A Thousand Words for Stranger

I've been trying to think how to give an overview of A Thousand Words for Stranger. It isn't easy. In fact, it's a very difficult book to give a book-talk on. {Smile}

The book begins in the rain on a street on a backwater planet named Auord. The avian alien 'Whix and his human partner are on a stakeout, watching a couple of members of the humanoid Clan, an alien race that doesn't belong to the Trade Pact like the humans, 'Whix's people, and most others they know of. While they are watching, the two Clan members - a man and a gal - are attacked by native Auordians. The attackers are killed, the man taken in for questioning... and the gal disappears in the confusion.

That's the prelude. Chapter 1 begins in a dirty back alley, where a single protagonist cannot remember a thing: not name, nor sex, nor whether the world existed five minutes before. Tho they do know they're on the planet Auord, because that pops up in odd compulsions telling this person to get off Auord and stay safe.

{pause} Describing what this character discovers later would ruin the sense of bewildered mystery at this point. I don't really want to do that, so this is as much as I can say about the story. {smile}

I can say one thing that won't spoil that feeling. I was particularly impressed with the way the aliens who turn up really feel alien. They don't feel like talking lions or Scots with funny hair; they feel like unique aliens. Yet there's more than one kind of alien like this; usually when I see aliens, they either correspond closely to not-so-alien people or creatures, or else there's only one other race. In this book we meet a few races well-enough developed, we realize they aren't something familiar pretending to be aliens. The closest to that would be 'Whix, who seems to be bird-like; yet he's not a raptor, nor a song bird, nor a chicken or a duck... he's a type of bird I've never heard of, and not just because he's as intelligent as a human. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a slim book I found in the children's section years ago. However, it's really a book for adults told in simple language that people still learning how to read English can handle. There's nothing to make you blanch if a kid does find it, but most kids will be bored by this simple, somewhat delicate tale. {Smile}

I recently reread it after recommending it to a friend of the family who's teaching "advanced beginners" English as a second language. She loves it, and so do her students. {Smile}

It is told from the view point of Anna, a girl who lives with her little brother, Caleb, and their Papa on a farm on rolling plains in inland America. (Their mother died just after Caleb was born.) However, it is really the story of Sarah, who answers a personal ad Papa put out when he decided he needed a wife. They each write to her, and she answers back. Then she comes to see what they and their home are like. She's from the coast of Maine. She finds that people talk funny, saying "yes" when they mean "ayup." Plus, there's no dunes, no sand, no shore, and no sea. Instead, there's lots of grass, and farm animals, and Anna and Caleb and their Papa. {pause} Sarah particularly misses the sea. Since the children really like her, they are afraid she will go back to Maine.

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Bees and books

The bees are back, unless they're still here. We suspect the latter. We only spotted them twice, but the second spotting involved three black bees who acted very much at home. {half-smile}

Moving to happier news, I recently finished A Thousand Words for Stranger. I liked it. That was an interesting complex of problems. Plus I liked seeing more than one alien who didn't seem like a copy of either an animal species or a human culture. {Smile} I'll have to start on the second book of the trilogy fairly soon. {Smile}

I also read Sarah Plain and Tall recently. A friend of the family was complaining about a lack of decent texts for her new class. When she said it was an English as a Second Language class, and they were "advanced beginners," I thought of Sarah immediately. It's easy reading, but it's really more interesting to adults than to children. {Smile} (No, there's nothing to make you blanch if a kid does find it. {GRIN}) Well, she said they loved it, and she clearly did, too. Then Dad decided to check it out, and he liked it. {SMILE} So of course I had to re-read it myself. {BIG SMILE}

I'll have to do proper reviews of those two books soon. Probably I'll put them up here later, as well as at the LiveJournal community Book Rec. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

No bees? {cross fingers}

The bees might have left. {cross fingers hopefully} I don't quite know why,
tho we suspect they prefer quarters that don't smell of wasp poison.

