Staying safe in a pandemic is like sneaking up on a deer.

When I was young, my fifth grade class went to a camp for a week. We slept in cabins and did outdoor activities. One activity led by the counselors was to see how quiet we could be in the woods. The counselors would pretend to be deer and all of us would try and sneak up on them. I knew how to be quiet in the woods, I spent a lot of time in the woods and field behind my house, so I thought I would do well. But when the activity started it turned into something like a game of red-light-green-light and all of the kids just ran when the counselors had their backs turned and then froze when the counselors looked back. I started out being quiet and slow, but everyone else was way ahead, so I eventually joined in the free-for-all dash when the counselors' backs were turned. 

When it was over, the counselors announced that the only person who had done the task correctly was one boy, who happened to live on my same street. They praised him for going quietly and for advancing slowly but surely. He wasn't at the front, but he had done the best job. They had neither heard him or seen him moving. 

I was so angry with myself because I had known how to move like that, too, but I had gotten caught up in what everyone else was doing. What I knew got thrown out the window and I joined in the group's poor judgement on how to move through the woods. 

The lesson I learned from that activity serves me well now. People I know are getting together, my neighbors - who are very sensible people -  had a 4th of July party, acquaintances of my husband are going on vacation to a beach. And I sometimes feel pressure to relax my own rules about how to stay safe during a pandemic. But it's the same idea now as back way back then in 5th grade. Don't follow what everyone else is doing and get caught up in the group mentality when you know it's not right.

Stay safe everyone. 

Daenerys and the fate of strong female characters

What if it was Daniel Targaryen?

 Picture, if you will, a man atop that dragon. Picture his hatred of an enemy who has stolen his throne, reneged on a promise of an army to help fight the dead, killed one of your dragons whom you hold as dear as a child – a son, perhaps – and captured one of your closest advisors, who is also your closest friend, and beheaded them in front of you. Do you still have a problem with Daniel wreaking havoc and laying waste to a city that symbolizes all that he has fought against his entire life, even if it has surrendered to him? Effectively wiping the slate clean to start anew. I think we’ve seen this type of male revenge over and over throughout history, real or fictionalized and don’t have the same qualms we do when suddenly it’s not a Daniel, but a Daenerys.

It was a woman atop that dragon and so naturally her decision to do these things means she is batshit crazy. Joffrey was batshit crazy. What were Varys and Tyrion doing about him? There were plenty of other people with truer claims to the throne.

And what of that distasteful scene in episode four, when the Hound remarks to Sansa that he heard she was, “broke in hard.” And she remarks that she would have remained a ‘little bird’ if not for that and all the rest. In essence, she could never have reached her potential without having been brutally treated and shaped by men. These are lines written by men for men.

Of course that is literally true. There is so much misogyny in the books and in the shows that it is oftentimes hard to continue reading/watching. There is a riveting story there and that’s what keeps me hooked. But now that Daenerys has been characterized as going batshit crazy, I have once again been disappointed.

Remember Peter Jackson’s take on Arwen? At first she’s a kickass elf woman, riding with Frodo through a gauntlet of black riders to the safety of Rivendell, remarking to Aragorn, “I do not fear them.” By the end of the movies she has become a shrinking thing, unable to hold her head up until Aragorn lifts her chin. And Eowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan is reduced at one point to a giggling, silly woman, seeking approval of her (terrible) cooking.

What the hell is wrong with men that they feel they must always portray women, particularly any woman who has an iota of confidence, at some point as foolish, incompetent or batshit crazy?

If it were a Daniel atop that dragon, I doubt there would be so many complaints at the character’s arc in this final season. We are upset because it is Daenerys up there. We have seen that she is smart. We have seen her confidence and competence. We have seen that she knows more than her advisors and can make competent decisions despite what they tell her would be the best course – and we have seen that those decisions have held up. But once again, a strong woman must be put in her place. In telling tales it seems men cannot afford to give women too much power. The consequences would be much too high. So the strongest must always, in the end, be characterized as nothing more than silly, shrinking, or batshit crazy. Or in formidable Lady Mormont’s case, dead.

