Traveling through Time

     I was a clueless California city girl when the professor leading our field trip pulled our van to a stop along the highway that leads through Zion National Park in southern Utah. We spilled out of the vehicles and followed our fearless leader to the base of a sandstone mesa. Doc pointed. “Go up there,” he said and scrambled up the slope.

I didn’t know cross beds from conjugate joints, but I climbed after him and the other enthusiastic students. The slope went from comfortable to “I might fall and die” by the time I’d taken a couple dozen steps. I looked up. The mesa was vertical above me. My heart beat quicker, not from exertion but from the unfamiliar feeling of danger. I didn’t know if I could make it. Our professor had come to a stop not far above. Other students clustered near him.

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Character Interview: Rai from Child of the Kaites

Beth Wangler, my writer friend and critique partner, is publishing her first full length novel. I am so excited! The Child of the Kaites is a fantasy novel inspired by the story of Moses. I’ve had the opportunity to read it, and it is amazing.

In honor of the big release day on July 28^th, I’ve interviewed the main character in Child of the Kaites, Rai, so that we can get to know her better.

(Yes, we writers sometimes consider our characters so real, we feel the need to interview them.)

Me: Rai, I’m so glad you have taken the time to chat with me today. I’ve gotten a chance to know you but for the sake of everyone else, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? For example, I know Rai is a nickname. What is your full name?

Rai: Hi Ashley, it’s great to get to talk with you! My name is a…complicated topic. My birth parents named me “Mailoua,” which means “Cursed” or “Nameless.” My people have been suffering, you see, and my parents felt that suffering very strongly. When I was ten, the kaites gave me a new name, “Raiballeon.” My new name means “Leader of a Revolt.” I like this name more, even if I don’t feel like a leader of anything most of the time. Of course, “Raiballeon” is quite a mouthful, so I go by “Rai” or “Raiba,” depending on who you’re talking to.

First Run

Recently, during a conversation about running, I mentioned that I had cut back my workouts because I was suffering from shin splints. A well-intentioned person proceeded to give me all kinds of advice on how to overcome this challenge.

I listened politely, interjecting weak comments, like, “I know,” and “yes, I’ve done that before,” until the conversation drifted to other topics. While I appreciated the desire of this person to help, what I really wanted to say is, “Buddy, I’ve been running for twenty years. These aren’t my first shin splints and they won’t be my last. I don’t need you to tell me what to do.”

(I have a lot more sass in my head than I do in person.)

But the thing that stuck with me most wasn’t my inability to speak my true feelings, or any of the advice this person gave. It is, that I have been running for twenty years. Twenty years ago this summer, I started high school cross-country and became a runner. (I am suddenly feeling pretty old.) But I never would have made it past my very first run, if it wasn’t for a stranger who offered a lot more than advice.

Six Chapter Books You’ll Love Reading to Your Kids

As a mother, I spend a lot of time reading out loud to my kids. We have so many picture books, that occasionally one will fall off the shelf (or out from under the couch) that I swear I’ve never seen before. My kids (5 year old twins, and a 2 year old) all love reading books, but as they are too young to read themselves, I do the reading for them. Even the best books can only be read so many times before you want to pull your hair out, and if you have kids you understand that they want to read the same book over and over and over.

And over.

And over and over.

And over.

(Annoyed yet? Because that is just a small taste of what it’s like to read the same book 453,499 times.)

My twins gained the attention span for longer books about a year ago, and since then I’ve been on a quest to find great chapter books to read to them. We have tried recommended books, as well as random ones pulled off the shelf. Some have been painful experiences, but in our adventures in reading I’ve come across some real winners too. I’m going to share them with you.

What makes a good read aloud chapter book?

Facade

I’m in the middle of editing The Darkest Hour which is a good thing to do but sometimes I need a little “fun” writing time to break it up. Whenever this happens I turn back to my favorite character, Liz. If you’ve read this blog before, you will also recognize the narrator, Ethan, and his partner James. You can read more about these characters on the Elizabeth DiMaggio page of this blog. I hope you enjoy. 

Ethan had known James’s identity for some time. Actually, “known” isn’t the right word. Suspected would be better. It was wrong, but he’d used his clearance and looked up her profile and memorized everything in it. But it hadn’t listed her real identity, so he’d…gone above his clearance.

The fact that her identity had been missing even in the most secret places in the agency was its own clue. He, for example, had no reason to hide his true identity. He was in the habit of using a fake name, simply because that’s what one did in the industry. James always called him Ethan, so that’s the one he preferred, but he could just as easily have gone by Jeremy, which was his given name. No one would have care and he had no one from “real life” that would be hurt. Most agents had a little more to protect than he did, so it wasn’t surprising when James’s identity was hidden under a few clearance levels. What was surprising was that her identity didn’t seem to exist anywhere. No one in the agency knew who she was.

She was good with computers, but erasing that kind of information from the agency database was the kind of thing only the top hackers in the world could do. So why did James need that level of protection?

The “What If?” Fantasy Tag

If you have ever wondered whether I’d be a great character in a fantasy story, the answer is no. But it might be kind of funny. My critique partner and super awesome writer and all around person, Beth Wangler tagged me in this fantasy game for fantasy month. I can’t wait for you to read Beth’s novel Child of the Kaites, coming out later this year, but in the mean time you can check out her website for some other stories, poems and awesomeness.

You can look at the original #fantasymonth game post here. Read more to see how I would fare in a fantasy world.

Breakfast and a Newborn Basalt

The thing about lava is that it’s a lot harder to find than the movies lead you to believe. Sure, sometimes volcanoes explode in massive, deadly explosions, and sometimes there is actually some lava involved in such explosions. But more often than not, eruptions of oozy goozy lava are quiet and slow and not that news worthy. The Kilauea volcano on the big island has been erupting since 1983 and although enough lava erupts every day to cover a two lane road for 20 miles¹, you don’t see any flashing news headlines, or movie trailers featuring Pierce Brosnan or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as manly heroes up against Hawaii’s worst volcano.² That’s because most of the lava flows harmlessly to the sea, or globs onto the side of the volcano, building new land quietly, out of the lime light.

I had already hiked over twenty miles in search of lava. That hike was magical, but we had never found the elusive liquid rock, and we were running out of time. Field trips to Hawaii do not last forever. So, our professor did the only thing he could. He woke us up at three in the morning.