2022-A Sea We Must Wade*

Starting with ART and ending with ART, just because.

Catrin Welz-Stein

Zdzisław Beksiński

2021 was somewhat of a blur. A year of waiting. A "Year of Almost" as author Chuck Wendig called it. Things almost got better. 

When the pandemic first started, it felt like we were all in it together. United by a common enemy. I thought this would be our Independence Day (the movie) moment. People sang and duetted each other from their balconies, visited the windows of nursing home residents to keep them company. Businesses, government agencies, and celebrities offered services, donated their time, money, and hope. 

We knitted and sewed masks for essential workers, helped our neighbors, and had birthday parades. 

I thought it might bring about big changes in the world.

And then the virus and its protective measures became political. 

Did you watch the months of school board election races throughout the country?? 

Ours was in all that coverage too. It was about mask-wearing, and fear of vaccine mandates, but mostly centered around the school using tax dollars to have a director of diversity, equality and inclusion, and teaching the history of oppression in the schools over fear that critical race theory is being taught inappropriately. It has all caused bitter division in our schools and community that we have still not resolved, nor recovered from.

It feels like the country is split in half. 

Half pretending the pandemic doesn’t exist, while the other half get vaccinated, wear masks, and try to do the right thing for the community at large. 

Half embracing a world where diverse contributions and perspectives are valued, the other half feeling defensive, blamed, and threatened by it. 

I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to think apolitically about these issues. I'm fighting despondency, reading about past eras of strife and discord, when the future seemed just as bleak, and somehow the world didn't end, civilization didn't fall. 

However, these days we have climate disaster on top of it all--and that is politicized too. 🙄

Bridging topics...watch Don't Look Up, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Ariana Grande and even Tyler Perry (and a host of other famous actors and actresses). It's a dark comedy about a planet-destroying comet headed toward earth,

a satire on climate change, populist governance, and the divisiveness aforementioned.

I read a lot of great books this year. You can go to goodreads to see "my year in books" for recommendations. 

A couple of my short stories were published in another anthology put out by my writing group using Spark Street Media publishing.  Desiderium means a longing for something lost. There are a lot of great stories in here by talented writers, most local to Columbus, Ohio--support your local authors!

Music I enjoyed this year: 

Wolf Alice-all their albums are great, but there is a more universal quality to their latest "Blue Weekend," as if they are letting the world be part of their tribe now. I'm not a music reviewer, so I'm just saying what I feel.

If you haven't listened to 80s New Wave for awhile, do it now and start with Howard Jones. His songs have uplifted me and reminded me that art, of all sorts, speaks to the times, yet is often timeless. (He's still making music and touring in the 2020s, btw.)

     

Niall Horan and Harry Styles- I'm lumping them together because, hey, they used to be together, and though they have a distinctive style from each other, they both have a nostalgic vibe that is also somehow fresh and modern. But I have to say, Harry Styles has it all, all the time.

                       

Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eillish because they are way cool, and because my 13-year old is obsessed, so I have no choice anyway. 

                     

I wish everyone a year of striving to reach goals, fulfillment of family, and self, and ART--do some reading, download an album, go to a museum, create something at home.

See? I'm ending the year on a good note!

*Title comes from Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb"*

Fiction: My True Love's Mother Gave To Me

My second ever Christmas story. I wrote this short story last year for a Reedsy short story contest where you are given a prompt and have a week to write and submit. I didn't win, but I like this story because it reminds me of our Dudley, who I still miss.

            My True Love's Mother Gave To Me

The bird bobs its head at me, swaying back and forth. Is it trying to tell me something? Or is it dancing to some funky beat only it can hear? 
What in the hell kind of bird is it anyways? Is this even legal? Why would anyone give me anything to take care of? First off, I’m a dude. And, I can’t even keep a cactus alive.
    The bird is staring at me now. It looks like it wants to tell me something. It’s looking me right in the eye, cocking its yellow head, a little fan sticking up on its head, and its orange cheeks puffing up somehow.

I’m going to call it a he. I’m going to name him Bruno because the beat of his bobbing has put the song “Uptown Funk” into my head.  

What kind of person gives a pet for Christmas? 

