finding the window

We set our plans to head south to Tucson by aiming for an early departure of October 15th. We did this mostly to give ourselves a window where we could go, based on having the farm ready to leave and the weather cooperating for a smooth drive south through country where by mid-October, anything is possible. This time we planned to go through Eastern Oregon to northern California, straight through Nevada, and Arizona to Tucson. We aimed for short driving days but no vacation breaks. We had one goal-- get there.

We were taking our vacation trailer for two reasons. One shorter driving days as when we were settled for the night, we had what amounted to a small cottage, and whether the park had wireless, we have a Verizon hotspot (I highly recommend hot spots). 

I am not fond of hotels/motels for travel. Every night, with the trailer, we were in our own bed, we could cook a meal, watch a movie, and generally relax. We also wanted the trailer to make the travel as easy on our cats as possible. They hate traveling but being in a familiar spot every night helps. 

Finding parks to stay was a little different as there are less towns and sites. We stayed in one funky, kind of hippy park, but it was quiet at night. When we were younger, we stayed in rest areas, and very offbeat parks, but whether the world has gotten more dangerous; or we look more like targets, we take less risks these days. 

The road had its days where danger was coming straight at us. Anybody who has done long road trips (this was 1400 miles), usually has a few times their heart jumps up into their throat with someone passing into them or weaving into their lane. I would say the scariest this time was coming over a ridge in Arizona and on the center-line of a two lane road, sitting lotus position, was a woman arguing with a man who was standing on the shoulder. A big rig was beyond them, parked on the shoulder. 

With no traffic in the northbound lane, Farm Boss swerved into it to avoid driving between these two. That situation was wrought with the potential for tragedy. The man's face looked aware of it while the woman appeared only interested in berating him.

About the time we got over the shock of what we had seen and I was saying should we call 911 (Farm Boss said that the big rigs right behind us already would have), a police car with lights flashing came zooming north. Since we saw no more emergency rigs, we assume the woman was not hit by any of the heavy traffic. I guarantee you that anyone other than a police officer stopping could have made the whole thing potentially much more dangerous. These are 70 mph highways with little opportunity to fix a mistake. 

 Someone has been going to renovate the Goldfield Hotel ever since we have been making this drive. It never goes far. There is talk that it's haunted. I could believe it as Goldfield has a very interesting history with all the mining disasters. Virgil Earp was marshal here for a few years after the OK Corral.

Through our many years of making this drive, we know to expect the unexpected. Weird times are never something you can see coming. It's just an odd window where there you are, and the unpredictable happens. Once it happened to us about a mile south of Goldfield, Nevada. We had the kids then and were pulling a much smaller trailer. A motorcycle gang, with Harleys beside them, were stopped alongside the highway. One man walked into the center of our lane trying to wave us down. I won't say we have never stopped for those who look like they are in trouble but a motorcycle gang, all with leather jackets, all men and just outside of town and they want us to stop? No thanks. What we always did back then was look for the first phone booth. In the case of that gang, we did call. Who knows what it had been about. Always you wonder what it had been about.

In the recent incident, were the woman and man both in the big rig and she got mad at him? She was mad for sure but why suicidal? Why a lotus position? It was rather incongruent considering what she was doing. Another possible scenario is he saw her on the highway and stopped his big truck, walked back to try and talk her into some sense;  and the vehicle she had been in had driven off without her. Anything was possible, but we will never know. There have been a lot of partial stories in our many years of making such drives.

With no disasters on the way, we got to our Tucson home at the right time and had good weather all the way with very little wind and no rain. We chose the right route and the right window. 

Every time we had been forced to delay leaving Oregon due to a farm problem (there were several of those), I felt that it was going to be for the best. 

Be patient. Wait for the window. 

I think about that a lot in my life with many things. Being patient and waiting for that window and then jumping on it, that can sometimes be hard. It is always though better. The question is getting it.

Once we got mostly unpacked in the Tucson house, we expected a problem. We didn't expect it to be a huge one. We have had an ice maker with this refrigerator/freezer. It leaked two years ago, and we had damage as well as mold to deal with. This time we had someone watching the place, neighbors, who kept an eye on it and regularly went inside. We had been told there had been another leak; but we had no idea it would prove so extensive. 

What we found required moving the refrigerator and stove away from the wall. Once the mold problem was revealed it meant tearing out cabinets, wallboard, using a protective mask and plastic sheeting for protection of Farm Boss and the house in case it was the toxic kind of black mold (only a microscope can tell for sure). This was a case of better safe than sorry. Then scraping and painting the area with mold killing paint before beginning the process to put the kitchen back together. Once the mold was gone, there was no rush on getting the kitchen restored. For cooking, there is always the microwave, and I am used to having things torn up when we get here. It is the price you pay for having a second home.

