On Crows and Craft, Or Something

I haven’t run a reblog post here in a while. Usually when I do, it’s when someone writes something that I’ve been thinking myself but haven’t figured out how to say yet. This time I did write about it, and after I hit “publish” I read something that made me think, “That’s what I meant to say!”

On Friday I wrote about signs. I got it partially right. I got that the crows in Seattle are more than just urban opportunists (they made their way into a post I wrote for Dave’s Garden last week, too…), and that it had something to do with developing as a writer. But author S.P. Sipal, whose new novel Southern Fried Wiccan (she had me at the title) has just been released, explained it so much better and more beautifully in a post on Adventures in YA Publishing. That blog is on a different platform, so I can’t embed it here, but I hope you will click through and read it – HERE.

And if you don’t know what we’re talking about with the crows, the story is HERE.

I just remembered that crows (specifically, Seattle-based crows) featured in the short stories read at the Reykjavik Writing Jam I attended last fall. I wish I could include one of those stories here, especially Karen Finneyfrock’s, in which the crows were significant, but I couldn’t find them online. I think they were only printed zine-style for attendees of the jam. Maybe that’s what got crows percolating in my brain. Or maybe it’s because they screech outside my window all day as I work (like right now). Or maybe the appearance of crows in tandem with creativity popping up everywhere in my universe lately is some kind of sign.

WritingJamI would like to include a picture of a crow here, but technology hates me this week and I’m just not going to put myself through that stress today. Instead, here is a picture of the stories I mentioned that include crows.

I Heart the I Heart Reykjavik Blog

Cats of Reykjavik

Cats of Reykjavik

Can we talk about Iceland for a minute?

My obsession with all things Icelandic is no secret, and over the course of a three trips to the country I have developed a few intense loyalties. The KEX Hostel feels like home and I must soak at Laugardalslaug at least once each trip, even though I can’t really swim. Continue reading

‘Trade Me’ is Pretty Good

trademeIt might seem like I blog a review of every book I read, but I don’t. For example, as a research exercise for my NaNo-reboot project, I read 10 romance novels in January, and I didn’t review a single one here. I did rate them on Goodreads and basically kept saying,

It’s pretty good … for a romance.

Continue reading

The Vertiginous Thrill of Forsythe

Photo by Angela Sterling for Pacific Northwest Ballet

Photo by Angela Sterling for Pacific Northwest Ballet

Before I saw Pacific Northwest Ballet’s all Forsythe repertory The Vertiginous Thrill of Forsythe, I never realized that in some ways, the avant-garde contemporary ballet that thrills me has more in common with the straight-laced classical ballet that puts me to sleep than it does with anything that came between. Continue reading

Global Reading Challenge

20GRC_banner_575x225As so many significant events in my life, it happened at the library. It all started with a stack of bookmarks printed with a list of middle grade books. My oldest daughter had just finished second grade, and had already cloistered herself in the world of high fantasy. The books on this list were varied in genre with a diverse cast of main characters and a disproportionate number of Newbery medals gracing their covers. The bookmarks were labeled “Global Reading Challenge,” so I challenged my daughter to read all ten before the summer was over. Continue reading