Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

A Casual Gardener

Plump, juicy tomatoes, warm off the vine. Just the thought of them is enough to make my mouth water and my stomach growl. My haphazard, poorly planned garden this year is heavy on tomato plants, with 5 varieties (Roma, Early Girl, Best Boy, “Patio”, and Grape) taking up a large chunk of my greenscape. I’m already counting my baby fruit (27 as of this morning, ranging from pea sized to golf ball), although they’re still weeks from harvest.

I found space for a few pepper plants when I planted as well, and will have a nice variety come summer. Sweet bell in several colors, and enough hot chili peppers to keep me in salsa for months. A hanging herb garden has flourished out by the pool, where I planted several baskets of Parsley, Sage, Dill, and Thyme. (If I’d been thinking musically I would have put the Rosemary out there between the Sage and Thyme, instead of on the windowsill with the Basil. Maybe next planting season?)

Not right now.

Leonardo da Vinci. Douglas Adams. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Isaac Asimov.

Other than an amazing talent for arts, what do these men have in common?

Go ahead and think about it for a bit. I’ll grab a drink while I wait.

Hunting the Huntress released!

It’s a happy-release-day dance kinda day in the Case house. Hunting the Huntress, my first release, is now available!

You can read about it at the Hunting the Huntress page on the Samhain site, and get a look at the hot-hot-hot video at YouTube.

*Nilana has one night to make the choice of a lifetime: Accept the love of two men, or keep hunting—alone.

To laugh, to think, to cry

I’m overwhelmed some days by the passing of time. The numbers on the clock pass in a blur of constant motion. Whole days can bleed away with the constant minutia of the “daily grind”. Kids, husband, work, and the gift-that-keeps-on-giving of home maintenance. Writing, sometimes my escape, sometimes my joy, occasionally my flash point of stress.

And some nights I lay in bed, wondering if I did everything I needed to do today. Did I make sure the kids homework was signed? Did the car make it in for an oil change? Did I remember to swap out the pool filters? Did I remember to force a hug on the teenager that he wants even though he pushes me away? Did I meet my daily word goal?

Last night I was carrying the twentyteenth load of laundry for the week back to the bedroom, where I planned to drop the basket by the bed and pretend to forget about until much, much later, then scurry off to finish the dishes, bathe the kids, and I’m guessing you probably know the nightly drill so I don’t need to fill in the rest of the nights “exciting” agenda. But hubby had left the TV on ESPN, and the words caught my attention. I’m not the sports nut my husband is, which makes it easy for me to have gone 14 years without ever hearing one of the most moving, poignant, and courageous speeches I’ve ever heard. It was given by Jimmy Valvano, “Jimmy V”, at the 1993 ESPY awards, when he was awarded the first Arthur Ashe Courage Award. He died a truly tragically short time later, but the words he spoke and the power he gave them will make them last for a very, very long time.

(If you’ve never heard it, you can see a video, listen to the audio, and read it American Rhetoric )

There’s three things we should do every day, he says.

How Country Music Saved My Life - and Taught Me about The Hook

With a title like that you’d think there’d be some lying, cheating, and broken hearts ahead in this story. Not today. I’ll save those stories for when I know you a bit better.

There will be drinking. And a bit of lyrical nudity. Just so you’re warned.

Now, so you know where I’m coming from, I’ve spent the entire mumble number mumble decades of my life in the south. Some of it in Kentucky (Louisville, which really is much closer to a Midwest city than a southern one no matter where you draw that Mason Dixon line); then a big chunk in Alabama; and now fifteen-ish years in Florida. I was old enough when I moved to Alabama to turn up a snobbish nose at that music, and glad enough to leave the deep-south behind when I left it that country music was the last thing I ever thought I’d find myself listening to.