Ludington Daily News Column- May 2011

My monthly newspaper column was due today (although I think the office is closed for the holiday, I turned it in anyway).

Since I was out hiking last week, after giving a program, that's what I wrote about. The title is "Hiking South Otselic to North Pharsalia."

It begins:

“You’ve been hiking through a fantasy novel?” you might ask. No, these are real places separated by only a baker’s dozen trail miles. Actually, I hiked a total of 31 miles, but my true beginning location bears only the rather ordinary name of Cuyler Hill.

The most notable feature of Cuyler Hill, apart from a great view of cultivated New York hillsides, is that it’s where the Finger Lakes Trail and the North Country Trail part company.

These columns are not available on-line, unless you subscribe to the Ludington Daily News. One collection of columns is currently available as an e-book, called Get Off the Couch with Joan, at Smashwords.

I'm nearly ready to format a second volume. This one will be humorous essays entitled Fall Off the Couch Laughing.

Succintly Yours- Flash Fiction

I'm going to play again. I should be doing more serious things, but O well... The "extra credit" word is "glisten," and this time I wrote 140 words with the inspiration coming from this picture:



Here's my story:

  “Hey Ma! Where did you go?”
  “I looked out and the rain was glistening on the road. It reminded me that I needed to buy glitter and glue for Alyssa’s Brownie crafts, so I went to the dollar store.”
  “Why are you walking in the middle of the road?”
  “That way I can see the water glisten all around me. It reminds me of the beach.”
  “Geez, Ma! That beach vacation was 18 years ago. Alyssa goes to the community college now.”
  “Oh, Brian, you are such a joker. The Brownies meet on Tuesday afternoon.”
  “I suppose they do. Hop on, Ma. I’ll take you home and Alyssa will fix you some nice warm tea.”
  “Do I know Alyssa?”
  “Yes, Ma. Alyssa’s my daughter. Be good and ride home with me.”
  “This is exciting. Good thing I wore my slacks.”

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The prompt came from Grandma's Goulash

Program and Book Sales

The week just flew by! Last Saturday I was the primary speaker at the Finger Lakes Trail Conference Spring Weekend in Cazenovia, NY. They loved the program, and learned a lot about the larger view of the North Country Trail. Over 300 miles of their trail is concurrent with the NCT.

My newest program is "The North Country Trail and the Kitchen Sink." It's still a tiny bit too long- I need to somehow rip a few more slides out of it. Sigh.

I put out a short stack of "bump and dent" North Country Cache (those ones returned from Partners) at a reduced price, which all sold, and then also sold two more at full price. I kept some dented ones for another time.

Also sold one paper copy of Devotions for Hikers!

Article for North Star

For almost 15 years I've been a contributor, and sometimes a regular columnist, to the North Star, the quarterly magazine of the North Country Trail Association. This is all for free, just because I love the trail, but it does look good on a resume.

My blog post "Why Stealth Camping is Not a Good Idea" needs to be expanded a bit, and then it will appear as an article in the Fall issue of North Star.

If you have any interest in this, click the "Published Works" tab, and you can see a listing of the articles that have appeared in North Star since 1998.

Product Review at Shared Reviews

I've really fallen off in my participation at Shared Reviews. Nevertheless, I worked my way back up to third place (heavily weighted to favor those with new content). I've been dragging my feet because they are working on a makeover for the mechanics of the site, and until that is complete there are no higher levels for me to attain. (It looks like there are, but the architecture to support them isn't in place.) That affects my motivation.

Even so, I got my act together and wrote a new product review this morning for Purina Active Senior 7+ Dog Chow.

And I see that addition has moved me into second! Things are looking up.

Shared Reviews

Submitted "Memory of Life"

I just submitted a new poem to the Ludington Public Poetry Project. It's a small program that posts poems by local authors around town for people to read. The theme this time is Spring and Summer. It begins:

Memory of Life

I watch the thirteen-lined ground squirrel
stand on her hind legs and sniff the air.

I think it's pretty good, but there are some very good local poets, so who knows. No monetary rewards involved, but publicity and name recognition are always helpful.

Submitted "Now Then When"

The Elements of Life anthology (from Twin Trinity Media) is essentially complete, but the editor, Michelle Devon, called for a few extra poetry submissions from authors who have other accepted works in the series.

My first accepted story will actually be in the next book to come out from the series, Elements of Love. Nevertheless, that qualified me to submit. I sent off "Now Then When," and hope to hear if its accepted fairly soon, since the book is laid out enough that Michy knows she needs some poems to fill out the pages.

I'm really hopeful, because I have stories and/or poems accepted for all the subsequent books in the series which have been planned to date. This would also put a work of mine in one sooner.