The Solar System Revealed

Watching the top of Mt. Saint Helens disappear in 1980 made geology abruptly real and relevant and not the least theoretical or gradual. Blam! Yup, that's geology. Watching this eclipse did the same for astronomy. Forget the left-brain physics--this was giant objects and forces doing what they do. Human desires and powers are irrelevant to the cosmos, sci-fi writers to the contrary.

We dithered about leaving Portland for somewhere south and maybe east to see the full eclipse and were saved by an invitation to a Portland Audubon fund raiser. A family named Bridges (Bridges Foundation) recently bought a property near Turner, Oregon, south of Salem, to preserve an oak forest. They offered the place for a camp-out and the ace volunteers of Audubon jumped for it. (Thank you, thank you.) So about 100 of us straggled in to Oak Haven on Saturday and pitched our tents.

We lacked water faucets, showers, and picnic tables, and porta-potties were in short supply, but we had a surplus of people delighted to see each other, brown creepers and peewees in abundance, and dogs, kids, sunshine, and oaks. This event was organized to the nines and any hitches were invisible. Everyone pitched in, nothing caught fire (a distinct possibility) and I believe we left the place spotless. The peewees called and called, morning and evening, with the odd towhee pitching in, delicate trills contributed by the creepers. Turkey vultures passed overhead now and again, but I slept through the late-night coyote chorus, alas.

People led bird walks, meditation walks, dragonfly walks, and so on. We had a sing-along and a dessert potluck and long arguments discussions about the very best place to view the eclipse.  Audubon's executive director flipped pancakes for us.

Monday morning we hauled camp chairs to a grassy meadow with our special glasses, dogs, kids, and cameras and sat down for the show.

The sun is just painful to look at without the viewing glasses and half or one third of a sun is nearly as bright as a full sun, so I would guess that in pre-physicist years, people didn't really notice eclipses until they were well under way. But with the glasses, I could see that the moon was a huge thing crossing the sky, somehow much more 3-D and more intimidating as a big dark sphere during the day than it is as a yellow one at night. The sun seemed to hover motionless as the gray moon slid across it.

Even a sliver of sun is blindingly bright. But twilight slowly set in. Close to totality, the air temperature dropped and people pulled on sweaters. The dogs and birds and horses nearby didn't do anything unusual that I noticed. You couldn't read a newspaper, but you neither would you need a flashlight. When the sun was completely occluded, peach-colored sunset ran all around the horizon. As agreed, we were silent.

Totality is not at all like almost-totality. The sun disappeared completely--only darkness. Until I pulled off the glasses. Then I saw a flaming ring, the sun's corona around the dark moon. The corona is always there, but too faint to see without the sun's disk entirely masked.

I have had the privilege of seeing that unlikely beauty.

Then the moon slid on and we sighed and got up and began to pack for the tedious struggle home through traffic.

Thank you, universe, for our eyes and ability to take notice. We won't forget.

Totality pancakes by Nick Hardigg

Sing-along

Digi-scoped moon (thanks, Dan, for the help)

The Owl on the Road to Medford

After three mystery novels with a mainstream mystery publisher--Poisoned Pen Press--I have embarked on a different fiction journey. I wrote a short story, it won a contest, and my muse said, "Let's do more of that!"

The original Owl on the Road to Medford was an experiment in voice and indirect story. (Yes, I just  made up that term.) You can read it HERE.  Calyx literary magazine picked it up after it won the 2014 Oregon Writer's Colony first prize for short fiction. Woo-hoo!

So I wrote six more short stories with the same narrator in the same setting--a wildlife rehabilitation clinic somewhere in western Oregon. I got to use a bunch of anecdotes from my zoo days and thereafter. The central character is an amalgam of men I have known and liked and sympathized with. Why a male voice? "Why not?" says the muse. Just because, say I.

These seven stories turned out to have a story arc, an adventure of the heart. Together, they seemed to me to make a novella--not as big as a novel, but not a short story collection in the usual sense.

As far as I can tell, publishers have no interest in novellas, so I set out to self-publish, as many authors are doing these days. After a short but intense struggle, The Owl on the Road to Medford is now available as an ebook. Click HERE to take a look. It soon will be available on paper, assuming that I figure out how to do that.

If you buy it and like it, do me a favor and post a little review. I'd appreciate it and my muse might, too.

When hope fails--a poem

The Real Work

by Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

"The Real Work" by Wendell Berry, from Standing by Words. © 1983, Used by permission of Counterpoint. (buy now)

Littlewoods at the Climate March

The Berlin Wall came down. The USSR broke up. We elected an African-Amercan president. Wyoming wolves are (maybe) back on the federal endangered species list and safe(r) from state management by shooting. Surprises happen and some of them are Good Things. This is what I think about when I am overwhelmed by climate change.