To all the men telling stories out there: If you don’t want a woman to be strong, don’t give her a dragon in the first place. Don’t give her intelligence. Don’t give her competence. Don’t give her a life. Because if you do and then suddenly take it all away, your fan base will see through it. Your fan base will know you for what you are. Fans don’t like being tricked. They’re likely to go batshit crazy on you.

To all the women telling stories out there: Ladies, let’s show them how it’s done.

Congratulations to the winners!

Congratulations to the winners, and a big thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway on Goodreads! The winners will be receiving their books soon, Happy Reading!

Giveaway on Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Errand Rider

by Linda Ash

Giveaway ends June 15, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

When your own characters become your inspiration

I was recently inspired by one of my own characters. You see, in most of my writing there is an undercurrent. I have always been aware of the differences with which men and women are thought of and treated, and the differences in the opportunities afforded each gender, not just in my home country here in the U.S., but globally. These differences have never been subtle, in fact, it was at the tender age of seven that these differences began to rankle. Seven. How obvious do things need to be for a seven-year old to be able to notice. And so my antagonists are usually women and my writing usually highlights ability and self-reliance to a degree, but also what can be achieved through friendship, and people having one-another's back.

And so when the Women's March on Washington began to be organized several months ago, my first thought was, "I have to be there," - for me, for Yazidi girls and women, for child brides, for victims of FGM, for the woman who is controlled by her boyfriend/husband, who is abused by her boyfriend/husband, for victims of sexual assault and violence, for the woman who is suddenly afraid of that man walking behind her, or who suddenly has to calculate her every word or gesture because things at the party, the bar, her workplace just became questionable. And the list goes on.

The only thing is that after having bouts of feeling really terrible over the past several years, I was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Which sucks. I used to be really active but I've slowed down quite a bit lately because of the hurting all over thing. Getting to the march (from northeast Ohio), and then marching seemed like it might be kind of painful.

Then I heard about the pussyhat project. That made me really happy. I'm a knitter, so I knitted a lot of hats grateful that I could do this to contribute. But as the date for the march drew nearer, I can't tell you how deeply I felt I was letting myself and my convictions down by not attending. And then my daughter suggested that we go. She's newly married and lives a couple of hours away. How could I not go with my daughter who is strong and doesn't take things from anybody and wanted to be a part of this wonderful thing.

So I thought about it. And my character Gwyn from my book, "The Errand Rider," came to mind. She is traveling alone, by horseback at one point in the book and is injured. I'm sure she's tired and uncomfortable and pain is involved, but she goes on. She has quite a big journey still ahead of her and she will be in even more uncomfortable places and have to deal with other aches and pains, but she never complains and she doesn't stop. She goes on and gets the job done, and in the process saves a little prince and two realms to boot.

Now, by myself I can't save anything, but as part of a collective movement, who knows what can be accomplished? So in the end, my daughter and I followed all of those hats I made to Washington and together with hundreds of thousands of others, we got the job done. We added our voices to the millions around the world who roared with the message that women will be heard. And we're not stopping there. We will do what we can when we can to further women's causes and voices around the world.

So thank you Gwyn, for being an inspiration to me.

My new book is out!

My new book is now available on Amazon! The eBook version is available now, and the print version will be coming soon.

Feeling unappreciated at home, Gwyn embarks on a routine errand which quickly becomes anything but, as war brews and she is drawn into the middle of it. Gwyn finds that her survival suddenly relies on her abilities – which may also prove key to saving the life of a young prince, and the entire realm.

This is yet another self-published book. I sent out only one query on the manuscript. It's still out and I don't know if I'll hear back anytime soon. I sent it to a new press and they were overwhelmed with submissions. They focus on strong female characters and this book in particular I thought might be a good fit. I decided to go ahead and publish it myself after waiting for quite a while for a response. I wish the press well and am excited that they are out there. I hope to see some good titles come out from them in the future.

