For this special holiday blog, I'm giving my faithful readers exactly what you want: pictures of a fantastic castle. Minimal explanation. These are my snaps from my trip to Ponferrada earlier this month. Enjoy!
When the Pons Ferratus (iron bridge) was built here to help the pilgrims to Santiago in the twelfth century, the Knights Templar settled in to protect and care for the holy travelers.
Most of the castle we see today was built during the time of Isabel and Fernando.
The town built up around the castle during a period of neglect.
Let the end of the world find us dancing!
How pedestrians manage the steep hills in Ponferrada.
Knight Templar monument
Caldo berciano: What they eat in Ponferrada. Yum!
Your most trusted source for holiday gift-giving recommends Seven Noble Knights.
I'm not the only one who's had the worst year on record. It's nice not to be alone, but of course I'd rather have a more pleasant quality in common with so many people.
My beloved husband—my biggest fan, who never let me down, who is my definition of what it takes to be a good human being—died in late July 2016. Having to say or write that still stops me in my tracks. But it's been five months, and the best way to honor my husband is with a life that's about more than sadness. Slowly, painfully, I'm making plans and dreaming dreams again.
This year had some highs, as well, which deserve celebration.
December 2015: My husband and I moved back to Arizona with purpose and joyfulness.
March 2016: Awash in Talentwas picked up by Kindle Press.
May: My husband and I had the best two weeks in Spain anyone has ever had. (We met Manolo García!) I'll have to blog about that trip in order to spread the joy even more.
July: I learned a lot about my friends and family and the power of these bonds.
December: Seven Noble Knights was published.
I earned a modest placement as Publicity Assistant at Hawthorne Books, to start in January.
My husband (can you believe my luck!) illustrates the useful skill of
finding beauty among the thorns. April 2016
I started this second part of the post in the middle of July, when I still believed my husband would recover and spend another 20 years with me. It's a partial translation of a 1990 song by Manolo García, "Canta por mí" (meaning "sing for my sake," "sing in my place").
S/he met the past along the way,
and looked at it and could not cry.
Between dusk and dawn,
s/he did nothing but let him/herself go.
On a peach-colored day,
when we're all free,
when we can eat rocks,
and no one is better than anyone else,
sing for me
if I'm not here.
The day is coming when we will be as pure
as a summer sky on the sea.
I'll sing for you
if you're not here.
This is the most idealistic song I've ever heard. It's about spiritual awakening and hope for humanity. Note that the ideal day is far enough off that either the singer or the listener will no longer be with us, but not so far off that they'll both be dead.
Now that my true love is gone, we must be close to that peach-colored day. I know who I'll be singing for. In the meantime, I plan to do things that make him proud: show kindness, promote humanity, and express what inspiration comes to me through writing.
The Roman god Janus is literally two-faced, but not because he is a double-crosser. His biological peculiarity comes from his lordship over the month that bears his name: January. Living at this month when two years meet, he simultaneously looks back at the past year and ahead to the new one. He is both ending and beginning.
The tension of ending an old year while also starting a new one has inspired people through the ages to make a break with the past and promise to change their ways in the future—New Year's resolutions.
The Babylonians did it, the Romans did it, and medieval knights took the peacock vow. The nature of the promise of self improvement tells us a lot about what's valued in the culture. Have you ever resolved to give more to the poor? Or have your resolutions been more along the lines of losing weight or being more assertive?
My priority is writing. My goals for 2015 include completing revisions on my first two novels, publishing Awash in Talent (the second one), making as yet undefined progress on the third, and writing two short stories (one fantasy and one historical).
Blogging regularly is also on the horizon. Once a week, here we come! (I never thought it would come to this, back in my days of two, three, and four posts per week.)
I received a generous gift that will enable me to make another resolution of utmost importance to me: to read more (without editing). For 2015, I'm going to aim for ten books (mostly novels). Or maybe I should shoot for five and consider anything else a bonus?
I have some ideas already, but am open to suggestions. If my two goals in this are to enjoy the written word and to improve my writing by osmosis, what books would you recommend?
Inspired by Tara Lynne Groth, who blogs from the last place I lived and who was inspired by another blogger, who was inspired by a blogger before that, I'm taking the last day of the year to reflect on 2014. Skimming over the bad news of the year, here are ten things I can consider 2014's gifts.
1. My husband and I moved to the Northeast after five long years away.
2. I got a job working with my two favorite languages, English and Spanish.
3. This job meant that my husband and I could stay in the Northeast.
4. Early snow.
5. No traffic accidents.
6. I finished my second novel, Awash in Talent, and the people who've read it say it's my best writing yet.
10. My husband reads to me and sings me Happy Birthday for weeks surrounding the actual day. This amounts to more good fortune than can be counted, period.
Note: Starting January 4, I'm participating in the Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop. Five prizes will be up for grabs, so stop by and check it out.
"One Year After Another" by Manolo García
English translation by Jessica Knauss
from Los días intactos (2011)
One day I realized searching
was what kept me awake.
Without a trace of treasures,
without finding answers,
in the happy morning light.
January
came and went
the
way a traffic light changes
on those confounded highways
where
I sometimes still feel
like
a donkey tied at the entrance to the dance.
New
years came and passed by,
Like
the lives of monks in monasteries.
