Looks Cute, Keeps a Messy House, Eats Too Much

You may remember the time the mouse ate the wire to our cruise control?  Well, the mice seem to have enjoyed a lovely trip thus far, because they’re still aboard.  I hope they enjoyed Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and now Kansas.  I really hope they like Kansas, because this is as far as they’re going.  And they’re not mice.  They’re pack rats with a hankering for air-conditioning vacuum hoses.

Our mechanic actually thinks that instead of having the same rat along for 5,000 miles, we’re dropping off and picking up new rats whenever we park anywhere for long.  If he’s right, there’s a legion of rat hitchhikers out there just waiting to climb aboard and take up the domicile built by their predecessor rats.  Think of it as rodent time-shares.

Personally, I’d like to see all the shiny gewgaws they’ve used to decorate the place, which pack rats like to do.  It might explain all the missing paperclips.  The mechanic /one-man pack-rat eviction team is not so bemused, since he’s the one out there in the 105-degree heat doing demolition.

So  in the spirit of everyone who might need a drink, I offer the following recipe, delivered to me in person at Chapters Books in Seward, Nebraska, by the wonderful writer Joy Castro.  In honor of the season, it’s called “The Ruby Slipper.”  Thanks, Joy.

RUBY SLIPPER

1/2 oz whiskey (or 1/2 OZ if you want to keep with the theme)

grenadine syrup

7-UP

Fill a shot glass 3/4 full of whiskey and top off with grenadine.  Fill any large glass with 7-Up.  Drop the shot glass into the 7-Up and drink up.  Make another one and feed it to your pack rat.

Then think about this:

Ambiguity is a Lovely Thing

The book tour stops will come thick and fast in the next two weeks, and I feel Kansas coming closer and closer.  So take a breather and enjoy a few postcards from our vacation days out west.

Tiniest Chaplins

If there were any justice in the world, these little guys would have won the Charlie Chaplin Look-Alike contest in Bellingham, Washington.  Last held in 1931, the competition brought out more than 50 contestants.  I was not one of them.

From Inside the Caldera at Craters of the Moon

Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument: a giant field of lava flows and volcanic formations.  Fantastic, otherworldly and hopeful.  The earth is alive.  Look at those little green plants taking hold.

The Grand Tetons, with me and the Bookmobile blocking your view.

In Yellowstone National Park, my career as a horsewoman begins.  We were given two instructions before our 2-hour trail ride: don’t let your horse eat grass, and don’t let him trot.  Walking only.  Big, slow drag.  Sonny wanted to trot, I wanted to gallop, and he definitely wanted to eat grass, and sage, and shrubs, and wildflowers.  Who wouldn’t?

Bison watching in Yellowstone is a national sport, and these big animals rule the park.  On our last day there, we got in a massive bison jam.  At dusk, when a group of bison decide to cross the road to get from one green pasture to another, they get to.  Which means traffic stops and humans watch.  And the whole circus reminds us that humans aren’t on this planet alone.

Take care of the planet wherever you are, and if you’re anywhere in the vicinity of the ‘My Ruby Slippers’ tour, come on down.  Dates and places for Nebraska and Kansas:

July 13: Book Worm, Omaha, 6 pm.  /  July 14: Chapters Books, Seward, NE 5:30 pm  / July 16: Barnes & Noble, Overland Park, 2 pm. / July 19: Raven Books, Lawrence, KS, 7 pm / July 20: Lindsborg Public Library, noon / July 20: Watermark Books, Wichita, 7 pm  /  July 21: Rockwell Library, Wichita, 7 pm  /  July 23: Hays Public Library, Hays, KS, 2 pm

Not the nest on the back porch, but I don't have my camera

Today, I’m sitting at my sister’s kitchen table in Indianapolis watching the robins’ nest propped on top of the porch light.   The parent robins fly out for food and fly back to the nest, all. day. long.  I can hardly look away.  And today, the hatchlings are just big enough to poke their open beaks above the rim of the nest and yell out, “Me! No, me!” when the worm-winners fly in with lunch.

A good reminder of the world’s real, physical wonders.

It also reminds me to tell you that while I sit here staring, I’m also traveling the blogosphere for the next month.  I’ll be appearing in interviews and guest posts, as well as being featured in reviews of My Ruby Slippers.  Brave new world.

