Let Me Tell You About Sete……

The scuba world is a fun place for a lot of reasons. Setting aside the wonder of the underwater world for the moment, there are the great people that you meet while diving. Yesterday, my husband had a guy on the boat who is currently from Boston, but originally from a small town near Nice, France. Nice is an incredible city which is why I included a chapter about it in Irises to Ashes, but that also is not the point to this post. Hubby and the guy were talking about the Azure Coast and hubby mentioned us spending one night in Sete, and the guy was excited that we even knew where it was, much less had been there.

When hubby recounted the story, memories flood back. Sete is a small fishing village that we went to en route to Normandy, en route to Frankfurt the last summer we were in Italy. I found it in the guidebook almost by happenstance and it was a logical stopping point for our first day of travel. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/the-perfect-break/8342532/Sete-France-the-perfect-break.html) As it says in the article you can click to, a large part of Sete’s charm is because it isn’t a tourist destination. The seafood is plentiful and literally comes to the restaurants steps away from the docks. We stayed near the center of town, close to the water and strolled the streets for a couple of hours before it grew dark, then picked from several restaurants, any of which I’m sure would have been just as good. Canals run through the village to make it a “small Venice” and we lingered in another waterfront café to enjoy coffee and a cognac – or perhaps it was another glass of wine – I don’t completely recall. I awakened early the next morning as I so often do and meandered back onto the streets watching the village come into day. I found the place for us to have breakfast and went back to fetch Hubby. We had six-plus hours driving ahead of us and didn’t linger, yet it was a pleasant interlude – croissants and café au lait at an outdoor table along a canal as gulls shrieked and swooped. If you are ever in the South of France and want an off-the-mainstream village, then Sete is the place.

Refreshing the Backyard …….

New look for the Pygmy Date Palm

New look for the Pygmy Date Palm

I am not a visual person although that is not the central point of this post. We non-visual people therefore have difficulty in accurately portraying what we want if we do not have a relatively close photo/sketch to follow. Ergo, when we had the pool and hot tub put in, the covered terrace extended, extra hardscape added around the pool, put in river rock to stretch from the edge of the hardscape to the fence, had some tropical and citrus trees planted, and other plants done in containers, we used our regular landscaping guy. Now, he is a good guy, does good work and we’ve used him for years. However, he is not a landscape designer and so in discussion, he did exactly what we asked him to. Recently, I said, “Enough, the yard is out of control and not what I actually wanted.” My husband always experiences trepidation when I get the idea to re-do things (and not without reason). He was particularly concerned with the potential fate of the traveler (fan) palms that I thought might need to be removed.

Okay, so I called in a longtime Redland landscaper who first assured me that she could tame the traveler palms, then she promised a sketch that she felt would match what I was looking for. Actually, by the time she and her hardworking crew had finished, what we had was closer to an eighty-percent solution, but definitely a great improvement. Now, the reality of this area is that the same conditions that produce beautiful tropical plants also means “super weeds” and fairly constant maintenance to keep things in a trimmed state. That, in turn, means either hiring someone to keep after it or doing it yourself. Since we now have most of the plantings looking the way we want them, our next task is to determine if we can keep them up ourselves or if we need to talk to our regular landscape guy about adding that service to what he regularly does. The jury is still out on that one. We’re giving a shot at managing it ourselves and will see if it goes better this time.

I’ll use the above photo as an example. It’s a 3-cone (head) pygmy date palm. If allowed to, as we did with the original planting, the fronds will descend downward until you have essentially a palm “tent” that reaches to the ground. That’s an okay look, but the designer suggested exactly the opposite and to cut it back severely, create an “island” around it with mulch, blooming ground cover plants and attach bromeliads. The ground cover and bromeliads require essentially no maintenance and in order to keep the current design all we really have to do is whack the fronds early when they grow beyond the look we want. One would think that I can pull this off and I will keep you posted as to the outcome.

Why I Love Reading……

Baby Boomers will understand that entertainment used to be called books. Not that we didn’t have television, radio, movies, etc., but unless you lived in a city, the choices were often very limited. Our small town didn’t have access to public television, so it was the basic three channels, and of course, only part of the programming was for kids. We actually did not have a radio because my mother didn’t care for it and as for movies – well, it required a car to get to one and it just wasn’t a priority in our house. The library and books though – now that was a winning combination. Yes, that also required a car, but because it was not fixed to a specific time, a drop off and pick-up at the library could be incorporated with other trips into town. The school library was good and we did have a Book-Mobile that came, so for the entire school year, we had quite a selection.