One
year and another, so much time,
so
many August moons that pass by.
A
hot wind came from the south,
the
deepest south,
and
in it, you came, intensifying.
One
year and another.
One
day I realized searching
was what kept me awake.
Without a certain reward
asking
myself questions
while
dusting my own buttresses.
A
wind blew from the south.
You
came inside it with your heat
and
your Gypsy talk.
You
came joyfully in a puff
to
this pile of trash
where
we sometimes bog ourselves down.
You
came inside a light.
Days
are bullets and when you yearn to head for the horizon
you're already ploughing the deep blue.
One
year and another, so much time,
so
many August moons that pass by.
A
hot wind came from the south,
and
in it, you came, and you came yearning.
One
year and another, so much time,
so
many August moons that pass by.
One
year and another, so much time.
A hot wind came from the south
from the deepest south,
And in it you came intensifying,
desiring new horizons.
One year and another.
Note: "Like a Donkey Tied at the Entrance of the Dance" is the title of one of Manolo García's biggest hits with his former group, El Último de la Fila.
Note: We're finally leaving the hotel! After nearly eight months! We're headed for another hotel... soon to be replaced by an apartment, complete with my books and other items necessary for feeling like home. Catch you on the other side.
Here we are again! Something that never changes from year to year is my love for reading. It seems I get to do less and less every year, and this time I was further hampered by the fact that I've lived in a hotel room for eight months. Such spaces are not known for their ample bookshelves, and I can confirm that I had zero nice places to store my books. Unless you consider a box under the bed a nice place. (Crimes against literature, I tell you.) On to the winners!
Best Fiction
The Color Master by Aimee Bender
The best fiction title of 2013 won by virtue of its being the one I most look forward to having handy on a shelf so I can open it back up and discover something new all over again. The Color Master is full of shimmering language in the service of a vigorous imagination. Read the full review here.
Best Non-Fiction
Clara's Grand Tour by Glynis Ridley
The best nonfiction title this year had more competition than I even remembered, but it's so good it beat out the others even though it was published in 2004. It researches and describes a world-changing moment (two decades) in the eighteenth century when a Dutch sea captain purchased and toured throughout Europe with a female greater one-horned rhinoceros. The author never puts forth ideas without solid evidence to back them up, but so much joy shines through her facts that the reader can't help but conjecture and imagine both the sailor and the rhino as personal acquaintances. It's everything a non-fiction book should be. (Of course, I love anything that helps me learn more about rhinos.)
Best Book I Edited
The Fiery Alphabet by Diane Lefer
This category gets more competitive by the minute. Looking back over the year, I actually find it hard to believe I edited The Fiery Alphabet in 2013. I feel like it's been with me forever. That overall fondness, coupled with its exquisite writing and historical, philosophical, sociological plot, make it the best book I edited this year. Read about its debut and an interview with the author here.
I wish I could honor every book I read because reading is such an amazing experience. Congratulations to the winners! Here's to an equally wordy 2014!
In order to start out 2011 as auspiciously as possible, it is my pleasure to announce that Tree/House is now available in all the digital formats offered by Barnes and Noble. This edition is for those of you who got a non-Amazon e-reader this holiday season. It also contains the new editing and the black and white photos from the new print edition. Now there's no excuse and no escape! Get yours today here! Contact me to get your own specially designed bookmark, free-of-charge.
As ever, Tree/House is also available in a print edition with a lovely cover, photos, and two bonus short stories as well as Kindle format, which can be used on just about any device you have, provided you have the software.
And to really get celebrating, I'll include this enchanting, unsolicited review I recently found in the Amazon listing:
Unexpectedly Loved This Book - Quirky, intriguing with a bit of literary mixed in, November 12, 2010
by Roxanne McHenry, Unruly Guides, Writer, SEO Consultant
Jessica's book delighted me andTree/Househas a smart, intellectual appeal that other fiction I've read recently completely lacks.
I was looking for Jessica's other books when I found this title in the Kindle Store. I tried the sample and within 2 pages I knew this would be a great read. Events immediately take a turn into the unexpected in the first chapter, and I loved seeing the world through the eyes of the protagonist. She asks herself a lot of questions as she moves ahead to a new life and new experiences (I guess I can relate to that). The story isn't written strictly for commercial appeal. In fact this story has more of a literary style than the last 5-8 books I've read. I think the difference is those authors intended to write the next great book that sells (some were really entertaining, but didn't delight me or have intellectual appeal). Seeing Jessica's list of previous publications on her site, it makes sense that she's a writer with a story to unfold (not necessarily to craft for sales). I chose not to reveal what happens in the story to allow it to magically unfold its surprises. I find it interesting that the early reviewers are all from Massachusetts for some reason. Well, I'm from Montana...but oops!... I grew up in Massachusetts. Makes me wonder what that connection's about, but I think that readers from other places will enjoy this book, too. A whole-hearted five stars.
It goes without saying that I love everything about this review. It makes me feel appreciated in all the right ways. But it's especially gratifying to that the writer seems to recognize that I wrote Tree/House for the love of it, that the characters came to me with their story and I felt obliged to write it for them. I think my readers can really feel the love ... not to get too mushy!
In short, Tree/House is an honest, quirky, intriguing book that would love to find a way into your heart in any format.