You’re invited along, and your comments will often enter you to win a free copy of My Ruby Slippers.

Stay tuned for my next adventures.  I’m going horseback riding in Yellowstone in a few days.  And since I’ve never been on a horse, there could be tales to tell.

Meanwhile, here’s how to follow along on the blog tour while sitting at your own kitchen table:

June 27 and June 29, Monday at Writing Come Hell or High Water

Review of My Ruby Slippers on Monday.  Guest Post on “Discovering Yourself Through Writing” on Wednesday.   www.bethiswriting.com 

June 28, Tuesday at Beyond Breast Cancer

Book Giveaway.  Guest post on why I don’t like talking about breast cancer but decided to write about it in My Ruby Slippers.   http://beyondbreastcancer.wordpress.com

July 1, Friday at Readaholic

Guest post on why we need  indie bookstores. Come share your favorite bookstore experience and win a copy of My Ruby Slippers. http://bridget3420.blogspot.com

July 13, Wednesday at Donna’s Book Pub

Guest post on how My Ruby Slippers went from idea to book. Chance to win a free copy!  http://donnasbookpub.blogspot.com

July 15, Friday at Lit Endeavors

Review, giveaway, and guest post on The Pleasures and Dangers of Writing About Family.   http://litendeavors.blogspot.com

July 19, at Writer Inspired 

Author interview. http://writerinspired.wordpress.com

July 20, Wednesday at A Slice of Writing Life

Guest post: Why do we feel drawn to our old homesteads? Book giveaway.  http://lindahoye.com

July 21, Thursday at The Cottage Bookshelf

First author interview!  http://thecottagebookshelf.blogspot.com

July 22, Friday at Memory Writers Network

Interview with Jerry Waxler about memoir writing. http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog

July 25, Monday at C Mash Loves to Read

Guest post on “You’ve Got Cancer…Again.” http://cmashlovestoread.blogspot.com/

July 27, Wednesday and Friday, July 29 at Women’s Memoirs

Wednesday interview about the road to publication and writing memoir.  Friday: everything I know and then some about marketing your memoir. http://womensmemoirs.com/

July 28, Thursday at Steph the Bookworm

Review of My Ruby Slippers.  www.stephthebookworm.blogspot.com

Captain Trips Wipes Bugs Off His Rig

Captain Trips and I have come a long way since our novice RV days.  Having mastered the water system, hydraulic jacks, and rodent control, we move on to sharing tips about where to park, and not, for the night.

1) A Friend’s Driveway. 

The cushiest option by far, because inevitably, your friend will offer you the use of their guest room.  And we’ve been in some fine ones so far: Ashland, Oregon; Brush Prairie, Washington; and Whitefish, Montana with a view of a lake, wild turkeys, and horses.  This parking option means great beds, indoor plumbing, friends who take you on hikes, cook you dinner and mail you your stuff when you leave it behind.

2) A Friend’s Street.

This can be fun.  You go inside to cook dinner with your friends,

Sleep Here

then you go out for beers together, after which they go to their bed and you go to yours, which is a little bit sad, since your bed is out in the street.   Still, you’re also beginning to feel just a little smidge of affection for the RV, and your friends give you keys and lay out towels so you can come in anytime you want and take a shower. This can also be tricky, as it was in Eugene, where the woman whose house we parked in front of collared me one morning when I emerged for the day.

“Excuse me,” she hollered from her front porch.  “Can you tell me what the situation is?” I wanted to bite her. When I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I bite.  It’s a blood sugar thing.  My daughter calls it ‘hangry.’  So when the woman asked me about the situation, she caught the worst of me.  I’m not proud.

Truth is, people can be testy about RVs in their ‘hood, what with the prospect you might be homeless and planning a permanent encampment, which would depress their property values.  So just be careful not to step on their grass, which I really, really wanted to do in this case. Because let’s face it.  Nothing is more ambiguous than the question, “Can you tell me what the situation is?”

Did she mean the Palestine/Israel situation, the situation of climate change, or the fact that I’d driven all this way and she hadn’t even shown up for my reading? And if it’s one thing RVers without breakfast don’t tolerate, it’s ambiguity.  Or people who fear the homeless.

3) A Rest Stop.

The worst possible option for RVers who actually want to sleep in their parked vehicle is a rest stop which doubles as truck weighing station just 15 yards from the Interstate outside Spokane. You can see where this is going.