I don’t recall reading time as a big thing when I was very young, although I’m sure I had children’s books and was read to. Once I was able to read on my own, the world was opened to me. All the usual (that was also when they taught the classics) and when I was in junior high school, the school librarian put me on a special reading list that was heavily American literature with some English thrown in. I made my way through Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour as well as the basic science fiction of Asimov and Bradbury, and didn’t stick with either genre. I admit that romances were never big after Victoria Holt and Norah Lofts and I didn’t really do a lot of non-fiction until I was an adult. I’ve already written about Ayn Rand’s influence and yes, through all of it, I dreamed of the day when my name would be on the cover of a book. That, however, isn’t the main point of this post.

I am always searching through the independent authors to find new ones rather than look at the best sellers because in knowing how the mainstream publishing world works now, I realize how many writers never make that cut. Don’t get me wrong – just like with movies, there is a lot of “B” and worse stuff out there and for sure a number of genres that I don’t care for. On the other hand, the beauty of Kindle under $3.99 books, just as with discount bins in a bookstore, is that you can try authors you aren’t familiar with for a low cost. Even though I resisted a Kindle for quite some time, I have to admit that I’m really glad to have one now. Nothing against Nook, mind you – we went the Kindle route instead. And if you want to, you can go right into the Independent Author Network and roam around. There are others you can check out, but they have a pretty big selection.(http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/)

 

Self-Published Authors and Restaurants…..

For those of you who have heard this before, I want to elaborate on my analogy of how self-published authors are like restaurants. It really is a comparison that people can relate to. No matter how you may feel about it, there is still a stigma attached to self-publishing that is very much promoted by the mainstream publishing side. The idea of, “Well, if you were really any good, you wouldn’t have to self-publish”, is a hard one to change. So, Part I of the analogy is that let’s say you’re out in town and you decide you want to have dinner. Within view of you, there is a very well-known, highly rated restaurant that always has a long line. There is a fast food place that you aren’t in the mood for. There is a franchise place that you like. As you are strolling up the street, trying to decide between the franchise that you know and waiting in a long line for the really popular place, there is a cross-street and an eye catching sign for a little restaurant you aren’t familiar with. It’s only a few steps down the side street, so you stop in front of the new restaurant. The aromas are enticing, the menu looks good, the interior is nice and the few people that are inside seem to be having a good time. There aren’t very many though, so you naturally wonder why. At this point you have to decide if you’ll stay with something “safe” or try something new. It’s very much the same with a self-published author that you aren’t familiar with who doesn’t have many reviews posted. Do you try it, or pass it by for an author that you already know?

Now, Part II of the analogy is that a lot people who open restaurants that shouldn’t. They either don’t have the ability to run a place well or it just isn’t that good a place. The truth is that almost anyone can self-publish and there are a lot of books out there that are a waste of money. But unless someone recommends a new author who happens to be self-published, your only other choice is to decide to take a chance on the unknown and find out if this is an author that you can add to your list of favorites. Unknown authors trying to gain fans is also why there is a raging debate about e-book prices, but that will be the subject of another post.

Summer Slipping Past…..

Juvenile Spotted Drum on reef off Key Largo, FL

Juvenile Spotted Drum on reef off Key Largo, FL

School is back in session already? Goodness, hasn’t the summer whizzed by? In actuality, for us, summer tends to be one of our busiest times. This is because even though the snow birds have left South Florida until later, many families come down for various activities and it is the best season for diving in the Keys. Most of the dive shops have full charters for days on end, all the dive professionals and boat captains know that days off are limited, and a dive professional who is looking to get into the business will have the greatest opportunity during these months. Although this summer has been rather “wet” with frequent pop-up showers and more wind than is liked, at least to date, severe storms have not interfered with the summer trade.

I don’t do as much corporate proposal writing as I have in the past (summer being a prime time for that), but a couple of community projects, plus preparing for the release of Small Town Lies, and getting False Front to the publisher, have kept me quite busy. (This is the second novel featuring underwater investigator Chris Green from Deadly Doubloons.) One of the community projects was working with Homestead, Florida: From Railroad Boom to Sonic Boom, which was the book commissioned by the City of Homestead through the Centennial Committee. In general, I do not edit, but I made an exception in this case since I had already been involved in some of the other Centennial projects.  In thinking through the best way to release the book which was published only a couple of weeks ago, the Committee decided that a book fair was appropriate. The City Council approved the idea and so that will be taking a chunk of time. I’ll post more about that as we finalize the details.

Is It Women’s Fiction or……

Cover IrisesLast evening during a Happy Hour at a local sports pub, the question came up as to if my novel  Irises to Ashes is women’s fiction or not. The gentleman asking the question explained that he didn’t mind the category as long as he enjoyed the story line and telling of the story. They had just returned from a trip to Paris and Barcelona, so I thought that the Paris part of the book would be of interest, but more so the personal journey that the main character, Maggie, goes through over the span of years of the book. For those who may not have read it, Irises is the only novel that I have written in three parts. It actually began as a novella, yet when I expanded it to full length (more about that in a minute), I realized that the revelations in the last part of the book were such that defining the book into distinct parts was the right approach. “Maggie’s Beginning”, “Maggie’s Time”, and “Amelia’s Secrets” flow into each other as the story progresses. This is also my only novel that spans multiple years, taking Maggie from teenager into her thirties. While it deals with more emotional issues than do my mysteries, and as with all my books, it is told from a female perspective, the theme is by no means exclusive to women. On the other hand, the lavender cover and the description aren’t likely to draw men to it, either. So, does that by default make it women’s fiction?

Notwithstanding that it is a book that is near and dear to my heart, it is longer than my other books at 316 pages, but that came with an unexpected complication of an increased cover price. By the time I realized what was happening, I didn’t want to cut back on the story, so I made the decision to let the cover price go for the hard copy of the book and keep the e-book version low. In fact, this is one of my few books that is on both Kindle and Nook. I also sell the hard copy version at a discount when I do local appearances. Anyway, back to my point of,  what constitutes women’s fiction?  As a reminder, romance is an entirely separate genre. Thoughts?

 

 

 

Creatures in the Pool……

Crab in our pool before rescue.

Crab in our pool before rescue.

An interesting aspect of this particular area is that because of the water table and other factors, you cannot have a residential pool deeper than five feet without going to a huge expense and getting all sorts of waivers. Now, granted, five feet deep doesn’t do much for regular people, but it is fun to splash and float in. There’s a great little spot in the “deep end” where you can comfortably sit and be waist or chest high and have your beverage of choice right next to you. In other words, it’s hardly the size pool for swim training, but it serves the purpose for aquatic exercises, it’s pretty, and cooling on steamy days.

As I think I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we elected to go with the soft chlorination option which is a wonderful invention. Rather than a lot of chemicals, it draws chlorine from pool salt. It provides a slightly salty taste, you don’t have to worry about that harsh chlorine smell or having it in your eyes. We tell everyone who is thinking about a pool to go with that. Non-humans, of course, simply see a body of water without understanding the concept of fresh versus salt water. And because we have a “lip” around the pool, creatures that jump in can’t usually get out without assistance. The birds that sit on the hot tub as the water falls into the pool do tend to use it a bit as a bath, but that’s another post. Anyway, our normal “invaders” are tiny frogs and bugs, although one day we did have a small snake. Our ability to rescue the tiny frogs totally depends on how long they’ve been in the salty water. In many cases, it’s removing the little frog body.

I was definitely startled the other day when I looked out and saw a shape that I didn’t recognize. I stepped out and sure as the world, it was a crab. Considering how far we are from the closest genuine water source, I had no idea where it had come from and maybe it was some sort of land crab. I went into my rescue mode even though the critters do tend to resist being scooped up in the net, not realizing that we are truly trying to help. It took a couple or three swipes to remove the crab from the pool and considering how quickly it scuttled off, I think it was probably okay. I don’t honestly expect to see one again, but who knows?

Why You Find Mistakes in Books…..

I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day about how tricky it really is to edit a book. To start with, there are two types of edits – content and grammatical. The relationship between an author and editor is like many other relationships and there is a chemistry involved. I made the mistake in my first book in thinking that I could self -edit and discovered that while there may well be some authors who can, I am not one of them. As best I can discern, I can get to about the 85% mark when it comes to the grammatical edit and rarely any better than that. The primary reason is because as I work with a manuscript, I know what should be there and it becomes too easy to read what you think is there as opposed to what is actually on the page. For example, when typing, it is so easy for “she” to become “he” and it will slide by Spellcheck because it is both spelled and used correctly. It is not, however, correct according to the context.