We also didn't have to rush to get the wireless working-- although it was supposed to be up when we got here. Something was catastrophically wrong and once again-- hurray for the hotspot, which allowed some online activity (3GB a month without extra fees) until three days later when Century Link could get a repairman out to discover the outside wires had been damaged. Who knows how, but javelina root out things. The repair guy said he now uses plastic gloves to set down the wires as if they smell human scent they dig it up.

Our two beautiful black cats are still adjusting. I am still reading. The kitchen is more or less functional again. We have had some beautiful sunsets and are adjusting to this as our home for the next month and a half with two great guys keeping an eye on the livestock in Oregon. Hopefully nothing will happen there that they cannot resolve. If it does, our trip might get cut short-- as when you ranch, the animals come first. 
 
I haven't forgotten my new book idea for the Arizona archaeology based romance but ran into a glitch when I got to the Tucson house (well besides all the physical glitches) the research book I expected to be here was not. I am hoping I took it back to Oregon and didn't look deeply for it there because I assumed I had it here...  

There is another possibility. In this rental house, we provide quite a library of different kinds of books for our vacation renters; so it seems like a home when they spend their week or month here. Maybe one took it not realizing how important that book was to me. I know that a comforter was taken this year probably by someone who also didn't know it was one Farm Boss's mother had owned, and it was special to us. We take that risk with leaving art work here too but so far nothing had been taken because we've had honorable renters. There is always a first time though.

For future projects, we plan to get a fence around the patio connecting it to the fenced pool area which will enable the cats to safely be outside. As it stands with coyotes, javelina and bobcats in the area, there is no way they can be out until we know the predators can't get at them. As to scorpions, black widow spiders and rattlesnakes, we'll have to watch out... and there will be no pet doors to let them straight into the house whenever they want... 

transitions

 Sunset October 31, 2014 from Casa Espiritu

This is kind of an in between time for me, call it transitional. I think most people who have been reading my blogs know we have a second home in Tucson, Arizona. We were there in January of this year because of a cancellation of one of our VRBO renters. Mostly this house rents from January through April, and we leave it vacant or let our friends here use it for family events. With no potential fall renters, we decided we would come back in October and spend a little longer with several improvements planned, two potential repairs needed, but time this go round to do some enjoyable things too. Best laid plans and all that.

When we left Oregon, I had on my Kindle a LOT of books, more even than I knew, which I had accumulated from writers I knew as well as those I had seen blurbs for and thought their books sounded interesting. With one exception, these are romances, a genre that I haven't read much for the last few years due mainly to writing for it myself.

Buying books and storing them with the idea of reading them in the future, is not just something I've done with eBooks. I also do it with paper books thinking the right time will come. I am a big believer in there being a right time, a window, where the book will mean more to my life. It happens that way a lot.

In this case though, I kind of overdid it. It turned out I had about 100 unread titles on my Kindle. Because over the last year or two, I have been doing a lot of writing, there had been almost no time for reading more than research, non-fiction, social issues, and newspapers. A book for pleasure had not been on my agenda. 

Some claim that you should never read in your own genre when you are writing. I don't know if that is true. I do know when I am trying to generate my own plots or characters, I don't want to by accident get them from someone else's fiction. I have read enough books, through the years, to know a lot of writers do take their ideas from books they read. If they don't do it word for word, nobody says anything-- even if they think hmmmm, this is very familiar. For me though, the enjoyment of writing is generating my own ideas, letting them come from my observations, the book's setting, and its characters. It would not be fun for me to take what someone else created-- whether I could ethically do it or not.

However, I had been promising myself for months that I would take a time out and read just for pleasure. I began this project as we headed south, reading each night. When I read a book that I liked a lot, I did a review but only if I could give it 4 or 5 stars. If I could not, I didn't review it. If I ever felt an author needed some kind of slam, I'd email them (I don't get that irate at fiction and stop reading and delete; or if it's a physical book and horrible enough, drop it in the garbage). 

Fortunately nothing I have read so far is anything like I write. They have all been romantic stories, which is why I bought them-- serious fiction and research books are already in folders. 

Some of the books I've been reading turned out to be pretty shallow. A few had manipulative plots, but then what isn't manipulated if it's fiction! Yeah I know literature is different... uh huh... When it is fiction, writers control their stories, and whether the manipulation stands out or seems to fit, it's all used to suit the purposes the writer has for that book.

 I do not know who did the cover for the book I am discussing below, but coincidentally I had bought a similar image some months back but have not found a way to use it yet as a cover. I like the one I have best but hers was pretty good too :) 

It's Jimmy Thomas whose images I have used a lot in trailers and covers. I never can see too many of this guy;). Yes, he's a beautiful man but it's the way he shows emotions on his face that makes him a winner for me.

From my recent reading binge, my favorite book so far has been Princess and the Ox by Peggy Ann Craig. The title alone had me interested. Set in 1884 on the shore of Lake Huron, it is a romance with good character development, very romantic, but something extra as it explored cultural and social issues. 

