Literary Biker Chick

Love Hurts - The Desert Edition

I could not resist.......

Caption: Love Hurts

Mexican Gray Wolves in Arizona and New Mexico

I am very interested in the efforts to save the Mexican Gray Wolves (very endangered, only around 200 exist) and their reintroduction in areas of southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. I am here in Tucson right now and got the chance to see three Mexican Gray Wolves at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The museum has been instrumental in helping with captive breeding of Mexican Gray Wolves to help prevent their extinction.

I wrote an essay about the reintroduction of the wolves. Here is a brief excerpt from that essay followed by pictures from my visit to the museum today.

Wolves belong in these woods and their voices penetrate all flora and fauna. Smart and mysterious, they work together within the pack to ensure the success of each new generation. They pose little risk to humans. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, no records exist of Mexican gray wolf attacks on humans. Even so, our hearts skip a beat when we hear the pack howl. Some people confuse wolf howls with coyote yaps, which are more common. If you have heard both, you would have no trouble discerning the rich and smooth chorus of a wolf pack from the higher pitched trills of coyotes. Wolves hold their notes longer and the sounds can be almost bewitching in their piercing quality. Their calls change to communicate different messages to the pack (or neighboring packs), and each individual’s howl will reflect his or her position within the pack. The howl of the alpha pair (the leaders) is lowest in tone, while the song of the omega wolf (peacekeeper) is most tuned and harmonious. Mid-ranking wolves vary their howls and yips to create the illusion that there are more wolves in the pack than there actually are.

And....

I love solitude and fear it at the same time. I know that, like my mother, independence is what’s most important, and I will not give that up. Hiking in the Gila National Forest is an evocative experience. The scenery is like a fractal, with molten earth-toned patterns of forest and rocky mountains repeated in closer stands of trees, worn hiking pathways, and in the green eyes and camouflaged brown, black, and white coats of the Aspen Pack. The chilly, fast moving wind mixes the breaths of all nearby creatures—I can feel this and I take in many lives. And if I am lucky …and they are lucky, I will continue to breathe in the strength and determination of the wolves.

Here are the pictures (click on the thumbnails to see the full sized image):

George Saunders and Sara Palin - a delicious moose steak!

I love stories and essays by George Saunders. He creates/sees a world that would make Salvador Dali seem like a realist. So it was with great pleasure that I read this piece in the New Yorker called, My Gal - a riff/story/twist of invention about Sara Palin.

Here is another wonderful Saunders piece called Sea Oak.

Oh, to be that clever........ I'd give up chocolate.

David Foster Wallace - RIP

I just read that David Foster Wallace hung himself on Friday. This disturbs me. I think DFW was an intriguing writer and thinker and I can't help but wonder what he was going though that ended with him taking this everlasting action. He had a sharp dark side that I connected with.

Here is a Charlie Rose interview with David Foster Wallace that I have listened to several times. In the interview, Wallace talks about how the recognition (good reviews) he got for Infinite Jest often felt hollow because it was obvious to him that the reviewers did not get the book (his intent for the book) or had not taken the time to read it. He also says a few provocative things about how recognition does not change things (Ergo, why seek it?).

I love his essays. I must admit, though, I never quite understood Infinite Jest - it went right over my head. Maybe I will reread it and try again.

Another thing is bothering me.... I heard about DFW's suicide online, not on TV. I have watched no less than six hours of TV news since his suicide become known news and did not hear about his death until I explored writing websites.

If Brittany Spears had gotten a tattoo, it would have aired on the evening news during the first five minutes. Ike? Who's Ike?

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I love this quote from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through the car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.

This is exactly how I feel when riding my motorcycle, Hazel. I love Robert Pirsig's analogy of the TV set. Here's how I explained it in my essay, The Color of Dry:

Riding through the Southwest on a motorcycle is a sensual experience. I feel close to the plants and animals—no metal box separates us. Each whiff of wind brings new smells, and each corner offers a new view. My skin feels the arid, penetrating heat, and my boots connect directly to the earth as I plant them down on both sides of the bike. I immediately notice the temperature change as the sun arcs west, and I hear the flaps of wings as the birds prepare for bed. I smell the decay of dead animals and the musk of those aroused by foes and mates.

My Piece on Alan Rinzler's Blog about a book signing DISASTER!

I was thrilled when Alan Rinzler - an icon in publishing - said he was interested in my essay about a book signing disaster. One caveat, he wrote, was that he wanted my permission to edit and prune the piece.

Heck yes!

I jump at the chance to see how others would tweak my work. I have great respect for Alan Rinzler and felt it an honor to have my work edited by him and his staff.

You can see the result here in my guest post on his blog. The essay is called Attention Shoppers: Lessons Learned from a Book Signing Disaster.

It is embarrassing to admit to the world that, for at least one hour, I was so unpopular or uninteresting that I could not attract the attention of even those who had nothing better to do but browse the book store shelves. My experience is not unusual. Most of the writers I know have had days like this. The essay ends with a list of the lessons I learned that will help me improve attendance at future readings. Check it out.

Nome to Key West!

My aggregator is organized into three folders of blogs - writing blogs, business blogs and motorcycling blogs. I learned from Motorcycle Misadventures that my favorite motorcycle manufacturer, BMW, is offering more ways to lower the seat height of several models. I had an R1200C, which is a low cruiser that BMW no longer makes. Most BMWs are way too tall for me.

