Sunday’s mixed bag

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri4 Comments
  • Timothy Egan’s new book A Fever in the Heartland, which came out in April, is chilling because of the vile group it describes, the fact that most people associate the KKK with the South, and the recent upsurge of hate groups. From the publisher’s description: “The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped ThemThe Roaring Twenties–the Jazz Age–has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.”
  • Image of Nerves in hand and armWhile nobody I know has ever had a median nerve in his/her arm knicked by a needle during a standard blood draw for a doctor’s test, this happened to my wife a month ago and now it appears she will be stuck with the cost of seeing a neurologist and with the weekly physical therapy visits. Her right hand is pretty much out of service, causing–you might guess–hardship when trying to handwrite, type something, or pick up just about anything. There’s a lot of information online about this; from that, “the best” I can see is that her PT will go on forever. I will get all of my blood draws done in my left arm from now on out!
  • I’m finally reading Anthony Doerr’s 3033 novel Cloud Cuckoo Land.  At 93 pages in, I can see that the story is just as crazy as the title suggests.  It has a 4.3 rating on Amazon, so others figured out how to soldier through the chaos. The New York Times review is headlined, “From Anthony Doerr, an Ode to Storytelling That Shows How It’s Done.” The review includes this comment: “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” a follow-up to Doerr’s best-selling novel “All the Light We Cannot See,” is, among other things, a paean to the nameless people who have played a role in the transmission of ancient texts and preserved the tales they tell. But it’s also about the consolations of stories and the balm they have provided for millenniums. It’s a wildly inventive novel that teems with life, straddles an enormous range of experience and learning, and embodies the storytelling gifts that it celebrates. 
  • My guilty TV fun includes watching “Swamp People: Serpent Invasion.” Supposing this has any reality to it, the show follows men and women catching Burmese pythons (and sometimes gators in the Everglades. I love the Everglades, a park that has survived almost every human attempt to destroy it. I saw an article somewhere that said we may never get rid of the pythons.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell does not include any pythons in his Florida Folk Magic Series because, at the time it is set, there were no known pythons in the Florida Panhandle. We had panthers then, however.

The four-book series begins with Conjure Woman’s Cat.

‘Pioneering Women of Glacier National Park’ by David R. Butler

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books

This new book is a must for students, researchers, authors, and hikers in Glacier National Park, Montana.  Released March 27, the book is another in a string of titles about the park by long-time researcher and former geography professor David R. Butler who has worked and hiked through the park since the early 1970s.

From the Publisher

“Pioneering Women of Glacier National Park examines the role of early pioneering women in the pre-park period up through the first three decades of Glacier Park (1910-1940). The concept of ‘pioneering women’ includes a wide range of activities that were atypical for women during this time period. These activities range from Blackfeet and other Native American women carrying out extraordinary feats, to women homesteaders, wives of early Park rangers, writers visiting and writing about the park, artists engaged in outdoor painting, influential artists’ wives who furthered their husbands’ careers, and pioneering outdoorswomen. All helped advance the cause of putting female faces and names, largely ignored and anonymous up to this point, into the history of the park. The book also has several modern photographs taken by the author and others, illustrating landscape changes in Glacier Park since the early period of the park.”

Butler provided me with a list of the table of contents headings which one would normally see provided by the publisher had they activated Amazon’s “look inside” feature:

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Native American Pioneering Women

Pioneering Women Homesteaders and Settlers

Ranger Wives: Pioneers of a New National Park

Pioneering Women Authors of Glacier National Park

Influential Wives of Early Glacier Park Artists

Pioneering Women Artists of Glacier National Park

Pioneer Outdoorswomen of Glacier National Park

Afterword: The Lasting Legacy of the Pioneering Women of Glacier Park

Endnotes

Bibliography

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell, who also worked as a summer employee in Glacier National Park, has written fiction set in the park, and his account of the 1964 flood appears A View Inside Glacier National Park: 100 Years – 100 Stories edited by Kassandra Hardy.