So, in the meantime, here is my book. It's a quiet little story about a young woman who has a bit of an adventure while running an errand for the queen. I hope there are a few people out there who will like it - I enjoyed writing it.

And while eBooks don't generally have back covers, here is a peek at the back cover that will be on the print version:

You can click on either image to see a larger version. I'll let you know when the print version is released!

Map fiddling

In the last post, I said that I'd fiddle around and see what kind of a map I could come up with for my newest manuscript. Well, an investment in a new drawing pad and several YouTube tutorials later, this is what I've come up with (click on it to see it larger):

The inspiration for this fantasy world sprang from the park right next to my house. It started with walks in the park. Just about everything on the map has a corresponding place in the park and it's nearby environs. As you enter the park from where my house and yard are, (Cider Spring on the map), you can see in the distance the top of a barn and silo from the farm that used to be located where the park is now. The top of the barn and silo look very much like a castle to someone with an over-active imagination. The barn and silo became the castle in the city of Landerin. The character that I dreamed up needed to get from Cider Spring to the city of Landerin, and so the story began...

I turned to YouTube for help in turning what I had created in my head and made several rough sketches of, into a real map. There is a really good and rather straight forward set of fantasy map-making tutorials by author Jessica Khoury that I found really helpful. Here is a link to the first of her five tutorials: Fantasy Map Tutorial.

It's kind of fun to play around with map-making, but also a little nerve-wracking when you need to try to keep distances correct, etc. This is my first attempt, but I think it's not too bad. At least it conveys all of the important information that the reader needs to follow for where things are happening in the story.

Working on a cover design for the new novel

My newest novel is finished. I have exactly one query out. It's taking a long time to hear back. Several years ago, before the self-publishing boom took off and when email queries were starting to become the preferred way to reach an agent, wait times to hear back really fell off. Sometimes you would hear back within a couple of days. It started to become a rare thing to wait as long as six weeks to hear back from a query. I guess you can get spoiled and when it takes a while to get a response nowadays, you get antsy.

I've been working on a cover design for the new novel because I have a feeling that I'll probably be going the self-publishing route with this book. Anyhoo, this is what I've come up with so far:

There will need to be a map, too. I'm no good at maps, but I'll fiddle around and see what happens.

World Building

I've been working on a new novel, it's a YA fantasy set in a land of my own creation. The inspiration for the setting is literally right next door. I live right up against a 60 acre park that has ball fields, soccer fields, walking paths and a pond. It was once a farm and the early 1800's farmhouse, barn and silo are still there. Upon entering the park from where my house is, you can see the silo off in the distance, and the top of the barn. When you have a vivid imagination, this becomes a far-off castle. The location of my house becomes a town, the apple tree in the front corner of my yard becomes an orchard, the walking paths in the park become roads of the realm, and various other sites in the park become important locations in a story.

Below, you can see the park slowly turning into a realm or two:

And now below you can see a roughly-drawn map which shows the realms of Korthis (central), Dolgoland (upper right) and Rhodheim (lower left):

So, over the past year or so  on my walks in the park next door I slowly created a world which became the setting of a novel. I recently finished writing that novel and it is in the hands of a couple of readers. I'm awaiting feedback so that I can put some polish on it.

Here is the preliminary elevator pitch:

A young woman feeling unappreciated at home is drawn into a brewing war and learns that the things she feels unappreciated for may prove key to saving the life of a young prince, and the entire realm.

I'm willing to admit that the pitch also needs some polishing : )

Anyway, the point of this post is, sometimes everyday surroundings can be an inspiration if you let them.

Book Review: Wild, by Cheryl Strayed

When this book first came out, the few things I heard about it made me not want to read it, and I thought I never would. I thought it was going to be about a whiney, stupidly ill-prepared woman who bit off more that she could chew hiking the PCT and wrote a book about it. In my youth I enjoyed the outdoors and was a backpacker and maybe a little bit of a snob in that I had little patience for people who went into the wild unprepared. But my book club chose this book as the read this month and I decided, against my better judgment, that I would read it.