A book that looks at social issues and how someone can grow, when they are exposed to new ways of thinking, will always be one I like better than just a simple love story. Yes, a romance explores the developing relationship between two people, but it can do it through showing the social issues of a time. It can do it through illustrating actions and the resulting consequences. Princess and the Ox went into all of that but without preaching. It dealt with it through the divergent goals of the various characters and showing the lives people were leading during a time that was also of transition.

Because I write the sort of book that also uses social issues as plot elements, I know I lose some readers. If you illustrate, through actions, how some can be selfish and desire only power, while others have the good of others at their heart, some will find that partisan and political. Same problem, if you deal with religion-- which explains why some writers won't touch either to avoid offending someone. To me those resultant books are shallow and not that interesting to me. A good writer can explore problems and issues and not preach doing it. Craig was a good writer for this story.

I was delighted to find this kind of book out there and recommend it to anyone who is interested in historicals as well as a good romance.
Right now I don't know if she has such strong social issues explored in her other books because I refuse to buy any more eBooks (I hope anyway) until I have whittled down my massive backlog. I am not sure how long I can just read other writers' books. After awhile I get to itching to do my own, but I am going to stay with it for now anyway. It's been fun and actually educational to see what else is out there. I only though buy indie romances, no corporate published on my Kindle.

Because this blog has gone on too long and because I want to say more about our trip south and what we found when we got here, it's going to have to wait for Sunday's blog.

physical beauty and character

 1967 and a mama with one baby

Here's the question: Is the possession of what is perceived as physical beauty an asset or a drawback? In short, does it impact character?

When I was growing up, my parents never told me I was beautiful. They felt that it would make a girl conceited to hear that. As to how I saw myself, well, I have a very French nose (didn't know that was what it was with all my female relatives having English noses) and don't know that I saw myself as pretty either. I did though know others saw me that way by the things they told me. Half the time did I believe them? Not necessarily, as people say nice things even when they don't mean them. Compliments are a meaningless way to determine if one has beauty. What is more accurate? Don't ask me. I have no idea. Each culture determines beauty based on criteria that can change. 

When I raised my children, I did tell them they were good looking but reminded them that beauty of the physical sort does not last but character does. So grow your intellect and strength of personality. That will stay with you longer. Beauty might open some doors. It closes others. I don't think it's bad to be aware of beauty but not good to depend on it. I also think it's better to look interesting than handsome or beautiful. Perfect features that look like everybody else are not necessarily even beautiful to me-- especially if the character doesn't follow through.

When I create my fictional characters, I have generally written about good looking men (with one decidedly ugly) but only a few who have exceptional looks, which some of my heroes considered to have been a drawback-- too handsome a man can be seen as shallow. Being hit on by men and women isn't a plus if someone doesn't want it. 

Most of my heroes are tall (a plus in our culture for a man) but happens in my books mostly because it's what I know. I live with a tall man, and all the men in my immediate family have been tall.  Tall is average for me. Most of the time living with a tall husband, I don't think about it until I stand next to him and have to look up (me also being a tall woman).

I emphasize to my grandsons though that tall isn't important, as who knows if they will be. What is important is confidence.  A short man with confidence in himself is more desirable to me than a tall man without it.

Physical characteristics in books are important in character driven stories-- less important when the plot drives the action and the protagonist is just a tool for it.

In my three Arizona historicals, I write about women whom others see as beautiful, but it's not how they see themselves. The first one, Arizona Sunset, has a heroine who regards herself as a homely spinster, but it's mainly because of her attitude that others also don't see her as so pretty. When she begins to love her life, her face reflects that glow. The second heroine, Tucson Moon, sees herself as overweight even though others see her as curvy. The third, in Arizona Dawn, is insecure about her looks as to even how the hero sees her until the epilogue. She was raised until the age of nine by strict grandparents who probably had an attitude a lot like my parents.

Where it comes to real life, one day I was in the dentist office as the young hygienist was telling the dentist that men don't ask her on dates, and it frustrated her. He said it was because she was too beautiful, that her beauty intimidated men. At that time, I entered into the conversation and said that I don't think beauty has to intimidate men-- but on the other hand, as I've thought more about it, I am not so sure.

My daughter was told by one of her older clients that he would not want a beautiful woman like she is. He wanted a wife, but he wanted her to be ugly because then he could treat her however he wanted, and she would not leave him. (He obviously didn't know women too well!)

Adding another angle to the question: Do women avoid friendships with beautiful women because they feel they will be overshadowed or that the woman might go after their partner? When a woman is much admired by others, it can be an issue-- even if the woman herself does nothing to encourage it. 

All these things factor into how beauty is used in a book. As to how it works out for real life, well that's another question altogether!