Color My Garden

I like color in my garden–red, purple, blue, some orange. Vibrant. Brilliant. Butterfly- and hummingbird-attracting. Bees, too. So, this year in my new, evolving garden I tried something different. I sowed Flanders poppies all over, along with

some red clover, the latter better as a cover crop, but pretty. It’s gone now, but the poppies are still blooming. Some orange California poppies were already there, and I added some yellow and red Gaillardia (Blanket flower). The purples are yet to come. I bought the seed in bulk, and I can admit now that I probably got carried away. But they’re beautiful, especially as the morning light shines through their almost translucent papery petals. People stop their cars and take pictures.  They’ll soon be gone, and the lavender and Santolina they’ve been smothering will

now begin to thrive. Some folks consider the California poppies invasive or a nuisance–I guess they can be, depending upon where they are. But I love ‘em. When they’re finished blooming, and after they self-seed, I simply pull the plants out. I met my first Gaillardia about ten years ago in a school garden. The colors practically leaped out of the bed. Finally, I found a source for the plants and am happy to report that there is also now a Gaillardia “Burgundy” which is taller and solid red. Butterflies love all these plants because their blooms are “open,” allowing the butterflies a place to stand while they slurp up the nectar with their proboscis. Speaking of which, my new children’s gardening book, The Dead Butterflies Diary, will be out next month. Betsy finds dead butterflies in the garden and investigates how it happened and who did it. This is the third in my “circle” of kid gardening books with a plot. It joins Mrs. Feeny and the Grubby Garden Gang and Zack’s Zany Zucchiniland, both of which are ebooks for $3.99. All are 8×10″ picture books for kids about 5-10 years old. Dead Butterflies will eventually become an ebook as well. Betsy cares as much about butterflies as I do. That’s why she was determined to find out how they were killed. You, too, can plant a butterfly garden, even a small plot or one in a container. Just plant butterflies’ favorite flowers and they will come: daisies, coneflowers, butterfly bush, cosmos, alyssum, nasturtium, zinnias, marigolds, thyme, yarrow, verbenas, dianthus, asters, lilacs, lobelia, and so many more. Butterflies add beauty to the garden, and they’re pollinators, too.

Kindle Prices: To Reduce or Not?

Yup, I did it–reduced the Kindle prices on two of my books. It’s an issue we authors discuss quite frequently: maintain the price at basic retail value or reduce the price in the hope of selling millions? If only. The Kindle prices of Mrs. Feeny and the Grubby Garden Gang and The Tehran Triangle were  $9.99. Mrs. Feeny is now $3.99 and TTT now $2.99, both available on amazon.com. Bargain prices for two very good reads.  What amazes me are the color and resolution of Mrs. Feeny on an e-reader–so much improved over just a couple years ago. Many children’s picture books are now available as ebooks. That’s good. I usually prefer and recommend old fashioned print books, but for kids, I’d rather have them read a good ebook than not at all. Children spend too many hours in front of the TV or on the computer. If you feel they’re comfortable with the screen, send an ebook their way for a change. Some of my writer friends offer their ebooks at 99¢ and do sell many thousands. Volume over value, I guess. I’m not there yet. I myself have read about six Kindle books now, mostly at night in a darkened bedroom when my other half is sound asleep. You cannot beat a Kindle or other e-reader for reading in the dark–back-lit and no noisy page-turning! Soooo, alert all your friends that the prices of these two books have been greatly reduced from their former $9.99. Reasonable prices for a couple of great reads, one for kids 5-9 and the other for mature readers.

Spring in Sonoma County

This is what we all wait for, through the frosty mornings, the driving rains, the frozen birdbaths, the January false spring–real Spring. I think it’s here, though I don’t quite trust it, nor do the grape growers. April always fools us, and in our euphoria over wonderfully warm weather, we rush outside to plant flowers. Kaboom! comes a hard frost and our tiny plants are

Cercis occidentalis, Redbud, CA native.

knocked out by the cold or the new young buds on the grapevines are tinged with a touch of Ol’ Man Frost–that is, unless the vineyard manager paid attention to the weather report and ran the sprinklers all night. Or, we prune our perennials too early, and the frost burns away the new growth. But the Redbud has no such cares. It knows when to bud and bloom. A California native, Redbud hangs out along the creeks, up on the hillsides, and in local gardens. It lights up all the young new greens around it, grateful for the brilliance among them. Soon its heart-shaped leaves will emerge, pushing off the blooms, and it will stand unnoticed until fall when it sheds its leaves to expose the multitudes of flat brown pods that rattle in the winter winds. As if the brilliant Redbud’s magenta weren’t enough, yellow fields glow as far as

Wild mustard.

the eyes can see. The wild mustard’s in bloom, carpeting the fields, the hillocks, and rows between the grapevines. To farmers, it’s silage for their cows. To growers, it’s nitrogen when rototilled into the earth, and to us voyeurs, it’s eye-candy and a welcome sign of Spring in Sonoma County. In just a few weeks, planting time will truly be upon us. Roses will begin to pop with their amazing Spring flush; we will put new plants in the ground, hoping for another good rain or two, please, before our annual six months of drought sets in. Yes, it’s true–six months of on-and-off rain and six months of drought, just like in the Mediterranean area–and gardening twelve months a year. Really. There is always something to be done. Yes, even in December and January–’cause that’s when we begin pruning the roses and fruit trees. Backwards? No, just Sonoma County!