Let’s just say that between the parking lot lights, the infernal whoosh whoosh of the Interstate, and the coming and going of 18-wheelers, neither I nor Captain Trips slept, and as so often happens when there are so many other things to blame, one of us who shall remain nameless was especially testy, blaming the other one for stealing all the covers, when a simple survey of the bed would have revealed that all the covers had, indeed, been stolen, but not by the person being blamed.   If the blamer couldn’t sleep, he might have taken a glance out the bleepin’ window.

In the interest of marital concord, plan ahead.  If you don’t, and end up driving and driving into the night desperate for somewhere to sleep, anywhere will be more restful than a rest stop.

4.  Elementary school parking lots on Saturday night.

We made this lovely choice last night in Moscow, Idaho, at the end of a charmed day.  For a change, the sun came out (our 4th dry day since June 1).  I’d had a terrific book event at the University Bookstore, with friends and strangers alike lining up for copies of My Ruby Slippers.  Then the Captain and I (harmony restored) spent the day soaking up atmosphere and wi-fi at the best cafe ever, Sisters’ at 3rd and Main.

Muscovites cuttin' a rug at the Street Festival

Chores done, we walked out into the evening air, the Art Walk had started, bands started up at various corners of the closed streets, little kids and grownups started dancing, a man blew glass, newly-walking babies turned in circles until they fell over, another man made wooden bowls on a lathe, and it was altogether joyous.  Like a Renaissance fair for real people in a real, 21st century town.

When we finally walked back to the RV, the Little League game at the ballpark across the street had ended, and the groundskeeper–alone under all those lights–was re-chalking the baselines.  We climbed aboard our rolling home, tucked ourselves in, the ballpark lights went out, and quiet reined.  All night.

When you’re on the road, you can use a day like that now and then.  A reminder of how good a town can be when it honors the arts, has great cafes, and knows how to play.  And how good it is when the sun shines.

Mr. Bojangles' Stand-In

Greetings from Able Orchard in Hood River, Oregon!  My Ruby Slippers spent a summer here while still a pile of scrambled bits, so it’s a sweet return, especially with a new flock of chickens on the grounds.  As you may know, I fantasize about having chickens of my own, so for a coupla days, I’m pretending they’re mine.  Mr. Bojangles the rooster crowed right on cue at dawn.  Which in the Pacific Northwest in summer, is really damn early.

So this morning, the mister and I, in our cozy RV, are hammering away at our dueling laptops, sipping tea, realizing we have no particular plans for the day.  Which seems a delicious time for an update, in the form of lessons from the road.

1.  Mice like wiring.

Our intrepid wanderers left Oakland in the rain on June 1 around 10 am.  Shortly after lunch, still raining, they found themselves camped out in the waiting room at the Ford dealership in Corning, CA, leafing through past issues of Ducks Unlimited and eavesdropping on talk about torque.

The verdict?  Mice.  Rodents had chewed through the cruise control wiring. The fix: two hours and $187.

Lesson: Appreciate the power and humor of mice.

2.  Sometimes, you are the mouse. 

When two eggheads climb into an RV, high comedy will surely follow.  Knowing nothing about how the water, sewer, electrical or hydraulic jack systems work on their new vehicle, our adventurers spent the first three days in the RV without water.  And without functioning hydraulic jacks.  For RV novices out there, jacks stabilize and level the thing when you’re parked so all the blood doesn’t rush to your head while you sleep.

Fix #1: After much swearing, despair and self-flagellation, call the former owner, who will walk you through how to turn the water valve from “closed” to “open.”

Fix #2: After even more swearing, despair and self-flagellation, make an appointment at an RV mechanic to get your hydraulic jacks fixed, only to find out that one needs only push in the parking brake first and the things work just fine.

Lesson: Be grateful when mechanics don’t laugh at you, charge you almost nothing, and track down a copy of the operator’s manual.

Note to self: Find the manual about how to empty the sewer tanks.

3.  Public radio and public libraries rock. 

Here’s the place to give a hearty shout-out to KLCC public radio in Eugene, where I was a guest on Tripp Sommer’s award-winning “Northwest Passage” on June 3.  Tripp’s got a fantastic beard, and is also a curious, interested interviewer who threw me some great questions.  Where else can an emerging writer get a hearing like that?  And sandwiched in between “Fresh Air” and “All Things Considered,” I felt almost famous.