As I read the post, my mind started drifting into a dream about my next adventure. I'd like to do a solo ride from Nome, AK to Key West, FL - about 12,000 miles by road and some ferries.

I love my current ride, but Hazel is not a touring motorcycle so I will have to upgrade if I ever make that trip. The stars are beginning to align with the offering of a shorter R1200RT.

I will take my time and write along the way. I might rough it and camp in some areas but stay in homes and hotels in others. Chris McCandless, I am not. I would like to find a publisher interested in a collection of essays about the people, places, nature and experiences I encounter along the way.

I have several similar essays from my last trip. If you would like to read one of them, send me an email.

And just like my last motorcycle trip, I will blog along the way.

Book proposal
Book contract
Trip planning
Bike
Trip
Write
Aahh!

The literary biker chick will ride again...

 

Wrangling With Writing - Tucson - Aahh, the Saguaros

I will be heading to the Wrangling with Writing conference in Tucson on September 27 and 28. Anyone else going? Here's a wee snippet (from the middle) of an essay I wrote about riding into Tuscon on my motorcycle (Hazel) from 2007:

My destination for the Memorial Day weekend is a lovely lodge in the Oro Valley, just north of Tucson. I take the scenic drive through the Sonoran Desert National Monument on Highway 85 and Highway 8. I have been thinking about this stretch of the trip ever since leaving Seattle with Hazel. The Sonoran Desert National Monument is nearly 500,000 acres of diverse desert ecosystem. The pictures in my mind are wrong, however; and as Hazel and I ride south on Highway 85, my heart sinks. The old-growth cactus forest is there all right, but it looks war torn and unhealthy. Most of the tall saguaros are brown and they look diseased and like they are dying. Many of the tall trunks have buckled over like deflated punching bags or are eaten into and away and exposed to the elements and predators. The other plants seem tired, too. This old forest looks grayish-brown in places and off-white in others, and sun-faded. After about 40 minutes I turn east on Highway 8 and see more of the same. The saguaros are struggling.

These icons of the Sonoran Desert are in trouble. Fewer and fewer young saguaros are living long enough to keep the cactus forest alive and vibrant. Young saguaros grow so slowly (They are only one inch tall at age seven, and still considered a juvenile at about six feet tall and 37 years old.) that most die because they are knocked over by animals or washed away by flash floods. Cactus sprouts need nurse trees, like the paloverde or ironwood trees, under which to grow. They may eventually end up killing the nurse trees as they grow large enough to grab all the available water. If there are no nurse trees, there can be no new saguaros. Looking across the expanse of decaying cacti, I notice few trees and bushes. The Sonoran Desert National Monument has become an old folks home and cemetery.

I come to the intersection of Highway 8 and Interstate Highway 10 and turn south and continue on to Tucson. This has been a long day of driving and my body is aching all over. My forearms feel stiff and my legs need to move and stretch. After seeing the sad state of the saguaro off Highway 8, my heart is aching too. Was I wrong about the beauty of the Sonoran Desert?

The sun is getting lower in the western sky as I exit the interstate highway onto Tangerine Road toward the Oro Valley. Less than a mile from the interstate, the scene changes. I see green—glorious, waxy, deep lime-peel green. The saguaros along Tangerine Road are plump, tall, and healthy. Several are flowering with round blossoms of pretty white petals and a dense group of lemon colored yellow stamens in the center. Each flower is a precious sight because they open only once for one evening and morning, which means they must have opened just minutes earlier! The saguaro has more stamens per flower than any other desert cactus and can only be fertilized by cross-pollination. Once fertilization has occurred, fruit will begin to form immediately at the base of each flower (which is why the flower only opens once). Saguaros don’t start producing flowers until after they are about 35 years old. After the flowering season, the edible, blood-red fruit opens up its pod of seeds (This fruit was an especially important food source to Native Americans, such as the Tohono O’odham, who used the flesh, seeds and juice).

Where Inspiration Lives

I picked up Where Inspiration Lives: Writers, Artists and Their Creative Spaces in the Borders bargain aisle for $1.99. It describes the workspace of ten artists (writers and painters). Here are a couple of great quotes from the book:

"I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." Henry David Thoreau

"One can only say: writers must always write best of what they know, and sometimes they do it by staying where they know it." Eudora Welty

"I always put myself in my books. It's an opportunity for me to recognize my own weaknesses and flaws." Terry McMillan

"Stick with writing no matter what. Believe in yourself... People will try to tear you down. Ignore them. It takes courage." Anne Rice.

Definitely worth the $1.99. Here's the listing on Amazon.

My New Favorite Casual Pen - Uniball Gel 207 Premier

I picked up a new "journal" - it is actually a 6X9.5 eco-friendly notebook from Staples. To go with it, and always hang from the coils, I got a new pen.

I love this pen!

It is a Uniball 207 Premier. It writes smooth and strong and has a nice grip.

Oddly enough, I found neither the pen nor the notebook on Staples.com to link to, so here is the pen found on Amazon.com. The notebook is rather cool, it is made from bagasse fibers (by product of sugar cane processing). It must be too new to be on their website - go check it out at Staples.