Big Words- but write what you know

Do you ever come across a word that you’ve never heard before? One that sounds imppressive but you aren’t sure of the meaning? Here’s one — ultracrepidarianism. I heard it used on a Ted Talk and just had to look it up. It means ‘the habit of giving advice outside of one’s knowledge or competence.’ Great word, eh? (that ‘eh’ tells you I’m Canadian)

The challenge would be- how to use it? Can you imagine a situation where you might slip it into a casual conversation? For one thing, just pronouncing it means it won’t slip in anywhere.  However, my challenge this week is to use it without stumbling over my tongue. 

This is one thing about writing that I always expound on (but not ad nauseum, of course). Write what you know. That’s my rule and I think a good one. I have a background in business, law, hard work. When I read a book about business and find something silly in it, it means I have to stop reading and put the book down . Don’t speculate about what it might be like to be a business owner, a physician, a cop, a worker in a laundromat. Find out, check  your facts, ask someone with knowledge to help you out. That way you can form your story with confidence. Happy reading!

Putting the Garden to bed

I’ve finished putting my garden to bed. It involved digging out all the tomato plants, the cucumbers and squash plants and throwing them in the compost bin. Next was the pruning, all the shrubs and bushes, the pear tree which refuses to give us any fruit.

Then we started to dig–the Dahlias will rot in our soil if I don’t dig them out.

I dig them up, use the hose to wash the dirt off, and stack them on the patio out of the rain to dry before packing them into tote boxes covered in shredded newspaper. This picture shows about 75 clumps of bulbs. They certainly expand in numbers and I usually cut the bigger bunches into pieces when replanting in the spring. I’m no expert. I know many people take them all apart, pick the best bulbs and dump the rest, but this works for me.

When I first planted dahlias, it was because roses don’t survive here. I refused to dig the dahlias up, way too much work. But as the crop failed due to rot through the winter, I decided it was worthwhile. The dahlias bloom from July to October, certainly worth my while to plan each year. 🙂

What do you do with your garden in the fall?

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Writing, the process

We found a garden slug travelling up the garage door the other day. It was a beautiful shiny black, moving so slowly I could have gone for lunch and come back by the time he moved about twelve inches. We have them here in various colours—tan, brown, spotted, as well as black. I’ve seen them crossing our gravel driveway, and wonder what benefit there can possibly be to travel at that pace across what must seem a desert of sharp stones on a smooth slimy stomach.

On the other hand, and in contrast to the slugs, we also have the Pacific chorus frog. They are so tiny, they often back into the petals of my dahlia blooms and wait there to catch flies or mosquitoes as they fly past. They are fast, I’ve only been able to catch one in all the time we’ve lived here on the west coast—or the wet coast, as we like to say. And unlike the slugs, they are loud. In February and March when the frogs emerge from the wetlands and begin to mate, it’s hard to sleep for the noise they produce.

Writing is a lot like these two little animals. Sometimes the process is so slow, it’s like watching paint dry, and about as exciting. Other times it leaps ahead so I can hardly keep up with the flow. One book will take six long months to write. Another will pop out in six weeks, and just need another two for editing. There is no predicting it.

Life happens. So when I am working on The Last War: Book Six and halfway through I have to start reading at the beginning yet again, to get a grasp of what has happened so far and what has yet to take place, I think of the slug moving slowly across the sharp gravel. And if I ever get to a point on this book where I can leap ahead to the finish, I’ll celebrate loudly like the little chorus frog.

What little animals inhabit your world?

Hallowe’en and trumpeter swans

Halloween is almost here and I’ve just come down with a terrific cold. I can’t stop coughing and sneezing. After I blow my nose, I just have to do lean forward and it starts dripping all over again, just like a tap. Oh, well. Lots of rest, camphor and eucalyptus oil, cold pills, lemon and honey for the sore throat. Hopefully it’s gone soon, because I do love Halloween candy and you can’t eat candy when you have a cold, right?

We have had an extremely dry summer. There is an area called the flats below our house that fills with water in the fall and hosts a ton of ducks, geese, seagulls and trumpeter swans each winter—not to mention the predators like red-tail hawks, bald eagles, owls, turkey vultures that prey on them. The swans arrive between November 1st and 4th, almost as if they have calendars tied around their necks. These swans are listed in the bird books as having a low-pitched bugle with a single note. But having heard them on the flats for the last many years, I know they have a two-toned call.

This year, there’s no water down there. The creek that feeds the flats dried up in July and only last week started to show a bit of wet at the bottom of the channel. What will the birds do with no water?

Well, today it started to rain, a torrent that continued to come down all afternoon, turning to sleet tonight. I guess the birds will be fine. What does fall look like where you are?