Shout out #2 to the Eugene public library, where I was a guest for the Summer Reading Series.  What a terrifically smart audience and thoughtful organizer.  Will someone please send Scott Heron some flowers?

The lesson: Local cultural programming enriches communities and gives artists much-needed venues to share their work.  Next time the pledge drives come around or the funding initiatives show up on the ballot, I’m there.

My Interview on “Northwest Passage.”

 4.   The Mister, aka Captain Trips, aka Frederick Marx, is a fine filmmaker and a treasure of a man.

He’s driven every single mile so far while I’ve been posting status updates and tweeting, patiently endures sleeping with his feet hanging off the end of the bed, and praises My Ruby Slippers at his own film screenings.  So here’s to Frederick and his terrific film, “Journey From Zanskar.”  If you’re in and around Tacoma on Thursday, June 9, you can catch it at 6:45 at the Grand.

After that, I’ll be at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle on Friday, June 10 at 6 pm.

Until later, Happy Trails!

The Bookmobile in Oakland

STILL, there is adventure to be had, and a cost to having it.  And so we forge ahead.  The wagon train pulls out by 10 am on Wednesday for the first miles of about, oh, 5,000 more to come.  Since Wednesday is also my sister Shannon’s birthday, I take it as an auspicious day for a drive.  So once the house-sitters arrive and the driving begins, I’ll be reveling in the whole shebang, ridin’ shotgun while the Mister navigates the trickiness of driving a recreational vehicle—which since we’re in a truth-telling mode, I will admit scares the bejeezus out of me.

First stop?  Redding, CA, in the shadow of the still snow-covered Mt. Shasta.  It’s one of the prettiest mountains in the Cascades so this, too, seems a good sign of good fortune ahead.  And since Shasta hasn’t blown its volcanic top in quite awhile, I’m going to take that as a model of good behavior, take a deep breath, finish packing, scrub the shower, then lay me down to sleep.   It’ll be my last snooze at home until August 12.

Mt. Shasta not blowing its top

Meanwhile, fare thee well, and fare me well, and I hope you’ll ride along on this blog.  Consider this your very first postcard.

A:  I started with a list of 13 addresses, which my mother had written in my baby book.  They were of all the houses I’d lived in before I turned 9.  When I was in my twenties, mostly out of curiosity, I set the intention to one day go back and see them all.  I’d been too young to remember half of the places I’d lived, and all that moving suggested a story I didn’t know.  Then I raised a family, went to graduate school, started a career…and the trip didn’t happen.  When my parents died in 1999, my daughters were mostly grown, and I decided that now was the time.  Meanwhile, I had become very interested in what it means to have a sense of place, so that idea shaped the journey.

Q: Were there any surprises in writing it?

A:  Yes.  When I first started writing, I was determined to leave my father out of it.  Which is absurd, since he’s the catalyst to so much that happens.  So his inclusion was both surprising and not.  Of course, I had to write about him.  The ultimate surprise in doing so was that I arrived at a feeling of enormous compassion for him, which marks a real turn for me.

Q: What was the most challenging part of writing it?

A:  Figuring out the structure.   One of the pretty far-along drafts told the story of my trip in chronological order: this town then that town then that one in Colorado, THEN, about mid-way through the book, we get to Kansas.  But Kansas had really become the heart of the book by then, and it made no sense at all to get there so late.  So on good advice, I chopped it up and started over.  Now the Kansas part of the journey is right up front, once I leave San Francisco.

I also struggled with how to weave together the cancer story and the Kansas story.  I wrote about 100 pages where they were told in equal parts, first one then the other.  That didn’t work, because I didn’t have a clear sense of what the two had to do with each other.  So I started over and wrote a draft in which I didn’t even mention cancer.  Which seemed silly, because that experience had so colored my expedition to all those addresses.  Then, I wrote a draft that included it, but only fleetingly.  Which seemed too cryptic.  So with the pushing of a great anonymous reader at the press, the cancer part of the story became larger and richer.  It traveled with me to Kansas and I revealed more about how it shaped both the journey and who I’ve become.  I also finally figured out that both stories were about displacement and learning to be at home.  So they grew to fit more naturally together.

Q:  Still, the cancer part of the book isn’t that prominent.  Why were you reluctant to include it, or to make it the central story?

A: When you tell people you have cancer, it’s like being at a dinner party and having brilliant things to say, and yet nobody can hear you because you’ve got a piece of spinach stuck to your incisor.  Cancer is like that spinach.  And I wanted readers to hear the story of my going back to Kansas, which for me, is really the heart of the book.  It’s certainly where my heart is.

I also think that cancer memoirs are plentiful, and hard to write well, and I wasn’t interested in writing yet another one.   Cancer’s not where I want to focus my creative life.

Q:  You weave together personal and family stories with other histories: stories of Native tribes, for example, or John Brown.  What made you decide to include these other layers?

A:   I’m interested in place as a palimpsest of places, one story laid atop the other.  And I think that the more we know about the place we live, the more we care about it and the more connected we feel.  So including stories other than mine was a way of building that connection, and of deepening my readers’ idea of Kansas.  It was part of dispelling the oversimplified myth that has come to stand for Kansas in many people’s minds.   I also think that memoir can become too ego-driven—or maybe it’s that I shy away from self-revelation—and I was interested in finding connections between my story and others’.  Building more of a collective sense of who belongs to Kansas, whose experience counts.

I am drawn to writers like Virginia Woolf whose essays are multi-layered and digressive, whose curiosity and thought lead in many directions and embrace whatever lies in the path.  I also admire W. G. Sebald and Rebecca Solnit, who do the same sort of thing.  So I wrote the kind of book I like to read.

Q: What is your writing process like?

A:  Well, there are two parts to this answer: the discipline part, and the process part.  Once I get my teeth into something, I’m very disciplined, writing daily unless I positively, absolutely can’t because of other obligations.  When I’m working my way into something new, I’m like a skittish colt, alternately curious to find out what it is, and fearful of making a start, working a bit, scampering away—sometimes keeping away for weeks.  When I am in a writing season, my process is organized chaos.  I do lots of drafts as I discover what the thing really is, find my way as I go.  I try not to worry about what it all adds up to, because I’ve learned that the insight or intuition will eventually come.  At later stages, I spend a lot of time fine-tuning sentences.  I like musical prose.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m writing some short pieces, one on a Virginia Woolf essay, one on my fascination with raising chickens (I don’t have them, I just want them).   I also try to keep up with my blog on slow life and slow reading.  And I’ve started a new book project about the 1918 influenza pandemic.  But it’s only begun incubating, so I’m keeping mostly mum about it.  Stay tuned.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 6 p.m.  Barnes & Noble, 1260 Churn Creek Rd., Redding, CA

Saturday, June 4, 2011.  3 p.m. Eugene Public Library. Downtown, Eugene, OR

Friday, June 10, 2011, 7 p.m.  Elliott Bay Books, 1521 10th Ave., Seattle, WA.

Thursday, June 16, 6:30 pm, Sandpoint Public Library, Sandpoint, ID

Friday, June 17, 12:30 pm, University of Idaho Bookstore, Moscow, ID

Sunday, June 26, 4 pm, Big Hat Books, Indianapolis, IN.  Fundraiser for Indy Reads.

June 27-July 27: BLOG TOUR (stay tuned)

Thursday, June 30, 6 pm, The Community Library, Ketchum, ID

Wednesday, July 13, 6 pm, Book Worm, Omaha, NE

Saturday, July 16, 2-4, Barnes & Noble, Overland Park, KS.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011, Noon. Lindsborg Public Library, 111 S. Main St., Lindsborg, KS.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 7 p.m. Watermark Books,  4701 East Douglas Ave., Wichita, KS.  With paintings by Charles Sanderson.

Thursday, July 21, 2011, 7 pm.  Rockwell Public Library, 5939 E. 9th, Wichita, KS.

Friday, July 22.  Jackrabbit Hollow Books, Peabody, KS. Time TBA

Saturday, July 23, 2011, 2 pm, Hays Public Library, Hays, KS.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011, 5 pm, Boulder Public Library, Boulder, CO

Thursday, July 27, 2011, 2 pm, Public Library, Montrose, CO

Thursday, August 11, 2011, 7 pm, Book Soup, 8818 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles

If you’re in or near these whistle stops, keep your eyes peeled.  Here on the My Ruby Slippers blog, and on my website, you’ll find updated information as events get nailed down.  If you “Like” My Ruby Slippers on Facebook, you’ll get updates sent right to you.