom. I recognized the tropical maple in blossom, but found many others I need to identify (I’ll add later).

As we left back to the shore we saw manta rays (no pictures).

Lunch for me was Teriyaki Corvina, couscous and vegetables, cold noodles and grated carrots, bread and a sample of walnut tort.

After lunch, Bob complained of continual muscle pains in his legs, so we decided to take the afternoon off and catch up on my paperwork—school and blogs. I taught him several leg stretches, fed him Motrin, and let him sleep. We missed out on snorkeling in Tagus Bay and the kayak session which we signed up for.

Birds: Medium Ground Finch, Galapagos Hawk, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Striated Heron (Sheri only)

Galapagos or Giant Tortoise (elephantos), Galapagos Red Bat

Velvet Crab

Isabela and Fernandina Islands, Galapagos, Ecuador

Today was a more moderate day,  waking up to spot seabirds and dolphins. We didn’t get up fast enough to see the striped dolphins but we did see bottlenosed dolphins and identified several seabirds. Most of the day followed easily with only a zodiac cruise, one hike and one snorkel session.

We were allowed to go on the zodiac cruise with the photography group and I had the chance to get many excellent p having ictures of rocks at Punta Vincent Roca—with birds, crabs, coral, and other sea life. We were treated with Galapagos Penguins and Pacific Green Sea Turtles in the area along with the Galapagos Fur Seal  and Sea Lions and fun. Here's my penguin video.

The formations at this end of the Isabela Island are spectacular geologically, with lava areas, sand stone, lava tubes, uplift and interesting erosion patterns and layers.  The guide was especially helpful suggesting different ways to view the area and encouraging us all to take more and more photographs. The Zodiac driver though was a real helper because he managed to give us all a look from many different directions. I managed to get several videos, Brown Noddy’s fighting over territory and sea action.

The snorkeling was an athletic event, tidewater pulling us into the rocks and a lot of murk in the water, plankton looked like snow (a later lecture showed us many different types). We saw a Galapagos Penguin shoot past, zooming through the water with ease. Sea Turtles chased us down—appearing in our faces and lying in the sand and zooming up from below us. We spotted the green sea urchins that are a specialty of the Galapagos.

In the evening, we took a walk on Fernadina Island at Punta Espinoza, the site of the most recent lava flow (2007?). The area has many, many marine iguana, who lie facing the sun to keep their body temperature at a minimum and spit out salty water they’ve consumed. The eat off the green seaweeds exposed by the tides, nibbling them in a dainty manner. The sea lions and fur seals had a lot of fun in the area body surfing in moderate surf that sloshed into bays and pulled them out. We focused on photographic techniques for a second time. The sunset turned the area steamy and dreamy.

Birds: Galapagos Shearwater subspecies of Audubon Shearwater, White-vented or Elliot’s Storm Petrel, Southern Fulmar, Flightless or Galapagos Cormorant, Galapagos Penguin,  Magnificent Frigatebird, Greater Yellowlegs

Black or Pacific Green Sea Turtle, Galapagos Fur Seal, Green Sea Urchin

Bartolome and Rabida Islands, Galapagos, Ecuador

Energetic  day with so much to do. We started early, 6:00 am wake up call to go climb up a boardwalk to the top of a cinder cone on Bartolome Island. Along the way we saw many examples of volcanology at work—lava tubes, many varieties of lava, cones, fumaroles, and some recovery with several types of plants beginning to take root. Lots of lava lizards were spotted on our way up. The area features the famous rock that is used in many of the ads for the Galapagos.

Galapagos: Lava Heron

We followed the excursion with breakfast and then a briefing on what snorkeling equipment we would need, how to use it, how to signal for help, then we went up and was fitted with equipment: wet suit, snorkel tube for my prescription mask (we were offered the tip of using toothpaste to remove the oils they put onto them), and flippers—cool type that tightened on the ankle and slide up and down for easy fit.  Then we all went snorkeling off Bartolome, starting from a beach and following a coral reef along one side of the bay around the famous rock. It was excellent snorkeling with a good variety of fish and sea life like sea stars and sea urchins. We returned to the Islander for lunch.

