No Polar Coordinates

Janathon day 29

2012-01-29T18:25:00.001-05:00

We've been having snow squalls. I walked over to Rolandale (47 minutes) then shoveled for ten minutes.

I am working on my fellowship application.

Janathon Day 28 and Virtual Salon

2012-01-28T23:17:00.000-05:00

Diane's Tree

Today I walked 45 minutes at Pier Park with Keith but no time for pictures.

Then we went to a salon at Erica's where I showed a print of a recent painting, read a poem, read a story, danced, ate yummy food, and shared the art and writings of other people. This is a photograph of Diane's beautiful tree--I hope I have her name right. It is made with paint and roots. (Diane, if you see this, please give me your correct info).

Monita Rides again and Janathon Day 27

2012-01-27T22:01:00.001-05:00

Monita the Mannequin
5 x 7. colored pencil

When I got the sketchbook, I was thinking of a nature Journal OR better yet, a children's story, but the paper was so crappy I spent all my time just trying to find a way to do art on it. I wish I had taken it apart. Next time, I will know better. I did this on the bleed through from a pervious page. I don't have time (too much else to do and not as fast or creative as Aya) to start over now. (I am applying for a fellowship in poetry and the deadline is the same day and I have a LOT left to do!

I walked to Staples and then to the Village Market and home again, about an hour. (Well over 45 minutes!) I had an insomniac night last night. I am exhausted.

More Sketchbook Project: Companion IV

2012-01-26T20:13:00.000-05:00

Companion IV
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
5 x 5, colored pencils (and a tiny bit of micron pen)

This is my friend's cat. The friend and cat prefer to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, the drawing on the previous page shows through, to some extent (too much to make me happy.)

Next time, I am going to take the book apart and replace the paper.

Janathon and another way the poor are being hurt

2012-01-26T16:06:00.001-05:00

I walked 48 minutes from my house to the library and back, not counting the time I walked around inside the library.

Our libraries are in danger because of republicans, the internet and people buying books for their reading pleasure--which is a good thing for authors, but a bad thing for the poor.

Our libraries and closing one by one. DO you care? I DO!!! I use the library every week. Saves me lots of money and helps people can't afford to buy books. At the library, they are FREE to read.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY, read a book. (From the library!)

AND get out and vote for the libraries!

(The first image is a pretty house between my house and the library.)

Janathon Day 25 and New Art

2012-01-25T23:16:00.000-05:00

I walked 20 minutes to the store and back, not counting all the time I walked around inside the store and then walked 30+ from the SilK Creek Retreat house while watering african violets.

I have a BUNCH of deadlines coming up and am getting quite resentful. If you leave a comment and I dont' respond, be patient, and HOPEFULLY I WILL get back to you.

"Companions II:" on the left is the bleed-through from the previous page which I re-decorated.
You may not be able to tell, but it actually is different than the one on the flip side.
on the right is a new portrait of Keith in metallic pens.

Trying again for an abstract design--mine are NEVER
as good as Andrea's!

"Companions I:" Keith, me, and KT at Dylan's talking and listening to Dr. Bop.

Companions II: me myself and I keeping each other company in the covers of this book.
(The Companion Boo is the theme of the sketchbook.)
This is the inside of the front cover and is actually much darker than it looks here in the scan.

Unfinished Collaboration with AT

I'm trying to diet
Need I say more?
This is also a collaboration with AT

What it looks like not soothed
Collab with AT

Janathon Day 24 and work on my current art piece

2012-01-24T20:53:00.001-05:00

Village Market, Mack

Today I got my exercise (47 minutes) running errands on foot. I went to the post office (and mailed two books to my grandson Frankie), to the pharmacy (and got a new prescription), and to the Village Market for groceries (which I proceeded to make into a yummy dinner of salmon and seafood Newberg with vegetables.).

Then I worked in my oil panting--so messy, I worked on it last night when I couldn't sleep, in the morning today and again in the evening after dinner. It is still not done, but closer.

Keith in oils by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
8 x 10
last night during an insomnia attack
he looks too fat

the one above is #2, #1 was posted yesterday.

Keith unfinished in oils, by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
8 x 10, the lucite bridge is to help me paint without smearing.
Trying to get rid of that "round look. #3

Keith unfinished in oils, by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
8 x 10
Tonight's work, #4

The painting is still very wet (and as yet unfinished) which means I cannot scan it and it is hard to photograph well.

Janathon Day 23 + art in progress

2012-01-23T22:44:00.000-05:00

I walked to the doctor's and back. It took 52 minutes and 30 seconds. I got right in. I got poked twice for blood. Ouch.

We had Keith's Mom for dinner tonight (she was delicious). I made stew; it was good. I did art while Keith and ML drank wine and talked, but no time to scan it.

fat God
on walk home

Church on walk home

Sketchbook on dinner table

Unfinished oil painting with lots of texture.

Janathon Day 22 + New art

2012-01-22T21:38:00.003-05:00

Wait, I'm getting mixed up.

Friday we went to the mall--I must have missed a day or something. Not a day of walking, but a day of posting? Yesterday we went to Pier Park, and today to Belle Isle. Well, I've walked more than 45 minutes every day. Today I walked 46:48 at Belle Isle plus walking around the conservatory.

Pier Park Yesterday (the pool)

New Art, my painting of Norma Belly dancing

Belle Isle Conservatory

Belle Isle (It was a dark grey day)

Janathon Day 21

2012-01-21T21:25:00.000-05:00

We walked to the store and back, 20 minutes of walking not counting walking around the store.
Then we went to the mall and walked 32 minutes because the sidewalk was very icy. I hated walked at the mall--stuffy and icky.

The Crimewriter's Debut Dagger Competition

2012-01-21T15:24:00.002-05:00

OK, so I decided to enter the Crimewriter's Debut Dagger Competition with my NanOWriMo novel. It was expensive to enter. Here is the entry, which includes the first 1 3/4 chapters and an expanded synopsis (wish me luck!):

Chapter1: Back Off
Tuesday, September 6, 5:17PM,

"Rune," Larry Thompson said, "back off. You'reasking too many questions and putting yourself in danger."
Runelooked up from her computer in her closet-sized office to see Larry lookingover her shoulder. On her screen was an old clipping. The headline read,"Four Renowned Cornell Mycologists Dead of Mushroom Poisoning!" Underthat, the subtitle read, "Terrible Accident Claims Four CornellProfs."

“What isthis, some third rate pulp fiction novel? Who are you, and what did you do with my friend Larry?” Rune asked, halfjoking, half sarcastic.
                   "Whyare you worrying about this old accident?" Larry asked, pointing at theclipping. “I know Dr. McHaggerty’s teaching-assistant training sessions thisweek have piqued your interest, but that accident was thirteen years ago.”
                   “McHaggerty’sbeen talking about this for years,” Rune said. “He talked about it when Ioriginally took Projects Mycology like four years ago. He talked about it againtwo years ago when I assisted during my senior year. But I was distracted thenby other problems in my life. True, he calls it an accident. But heexplains how to avoid the accident, and I can’t believe that those intelligent,experienced professors would make the same mistake McHaggerty expects ProjectsMycology 158 students to understand and avoid. I think it was noaccident; I think it was murder. There is no statute of limitations on murder."
                   "Youthink they were murdered.” It wasnot a question. “The police insisted it was an accident. Theywouldn't listen when a number of us, including me, suggested murder. Wewent round and round about it."
                   "Ifyou thought it was murder then, why are you telling me to back off and butt outnow? And why are you calling it an accident? And Larry, are you actually threatening me?"
                   Larryreached over and pushed the door shut. Rune looked up, surprised. Heroffice was so small that closing the door made her slightly claustrophobic.
She was not exactly afraid. It washard to be afraid of Larry; she liked him too much.

Already,since Rune arrived for Teaching Assistant (TA) Training just over a week ago,Rune and Larry had reestablished the friendship they had begun when Rune firstcame to the College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry. Larry was thehead audio-visual guru at ESF, the college of Environmental Sciences andForestry and Rune had been the only girl AV Geek at her high school. That brought her into contact withLarry at ESF, but it was not that shared interest that had deepened theirfriendship. Larry was a good listener, a perceptive if usually reticent advisorand a gentle soul. Rune liked him, plain and simple. And for some reason, Larry seemed to like Rune.
Runewas pleased that her new office was right next door to Larry’s. Besides being a good friend, Larryliked to bake cookies in his lab.

Larry’soffice, like Rune’s, was on the second, or entomology, floor of Illick Hall onthe ESF campus. The offices were just a short jog from the elevators. Itwas a convenient location for a man who spent much of his time pushing aroundcarts of equipment. The door to Larry’s office, lab and AV storeroom was rightnext to hers. If one stood in thelittle alcove off the main hallway, there were three doors almost together. Theone on the left was Eilyn Otis’s. The center one, which was at right angles tohers and facing the hall, was Larry’s, and Rune’s door was at right angles toLarry’s and across from Eilyn’s. The doors were fire doors, dark industrial grey metal. No windows in the doors. Neither Rune’s office nor Eilyn’s officehad windows. Rune was sure heroffice had been designed as a closet, and Eilyn’s as a small storeroom.

Larry’sroom had been designed as a lab, and had lots of windows, lab tables andglass-fronted shelves, gas fixtures, a desk and lots of storage space. Although the main room was light andairy, the small office alcove where his desk was located was usually dark andcluttered.

Larryleaned close to Rune, as if to whisper in her ear, and then backed offsuddenly, looking suspiciously around the room. Then he leaned backtoward her again. "This place might be bugged," he whispered,so quietly Rune could hardly hear him, "Can you spare time for . . ." he paused, looking at his watch, "how about dinner? KingDavid’s?"
                   "You'renot going to haul me off in a dark alley and murder me, are you?" Runeasked, jokingly. A small shiver ran up her spine. She'd known LarryThompson more than four years, and he did not strike her as a murderer. Larrywas unapologetically gay, swishy gay. Not that a gay was incapable ofmurder, but Larry was too nice. He had a bit of a lisp, a way of standing whenat ease and limp gay wrists when he wasn’t pushing equipment around, but hedidn't dress to the nines like some of the gays Rune had met in San Francisco. He wore baggy old-man pants, baggy old-man suspenders, a ratty old dressshirt with frayed and greying cuffs, and a ratty old suit jacket. He was grizzledand balding and his thin hair hung in wisps about his slightly baggy face. His eyes, however, were intense, dark grey and full of life andintelligence.
                   Runethought of Larry as "sweet." She could think of no one she knewwho was nicer than Larry. Suddenly, however, she also thought of him as apossible suspect in the murder of four professors. Silly of course, butwhy else would he be threatening her, if in fact, that was what he was doing? But the professors were from Cornell and he was at ESF; they weremycologists and he was an AV man. Cornell was over an hour away, morethan 50 miles. It was too far foreasy friendship between the two schools. Rune felt slightly confused and disoriented, but rose and followed Larryout of her office and down the stairs of Illick to walk through the SyracuseUniversity Campus and down the hill to Marshall Street.
                   Walkingdown from campus, they made it to King David’s new door, without Rune's beingdragged into a dark alley, though they had passed several dark alleys withyoung hipsters squatting and smoking cigarettes behind decorative wrought-ironfences. Rune laughed at her own fears, but she still had a creepyfeeling.
            King David's had just moved upstairs after years and years on the groundfloor. Word was that Chipotle’s had offered King David’s a deal too goodto refuse. Upstairs, passing the new tables and chairs, and Larry chose atable in the back, away from the doors and windows, where the light was low. He carefully scanned the other patrons. "Pat yourselfdown," he said. "I'd do it for you, but I wouldn't want you tothink I'm coming on to you." He said this with great solemnity, andRune had to laugh.
                   "You'rekidding, right? Is this some kind of joke? Halloween is still almost twomonths away."
                   "No,I'm not kidding. Pat yourself down. I just want to be sure."
                   "Whatam I looking for?"
                   "Atiny mic like this," Larry said, holding out a miniature microphone.
                   "Really?"Rune sounded worried, even to herself.
                   "Don'tworry," Larry said, "I've disabled this one."
                   Runefound no hidden mics, and they sat down. Larry ordered her a samplerplatter and himself a veggie sampler.
                   Whilethey were waiting for the food, Larry leaned close and whispered to Rune,"You know, don’t you, that Dr. Calyx Karklins, one of the four professorsfrom Cornell who were murdered . . . I mean who died, was my lover?"
                   Runesat up straight and looked at Larry. Although he was clearly gay in hisspeech and mannerisms, she had always thought of hi                                                                                                                                                                                         m as asexual. Never had she seen him on or off campus with a partner. It was hardto imagine him with a lover. Not that she wanted to imagine it in toomuch detail.
                   "Wereyou down at Cornell? I thought you were a permanent fixture here. Ithought you'd been here forever."
                   "I'vebeen here twelve years. I couldn't stand being at Cornell after whathappened to Calyx. Dr. Otis got me the job here. I came primarilyfor Eilyn." He said, pronouncing the name “AY-lin.”
                   "Eilyn? Dr. Otis's wife?"
                   "Yeah,we were . . . um . . . close . . . friends." Larry turnedbrilliant scarlet.
                   "Larry!" Rune exclaimed. Larry turned his face away, and when he finallyturned back, he had composed himself.
                   “Movingright along . . .” Larry said, “What I wanted to tell you is that someonearound here is not going to be happy that you’re poking your nose intosomething they consider not your business. Seriously, Rune, it could bedangerous.”
                   “Thatsomeone couldn’t be you, could it?” Rune asked, smiling. “Where we youthe week of August 19th, thirteen years ago?”
                   “Iwas in North Carolina with my mother who had a brain tumor. I was theremost of that summer, and there are hundreds of witnesses who saw me that week,because they had a big fundraiser to help my Mom pay for her medical bills. She was a social worker who had helped many families in the area, and peopleturned out in droves. I was on stage helping my mother to stand.”
                   “Ohdear,” Rune said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. What happened to your Mom?”
                   “Theyraised enough money for the operation, but when the doctors opened her skull,the tumor was bigger than they thought it was. It had spread throughoutmore than half her brain. They took out what they could and closed her upagain. Before the swelling had even gone down, she fell from the hospitalfire escape—or jumped. Outside her window. She died.”
                   “I’mso sorry, Larry.”
                   “Itwas the same day Calyx died,” he said. He looked bereft.
                   Runegot up, went around the table, and hugged Larry. He buried his faceagainst her belly. His shoulders trembled. Run stroked his back. A fewtears came to her eyes. She always seemed to feel the pain and grief ofothers more strongly than most people appeared to.
                   Themeals came, and Rune sat back down. They ate a few minutes in silence.
                   “ButLarry, why did you tell me not to ask questions? I was just curious how fourrenowned mycologists who should have known better could actually have poisonedthemselves. I only wanted to turn over a few stones.”
                   “Somestones are better left unturned,” Larry said. There was a stubborn set tohis jaw that Rune never seen before.
                   “Youdidn’t kill them?” she asked.
                   “No,”he said, “but someone did. I’m absolutely sure of it.” Again, that shiver. The cold fingers up her spine.
                   “Whyare you warning me?”
                   “BecauseI like you. I care about you. I don’t want anything untoward tohappen to you.”
                   “Andyou think it might?”
                   “Yes. If you keep poking around, yes.”
                   “Butit happened at Cornell, not here.”
                   “No,it happened in the mountains, up in the Adirondacks. On a backpackingtrip. It was a long backpacking trip. Several people here wereinvolved in various ways.”
                   “Who?”
                   “Rune,”Larry said sharply, “Leave it! Leave it alone.”
                   “Okay,Larry. I’ll be more careful.” Rune decided to move her questioningundercover. “Maybe.”
                   “Don’tbe more careful, Rune. Stop. Give it up entirely.” Runenodded, but was unconvinced. Larry stared at her.
                   Runeshook her head a bit. She couldn’t help her self. Larry shook his.They stared into each other’s eyes with such intensity that finally, Rune hadto look away.
                   “Itwould be in your best interest to believe me,” Larry whispered softly, stilllooking intently at Rune. His eyes seemed to grow huge as she looked backat him, as if they were trying to tell her something, if she could justunderstand what it was.

Chapter2: Dr. McHaggerty, Lesson 1, andthe Four Dead Professors Again

Chapterflyleaf: illustration ofDestroying Angel, Amanita phalloides

First day of classes,Wednesday, September 7

       “Fourworld-renowned mycology professors at Cornell died of mushroom poisoning aftera joint mushroom-collecting trip on a backpacking expedition,” Dr. ColinMcHaggerty said, in booming voice, looking out over the faces in the MarshallAuditorium. On two of the three screens behind him, images of a grinningGrim Reaper holding glowing white mushrooms appeared. In the center screen wasan enlarged copy of a newspaper article with the headline, "Four RenownedCornell Mycologists Dead of Mushroom Poisoning!" It was the same articlethat Rune had pulled up on her computer when Larry had come in to give his direwarning about her questions. Fog drifted out onto the stage, curling,wafting and thickening. It poured in a milky waterfall off the stage into thefirst row of students, spreading into the audience. The lights dimmedslightly and the room seemed to grow suddenly cold. Rune shivered.
       McHaggerty paused dramatically. He wore black pants, a black shirt, a black tie with white mushrooms onit and a light-weight black cape that fluttered, lifting high behind him in anunseen breeze. His thick, wavy, grizzled and somewhat wild red hair andbeard created a red-gold halo around his face. The already low lights inthe auditorium dimmed to near darkness and a light came up under McHaggerty’sface, shadowing his eyes making his face look skeletal. A groan rose from thestudents in the audience, almost a shriek.
       “Apparently,” McHaggerty said, “manydifferent kinds of mushrooms were collected that day.” He paused again, turninghis face from left to right. The students could no longer see his eyes,which were deep in shadow as if there were only empty sockets. “IncludingAmanita phalloides, the DestroyingAngel!” He thundered. Photographs of the destroying angel mushroom, glowingwhite against a black background, appeared on the screen.
       Another long pause followed and thenthe lights came up to full brightness and the light under McHaggerty’s facedisappeared. Two warm yellow spotlights appeared on his face from above.
       “Some mushrooms, “ Dr. McHaggerty,said, smiling widely, his voice now cheerful and light “are delicious andwonderfully edible.” On the screens to the left and right appeared photosof edible mushrooms, the common garden mushroom, morels, shaggy manes, chickenof the woods. Each was labeled with the common and Latin names. Inthe center pane was a photograph of a plate of cooked mushrooms, garnished withparsley and set on a red and white checked tablecloth.
       “Some mushrooms,” McHaggerty said,and the lights dimmed to half-brightness, “while not poisonous, are distinctlyunpalatable or inedible.” More labeled photos appeared.
       “And some mushrooms,” McHaggertycontinued, as the lights fell to darkness again and the light under his facecame up, “are deadly poisonous.” The screens to the left and right showedthe destroying angel, the death cap, the fly agaric and other deadly mushrooms. The Grim Reaper came up on the center, holding white mushrooms in hisright hand and the limp body of a deceased victim in his left arm.
       McHaggerty paused again. Thelights slowly came back up, and the chin light faded away. McHaggerty,moving slowly, pulled on a pair of thin beige rubber gloves. From a shelfin the podium, he took a handful of white mushrooms. The three screensbehind him showed a close-up video of his face and gloved hands, holding themushrooms.
       “Amanitaphalloides,” he said, thundering again, “is so poisonous that even touchingit can be dangerous. Some of the toxins can be transferred to the skin,and from the skin to the mouth or to the food you are going to eat.” Behind him, the three images each show a different photograph of Amanita phalloides, labeled with commonnames, and the Latin name. “Amanitaphalloides is a common mushroom and can be found in woods, fields and inyour own backyard.”
       Again, Dr. McHaggerty pauseddramatically. Then he walked out from behind the lectern, strode to theedge of the stage, and leaned out so far over the edge toward the audience thatit seemed he might tumble off the stage into the laps of the students in thefront row. He was still holding the Amanita phalloides in his right hand,gesticulating with it, and the closest students leaned visibly away from him. Their faces looked stricken. Rune, sitting onstage with half theother teaching assistants, elbowed Bart on one side and Cassie on the other andthey all snickered and giggled, covering their mouths with their hands. No one was looking toward them. All eyes were riveted on Dr.McHaggerty. It was the first day of classes at the beginning of thesemester in September. The students, looking amazingly young, had neverseen McHaggerty in action. They’d heard through the grapevine, as studentsalways did, and in increasing numbers, that the class was good, but they hadn’tknown just how riveting it would be.

Runethought Dr. McHaggerty was a little overly dramatic, but that was better thanDr. Johnson, who taught plant and mushroom anatomy. He stood at the front of the room with his lecture notes inhis hand and read them in a monotone. By the end of the class, 83 percent of the students were asleep. He didn’t publish his class notesonline, either, like McHaggerty did. But some kid front and center always managed to get the notes and putthem online for the kids who fell asleep. Besides, Rune liked a little dramaand tended to overdramatize things herself.
“Can anyone tell me,” McHaggertyasked, “how those four doomed professors could have avoided dying of mushroompoisoning?”

Death Angel Synopsis

When Rune Carmichael first returns to theCollege of Environmental Sciences and Forestry to study for a PhD and work asDr. McHaggerty’s teaching assistant, McHaggerty reminds her of the deaths offour world-renowned Cornell University Mycology professors thirteen yearsearlier. The deaths seem suspicious to Rune, but as she begins to questionsthem, her AV guru friend, Larry Thompson warns her to let sleeping dogs lie.

Meanwhile, Rune’s life suddenly revolves aroundMycology Professor Colin McHaggerty. Everyone seems to love McHaggerty,undergrads, parents, grad students, TAs, faculty and administration. Rune loves him herself. But the other professors, teachingassistants and even her own research project take a back seat to theall-encompassing McHaggerty. The married McHaggerty seems almost to becourting Rune, taking her to lunch, to dinner and to the movies. She is already pushing him away, whenshe learns that her best friend Jody is having an affair with McHaggerty and ishaving trouble breaking it off.

When, after an upsetting incident in one of thefemale-TA apartments, McHaggerty and Eliza, one of the TAs, turn up in thehospital with mushroom poisoning, Rune refuses to believe the poisoning was “aterrible accident.” She recognizes that McHaggerty knows better than to poisonEliza and himself.

Although busy with her teaching duties,research and classes, Rune begins to investigate the circumstances surroundingMcHaggerty’s poisoning. As shestarts poking around, she receives a series of warnings. First, she and her TA-partner, Bart eatpizza sprinkled with mind altering “Magic Mushrooms” from the Acropolis. Shebecomes frighteningly disoriented. Someone wants to let them know, she realizes, how easily they could bepoisoned. Then someone smashes atruck into Rune on her motorcycle—hit and run. Other warnings include notes,letters and threats to “mind her own business.” Rune survives themushrooms and the crash and continues looking, forming an investigative teamwith Bart and some of the other TAs.

The team discovers that McHaggerty, whom theyall believed to be well loved, has many enemies and that the college is rifewith unsuspected excitement and sordid intrigue. McHaggerty turns out tobe a rabid Don Juan who has affairs with students, faculty, faculty wives andparents. Rune’s trust, damaged by a recent divorce, is further damaged by whatshe learns about McHaggerty and others at the college, but receives a boostfrom Silas, a lucky witness to the hit and run and from her TA-partnerBart.

Rune and her team of students investigate manyleads. First there is Angel, the enraged TA who tries to shoot McHaggerty whenshe finds out about his philandering. Then there are the husbands and lovers ofall of McHaggerty’s liaisons. There are jealous professors and angry administrators. There are lovers who feel jilted andcolleagues who feel cheated. The team tries to learn the possible alibis of allthe suspects. Then they scrutinizethe ones without alibis.

Meanwhile, Rune learns more about the originalthirteen-year old poisonings from Eilyn, who is a close friend of Larry’s andwhose office is across the hall from Rune’s. Eilyn was present at the original poisonings. But Eilyn isbeat up and escapes to a women’s shelter.

Though the police offer little help,considering McHaggerty’s poisoning to be an accident, Rune continues searching.As far-fetched as it seems, she wonders if the current poisoning might besomehow linked to the 13-year-old quadruple murder. And what, she wonders, is her friend Larry’s connection toall of this?

Can Rune survive when an enraged murder suspectcatches her digging through his private office files in his locked office atthree AM?

Janathon Day 20 + New Art: Monita the Mannequin

2012-01-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

Monita the Mannequin.

I walked 20 minutes on horribly icy sidewalks, then drove to the mall and walked 32 more minutes.

This is an unfinished painting, so I may post it again, if I do more work on it.

Janathon Day 19 + New Art

2012-01-19T21:22:00.002-05:00

Poppies
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
left pastels, right Copic Markers

I shoveled about 20 minutes and walked about 35 (I did time it, but I forget the seconds.) I have a deadline on this sketchbook.

Janathon Day 18 and new Art

2012-01-18T21:08:00.001-05:00

The Runway,
By Mary Stebbins Taitt
Sakura pens
Prismacolor and Big Mark-it markers

Snakeskin Hat

I also did a little more work on the Snakeskin hat.

I walked 47 minutes (and 24 seconds) at Dodge Brother's State Park. I took a bunch of stereo pix, but I can't display them in stereo.

Dodge Brothers State Park, Sterling Heights.

Strawberry Boullibaisse

2012-01-18T12:59:00.001-05:00

SPEAK OUT FOR FREEDOM FOR THE WEB!

Last night I made Strawberry Boullibaisse. I didn't think to take a picture, we just gobbled it up. I usually put lemon juice and orange rind in, but Piano Boy had asked for strawberries for smoothies and then not eaten them, so I had a whole quart of them. (I only used about one fifth of them for two people).

Here's what I did:I cut up fresh fennel, mushrooms, yellow squash, green squash spinach and strawberries, added a can of olive (sm can) drained, a can of organic diced tomatoes with juice, a can of clams with juice, tilapia, scallops, and shrimp. I cut the fish in soup sizes. For vegetarians, substitute tofu and/or beans for the fish. Spices: thyme, parsley, dill, garlic, salt, pepper, old bay, bay leaves, coriander.

It was different but delicious.

I'm a creative cook, so my recipes are pretty general--I always assume you can decide how much of everything you need per person.

Day 17 + Snakeskin Hat

2012-01-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

PLEASE DON'T CENSOR the WEB!

Snakeskin Hat,
Mary Srebbins Taitt

Snakeskin Hat, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, Sakura Micron 05 and Sakura Brush.

I walked 45 minutes and 9 seconds today, with Keith, to Richard (REE-shard) and back.

Janathon, Day 16 + new art

2012-01-16T20:33:00.000-05:00

Icky Fingers (Biker Buddy works on the Jetta), by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt. A digital Artrage painting done on iOla the iPad.

I walked 45 minutes today at Pier Park (See photos below).

We also took the grandchildren to see the movie Hugo in 3D, which we enjoyed immensely. (See photo below.)

Rotted ice from freezing and thawing

ice patterns and colors

the swimming buoys wound up for the winter

It would be very difficult to swim--you'd need an axe to cut through the ice!

formations of snow along the shore

The grandkids and Biker Buddy at the 3D movie, Hugo. (good movie!)

In my Sketchbook project sketchbook (5 x 7), I tried to do an Andrea-style abstract and failed miserably.

here is the two-page spread.

It doesn't look good, but it actually looks a little better in person than it does here, because I used glitter ink and the colors look much prettier than in the scan.

I had trouble formatting this post, I'm sorry. I know it looks bad, but I couldn't fix it. :-(

From our walk Earlier

2012-01-15T22:55:00.000-05:00

From our walk Downtown (Cultural District.)