Well, actually I listened to it, and I was hooked pretty much from the beginning. Everybody sees the books they read differently from everyone else because of what they bring into them regarding their own life experiences. A lot of the reviewers saw this book the way I originally thought it would read, whiney and self-indulgent. But I ended up not seeing it that way at all. Yes, she was stupidly ill-prepared for such a monumental endeavor, and yet she was also very well prepared in some ways, having read the guidebooks and prepared packages for herself, etc.

What it really comes down to is that her life was on the cusp of something when she decided to do this hike. And the thing of it is, this was HER life, not yours and not a story made up to please anyone. This book is her life laid honestly bare. The book is about what she did to figure out which way she would ultimately nudge herself to go while her life teetered on that cusp.

And, putting all of the very personal stuff aside, just making a decision like the one to hike the PCT alone takes moxie. To actually go through with preparing to do it takes more. To sell everything you have to be able to do it is almost unimaginable. To do it with increments of $20 parsed out to yourself along the way because that's all the money you have in the world is just plain brave. And to get to the trail ill-prepared, with bad boots, a too heavy pack, in the Mojave in summer, begin, and not quit in the first week, much less the first couple of days, is outright bold. To actually finish hiking over 1000 miles of challenging wilderness alone with all of the above being true, is absolutely heroic. And to come out of it at the end having gone through something of a cleansing crucible is absolutely wild.

A Wedding and then Thanksgiving!

In just under a week my family and I will be flying out to Phoenix for the wedding of my niece. We'll only be there for the weekend, a whirlwind trip, and when we get back? Time to get ready for Thanksgiving!

With Thanksgiving around the corner and the start of the holiday season, many of you may be thinking about holiday gifts. My Twelfth Christmas is just the right size to tuck in with other gifts that are being sent away, or in a gift basket, or as a nice little surprise on someone's new eReader device.

Hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful!

Rose of Par Kluhnd free this weekend!

My book, Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale, will be offered for free in the eBook version this weekend!

You can download it for free from Amazon Friday, November 7th through Sunday, November 9th.

Happy Reading!

A New Map for Rose of Parkluhnd!

Rose of Par Kluhnd has a new map at the front of the book. The original was my own, but the new one is professionally done and looks terrific! I'm so pleased with it:

 

The map was created for me by Anna-Dawn at adawndesigns.com.

 

 

It is already available in the eBook version exclusively at Amazon, and soon will be available in the print version, also available through Amazon. I'm so excited about this new map!

Book Signing!

I'll be at Old Trail School, nestled in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, this Saturday, March 22, from 10 to 1 for a book signing at the indoor farmer's market. I love, love, love farmer's markets! I plan on purchasing some ground bison, some delicious handmade croissants, and whatever else strikes my fancy! Oh, and I'll be signing books, too. Drop by and say hi!

A study in sunflowers

I love sunflowers. I'm always amazed when I grow them. Their size amazes me, how beautiful they are, and the bees that I always find crawling around on their faces.

 

Here is a study in sunflowers:

 

Yellow Blue and Green

 

 

 

 

Outlines

 

 

 

 

Sunny Farmstead

 

 

View From Below

Click on any of the images to view them larger.

A Mailing List??

I've just been reading that I should have a mailing list to keep fans abreast of new books when they come out. Lol! I'll have to write some more first : )

 I have so much darn fiber laying around that needs to be spun up, and orders to fill, that it will be awhile before I ever sit down to write another book. But I have been hankering to do just that lately... Hmm... Maybe I'll have to investigate this mailing list stuff.

Summer is a busy time - keeping weeds at bay in all of my garden plots; searching for, collecting, and using natural dyestuffs as they come and go throughout the season; trying to process all of the raw fleece I bought at the spring and early-summer fiber festivals into yarn. There's just not a lot of time for writing. Maybe this winter.

