Five Rules for Writers*

 

and read:

I would say that I keep a novel going all the time, but there is a moment between books where I'm searching for another.

I read, not because Steven King said, "If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write,' but because I love reading. And selfishly, I want to have beautiful phrases running through my head as encouragement, and with the hope that they will teach my brain how to write decent phrases and descriptions.

I don't tend to be flowery with words, and poetry boggles my mind, like someone writing music—how in the heck do they do it?  That Dolly Parton keeps perking them out. "I write the songs that make the young girl's cry," Oh, that wasn't her song. Bruce Johnson (1975) wrote it. And in 1977, it won a Grammy for Barry Manilow.

At first, Manilow didn't want to sing the song, for unless you really listen to the words, it sounds like an ego trip for the lyricist.

"I Write the Songs," wrote Joanna Landrum, "isn't just a self-aggrandizing anthem for the gifted songwriter; it's a poetic ode to the universal power of music. At its core, the song celebrates the emotional and transformative impact of music on humanity, suggesting that the essence of music itself is the actual creator of songs."

 

"I wrote the very first song." The MUSE. GOD, MUSIC?

 

Finally, in my search for novels, I decided to check out the best and found Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, a Pulitzer Prize nominee.  Over the years, I had heard of that book but didn't know what it was about — a scholarly book about Christianity or the Bible? No, it was a bestseller about the Congo, with religion, philosophy, and politics intertwined in a way that only a deft hand can achieve.

It deeply impacted me.

 Poisonwood has two meanings; one is a plant in the Congo that, when touched, will give a terrible rash. The other means Blessed.  There are many words, especially in primitive cultures, that have multiple meanings.

The Poisonwood Bible was set in the Eisenhower era when the US was trying to bring Democracy to the Belgian Congo. (Or force, and it looks as though they are trying again.) The Poisonwood Bible is about a Missionary family who move to the Congo to give them Christianity. The father, the Preacher, is so obsessed with bringing Christ and baptizing all the little heathens that he would let his family starve to do it. And starving is what the natives of their village are constantly on the verge of while trying their damnest to avoid.

The viewpoint is from the wife, the mother, and her four daughters. Each of the five has their own voice, which Kingsolver said she wrote their monologues over and over to get their tones and perspectives.

One point I took away was that democracy doesn't work when people rush to a vote without having a viable discussion and coming to some consensus. As an old chief said, "When a vote is 49 to 51, half the population is angry all the time.

Kingsolver lived in the Congo for a time, and she said she researches the devil out of her books. She wants to be honest and have her readers trust her. One point that surprised me is that Kingsolver isn't afraid to use cliches, idioms, and everyday speech in her writing, something writing teachers try to drum out of writers. "Your writing is too good to use convenient slang." Well well.

I also read Kingsolver's The Bean Trees, which I loved. It warmed my heart; it didn't tear it out. I got a kick out of her description of Oklahoma, where my husband and I attended school for two years. In The Bean Trees, I gained some insight into the Cheyenne Nation of Oklahoma.

And people read more non-fiction because it teaches them something. Hum.

Kingsolver won the Pulitzer prize for Damon Copperhead, which I've chosen not to read for I don't want to endure a little boy getting slapped around by a man his mother marries.

I can take just so much angst.

I read a sweet little book this past week titled The Family Journal by Carolyn Brown about a divorced mother who finds her 14 girl smoking marijuana and her little 12-year-old boy sneaking out at night to drink beer. She decided that tough love was in order and moved them to a small town where she had inherited her family's old house and rented it to an agriculture teacher. (Enter a hunk.) It's handy to have an inheritance, but then, that is the stuff of novels. It reminded me of how much fun it is to grow up on a farm, as well as how much work it entails. Children seldom get bored on the farm and often begin to love and care for the animals.

The kids hate her at first, of course.

When I closed the book, I said, "Now that was refreshing."

