Natasha Alexander » gratitude

Double Win!

Natasha — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 02:03:57 +0000

This week I won a contest on Christi Craig’s blog: my own copy of Linda Cassidy Lewis‘s novel The Brevity of Roses. I’d already read and enjoyed the e-book, but I admit it, there’s something special about actually holding a physical book in your hands…

Also, through this contest I’ve discovered Christi’s lovely blog and am happy to add her to my list of favorites and new friends.

All in all, a good week. Now if the shot I got in my knee this morning would start working and if Tropical Storm Emily would remain off-shore, I’d call it a terrific week.

Winter Solstice 2010

Natasha — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:12:37 +0000

It’s the Winter Solstice, happens every year about this time…. And honestly, I can’t do any better than re-post last year’s Solstice message, with Rebecca Parker’s beautiful Winter Solstice poem.

Happy Holidays, friends! “Let this be the time we wake to life.”

WINTER SOLSTICE

Perhaps
for a moment
the typewriters will stop clicking,
the wheels stop rolling
the computers desist from computing,
and a hush will fall over the city.
For an instant, in the stillness,
the chiming of the celestial spheres will be heard
as earth hangs poised
in the crystalline darkness, and then
gracefully
tilts.
Let there be a season
when holiness is heard, and
the splendor of living is revealed.
Stunned to stillness by beauty
we remember who we are and why we are here.
There are inexplicable mysteries.
We are not alone.
In the universe there moves a Wild One
whose gestures alter earth’s axis
toward love.
In the immense darkness
everything spins with joy.
The cosmos enfolds us.
We are caught in a web of stars,
cradled in a swaying embrace,
rocked by the holy night,
babes of the universe.
Let this be the time
we wake to life,
like spring wakes, in the moment
of winter solstice.

~Rebecca Parker

Paper Rats, JCO, Nancy Drew and me: The ‘Inside the Writers’ Studio’ Interview

Natasha — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 16:16:01 +0000

I was honored, flattered and just plain excited when the lovely and talented Paper Rats, Kris and R.J., invited me Inside the Writers’ Studio for an interview. ME? They wanted to interview me?

YES!

So here’s the link to today’s interview: Natasha Drew on mystery, muses, and Joyce Carol Oates. You’ll get to learn about my 5th grade writing disasters and what’s happening in my current NaNoWriMo novel, among other things.

Head on over and read the interview, and then check out some of the Paper Rats videos if you haven’t seen them yet. You’re in for a treat.

Right now — that’s it.

And then have a nice week-end, ya’ll.

W.I.N.O.S.

Natasha — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 02:38:33 +0000

I took this picture at a neat little art gallery/shop in Berea, Kentucky during our last road trip. Unfortunately the place was closed, so I didn’t get a chance to peek inside the book or at least purchase a package of the cocktail napkins, which looked like a real bargain at $4.95.

But I can improvise. Here on the East Coast of the U.S., it is 9 PM right now. I am lifting my glass ( inexpensive California chardonnay) to you, my fellow W.I.N.O.S., in praise, gratitude, humility and a load of hooey for traveling together on this writing journey, NaNo or not.

And I propose a toast: Care to join me each evening at 9 (your time or mine – or what the hell, both) for a quick toast to all the friends we’ve made in blogland and beyond? (W.I.N.O.S. is gender-neutral, in my book. That “W” can stand for Writer, Wing-nut, Whatever — and that should cover most of the bases.)

Ya’ll in?

Cheers!

(If you need a laugh with your wine and you are on Facebook, check out the NaNoWriMo page, where hundreds of people are offering (with varying amounts of shame) short summaries of what they are writing this month. Enjoy.)

The long and winding road trip – Part one

Natasha — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:27:40 +0000

I’ve been struggling for the last couple of days to write a coherent post about our recent road trip. Usually when I’m struggling this much, it’s because I’m on the wrong path using the wrong tool.

For one thing, I’d been trying to cram too much into the post:

• pictures of breathtaking mountains and equally breathtaking switchbacks on one-lane roads to get around them
• comparison of free-wheeling road trips and seat-of-the pants writing
• unexpected pleasures just around the bend
• unexpected pitfalls just around the bend
• Appalachian arts
• environmental rape and pillage

I could spend a lifetime writing about any one of the above and barely scratch the surface. No wonder I’ve been beating my head against the keyboard. I decided to ditch writing about writing and just write about the trip (phew). I’m also dividing the post into two parts to make it more manageable.

Focus. Zoom in for a close-up or two.

Click

We try to take spring and fall road trips every year. Our pre-planning usually consists of tossing some road maps, the cooler and a pile of pet-friendly hotel directories in the back seat of the car. Once we’ve cleared day-trip distance from home, we get off the interstate and hit back roads. We explored parts of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee this fall. Fasten your seat belts and join us. (Click on any picture if you want to see a bigger image.)

Back roads and by-ways

Given the choice between a highway and the road less traveled, this is what we choose.

A asked me why all the mountain road pictures I shot showed guard rails when most of the roads didn’t have them. It’s because on those hairy switchbacks, I was gripping the Jesus bar with my camera hand.

The Jesus bar, for those of you who haven’t done much driving in the mountains, is the handle above the car door that you cling to while whispering ‘Oh, Jesus’ as you will the car to stay on the road even as that coal truck is coming straight at you from the other direction. Passengers only, please, on the Jesus bar. Drivers keep both hands on the wheel, but you can pray if you think it might help.

Pre-planning

Not so much. If I had done any research before the trip, I would have known that the entire Red River Gorge – campgrounds, trails, kayak put-ins – had been closed at the end of June/early July due to ‘the first black bear attack on a human in modern Kentucky history.’

After reading the article, though, I can’t say I blame the bear. Hello? You see a bear coming toward you in the woods and you pull out your CELL PHONE AND TAKE PICTURES?

Some people get what they deserve.

At any rate, the cell phone guy got stitched up and lived, but that bear is still running around in the woods, which I didn’t know until we got home and I did some reading on where we’d been.

I’m sort of hoping the bear bumped into a couple that we met hiking one day. Kentucky was dry as a bone, campfires were prohibited throughout all 37,000 acres of the Gorge area, some trails were closed due to active wildfires, and this woman was SMOKING as she walked down the trail.

Ack. Calling all bears.

Arts

These would be some of those unexpected pleasures just around the bend.

Why they’re called the Smoky Mountains

Mountains: Refuge and Healing

From a roadside placard in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park:

Clingmans Dome is a sacred mountain to the Cherokees, where the Magic Lake was once seen. The Great Spirit told the Cherokees that, “if they love the animals of the earth, when they grow old and sick, they can come to a magic lake and be made well again.”

For Cherokees, these mountains have meant a refuge, homeland, and a mythical and spiritual foundation for their people. During the Indian Removal Period of the 1800′s known as the Trail of Tears, the mountains meant safety from pursuing soldiers. Today these slopes provide a refuge and offer inspiration for visitors from a hectic modern society.

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find that going to the mountains is going home. ~ John Muir, 1898

What do these mountains mean to you?

~~
Tomorrow’s post: A lump of coal