Janathon Day 15 + "Beer"

2012-01-15T21:45:00.001-05:00

"Beer" and Sweetheart
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
pen and ink

"Beer" with Keith (Biker Buddy"), in Micron Pens and metallic gel pens. 5 x 7 in Sketchbook Project Sketchbook. It may be bigger on your monitor (when you click on it) than it was when I drew it.

I walked 46 minutes today, half downtown and half as soon as I returned home (almost back to back).

Janathon, Day 14, + New Art (Keith's stare)

2012-01-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

Keith's Stare
Biker Buddy, Listening to Music, by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
5 x 7, pen and ink, plain white paper

I just realized that I need to get back to work on the Sketchbook Project for the Brooklyn Art Library, as the deadline is fast approaching, so I made this little sketch, It's my husband--or--it's supposed to be.

As far as walking, I had two back to back walks today. The first was for 15-something and the second 35-something. The sidewalks were snowy, icy and slippery and it was COLD.

I also worked on a poem. It's called "A Winter Phone call, Leda speaks to Cygnus." If you would like to see it, leave me a note to that effect.

Janathon, Day 13 and new art: Splotch Monster

2012-01-14T14:58:00.002-05:00

Splotch Monster Collaboration with Steve Loya
in my returned Moleskine from Round 2

I forgot about finishing up my Round 2 Moleskine. So here's the first of those. Steve made the color and I made it into a "monster."

I walked 45 minutes yesterday.

I had company for dinner and made seafood Jambalaya from scratch without a recipe. and squash and salad and the dinner came out great. We had excellent conversation. :-D The squash was the last butternut from the garden. I will be sad about that now that they are gone. We made a block print. :-D Maybe I should post that, too.

Janathon, Day 12

2012-01-12T20:14:00.001-05:00

Blue Heron, Clinton River
Summer 2011
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt

I walked today, but not at the Clinton River. I walked 45 minutes in my neighborhood. I did not see blue heron. It was raining. I've been cleaning. I hate cleaning. I am cleaning wimp.

Janathon Day 11

2012-01-11T17:00:00.001-05:00

Scott's Dolls
photo by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt
at Scott's house on Silk Creek

I walked over 20 minutes to and from the store, and more around inside
the store shopping for groceries, then rode my bicycle 16:14 to the
Library and back and then walked 15:48.

We have a meeting of the Detroit Stereographic Society tonight at 7 PM
and dinner before that. We enjoy the 3D images. :-D

At the Coney on Monday, January 2012

2012-01-11T13:30:00.001-05:00

At The Coney on Monday, January, 2012
by Mary Stebbins Taitt

Portrait of Graham and Kristina at the Coney Island, Mack and Moross, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, artrage digital painting from SCRATCH (no photos were damaged or abused [or even used] in the making of this art piece.) The likenesses are BAD, because I'm not that good with likenesses anyway and they got up and left before I finished (drawn from life).

Janathon, Day 10

2012-01-10T23:16:00.002-05:00

I walked 46 minutes, had a meeting, was in a hurry.

My Walk Today Along Merriweather etc
(click image to view larger)

1, 2: burlap
3: English ivy, an invasive alien
4. Shadow of a tree
5. Tiger, in cement
6. The Piney Woods (not very piney, not accessible)
7. Black squirrel--I saw lots
8: lines and shadows.

I worked on a poem and on some art, did not finish.

I am grateful for sunshine and warmth. Un-January-like.

Janathon Day 9

2012-01-10T08:59:00.005-05:00

Virtual Neighborhood walk

I walked 52 minutes yesterday--and much faster and farther than I have been walking. The battery on my Pedometer is dead, the one my daughter gave me, and we haven't been able to replace it yet. We've been to multiple places and they've been out of the battery. So I don't know how far I walked. I'd guess Around 3 miles?

The images are all things I can walk to from home--things I DID walk to.

I didn't complete any art--we went to the movies last night and saw Sherlock Holmes Shadow Game--too much gratuitous violence for me. I did write a poem, earlier in the day, but it is very disturbing. If you'd like to see it, say so in your comment and I will email it. Assuming I have your email.

PS: If you read my earlier post about post-it notes, for Hennie Mavis, here's her response. (You have to scroll down.) She's got one of the actual notes.

Janathon Day 8 and art

2012-01-09T09:34:00.000-05:00

Tiger Swallowtail
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
colored pencil and ink on 5.5 inch card

I made this card yesterday for my friend Adele. We were discussing the cards I used to make in 1980, and I tried to make one, but I couldn't leave it alone and added ink to it. The colored pencil looked so pale.

Dangling Feet
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
Auryn ink on iPad

I got a new iPad app for 99 cents, Auryn Ink, but it is such a struggle that I probably won't use it much.

Me with my grandson Frankie
last June

Frankie won't let me hold him anymore. :-( He has stranger anxiety and since I live 400 miles away, I'm a stranger to him.

Janathon: I walked 45 minutes yesterday. It was not a particularly fun walk. :-( But anyway, I did it.

Janathon Day 7 and Auryn Ink on my iPad

2012-01-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

I couldn't post yesterday, we were too busy, but I did walk 52 minutes up at Metrobeach at the Nature Center. I was feeling a little better than I have been, but not all the way back to normal. I did all my exercises and yoga and had a good walk all in one session.

I also did this art piece on a new 99-cent app for the iPad. It's my first piece on this app and there is always a learning curve. There is also the factor of beginner's luck.

Art piece Explicated (A Note to Mubin)

2012-01-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

Mubin Sultan sent methis little art-card. Here's my interpretation of the piece:

It demonstrates oldage, dying and death. The ropes and "pulley" (nails?) represent themachineries of time and life. The weight represents the constant pressure oftime and the weight of the inevitability of death. The pitcher is the portionof time of one's life pouring out. The bowl of life is fragile and balanceddelicately almost half off its shelf--the water is pouring on the sideprecariously hung over space and "rocks" (something that will breakit when it falls). The darkness and sunset tells the viewer of the time of day(life). And the bowl is nearly full, the pitcher nearly empty, time is runningout. We all feel the pressure of the inevitability of death and the fragilityof life, so the art speaks to us.

Excellent, thank you, Mubin. ♥♥♥

(WAHN!) (I am not overlyfond of the inevitability of aging and death.)

Hellebore "Digitally altered photograph"

2012-01-06T23:26:00.000-05:00

Around here, Hellebore or Christmas Rose (not a rose!) is one of the earliest spring flowers. e had a kind of Spring-like day today.

This is from another year, the flower that is. I just made the painting on artrage--it is a digitally altered photograph--I took the photograph and altered it on artrage.

Hellebore, by Mary Stebbins Taitt
digitally altered photograph
altered in Artrage

This was an experiment and is NOT the way I normally work. However, I consider this an "art" piece for the following reasons:

I took the photo, an artistic composition decision
I altered the photo with additional choices about lighting and so on in Photoshop raw
I "painted" the photo in artrage
I further manipulated it in Photoshops again after the fact.

Photography purists don't like manipulated photos and art purists don't like manipulated photos. Perhaps there should be a category for them, because I think this is a piece of art.

Here is the original unmanipulated raw photograph. I have friends who always like the original photos better than any "art" I make from them and that is their prerogative. Yes, I recentered the art piece. If You click on either of them, you can view them side by side. I don't normally do this remember--it was an experiment, one of a number of such, for fun. I feel as if I am sounding defensive, and I am feeling that way because so many people attack this kind of work. In my opinion, they do not appreciate the kinds of artistic decisions that go into it. You can choose to like or dislike it--what matters most to me is that I LIKE IT and I enjoyed doing it.

I am also not sure this is done. It needs more work. Whether or not I will choose to do that remains to be seen.

Icky Fingers and Janathon, Day 6

2012-01-06T20:49:00.000-05:00

This is my last piece in Stephanie's Moleskine for the Exchange group, so I will be sending it to Ammon as soon as I can get it together, hopefully tomorrow or Monday, It is done in 005 Micron pen black. Also a little splash of black gouache. The green bit on the mouth is from a dirty scanner, sorry.

Icky Fingers
Micron Pen
1st half of a collaboration with Ammon

It's my husband, Biker Buddy (Keith), in case you don't recognize him, working on my son Graham's car. However, Ammon could make it into something else and that would be OK. I'll be interested to see what he does with it.

As far as Janathon goes, I did all my exercises and walked 3 laps of 16:23, 15:16 and 17:37. I think I am mildly depressed. I really did NOT want to walk today. Normally walking is one of my favorite things to do. I had to drag myself out. I am not sure I got the times exactly right, but they were something like that. The first one is right because I remember thinking I got the exact same time yesterday on that lap. My Psion has died so I can't keep track as easily.

Also today was a day for thank you notes received:

one from Mubin with lovely art (by her) and enclosures:

Art by Mubin Sultan
gift to me from Mubin with thank you note.

and 4 from my friend Gail and her three Grandchildren for the book I illustrated and my daughter wrote:

Thank you notes from Gail. Siri, Gemma and Nico
for the book, Welcome Home Little Nephew by Erin

I have to get going on my thank you notes!!!

For Hennie Mavis

2012-01-06T20:30:00.002-05:00

My friend Hennie Mavis gave me this for Christmas (among other things, thank you very much, Hennie!):

It's a post-it note holder. I do use a LOT of post-it notes. I think she gave it to me because she was highly amused at my post-it notes, attached to the kitchen cupboard, two if which said:

"photograph Grim Reaper at night"
"rabies letter"

Both of these made perfect sense to me, since I knew what they meant. Curious? Click here! See the Grim Reaper, photographed at night? The rabies letter note was because I got bitten by a dog.

I just found another one that might have amused Hennie had she seen it--it was damaged in the most recent flood at the retreat house. It predates Hennie's visit.

What it said was:

"Photograph Our Lady of Perpetual Weirdness." That task was for my Detroit Daily blog, and, I don't think I ever did it--I still want to. I'm only posting it for Hennie's possible amusement.

PS: (later): read Hennie's post about this here.

Turning the Eggs, Collaborations with Gretchen

2012-01-06T17:07:00.002-05:00

Turning the Eggs
Collaborations with Gretchen

Turning the Eggs, Collaboration by Gretchen Owen and Mary Stebbins Taitt
markers and pens. Dedicated to Hennie Mavis. Gretchen did the eggs and I did the chicken and background.

Janathon, Day 5

2012-01-05T20:17:00.000-05:00

Walking with my friend Scott
at Three Rivers, Photo by Keith

I did better today. I'm still sick, but incrementally better, and I managed to walk a little more than 45 minutes in three essentially back to back sessions: 16:23, 15:07, 17:15, and I did my yoga and exercises. I'm still hoping to make up the lost sessions. But not until my health is back to normal. I may even jog some. I also stuck to my diet today.

Under the I70 Bridge, Silverthorne, Colorado

2012-01-04T21:31:00.002-05:00

Under the rte 70 Bridge, Silverthorne, Colorado
gouache

This is another virtual paintout picture from Silverthorne, Colorado. Gouache on AG Plainbook.

Virtual Paintout, 5th try: Aspen, Colorado

2012-01-04T14:32:00.000-05:00

Aspen, Colorado
the walking trail
gouache

Two more pages completed in a two-page spread. This is another for the Virtual Paintout. Aspen, Colorado. I scanned the pages separately and didn't get the register quite right in the image. Sorry. It doesn't look like that in the book (in the center.)

Here is the google maps street view image I used to paint this from (for the Virtual Paintout).

Screen capture of street view used for painting above

Problem is, I MISSED--Aspen is in Pitkin County, not Summit County. :-( I MESSED UP YET AGAIN.

Janathon, Day 4

2012-01-04T10:48:00.000-05:00

Well, I am not getting off to a very good start--I am still sick--bad vertigo--can hardly walk. I managed 15 minutes of walking, but it was a struggle.

Janathon, Day 3, Part II

2012-01-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 4:19 PM

I am out walking; it is very cold, but sunny, though the sun is low because it's so late.

I am sick.

My Psion is broken. Yesterday, I went out for walk and took the Psion, Aamira, out with me. When we were leaving for our trip to Syracuse' the Psion was working fine and it put it in it's case for safekeeping and when I took it out, it made crackling sounds and refused to work, I am writing on the iPad, but it is big and heavy and hurts my hands and back holding it like this and won't fig on my pocket and my hands are getting cold.

Aamira means full of life, but Aamira is full of death. Or very ill, anyway.

I am sick, I had insomnia last night, but it goes beyond insomnia.. I had two bouts of vertigo and have been dizzy, weak and (mildly) nauseous all day,

I can't walk, I'm going back.

I am home again. I walked 15 instead of 45 minutes, not a good start to the new year, but not horribly surprising considering all the garbage I've been eating over the holidays. I hope that's all it is.

I plan to make up the lost time. I couldn't do my sit-ups and other exercises today because of the vertigo. I did do some of them, slowly, but gave it up--it was exacerbating my vertigo.

I am depressed about being sick and depressed about not accomplishing anything today and depressed about the Psion being broken. Bad start to the year. :-( I often get off to a bad start because of holiday indiscretions in my eating.

Virtual Paintout 4th try, Dillon Colorado

2012-01-03T18:09:00.001-05:00

YAY! WHOOOOPEE! Hurrah! Stephanie's Moleskine came in the mail this afternoon--thanks Gretchen-- and I did a quick sketch in it for the Virtual Paintout in Summit COunty Colorado. I've tried three times and I've always screwed it up somehow, so I'm trying again a fourth time. Felt-tip Markers, graphite.

Janathon my way day 3

2012-01-03T08:25:00.001-05:00

Walking at Three Rivers with Scott

I'm doing Janathon my way. Janathon means running or exercising daily and blogging about it and logging in.

I walk every day. Sometimes I run. When I say run, I mean a slow jog.

I've walked every day this month (and every day last month, last year etc, with very few exceptions.)

But I don't blog every day and I do NOT need more to do or a larger community of folks, no matter how nice they are.

I'd prefer to choose how to spend my time and who to spend it with. I want to improve the relationships I already have and perhaps add one or two QUALITY relationships. Not tons of how do you do 3-word response virtual relationships.

So why do Janathon then? Good question! It's encouragement for my exercise program. I guess it's my way of saying, I am exercising daily and will continue to do so. And maybe write about it. We'll see. And I am willing to make new friends, just not the ones who write "WTG!" on everything and nothing else.

Happy New Year!!! (and a start at resolutions)

2012-01-03T07:59:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! I hope your year is the best one yet.

Every year at this time, I make a list of resolutions, and if I compared the lists from one year to the next, they would have a lot in common. The problems I need to solve in my life go on from year to year pretty much unchanged, in spite of my efforts to change them. Not that there is no change, but the change is glacial.

To top things off, I was up all night with insomnia and am exhausted. Not a good way to start the new year.

SO--insomnia is my first issue. To work on that, I need to eat right and exercise right. Those are my first goals.

One day at a time, I will start eating better and work on my exercise program.

I also want to get more organized, and I need more time, so I have made a resolution to work on various organizational issues, and I have started with this goal: every day, I am going create one or more filters to reduce the amount of incoming email. I have 21,744 UNREAD messages in my inbox and thousands of read ones waiting for some action on my part. So far today, I have created three filters to remove unwanted mail and deleted many others. It seems like a small effort, but over time, I hope it will help my overall time problem.

I may post more about my goals later today or in the upcoming days.

I hope you have a great year.

Books and Movies 2011

2012-01-03T04:10:00.000-05:00

Every year at this time, I publish an incomplete list of the books I read and the movies I saw during the previous year. Once again, this is a partial list.

Booklist 2011

Adult Fiction:

House Rules, Jody Picoult. 1-17-11
Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear, 1-24-11
Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult. 2-16-11
The Penelopiad. Margaret Atwood, 3-18-11
Life Before Man, Margaret Atwood, 3-31-11
Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean Auel, 4-16-11, rr
The Valley of Horses, Jean Auel, rr
Persuasion, Jane Austin, 4-29-11
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick, 4-3-11
Nights of Rain and Stars, Maeve Binchy, 5-5-11
Emma, Jane Austen, 5-19-11
The Muse of Art, Piers Anthony
Why Didn’t they ask Evans? Agatha Christie
The Valley of Horses, Jean Auel
The Mammoth Hunters, Jean Auel
The Blood of Flowers, Anita Amirrezvani, 6-10-11
Moral Disorder, Margaret Atwood, 6-20-11
Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck, July 2011
Last Resort, Hannah Alexander, July 2011
The Plains of Passage, Jean Auel, July 2011, rr
Shelters of Stone, Jean Auel, July 2011, rr
The White Queen, Phillipa Gregory, Aug 27, 2011
High Noon, Nora Roberts, September 7, 2011
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Tom Robbins, 9-8-11
Off Season, Ann Rivers Siddon. 9-9-11
Undead and Unfinished, MaryJanice Davidson, 9-14-11
Rant, Chuck Palahniuk, 9-22-11
The Reef, by Nora Roberts, 10-4-11
Night Vision, Randy Wayne White, 10-22-11
Dragon’s Eyes, Stephen King, 10-31-11
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey, rr, 11-2-11
Hyperion, Dan Simmons, 11-28-11
A Change in Altitude, Anita Shreve, 12-12-11

Adult Nonfiction/How-to/Self-help
The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes, William Ury, 2-1-11
The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes, William Ury, 2-23-11, rr
The Power of a Positive No: how to stay No and Still Get to Yes, William Ury, 3-3-11, rr
Identical Strangers, Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein, 3-12-11
Healthy Sleep, Andrew Weil and Rueben Naiman, 3-15-11
Healthy Sleep, Andrew Weil and Rueben Naiman, 4-2-11, rr
Healthy Sleep, Andrew Weil and Rueben Naiman, 4-25-11, rr
Teen Novels:
Leaving Fishers, by Margaret Patterson Haddix
Amy, Mary Hooper, July 2011
Into the WIld Nerd Yonder, Julie Halpern, 8-25-11
Children’s Novels:
Missee Lee, Arthur Ransome, 1-10-11
White Sands, Red Menace, Ellen Klages, 2-5-11
Judy Moody #1, Megan McDonald, Peter Reynolds, 3-28-11
The Hunted, Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson, 3-30-11
The Museum of Thieves, Lian Tanner, 4-8-11
The Picts and the Martyrs, Arthur Ransome, 5-31-11
No More Dead Dogs, Gordon Korman, July 2011
Turtle in Paradise, Jennifer L. Holm, Aug 27, 2011
Fudge-a-mania, Judy Blume, Aug 26, 2011
The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket, September 1, 2011
Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs, September 3, 2011
Surviving the Applewhites, by Stephanie S. Tolan, September 3, 2011.
The Animal Shelter Mystery, Gertrude Chandler Warner, 9-10-11
The Cay, Theordore Taylor, 9-10-11
The Misfits, James Howe, 9-20-11
Scrambled Eggs, Totally Summer, 9-22-11
Shadow Spinner, Susan Fletcher, 10-3-11
The Little Gymnast, Sheila Haigh, 10-6-11
Fourth Grade Rats, Jerry Spinelli, 10-17-11
City of Lies, Lian Tanner, 12-10-11
Children’s Picture books:
The House that Drac Built, Judy Sierra, Will Hildebrand. 2X, rr, 1-10-11
Goat’s Adventure in Alphabet Town, Janet McDonnel, 2-12-11
Eating the Alphabet, Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z, Lois Ehlert, 3-20-11
The House that Drac Built, Judy Sierra, Will Hildebrand, rr, 3-20-11
Twas the Fright before Christmas, Judy Sierra, Will Hildebrand, 3-20-11
Twas the Fright before Christmas, Judy Sierra, Will Hildebrand, rr, 3-21-11
A Time to Keep: The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays, by Tasha Tudor, 3-24-11
Pablo's Tree, Pat mora, Cecily Lang, 3-2711
The Monster Princess, DJ MacHale, Alexandra boiger
Three scoops and a fig, Sara Laux Akin, Susan Kathleen Hartung
Slimy Slugs and Grubby Bugs, 3-27-11
A teeny Tiny Baby, Amy Schwartz, 3-29-11, 2X
I love You as much, Laura Krausee Melmed, Henri Sorensen, 2X
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? Bill Martin. Eric Carle, July 2011, 2X
Germs Germs germs, Bobbi Katz, Steve Bjorkman, July 9, 2011
Little People of the Night, Laura Bannon, 8-24-11
Fairy Trails, Susan Middleton Elya, 8-16-11
Movies 2011
The Back Swan, 2-3-11
The King’s Speech 2-14-11
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Swedish version, 2-25-11
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo boiler
The Adjustment Bureau, 3-5-11
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part !! with K and Rachel
Cowboys and Aliens, 8-22-11, with K and Rachel
Spy Kids 4, with Keith and Nathaniel, 8-29-11
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with Keith, 9-1-11
Contagion, with Keith,Graham and Kristina, 9/21/11
Real Steel, with Keith, 10-15-11
The Gril with the Dragon Tattoo, American version, 12-27-11
rr= reread

Janathon, Day 2

2012-01-02T22:51:00.000-05:00

We drove all day today, leaving Syracuse NY at 8:30 in the morning. After we got home, exhausted from the 7-hour drive and the long wait at the boarder, and after we unloaded the car, I walked 45 minutes in our neighborhood.

Janathon Day 1

2012-01-01T22:52:00.000-05:00

Because we were visiting family and celebrating Christmas, I did my Janathon walking in bits and pieces today.

The sun was shining and was supposed to go away alter. I walked 17 minutes from the hotel and back in the AM.
I did 20 minutes of mall walking between shopping for Christmas gifts for a late celebration.
We walked 19 minutes all together at my daughter's house. It was cold and blustery. I felt unwell.

Virtual Paintout #3: Eureka Salt Flats

2011-12-31T23:05:00.001-05:00

Eureka Salt Flats; TRYing again, hasty attempts, next time I'll have more time. I found
out too late this time.

I attend a Virtual Paintout in Eureka, California

2011-12-30T11:35:00.003-05:00

My friend Gail Slaughter who lives near Eureka California sent me a newspaper clipping about the Virtual Paintout. I decided to try submitting, and this is the first painting I did:

Sequoia Park Zoo, Eureka California
small watercolor on Canson Paper
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt

The instructions said to go to google maps and using the streetview, choose a view. I had never done that before, and I thought I'd done it but it turned out to be a photo--I didn't realize it, being unfamiliar with the google maps and streetviews, until it was too late. So I can't submit it.

So I did another one:

Redwood Highway (101), Eureka, California
by Mary Stebbins Taitt

Unfortunately, being the end of the year and the end of the month, both of these were done more hastily than I would prefer to do them. But we are out of town visiting and I have limited art supplies and limited time.

(NOTE: we are 400 miles from home and may not be able to get on the internet!)

2011-12-20T11:16:00.001-05:00

Crowman and me
After The Crow Man, by Winterwolfe

From a dream which you can see here if interested.

ArtRage: Insomnia 111218

2011-12-17T02:38:00.000-05:00

One of my ArtRage paintings: Insomnia 111218 for the poem below. 2:38 Am and not a wink of sleep yet tonight. Not one wink.

In the Way; Insomnia # 111218

2011-12-17T01:59:00.001-05:00

In the Way; Insomnia # 111218

I lie in bed and twitch, tired, but not sleepy.
I don't know what to do with my extra arms and legs.
Wherever I put them,they are in the way, cordwood
piledagainst raw skin. My body twistsinto a mobius strip,
a single surfaceof angst. Electricity cracklesand snaps
down my spine, leaping from vertebrae to vertebrae.
My left foot circles and rearslike a wild stallion.
When it leapsfrom the bed, it drags the rest of me,
protesting, with it, out into canyonsof darkness,
lighting the nightwith the lantern
throbbing from my weary skull.

Mary Stebbins Taitt111218-0200

Making Christmas Cards

2011-12-14T10:53:00.003-05:00

I've been very busy. This is just ONE of my ongoing projects:

drawing the design

carving the design

inking the design

first print

inside

printing the cards and drying them

Making Homemade Christmas cards is a slow and tedious process with many opportunities to mess things up or even even ruin the work. There is no undo button.

Mailing Gifts

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

I mailed off my first Christmas gift a few days ago to Mubin in India, a painting I made, also another for a late birthday gift.

Goldfinch and the new chapter 12

2011-12-10T21:25:00.001-05:00

Today I wrote a new chapter 12 and the old one (last post) is now chapter 13. I am the author, and I can do that.

The new chapter 12, however, is unfinished--intentionally--I want to use it as a repository for certain things that need to be communicated. Later.

Goldfinch, by Mary Stebbins Taitt

So, what does the goldfinch photo that took with a long lens at the Pinery in Ontario in May have to do with my new chapter 12? Absolutely nothing. I just wanted to add a pretty picture.

You can see that the oak leaves are bigger than a squirrel's ear and yes the morels WERE gone by.

If you would like to read the new Chapter 12, it is HERE.

Chapter 13, Day 5, part 3, Night visitor (NaNoWriMo 2011, Death Angel)

2011-12-10T12:44:00.001-05:00

What follows is an entire chapter. I realize that's a lot to read online. First draft, still many things to be fixed. And somewhat out of order. I hope to assemble the chapters in order somehow, somewhere.

Chapter 13, Day 5, part 3, Night visitor (NaNoWriMo 2011, Death Angel)

Saturday, September 10, 11:15 PM

Chapter flyleaf illo: raccoon

“You save yourself or youremain unsaved.” ― Alice Sebold

“Italready is bigger than everything else. It lives in front of me, behind me,next to me, inside me every single day.” ― Daisy Whitney, The Mockingbirds

When the festivities of theMycology Picnic were dying down and the stragglers were leaving, Rune saidgoodnight to Elizabeth and McHaggerty, who were themselves still saying goodbyeto last departing guests, shouldered her backpack, put on her headlamp with ared gel, but didn’t turn it on, and headed up the trail to the lean-to. Once she was out of sight from thelights of the house and party, she paused to allow her eyes to adapt to thedark. She knew that in twentyminutes, she’d be able to see as well as a cat in the dark—or, nearly as well,close enough. But she didn’t have to wait that long. The trail was wide. The McHaggerties kept it mowed until it became too steep, and by then,she could see well enough to navigate the trail, which was still well-trimmedagainst encroaching branches that could poke an eye.

