Show & Tell Friday: Coming Back

Slowly but surely, I’m emerging from the cave of Newbornland. My newest daughter is now 38 days old. Everyone in my house except for my 3 year-old–including myself, my husband, and our dog–is exhausted. The 3 year-old is fueled by some energy source we can’t find. We’ve looked for it.

We are happy and sleepy. And we have no idea what day it is.

Oh, yes–Friday! I’ve got some things to share that popped up while I was in Newbornland:

 

1.) The Girls of Atomic City: the Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win WWII

I may have already mentioned this, but I can’t wait to read this book! It’s all about the young women who were recruited to work in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during WWII. On the Manhattan Project (you know, the Atomic Bomb). My grandmother was one of those girls. She was recruited right out of Winthrop University (then College) in South Carolina, with a friend, but when the friend bailed, she still went. She met my grandfather, a nuclear physicist and a Yankee to boot, at a dance. He told her he was going to marry her the night they met. My mother and aunts were raised in Oak Ridge, the “Secret City.” And the rest is history.

Speaking of history, these women, and their stories, are incredible. A must read for your nonfiction stack this summer. It’s already on mine.

2.) Brave

Have you seen this movie? It’s not just for kids. About a strong-willed young Scottish princess, Merida, and her quest to break from tradition in order to live her own life. It’s set in the Highlands of Scotland and is a great big adventure, complete with a legend, a witch, and ill-fated wish, and a host of unforgettable characters. The animation is absolutely gorgeous, and truly different than anything I’ve seen before.

We watched it over the weekend with my 3 year-old (who’ll be 4 in late July), and she loved it!

My husband and I backpacked and traveled through the Scottish Highlands several years ago, and came away forever changed–not to mention determined to get back there one day. Disney Pixar gets it right with this one. It’s a good movie for everyone–battles and humor and danger and redemption–but it’s great for girls. All hail the female hero! Plus, it won the Academy Award for best animated film.

3.) “Being But Men” by Dylan Thomas

This was the featured poem-of-the-day on Wednesday at The Writer’s Almanac. I love Thomas, and this poem demonstrates why I think he’s a poet for the ages. I think it speaks to quiet truths about nature and humanity; that it’s lovely and sad at the same time.

Poets slay me. I don’t know how they do it.
 



4.) And last, some quotes to welcome the unofficial start of summer:

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” ~ Henry James

“A man says a lot of things in summer he doesn’t mean in winter.” ~ Patricia Briggs

“Come with me,’ Mom says.
To the library.
Books and summertime
go together.”
~ Lisa Schroeder

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
~ William Shakespeare

“The summer demands and takes away too much. /But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes”
~ John Ashbery  

“If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance.”  ~ Bern Williams

“The summer night is like a perfection of thought.”  ~ Wallace Stevens

Southern Summer Reading List

Looking for a few good books to read this summer?

Just wanted to share a new board I’ve posted on Pinterest while the baby was sleeping. Called Doggone Good Southern Books, it’s a list of many of the books–novels, biographies, memoirs, nature books, etc–that have affected me over the years. All by Southern authors, set in the South, or Southern in nature.

Check my board out here.

This is most definitely a work in progress, and I’ve left several off (including, by not limited to, works by Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Kaye Gibbons, Mary Alice Monroe, Lee Smith, and more). But these are books that have touched my flawed Southern soul, and I wanted to share. Please feel free to write me here, and let me know if you agree–and for heaven’s sake, suggest some good books for me, too!

Happy Reading!

Back Momentarily & Just Because

Hello, friends! I've emerged from the cave of newbornland just to say "hi," and to introduce my new baby girl.

Willoday Tiger Dodson

"Willa"

Born May 1, 2013

The names: "Willoday" is a family name on my husband's (the Dodson's) side, and Tiger is a family name on my side (the Crawford side--my great-grandmother's maiden name, to be exact). We're calling her "Willa." Mostly this is for one of my favorite American novelists, Willa Cather. Also because we think it's retro and cool. 

Today marks Day 29 of Willa's life, and we've been ensconced like all new parents are in sleepless nights, busy days, and what we're calling the-distracting-of-the-3-year-old-sister. Said sister, Wylie, is quite proud. Now if we can only keep her from waking Willa up....