A day or two after I wrote about the termites and bees, I did spot another
bee at our woodpile. But that might be the last one we've seen. Mom has been
watching the woodpile from the laundry room every time she does the laundry,
and she hasn't spotted on in over a week. {hopeful smile}

Mom thinks they might have moved to a neighbor's unused woodpile. That's
just enough further away, we're very relieved. If the bees have really left,
we can now burn all the termite-y wood without getting stung. {SMILE}

Our carpenter bees really are quite gentle, but if they're ever going to
sting, it's when someone is trying to burn up their home. Hopefully, we
won't have to worry about that now. {Smile, cross fingers}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Anne's Links

I'm trying the new, expanded links-list Blogger just called to my attention. It looks useful. Now I can spot at a glance what's been updated, without clicking thru everything. {SMILE}

I'll try it a bit before deleting the old, plain list, but I think I like this new list better. {BIG SMILE}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Woodpile residents

We have a problem in our woodpile. It has termites. So we need to get rid of the whole thing, and it's pretty big. Mom and Dad decided that they don't want to throw it across the street into the swamp; it's far too close to our house. They don't want to take it all to the dump, either. The dump is across town, and the woodpile would be several loads worth. With gas already over $4 a gallon here, they'd rather avoid that if possible. {half-smile} They don't want to heat up the house by burning it in the inside fireplace; not in the summer heat. So Dad has begun burning the kindling in the little outside fireplace where the barbeques dinner at times. {smile}

There was just one problem: whenever he did that, he heard angry buzzing from a carpenter bee behind by the woodpile. One seemed to be living in the woodpile, and she didn't like us disturbing her nice home. They're generally gentle bees, but we're disturbing her home... Dad decided to kill her before she attacked us for disturbing her home. Besides, the hole one makes in wood to make a home is an excellent starting place for termites. It's too late for this woodpile, but we don't want too many around. {wry smile}

So anyway, Dad decided to get rid of the carpenter bee before he got to that part of the woodpile. He went out two evenings ago, and sprayed the hole he found in the end of one log. When we checked yesterday, we found more bees - at least two females and a male - and at least nine other holes. Dad went out last night, and sprayed all the holes he saw, using almost all the wasp killer we have.

We checked today. Mom saw one bee, then she saw two bees, both kind of going around behind something, like their holes were back where Dad hadn't looked. I only saw one bee doing that, but she swerved in about a foot away from me, doing a convincing enough portrayal of an angry bee to convince me to go back inside the house. I didn't want her to start bumping me aggressively, let alone stinging! They're big!

Now Dad is thinking about what to do next. I hope he thinks of something soon! {odd smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Reading snapshots

In The Lord of the Rings, Sam and Frodo are plodding thru Mordor. The water tastes pretty awful there, but at least it wets the throat. {smile}

Meanwhile, in A Thousand Words for Stranger, Sira, Barac, and Jason are busy trying to get out of the council's building and away from the Clan. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Blue Paisley picture

Well, I think it's time to try out the new picture mailing lists, including the one that refers to this blog. I thought I'd start with a picture of a mu'umu'u I made for myself I got it into wearable condition several years ago. I wasn't really happy with it until I tacked down enough of the lace to keep it from curling, and added a couple of lace medallions on the pockets. So it was completely finished after one I made in the meantime. {Smile}

This picture is of me wearing it when I was finally happy with how it looks. {SMILE} You might have to click on it to see the full picture; Blogger seems to like to cut off one edge. I do need to figure out how to deal with that. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Why do you write?

I don't know that I expect any answer but the one I give myself. {smile} However, I've been asking myself that a lot. I think the answer might be tied into my recent bout of writer's block. That's eased, but... I still need to work on it. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Reading and Writing

Sam and Frodo are having an awful lot of trouble with a humongous, hairy spider.

{Smile} Yes, my reading is coming along. It hasn't been going quickly, but it is progressing. {Smile}

{bite lips}

I just wish I could say the same for my writing. I got both moving nicely during Lent. Since then, the reading slowed, and the writing stalled pretty completely. {small smile} I'm going to have to figure out some way to break this bout of writer's block. {pause} I just wish I knew what would work. {smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin