Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Obsessed with Deer

Oh deer, I almost hit another one the other day.

He was loitering on the highway in front of my car. I honked, swerved (which I know you aren't supposed to do).

He made eye contact with me, then leapt off the road and bounded across the field, clearing fences like they weren't even there.

I've hit two deer so far (that's the total since I've been driving, not this year). It's heartbreaking. Deer are so beautiful, so elegant, so, well, doe-eyed. Oh, and they also make quite the dent.

Why are deer unable to muster a collective unconscious that teaches them to be afraid of cars?

Deterrents don't seem to work. Our neighbors used to attach deer whistles to their car. The screaming noise they made as they passed our house seemed to alarm every animal in the surrounding county. But not deer.

Deer are on my mind because I just returned from a trip to the twinkle-lit, pastry-laden town of Fredericksburg, Texas, where deer are everywhere--both inside and out. Deer heads, antler candleholders... If you can stuff it, mount it, or skin it, you can decorate with it.

In Stonewall, Texas, I visited the beautiful LBJ ranch, which is now the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, and saw this curious trio.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Life is like a...box of books

It was a grand sight.

Two big boxes were sitting on the back porch (surrounded by our cats who were waiting for dinner). This is it. My first official copies of So Much Sky.

I popped open one box and it was like looking into a new box of chocolates: so uniform, so perfect, so fresh.

A couple days earlier, my book popped onto the cybershelves at amazon.com.

And, poof, just like that (after 6 years), the book is done. ;-)

So is my website for So Much Sky. And my author site too. Thanks to Bob and Carina at Catchup Communications.

Monday, November 21, 2011

So Much Sky on sale now!


So Much Sky is on sale now through Create Space, the printer and distributor of the book.

Although my book will be distributed in a number of places, this is the first. It's so exciting!

So Much Sky also goes on sale this week on amazon.com. More on that later.

Check it out on Create Space now!



Thursday, November 17, 2011

So Much Sky


Okay, so I'm a slothful blogger. That's pretty obvious. But I'm back in the saddle again. Because I have some cool news. My new book, So Much Sky, is on the way. It features an awesome cover photo by Graham Jimerson of our Haflinger horse Sam standing with his friend a Katahdin sheep in our pasture. So Much Sky will be for sale on amazon.com soon.

So Much Sky is a compilation of 55 essays that were published in Country Home, Country Almanac, and Horticulture magazines. The book is organized into four chapters that reflect the seasons and the goings-on at our farm in rural Iowa.

I'll post more about the book soon. Thanks to everyone who has sent me emails asking about it.