After a traditional Ecuadorian lunch, we took a second snorkel at a deepwater site off of Rabida Island. At first I thought it would be punk because the site was shaded and cold but less than a minute later I was caught up in the iridescent underwater world with unique sea plants and creatures. I kept seeing new life while schools of fish swam around. I tried out a few videos and they turned out really well. The photographs are less good, its hard to get a fish before it moves.

Fish video

Later that evening we took a stroll along shore and saw a male sea lion fight off a competitor, a pelican argue with two young sea lions, two mockingbird packs face off against each other, and young pelicans in a nest gang up on another pelican trying to get back in. Everyone was crabby, I guess it was the waning of the full moon.

Crabby Sea Lion video

We checked the stars but it was overcast.

Birds: Lava Heron, Red-billed Tropicbird, Brown Noddy, American Oystercatcher, Galapagos Mockinbird, Lesser Yellowlegs, Galapagos Sea Lion

Galapagos, Transfer to the Islander at Baltra, Galapagos and Dry Landing at North Seymour Island

The flight to the Galapagos went easily—our boarding passes handed to us, our luggage carried through to the plane, all we had to do was get through a short line at security and climb aboard.

When we arrived, we exited through immigration and customs and was immediately met by National Geographic staff. A short bus ride took us to the boat and we gladly dumped everything for lunch. The food was great, promise of much goodness is the future.

After a nap, we had our first outing, a slow-paced walk through on an inlet at North Seymour Island. We spotted many, many frigatebirds, many with families or wanting to make families, plus land iguanas. We wandered through a treed realm, receiving many lectures on each species life and habits.

The highlight was all the nesting Magnificent Frigate Birds, here's mom and baby, although the first of Darwin's finches was exciting too.

Dinner was leisurely and we had the opportunity to meet our fellow travelers.

Birds: Blue-footed Booby, Magnificent Frigatebird, Galapagos Dove, Yellow Warbler, Medium Ground Finch, Ruddy Turnstone, Small Ground Finch, Swallowtailed Gull, Brown Pelican

Lava Lizard, Land Iguana, Marine Iguana

Recent Visit to WA Brought Me Back to Old Friends

Mt. St. Helen's from the east side on our recent visit to Washington state. Mt. St. Helen's is sort of a muse in my writing because it blew up on my 21st birthday--I really did celebrate with a blast.

 

We visited Mt. St. Helens many time since, our last visit was when a friend came from Germany for several weeks. We tried to visit this side, but the snow pack was still to high so we had to head back to I-5 and then come in from the southern side.

 

Spirit Lake shown below was filled high. 

A sign explained it got so full that the state was worried it would flood down stream communities. To solve this problem, they drilled a tunnel through Harry's Ledge to let some of the water escape. Now they maintain the current level of the lake. It's problems with low oxygen and high acid content following the volcanic eruption were resolved after 10 years. Harry's Ledge was named after one of the elderly local residents that refused to leave despite warnings by the authorities.

Many organizations continue to study Mt. St. Helen's--they monitor earthquakes, the build up of the dome, the recovery of areas around Mt. St. Helens etc.

Lost in Memory Land on the Way to Bumping Lake, WA

How I got lost was I decided to repeat a trip taken with my sister Samantha more than 18 years ago since that's how long my husband and I have been together. I remembered we went up the road to Bumping Lake and then followed a forest road that came out on top of the Pacific Crest with views of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams spread out before us in 360.  Oops, that was then.

We met my 2 sisters, her husband, my mom at the road into Bumping Lake. After we reached Bumping Lake, we took a wrong turn, or maybe not, but we kept going uphill then downhill and staying in a valley when I expected to go steadily uphill. I didn't remember the dam. Anyway, after bumping along a forestry road and getting our cars all dusty we reached a spot that wasn't as easily passed and also ran out of time and gas.