Every year since I was five, I wrote my letter to Santa asking for a puppy, eventually downgrading to an aged dog, and then any pet whatsoever. My parents said Santa didn’t give pets as gifts because it was irresponsible. Some of my friends had badass Santas I guess, because puppies, kittens and hamsters appeared under their trees. Kind of like, we had the conservative tooth fairy who never swapped candy, or bills for teeth, only coins. Around thirteen though, I realized it wasn’t Santa saying no, it was my mom. 

“I don’t need another thing to take care of,” she’d say, though I insisted I would take care of it. That was the whole point.

But I didn’t even get to take care of myself.

Hence, the dead cactus on the windowsill.

Mom took care of everything, and everyone. Housewife and stay-at-home-mom was her chosen career. No one had to do anything, and I never once heard her complain, only ask what more she could do for us.

“Do you need anything else?”

“What can I get for you?”

Too bad Mom isn’t here now. Too bad she wasn’t around when I had to do my first load of laundry. Did she think I’d go right from home to being married to someone like her? Fat chance this day and age finding a girl to wait on you hand and foot. The washing machine in my dorm was old, and the instructions were ripped, faded and warped. I had to call the RA down to help. She was hot, and overly nice so that I felt like a real fuckup-in-the-making.  

And the first time I made my own bed, I thought the fitted sheet was defective with all that scrunched up elastic. 

You’d expect my sisters to have fared better, being girls and all. But they soon realized they were just as screwed. Janine told us the fire department came when she didn’t know any better than to not use styrofoam in the microwave. It was then that we realized the disservice Mom had done us out of her sense of duty, and love.

Mom took a ten-day vacation every year to visit some sickly relative or other that we never met. She’d come home from those trips rejuvenated, and ready to resume duties. We were overjoyed at her return because Aunt Pat, dad’s sister, refused to cut the crusts off our sandwiches, and she made our beds all the same way, not taking into account that Marcy hated the foot of her bed tucked in. That, and she muttered under her breath the whole time, so that we felt she was not happy at all about spending time with her nieces and nephew. 

Bruno had been dropped off with the landlady while I was at work, endlessly entering health codes so insurance companies would know what to bill their patients. His cage was covered with a-what do you know?-fitted sheet that wrapped the cage perfectly. I thought at first it was some kind of magic trick box, I don’t know. The tag read “From Patricia''. The only Patricia I knew was my girlfriend’s mother-the girlfriend I hoped would soon be my fiancée, if I could get the nerve up to pop the question. And then, a chirp from underneath, like ‘hello out there?.’ 

What the-? I peeked underneath enough to be met with a frenzied flutter of wings.

“It’s a bird,” I said aloud.

“Uh-huh,” the landlady said, continuing to sort through her mail. 

“Don’t leave that thing out on its own to chew up the wires!” my landlady yelled after me as I left with the cage, and the small bucket of food beside it. 

Bruno hops off his perch, onto the floor of the cage where he steps back and forth at the door. He chirps and looks at me, flutters his wings.

“Sorry buddy, you won’t get too far being in here.”

I unlatch the door and stick my hand inside. Bruno hops onto my knuckle, his claws gripping my skin. He walks sideways up my wrist, and ducks his head to clear the doorway. He scampers the rest of the way up my arm to my shoulder. I’m a little freaked out, thinking he might poke my eyes out or something. Instead, Bruno fluffs up his feathers, and closes his eyes. He’s sleeping! I stay still as a statue, afraid to wake him. I glide my left hand over my phone as I Google what kind of bird I had: grey bird yellow face with thing on head. Then, I order the highest rated book on caring for cockatiels, arriving December 27th. 

Before I put my phone away I take a selfie with Bruno. I look at the picture, and get all choked up. This fluffy, feathery thing has instantly made himself at home on me. He has one leg tucked up, and his eyes drift open and closed. 

My phone rings. I silence it, but Bruno is already shaking himself out, and has one eye open. 

“Hey, babe.”

“Why are you whispering?” Viv asks. 

“Bruno’s sleeping.”
    “Who’s Bruno?”

“The bird.”

“Whose bird?”

“Mine. From your mom. You didn’t know?”