                      Runehad stayed at the lean-to before, on a number of occasions over the last fewyears of her undergraduate work, and remembered the first time. It was inthe fall of the year she had first taken Mycology 158 with Dr. McHaggerty. Itwas during her first McHaggerty picnic when McHaggerty had taken her, Larry andabout 5 other students including Jody and Bart out at the end of the evening tothe lean-to. Almost everyone else had left, and McHaggerty built a fireand he, Larry and the six students ((Name the others?)) had roastedmarshmallows and made s'mores with supplies that McHaggerty had secretlybrought in his backpack. They drank a little wine, sang some songs andwent back to McHaggerty's and on back to campus flushed with happiness and goodfeelings.
           Sometime later, Rune had told McHaggerty that she liked to camp and had camped allher life. She'd asked if she could stay in his lean-to sometime, and he'dreadily agreed.
           Ona fine sunny afternoon one weekend in October, Rune rode out on the Indian. Itwas Indian-summer warm, the fall colors resplendent. Elizabeth hadinvited Rune for dinner, and they'd grilled round steaks with thin slices ofgarlic in little slits in the meat and parsnips and carrots from the garden,wrapped in several layers of foil with butter and garlic chunks and laid on thecoals. A colorful tossed salad with radishes from the McHaggerty’s garden andmushrooms from their yard and small cooked bits of summer squash complementedthe meal. One of McHaggerty'sfavorite meals, Rune recalled. They'd sat out back admiring the sugarmaples, which were bright red at the top, orange in the middle, yellow at thebottom and in green inside. Rune had set up her small tripod and takenpictures, first of the trees, and then of Dr. and Mrs. McHaggerty, first intheir Adirondack chairs and then standing with a pitchfork in front of theirhouse glowering. That picture hadbeen put on the flyleaf of the school yearbook that year.
           McHaggertyand Elizabeth walked Rune out to the lean-to just before sunset, and they'd allthree carefully climbed on the roof to watch the sun set over the hills. It hasbeen the reddest sunset Rune had ever seen.
           ThenElizabeth and McHaggerty had left, and Rune had set up camp in the lean-to. Itdidn’t' take long; she laid out an air mattress, a sleeping bag, and a canteen.
           Suddenly,it was pitch dark, and Rune heard appalling noises in the woods, screeching andshrieking and howling and the send of footsteps, sometimes quite loud andclose.
           Runewas terrified.
           She'dbeen camping all her life, since she was 6 weeks old, but it suddenly occurredto her that she had never before camped alone. Never. Family or friendshave always surrounded her.
           Shetold herself to stop being so foolish, and that she was a big girl now, and notafraid of the dark.
                       Butshe was unaccountablyterrified of the dark.
                       She wondered if there were everany bears around here, or wolves or coyotes or wild dogs or escaped convicts.
                       The woods were alive withsound.
                       There were hoots and whistles,cracklings, stampings and snortings. Did bears snort?
                       Wild pigs?
                       Rune was in wildlife managementat the time, and tried to remember everything she'd read. Wild pigs weredangerous, but she didn't believe they lived around there. There weren'tsupposed to be any dangerous animals nearby. But what about rapists andmurderers?
                       Rune shivered. It wasincredibly unbelievably cold. It had been such a warm day. She curledinto a ball inside her sleepingbag with the bag’s thick hood over her head andthe drawstrings pulled tight around her nostrils. She listened to the nightnoises, the loud clatterings of branches and twigs and leaves, the snorts andscreeches.
                       She laughed now, remembering. Nowshe knew that the sounds were made by screech owls, deer and raccoons, none of whichnormally dangerous. But that night, they seemed monstrous in her mind.
                       She had wanted to go home,desperately. Not just back to the dorm, but home to her parents.
                       But she embarrassed to leave inthe middle of the night. Ashamed to admit her fear. So she stayed,and eventually slept. And woken upto a hard rain. She was soaked andbedraggled by the time she’d hiked back to McHaggerty’s for breakfast, butsecretly exultant that’s he’d camped alone for the first time ever.
                       She'd like to think that thatwas last time she'd ever been afraid. But it wasn't. She wasn't afraid ofthe dark most of the time, but if she'd seen a scary movie or read a scary bookor was just feeling low for some reason, she could work up a good fright notonly in the woods, but also at home.
                       Still, Rune generally felt muchless afraid in the woods at night now

            Rune folded her sleeping bag andsat in the dark and meditated, counting breaths and letting her thoughts floatthrough, observed but not followed. That was the idea, anyway. Shefloated along on the surface of her thoughts, hearing the screech owls and thegreat-horned owls and barred owls calling back and forth. She knew moreowl calls now than she had that first time. She named the sounds withoutlosing herself in them. Then she suddenly surfaced to realize she hadbeen dragged below by an errant thought to which she'd inadvertently attachedherself. She'd float up, observe and slip away again.
            The darkness grew velvety andrich. She became increasingly aware of smells, a smell of soil, thesmells of mushrooms and worm castings, a musky smell of some animal, maybe awoodchuck. The sweet fragrance of an autumn flower or a very sweet grassor fern. The crashings in the woods behind the lean-to were probablyraccoons.   She could smell the damp and slightly rotted smell of theold logs of the lean-to. The memory of the shower scene in Psycho, the knife going up and down, the hands frantically coveringthe breasts, which ironically, McHaggerty had taken her to see a the Manlius insome rerun festival early in their friendship, flitted through her mind and shefelt a momentary sense of panic and dread and then watched it drain away againas she slowed her breathing. She’dnever let anyone take her to another horror movie. Breathe in; breathe out. Why would anyone want to be frightened intentionally?Adrenaline rush. No thanks. Breathe in; breathe out. The fear lingered around the edges ofher thoughts, and then vanished as she inadvertently followed a more cheerfulthought of the big breakfast Elizabeth would prepare for her in themorning. Smiling, she returned yetagain to her breath.
            She didn't time her meditation,she just decided the moment had come to lie down, and crawled into her sleepingbag and closed her eyes. She'd taken off her jeans, folded themcarefully, and put them under her head for a pillow. She wore the rest ofher clothes, including her sweater and socks, because of the chilliness of thenight.
            She woke some time later,listened to the night, turned on her side and drifted away again. Later,she turned to her other side, waking only enough to notice the chill air on theskin of her cheeks.
            The next time she woke up, shewas not alone.

            Sleepily, Rune started to sit up,to look around the dark lean-to, to listen. But someone pushed her down andlaid on top of her, fumbling for the sleeping bag's zipper. All Rune'sfears from the first time she stayed here flooded back and she screamed. Ahand clamped over her mouth. Another hand snaked into her clothing fromthe top of the sleeping bag. Rune struggled, but she was trapped, heldtight in the bag, and whoever held her was stronger than she. The handwriggled among the layers of clothes until it found her skin, the skin near hercollarbone.
            The hand stroked in an odd way,pressing rhythmically, then slid down into her bra to cup her breast. Runestruggled and fought. She felt herself becoming sleepier, lethargic, andwondered if she'd been drugged. She went limp, lay still, and the handcame off her mouth. The weight lifted and the sleeping bag was untwistedand unzipped. Suddenly, Rune rolled to the side, scrambled up, and ran,tripping over the edge of the lean-to and sprawling on the ground. Shewas desperately sleepy and dizzy, but she had to get away. She crawled on herhands and knees and managed to get up and run into the woods. She crashedthrough the underbrush. Someone followed, with a flashlight.
            Rune stood, swaying, weak andwoozy, with her back to a large tree and reached up to her collarbone. Justunder the collarbone, she found a patch of some kind, stuck to her skin. Shepeeled it off and folded the sticky sides together, wrapped it in a leaf andjammed it in her bra. She wasn't wearing pants, and had no other pocketsbut wanted to save it to examine later. She didn't move. Shewaited. Whoever was nearby was waiting too.
            Rune clung to the tree. Shehad managed ever so slowly to turn around without making a sound. Shecould feel moisture seeping into her socks. A flashlight scanned back and forth through the woods. Itarced toward her and away, without coming quite to her tree. When the circle oflight, broken by leaves and branches, was at the far end of the arc away fromher, she peered around the side of the tree. Faint light reflected backfrom the trees and bushes showed her McHaggerty’s face, looking both anxiousand evil from the weird lighting. It was so much like something from ahorror movie that Rune almost screamed. She covered her own mouth, bitingher fingers.
            Then she calmed slightly, as sherealized that McHaggerty wasn't planning to kill her. Probably. No, he wasn't,he wanted to have sex with her, and she hadn't encouraged him, so he was takingit into his own hands. He wanted to make love to her. No, he wantedto rape her. He had given her something to make her sleep or atleast relax, it was on her skin, where he had rubbed his fingers, and he hadintended to take her without her permission. Maybe even without herknowledge.
            A great rush of anger flushedthrough her, anger, rage, shame, and disgust. Fury. Her head was clearing, shefelt less dizzy. She considered grabbing a branch from the ground andattacking McHaggerty, but instead, she stayed absolutely still.
            McHaggerty came into the woods,but she knew he couldn't see her, he could only see the circle of light wherehis flashlight fell. She knew this from a series of activities she hadparticipated in at Poconos Environmental Education Camp (PEEC). They hada had night walks and night activities all without the use of flashlights, andRune had come back to Syracuse with a new love of the night and a new respectfor it. She had taught a series of the workshops as a projects course at BeaverLake Nature Center in Baldwinsville. Funny, she thought, that with allMcHaggerty's knowledge and experience he didn't seem to know this simple fact.
            He looked back and forth, andthen called her, "Rune. Rune? Rune!" Rune thoughtthat if she hadn't peeled off the patch on her chest, she might be passed outon the cold damp ground with no covering and no jeans. She could begetting hypothermia. She was pretty cold, though her anger warmed hersome. But if she was passed out, and McHaggerty didn't find her . . .. Shecould become ill or die out there in the cold. But she wasn't. She wondered, though, if he were nowworrying about her safety and well-being. Too bad he hadn't thought about thatsooner. Before he tried to . . .rape her. It was hard for Rune toeven think the word rape in conjunction with McHaggerty, whom she had loved forseveral years.
            She found herself thinking, wouldit have been so bad if I had just let him? And then was disgusted andshamed at the thought. She felt a tear trickling down her cheek and angrily wipedit away. Dammit, I love him, she thought, but not that way. Andnow, how am I supposed to feel about him? Always afraid and angry?
            She began to shiver, and shiveredharder until she was afraid she would make enough noise in the bushes forMcHaggerty to hear her. She steeled herself against the shivering, whichwas more than just cold. McHaggerty cast back and forth, back and forth,with the light, tromping further into the woods. He was making enoughnoise that Rune crept back into the lean-to and grabbed her jeans. Shecrossed the trail to the other side, pulled on her jeans and ducked into thewoods. Since she'd obviously gone into the woods on the lean-to side,McHaggerty would be unlikely to look for her on the far side. Hopefully.   Shecould hear him calling, sounding more and more worried.
            Finally, he came out, and takingone cursory swipe of the flash light and glance into the lean-to, retreateddown the trail toward the house. He was abandoning her limp, drugged bodyto hypothermia, she thought, angrily.
            As soon as he was out of sightdown the trail, Rune went back in the lean-to, shoved her hiking boots on overher damp leafy socks, crammed her sleeping bag into her day pack, tossed hercanteen and her few other things in on top, zipped it, and put it on her back. Shetied a bandanna around her head and followed McHaggerty down the trail. Hehad a good stride and a head start, and she only occasionally caught a glimpseof his flashlight at a distance. Good. He'd know soon enough that she wassafe.
            But when they got back to thehouse, Rune discovered that McHaggerty had, sometime earlier, blocked in theIndian with his Land Rover. McHaggerty was in the garage, rooting aroundin piles of stuff.
            The Indian was heavy. It was blockedin by the Land Rover behind it and by a row of boulders on either side of thedriveway. Rune pushed it toward the two lowest boulders, tugged a wheelup, pushed it. The engine made a small scraping sound and Rune waited,holding her breath, but McHaggerty was clanging around in the garage still. Shepushed it a little further and then hoisted the back wheel over the rocks. Shepushed it around the Land Rover and back up onto the driveway through a gap inthe rocks.
            The garage light went out, andRune held her breath, but McHaggerty was temporarily blinded by the sudden darkness. She saw he was carrying a suitcase-like object, only different, sort oflike a sewing machine case. Asmall generator, maybe, because in the other hand, he had a (()) of electricalcord and a large light. He apparentlyintended to search the woods for her, imagining her to have passed out, sheguessed. In a moment, he'd noticethat the motorcycle was gone, but if he was thinking clearly, he'd know hehadn't heard the sound of its starting up.
            Rune jammed the helmet on herhead. It was cold and damp with dew from hanging over the handlebars. Thenshe prayed and jumped on the starter. The Indian did not like starting when itwas cold and damp, but miraculously, it fired up immediately, and she roareddown the driveway and out onto highway 13.
            She flew into the night, twistingin a dance on the night highway. There was not another car in sight.
            She imagined McHaggerty chasingafter her in his Land Rover, but what would that accomplish? No, he'd berelieved she was safe and not passed out in the woods dying of hypothermia, andwould go inside and go to bed.

            As she drove back towardSyracuse, the thought that McHaggerty had intended to rape her raced throughher mind over and over. How was she supposed to feel about that? Howcould she continue to work for him? What should she say to him? How couldshe keep herself safe? She wondered if she should report the incident tothe police or to the Dean of students at ESF, or to anyone. What wouldhappen to him if she did? What would happen to her?

WeekWord: COLOR

2011-12-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

Sally at Sow and Sew has picked the WeekWord, colour. Please go there if you would like to participate and/or learn more.

We live in a colorful world! Even in December, it's colorful!!! (Either that, or I am!)

"Self-portrait at Three Rivers with Hug"
photograph by Mary Stebbins Taitt

It can be colorful at night, even though darkness causing our color vision to diminish. This is the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club from Lakeshore, near where I live:

"The Yacht Club by Moonlight"
Photo by Mary Stebbins Taitt
(Click image to view larger)

Winter can be colorful, in spite of all the white ice and snow:

Ice on Lake St. Clair at Lakeshore
Photograph by Mary Stebbins Taitt
(Click image to view larger)

Color affects our world, our tastes and our choices:

"Tassels"
Photograph by Mary Stebbins Taitt
Click to view larger.

As an acolyte artist, (acolyte used here to mean, in this case, a beginner, one who studies, and a follower of art as a spiritual and plebian practice), I am fascinated by color.

The three primary ways to talk about color are: hue, value and chroma or saturation.

Please note: because I am a BEGINNER, I may get some of this wrong, but I'll try.

COLOR THEORIESTwo theories explain how colors work and interact. The light, or additive theory deals with radiated and filtered light. The pigment, or subtractive theory deals with how white light is absorbed and reflected off of colored surfaces. As an artist, I am primarily interested in pigment theory. As a scientist, I am interested in light theory. Light theory has to do with the wavelengths of the hues. I probably won't have time to talk about that in a meaningful way this week. So I will talk (briefly, I expect) about pigment theory.

HUEWe all learned about color wheels when we were in grade school. The primary colors in a PIGMENT color wheel are red, yellow and blue.

"Primary"
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
(Click image to view larger)

I painted this image last night when I was up with terrible insomnia. It used the three primary colors of pigment theory, which of course, everyone knows from primary school. One thing I realized is that I create very few images with primary colors.