We returned to Bumping Lake and decided to do the photo bit. Here's all of us hams:

Me, mom, my sister and husband.

The two sisters.

 

 

Getting Back to Blogging About Writing

Since I moved to Florida, my blogs have been somewhat in disuse and now that I am back working on fiction, I figure I can do some more blogging. I often get asked what it is I do since no one really believes that anyone just sits and writes day in and day out. It's true I don't. Often I know what I want to write but the right words aren't there for me so I play games while I think, then write when the words are there. Many times I make a rough start, run out of words, play games until they come back, edit, play games until I know how to fix the piece, etc.

When I am problem solving I need to detach my brain from thinking about anything but the problem. Often I think about the problem without thinking about the problem by playing a game. It's a trick I learned while programming. I often would run into a difficulty, but if I just went to the bathroom, halfway there, the answer would come to me. Your back brain computes on problems like "what was the name of that guy we ate dinner with last week?" Things that you can't google. Instead your brain looks for all the hidden references and eventually comes up with the connection. I don't learn any more, either.  I just learn where it is that has the information I need. Often in storing the connections I reach understanding about how the pieces fit together and so I remember it all in that fashion.

So in the past week, what I have been working on is planning mostly since I completed a large amount of work and needed to clarify what I thought I was working on and why and for whom.

I've been working on the last edits to my second novel. I had it edited during my move and I found that the editor introduced more errors into my novel than she fixed. Her premise was that it would work better as a young adult novel. Unfortunately, I wrote it as a novel about a community and for a slightly older audience even though I wanted it acceptable to young adults with permissive parents. Any one character didn't ever know what everyone was doing. The editor suggested deletion of important technology and setting. She did ask for a chronological story and the best I could do was two side by side chronologies, both going forward always from the beginning to the end. I did one whack at a fix and then my husband did a proofread and found a few typo'sthroughout here and there. The biggest change, though, that my husband found, was inconsistencies in my story dates and five chapters were out of order due to a number of reasons. How the story dates are presented has been an ongoing problem. I had them explicit, then made them implicit to work on an easier more flowing story, then made them explicit as a video collection, changed them to a news feed but both read more complicated so I am back to theoriginal explicit style and am finding the story reads without needing to look at the dates at all. Success, I guess.

I'm also working on short stories related to this second novel which may fit a number of calls for content so I've built a schedule for the rest of the month/year for that. These I've had to look for the research I did before and think about what the plot will be and how they should be built or revised. And did the research on some of the items. 

I have four separate novels in work at the moment, and one short story collection outlined and another collection being built. One novel is a follow on to the first novel I wrote so I am writing short stories in that story line, especially with the hopes it will get published. One is a children's book that is made up of stories so I have 3 or 4 short stories in rough stages from that book and an outline I am following and an outer storyline begun. The other two started from the idea that I was going to build a trilogy and so I have been writing short stories for that, partly to copyright the characters and some of the technology. And as I take classes, instructors often ask for a certain type of scene or have an objective for writing. I try to fit those in with my the novels by having a topic list and an outline and a set of research materials for everything I am working on. Often these become a short story as I flesh them out. And because I am applying for an MFA program, I needed sample material that I assumed would be from what I planned to write so I built some of the work for those. 

So my plan is to get the second novel out circulating to agents, publishers, and contests. And the short stories written to my schedule.

I also have three nonfiction books in work. My target was to just work the golf book this month but the wedding set me back two weeks. Oh, and do one sonnet a day since I am working on a collection of sonnets. I'm up to 8-10 and I need 20-25 but have another four in work at the moment and two I want to submit. I am also working on cleaning up my chapbooks as a potential book, and on two additional chapbooks, one on sffh poems, one on a reflective set of poems, one on teen trauma poems.