We went to New York City for the big march. We showed up. Showing up is not much, but it's what we COULD do. Paid for carbon credits since we flew from Portland, Oregon. Had tee shirts made for us and the friends and relatives who joined us. And we had a great time.

The weather was warm and the air was fall-sparkly. The crowd was huge and cheerful. Police were scarce and relaxed. The signs and chants and giant balloons and musicians were all fun. And, as Naomi Klein pointed out at a reading last night, the crowd was reasonably diverse, not just a bunch of us glum environmentalists, not just white folks,  a mix of ages. You can't see much in a huge crowd, but sustainable agriculture and living-wage and many other groups were well represented. I met Peter Galvin, one of the founders of Center for Biological Diversity, and saw Kieran Suckling, another, as they accompanied Frostpaw the polar bear. Whoever was inside that costume suffered--it must have been HOT! But that bear sure got a lot of press.

And the next day, we did it again. The Flood Wall Street march was smaller and edgier, billed as an "arrestable event." We weren't up for arrest (maybe in our own town), but we marched and helped carry an enormous banner apparently targeting cameras in helicopters because no one on the ground could possibly read it. The giant "carbon bubble" balloon got stuck under a traffic light at one point and we all cheered when it got through. The march never actually got to Wall Street, which was well-barricaded. (Lots more police evident at this march.) It stalled near the New York Stock Exchange, alongside the big gold bull sculpture. Tellingly, there is no bear sculpture. The point of the march seemed to be that capitalism is the problem and prevents solutions to carbon pollution. The enormous sums the oil companies are making back that up. Naomi Klein said that energy companies spend $400,000 a day on lobbying Congress, contributing to the corruption and paralysis of our political system.

These marches are oddly tiring and we packed it in after three or four hours, but our daughter toughed it out. The police played a waiting game, and it was getting dark before they finally started arresting people. Hunger and a lack of portapotties had thinned the crowd to a hundred or so by then. You had to work at getting arrested--it was cold by that point. But our daughter managed it. She said the officer who zip-tied her hands muttered that a lot of them agreed with the march. From what I saw, the cops were tired, but calm and professional. She ended up in a cell with a mountaintop removal activist from West Virginia and emerged the next morning physically and emotionally unscathed. Whew! You never know in these situations. We want to help pay her fine, to ride her brave coat-tails.

After the marches, we took the train to Boston for our grandson's first birthday. The party was wonderful--the under-two set was well represented. The babies ate cupcakes, chased balloons, took toys away from either other, and splashed in ecstasy in three inches of water in an inflatable pool.

We can't afford not to hope.

Book review: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver trained as a biologist, she's passionate about environmental issues, and she sure can craft a sentence. Flight Behavior (2012, HarperCollins) is as compelling as it is informative. Dellarobia Turnbow, a young mother in Tennessee, finds a new monarch butterfly wintering area and her tiny world, constricted by poverty, babies, a lack of education, and a diffident husband has the door thrown open to unexpected winds from outside. The story weaves together the heart-breaking science of climate change and the heart-break of a weak marriage. Salvation for the monarchs remains unlikely in this fictional disaster, but Dellarobia may get her chance.

The climate change theme is information-dense without being (oh, dreaded word!) "preachy" and this is an excellent way to catch up on the biological aspects of this issue. I've been tracking this for years and didn't flinch. Less familiar to me was how people live in these United States in rural poverty--bad housing, bad food, bad schools. In a brilliant scene, Dellarobia has to laugh at an earnest enviro's plea to reduce and reuse, turn down the thermostat, etc. Lack of money long ago made those decisions for her. Kingsolver represents Dellarobia's world with respect and understanding as well as with sympathy.

Dellarobia's desperation over her lot in life is palpable and touching. The first third of the book establishes her world and the "miracle" that disrupts it, but this moves slowly. Flight Behavior is a novel more to be savored than rushed.

The charms of this story include the varied characters: relatives, a best friend, scientists, and the unusual people attracted to any unusual event. No stereotypes here of either rural eccentrics or over-educated nerds, no one who does not carry their own gravitas and produce a surprise or two. Then there is Kingsolver's enviable way with language. "She could see that his old generosity was still there, but was sometimes being held captive by despair, like a living thing held underwater." You'll have to search hard to find a weak sentence.