“Are you shitting me? Why would she get you a bird?”

“I think she’s trying to send me some kind of message.”

“Poor bird,” Viv says.

“For your information, I’ve already rocked it to sleep, and Googled how to take care of it.”

“You can’t even make coffee! And-And, you couldn’t even keep that cactus alive.”

I swipe up, and go to Photos to look at the picture again. I share it with Viv, and hear the ding on her end.

“Oh, my god. My mother is a genius.”

I’m not sure what she means by that, but it’s definitely the strangest Christmas present I’ve ever gotten.

“I gotta step it up, woman. But I can do it. I’m going to take care of Bruno here. And... I want to take care of you too.”

    “Wha-?”

    “Will you marry me?”

Transport Yourself to Another Time Period With Historical Fiction

If you're like me, you're probably already a bit done with 2021. 
After all, we are still in a pandemic and our democracy continues to be challenged. So it makes sense to wish we could whisk away to a different era altogether. Maybe an era so far removed from our own that we can barely make a comparison. Maybe an era and a story, where we are tested, not feeling so helpless to change things, so hopeless that things will change. 

Fortunately, we're in luck!
The world of literature has gifted us with just the escapism we need in historical fiction.

Let's steer clear of the dark days of the Civil War and the French Revolution, oui?

Some of these I've read, some still wait in my To Be Read pile. 

Most are newer titles, but some are older must-reads.

Greek and Roman Era:

A retelling of the Trojan war from the point of view of the women it most affected.

I LOVE Miller's writing, and can't wait to read this one she wrote prior to Circe. 

                

    

Dark Ages/Medieval:

Ken Follett's newest promises an exciting saga of Vikings, Early English, Welsh, and Norman clashes.

The author of Fates and Furies has come out with something that seems a bit of a departure for her, and a story I would love to have told (if I had the talent Groff has). Her latest novel tells the story of Marie de France, a medieval author I read a ton of in college--in French and English💚 

           

     Earlier Americas:

This came out a few years ago and I have gotten it from the library several times, but it is always due back before I can get to it! It takes place in 1893, in the harsh Arizona Territory. By the author of The Tiger's Wife, which I loved.

King Louis XIV sanctions a program to send destitute women to Quebec to help settle his new colony and this tells the story of one of those women. It promises to be full of adventure! 

I pre-ordered this for its October release date.

         

   Turn-of-the-Century to Roaring '20s:  

*Local (Ohio) author alert*

I can't wait to read this telling of the journalist Nellie Bly and how, in 1887, she went "undercover" as a mentally ill patient to investigate the treatment of patients in an insane asylum. 

Impeccably researched novel of Jazz Age Chicago--need I say more?

The fates of three women unfold against the backdrop of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I have yet to read any of Meissner's books, but just about all of them are in my TBR pile!

I loved this family adventure of the Turner sisters. Among the frolics on and off the vaudeville stage, they also learn some hard lessons and cannot avoid some heartbreak. 

          

Emerging Australia:

 Three women's stories are told in this novel that begins on a seafaring journey to the newly colonized Australia and follows them as they make a life in this brutal land.

                     Colonial Africa:

*Local author alert*

Another of my favorite books! McClain tells the story of Beryl Markham, the English-born Kenyan aviator and adventurer. This book will definitely transport you to another land and era.

                WWII:

This just came out and is sure to be an exciting and insightful story about the last London debutantes before WWII. 

*Local resident alert*

This book is fascinating, romantic, epic, and dark. Orringer recreates the world of WWII Paris and Hungary. The characters are unforgettable and the writing is rich and beautiful.

This one is next up for me (at least as of today:) Survival in the wilderness and Nazis!

            Other and Mixed Time Periods:

The author of A Gentleman in Moscow has set his latest novel in 1950s America using multiple points of view.

This came out earlier this year and the reviews have been great. It takes place in three different time periods, telling the story of a castle protected not by men, but by women.

Do you have any of your own recommendations?

Vamps Aren't Just for Show

Comedy isn't my favorite genre of book or movie. 

But I do love the madcap silent films like the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Silly mix-ups, running into walls, tripping over rugs, slipping on banana peels; these are the things that make me laugh. 

