Dear Cowgirls and Friends,

The newsletter that I intended to be for July turned into the August issue. I started this one in Mid-August, hoping to be on time for early- to mid-September, but life had other ideas. One of these months I'll manage to be right on time. Or is that write on time? Even though I run late, I know that I'm doing everything I can to make time for my writing, not just find it, and the result is that my writing keeps happening, keeps growing.

Life would be simpler if we could just pick up a bottle of time at the corner store!

Making Time

It's back-to-school time for some of us or our kids, harvest time for some of us, but the write time for all of us. Don't just try to find time. You're as unlikely to find the time you need as you are to find a $100 bill under a bush. You have to make time, make it happen.

What is taking up your time that is really more important than writing? (I gave up television years ago to have more writing time, and even gave up part of my reading time.) Can you streamline it or cut some corners or redistribute some chores? Can you incorporate some writing into things you are already doing? For example, if you do volunteer work, volunteer on the information or PR side of things. Any good writing you can do will help you be a better writer. If it is important to you, make it happen.

If you can carve out fifteen or twenty minutes, set a timer and do a write that starts with "I want to write…" Clarifying and solidifying your writing desires may help you come up with the motivation to make that time. You vision is depending on you.

Time of the Season

The wheat is ripening all around our place right now (letter begun in mid-August), though by the time you get this the combines and gleaners will have done their work. It is amazing to see what the big machines can do on these sidehills. They'll lumber up and down the road like prehistoric beasts for a few weeks, doing their part in feeding the multitudes. It's kind of an exciting time (unless the weather does something awful), though dusty, but people gotta eat and the Palouse is both an important combination major "noodle-bowl" and "bread basket" and the "pea and lentil capital of the world."

Right now though, I live surrounded by a sea of rippling gold. Visually, wheat is the prettiest of the crops we've had surround us, though the farmer's never put in rape-seed (canola), which blooms a light vivid yellow in early summer. I hope it's a good harvest for the farmers (and the millions they will feed). We've had more rain than usual, which is great for the gardeners but not always so good for the grain growers, but it still looks pretty good around us so far. Better to have some rain though, if we're going to get the lightning.

Wild mountain huckleberries

Summer fades as the harvest picks up speed. What are you harvesting in your life? (One of my best harvests last month was huckleberries… the berries themselves and the special peace of being up in the mountains.) What last bits of summer do you cling to or try to squeeze in as everything speeds on towards fall? Take it for a write. Here are some late summer words to help you get going.

sunflowers  warm  dusty  gather  abundance pesto  linger  farmer  glean  swim  bucket  river  pump  asters  blackberries  basket  field  wheat  lightning  lazy  truck  grasshoppers  sting  reap  storm  bale  boat  harvest  haze  tomato  busy  gazpacho  bee  school honey  barbecue  garlic  ripening  focaccia  worry  golden

Take a word or two or three out for a spin. Now consider seasonal complications or conflicts. Can you get up a good argument about how to spend the last weekend of summer? Is harvest equipment broken down with a storm (or worse, a fire) on the way? Will the last heat wave of summer drive someone to a breaking point? All complications don't need to be seasonal, but it's good practice to write some that are. Writing that ignores seasonal moods and changes doesn't ring as deep or true, so come up with a seasonal monkey-wrench, add a sprinkle of words, and take another write.

If your focus leans more towards memoir, see if any of these words key in with any memories or thoughts (whether directly or metaphorically) and think about what kinds of crises or friction you or your family experienced at this time of year. Even a pleasant memoir needs a bee sting or wet-night-in-camp or argument or something now and then, or the readers will fall asleep. This exercise needn't be just for fiction writers.

"Squash" by Kathy Middlebrook

Squash To Swoon Over

Now for a recipe that makes good use of a lovely and underappreciated seasonal vegetable, yellow summer squash. Bumpy or smooth, crook-necked or straight, this versatile vegetable is best when purchased close to the source, in season. This is a delicious way to try it. If you use fat-free sour cream, which works fine in this recipe, you can afford to use some butter and/or olive oil for the topping, even if you are watching fats. You can prepare the two parts the night or morning before, if that's handier for you, and refrigerate separately until time to bake. Add a few minutes to the bake time if starting with cold components.

Early September harvest from our garden includes lovely yellow crookneck squash.

This is delicious if you grow yellow squash or can get it from a farmer's market, and even supermarkets often have good summer squash reasonably priced this time of year. Some people who think they don't like yellow squash might like this, and people who do like yellow squash (like a Cajun friend who was over for supper last time we had it) will swoon. If you suncook, this one can work well in solar, though if you want a little crisp to the top you might have to slide it briefly under a broiler in the house, but it's yummy even with the topping soft. I hope my next flush of yellow squashes get bigger soon!