The first potpourri of April

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri
  • If I believed in omens, I would see it as a good sign that my riding mower started on the first try when I mowed the yard earlier this week. Now I have to get the older car started after it sat idle all winter. I don’t want the newer car smelling like gasoline after I refill the gas cans for the next lawn mowing adventure–coming soon to a blog post near you.
  • As I finally finished re-reading Richard Powers’ The Overstory, my favorite quote is:  “You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes. . . .” I also liked: “This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.”
  • In her post, “My Creative Process,” a favorite author Julianna Baggott describes an approach to writing that sounds very familiar to many of us who write. For me, her lead paragraph says it all: “My creative process doesn’t have edges. I am writing all the time. I experience the world as me but simultaneously as an artist looking for moments when the story world and the actual world bounce light off of each other. I am constantly running a story in my head, sometimes a few of them. I am constantly collecting moments from life to hoard for the next story. “ And then, too, “There’s the moment, inevitably, when the project leaves me—and the process that story has carved out inside of me ends—and the project becomes a product. Art, when money is involved, becomes a commodity. This is when I say goodbye to it emotionally. It’s hard and at the time when a lot of people start to get excited about sharing it with the world, I tend to say goodbye and snip all the wires that connect the story to my heart—like I’m diffusing a bomb.” 
  • I often use my Facebook headers for pictures of the locations of my books. This one shows a scene very typical of Florida Panhandle where I’ve set Conjure Woman’s Cat and the subsequent novels in that series. I try to show prospective readers where my words will take them–and remind myself about the environment where I grew up.
  • When I used the name chow chow in my novel in progress, I wondered how many people–even in the South–know anything about this traditional Southern relish made from the last vegetables (except hot peppers) in the garden. Years ago, everyone here knew what it was and put up a lot of veggies by making it. In “real life” the relish looks just like Sally Vargas’ photo. If you want to experiment, you can find a good recipe here.
  • And, I’ll finish with a hearty “welcome back to the States” for my brother and his wife who spent about a month touring Australia and New Zealand. When they said they came home experiencing a lot of jet lag, I mentioned that when I came home from the Pacific on an aircraft carrier, there wasn’t any jet lag, and I’m betting we had better chow (not chow chow) than Barry and Mary were served on the plane.

–Malcolm

PEN AMERICA CEO: PROTECTING FREE SPEECH ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES ESSENTIAL TO PRESERVING ACADEMIC FREEDOM

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Threats to Press Freedom, writing2 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 29, 2023

(WASHINGTON) — Today, PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel (pictured here) testified before the House Committee on Education & the Workforce’s hearing, “Diversity of Thought: Protecting Free Speech on College Campuses.”

Nossel testified that protecting free speech on college campuses is essential to preserving the academic freedom and institutional autonomy necessary for universities to continue to serve as incubators of democratic citizenship.

Suzanne Nossel“Students often lack awareness of the First Amendment or the precepts of academic freedom, sometimes believing that the best answer to noxious ideas is to drown them out, or to call on university authorities to shut them down,” Nossel said in her opening statement. “At PEN America we argue that the essential drive to render American campuses more diverse, equitable, and inclusive need not – and must not – come at the expense of robust, uncompromising protections for free speech and academic freedom.”

In response to Ranking Member Robert Scott’s (VA-03) question regarding enacted laws restricting what can be taught in schools, Nossel stated:

“A principle is not a principle if it is not applied to all equally. To cherry pick certain ideas, certain course materials, certain theories and say, ‘these are out of bounds,’ that’s the core of what the First Amendment protects against – viewpoint-based discrimination, the notion that the government would be listing out particular topics, subjects of discussion, aspects of curriculum, and saying they are out of bounds.

Read Nossel’s full remarks here and watch the full hearing video here.

–

My father and mother were both journalists and journalism teachers. This means I grew up respecting the first amendment and supporting it at all costs, most often against our own government, and–when schools are involved–parents who believe their own personal comfort levels should supersede a teacher’s lesson plans and assigned books.

–Malcolm

Some of my best experiences were co-teaching journalism courses at Florida junior colleges with my father. I still learn from his textbooks even though technology has made the methods out of date.

Upcoming title, June 15, ‘The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak’ by  Nancy Sule Hammond 

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books4 Comments

Coming in June from Basalt Books, The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak is available for pre-order.

From the Publisher

“Some summers are destined to generate cherished memories. For married high school sweethearts Don and Nancy Hammond, they happened in 1972 and 1973, when Don’s lifelong dream of being a United States Forest Service fire lookout came true.

“Don’s first post, the Dunn Peak Lookout, was located eight miles northwest of Avery in Idaho’s St. Joe National Forest. Once they arrived, they breathlessly lugged provisions and water up steep stairs to its fifteen-by-fifteen-foot cab two stories above the forest floor. Furnishings included a single bed, small bookcase, cabinet, and table, and a wood stove. There was no electricity or running water. A battery powered two-way Motorola radio would be their only connection to the outside world. That night–engulfed by lightning strikes and filled with adrenalin–they faced their first storm.

“Unless it was foggy or raining, the Forest Service required Don to conduct binocular searches from the catwalk at least twenty minutes of every hour while he was on duty. He watched for smoke during the day and the glow of fire at night, and learned to distinguish between blue smoke plumes and white wisps of fog. Despite the primitive conditions, Don, Nancy, and their Dalmatian, Misty, settled in and came to love their lookout life. They spotted wildfires, were startled by their first cougar scream, encountered a wide variety of human and animal visitors, discovered delectable huckleberry patches, and simply enjoyed the enchanting beauty all around them.