Backing up though to content editing. Having that other set of eyes is vital. The way you portray a character, a scene, the flow of events can be viewed remarkably different than you intended at times and that is what a good editor does for you. That is also where the chemistry comes in. If you and your editor are not on at least the same sheet of music as to tone and style, then it isn’t likely to be a good match. If the editor is suggesting changes practically on every page, that’s an indicator that it probably isn’t going to work well. On the other hand, if you have a character respond in a certain way to a situation and the editor points out that it seems out of character based on his/her view of that character, then the editor may be correct and it’s something to consider changing. And the bottom line truth is virtually all first-time authors will need a professional editor. Okay, circling around again as to why you find errors sometimes in even best-selling authors’ books published by big publishers. Depending on how many different edits – there are usually three to four – items get overlooked because as you get closer to “print” time, it is easy to miss the stray “he” that should be “she” and after all, by this stage if there really was an error, wouldn’t someone else have caught it? So, the next time, you’re reading along and a mistake jumps out at you and you think, “How did they miss that?”, you know the likely answer.

 

D.C. in April…….

Dustin in his 6th season of professional dance.

Dustin in his 6th season of professional dance.

Okay, for those who follow me on Twitter, you have to see the photo of Dustin twice. I’m in D.C. for the Bowen-McCauley performance at the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center tonight and the the gala after (http://bmdc.org). That makes for a long night and I suspect we “older folks” will make our rounds fairly quickly and bid farewell around 11:00. The chill and clouds/drizzle have disappeared though, and it is instead the lovely weather that can kiss DC this time of year. The cherry blossoms are beautiful, buds are forming on the trees, and other early flowers push through the soil.

Today will be rather busy, so no museum trips, but if you are making your way to DC this year, I have another private one to suggest in addition to the Museum for Women in the Military Service of America at Arlington National Cemetary and that is, The National Museum of Women in the Arts at NY Ave and 15th ( 1250 NY Ave NW, Washington, DC). That’s http://www.nmwa.org and the building is a work of art in and of itself. I happen to be a charter member of this museum also and am thrilled that they are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. Their regular exhibits are wonderful and they rotate special exhibits frequently as well as have an intriguing research library and archive. It is easy access from the Metro and there are several restaurants nearby, so I strongly recommend it as a way to spend part of a day. MNWA is indeed the only museum in the country (and maybe the world) dedicated solely to women artists.

National Museum of Women in the Arts (From their web site)

National Museum of Women in the Arts (From their web site)

 

 

Men and Clutter……

Anyone who routinely follows the blog knows that I am married to one of the most wonderful men in the world. He, however, is male, and therefore the now famous Mars/Venus situations are sprinkled through our relationship. A few posts ago, I explained my homage to the recliner and I am genuinely fine with that. When we moved into the four bedroom house we now occupy a neighbor with two children, dogs, and a cat asked why only two of us needed four bedrooms. I said, “Two offices.” We have tried to share an office and that is not a good idea. I do often have a messy desk, but it is not my preferred style. My agreement with my husband has always been that he can spread out, scatter whatever, and I won’t touch it as long as I can close the door when we have company.

That, then brings me to the den which is quite open with no door to close, plus where one steps into when entering the house. Thus, the issue of clutter. Now, I am not talking about partially eaten food or a beer glass with dregs in it left sitting for days. That is an altogether different category that if my husband was prone to, we would probably never had married. No, I’m talking basic, non-dirty clutter – magazines, books, shoes, backpack, etc., types of things. I have come to the conclusion after many discussions – some a bit more sharp than others – that this is definitely a Mars/Venus topic. Men, or at least my husband example of the species, doesn’t acknowledge “clutter”. Therefore, if he doesn’t acknowledge it, then it doesn’t exist and ergo, why should it bother me? It is stuff rather than clutter. Simple stuff, all of which does have a place to go, but if one is going to need it again soon, why put it away and just have to get it back out?

This explanation by the way, also plays well into our entrepreneurial society and is why we have “Space Bags”, “Container Stores”, closet systems, and professional organizers. Those of us who wish to control clutter are in a constant search for convenient means to make putting stuff (clutter) away and yet still be easily accessible. Hmm, perhaps I have just provided an economic reason to have clutter. Ah, well!