I did locate this photograph I took of a blue vase on the windowsill of a red barn with yellow flowers:

"Primary"
Chrysanthemums
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
(Click image to view larger)

Of course, the primary colors can be used to create secondary and tertiary colors. I painted the painting below as an exercise, copied from a book, using only the three primary colors. Absolutely no other colors besides red, blue and yellow were used in painting this pictures. It's a water color, one of my first:

"The Gatehouse"
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
Watercolor
(click image to view larger)

The secondary colors are orange green and purple. These colors are hues. They can be combined into other colors or hues.

VALUEThe value of a color is how light or dark it is, how much light is reflected from it.
The picture shown below is "play," play with color. In this case, I was playing with value. I chose a single hue, red, and added light and dark to that hue. I arranged the pigment on the screen in a way that pleased me--for fun.

"Remembering Our Love"
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
a value study of sorts
(Click image to view larger)

Value without hue is white, shades of grey and black.

"Keith with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)"
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
A value study in black, white and grey
(click image to view larger)

This is a black, white and grey "value study" of my husband complaining of "Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)"--or maybe he's just tired and depressed. Unfortunately, all the shades of grey did not reproduce. Black, white and shades of grey are colors, in that artist can buy tubes of paint. Some scientists consider black, white and shades of grey to be an absence of color.

This color value wheel

Shows the primary, secondary and tertiary hues in the white-marked portion, with darkening values going toward the outside of the circle and lightening values toward the inside of the circle.

SATURATION (or Chroma) is the color intensity of a hue.

This is a kind of clumsy saturation wheel I hastily painted myself.

The colors (hues) around the outside are very saturated, and then are increasingly desaturated to the middle. This is not entirely successful, because the values of these hues are not identical, but I couldn't colors with identical values. It does show the effects of saturation. Note that desaturated orange tends to resemble brown and desaturated yellow tends to resemble green. (Olive green).

The orange was most successful, as shown by the desaturated version of it:

This fully desaturated orange section shows how closely the values in the orange section are to each other, meaning that the "color variations" in the colored saturation wheel above are do entirely to saturation levels and not to hue or value.

For comparison:

The color value study ("Remembering our love") shown above still shows values when desaturated (changes in light and dark).

In the following unfinished painting, done right over an older painting, I used desaturation to indicate distance and saturation to indicate closeness. (I know the painting needs more work, but I am running out of time for this post.):

"Autumn Lane" (unfinished)
by Mary Stebbins Taitt
click image to view larger

"Autumn Lane 3-111207"
Can't leave it alone, got out the old palette knife

This image started out as a pointillistic pice in Tami's moleskine sketchbook (real ink on real paper). Every time I play with it, I change it. It is still supposed to be an example of saturation of color, and how desaturation makes things appear to retreat into the background. However, this copy fails to reproduce the colors accurately. And I can't fiddle with with it endlessly to get it perfect right now.

I hope you all have a colorful and joyous holiday season. (I could add that on here, too.)

Rune's Presentation, Part III, from Death Angel, Mary's 2011 NaNoWriMo Novel

2011-12-08T19:39:00.001-05:00

Amanita muscaria
Fly agaric
this is not my image but was borrowed off the internet. I found many copies of it but did not locate the photographer. I would be happy to give credit if I did.

Continued from Rune's Presentation, part II located here.

Rune's presentation part III

Rune showed slides of morels, of her grandmother frying them in butter and garlic and white wine. She showed shaggy manes and Coprinus. She mentioned how she thought it was odd in a way that the inky caps were among the first mushrooms she learned and explained that the students should never eat them and drink alcohol. Her grandmother had not told her that. Rune wondered if she knew. She did not tell them they shouldn't drink; most of them did and it was their business, not hers. She thought about the way her presentation wove in and out of McHaggerty's, how there were differences and similarities. In no case were her pictures or her wording the same. She didn't go for pyrotechnics. She thought, as she spoke, that she might add more flare in the future, when she was away from Dr. McHaggerty and Dr. Otis.
She talked briefly about chicken of the woods, hen of the woods and black trumpet mushrooms, which her grandmother used to flavor soups, stews and sauces, and then switched to poisonous mushrooms. She showed several of the white varieties of Amanita, and then talked about Fly agaric, Amanita muscaria.
"This is one of my favorite mushrooms," Rune said, showing a brightly-colored yellow Amanita muscaria. My grandmother told me that it was poisonous. I have friends who told me you can get high eating or smoking it. My research tells me that it is both poisonous and psychoactive and has been used by shamanic practitioners for centuries. But it is a dangerous mushroom to use for psychoactive properties because the dosage to get high is somewhat variable by season and location and by whether you dry or heat the mushroom and the dosage to get high and the dosage to to poison yourself are fairly close. Muscimol and Ibotenic acid are two of the psychoactive chemicals in Amanita muscaria. A fatal dose of Amanita muscaria is estimated to be approximately 15 caps whereas the amount recommended to get high is 1-6 dried caps. That may not sound like much of an overlap, but keep in mind that the dosage varies extensively." As she was talking, Rune showed a number of slides of different colored fly agarics, including bright red ones she got off the internet--she had never seen red ones in person. Only yellow and orange.

Amanita muscaria, yellow
Photo by Keith Taitt, Three Rivers GMA

"To further complicate the issue," Rune continued, "there are people who use this mushroom for food. They slice it thin and boil it. The toxins are water soluble and if properly prepared they become a food source. Deaths, which occur infrequently, are caused by coma and inability for self-ventilate-- that is, breathe. The prognosis for recovery for most people who eat these mushrooms, even in fairly large quantities, is good if they medical help. However, keep in mind that you can die if you eat them.
"If you are interested, compare what it says about Amanita muscaria on Wikipedia and at Erowid with what your textbook says. And consider taking Dr. Ned Tedeschi's course on Drugs from the Wild, keeping in mind that most of the drugs he's referring to are medicinal rather than psychoactive."
"The Drugs from the Wild course is too hard for most of you!" a laughing voice said in the back. Dr. Tedeschi had slipped into the back of the classroom, the fourth member of Rune's graduate committee. "I don't want a bunch of druggies taking the class thinking it will be an easy A," he added, still laughing. "What do you say we give Rune I mean Miss Carmichael a big hand?"
Everyone clapped and cheered and Rune asked if there was any questions and answered a few. As she was packing up the projector and turning off the computer, Dr. Otis returned to the front of the room.
She pushed the cart out of the room and paused in the hall to scarf down a couple of Larry's cookies. She heard Dr. Otis say to the class, "Even a hobbyist can collect a lot of good pictures and information."
McHaggerty, Hanselman, and Tedeschi were coming out and almost ran into Rune, who stood by the door with her hands balled into fists and tears welling up in her eyes. Darn, she thought, for the hundredth time, I wish I didn't cry so easily! She turned away so they wouldn't see her tears, but they all wanted to congratulate her on a job well-done.
"Why does he insist on calling me a hobbyist?" she hissed to McHaggerty. "I'm a graduate student at an accredited college doing research in his area of expertise and what I've said is correct." As soon as she spoke, she knew the answer. Dr. Otis respected only hard science and rigorous research. He wanted Rune to do 'real' research, not become a naturalist and teach kids about nature. He wanted double blind studies, he wanted controls. She wondered if she could somehow get Dr. Otis off her committee. He could skew the results of her work.
"Don't worry," McHaggerty said, "there are three of us and only one of him."
"Wait, did I just speak out loud?"
"No, he was reading your mind," ((Hanselman)) said, laughing.
"We'll outvote him," Dr. Tedeschi said, his face serious and concerned. He had big sad eyes and Rune knew he hated to see anyone cry. But she couldn't help it.
"It's a great program," Dr. McHaggerty said, "I'm going to arrange for you to give it at Beaver Lake."
"I'd like you to give it to my drugs in the wild class," Dr. Tedeschki said. "They would love it, especially the bit at the end."
"I'd like you to give it at the senior center--a lot of those folks grew up collecting mushrooms and would love it.
Rune was nodding and nodding, but wondering why it was with all this praise, the thing that really got her goat was still Dr. Otis's comment about her being a hobbyist. As if her work didn't count, wasn't real or was less than.

Rune's Presentation Part II

2011-12-08T10:37:00.001-05:00

photo (c) Fred Stevens
from a website on mushrooms, see link below.

This is continued from Rune's presentation part I, here. This is a little bit of editing and a little bit of addition to the last post. I added a photo (above) from this website:

.   A pictureof Rune's grandmother holding small tan mushrooms came up next. She had apained looking half-smile.  "The second mushroom my grandmother taught meto collect and eat was a small tan mushroom she variously called a fairy ringmushroom and a tan toadstool. It’s Latin name is Marasmius oreades.”

Anothershot showed the mushrooms growing in a circle. “They grown in a circle,”Rune said, “As they use up the food in the center. Some circles get hundreds of feet across.” A third shot showed their peculiarhat-like shape. “Toadstools,” Rune said, "are often considered poisonous, thatis, anything called a toadstool is usually thought of as poisonous. Everyone in my neighborhood when I was a child called these toadstools and werehorrified that we collected and ate them. But they were good. Extremelygood. And I am still alive.”

Runepassed a handout to the boy at the corner seat. “Here are some recipes forfairy-ring mushroom soup, fairy-ring rice pilaf and others, along with somelinks to other recipes. I gotthese off the internet. Mygrandmother, my mother and I always used these mushrooms like any other—cut thestems off first—in stir fries, on pizza, in lasagna, or fried in butter andserved as a side dish.” (to be continued)

NOTE: Although this is a novel and the STORY is from the imagination, the plot and characters, parts of it are true, and this but about my grandmother and the mushrooms is true and from my real childhood. These are, in fact, the mushrooms we ate.
I do not, however, have any pictures of my grandmother with mushrooms (I don't think) In fact, I have very few pictures of her, as she did not like to have her picture taken. Here is one.

I am the kind of dy-eee-ah looking child on the left of the photo. My grandmother (the one who gathered mushrooms, though my other grandmother may also have gathered mushrooms) is the one in the center, between my mother and father.

Doodle for your Noodle

2011-12-08T08:57:00.001-05:00

The Daily Challenge, which I do almost every day, said to "doodle for your noodle" today, and so I doodled while watching a video on you-tube about hue, value and saturation (I watched 3 videos and doodled without looking at the page). Okay, I'm weird, but you already knew that, right?

Erin's Blog and Rune's presentation, part I

2011-12-07T21:52:00.001-05:00

My daughter Erin has a new blog. It's called Erin in the Woods. In today's post, she wrote about writing while walking. I was both happily amused and interested, because this has been a long-time habit of mine. I write while I am walking, and I would say 3/4 of my NaNoWriMo novel (as yet incomplete) was written while walking.

Erin's Blog banner
(Click image to view larger)

Here is the banner from Erin's blog. On the top right, in case you can't read it (click on it to see it bigger), it says, I am at my most content while walking in the woods. I have felt this way most of my life.

Today, I wrote the following during my walk, which is an unfinished section fairly early in the novel. And remember, a first rough draft, and not even finished yet:

Rune had arranged to give a presentation on edible andpoisonous mushrooms to Dr. Otis’s Mycology 101 class. It was something Dr. ((Hanselman)) hadarranged last spring when Rune had contacted Hanselman about doing a MS inNatural History Communications under him in the fall. She was to give a series of presentation tovarious groups, and Dr. Otis was the first of these.

Rune had worked on the presentation all spring andsummer. She already had an extensivecollection of slides and photographs, and she asked Peter Schilya to makedrawings for her of the few things she did not have photographs of, could not obtain in time and wantedto talk about. It turned out that Peterhad lovely drawings of most of those already and only had to do a few. He seemed pleased to be asked and Dr.Hanselman)) had arranged for him to get a projects course one credit forassisting Rune.

Rune scanned all the slides and artwork and made presentation slidesto go between and put them together in a digital presentation that could beshown with one of Larry Thompson's digital projectors. She created a voice over for it and gave acopy to ((Hanselman)). for her project grade. She intended to not use the voice over but to actually speak aloud inher own voice in real time so she could answer questions. ((Hanselman)) was the chairman of the Forest and Environmental Communications department andRune's major professor for her interdisciplinary master's degree.

Dr. Otis seemed willing to have her lecture to his classand smiled at her when she arrived fifteen minutes before the class withLarry's digital projector. Rune wantedto get everything set up and test it before the students arrived.

Dr. Otis disappeared as she was setting up and came backwith two cups of coffee and some cookies. "Larry dropped these off for you. You and me, he said, but they must be primarily for you, because hedoesn't usually give me cookies," Dr. Otis said.

Rune turned to look at him, because his voice has anunidentifiable note of jealousy or annoyance or something. But he was smiling amiably and holding out apaper plate of cookies to her. Rune setthem on the projection cart next to the projector. She didn't want to eatanything until she was sure everything was copesthetic. She used one of Larry's tiny little notebookcomputers on the lower shelf to run the program through the projector. She put her test slides up on the screen andeverything seemed to be in order.

She took a bite of one of Larry's cookies and a sipcoffee. It was cherry hazelnut with sweetened vanilla cream. She peeked at Dr.Otis. He wasn't grimacing, so Larry musthave sent up two carafes of coffee. She knew from past experience withDr. Otis that he hated flavored coffee. He thought anyone who liked flavored coffee was a wimp. Talk about an opinionated asshole. Rune thought to herself. He thinks that what he likes is right andwhat other people like is wrong. Blackand white. But she smiled sweetly andsipped the coffee Larry had made for her.

"He was wearing an APRON when he came with thecookies," Dr. Otis said, a note of disdain and disgust in his voice.

"I think he looks cute in an apron," Rune said,cheerfully, smiling sweetly again.

She was pleased that Larry trusted her enough to allowher to take the AV equipment herselfinstead of insisting on coming along and setting it up for her the way he did for everyone else. It's true that she was a high school AV geek,but a lot had changed in the intervening years. Technology was changing in leaps and bounds.

The first students filed into the classroom,talking quietly among themselves. Runestuck the dish of cookies on the bottom shelf of the cart and set her coffeewhere she could sip it when she got dry.