I've also worked on a number of articles behind the scenes. Typically, any time we travel, I get photos of where we stayed, where we went, and visit places that are on my target list for research. So my visit to Boston for my cousin's wedding produced much of that. I have an assignment at Yahoo on China articles and have researched quite a few topics that I find interesting but they don't happen to be the news of the moment--just interesting knowledge about the country in a variety of formats that need more facts to be ready. I also have worked some on taking some of my coursework at UCF and looked at altering them to be a article, doing some of the preliminary research. Plus I just started in at UCLA Extension on a class on writing articles for print publications--so I've been through Writer's Market looking at agents, conferences, and article types, read the 8+ chapters assigned for both weeks and looked through my available photographs. I have probably a dozen article in work, I just need time to flesh them out.

I also started painting my house. It is a color I don't really care for and is quite depressing to me. I like flowers and we're currently more like hedge. So we had the colors  approved and I washed one side and began painting. My husband says we should hire it out and I think we may hire some of the work done. But I go crazy if I am forced to sit for endless hours and do nothing but write. So this is my outside work I get to do that isn't immobile. I want the house painted before I start a Masters degree because once I start I won't have time to do it. And I want some of this work that's been idling while I've been busy with classes at UCF to get completed so that I just package and submit until it gets accepted.

 

Changes Make You Feel Oppressed or Free

I love some of the new opportunities I have, but I wish they were easier to transition to, when I have other obligations. Then, as a student, life changes at breaks, midterms, semesters ... it is hard to stay on track with what I want to accomplish when there's so much I am responsible for ... maybe some of it I have to let go, other things need planning to keep them directed ... I always keep it all and perhaps I can't or perhaps I'm not supposed to.

Some examples of what I mean:

1) my writing quarter finishes before my school semester so to keep going I have to choose which course and sign up and pay for it

2) registration for summer begins so I needed to decide on summer quarter and for fall quarter--I'm thinking writing courses and biology this summer and a political science course if I couldand for fall, writing and Chinese history and Chinese IR and either the Forensic Science intro or continuation of biology. I know that many would like me to just get the Master's degree done with so I can move forward, but I have found that UCF, for one, is very much happier to see me start with undergraduate level courses to gauge my knowledge and it might very much help my ability to get letters of recommendation.

3) we need to plan our summer vacations since we get to do some exploring of geology near Niagara Falls and probably into Canada. I don't know much about the east coast of the US--I've been to Boston twice, driven up the coast to Maine, visited Martha's Vineyard and went to New Hampshire to visit Bob's parents once and my sister in Virginia, and to a bit of the Appalachian mountains--but that's about it. 

4) I need to schedule my doctor appointment

5) RCIA finishes in May--this three hours every Sunday w/church plus some additional events and my duties to encourage Bob plus hopefully a baptism party to plan, but meanwhile we have weekly social life events we're beginning to develop--Wed we get to see Wicked and Sat we're on to help the boy scouts with birding

6) its not enough to write articles on China ... I want to look for specific information in specific areas that match my outline

7) I'm still finishing up on three areas where I collected information and have stacked all over my house--snow & ice, moon, international space organizations ... new study areas don't just add on at the drop of a hat. I'd love to see the paper get stored instead of on every surface around. By fall quarter I hope to be into the swing of things so that the new classes fit into it well.

8) I'm hoping to fit in the much delayed redevelopment of my web page in over spring break--I've found myself going back and forth over Yahoo basic tools and using MS Expression which is pretty abstruse--nothing is explained in the order I want it to occur--give me a page, let me color and decorate it by default, let me put a message on it, let me establish the links to connect it elsewhere, let me keyword it. I think the intent is if they make it difficult enough you have to hire someone to do the work. I want to hire someone to do the work that requires additional knowledge

 9) I'd like to attend writing conference(s) before fall sememster starts--I've identified a few that work better since I didn't finish up in time for the PNWA this year.

10) Taking classes has delayed my ability to write ... the more settled I feel with very little changes once a semester starts, the easier and less stressful it is to fit in the time for writing.

11) March 15 all the National Poetry contests are due ... I've written two, and hope to do a few more.