Pinned, Linked, Facebooked, Blogged, and Twittered!

Who knew? Are these verbs? Adjectives? They sound suggestive, racy. All I know is that I do these almost daily and have been advised to do even more. It’s difficult to keep up. I follow and thank people for following and friending. Do I thank people for retweeting and

Board sign for Books & Writing on Pinterest.

repinning? And do they thank me back for thanking them? I post, I tweet, I pin, I blog. Writers know exactly what I’m doing, but other friends think I’ve lost it. Why, they ask? Well, I’m building my platform. Umm, your what? My platform. I’m establishing myself in the writing and publishing worlds, creating a credible me. The more followers I have and the more books I sell, the more agents will come banging on my door to represent me to publishers who will want to snap up my manuscripts. I have wonderful, friendly, supportive followers and tweeps but the numbers are pitiful. Some have 15,000, 20,000. I have a couple hundred. How does one keep up with 15,000 friends? I could friend 15,000 people, but would they friend me back? Then I could show agents that my platform rocks. So, you can help by repinning me at http://pinterest.com/writersandy/. You can Facebook me at sandybakerwriter and Tweet me using sandybaker131. There must be hundreds of Sandy Bakers in this world, so this might not be easy. But keep trying ’til you find me. After all, building one’s platform is all-important and I’d like to raise my pathetic and pitiful numbers to more impressive ones. Friend and follow me, tweet and repin me! I’ll thank you and do the same. Really. (I can’t believe I’m using these words!) www.sandybakerwriter.com.

Poem for Valentine’s

For at least two years, I’ve been working on a collection of poetry for teens. It’s about all the teens I’ve ever known, raised, or been. I’ve titled the not-yet-published collection Teendom and Other Stark Realities. One of these days, it may even be in bookstores and not just in my computer’s memory! Here’s a poem in honor of Valentine’s Day and teen girls.

Clandestiny

Ever creeping, clandestinely behind my back,

Softly, secretly seeping by osmosis, into my skin,

catching me unaware, offering no clue,

forcing me to sometimes stare, wondering what and why.

No obvious evidence at all from him,

except for somehow keeping tension high between us.

There are days when energy pours out my pores,

other days of puzzling laziness,

lax and limp, lying down, berated by my mom,

who says to me: ”Hormones,  pheromones!”

I’m not sleeping well, all senses tense and vigilant,

instead, tossing, turning, sometimes weeping,

except one misty morning, leaping out of bed,

I greet the day, lest it take me by surprise:

it hits me right between the eyes,

and now I know…

It’s simple: I’ve fallen for the guy!

Sandy Baker ©2010

From Bare Root to Fruit

Here in Sonoma County CA, January is the time to plant bare root fruit trees. I didn’t understand that concept at first. OMG, they’re dead, or if they’re not, they will be. Not dead, but dormant. Sleeping. Taking a break,

My future Babcock peach tree.

so it doesn’t matter if the roots are bare. Now I understand. I live in an old house (new to me) in an old neighborhood. Our place was a virtual Secret Garden–ivy, wisteria, morning glories climbing all over the house and six-foot brick walls, creaking wooden gates, unidentifiable shrubs and plants, brick pathways, fountain, leaf-filled pond, an overgrown obscured path to a hidden back gate. From “Oh, the joy of having my own secret garden” to “Oh, the work,” I’ve supervised the removal of nine truckloads of brush, weeds, tree limbs, and other yard waste. And snails! Tens of 100s. I removed a hedge of Simplicity roses and replaced them with 26 nursery gallons of upright rosemary–electric blue, aromatic, and drought tolerant. I love the blue, the texture, the fragrance, and their water frugality–we’re still on a well in town, surprisingly. Getting back to the bare root fruit trees, I’m putting in two, a dwarf Gala apple and dwarf white Babcock peach. That’s all we need on our smaller town lot. Out go more roses to make room for the fruit trees. They’ll be sitting about 10 feet from the sidewalk behind the low rosemary hedge. It’ll be a couple years before they fruit, but I’ve learned to be patient. The two whips of 6′ trees

My future Gala apples

look rather pathetic right now, but they’re gonna look worse and the neighbors will certainly inquire: I will prune them down to about 24″, paint the short sticks white, and then plant them in full sun, in a mound of rich soil and compost with an irrigation moat all around.  This will ensure low scaffold branching, reachable fruit, and dwarf stature. Once they get going, the little trees will be very happy, and so will I when I see those first low branches appear! And then the fruit. The photos are our future fruit. In the meantime, the fruit trees are little white sticks. Will keep you posted.

