While on a walk the other day, I saw this little flower growing up through a crack between the sidewalk and curb. I find it inspiring.
The July Garden
It’s hot, hot, hot, here in central North Carolina. Daytime highs are in the upper eighties, often climbing over ninety. As is frequently the case, it’s also dry. Summer means occasional thunderstorms provide most of the rain. Until a couple of days ago, when we finally got some significant downpours, they haven’t happened here in the last couple of weeks.
The weeds are amazingly undiscouraged by the heat and dry conditions, but I do have to water frequently to keep the flowers and shrubs healthy. In fact, the gardens need weeding pretty badly, but I have to limit myself to short stints, in the cooler part of the day.
I also now have a hole in the border along my back fence, where I’d transplanted some strawflower seedlings. The seedlings were coming along nicely until one morning in June when I went outside to look and discovered that every single plant had disappeared, gnawed all the way down to the ground by some hungry critter. There are plenty of suspects: rabbits, chipmunks, and moles are common. Unfortunately, a combination of being busy with some other projects, a minor injury that took me out of commission for a week or so, and dangerous heat levels have meant I haven’t really had the time or opportunity to get replacement plants. Such is the gardener’s life. Not everything will survive or thrive.
On the other hand, the gladiolas are putting on their brief but stunning show, the daisies (African and Shasta) are covered in blooms, and the zinnias are brilliantly colorful. I divided most of the daylilies this spring, which suppresses the number of flowers this year but will yield better results in the future. The roses are putting out what will likely be their last round of blossoms until fall. They hate the heat and mostly shut down operations until temperatures cool down again.
Right now it’s mostly about keeping things alive and growing through the hottest days of summer. And enjoying some pretty arrangements of blooms inside, and time spent in the glider or chair outside in the garden.
Writing Update
It’s been an up and down last couple of months on the writing front. With a beach trip and family visits, writing time has been limited and I’ve been distracted.
Put that together with hitting a bit of a wall on the current work in progress, Unleashed for Murder, and receiving some helpful feedback on the previously finished draft for Treadwell House – Sanctuary, I’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern. On the novel, front, anyway. I have still been writing. I’ve finished a couple of short stories that are now in submission and another one that’s almost done.
Unleashed is right about at the halfway point, but I’ve realized it has some structural issues, so I may have to go back and rewrite some of it. And I need to do some rewriting on Treadwell to deepen some of the tensions and add more conflict. Plus the descriptions need to be amped up. I’m kind of excited about doing that.
Chihuly Exhibit at Biltmore
We recently made a trip to the Asheville area for some family business, but we also had some time for a side trip to Biltmore House and, especially, to see the Chihuly glass art exhibit.
Note: click on all pictures for a larger version.
I’ve long loved glass works and been fascinated by the process of glass blowing and shaping. The way light plays around and through the material is endlessly intriguing.
As an artistic medium it has an enormous range of possibilities. And I don’t know of anyone who has explored and pushed the limits of the art of glass-working as much as Dale Chihuly.
Seeing some of his masterworks was truly awe-inspiring. The range of imagination and the creativity on display simply overwhelmed. So many forms, colors, textures, sizes, and embedded designs made a feast for the eye. Even more, they invited and repaid closer study with subtle detailing and intricate mixes.
My pictures can’t do these works of art justice. They have a weight, a presence, a bit of humor in their inspiration that compels attention.
The cylinders and soft cylinders are delightful with their brilliant, eccentric shapes and unique embedded designs. The trees and chandeliers, made from hundreds of narrow glass tubes, are a visual delight.
The Persian ceiling looms above you and bathes you in a gorgeous array of colors and patterns filtering the light above it. The effect is stained glass on steroids, allowed to go beserk, yet never forgetting its mission to be beautiful.
But beyond every other piece or grouping, the enormous Mille Fiori is truly the masterpiece. It was displayed in a large room of its own with a number of benches scattered around, because it’s the kind of piece you want to sit and spend some time with.
It features possibly a hundred or so square feet of alien garden composed of individual glass pieces, sculpted into a huge variety of shapes, curves, textures, colors, sizes, and opacities. The colors are rich and saturated, vivid and glowing. Lit from above, in a mostly dark room, set on a reflective black surface, it’s so compelling you almost want to climb into and revel in the world it creates.
That’s discouraged, of course, and the impulse is counter-balanced by a reluctance to harm the perfection of the various pieces.
As a writer, I instinctively feel there must be lessons I can glean from the piece that I can apply to my writing. What are the analogues for brilliant color in unlikely combinations that shouldn’t work but do? How do I present so many varied forms, shapes, and textures through the medium of words? Does each separate piece stand in for a character? A scene? A bit of dialogue? How does the tension between curves, corkscrews, shallow bowls, and straight uprights work to produce a piece with wild variations and a sense of completeness?
Oddly, seeing the Mille Fiori has given me some ideas for how to approach editing a manuscript I recently completed, one which I know has problems. The work has me considering whether each bit of dialogue, paragraph of narration, suggestion of characterization, action sequence, etc. is as polished and deeply textured as I can make it. And does it blend in with the overall whole both smoothly, but not too smoothly — in a way that generates tension toward creating a cohesive whole?
I’ve realized that I sometimes indulge in lazy writing. I take the easy, shallow way to bring a story to life, showing just the surface, instead of digging into it for the deeper, richer color or more intriguing shape. I smooth over the competing rough textures instead of seeking to rub them together for the sparks they could generate.