12) People shouldn't worry so much about me with games ... they do take time ... but, I do need wind down time, they are a good answer. Doing something mindless helps me transition from one task to another and it also makes it easier to deal with the tedium of other tasks.

13) We need to visit Bob's mom soon. I haven't talked with anyone in the family recently.

14) I'd love to have the time to get my hair cut.

Weak Progress But Better Than Its Been

Managed to get 300+ words on a short story, not connected to anything and four thank you letters, a cover letter drafted and two and a half articles. Warm up I guess. I have a list about 30 articles long to write, and another list about 10 items long to do before school starts. I have my school books. The reading for the writing class is done and some of the cultural anthropology. Three of the ten items relate to research for the work I want to do. Two items may take a lifetime -- one is getting rid of the paper, another is doing the web page. Another is the last changes to my second novel. And I'd like to fit in the trip to visit Bob's mom, my haircut and a doctor visit scheduled. One is taxes, ick.

The good news for me this week was I managed to get a fairly concrete outline for the new trilogy. I've been writing stories on the first of the trilogies and have deadlines associated with the stories, so that is good. Most of the research is done for the earliest ones. I suspect it is June before I start tackling the atomic stuff because of the current class load. Meanwhile, Bob has scheduled the rest of the years trips and put budget against it. We'll be home most of the year, strange idea.

Maybe I will discover where my data chips have walked to along with my GRE reservation number needed to get my scores for use in applications.

Plugging along with articles and the horrors

Yesterday wrote three articles and did research on others and followed up on poetry. Today, working on two travel articles and wrote chapter 1 of 26 chapters on my nonfiction book--more time to work yet.

Discovered all of my file folders were mixed--multiple topics per folder instead of the way I had it arranged. I guess I should believe that maybe the boxes dumped while being moved. So I need to do an entire day of refiling (the horror, the horror).

Also discovered my carefully saved GRE score confirmation number had disappeared out of the house.

Other odd things, utilities that switch on and try to back up my data (I guess that's a new feature), I wish they would ask if we wanted the world butting into our affairs.

Got my Christmas cards designed and 70 printed, Bob did the first cut of addressing them and wrote the newsletter as usual, other than a horrific year for me, it didn't have much except some delights from visitors.

Next Story Ran into a Knowledge Gap

So got most of the data compiled into a notes sheet and split into articles but I felt that not knowing about hydrothermal systems left me missing a key clue to what I'm working on in my story. Also the politics of all four groups represented by the characters is not concrete enough to form the back bone of the story. So having spent two weeks working on that, it leaves me searching for the answer to spit out in three hours for my deadline. I guess I am too honest to be a "real" writer.

 

Why Work on My Space Opera is So Slow

Well, despite the fact that I am gung ho on the new trilogy, maintenance as a writer is required. I owe articles out once a week, try to keep active with friends on Facebook and some poetry groups and am still dragging along on my last novel. I'm also pushing on getting stories out to publishers so that the world begins to see me as a novelist instead of just a poet. I have at least three story collections topics that I have been working on for some time, so all of these could go that route too.

My husband is a sweetie and is analyzing my last reorganization of my novel where I followed the suggestions of the editor I hired. We both think that there is simply far too much estrogen in the story when we cut the view of the men who survived and so now I have to take one more cut and put it all back with maybe some additional work since I made many of the scenes tighter. The good news is that I had the story down to about 85,000 words I think, so it gives me a little more leeway. He's also identified some missing dates and thinks my idea about the historical view works, unlike the editor. The editor was a poor choice--she introduced many errors into my novel, her suggestions haven't worked out well, and her suggestions about what to cut were bad but I understood why she made them--they weren't connected enough, so I chose to connect them. 

Also, I want to produce my teen dinosaur book as the book that I try to sell first. I have quite a few stories written, the outline developed and have at least 15,000 words on it and it may grow into four books, depending on the proper length to make them. I'm shooting for a first draft by year end and maybe a contest entry in the new year for it and my second novel, again.