Kingsolver created an appealing heroine in Dellarobia: bright and funny, a kind and dedicated mother who struggles to keep her marriage alive. I have to ask, however, if instead of a petite red-haired cutie, could the story have worked with a big, homely woman? Must all our heroines be beautiful winners?

A big-hearted, sad, gorgeous book. I'll be reading it again.

It also has good information about raising sheep.

A version of this review was also posted in Goodreads. The book was a Christmas gift.

2012 Tapers Off

Here's a guest blog on Buried Under Books.


Happy Holidays!

Ann

Deep Thoughts: My monthly Poisoned Pen blog

Here you go. Click and enjoy. Leave a comment, even!

Book review: Skulls by Simon Winchester

Most people who like natural history and the outdoor world are, in my experience, entranced by skulls. We find them beautiful (assuming the stinky parts are long gone) and they tell tales about the species and the individual. The individual tales are often tragic--a horse skull with a broken lower jaw, a coyote skull with a bullet hole, a smashed skull from a road-killed raccoon. The species tales are less freighted. Teeth and sagittal crests imply how the animal made its living and defended itself.

I lept at the chance to hear Simon Winchester discuss his new book Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley's Curious Collection.  He gave a nice talk to a big crowd at Powell's Books here in Portland. We would, of course, sit still for anyone with a cool British accent (not to mention his previously very successful books), but he also had an app of the book up on the screen (iPad only, not iPhone). In the app, the skulls rotate--wonderful.

The hardcover is a beautiful collection of Nick Mann's photos of skulls that were prepared by a private collector, Alan Dudley. Dudley came to Winchester's attention after getting busted buying an illegal howler monkey skull. He pleaded guilty, did his service and paid his fine, and the implication is that he isn't normally one to slip up in this way. I find this pretty satisfactory--he does a great job with the skulls and shares his expertise AND he serves as a lesson to other collectors not to get carried away and promote a market for slaughtering rare animals. (Replicas of many species are readily available, by the way.) Dudley gets almost all of his skulls from zoos.

Among this book's virtues are a plethora of bird, fish and reptile skulls. Photographs of mammal skulls are widely available as they are the taxonomic touchstone for mammals. The others, not so much. Partly they are less common because (I know from trying) fish and reptile skulls can be the very devil to prepare. The skull bones are often not fused and fall into separate bits when the connective tissue is gone. I wanted to learn more about Dudley's  methods, but this isn't a how-to book. Fair enough.

Of special interest: a great assortment of hornbills, odd and fragile skulls of venomous snakes, wild pigs with their seemingly self-destructive curving tusks.  Be sure to take a look at the domestic dog skulls and consider what we have done to the sturdy wolf.

Most of the photos are by Nick Mann, who has done great work on other Workman Publishing science books as well, and most are excellent. Many of the smaller skulls are out of focus, however. Printing the images against a black background works very well for most skulls, but much detail is lost for black bird bills (such as the Northern Shoveler) and the black horns of some bovids.The photo of Holbein's large painting The Ambassadors lacks details discussed in the text. Most of these weaknesses are demerits for the printer, not the author or photographer.

The photos are interspersed with  text about skulls in art, history, human evolution, etc. These are interesting, written for a non-technical audience, but this is primarily a visual book.

You won't be able to derive the species of that squirrel skull you found in the woods from this book, but you will see an enormous variety of skulls well presented. A beautiful addition to the natural history library.

Don't even think about it.

NW Authors' Fair this Saturday

I'm off to Lincoln City for Bob's Beach Books big annual book fair. CLICK HERE for details. I'll be signing under the tent on Highway 101 from 11 to 2 on Saturday. This coming Saturday, that is.

Hope to see you there!

Last year with Bernadette Pajer (left) and Jeanne Matthews (right)

Off to California

I'm heading for the Golden State soon for a book tour, taking my dog and pony. Well, my slide show, anyway. The dog didn't want to come and I couldn't find a trained pony. I'll be moving fast--catch me if you can!

Thursday, August 2

Berkeley, 2 PM, Janet Rudolph’s Literary Salon

This event is open to the public, but in a private home. Email Janet at janet@mysteryreaders.org for directions and to RSVP.

Friday, August 3
A visit to the Sacramento Zoo for fun, then--
Sacramento, 7 PM, Avid Reader, 1600 Broadway

Saturday, August 4

Orange, CA, 3 PM, Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Avenue

Sunday, August 5
South Pasadena, CA, 12 Noon, Book’em Mysteries, 1118 Mission St.  

Redondo Beach, CA, 2:30 PM. Mysterious Galaxy Books. 2810 Artesia Blvd.
 
Monday, August 6A day at Los Angeles Zoo and home!

