The Snake. Jane Goodall. River Evil …

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about good and evil and feeling the power of evil way too much.

And then I watched President Zelensky’s speech to the U.S. Congress (12.21.22). It struck me that this man has come to symbolize both. He is willing to hold close the evil done to his country and his people—hold it so close that he can spill it out raw to people who need to know and even feel it. But the part of him that shines triumphant, even in this dark, brutal winter, is his goodness and his willingness to share the goodness and sacrifice of his people so we can also share it and lean toward it.

Over two decades ago I wrote a letter about good and evil to my daughter as she was deep in despair after September 11th. Today I share it with you on the darkest night of the year. . . .
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Never, Ever … Buy or Eat the Big, Tasteless Ones

My family and friends have given me a reputation for quick or novel fixes to create strategies that add “yum!” to food. My sisters still call me in the middle of gravy-making as that’s always a daunting thing. I love that. (Scroll down for gravy and more tips.)

(And right now, I am writing a character …Patton … who’s hiding out in a hunting tree stand, eating moose jerky and drinking rainwater, so I get no vicarious food-joy from the keyboard.)

I’ve collected some of my go-to tips to share with you during feasting season. And below, look for more info on Maine berries and how to find them.

Better cornbread, muffins, even brownies. Put a couple of very heaping tablespoons of yogurt in all muffin and cornbread recipes (mashed banana too; I keep ‘dead’ ones in the freezer in their skins). Makes everything wonderfully moist: cornbread is fabulous this way.

Quick Fruit Salad. Well, there’s a prerequisite. Always have Wyman’s Wild Blueberries and unsweetened whole strawberries in the freezer. (Big, non-Maine, or generic-brand blueberries not allowed. Tasteless.)
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“A Mother Moose Won’t Stop Until She Gets You”

Sandy Interviews Wildlife Biologist Ron Joseph on his upcoming book

I got to know Ron Joseph when he was the wildlife biologist stationed in Greenville where I have a home on Moosehead Lake. I asked Ron to review my first novel, knowing that he’d let me know if I’d strayed from accurate wildlife science or had somehow ducked the threat to Maine’s forest.

He wrote a Deadly Trespass review that still warms my heart:”…a beautiful book that brilliantly captures the battle to conserve Maine’s mythical woods…”

Now Ron’s collected essays and columns and wonderful, delightful but also poignant stories will published in December.  I think he brings the “mythical woods” home to us by opening his history and his heart.

As we talked this week, there was lots of laughter as well as serious moments where he shared his concerns, especially about songbirds: his specialty and also the animals that have his heart. . . .
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My First: Nothing Racy. But It is Crafty.

Sandra Neily

In 2017, Brenda Buchanan invited me to send in a guest post to Maine Crime Writers. . . . Here’s my first. (Thanks Brenda.)

CRAFT & CRAFT-Y

I burst into tears when I first held my fingers over the keys to write fiction. I paced around, knowing I needed help. Lots of help. I stemmed the tears by turning the names of five friends into a mantra, sure that if they were in my living room, they would be cheering me on. Then I taped paper up on my camp wall, and scrawled “CRAFT. BE CRAFT-Y” at the top.

This ever-growing advice list, collected from webinars, seminars, workshops, friends, author mentors, articles, books, and the writing cosmos, is my compass and bible. It goes everywhere I go. (Looking pretty ragged now: squashed bugs, grease smears, and something that looks like squash, but I don’t really want to know.)

I like the word crafty because it’s an adjective we can put in front of our names telling us we are sly, creative, skilled, calculating, and potentially proficient. And that we are people who assemble something out of raw materials. Like artists who work in clay, metal, or paint, we shape something raw into a novel way of seeing the same old world. . . .
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