Re: including the men:

Everyone says, well, if the reader knows your premise "that there is only one fertile woman left alive" is false, why bother? The answer is that the society doesn't know when making their decisions. And, even in knowing there are other survivors, the same equations work and also, having the expanded view makes us look more at the larger world of our society. It's like saying "if this is true, then x, but if this is also true, still x, and if this is also true, still x?" and the answer has to be, yes. That's the real truth behind viable populations. You need more than one breeding pair for the species to survive.

And finally, I am still supposed to get my web site redeveloped. The good news is that most of my "I'm going this way" which is every way, is narrowing down to technology, young adult, travel and adventure, science and so my new design will look much cleaner.

Writing My New Space Opera Trilogy

I'm moving out of my comfort zone in writing my new space opera trilogy and into outer space. The time span covers eons and has an alien protagonist. I've begun to hear her voice again. I started writing bits of it after my return from my first Earthwatch trip to Belize where we participated on an archaeology project. The work on the project was tedious but taught basic skills in laying out gridwork, protecting and uncovering artifacts and buildings, working in a challenging environment--the team had to move trantulas bigger than my hand out of our work area. They had a brilliant orange body and hairy black legs. The tendency was to want to scoop them up with a shovel and toss, but we were told that they had found out that doing so killed the tarantulas, so they were moved with care. The first time we saw the Mayan city it was covered with so much vegetation you couldn't tell that anything was there. The trees covered by vines grew thirty feet tall or more. The leader hired two Mayan locals to cut it all down. It took them at least one day and they were paid $5 per day to hack it all off with machetes. In the process they ran into a pit viper--we were shown the body and then told the emergency treatment in case of bite--basically a shot of antivenom every hour while you were helicoptered out to the closest hospital and then it would be touch and go from there. More on this topic when I get my pictures scanned.

Mostly what I have been working on is the near future pieces and educating myself in a number of topic areas:

The politics for space development and related security issues-- finished reading 

"Chinese Space Policy a Study in Domestic and International Politics" by Roger Handburg and Zhen Li

"Who Owns the Moon" by Virgiliu Pop

"The Politics of Space Security" by James Clay Moltz

and "Return to The Moon" by Harrison H. Schmitt

Studies of Moon Geology

I've read about fifty documents including one eight chapters long from the Apollo era. I should have a story and some articles out on this topic. But I got sidetracked into knowing the history of spacecraft so am spending one or two days on that. I think I only have two-five stories set on the moon, one on Mars, one on an asteroid, one on Jupiter, one on Uranus for sure.

As I get ideas I add them to three documents one called my outline where I sketch out all the major organizations and characters, one called my synopsis where I lay out story, scene ideas, what characters are involved, the time and location and number of words, and a third document that lays out each character, their conflict, resolution and urgency. These help me from getting lost or forgetting important ideas.

Development of Underdeveloped Nations -- finished reading

"Africa's Stalled Development" by David K. Leonard and Scott Straus

in progress on "Industrial Society in Communist China" by Barry Richman

Part of the reason for reading these materials is to envision not only the changes in society, but what the culture of space humans that spread throughout the galaxy need to survive. I'm writing short stories in the series that help explain various societal problems, many of the power players, some of the technology. Meanwhile I've identified at least two ways humans will evolve and the result problems. One of the first of these stories is Layers of Permeability

Also, I'm doing much studying of astronomy to help understand who my aliens are and how they survive. I've had to start back at the atomic level and am just beginning to visualize what is going on with quantum physics and what some of the topic areas I need to delve into to understand what is going on--these things will affect how my aliens eat and travel--two of the main processes that life forms exhibit. I woke this morning thinking that I knew what the Higgs particle looked like but then after I thought about it some I realized what questions I had to research before I knew for sure i.e. dreams without data have not foundation in reality.

My favorite astronomy book at the moment is an encyclopedia called "The Universal Book of Astronomy" by David Darling because it is providing me a structure of topics in which to delve into further.

