Music v. The Environment

Tonight on NPR, they described a Justice Department raid on the Gibson guitar factory for illegal use of endangered woods, specifically ebony and rosewood from Madagascar. Protecting the world’s rainforests is of critical importance. On the other hand, these guitars must look beautiful and sound wonderful. I wish I knew more about the type of wood used to make guitars. Apparently, some of these same laws apply to vintage instruments that were made before environmental laws were passed. In the early 1970s, I played an ebony clarinet and have no idea where the wood came from. It’s an interesting controversy.

I was positive the lead-out music would be Norwegian Wood by the Beatles. Nope. It was My Guitar Gently Weeps. If you’ve never heard that song on ukulele, click here.

Sunday

Update

It’s been a month since the crit group retreat, and I’ve done almost no writing. Yeah, I did some research for a new project until I got stumped with a logical conundrum in the plot. I also submitted a manuscript (SSA) to The Whole NovelWorkshop put on by the Highlights Foundation. To my surprise, it was accepted. I’m excited to be spending a week in Honesdale and looking forward to expert mentorship on my project.

The last month has been a busy time. We traveled to Washington DC then Vancouver for family weddings. I’ve been helping Jeremy with his college applications, and outfitting Sam’s new college apartment. My volunteer responsibilities for the band and choir have been huge. However, this is my last year as a high school mom.

Today I started revising SSA one more time before I have to send it to Carolyn Coman or Stephen Roxburgh for the Whole Novel Workshop. Next week, I must clear several more hours and finish this draft.

Overheard #160

"You could always eat the inner bark of trees."

Sunday

I went to the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art and photographed spider webs. It had rained earlier.

Overheard #159

"When times are bad, prepare for when they're good."

The Spy Museum

I had a great time at The Spy Museum in Washington DC! I studied each display and read every plaque, but have no photographs because cameras are not allowed inside. The tour starts with basic surveillance techniques, like dead drops and spotting hidden cameras. There is an excellent video on how to pick a lock, and a wonderful display of recording devices. Micro-technology has certainly improved over the years.

The section on codes is well-done, and I got to see an Enigma machine. I would have liked to see a diagram of the scrambling circuitry, but perhaps that is too technical for the target audience. The historical rooms are fascinating, and I’m eager to read more about the spies of the American Revolution and Civil War. The story of the tunnel under the Berlin Wall is also something that I’ll have to investigate further.

Even though I spent four hours at the museum, I could easily go back and learn more. After some internal debate, I decided not to buy a SPY GIRL T-shirt. It would blow my cover.

Sunday

I love them not.

Overheard #158

"They call me mellow death metal."

The Company We Keep

The Company We Keep: a husband-and-wife true-life spy story

by Robert Baer and Dayna Baer

Crown Publishers, 2011

If you want to know how CIA operatives spend their days, read this book.



I have more spy stuff coming. Several more espionage-related books are on my to-read list. On Friday, I’ll visit the Spy Museum in Washington DC.

Sunday

At last, some nature photos

  a white-faced meadowhawk with sun on his wings

They seem to like to arch their wings forward.

I tried to consider negative space when I cropped these pictures. 

Overheard #157

"There are only three ways to really get to know a person: marry them, spy on them, or play Scrabble with them."

Writing Retreat and Band Camp

The World’s Greatest Critique Group spent four days at a retreat center in Saugatuck. When I left home, I was unsure what I would work on. I started with a sequel to SSA, but my plan for this book didn’t fit well with the novel format I learned from Martha Alderson’s Blockbuster Plot series, so I put it aside for now. I switched to a new project and didn’t expect to get far, but ideas came, and I ended up with a plot plan, twelve chapters outlined and one chapter written.

On Monday morning, I headed out to band camp. For incoming freshmen, band camp is their first high school experience. Watching the transition from the middle school to the high school mind set is fascinating, and the reason why I’ve written a couple manuscripts with 14-year-old protagonists. I’ve also written novels with 17-year-old protagonists. Perhaps that’s because some of the seniors enjoy being at the top of the heap while others are ready to move on.

Photographic Evidence of Our Writing Retreat

The retreat was terrific. I'll write more about it when I finish my volunteer duty at Band Camp.

Overheard #156

"All you need is the curiosity you were born with."

Retreat

The Fourth Annual Writing Retreat of the World’s Greatest Critique Group starts tomorrow. But first, I need to:

• Decide what I’m going to work on at the retreat. G&CBS is currently being queried. SSA will soon join it. The project I’m most interested in is a sequel to SSA, but it’s silly to spend any more time on this idea before it gets a glimmer of interest. I have a couple other projects sketched out, but I’m not committed to either yet.
• Find Sam a place to live. His housing plans fell through, and at this point in the summer, student apartments in Ann Arbor are scarce. We may have landed an efficiency on the east side of town.

I’ve been hard at work organizing choir uniforms. Over 200 students participate in vocal music at our high school, and they all need concert uniforms. Because it’s easier to organize the uniforms than the kids, we label every hanger and arrange the uniforms by size. We’ve finished the pants, jackets and vests; the dresses remain.

Band camp starts on Monday. 8:00AM to 9:00PM six days running. I’m helping out on two days. This is valuable writing experience because I get to interact with lots of kids.

Overheard #155

"Seemingly, everyone who made a significant contribution to mathematics was completely insane."

Negative Space

“Negative space isn’t the absence of space but rather the space that defines the positive space.” [link]

This is my Aunt Bibi’s bird. It’s all about negative space. The sweep of the neck and the curve of the back enhance image.

As a former scientist, I’m fascinated with biological design and tend to do a lot of macro photography. For macro shots, there’s a trade off between zooming in for detail and zooming out to improve the composition of the picture. I posted this flower a couple weeks ago. The close up (with minimal negative space) shows textures and the play of light through the petals.

Backing off the flower increases the negative space and gives a sense of the wider world of the garden. 

It's a trade off.

Overheard #154

"It's not for the faint of heart. It's for the faint of mind."

Songwriting, Malware and Writing Days, Oh My

I had intended to write a thoughtful post on negative space this week with examples from my photography and applications to writing. Then Jeremy decided his band needed a songwriting room. He and Neil (drummer) cleared out another corner of our basement, picked up some salvage furniture and carpeting at MSU, and created a cute and comfortable space. That corner of the basement had been used to store a lot of stuff, but I’ve now relocated our tax return files and trashed or recycled a lot of stuff that should have been gotten rid of years ago.

Just as the basement issue was getting under control, my PC got another malware infection and had to go back to the computer hospital. All of my photo-editing software is on that computer, so Sunday’s nature photo is unlikely to happen this week.

Some members of The World’s Greatest Critique Group have planned writing days for today and Friday. To heck with all these other issues. I’m going to finish revisions this week.