Dr. Otis moved a little closer to her. "You're not following Dr. McHaggerty'soutline," he said, very quietly. Hehad apparently deduced something about the order of her slides from the test slides that she had projected.

"No," Rune said, "I have my own story."Again, she smiled sweetly. Dr. Otis wasrubbing her the wrong way, as he often did. It wasn't his actual words, which seemed harmless enough, but his toneof voice, expression and body language.

He was handsome in a huge bear-like way. LikeMcHaggerty, he had a beard and longish hair, but his hair was curlier thanMcHaggerty's, and very dark. His skinwas dark, too, well-tanned, and his eyes were such a dark brown to be almostblack. His eyebrows weren't as bushy asMcHaggerty's.

Like McHaggerty, he was large andstrong, but his strength was not diminished as much by age asMcHaggerty's. Not that McHaggerty was weak;he just seemed not quite as bearish as Dr. Otis. Dr. Otis seemed to shrink McHaggerty whenhe stood beside him.

As Rune was thinking of McHaggerty, he and((Hanselman)) appeared at the door and sat quietly in the back. They, along with Dr. Otis, were on Rune'sgraduate committee and wanted to sit in on her actual presentation.

Rune had a pang of nervousness and then relaxed. She'd gone over the talk so many times she knew it by heart, andMcHaggerty and ((Hanselman) etc had seen the recorded version and already essentially approved it.

Rune smiles to herself as she forwarded the presentationthrough the three test slides. Those slideswere there so that she could test the equipment without anyone seeing any of the actualpresentation ahead of time. This was forthe sake of any early-arriving students, but Dr. Otis hadn't seen it either.

"This is one of our graduate students, RuneCarmichael," Dr. Otis said. "She's working under Dr. (Hanselman)), Dr. McHaggerty and me and is going to give a slide presentation of edible and poisonousmushrooms. As you know, Dr. McHaggerty,who is in attendance today, teaches a whole course on that subject. This will serve as in introduction to the possibilitiesin that course. Miss Carmichael has a BSin Biology, Natural Sciences and Wildlife Management from ESF, and I might add,graduated magna cum laude and second in her class. Miss Carmichael . . ."

Rune stood up. Shesmiled at the kids. They looked so young and wet behind the ears.When she was a freshman, she thought she knew everything. Hah! What a joke. What a rude surprise, actually.

((Dr. Hanselman)) was sitting next to the light switches, andRune turned to him and said, "May I have the lights?”

“This was my grandmother, Teresa Elena Carmicael,” Rune said, as the first slidefilled the screen. It showed a old sun-browned woman with a square face, grizzled braids wrapped around her head and a bit of a scowl on her face. Rune smiled at the scowl. Grandma, she thought, never liked having her picture taken. She was holding a basket full ofmushrooms. Rune smiled at the look ofsurprise on Dr. Otis’s face. He had expected she would begin with the slides she had put up first.

The next slide showed Runes grandmother in a ginghamdress and a mismatched apron, bending over to pick mushrooms. “My grandmother was Italian and came to America from the ‘oldcountry.’ She gathered wild edibles tosupplement her family’s diet, including mushrooms, and she was my firstteacher. These are the first mushroomsshe taught me to collect and eat as a child.”

            The next slide showed a close up of a white mushroom withpink gills from slightly below, and was followed by several white mushroomswith pink gills and brown gills in a hand. “Grandma called these field ‘mushrooms,”Rune said. "The first mushrooms my grandmother taught me to collectare Agaricus campestris, which areclosely related to the white mushroom commonly sold in stores, the cultivatedbutton mushroom, Agaricus bisporus. I've been collecting and eating themall my life. Campestris means 'of the field,' so field mushrooms is anappropriate name for it.
            "Few mushrooms can easilybe confused with this field mushroom, Agaricus campestris. Grandma toldme never to collect a white mushroom with white gills. Most of yourprobably already know that Amanita phalloides and several other similarpoisonous Amanitas are white with white gills. They are so poisonous thatit's not even a good idea to touch them." Rune showed some slides ofAmanitas. As long as you do not pick any white mushrooms with whitegills, you should be safe from the deadliest Amanitas.
            "Another mushroom thatcould be confused with the common field mushroom, Agaricus campestris, is aclose relative, The yellow-staining mushroom, Agaricus xanthodermus. This mushroom makes some peoplequite sick, whereas others can eat with no apparent problem." Rune showeda slide of a mushroom cut in half. It resembled the common field mushroombut was colored yellow at the base in the bisected part. "inaddition to the obvious yellow coloration at the base of the stem, thismushroom has an odor of phenol similar to carbolic soap. The smell isunpleasant and strong when cooked, so you would be unlikely to eat it."
            "Some sources cite Clitocybesas being similar to Agaricus, the field mushrooms, but this is only true ifyou're dyslexic." Rune showed a slide of a pink mushroom with white gills. "If you're dyslexic or forgetful, mushrooming may not be a safehobby for you. I'm dyslexic and forgetful, but I seem to be able toremember that the edible mushrooms have white caps and pink or brown gills. I suggest if you have any doubt about your ability to remember this,don't eat wild mushrooms."
            "Again, the edible fieldmushrooms look like the regular store-bought mushrooms, white caps with pink orbrown gills." Another slide, this one showing Agaricus campestriscut in half. It lacked the yellow coloration of the similar species.
            A picture of Rune'sgrandmother holding small tan mushrooms came up next. She had a pained looking half-smile.
            "The second mushroom mygrandmother taught me to collect and eat was a small tan mushroom she variouslycalled a toadstool and a fairy ring mushroom." Another shot showedthe mushrooms growing in a circle. Athird shot showed their peculiar hat-like shape. “Toadstools,” Rune said, areoften considered poisonous, that is, anything called a toadstool is usuallythought of as poisonous. Everyone in myneighborhood when I was a child called these toadstools and were horrified thatwe collected and ate them. But they weregood. And I am still alive.” (to be continued--on my next walk)

the next part is located here

A Report from Jody and a note on writing scenes

2011-12-05T21:03:00.001-05:00

After the end of NaNoWriMo, the big push to get 50,000 words is over, but the novel isn't finished.

However, I put a lot of things aside during the big push, and have been trying to get caught up, plus now Christmas is impinging--trying to design a christmas card, buying gifts (the first few), making plans, etc.

In the last few days before the deadline, I started writing scenes instead of chapters, and I haven't had time to go back and get the scenes in order and turn them into chapters. I'm just writing random scenes. The problem with this is that I may have them going to breakfast at Cosmos 3 times in a single day or something--I really need to get a grip on the tale as a whole--BUT when can I do that?

OK, so here is a scene where Jody reports to Rune about what happened with the police detective. I have not found where it goes in the novel yet.

Report fromJody,move this to a location shortly after the poisoning, after Rune talks to Jody—wemay have to change to time and location of the meeting.

               Jody was waiting for Rune outside of class ((or, depending on when this is,somewhere else)). They headed down to Marshall Street and sat in a backcorner at Cosmos. Since Rune had been doing a better job of getting up,now that she'd moved the alarm clock across the room (much to the distress ofher flatmates), she didn't need breakfast. She ordered toast and coffee withextra jelly, just to pay for their spot. Jody, who had decided to be on adiet, suddenly, ordered a boiled egg and cottage cheese. Rune thoughtthat she spoiled the effect of boiling the egg by adding two pats of the extrabutter she'd asked for tot he egg and melting it into the egg with lots ofsalt. But she refrained saying anything, since she too had been known tomake similar errors in judgment.
               One the waitress was gone and they'd surveyed the room for people they knew andchecked their bags and clothes for bugs, Jody said, "I called KathyCollins ((Brenda Crandall?)) and we met for lunch. I told her about whathappened to Colin and Eliza. She was horrified when I told we thought itwas a murder attempt, and why. She said she's talk to her boss aboutlooking to it.
               "I was really excited that we might get some help, but she texted me in mycriminology class to say ((her boss)) was having none of it. He forbadeher to look into it. She told me that she would make a few calls and stuffanyway. She had calls to make on another case.and she would do whatevershe could squeeze between other cases.
               "Man, that shits green," Rune said, "what was his reasoningfor forbidding it?"
               "She said he said that mycology professors were a bunch of fools in thesame category as those religious fanatics who handle poisonous snakes. Hesaid they are always collecting poisonous mushrooms and poisoning themselvesand then trying to point a finger at someone else. He said there was along history of self-poisonings."
               "That seems like an entirely unfair comparison," Rune said. "I mean, I don't know much about those people who handle poisonous snakesexcept that rather lurid scenes in certain movies and novels, so I suppose Ishouldn't diss them, but mycologists are trained and educated. Theyhandle poisonous mushrooms with care and respect. I think there might besome religious sects who eat or drink poisonous substances to prove their faithin God, but McHaggerty and Eliza are not among them. McHaggerty knowswhat he's doing and talking about.
            "I don't think thosefour mycologists from Cornell made a terrible mistake; I think they weremurdered. But, if they did make a mistake, it would, under thecircumstances, be somewhat understandable." She told Jody what Eilynhad told her about her experience with the dead professors and how exhaustedthey were and how dark it was. She left out the part about Eilyn and Calyx. She considered sharing the juicy bit of gossip, but decided to maybe tellher later. For some reason, telling that piece of it seemed like a betrayal ofEilyn. She would share it if it became relevant.
            "How are youdoing?" Rune asked Jody. "I bet this whole businessthrows a complicating monkey wrench into your emotional soup. I mean, ifyou care at all about McHaggerty, even though you wanted to get free of him, itmust be hard knowing he could die. And even though you like Eliza and are relievedfor an excuse to leave McHaggerty, you must have mixed feelings about herpredicament, too."
            Jody stared off into space.
            "You're right,"she finally said, "About all of that . . . and more."
            "More?"
            "I have mixed feelings. . . mixed feelings . . . about . . . about you, Rune."
            "ME? You don'tthink I somehow poisoned McHaggerty, do you? Or do you think I was lyingwhen I said I never slept with him? Or what? Wait, I don't getit."
            Jody looked down at herhands, which were folded in front of her on the table. She looked sad. Rune got up and went over to Jody's side of the table and put her armsaround Jody. Jody leaned her cheek against Rune's.
            "What is it?" Runefinally asked, after Jody said nothing for a long time.
            "Never mind," Jodysaid, "I'm too confused and upset. I can't articulate it." She said nothing for another minute or two, then, "I have to go, Ihave a meeting with Dr. Leslie, you now, the criminal Psych prof. We'remeeting at Starbucks."
            "Do you want to work onthe McHaggerty case with us?"
            "Sure, as long as Idon'y have to talk to Colin, Elizabeth or Eliza."
            "Do you think Dr.Leslie would be interested in it?"
            "I don't know. I'll feel him out, I mean I'll test the waters, I mean, oh never mind. I will tell him a little and see if he's interested at all."
            "Good!" Runegot up to let Jody out, gave her a hug and they paid their bills up front. Jody strode off down Marshall Street toward Starbucks and Rune sat on"The Beach," the steps across the street where students sometimeshung out people-watching and smoking. Or, on cool days, sunningthemselves.
            She turned back toward Jodyjust in time to see her slip Emmanuel, the black-skinned African Americanbeggar who often sat outside Starbucks, a dollar bill. Rune smiled. Sheknew that Jody kept a dollar in her watch pocket at all times for Emmanuel. Rune herself kept her loose change there to pass on to Emmanuel,sometimes less than a dollar and sometimes more. If she had less than aquarter, she detoured around another way, embarrassed to pass with nothing togive him. Jody had leaned close to Emmanuel's ear and Rune imagined she'dasked him if wanted coffee. If he said yes, she would bring him somebefore she sat down with Dr. Leslie.

ArtRage: Christmas Card design 111203_001

2011-12-05T01:34:00.000-05:00

I readjusted the picture above, not for balance and composition, but for the purpose of carving the block--it would be very hard to LEAVE BEHIND the details of red in the white areas and have them come out clearly in the prints (small blocks). I prefer the white face below, but leaving the features behind would have been very difficult.

I am working on a design for a Christmas Block Print. The current version is above--I've been working on it all morning. The one below I did between midnight and 2 Am when I couldn't sleep (insomnia.) I've been refining it. However, when I carve it, it will lose some of its detail. I did the changes in photoshop CS4 on my big computer.

One of my ArtRage paintings: Christmas Card design 111203_001This is not the finished card, but a draft of a design for a possible block print--my husband Keith is modeling Santa. (I made him much fatter than he really is.) I did this first draft, from which I made the above adjustments and additions, on Artrage on the iPad.

Weekword: Novel (a few notes about my work in progress)

2011-12-01T11:45:00.000-05:00

My current tentative Book Cover

The WeekWord this week is novel. You can join in and play at The Gift Shed Blog.
I haven't been playing along lately because (ta da!) I am working on

A NEW NOVEL!!!

Those of you who follow me or visit and read know that I've been participating in NaNoWriMo--National NovelWriting Month. It's my second year.

It's a novel NOVEL!

Well, only in the sense that it seems unlikely that anyone else ever wrote this novel, since I'm writing it myself from scratch. It's so new it's unfinished. And probably will be for some time to come.

The novel I am working on is tentatively entitled, Death Angel. It is a mystery novel about mushroom poisoning.

* * *

Before I start talking about my new novel, let me quote one of the novels I am currently reading, A Change in Altitude, by Anita Shreve. Taking a short break from my work, read a couple pages in the novel and came across this, on page 191:

"I can't thank you enough," he said, putting his hand on hers for just a moment, Even his palm was hot.
"Someone in my debt," Margaret said, "a novel sensation."

Novel here means "new," but more than just new, new and unusual. One would not say one had a "novel" haircut because it was freshly cut, but because it was unusual or different.

* * *

Jody Shafer
One of the characters in Death Angel

I'm very excited because I "won" the NaNoWriMo 50,000 word rough-draft novel writing challenge. The absolute truth is, I was never sure I would succeed and the closer it got to the deadline (midnight November 30), the less sure I was I would make it, because I was falling further and further behind. "Winning" (succeeding) was like being in one of those movies where a come from behind team pulls it together at the 11th hour and wins. I had almost given up hope.