I watched Madame Mystery because it is:

1. Theda's last film appearance  

2. one of only six complete surviving films out of the 40+ she was in

When you think Theda Bara, you don't think comedy. She was the first "sex symbol," the first "celebrity."

She played vamps, orphans and power-hungry women (she did have a couple comedic roles but American audiences shunned them).

In color by dontforgetfrank on Deviant Art

 In 1926 she starred as a secret agent in the comedy Madame Mystery. Some say it was an attempt to revive her film career that she left behind in 1919. I'd like to think she just wanted to have some fun mocking the vamp roles she had been so famous for. 

Theda's performance was basically panned by reviewers, but I thought she was great. She was the perfect straight (wo)man (hopefully I'm using that term correctly) to Tyler Brooke and James Finlayson. If you don't recognize Finlayson's name, you might at least know his face. He has the most lovably, comic face. 

Finlayson and Theda make the movie what it is (though Oliver Hardy makes an appearance as the bungling  steamship captain). Finlayson starts the movie out in a flouncy dress and every scene he is in just gets funnier from there.

For a detailed run-down of the film go to  The World's Funniest Dissertation

You can watch the film on YouTube here. Unfortunately, it is truly silent, meaning there is no accompanying music. When it was first shown in theaters there would have been a pianist, or even a small orchestra playing along to enhance the experience (a great future blog post topic!). Half the silent films I come across online have music that someone has kindly played over it, and half do not. 

Many local theaters will have a silent film series now and then and they often have live music accompanying. I highly recommend going at least once. If you live in the Columbus area, CAPA has a summer classic movie series and they include one silent film each year. This year they are showing The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Lon Chaney ("the man of a thousand faces") and Patsy Ruth Miller, accompanied by an organist on The Ohio Theater's original, antique organ "Mighty Morton." It's a fun experience--try it!

For a more recent comedy that made me laugh out loud, try Palm Springs with Adam Sandberg. 

Writing Woes and Writing Wows

I've been on a steady writing diet lately. It feels good. 

Writing begets writing. 

The well remains full.

But, there are days where I feel like everything I write is dribble, utter nonsense. There are days when I feel like an impostor. Who am I to call myself a writer? 

I was feeling quite down about my writing, (and lack thereof) when I suddenly had a string of successes: I won a monthly writing contest in my writing group, a local suburban arts council writing contest, and an Ohio women writers' scholarship. 

This should have boosted my morale, validated my writing skill. But at first these wins made me feel like a guilty impostor. It took me weeks to "own" it, albeit still sheepishly.

After my initial feelings of "winners guilt," each of these accomplishments encouraged me, and helped my writing craft. I learn plenty from my failures, but in the writer's world, you can learn just as much from the                                                             successes.

I am so grateful to Kezia Carpenter and the Sandra Carpenter Memorial Fund for the amazing, enriching experience of virtually attending the Stockholm Writers Festival. I was lucky enough to have an intensive manuscript editing, a session with an agent, and the chance to participate in Pitchapalooza with the amazing Book Doctors. 

I was asked by SCMF to write up my top ten takeaways from the conference and I've included them in this post (see below, if interested).

Also, I made it into the main city newspaper! I'm not going to lie, that was special.  I don't currently subscribe to the paper, but The Dispatch had long been part of my life since I was a kid. I was a delivery girl for the Dispatch for I-don't-know-how-long. My mother got the Sunday paper (and still does) so that we could clip coupons and shop from the sales flyers. For a little more, you could get the Thursday paper too which had The Weekender full of movie reviews and events going on that weekend. We'd plan the movies we could see, and dream of the musicals and ballets that we could not.

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/westerville/2021/05/11/westerville-writing-contest-2021-category-adults/4927964001/

My Top Ten Takeaways From the Stockholm                                                            Writers Festival

1. 1. There is an international community of writers out there to explore and connect with. 

   
   

   2. Put yourself (and your work) out there even if you’re bashful or don’t feel worthy/qualified (book people are kind people:)

   
   

   3. Think about the author’s promise as you read, look for your author’s promise as you write. What kind of expectations are you setting up for your reader?