There won't be much coming from me here for a little while longer, but just for fun, check out these AWESOME headphones my super-cool husband brought me from his most recent business trip.

Yes, that's Wonder Woman. I'm hiding behind her because I haven't showered or slept in 29 days.

Just kidding. I've showered.

Well, a couple of times.

See y'all soon!

Thursday Show & Tell - The See Ya Soon Edition

Well, folks, I am 38 weeks pregnant. I am an ocean liner. A 90 year-old with permanently creaky hips and questionable navigation.

I am cranky, I am exhausted, and all I want to eat is ice cream. Right now, the only person in my house who does not annoy me is the dog.

That being said, this is my last post for a while. I’m due to have this baby in 6 days. So if you don’t hear from me for a little while, that’s why. I’ll try to at least get a good baby picture up here to share in a week or two, though.

In the mean time, here are some cool things I wanted to share before I head (God willing) into post natal bliss:

Credit: Richard Foreman/CBS

1.) My favorite show currently on television, NCIS, is finishing up its 10th season. That’s quite a long stretch for a TV drama, which means some kudos for the writers who keep viewers coming back week after week. That being said, Tuesday night’s episode ended on a cliffhanger, making me wonder if they’re going to kill off one of my favorite characters, a former Mossad officer-turned NCIS agent, Ziva David.

I can’t take this sort of drama with my pregnancy hormones raging. If they kill off Tony or Ziva–two characters playing ”will they or won’t they?” NCIS agents–I’ll lose it. Anyway, this interview with Cote de Pablo (the actress who plays Ziva) may fill in a few of the blanks. As a writer, I’m especially interested in the way she describes a choice with a certain scene in Tuesday night’s episode, and the way that she thinks Tony’s character is evolving … who he is as a man. Very cool.

Check it out here.
 

2.) I’ve talked about this book, Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods, here before, but I’ve

got to mention it again. Just published this month by Beacon Press, it’s a book of essays about life as an Alaskan “trail dog,” by my friend, the writer Christine Byl. It’s already come out to great acclaim, and has been mentioned as a “favorite Spring read” in places like O Magazine and more!

I hope you’ll check it out; it’s available in hardback and as an eBook from any independent bookstore, and of course online at places like Amazon.com.
 

3.) Today is the birthday of Ella Fitzgerald, the ”First Lady of Song.” Originally from Virginia, she entered a talent contest when she was 16, started to freeze up, and then sang. From there, it’s history.

Ella once said, “The only thing better than singing is more singing.” So in honor of Ella, and of my current physical state caused by the baby in my belly, check out “Cry Me a River.”




That’s all, folks! Happy Weekend, and I’ll catch you on the flip side.

For the Beauty of the Earth

 

 

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. ~ William Shakespeare

 

All over the world today, people are celebrating Earth Day.

What began in 1970 as an American grassroots conservation movement led by Senator Gaylord Nelson has now become an international holiday celebrated by over a billion people (so sayeth The Writers Almanac). Several years earlier, a scientist named Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring, exposing the danger of pesticides and other regularly-used pollutants on the planet. I read Silent Spring my junior year at Clemson University, and wrote a paper on it for my one of my communications classes. My professor liked it so much, he suggested I submit it to an academic journal.

I never did–I barely knew what an academic journal was back then, let alone how wonderful it would’ve been for my future teaching career to have something published in one–but his enthusiasm and support of my writing and my positions in the paper was powerful.

I’ve always been a natural conservationist. You can’t be raised outside, freely roaming the mountains and creeks and your own neighborhood, without something like that happening. Early on I felt a wonder about nature, about plants and animals and the earth, that I’ve never shaken. I truly believe–in my physical and spiritual consciousness–that taking care of the planet, and all that means, is part of walking through this life with faith, honor, and hope. It’s so easy to do otherwise, isn’t it? Certainly, I don’t always get it right.

But I firmly believe that it’s all connected; that we’re all connected. That nature is ever-cyclical, and that heaven watches.

On this Earth Day, why don’t we all–wherever we are–take a moment to breathe. To look up at the stars or the sky. To admire the azaleas blooming fuchsia. To touch a leaf, plant a garden, buy a plant, petition for more greenways. To watch your kids, and how they interact with the Earth–how to them, a line of ants is so utterly cool. To acknowledge that we’re part of it all.