THE NEXT BIG THING: Tehran Revenge

The “Next Big One” has always referred to the anticipated BIG earthquake in California. Here we’re talking about a novel way for authors to share themselves and their later writings with you. My writer friend and ex-law enforcement officer Thonie Hevron, who always tells it like it is, tagged me for The Next Big Thing blog chain. I read and enjoyed Thonie’s first novel, By Force or Fear. It’s action-packed, authentic, and the characters ring true. You can find her at http://thoniehevron.wordpress.com. Thonie and I are co-chairing the next Redwood Writers’ conference in April 2014. (For us, it’s a “next big thing,” too!) She writes and publishes short stories when she isn’t working on her new novel or taking care of Redwood Writer business.

A BLOG INTERVIEW OF SANDY BAKER

What is the working title of your new book? So far, my working title is Tehran Revenge. Is it the CIA operative’s revenge against Tehran or just the reverse?

Where did the idea come from for the book? Last year with Tom Reed, I co-wrote The Tehran Triangle, an international thriller with a nuclear countdown component that challenges our kick-butt female CIA agent right up to the last moment. Readers have been clamoring to find out what happens with Elizabeth Mallory. I decided to work on the sequel–with Reed’s blessing. The Tehran Triangle posed questions. Perhaps Tehran Revenge will tie up some loose ends. Think: What if?

What genre does your book fall under? Tehran Revenge is a work of fiction peppered with facts and a lot of speculation. It might be called an intrigue, an espionage novel, or again, an international thriller. It’s very current.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? This is such a great question, because I really did, in fact, think of certain actors as I was writing, though the characters themselves are pure fabrication. And of course in Tehran Revenge, many of them are holdovers from The Tehran Triangle. CIA agent Elizabeth Mallory could be played by a blonde Angelia Jolie whom I’ve seen be sweet, romantic, kind, threatening, and tough. Perfect! Or, Jessica Chastain could do it in a minute! The ol’ New Mexico cowboy Justin “Bum” Bradley (and Mallory’s love) could be played by Kevin Costner–the age difference is right (with a touch more gray), and he looks real good wearing boots and hat on a horse. The evil Iranian Col. Gharabaghi is no longer with us in Tehran Revenge, but he could well have been played by Marshall Manesh. And for CIA agent Miguel Acuña, who will have a much larger role in the sequel, I want either Javier Bardem or Benicio del Toro for that part. Think: mean, smart, tough, romantic, crafty, and elegant. Whoo, whoo.

What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book? CIA agents Elizabeth Mallory and Miguel Acuña team up to foil cyber terrorists from Iran.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I plan to self-publish through my indie publishing company Black Garnet Press.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Good question! I wrote the first half during November in NaNoWriMo. It’ll probably take me another 6-8 months to finish up with possible publication in early 2014.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Many readers have said that The Tehran Triangle reminded them of Tom Clancy’s books because ours was similarly historically and technically detailed. Tehran Revenge will not be as detailed, so perhaps it’ll be more like books by Daniel Silva or Robert Ludlum.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Tehran Revenge takes place in today’s world, in Langley VA and Tehran, Iran. Cyber terrorism is here with us as the next challenge in the real world of international political chess. Do sparks fly? Yeah, but which way? We worry if our security people can detect a cyber attack, can they thwart it? Multilingual Mallory is 40 and still on top of her game at the CIA as she teams up with her savior from The Tehran Triangle to foil the cyber plot they inadvertently discover. Think: What if?

In case you’re not into real-time political thrillers, you could always switch to my kid gardening books:

Both are 32-page, 8×10″ hardbound picture books for kids about 5-9 years old. Not teachy-preachy, but kid gardening books with a plot. On Amazon.com and my website.
And the Blog Chain marches on! Arletta Dawdy was always an avid reader growing up but an exceptionally reluctant writer. My how that has changed over the years! She writes from Northern California, but her heart is in the 19th century American West. When immersed in the stories of strong, independent women, she has been known to get lost in their adventures. Arletta’s past social work with girls’ street gangs in San Francisco provides the material for multi-layered characters. Her extensive travels in the Southwest add authenticity to the settings. HUACHUCA WOMAN and BY GRACE are the first two books in the loosely connected Huachuca Trilogy. She is currently at work on ROSE OF SHARON. Catch up with Arletta on her website and blog at www.arlettadawdy.com.