“The Forest Service decided to close the Dunn Peak Lookout, so the couple spent the summer of 1973 at the Middle Sister Peak tower, ten miles southeast of Avery. In The Last Lookout, Nancy shares stories from those two exciting, magical fire seasons, along with their return as volunteers 37 years later. Interspersing regional fire history as well as dangers and details of the work, she journeys back to the narrow catwalks and stunning panoramas–a place where storms are building, the forest is dry, and any lightning strike could ignite a raging wildfire.”

About the Author

The daughter of a steel mill worker, Nancy Sule Hammond grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and fell for her future spouse at a high school dance. She received a biology degree from Kutztown University, then ran quality control tests on disposable medical syringes. But she yearned for adventure, and found it when her husband spent two summers as a fire lookout in Idaho’s St. Joe National Forest. They returned to the Middle Sister tower as volunteers in 2010. After decades away they moved back to Idaho, and recently celebrated their fifty-second anniversary.

Looking forward to this book! I’ve climbed up in a lot of Fire Towers and read accounts of people in them during thunderstorms. The work isn’t for the faint of heart.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of “Conjure Woman’s Cat” and its three follow -up books, all of which are available on Kindle/Nook, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover. 

Sunday’s Goulash

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Potpourri, writing

Gulyas080.jpgIt’s an affront to those of us who like Goulash (photo) to see that Americans are still messing it up by throwing pasta into it and (sometimes) calling it slumgullion. If you know where I live, don’t bring any of that swill to my house when I’m already under the weather. Also, please don’t bring over anything made with the weird ingredients that routinely appear on the “Chopped” television show. If you do, you’ll be chopped. My 2¢.

  • I’m enjoying re-reading The Overstory by Richard Powers. The Pulitzer-prize-winning novel is described as a “sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world.” Next on my list (finally) is Cloud Cuckoo Land which is, according to the New York Times, “wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences” The book came out several years ago and it’s taken me this long to get around to it.
  • What a Sunday morning mess in LaGrange Georgia, struck by a  strong tornado this morning. Unfortunately, there’s a chance for more severe weather tonight and early tomorrow at this community 67 miles southwest of Atlanta. According to CNN, “No fatalities were immediately reported, but at least three people were injured in the storm.” We’ve had heavy rain here in NW Georgia but are out of the danger area.
  • If the rain stays away, I need to go out after supper and see if the In lawn mower will start. Probably not.
  • In my work-in-progress, the characters are arguing about whether places can be haunted. I say “no,” but then I can’t be sure, can I?
  • On the other hand, I’ll mention in a bit of shameless promotion that I do have a book of ghost stories available. Some of them might be true.

–Malcolm

‘Hello Beautiful’ by Ann Napolitano

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, writing

Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano (March 2023) has been chosen as the 100th selection by Oprah’s Book Club. Of the book, Oprah said, “I’m telling you, once you start, you won’t want it to end…and be prepared for tears.”

According to Book Browse News, “Maybe it was fate, maybe it was the meddling of a higher power with a wicked sense of humor. Either way, Ann Napolitano was taking out the garbage when Oprah Winfrey called to tell her that her novel, ‘Hello Beautiful,’ is the 100th selection for what is arguably the most influential book club in the world.

“Napolitano was so afraid of losing the connection that she stood stock-still in the tiny vestibule of her Park Slope apartment building, clutching her bag of trash, for the duration of the 27-minute call.”

From the Publisher

“William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.

“But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

“An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.”

Her 2021 novel Dear Edward is an Apple TV+ series starring Connie Britton.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of magical realism and contemporary fantasy stories and novels.

Burning Books The Modern Way

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books1 Comment

Books are the most vulnerable in school libraries and school courses. All a student has to do, on his/her own or with the urging of parents, is to claim that a book offends him/her and suddenly the book is gone.

So far, I don’t think today’s school children are weaker than they were when I went through K-12 level schooling, though we probably couldn’t have gotten away with the politically motivated, woe-is-me behavior we see today. So, I think they can read most books without dying from them.

These books are banned in Martin County, FloridaAccording to PEN America, “Books are under profound attack in the United States. They are disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities. And everywhere, it is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted. Books by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, by women. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, history. PEN America pushes back against the banning of books and the intolerance, exclusion, and censorship that undergird it.” Learn more from this report.

What’s happening is obvious. Politicians who couldn’t defeat legislation that didn’t like are going after the books and, no doubt, each banned book represents a feeling of power over a lot of people.