Research Compilation

I've had three research areas that I have been delving into and am compiling the notes and references and sorting it out into potential articles, additional research tasks and using the information to help drive several stories. So I'm a little slow to react. Just processed about 50 articles and several books. The good news for me is that it is nearing a conclusion. One of the projects has been on my desk for three or four years, another for a year. I find that boiling the key points I care about helps me focus on what I want to say.

Why Silence is Needed

When writing, there's always the critic that says  "did you say what I want you to say in the way that I want you to say it when I want you to say it" that is very destructive. These you have to turn off.

I have things I want to say, places I want to go, things I want to experience.

I've had a group of people that bite at me continually with the refrain "if you don't listen to what we say, you will get nowhere". This is despite the fact that most of my work has gone through several critiques both in person and online and via an editor and I have made all the changes suggested. So why am I not now there, in critique?

I've grown up. I want to check that I said what I meant to say in my internal filter first. And of course the complexities of moving across the country hasn't helped. When I need it, I will ask for it.

When people don't accept you as a grown up, they do things like nag, interrupt repeatedly asking for attention, criticize, and don't respect your space, time, or need for exercise, for clean up, for quiet.

Deadlines--excitement and reward

I'm working hard, with the help of my dear husband, to get two stories out to meet two deadlines. Funny thing about the past four years, I have learned that the reward is in completing the work, not any result past that point. When I complete these two, I get two swim and clean my house, oh, hurray, hurray.

Next week, we have relatives visiting in Tampa and a visit to my mother-in-law and maybe the chance to see "Hair Spray" so my deadline for the following week will have to be worked sooner.

 

Stories and Spinning

Sometimes the words to the story are right on the edge of my tongue, other times I feel like I write a word and hour, testing how to get out a thought. So it has been going. I wish I thought this story is as good as the other I worked on. Tonight I edit that one, putting in the changes Bob recommended. We will see if I like the result. The one for today is now cursed with wordiness, but maybe not so boring. It will be hacked at tomorrow.

Fatigue and Guilt and Thank Yous

Sometimes I get so tied up in the guilt over what people want me to do -- the articles, the reviews, the books read, that I feel weighed down and exhausted.

Bob is running away tomorrow to go birdwatching without me while I work stories. That means tonight I work on guilt, lol.

Sometimes I think people don't think I appreciate what they do for me. Some of it has been so pssst, psst, secret, secret that maybe they deserve their hurt feelings, if they exist. I always try to be open and to thank people--with donations, with time, with friendship, etc. But this is a really trying time for me. I have to release everything and I care too much about what it is, how it appears, how it is received. Maybe when I am older and more jaded I will laugh.

Tightening and Fleshing Out Stories and Other Marketing Problems for an Author

Editing for me is very tense. Every paragraph is checked endlessly. I'm working three stories. One is a revision of a completed story to make it into a time travel / alternate universe story. This means that I've needed to figure out how to explain the time travel portion and put the main character's awareness of the change to his life in terms of historical props and news items. I've had to identify where the changes go, lay out time lines, and find historical and science facts to support it.

I've also taken the time to do the reading on time travel and a lot of the science that explains why it might work enough to know some of the parameters--mostly how E=MC*C is tested but then I realized I had to know more about the energy parts of the equation and more about quantum mechanics in order to write the article and book reviews.

The good thing about this research is I have 2-3 more stories where this research will stand me in good stead and have worked on the plotting issues involved in them.

The second story was well outlined and except for the end, is in pretty good shape. The verbs were rather over used and inactive and I have a lot of weasel words to remove. Plus, when I wrote it, I knew the "three or more" technological changes that would be showcased, but I hadn't done the indepth research. As I found the articles, I found more lifestyle issues that had to be found, and several NASA and other articles dealing with the same topic. This one is almost ready to go to Bob for an edit. I want to complete this one tonight. It's probably still flawed as a story entirely based on a scientific principle ... I may have to push the story a bit further in that area.