Site News

If you haven't been to the site in a while, the tour of my unique camp-trailer-turned-writing-studio is now up in Sharon's Pages, and the first two About pages are up. Poetry is going up within the next few days, and Writers' Links are coming soon (if you have a website you would like included and you didn't already give me your card at Skidmore or don't see yourself on the list once it's up, email me with your url). Writing for Dollars and Writers' Kitchen are queued up after that. We'll get it all up yet!

I've also added a banner in the left-hand margin for The Art of Original Thinking, by Jan Phillips, which has my vote for best common consciousness book of the decade. The more people read this book, the better off the world will be. You can order it online or (better yet) through your independent bookstore, and last I checked Jan is offering a free download of the e-book version on her website, where you can also learn about her workshops and other books, CDs, etc. Sometimes she does buy-one-get-one-free on the website, which is very nice if you want to give them away. If you visit the website, I recommend you sign up for Jan's inspiring Museletter.

Best Bet: "Worst Mistakes…"

I downloaded one of the "33 Worst Mistakes…" series e-books from the Holly Shop, and once again I am pleased with my purchase. Since my dream novel series (science fiction but on an earth-like frontier planet, so really SF/frontier/western… with eco-heroes and a great blend of high and low tech) involves horses and riding horses in a number of scenes, I ordered The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Horses, by Sue L. Huffman. I like the format, and I think Sue did a good job. The practical approach enlivened by touches of humor combined to cover considerable ground, efficiently and enjoyably. There are many books in this series, with more on the way. Personally, if I were planning any sort of story involving something I didn't know much about that is covered in that series, I would get the relevant book. This series is an excellent idea, and I'm happy to see it grow. The latest addition, The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Russia, looks intriguing.

Contest Opportunity: THE PLAN

I've got a free contest opportunity for those of you who would like an extra writing challenge. The deadline is the end of the month, so you'll have to whip out your creativity and get to it (sorry, I meant to get this to you sooner, but a massive, long DSL outage up here in the middle of getting ready for my biggest solar cooking demo of the year interfered). Here are some basic details provided by On the Premises:

THE PLAN

One or more characters have a plan. They think it's a good plan. Are they right? That's up to you, but whether the plan is brilliant, stupid, or anywhere in-between, something goes terribly wrong when the characters try to execute it.

Your challenge: In at least 1,000 but no more than 5,000 words, write a creative, compelling, and well-crafted story that clearly uses the premise. If you have questions, ask us at Questions@OnThePremises.com.

First prize is $140. and there are other prizes, too. If you are idea challenged, themed or prompted contests are very good for stretching your abilities, especially if you start by freewriting the prompt/theme, allowing yourself lots of freedom to explore what-ifs and either-ors. At least they give you a starting place. Once you have an idea you think works, try some version of cluster/bubble/mind-mapping to pull together parts and clarify important details and connections. For more information, go to http://www.onthepremises.com/ You can sign up for emails to let you know when they have new contests, etc., so you'll hear about them right away instead of last-minute from me. Let me know if you enter and win or place and I'll congratulate you in the newsletter!

Take a Write Outside

From Elizabeth's Back Porch

Go for a write outdoors while the weather is still good. If you're urban, head for a nice park or garden or courtyard; if rural, you probably have some favorite spots. I had a lovely write last Monday on my friend Elizabeth's back porch, which overlooks Santa Creek and the steep, wild slope on the other side. I've seen deer a few times from Elizabeth's porch, and wild turkey. She's gotten to watch a cougar at least once. I kept hoping on Monday that one would appear high up the other-side slope (which is not that far as the crow flies—it's a steep slope). That would be a lovely, relaxed distance from which to observe a cougar in the wild, not to mention with the solidest cabin I know at my back. No cougars this time, but it was a great mountain write. So take a write somewhere out in nature's cathedrals. If you can't think what else to write, describe the scene—closely, broadly, wildly, precisely, literally, metaphorically. If you want a challenge, write the light.

If you enjoy this newsletter and the Write 'em Cowgirls website, please tell other writing friends about them. Until next time, take lots of care and write on. Your vision is depending on you. Best Regards, Sharon

P.S.  My Creativity Kudos for great reads over the last month or so go to Larry Niven for Destiny's Road (which my son gave me for my 57th birthday last month) and Robert Silverberg for Hot Sky at Midnight (I love that title). Wow. I just marvel at the ideas people come up with (even myself, now and then). I read Peach Blossom Pavilion by MingMei Yip again, because I'm getting ready to review it, and I am more impressed than ever. It engaged me just as much the second time around, with the added fondness of favorite scenes or lines coming round again. Go Mingmei! Can't wait for the new novel next spring!