Wildflowers

My husband and I went on a drive up near the lake shore (of Lake Erie) last week. On one of our walks in the area, we found a beautiful forest carpet of wild geraniums. They went on and on, just beautiful (click on the pictures to see them larger):

 

 Hidden among the wild geraniums were mayapples. You have to bend low to glimpse the flowers under their broad leaves:

 

Spring can be a beautiful time of year.

Rambling...

Last weekend I found myself walking through a collection of vintage cars and trucks belonging to a collector in Akron. My favorite cars were from the 40's and 50's. The curves and style of those autos were truly works of art. My favorite in the whole collection, though, was this delivery truck. It's like something from a children's story:

On a walk in the snow one day, I came across the imprint that some sort of raptor - owl or hawk - left after swooping to grab a small meal. The wing prints are on the right and left , the tail print behind, and on the left is a place where the bird hopped with its conquered prey and left blood in the snow before flying away with its meal:

And here is my gray cat with her doppelganger:

 

 

I finally placed orders for seeds - a little late, a few things that I wanted were already sold out. I'm always a little over zealous when it comes to planning my gardens anyway. Sitting in your house with the snow blowing around outside somehow leads to visions of huge, lush gardens filled with unending varieties of vegetables and flowers. In the heat of summer, when the weeding is starting to fall behind, the reality is much different. I'm sure I can get along with a few less plants to worry about : )

Book Signing!

If you're in the neighborhood on Saturday, February 9th, stop by the Old Trail School on Ira Road in Cuyahoga Valley National Park for the indoor farmer's market. The market runs from 9 AM to noon, with lots of terrific vendors, and I'll be there, too, signing books!

I'll most likely have my drop spindle with me, getting some spinning in when not signing all those books : )

Seriously, if you're in the neighborhood, drop by - the market is terrific!

Aack! This scarf is going to kill me! - or - Knitting things from movies, books, and TV shows

My son asked if I could knit some scarves for him and his girlfriend for Christmas. Specifically, a Gryffindor scarf and a Slytherin scarf. There are a few different patterns out there, so I asked which type he wanted. He chose, I bought the yarn, and started knitting away. Scarves are usually pretty easy.

This one is easy, yes, but time consuming, and LONG. My husband is out of town for several days, and I thought this would give me lots of time to put into knitting. Gaaa! I think there's a spell on my needles, or something. I've been knitting, all told over the past few days, for HOURS AND HOURS and the scarf seems to grow only incrementally - soooo slowly. And it's only half way done. Gaaa! What was I thinking??

And notice the green and silver yarn in the corner? That's for the Slytherin scarf, yet to be cast-on. I say again, GAAA!

 

 

I've knitted things from movies and books and TV shows before, usually as gifts. Some have been specific requests, like the Jayne Cob hat I made for my son (from the TV show, Firefly). You can see him wearing it in this post - scroll down to the end.

 

I also made some fingerless mitts fashioned after the ones Johnny Depp wore in the movie, Sweeney Todd, for my daughter's boyfriend. He loves them and wants another pair because these are about to wear out (they are 2 or 3 years old by now and he wears them all the time in winter). The problem with that is I sort of cobbled the pattern together and customized it for his (large) hands, but now can't find my notes. So I have to go through the process of cobbling together and customizing all over to make new ones. Gaaa!

 

And here are some mittens I made from the excellent book, Code Name Verity, for a friend.

 

I would someday like to knit the fingerless mitts Hermione wears in The Deathly Hallows Part 1 for myself (click the image to see it larger):

 

 

And then, there are the Beowulf socks I intend to make for my son someday - they have the first page of Beowulf written on them. I made the yarn already, but the pattern is a bit daunting, so I'm nervous about starting.

 

So there is no end to the inspiration that can be found in literary, film, and television sources - and the requests that may come your way if you are a knitter. My only advice to you is, STAY AWAY FROM THESE BLEEDING SCARVES. If you must, knit one of the other styles that can be found. You'll be glad you did.