Me, after this tour

Seattle: Pictures from Woodland Park Zoo

I was in Seattle last weekend. Spent Friday at the zoo having a wonderful time, then spoke with Pattie Beaven's zoo book club. I "appeared" at Seattle Mystery Bookshop on Saturday (here's the blog I helped write), then Third Place Books. A great weekend. But about those pictures...

I got to meet Ray, a Malayan Tapir, and feed him carrots and sweet potatoes. What a gorgeous animal!

Treats? Did someone mention treats?

Teeth and a strange tongue

Cute white rims to his ears. No, he's not eating the fence.

And adorable toes, perfect for getting around in swamps

North to Alaska... well, not really

I am off to Seattle at dawn-thirty tomorrow!

I'll see Woodland Park Zoo and friends, maybe test my event slide show on the real experts.

Saturday: Seattle Mystery Bookshop at noon. Third Place Books at 6:30.

Sunday: The King Tut exhibit with a friend, then home again, home again, jiggity jig

All jigged out.

Saturation posting

I'm am all over the interwebs! Here's a list of recent guest blogs where you can learn my Innermost Secrets and Deep Thoughts. To the extent I have any of either.

Book Pleasures   An interview that got maybe a tad too frank? You be the judge.
The Book Case Inspiring Readers to Action
OmniMystery News  Where Baby Plots Come From. Yes, under a cabbage leaf. Don't miss the contest.
Gifts That Give  Trying to save the world one mystery at a time
The Page 69 Test  Just what it sounds like

Ooops! Almost forgot one: Jenny Milchman's Made It Moment

And if that's not enough:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Endangered

by Ann Littlewood

Giveaway ends July 30, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

"Passionate Plotting"

The Book Case, which is the blog for The Book Page (a huge book review site), kindly hosted a guest blog I wrote about incorporating issues important to me in my book plots.

Click HERE for the full rant.
 

Hey! Calm down!

Free is a very good price!

Faithful reader,

Here is your chance at a reward. Hie thee to Goodreads (a fine site for sharing information about books you've read) and enter the drawing to win a free copy--hard cover no less, signed even--of Endangered, which will be delivered to the address of your choice by a uniformed representative of the US Government.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Endangered

by Ann Littlewood

Giveaway ends July 30, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Endangered Flies Free!

Yes, Endangered is now Officially Released. I am thrilled, exhausted, slightly delirious.

I've been neglecting this blog in favor of guest blogs. Here's one that went up today, Jenny Milchman's "Made It Moment" blog. I got lots of  those moments!

And heads up--there will be contests to win free books. Watch this blog.

An early reader--Major loved it, I'm told.

Littlewood 1: Facebook 0

I went mano a mano with Facebook and won, sort of. Here's the link to my new Author Page HERE.

Take a look. Leave a comment letting me know what you think. Click the "Like" button please, so I don't feel I've blown an entire evening for nothing.

And why did I bother? So that I could keep you up to date on Endangered, which is garnering some nice reviews and is set to come out about July 10.

More on that soon! Right now, I need an adult beverage.

Not yet an adult, but still....

Judging the American Cuddle Dog: Clarifications

Dear Readers of This Blog: The following came to my attention recently and should be of interest to many of you.  A. Littlewood

Dear ACD Judges,

The ACD board is hearing way too many complaints about judging at the American Cuddle Dog trials. If we are ever to get the same respect as the agility and herding events, we absolutely have to have consistency in our judging. I know you all do your best to be fair and impartial, but it’s time we upped our game.

The American Cuddle Dog is judged on performance. [This cannot be repeated too often.] Here are the standards with my comments (the ACD board’s comments) in brackets. Read them carefully and follow them to the letter!

1. The show ring is prepared with one sofa per contestant. Dogs enter with their handlers and stand by their assigned sofa. Handlers sit down and wait for the judge’s command “Lap your dog”. [This part is working fine—no problems.]

2. The Cuddle Dog is to wait quietly for the handler’s signal. Eagerness is desirable, but jumping before the command, pawing the sofa, and loud whining are penalized. When the handler signals by voice or hand, the ACD should immediately jump up. [If the ACD needs handler help to get on the sofa, this is permitted, but the handler can’t just haul the ACD up there—the dog has to be trying. Most of you judges understand this.]

On the lap, the Cuddle Dog is judged as follows:

3. The dog’s speed in assuming the “boneless” posture is crucial. The Cuddle Dog may be on its belly or its back—relaxation is the primary criterion. Circling and pawing to improve the lap are penalized.
[Judges, this is a performance competition. One of you recently disqualified a St. Bernard on grounds “he was just too damn big” and another disqualified a greyhound (“all bones and joints”). This is not a conformation class! Any dog can enter!]