 

*Here are Barbara Kingsolver's five rules for writers:

1.     Give yourself permission to write a bad book.

2.     Revise until it isn't a bad book.

3.     Get cozy with your own company.

4.     Study something besides writing.

5.     If you're young and smoke, you should quit.

She goes on to say that you want to live to an old age, for it is then that you do your best writing.

There's hope for me yet.

 

Mud or Monkeys?

 

 

Off the subject:

 

True Story from a reader:

 

Scene: Live Radio Real Estate Show Lincoln City 40 years ago.

 

Real Estate Person: My Mother

 

Caller: Some guy looking for a deal.

 

Mom: "We have a new listing for a fixer-upper. I just took a look at it here in Oceanlake. Let's talk to our first caller...:

 

Caller: "Wow, sounds interesting, Dorothy. What can you do with this fixer-upper?"

 

Mom: "Well....actually....one of two things... One is with a match, and the other is with a bulldozer."'

 

Aftermath...broker was not happy, property owner was not happy, but... Caller was amused, as were 3,000 listeners who knew she was being honest and remembered her name.

 

This writer knows I'm a new Real Estate Agent. Thanks, Greg, you made my day.

 

 

And now for my Blog:

 

EVOLUTION

 

Long ago, a friend asked me if I believed in evolution. 

 

 

I loved her and knew that she was worried about me. "Well," I said, "I'm a biology major. Evolution and biology go together. Evolution means change over time. It's that simple."

I knew her question was a loaded one. If I said yes, she would think I negated God.

 

Creationists and Evolutionists clash. Is that one reason we fight wars, a different belief in God?

 

Sometimes.

 

My friend is now in the Happy Hunting Grounds and probably has some insight into these questions. 

 

But in her time on earth, I knew what she wanted, "Did I believe we descended from monkeys?

 

That meant to her that I didn't think that God was the Creator.  

 

We're primates. We have a relationship with other primates in that we are of the same family that is Homo but of a different species sapiens. Did we descend from monkeys?

 

I don't know. It does not insult me. We could have descended from a Praying mantis where the females bite the head off the male after mating. That would really squelch the human race. The idea of evolution does not negate God.

 

I doubt if God scooped up a fistful of mud and formed a man, then seeing that his newly formed male was lonely, put him to sleep, extracted a rib, and made a woman. But I wouldn't put it past him/her. 

 

(Some cultures depict the first cause (God) as being female. And I am glad him/her used anesthesia.)

 

We're flesh, blood, and bony animals. We are lucky to be here. Get over yourself. 

Mud or monkeys? We are reading from a time when the writer didn't know about atoms, genetics, or DNA. Only recently have we discovered epigenetics, where we learned that genes can click off and on. This is not to mention how weird Quantum Physics is, with atoms being affected by the one who watches them. (Don't ask me, I didn't make this stuff up.)

 

In the Mayan culture, the "Creators" (there were more than one) created humans out of Maize, aka corn. That was after their wooden men broke.)

 

Humans are fantastic questioners, problem solvers, and creatives, so we dig, imagine, suppose, and come up with stories, legends, and truths.

 

Our brains are so good at coming up with answers they will give us a response to the most inane questions. Ask your brain a question, and it will come up with a reply. 

Did God create us from some primeval sludge, then like Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer's Apprentice who used the Sorcerer's wand and sent the water-carrying brooms got out of control?

 

 Did God throw a lightning bolt, ignite an amino acid, and viola' it became alive?

 

Somehow a DNA strand was created, single cells formed, and those friendly cells sought out each other and assembled into an organism. As time went on, that cohesive group became a larger swimming creature. Those creatures transformed into something that could live on land, finally becoming a skinny pink, brown, yellow, or red homolid, and finally Homo sapiens.

 

 That would have been fun to watch—given stop-action cameras.

 

Some say we were seeded from the stars, and they are right. Our solar system is a collected array of stardust that circled into the spiral we call home.

  

Some say Aliens planted us, or we came from aliens. That pushes the problem back. How were the aliens created?

 

Nowadays, species pretty much stay fixed in their course. That means they do not inner breed. However, once in a while, we get a hybrid like a horse and a donkey that produce an offspring called a mule. (More likely than not, with man's interference. In the wild, they probably would not interbreed.)