Lastly, in honor of Earth Day, some quotations from those who’ve said it much better than I:

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”  ~ John Muir, 1913

“Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.”  ~ Bill Vaughn, 1987

“Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together.  All things connect.”  ~ Chief Seattle, 1855

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
~ George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.”  ~ Cree Indian Proverb

“There is a great need for the introduction of new values in our society, where bigger is not necessarily better, where slower can be faster, and where less can be more.” ~ Gaylord Nelson

“There would be very little point in my exhausting myself and other conservationist themselves in trying to protect animals and habitats if we weren’t at the same time raising young people to be better stewards.” ~ Dr. Jane Goodall

“I had assumed that the Earth, the spirit of the Earth, noticed exceptions — those who wantonly damage it and those who do not. But the Earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable.” ~ Alice Walker

“The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.” ~ Gaylord Nelson

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies;
For the love which from our birth,
Over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale and tree and flow’r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

~ Folliott S. Pierpont, 1864

Show & Tell Friday - Food, Books & Writers Retreats

I am officially 37 weeks pregnant. This week, my 3 1/2 year-old said, “Mama, you sure do look funny with that great big belly.”

This just proves what I suspected when I had the said 3 1/2 year-old: Nature never intended barely 5’2″ tall women to procreate with 6’2″ tall men.
In other news …

Good stuff to share on this Spring Friday!

 1.) Did you know that in addition to being a Renaissance man, an incredibly gifted writer and one of the more mysterious, flawed and brilliant of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson is also likely responsible for introducing macaroni and cheese to the fine people of the United States of America?

Yep. Mac-n-cheese, coming straight to us from old T.J.

himself. Since this is one of my desert island items–you know, one of the few things you’d choose to have with you should be stranded on a desert island (my others are water, Chapstick, and my dog)–I find this a fun fact to share. Check out more of the story over at the Garden & Gun Blog.
 
2.) Yesterday was the birthday of Isak (Karen) Dinesen, author of many stories, but most famously of Out of Africa, the novel that inspired the movie of the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Karen was a wealthy Dane who in 1913 moved from Denmark to Kenya with her husband, where they started a coffee plantation. Her time there inspired the novel, which originated as collected stories.

I’d not read Out of Africa until last year, upon entering my MFA in Writing program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I’d always wanted to read it, and when I mentioned adding it to my reading list my advisor at the time heartily agreed. There are some novels that affect you, that move you, the moment you set eyes on the first page, and this was one for me. Her sense of place, her gorgeous, unindulgent prose, hooked me from beginning to end.

This is a classic to revisit, or read for the first time! Read the book, then rent the movie.

I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills …. It was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet, like the strong and refined essence of a continent …. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be. ~ from Out of Africa
 
3.) Alaskan mystery/thriller/suspense writer Dana Stabenow, most well-known for her Kate Shugak series, is launching a campaign to build a new writers’ retreat for women. The Storyknife Writers’ Retreat will be the first (and so far only) retreat just for female writers in Alaska.

Stabenow was inspired to launch Storyknife by her own writerly beginnings, when she was awarded a residency at Hedgebrook, another retreat for women writers in Washington state. The time there was a gift, she says, and she wants to pass that on to other female writers.

Alaska. The Last Frontier. The Great Land. I’ve been three times (I know, life is rough): twice in the summer and once in the winter, and I spent the summer after my freshman year in college living with my youngest aunt in Anchorage. I can say with absolute certainty that there’s no place like it. For a writer, it’s inspiration central. And I first read Stabenow’s novels–mostly in the bathtub–because my aunt was a fan. So women writers, check it out and stay informed. This is an opportunity not to be missed.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Don’t forget to grab a good book and some yummy grub. Mac and cheese, anyone?

Shoeless Joe, the Colonial South, Writing & More: A New Author Interview

There's a new author interview with me today over at Jim Lomas's very funny and very cool cycling, music, and more blog, "Fables of the Deconstruction."

Full disclosure: Jimmy has been a friend of my husband's since they were kids. I had a great time talking with him, mostly because he's a history buff, so well-read, and funny as heck. The interview was one of the smartest and most detailed anyone's done with me, so it was a joy.

I hope you'll check it out, and his blog in general--which, especially if you're a music buff, cyclist, and/or parent, is a must-follow--here.