4. The Cuddle Dog is judged by its degree of immobility, although gentle nudging of the handler to elicit stroking is permitted.

5. Thermal transfer is evaluated by thermometer inserted at the handler’s thigh. Thermally neutral dogs are disqualified. Warmth is essential to Cuddle Dog performance. [Judges, wait four minutes before the thermometer test.]

6. Flatulence (by the ACD) is cause for immediate disqualification. [Handlers often try to hide this defect. Watch closely for grimacing, blowing, or breathing to the side.]

7. The Cuddle Dog’s coat should be tactically pleasing. [Judges are allowed leeway in this necessarily subjective evaluation, but do not abuse this. An older Golden Retriever, otherwise very well qualified, was rejected for “shedding like Aunt Maggie’s raccoon jacket.” The ACD board will consider whether to declare excessive shedding as a defect, but it is not one now so don’t use it!]

8. Steadiness in the face of distractions is tested by waving ordinary dog kibble 12” from the dog’s nose. The Cuddle Dog should respond by no more than one briefly opened eye. [Judges, You may not use dried liver bits, venison jerky, or decaying chicken bones for this test. There is only so much you can expect of any dog, even a Champion ACD.]

I’m sure we can avoid future brouhahas by consistent judging. Owners of ACD’s are by nature sedentary, peaceful people. As long as they think their dogs are being evaluated fairly, we should see no more acrimonious charges that “only King Charles Spaniels and miniature poodles have a chance,” and so on.

Thank you for your careful attention.

Fannie Sitwell, President, Board of ACD Society

 Champion Littlewood’s Scourge O’Squirrels ‘Murphy’ showing excellent form.

Ashland, Oregon Mystery Author Series

Here's a size-large THANK YOU to Maureen Flanagan, Ed Battistella, Michael Niemann, and Carl Hilton for a blow-out weekend in Ashland, Oregon.

Ashland is a smallish town in a remote corner of a small state. Yet it hosts a fabulous, famous Shakespeare series and--it turns out--a terrific mystery author series. And my very own self was invited as one of this year's Ashland Mystery Readers Group. The kick-off event for the weekend was a reading Friday April 13  at Bookwagon at 6:00 PM.

So off we went, the spousal unit and myself, in the trusty Honda, with suitcases, a projector, and a screen rattling away in the back, in plenty of time to drive the 300 or so miles to Ashland. We made it 15 miles down I-5 and then...

It's run fine for 14 years. Why die now??

But the local Honda dealership saved us with a rental. I told the Ashland folks we left in a '98 Honda CRV and arrived in a 2011 Honda CRV. And best of all, We Were Not Late. Didn't even have to break any speed laws.

Here I am being introduced at Bookwagon by Michael Niemann.

A fine bookstore

My new/used projector worked perfectly and my how-I-came-to-write-zoo-mysteries slide show went over well. We sold all the books and had some great conversations with the people who braved a downpour to show up.

The next day kicked off with my first television experience (not counting watching my son at age 6 on Rambling Rod's set). Maureen, an old hand at this, shepherded me through. I walked into the community access TV lab, and Maureen called to the staff, "Talent on the set!" They all applauded at me. I almost fell over. This was an all-volunteer crew that soldiered through the technical difficulties of brand-new cameras while Michael Niemann, a mystery author himself, and I chatted about southern Africa. Then Michael used his radio experience to conduct an excellent interview (his part, at least). What a great introduction to TV!

Scary new cameras

Prepping the set

Afterward, spouse and I met with old friends who live in the area, wandered the charming streets of downtown Ashland, and watched a fine production of Romeo and Juliet. Doesn't get much better than that! We spent Sunday night at the wonderful Wolf Creek Inn near Grants Pass (a historic inn with genuine bullet holes and great food) and cruised on in to pick up the now-fixed Honda. What a great weekend!

You knew I'd find wildlife somewhere along the way:

Romeo seeks Juliet: object--long walks, conversation, wild sex

Left Coast Crime

Well lookit thet! I'm on video HERE.

This is from Left Coast Crime mystery conference, held in Sacramento this March. Lorie Ham of Kings River Life stalked the halls, interviewing mystery authors.  Thank you, Lorie!

Always weird to see myself on film/video. Do I sound British? What's with all the head movement? Is it OK???? [spasm of self-consciousnesses] Did you think I was young and blond and gorgeous? Now you know the truth. If only I had a camel to distract you...

Relax! We have other things on our mind.