So here is the new Dust Jack Blurb for my novel. It needs more work, but it will give you an idea what the novel is about:

111201 Dust JacketBlurb for my upcoming book, Death Angel

Mycology Professor Colin McHaggerty is well-loved byundergrads, parents, grad students, TAs, faculty and administration, or so itseems to Rune Carmichael when she first returns to the College of EnvironmentalSciences and Forestry to study for her PhD and work as Dr. McHaggerty’steaching assistant. Suddenly, Rune’s life revolves around McHaggerty. Theother professors, teaching assistants and even her own research project seem totake a back seat to the all-encompassing McHaggerty. When McHaggerty andone of the TAs end up in the hospital with mushroom poisoning, Rune refuses tobelieve the poisoning was “a terrible accident.” She recognizes that McHaggertyknows better than to poison himself and his assistant. But when shebegins poking around to find out what really happened to Dr. McHaggerty, sheand her teammate Bart get Psychedelic mushrooms on their pizza, showing themhow easy a poisoning could be, letting them know they could be next. Someone smashes into Rune on hermotorcycle—hit and run. And warnings continue to come. Rune and Bart persist inlooking. They discover that the well-loved McHaggerty has many enemiesand that the college is rife with unsuspected excitement and sordid intrigue. Rune’s trust, damaged by abuse and an ongoing divorce, is further damaged bywhat she learns about McHaggerty and others at the college, but receives aboost from Silas, a lucky witness and from Bart, who, in spite of the danger,joins her in the search for an attempted murderer. Though the police refuse tohelp, Rune continues searching, never imagining that she might also find theanswer to a 13-year-old quadruple murder.

I've been posted about my novel here, on No Polar Coordinates, and also at my NaNoWriMo site, where all the posts are collected in one spot together.

I WON the 2011 NaNoWriMo Woohoo!

2011-11-30T23:27:00.001-05:00

I wrote 50,303 words on my novel, Death Angel, in the month of November. The counter mangled a few and gave me credit for 50,280, but that's close enough! YAY! I am tired now, but in the upcoming days, I'll tell you more about it!! The last few days have been a real Marathon!!!

December 1, 2011 ANote after “Winning”

I am so happy. I cried when the NaNoWriMo teamed cheered forme at 11:30 last night. I"won" last year, too, but this year was more of a struggle because Itraveled and there were more conflicts.

I learned a LOT. I learned about working efficiently, about structuring a novel, somethingyou have to do in order to write efficiently. And a lot more I may write about in the coming months.

Of course, I haven't finished the novel!!! I've only written the first 50,00words. And it's very rough and drafty. But it has shape, plot, maybe a theme.It has characters, action and little suspense.

I'm not sure if trying to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month is the bestway to do it. I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year or not. There areadvantages and disadvantages to the big push. For example, I gave up evenspellchecking in the latter third of the month, and there was no revising goingon as I worked.

Yesterday, I wrote only scenes, not chapters. I worked from5 AM until after 11 PM. So I have a lot of scenes to integrate into chapters!

However, I think I may proceed as if I were going to do onenext year, because even if I decide not to do it, the planning will be usefulfor my NEXT NOVEL when I finish this one, whether or not I try to write most ofthe first draft in the month of November 2012.

Naked Lunch Death Angel NaNoWriMo

2011-11-29T21:40:00.001-05:00

this chapter, which is as yet unnumbered, and is VERY DRAFTY, continues on from where the last post left off. I have just passed 41,000 words. 9.000 more to go.

Chapter Naked lunch

Whenthe police finally left, Silas offered Rune some lunch. He started a batch of homemade chicken soup with dumplingsand a small salad. He had wrappeda couple wool blankets around her while she and Harris and Wellington werefilling out the paperwork. Hesuggested she put on some of his dry clothes before she got a chill. He turned up the heat in his apartmentto help warm her. It smelledfunny, because it was the first time he’d had it on all year. All the dust that had accumulated inthe () was heating up.

WhileSilas was cooking, Rune stripped out of her wet clothes. Silas came in to get her some dryclothes, apparently not realizing she was already naked.

“Oh,he said, I’m sorry. Excuseme.” But instead of looking away,he looked at her, and instead of leaving, he walked toward her. “You look like you might need to bewarmed up. The best way to warm upsomeone who I suffering from hypothermia . . . “

“Isto put a naked person in a sleeping bag with them. That sounds like a plan, but . . .”

“Iwon’t touch you in an inappropriate way unless you invite me to, in which case,it won’t be inappropriate,” Silas said.

“Maybeyou should turn down the soup you are making,” Rune said, “and take off yourclothes.” She smiled. She knew what was coming and waslooking forward to it. Her liaisonwith Bart the other night had cranked up her horniness. She didn’t wait for him to make thefirst move.

Afterthoroughly but carefully warming her, watching for her injured knee, Silas broughther lunch in bed. They sat naked, eating together, laughing, spilling soup andsalad into the sheets.

“That’sokay,” Silas said, “I was going to wash them anyway.”

“Theylook clean.”

“Iwant them to look clean next time you come back, too. You can come back and visit whenever you want,” Silassaid. “But I need to tell you, Iam not looking for a girlfriend. Iam leaving to go to Thailand ((or somewhere, check this)) at the end of thesemester.”

“Whatif I come tomorrow?”

“I’llbe here.”

“Whatif I come next week?”

“I’llbe here.”

“Whatif I come tonight? What f I come late?”

“I’llbe happy to see you and careful of your knee. The key is under that mat of the back door if I’m at classor Aikido. I have no girlfriendand I have no lover, that is, no other lover, but I am not going to attachmyself to you and mustn’t attach yourself to me.”

“Okay,I can handle that.”

“Good. Want to go around again?”

“Sure.Then I have to go. I have a lot todo.”

Silaswas good in bed, slow, easy and sensitive, attentive to her needs, but notoverhearing. He was playful,smiled a lot, seemed to be having fun. He was quiet, but not sullen or reticent. He was incredibly muscular for one so thin. He wasn’t thin, he was lean andmuscular. Rune wondered if it wasthe Aikido.

“Mybrother does Aikido,” Rune said.

“Oh,what’s his name, I might know him.”

“Hisname is Mingan, which is Algonquin for Grey Wolf. Mingan Greywolf Carmichael Buthe’s up in Maine.”

“Isn’tthat like naming me Silas Silas or you Rune Rune? Well, I may have met him at a conference but I’d probablyremember that name—are your parents hippies or something, Rune and Mingan arenot common names.”

“Silasisn’t particularly common either. But yeah, they’re a little weird, especially my Mom. My full name is Rune BerkanaCarmichael. Berkana is the Rune for Birch. That Rune is, among other things, a fertility symbol. I hope I’m fertile when it’s time. It also means, “enjoys sex,” which Ido.”

“Wereyou conceived under a birch tree?”

“Mymother thought so. My father isn’tquite so . . . um . . . “

“Right-brained?”

“Yeah,that’s it, he’s more left-brained then my Mom. All logic and science.”

“Wait,did you say what you were studying? Didn’t you say your were at ESF? Is that a science school? Are you dissing science?”

“No,I like science. I like science alot, including the hard sciences, but I’m more drawn to the softersciences. I want to be naturalist,not a mathematician. I likepoetry, art and music, and I believe that we have, within the wholeness that isour human potential, a spiritual side. We have both a left and a right brain, and a synthesis of the two, andabove that a glowing spiritual self. I am not at all sure that that selfcontinues on after we die, but I do think it exists while we live and that wereach our greatest potential and greatest happiness when we honor all ofourselves.”

“Wow,that’s cool. I like that, verywell spoken.”

“Thanksfor lunch. I hate to eat and run,but I ate, so I guess I’ll run—I mean, gotta go. Can I borrow your clothes, I promise to bring them back.”

“Yeah,leave yours hear. I gotta dolaundry anyway. When you come back, they’ll be all folded and ready foryou. You gonna be able to drivethat bike home?”

“Dunno,I’m about to find out, though.”

Itwas still raining, but the bike did start. Silas bent the front foot-peg back down and Rune waved androde off.

Shewent directly to the hospital to check on Eliza and McHaggerty. ((No can do, since this is skippingahead and we don’t know if they are still there.)))((OK, the people who weredischarged in teh CDC write-ups were discharged 7 days after eating themushrooms, and hasn’t been 7 days yet, so they are still there.))

Shechecked on Eliza first. She was still hooked up to IVs and a heart monitor andother equipment. Rune wanted an opportunity to talk to Eliza alone, but wasglad to see that Peter was with her. Her parents were there, too, and her mother was reading to her from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by SusannaClarke. It seemed like an oddbook, perhaps chose because it was so long. Rune had read it because of her interest in magic, but itwas not the kind of book she would have picked for Eliza.

Runegreeted everyone, gave both Eliza and Peter hugs, and left. She figured she’d check back later. Atleast Eliza was alive and seemed okay. Then, she wished she’d asked for a status update on Eliza’s medicalprocedures.

Sheran down to see McHaggerty and found him talking to a strange woman. The woman was wearing brown slacks ,brown Patagucchi Mary Janes, a brown cardigan sweater, and a white blouse witha circle pin on the collar. Could anyone have looked more preppy. Her hair was the precise color brown asher clothes, and so were her yes. She had a sprinkling of freckles over her nose and looked very young.But not like a stumpy.

Runewas disappointed that McHaggerty, like Eliza, was not alone. At least he was still in Syracuse, andnot in Rochester. “Can I come in?”Rune asked, at the door. She didn’twant to interrupt something.

McHaggertylooked at the woman, who nodded. “Rune, this is Detective Sergeant ((?) (whatwould her rank be?)) Brenda Crandall. She’s been asking me some questions. Detective, this is RuneCarmichael. She’s the one who gotEliza in to the hospital and called my house at 5 AM to hassle me into comingin.”

“Pleasedto meet you,” Rune said, shaking Brenda Crandall’s hand. “I thought Sergeant Fisher told you toleave the case alone.”

“It’smy day off. I’m on my own time,and Dr. McHaggerty is a friend of sorts. We were just conversing about theAdirondack poisoning of the four professors. Dr. McHaggerty was telling me that he was called in on thecase and that he suggested it had been murder and that no one listened to him. I’d hate to see history repeatingitself. Tell me, Rune, why do youthink that this poisoning with Dr. McHaggerty and Eliza Landon was an attemptedmurder?”

“Theyaren’t out of the woods yet. I’mhoping and praying they both survive, but it could still be a murder.

“Thereare several reasons why I think it was an attempted murder. First, Dr. McHaggerty is a mushroomexpert. He is the authority that poison-controland the police call in when there’s a mushroom poisoning. He knows how to collect mushrooms andhow not to. He’s been teachingstudents how to avoid poisonings for twenty years. He knows what poisonous mushrooms are. He would not mix poisonous mushroomswith non-poisonous ones, which is what happened here. The two species look very different. Second, I’ve been told to cease anddesist with my investigations and have been subjected to two frighteningincidents designed to scare me off.”

“Whyhaven’t you reported them?”

“Ihave. You can see the policereport filed by Officer John Harris and Officer Rob Wellington. I was in a hit and run accident in astolen car.” She turned toMcHaggerty, “It was Larry’s car, but Larry wasn’t driving it.” She pulled up her pant leg and showedMcHaggerty and Crandall her knee. It had turned a deeper purple and the discoloration had spread furtherdown her leg.

“Youneed to go to the hospital,” Crandall said.

“I’mat the hospital,” Rune said.

“Funny!”Crandall said. “Not!”

“Look,I can walk fine. I promise to adoctor the minutes I can’t walk.”

“So,you’re investigating the case. Ithought you wanted to be a naturalist, not a detective. What made you start sleuthing?”

“BecauseI love Dr. McHaggerty and I love Eliza, and think someone tried to kill themand might try again, and I wanted to fid that person and some evidence to provethey did it so that someone could protect Dr. McHaggerty and Eliza from harm.”

“Meanwhile,however, you seem to have put yourself in danger. You could have been killed in that hit and run accident.

“ButI wasn’t. I don’t want to bekilled. I don’t even want to behurt. I don’t want my motorcycleto be hurt, which it was. I justgot it back from the shop and now it will have to go back yet again.

“Butno one seems to care that whoever tried to kill McHaggerty and Eliza might tryagain and be successful. I thinkthey’re in danger, and probably in more danger than I am in.”

“You’reputting your friends in danger, too, involving them.”

“Areyou suggesting we just stand by and let McHaggerty get killed by some murderousmaniac?”

“Iam suggesting that having yourself and your friends killed or hurt is not thebest way to keep Dr. McHaggerty and Miss Landon safe.”

“Toobad!” Rune said bluntly. You’renot the first person to tell me to back off, and I am not backing off until Iknow McHaggerty and Eliza are safe.”

“Yousaid there were two events; what was the other?”

“Iam a little afraid to tell, even though what happened wasn’t my fault or mychoice.”

“I’moff duty. Go ahead and tell me.”

Runetold Crandall and McHaggerty about their visit to the Acropolis and theirgetting high on what they assumed were Magic Mushrooms, Psilocybin. “There may have been something else inpizza, “ Rune said, because I have been doing some research now on Psilocybin,and the average recreational dose is 48 mushrooms. We did not each eat 48 mushrooms, by any stretch of theimagination. No way. But I don’t know what else might havebeen on there. It tasted prettynormal, but then, we got the works with extra mushrooms, and that’s a lot offlavors to conceal any surprises. Plus we were really hungry and gobbled itdown. I read about Psilocybinexperiences online, out of curiosity, and our experiences were somewhatsimilar, with some striking differences. I think my experience was much stronger than what seems to be an averagePsilocybin experience from the write-ups online. I don’t know how accurate they are, it’s mostly selfreporting.”

Crandallfrowned and so did McHaggerty. “Idon’t like the sound of that at all. Has your sleuthing told you anything more about that incident—who mighthave done it and why?”