Ode to a Peach

Size of a grapefruit
Sweet and juicy on my tongue
In my stomach now.

Tejas Boys

Maya, Erich, Steve and I drove to Sparks, NV on Friday night to catch the 8:00 performance of del Castillo, a Latin rock band from Austin, TX. The drummer, Mike Zeoli, went to high school with our oldest daughter, Jena, and spent a few days with us when we lived in Virginia. We haven't seen him in ages, and it was such a treat to hear him play, and to finally meet the other band members: Rick del Castillo (guitar and vocals); Mark del Castillo (guitar and vocals); Bert Besteiro (bass); and Alex Ruiz (vocals). Rick and Mark are wildly talented on the guitar, and engage in fingering duals that truly boggle the mind. Alex, the vocalist, is also something of a flamenco dancer, and that, too, was so much fun to watch. Bert and Mike's solos were also impressive, and when the guys finished their 90-minute set, the audience wasn't about to let them go. They kindly performed an encore, but get this (and it was truly a first for me), they held a meet-and-greet at the end of the show, so anyone who wanted to stick around and say hi was encouraged to do so. Talk about inspiring loyalty! These guys know how to do it. Check out their tour dates here.

Riding Shotgun

Here's Maya flying over Cache Creek in Northern California. The team is using radio telemetry to search for elk with radio collars and/or ear tags; once located, Maya and her coworkers plot the GPS coordinates on a map to track the animals' range.

When Steve saw this photo, he said the plane looked like a Cessna 185 taildragger, the aircraft he flew in to count waterfowl as a wildlife biologist in Oregon in the late 1970s. He says he put in 100-150 hours a year at roughly 150 feet and 20 percent flaps. "We went as slow as we could go without stalling." Oh. Well. That's reassuring.

Larry McMurtry's Life with Books

I confess up front I’m a loyal fan of Mr. McMurtry, so I won’t attempt an unbiased review of Books: A Memoir, except to say this is not a memoir in the traditional sense, but a series of essays detailing Mr. McMurtry’s love of books – reading them and hunting them down, and eventually amassing a collection that numbers in the tens of thousands.

The history of his career as a collector and antiquarian bookseller are interesting (and educative: if at some point you begin collecting books and think you might one day sell them, don’t write your name in them; it’s death for resale), but it was the understanding that he’s almost indifferent when discussing the creation and success of his own books that I found not only astonishing but unsettling. He shares a brief anecdote early on about the publication of his first novel, Horseman, Pass By, which, he says, was anticlimactic: “…unfortunately I felt very little, but almost at once, it was sold to the movies and soon produced. The reason for the speedy route to production—which usually takes several years—was that Paul Newman wanted to star in it, and did. The movie was called Hud, and it did well.”

Toward the end of the book he says, “As I went on through life I wrote novel after novel, to the number of about thirty. Most were good, three or four were indifferent to bad, and two or three were really good. None, to my regret, were great, although my long Western Lonesome Dove was very popular—the miniseries made from it was even more popular. Popularity, of course, is not the same as greatness.”

Mr. McMurtry also shares an anecdote, where, in the 1960s he was interested in the writer Gershon Legman, and says he “foolishly” sent Legman a copy of his second novel, Leaving Cheyenne, which he’d inscribed to the man. Legman fired back a rude response, claiming “fiction was shit,” after which there was no correspondence between them for 10 years. Mr. McMurtry says: “That copy of Leaving Cheyenne, by the way, has been on sale on the West Coast for several years. Legman didn’t want it and neither does anyone else.” That’s surprising, considering a quick search on abebooks.com reveals that Between the Covers—Rare Books, Inc. in Gloucester, NJ, is selling his “scarcest novel”—a signed, first edition with dust cover in fine condition—for $4,500. It might as well be $450,000, but if I had it, I’d spend it, and in a heartbeat too.

It's Here! Larry's Book!

Larry McMurtry's book, Books: A Memoir, just arrived from Amazon and I can't wait to tear into it. Will read as much as I can this weekend, then report on Sunday evening. (Only downside is there are no photos -- got to have pics with a memoir!)

Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2

A couple of years ago, I bought Annie Proulx's Bad Dirt, but set it aside after reading only a handful of stories. As I told my friend Lynn, Annie Proulx's writing is always delicious -- but the stories themselves are sometimes hit and miss. I picked the book up again the other day and came across this description, which I'd earlier underlined and dog-eared:

"Warmin up," called one of the men, stretching his back. The sun shone behind his ears, which turned the color of chokecherry jelly."

That, my friend, is yummy!

Also read "The Wamsutter Wolf," which I enjoyed as much as "Brokeback Mountain." When she gets it right, it's perfect. And wow, was Wamsutter good! (Also just ordered Larry McMurtry's Books: A Memoir, and can't wait for it to arrive. More on that later...)

Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends

Publishers Weekly, in a review of Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends, a book of essays, says Chabon is "bitter and defensive about his love for genre fiction such as mysteries and comic books," and that it's "hard to imagine an audience for this book." Granted, I didn't buy it - it was a gift from a friend of my husband, a man who knows I'm a writer and who made the effort to acquire a signed copy for me. I'm really very grateful -- let me tell you why.

Years ago, after moving to Georgia, I had the chance to hear Chabon speak at the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Atlanta, shortly after he was awarded the Pulitzer for Kavalier & Clay, a novel that taught me much about expanding my vision as a writer; phrases such as "slumped like a question mark against the door frame" and "a canoe of lemon" made me realize I'd not been thinking like a writer, but a reader, and that I had a lot of work to do.

At the community center that night, a young man in the audience raised his hand and asked, "How do you handle those times when you're worried you might offend someone with something you've written?" Chabon said, "Look, if you never offend anyone, you're probably not doing your job."

And now, some eight years later, he defends that remark in his Maps and Legends essay, "The Recipe for Life," in which he says:

"Literature, like magic, has always been about the handling of secrets, about the pain, the destruction, and the marvelous liberation that can result when they are revealed. Telling the truth when the truth matters most is almost always a frightening prospect. If a writer doesn't give away secrets, his own or those of the people he loves; if she doesn't court disapproval, reproach, and general wrath, whether of friends, family or party apparatchiks; if the writer submits his work to an internal censor long before anyone else can get their hands on it, the result is pallid, inanimate, a lump of earth."

Perhaps Publisher's Weekly missed this essay, and if so, it's a shame. It's the most relevant advice I've read about how writers can best help themselves. As for audience: one can only imagine.

Sneaky Chef Missy Chase Lapine

My agent, Joelle Delbourgo, also represents Missy Chase Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on Your Man (In the Kitchen) Hiding Healthy Foods in Hearty Meals Any Guy Will Love. Missy wrote an article, "Dessert for Breakfast," explaining she needed a plan to avoid gaining weight while working around food. To that end, she incorporated the Weight Watchers point system into her Sneaky Chef Breakfast Cookies, which I plan to make and share with my own Weight Watchers class next Saturday morning. (I've been a Lifetime member since 1990.) A one-ounce cookie has two points. Can't wait to sample one!

Rodeo Pics, Part 3

Here are some rodeo facts:

The first Folsom rodeo was held in 1960.

The Folsom Pro Rodeo provides a nearly $1.6 million economic boost to the community. I know this is true, because the corndog stand was selling giant pickles for $5. That's right. Five dollars EACH.

Here is a shot of what I call "The Stern Man." It was his job to ride around the arena before the show, looking especially grumpy. I like him, though; he's got character.

Rodeo Pics, Part 2

Here's a shot of a cowboy riding bareback. According to the 48th Annual Folsom Pro Rodeo information booklet, the "pickup man" is a mounted cowboy who helps the rider off of a bronc when the ride is completed. The pickup man also removes the flank strap from the bronc and leads it out of the arena. Well, yes...if the horse is willing to go. (About half the time he's not, which makes the show all the more entertaining.)

Folsom Rodeo Pics

Here's a rodeo joke:

One clown says to another, "I don't know, Bobby. That bull looks really sick to me."

"Gosh, Bud, I think he looks just fine. Why do you think he's sick?"

"Because he just threw up a rider."

By the time the bulls came on last night, it was getting dark -- which means Steve wasn't happy with his bull pics, but here's a good photo of a cowboy preparing for a team-roping event.

Folsom Rodeo

Heading out to the Folsom Pro Rodeo in a few. Maya is going with us, and I'm willing to bet she shows up in jeans and Justin ropers. (I've got a pair of ropers too, but it's 95 degrees out; think I'll stick with my Birkenstocks.) Events include bull riding; bronc riding; bareback riding; steer wrestling;barrel racing; tie-down roping; and mutton-busting for the wee ones. Look for pics tomorrow!