Both the second and third stories were originally envisioned as part of my trilogy but it may be that they will go into a simpler one novel book or just exist stand alone for awhile. For this reason, the third story has the story part complete but the technology / science works but I'm not sure that it is exactly what I want it to be. I need to do a whole lot more materials science investigation before I'm sure and meanwhile there are easier stories for me to complete, especially one where I have all the research spread over my office table waiting for the moment when I can go back to it. Mostly I've worked on the transitions between the scenes and further development of the overall metaphor for the story.

I also looked into some of the hoped for "buy" markets where I will send these stories for a read.

Meanwhile, Bob and I have been discussing agents, publishers, synopses, blurbs, credentials and maybe one more small revision of my second novel before I send it out. I was told the most likely audience for it would be young adult. I'm not sure I'm happy with that decision. The outer view of what the men are doing helps to balance out the story and make it less feminist, while adding more tension. We are also due in Houston on Oct. 8, so after I get the three stories out I want to do, I need to work the web page. 

I held off on the article writing because it seems to take on its own life and purpose so much so that I lose track of what I am doing and why I am doing all of this. I'll fit in articles when I get back to knowing what I'm working on--reading 40000+ words and knowing where I am going. I am trying to work for too many masters that want something different than what I want. I want my trilogy and other stories.

Also, we've taken some timid moves into finding more "community" in our lives. My mom plans to come for a visit and I need to plan that too. Bob is cheered by the idea that I might clean this "dump" of paper up. Meanwhile, I can barely see because my glasses are so awful. 

Tired--The Long Journey

I am tired to the bone. It's been a long journey. I have decided that if I have to jump off the edge of the ocean, it being flat and all, I mean, that's how all the unscientific minded think, that I will put the lessons that I've learned in the last years to proper use. 

We leave tomorrow a.m. for my conference in Cinncinnati.

Impatient and More Work than I Realized

I'm impatient to get back on the internet and to take care of business, now that I'm on the last changes on my second novel. I eliminated 10,000 words, and am likely to do some swapping of words yet. Got all the chapters built. I'm ready to do one more pass, print, look it over, and then hand it off to Bob. Boosted my heroine's backbone in the process. I'm pleased with the changes.

Undisturbed Time for Edit

I'm awake with a stomach ache so I thought I'd describe my latest two days of work. By having peace and quiet for a few days, I was able to spot the problem with the middle of my novel--there's a missing piece of logic that connects all the major lines of conflict to their points of resolution. The main drivers of global warming, viability of the housing situation, the strange occurrences need to be part of my heroine's understanding of what her role in life entails. So ... I have to build that in. It involves rearrangement of quite a few of the scenes, plus some emotional arc work. More frustration but it should intensify the drive to the end. Anyway while I was sitting and staring at the walls and swimming and not writing, I actually built the modification plan that will guide me through the changes. I have an additional two scnes to write that I hadn't expected. So busy busy.

Down to the last three little changes

I made terrific progress yesterday, finally completing the week's worth of work on one problem chapter in my explorer's scenes -- reducing them from 8000 words down to 4000, merging the information content, reordering the scenes, and rereading a thousand times. Then went on through the next 6 chapters. I'm on chapter 27 of the new chapter list which is 14 from the old one. Luckily, most of the revisions in the next stuff have already been made. It just takes time because I end up rereading each chapter twice, once for mistakes, cuts and transition problems and once as a spell check, then putting in the time information. Still need to do the pages, that shouldn't take more than a couple hours.

Meanwhile, we returned from my visit with my in-laws. My father-in-law had a feeding tube put in and is finally adjusting to it a little but the prognosis is 6 weeks at best. My mother-in-law is understandably upset.

The uhm, good news about throwing a cup of ice tea on my PC is that they think they can fix it, I finally broke down and bought some tech stuff I can review and I may be ready tech wise for Tanzania. Now to just complete the doctors orders and then go for the antimalarial meds.