 

In the natural order of things, typically, mules are sterile, but as with most things, there can be an exception to the rule. I read that one mule produced offspring. Generally speaking; however, Nature says, "Stop inner specie breeding." And there are various physical and psychological aspects to that. But man, in his desire to be as smart as God, does bypass some of those obstacles. 

 

A species of squirrels became divided by the Grand Canyon. the squirrels on each side of the canyon developed into their own species. (You can imagine how long that took?)

 

This isn't a change of species, but a phenomenon worth mentioning.

 

ABC News W A S H I N G T O N, July 28, 2000 -- Researchers announced on Thursday that they were successful in growing eyes in fish that have been blind for eons — simply by inserting a lens from sighted fish.

Apparently, the lens seemed to send out signals that instructed the eyes in the blind cave fish to grow — a finding that sheds light on how eyes evolve and develop the researchers said.

Born Blind, A fish known as Astyanax mexicanus lives deep inside caves off the coast of Mexico where there is no light. Millions of years ago it had eyes; but now, soon after it starts growing in the  egg, the eyes start to degenerate and the fish are born blind.

Fish of the same species that live on the surface, where there is light, grow eyes and see normally.

Stem cells?

You see, I do not leave God out of the picture. I think the God force is so grand we can't comprehend it. One explanation is that that Force is Consciousness. 

 

Let's keep looking, researching, and debating, but let's not fight about it. We're all drops from the same ocean that is God.

 

And now this came to me after writing about evolution:

 

For Women, and the Men Who Love Them.

 

An email yesterday ignited old feelings about the use of Mare's urine in Hormone Replacement Therapy.  

 

DO NOT USE PREMARIN, WHOSE ESTROGEN IS DERIVED FROM MARE'S URINE.

 

Plant-derived estrogens are healthier for you and do not torture horses.

 

"There are bioidentical hormones available that have lower risks than animal-derived counterparts"*

 

And why don't the pharmaceutical companies use them? 

 

You can't copyright a plant.

 

My blood boiled after I learned how pregnant mares are treated to obtain their urine. 

 

First, they are tied during pregnancy and stand on cement, killing their legs. Then, they wear a permanent Catheter and are impregnated again soon after their babies are born. So the cycle goes until the Mare is ruined.

 

And often, their babies are throw-away foals.

 

Once I visited Sanctuary One, an animal sanctuary near Medford, Oregon.

 

 

 

At the Sanctuary I met a Premarin-rescued horse. 

 

When they received the Mare, Shasa, the caretaker, told me, "Her legs were like noodles from standing on cement for so long." When she came to them, she would lie down, but did not have the strength to get up, so they used a tractor to lift her.

 

When I petted her, I commented that she was a "Curly" (There are horses with curly hair) "No," said Shasa, "She has Cushing's disease from the stress. Her hair doesn't shed, and we must clip her." 

 

One rescued horse!

 

This Story was edited out of my book The Frog's Song, yet most publishers want angst—you figure. (Visit https://thefrogssong.com to read outtakes from the book.

Bless that sanctuary. They are wonderful. They took Orville and Wilbur, our pet, gentle, lovable healthy goats who became goodwill ambassadors. In return, I gave them our horse trailer. 

 

 

Orville and Wilbur

 

P.S. One of the plants that produce estrogen is Wild Yam. If your doctor doesn't give you the bioequivalent therapies, have your doctor send the Rx to a compounding pharmacy, and they will whip it up for you. Also, https://parlor-games.com *sells non-urine (Silky Peach Cream) laced estrogen and progesterone creams.  

 

*Hormone Replacement therapy Conclusion:: Physiological data and clinical outcomes demonstrate that bioidentical hormones are associated with lower risks, including the risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, and are more efficacious than their synthetic and animal-derived counterparts. Until evidence is found to the contrary, bioidentical hormones remain the preferred method of HRT. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to delineate these differences more clearly.”