Politicians–who really have no business using K-12 schools or state universities as political footballs don’t like books like To Kill a Mocking Bird and I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Allegedly–as the politicians charge–such books make people uncomfortable. My response is so what? I’m sure students feel uncomfortable when their football team loses the big game. Or when the person they want to go to the prom with goes with somebody else. That’s life. And, if feeling bad after reading a book is the worst thing a person experiences, they’re really in good shape.

Along with book banning and editing older fiction to conform to today’s political “standards,” we now have sensitivity readers checking manuscripts for offensive content or bias. Offensive to whose agenda? Sounds like publisher CYA to me.

I told my Facebook followers today that if my conjure books are around fifty years from now, a hex will automatically stop any politician or publisher who tries to alter what I wrote. They’ll come down with boils or syphilis or out-of-control dandruff. All writers need a little conjure to keep the unwashed politicians away from their books.

As I see it, October 1-7 isn’t long enough for banned books week. We need something that keeps our eyes on the problem 24/7/365.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the four-part Florida Folk Magic Series. If politicians knew about the books, they’d try to ban them since, God knows, we don’t want to offend anyone whose grandaddy was in the Klan.

Online harassment remains high, but there’s help

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn Online Abuse, writing

“Roughly four-in-ten Americans have experienced online harassment, with half of this group citing politics as the reason they think they were targeted. Growing shares face more severe online abuse such as sexual harassment or stalking.” – Pew Research: The State of Online Harassment (Click on the link to read the report.)

Pew Research defines online harassment as:

  • Offensive name-calling
  • Purposeful embarrassment
  • Stalking
  • Physical threats
  • Harassment over a sustained period of time
  • Sexual harassment

Online Harassment Field Manual“Whether you’re experiencing or witnessing online abuse, this Field Manual offers concrete strategies for how to defend yourself and others. We wrote this guidance with and for those disproportionately impacted by online abuse: writers, journalists, artists, and activists who identify as women, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQIA+. Whatever your identity or vocation, anyone active online will find useful tools and resources here for navigating online abuse and tightening digital safety.” – PEN America

Launched in 2018, the field manual offers tips in two general areas, “Safety and Security” and “Community and Counterspeech.”  The manual will teach you how to (a) Prepare for online abuse, (b) Respond to online abuse, (c) Practice Self-Care, (d) Review legal considerations, (e) Request and Provide Support, and (f) Learn about what constitutes online abuse.

PEN provides a list of additional resources here.

PEN considers writers at risk to be a separate focus issue. “PEN America and its Members advocate on behalf of writers at risk globally, rallying to their defense and promoting the freedom to write through direct support, advocacy, and behind-the-scenes assistance. PEN America also tracks detained writers in its annual Freedom to Write Index, and catalogues historic cases in the Writers at Risk Database.” Learn more here.

In an article several years ago on The Conversation “Fighting online abuse shouldn’t be up to the victims,” the author said, “Perhaps the most important element to addressing online harassment is behaving like it is happening in the ‘real world.’ Abuse is abuse. Online spaces are created, shaped and used by real humans, with real bodies and real feelings.”

I agree with that and believe none of us should sit alone at our phones and computers and suffer from online bullying in silence.

–Malcolm

Don’t put all your research into the book

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn writing2 Comments

For years, people have made fun of The Da Vinci Code for containing so many mini-lectures about subjects having to do with the Holy Grail. I suppose Dan Brown thought readers wouldn’t understand the plots and themes without all the background material. I thought it was distracting.

A laptop computer next to archival materialsI just finished another book by an author I like whose main character kept calling an expert about cults in an attempt to learn which ones are harmless and which ones aren’t. I don’t really think the extended information advanced the story. The information did relate to the plot, but it didn’t need to be in the book.

It’s almost as though the author became fascinated by cults and decided that the reader would also be fascinated by them. Not really. And, if so, we know how to use Google, the library, and the resource books available at Amazon and elsewhere.

When an author does this, critics often say “your research is showing.” Some critics even might suggest that the author wanted an excuse to talk about, say–cults, and wrote a novel to include what s/he had learnt about them. How much is too much. That’s a hard call to make. The detail can add ambiance while making the plot more understandable.  And yet, you don’t want readers to feel like they’re reading a research paper.

Lack ops books are famous for including a ton of information about weapons and weapons systems. Perhaps publishers and readers demand it. I like black ops novels but usually, skim over the weapons’ specifications. They don’t matter to me.

Every genre seems to have reader expectations about this kind of detail. Books about famous battles are, of course, historical novels and are expected to provide that history. Other books are, I think, better suited to using a lighter touch.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of “At Sea,” a Vietnam war novel set on board an aircraft carrier on which he served during that war. I included research-type information for background but kept it within the confines of what sailors in that situation would actually say in conversation. The cover picture comes from a photograph I took of the aircraft carrier’s flight deck.