fortune cookie friday

“To understand everything is to forgive everything.”
- Buddha

Second Haircut for Robert

Second Haircut  for Robert

a loss of vanity is a small price to pay

considering

I once thought I would go grey

with you

Robert Mercer 

5/30/72-8/27/07

this week in our garden

And now the peas are ripe!

Rain Dragon tastes fresh, right-off-the-vine peas for the first time:

She approves!

 and it is a feast of peas:

on my desk monday

I can't enjoy the last bits of the summer sun as I am pegging away at my novel. So, I brought a little sun inside in form of a flower:

Plus, I'm hopingthe presence of flowers while I am writing is good luck.

fortune cookie friday

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
- Buddha

this week in our garden

The beans are ready to be picked!  Rain Dragon is thrilled at our harvest:

Because there's enough for dinner: 

as well as a separate bunch just for her:

on my desk monday

So, I'm pegging away at the new novel. I've had to elaborate on my scrawled map  from when I was writing Starry River of the Sky so that the geography matches with that book as well as Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

My big dream is that three books are put in a box set and I can include a beautifully drawn map! But I guess I should really just dream of finishing this book, first...

fortune cookie friday

"The ripest fruit falls by itself."
- Chinese Proverb

this week in our garden

Rain Dragon's plants haven't died but show no signs of flowers:

But there are plenty of vegetables in the other garden, albeit still green and unripe:

But that doesn't stop Rain Dragon from naughtily picking them:

And feeding them to the dragon:

wishes that readers don't know they have

Q: Are diverse books really that important? When I was a child, I didn't see (fill in the blank) and I'm just fine!

I attempt to add to Janice's response and answer another question with this post  that I did for The BookPeople in Austin, TX to support their Modern First Library program.

Here is an excerpt: 

...it’s hard to miss something that you didn’t know could’ve existed. In my book, Starry River of the Sky, I write about the legend of the Moon Lady who can grant your most secret wish. It can be a wish so secret that you, yourself, might not even know you have it. But when she grants your wish, when your most secret wish comes true, it is a revelation. 

That is what diverse books are. They are the wishes that many readers don’t know they have. They are for the readers who finally see themselves...

Read the rest HERE!

on my desk monday

 I am a-working on both the 4th Ling and Ting, the novel as well as a bunch of other little things so I find this fortune very apropos right now!

fortune cookie friday

"We earn a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give."
- Chinese Proverb

a box can be even more things

The cousins came to visit this past weekend, so we found even more creative uses for boxes. We didn't share this book:

But, we should have.  For a particularly large box was saved from the recycling bin and found life as a boat for pirates:

Cousin Lily checks the navigation charts and Cousin Cappy looks through the telescope as we argue about the strange  creature in the sea. Water Dragon or Mermaid? 

Something tells me that this box will not  be seeing the recycling bin for a long time:

canoeing with a cardboard paddle and a spatula. 

this week in our garden

We've added some colorful flowers to our vegetable gardens:

I told the Sasquatch that I bought them for Rain Dragon (and she does like them quite a bit) but I admit I bought them for myself, too. They remind me of a little scene in one of my favorite books, New Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. In that book, the children decide to plant a garden plot with flowers for their mother's birthday. However, they find out that it is better to plant the seedlings without flowers which they think will look dull on birthday morning, so they decorate the garden with huge, brilliantly colored paper flowers.  While these flowers aren't paper and probably a bit bigger (and less realistic) then those in the book, it gives me that same little cozy happy feeling whenever I see them.

on my desk monday

Really, on my floor! These are all my research books (so far) for....my new novel! Yes, I'm a working on the new novel, another (and I think last?) companion book to Starry River of the Sky and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon!

fortune cookie friday

"Nothing is as heavy as a secret."
- Chinese Proverb