Captive Occupations

While our New England neighbors are without a doubt joyously engaged in the annual practice of “Leaf-peeping” (I love this phrase!) and experiencing a spike in tourism as well, here in the Sonoran desert as Monarchs migrate south, we gape in apprehensive awe at Raptors in flight, often flying so low and so close you can almost feel their wings brush your skin. With the exception of Scavenger birds such as Vultures who consider anything that dies on the highway fair game, and cause for a party (tiny electric cars beware), the Harris’s Hawks are the only regional birds of prey observed to hunt in family groups, and only in the Sonoran desert. Now is the best time of year to visit the best place to see these magnificent Raptor flights at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – if you happen to be in our neck of the Saguaros.  Happy Gaping!

Welcome to November, everyone! And, on this, the first Wednesday of the month (every month) – Happy Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day! It’s an online gathering of authors, writers, bloggers and poets – anyone who dares put pen to paper or fingers to keys - where you’ll find helpful tips, handy resources, the latest trends in publishing, and a comfortable place for hundreds of writers – just like you and I – to share our writing journeys!

Feel free to meander and mingle. Our gracious co-hosts this month are:

Sadira Stone, Patricia Josephine, Lisa Buie-Collard, Erika Beebe, and C. Lee McKenzie!

For member news and fresh and witty movie reviews, our esteemed founder, Alex Cavanaugh has it all!  

As For Me:

Of late, there seems to be a lot of fuss about writing characters not of your own identity. Without extensive research or personal experience, I can understand the concern for unintended misrepresentations. However, if general interpretations are not derived from open minds, as they were for at least one famous author I could (but won’t) name, it would appear that heroic plants make less controversial characters. Here are some personal testimonies on “Writing the Other” we could post on a sticky note as we go boldly forth in National Novel Writing Month.

How’s this for an occupation:  No-Content Publishing. Can you believe it? I had to know more. And now that I do, I’m truly amazed at the brilliance of the idea itself, let alone the marketing strategy.

IWSG Optional Question of the Month:  What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever googled in researching a story?

Because we see more and more instances these days, I looked up Shoe Tossing. I had an idea that the reasons for the practice might well be somewhat nefarious since evidence seemed to suggest it happened to Johnny Ringo (whose occupation, by the way, is listed as “Outlaw”) as his boots were found strung together and hanging on the saddle of his horse, a half-mile away from where Johnny’s lifeless body was found on the bank of Turkey Creek. While Doc Holladay may not have been his actual Huckleberry, it was Johnny himself who tied – and tossed - his own boots to keep them free of scorpions while he napped in the shade of an Oak tree. I can’t express how vindicated I felt to learn that what I’ve been preaching about scorpions since before I reached the height of a grasshopper is absolutely real!

Having watched two movies in the same month that referenced such an event (NEXT, and RAISING DION), I looked up fish rain. I imagine my (earlier) interest in electric shock drowning (by lightning) might have raised a few eyebrows. Do you suppose I’d get a roundhouse gasp for combining both events in the same story?

Fun Facts:

Children born in autumn are generally more studious in school, and tend to live well into their nineties! 

Happy Writing!