But that’s what rewrites are for. The first draft gets the story down on paper. Revisions explore the nooks and crannies and unexpected twists and turns, sharpening the shapes, smoothing the curves, finding the different textures, and making the rich colors glow. I hope I can carve up, polish, and reshape this work into something far better than it is now.
I’ve uploaded more pictures from the exhibit to my Facebook feed at https://www.facebook.com/karenmccullough
Turtle Tracks
While on Edisto, we woke up one morning to find several people clustered in front of the house, digging in the sand.
Several members of the family (not me!) are early risers who frequently beat the sunrise by a couple of hours. Apparently that is also true of the volunteers with the Edisto Beach Loggerhead Turtle Project (https://edistobeachseaturtles.com/).
Members of this search the beach in the early morning for evidence of turtle nests and call in for assistance when they find one. They found one in front of the house we were staying in.
It wasn’t hard to identify. Large, obvious tracks led from the ocean to the nesting spot, then back into the water. They were still very clear in the sand when I took a walk later.
The volunteers dug up the nest, counted the eggs, took one for further study, then reburied the eggs and cordoned off the nest area, marking it with shells. As I recall, they said they counted almost 170 eggs in the nest, which is near the upper range of a normal litter.
We were careful to give it a wide berth for the rest of our stay.
The odds aren’t with the little guys once they hatch, but I’m rooting for them.
Beach Birthdays
We celebrated two birthdays while at the beach, my husband’s, and a grandson, who turned 11 this year. My youngest daughter does fabulous, themed birthday celebrations for her children. This year the now-eleven-year-old requested a Silmarillion theme for his birthday.
(Note: You can click on all the pictures to enlarge them.)
Their dad has been reading all of Tolkien’s works to them for the last few years and the boys love them. There have been Hobbit and Lord of the Rings themed parties in years past. These usually include decorations, cake, and a few games.
The Silmarillion presented a few challenges in this area. But my daughter, with the help of her older sister, was up to the challenge.
A surprise balloon-drop from the balcony with shiny gold and silver balloons emblazoned with mystical runes and drawings (courtesy of his older brother) kicked off the festivities. That was followed by a search for a bunch of hidden “Silmarils”. These were actually clear plastic pool toys in the shape of jewels, with embedded LEDs that made them sparkle in different colors.
Finally, the piece de resistance, the cake. Baked by younger daughter; shaped and decorated by her older sister, who does amazing cake designs. (See posts on previous birthday celebrations for more of her work.) The cake is sculpted and iced to evoke the entrance to a cave, representing a scene from the Silmarillion. A fondant gate and flames, frosting made to look like rock, candles that mimic torches, and a pair of miniature figures (painted by the birthday boy’s brother) completed the masterpiece.
It was a shame to have to cut it up, but we did, after everyone finished admiring it and taking pictures. It was delicious.
The second birthday, my husband’s, was much lower key, though the girls collaborated on a really delicious apple-spice cake.
The final birthday celebration actually took place at our home, the night we returned. Our first, and so far only, great grandchild turned two. For various reasons including work schedules, they didn’t come to the beach with us, but they live in the same town we do, so my older daughter, in her role as Mimi, arranged for a pizza dinner, followed by cake, and presents.
It was quite a week, and produced a bit of cake bloat that we’ve all had to work off!
Taking Time Out at the Beach – May 2024
It’s been a while since my last post. There are lots of reasons for that, but most revolve around family stuff. May included a family trip to the beach and then further visits with family when we returned home.
Our beach of choice is Edisto Island, where we’ve found a house large enough to hold up to a dozen of us for a price we can afford. It’s a quiet, family-oriented beach. A couple of good restaurants and a few shops provide some outlet for finding souvenirs and food we didn’t cook ourselves, but the main entertainment is the sun, surf, and sand. That suits us perfectly.
This year’s group included myself, my husband, sister-in-law, older daughter, younger daughter, her husband, and her four sons, aged 6 to 12.
The older three boys have all had swimming lessons and eagerly tackled learning to ride with the waves. I bought them all boogie boards and they got heavy use. The youngest prefers to remain in the shallow surf, holding someone’s hand to keep from being bowled over by the waves. Of course, they all love sand construction projects as well.
It’s a great time for catching up with each other, catching up with some reading, eating seafood, and having a few drinks while listening to the surf.
My writing is on hiatus but I’ll get back to it.
Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival 2024
This is where I’ll be this weekend: https://www.suffolkmysteryauthorsfestival.com/
What’s Blooming in March in North Carolina
It still feels wintery in these early days of March. Daytime temperatures may go up into the mid-fifties or even low sixties some days, but nighttime temperatures are cold. And other days can stay much chillier, not to mention all the rain.
Still, with all that, we actually have a number of plants that are currently blooming. My garden is blessed with an abundance of daffodils, camellias, and hellebores, all putting on a show right now.
I treasure these plants for the bright displays they create at times when most of the garden is bare and bleak.
Read an Ebook Week Starts Today
This week, March 3rd – 9th, is Read an Ebook Week at Smashwords. As part of this promotion, four of my most popular novels are half price (only at Smashwords) for this week, and one is totally free!
A Gift for Murder – FREE! https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/308556
Wired for Murder – $1.49 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/649290
Hunter’s Quest – $1.99 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/705030
The Wizard’s Shield – $1.49 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/281723
A Question of Fire – $1.99 – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43245