   
   

   4. Don’t worry if you don’t know everything about your story or your characters throughout your first draft. (Sarah Waters starts with plot, and throughout subsequent drafts, creates characters who fit into it.)

   
   

   5. When pitching to an agent don’t use the entire time talking about your story. Leave time for the agent to get to know you, and why you are the best person to write that story.

   
   

   6. Time, in story, has an effect on the reader’s emotions; time directs the reader’s attention.

   7. Use games with prizes to encourage word-count when writing with a group. For example, whoever gets to 1,000 words first gets a latte from the group, whoever reaches 500 words first gets a cookie, bookmark, new pen (office supplies)

   
   

   8. Create a competitive environment for your book; when querying, reach out to agents you’ve queried with every response of interest from another.

   
   

   9.  When pitching, let agents hear your writing style in the pitch.

   
   

   10.  You can feel connected and “find your tribe” virtually (and it’s not as intimidating to talk in front of fifty people virtually as it would be in person!).

   
   

Thanks to my writing group,  my friends, and my family for all the support💜

In an Eggshell: Everything You Always Wondered About the Eggs You Eat

The cicadas are coming and I can't wait. It's such a magical event. 

But, I've been thinking about something else just as magical lately, something we take for granted: EGGS 

I've been getting fresh eggs from my very generous friend, and co-worker, who has chickens. We've had lots of interesting conversation about chickens, and eggs, and farm vs. store-bought. 

Not surprisingly, I have more questions, and want more details than one person can answer. 

You know the saying that if I'm thinking it, probably others are too (I'll just assume:)

So here are the answers to all my questions (looked up and cross-referenced on more than one site, all cited within).

Development: 

How long can you wait to get the egg from the nest before an embryo begins to form (in a fertilized egg)?

It's best to get it within a day, two at most. 

(Source: The Hip Chick.com)

What is the red dot you sometimes see in the yolk?

It's a blood vessel that ruptured during the formation of the egg, in a fertilized or unfertilized egg.

What are the tiny white blobs in the yolk?

Source: Community Chickens.com

The tiny white blobs are blastodiscs. Every egg has one, which includes the hen's genetic material. When an egg is fertilized, thousands of cells begin to develop even as it travels down the oviduct, and contains genetic material from the hen and the rooster. 

How long is incubation?

21 days to hatching, under the proper conditions.

If you want to see amazing (yet graphic) pictures of the development, visit: The Chicken Chick.com

How beautiful is this diagram?? It goes from looking like a shrimp (primeval!), to an alien, to a bird.

Egg production and consumption:

How long does it take from the chicken to the store?

Farmers have 30 days from laying to carton. Stores are allowed to sell eggs up to 30 days after being put in the carton. So your eggs could be up to 2 months old by the time you buy them. (Source:https://www.farmersalmanac.com/how-fresh-are-supermarket-eggs-25832)

Business Insider Tip: On each egg carton, there’s a number printed, from 1 to 365. That number represents the day of the year the carton was filled: 1 being January 1st and 365 being December 31st. Using the code, you can at least tell when the eggs were put in the carton.

How long can eggs be stored in the fridge?

About 50 days. (But remember, it takes a good while for them to go from the farm to the store.)

Why do some cultures not refrigerate eggs? 

In France, Italy, and England, I have found the eggs, not in the refrigerated aisle, but on the regular shelves. This is because, in Europe, it's illegal to wash eggs (therefore, the protective cuticle remains) and instead, farms vaccinate chickens against salmonella.

How long do they last "on the shelf"?

You can leave out fresh, unwashed eggs for a few weeks before they need to be refrigerated. 

If the bloom (that cuticle) protects a chick from bacteria for at least 21 days before it hatches, it’s safe to assume the bloom protects the inside of an egg for at least that long. I've written briefly about eggs before, and how unwashed eggs have a natural cuticle around them that protects bacteria from getting in. 

How are eggs pasteurized without getting cooked?

They are rapidly heated in a water bath at a minimum required temperature for a specified time. (Source with not many details: USDA.gov)

How safe are unpasteurized eggs?

Relatively safe, but it's important to handle fresh laid eggs with care and store them properly immediately. 

Nature is amazing!!