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Cynthia Kraack

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Tag Archives: Thinking Out Loud

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September Musings

Cynthia Kraack Posted on September 22, 2021 by Cynthia KraackSeptember 22, 2021

Sunrise is later and setting earlier. In the country farmers are busy harvesting, leaving enough behind to keep the blackbirds, sand cranes, seagulls, geese, and other birds picking through the stubble for food.

On the way to our neighbor’s farm stand to check on supplies and empty the cash box, I check on how red peppers have turned since picking ripe ones two days ago. A few butterflies twirl past, bees still visit the hydrangea at field’s edge and the Black-eyed Susan hold their own.

September is buzzing away as sprays of golden or red leaves announce. Seventy-five today feels warmer than a month ago, but we’re wearing shoes and long pants or shorts and sweatshirts in the mornings. The air feels quiet, not packed with potential. It is easier to look back at the good times of summer than forward at the diminishing weeks until winter.

Covid doesn’t help the slide. What seemed like the summer of returning normal has been anything but that. The reality that one in 500 Americans have died of Covid lays particularly heavy as the rules are tweaked, stubborn people hold on to their right to defy the scientists, doctors, and leaders. Do you see your grandchildren? Is the fall festival safe? And how will the holidays play out this year? How will we keep our family members alive and healthy? How far do washed hands and masks take us in protecting the young.

Arranging the stand’s products, remembering harvesting some of it during late June, and breathing in the September morning air makes for a good start.  In a month we’ll be walking in fallen leaves. Please live today with care for each other.

Posted in Blog, Seasons | Tagged Covid, Door County, Seasons, Thinking Out Loud | Leave a reply

Ken Follett, Jodi Picoult and Phillipa Gregory

Cynthia Kraack Posted on February 16, 2018 by Cynthia KraackFebruary 16, 2018

Under my desk a hardbound copy of Ken Follett’s Edge of Eternity acts as the perfect footrest. The first two volumes of The Century Trilogy were placed in the hands of other readers, but the Edge of Eternity replaced Bill Clinton’s My Life when a friend asked for that biography.

Jodi Picoult dominated one of the seven shelves of books in my office until some of her titles were rotated to guest rooms or the basement bookcase. Phillipa Gregory had been sent to my mother-in-law to be shared among her Indiana reading group.

Some authors are like Facebook friends who post about a puppy, a grandchild, a new writing project, a spectacular vacation then disappear for months. I trust a short list of these writers with my time and attention without a lot more expectations. When they have a new release I’ll invest in the real thing, a hardcover or paperback, not an e-book. If I’m disappointed I’ll give them another chance to regain their favorite reads position. And if one of them passes, I feel sad that their voice is gone.

At this time of the year when purging season is high I admit that books by these three have been shuffled into a bag for recycling at The Peninsula Bookman. Peter Sloma has customers who look for these popular names. It’s a fair trade. I get store credit to shop and my books go home with happy readers.

Except for Edge of Eternity, which is just the right height for when I’m sitting up straight and working on my own writing. It might be time for Fall of Giants to give up its shelf space, but not its nice hardbound friend under my feet.

Posted in Blog | Tagged Books, Door County, Thinking Out Loud | Leave a reply

Aldo Leopold Weekend

Cynthia Kraack Posted on March 4, 2017 by Cynthia KraackMarch 4, 2017

March 4, 2017, sixty-nine years after Aldo Leopold penned his final contribution to A Sand County Almanac, a marathon reading of his work begins in a small building called The Schoolhouse in the Clearings Folk School in Door County, Wisconsin. Pine trees can be seen through every window. A few birds flitter past during the ninety minutes. Eight inches of snow dumped during a nasty storm earlier in the week glistens outside with puddles beginning to form where the day’s sun and temps clear out cold stuff one more time. Leopold, the man known as the father of wildlife ecology, would appreciate the setting for this local event celebrating Aldo Leopold Weekend.

Young and old, writers and environmentalists, students and philanthropic retirees, wait their turn to read selected pieces. Everyone willingly hands their attention and time to listening one more time to Leopold’s insights about the ways of nature as highways and manufacturing were changing America in the 1930s and 40s. No one checks cell phones or watches. Stories about fishing, about birds, about snow melt, about prairie flowers lost to road construction written near The Shack in Baraboo, Wisconsin by a wise man. Humor, detailed description, a few lessons tucked into each about caring for the land because it is ours communally.

A Sand County Almanac would be a good read for any person who thinks about the land, or to nurture awareness of our environment. It could be a nice present for Ryan Zinke or even Mr. Trump, who might prefer the audio format.

 

 

Posted in Blog | Tagged A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, American culture, Door County, Finding readers, The Human Condition, Thinking Out Loud | Leave a reply

Winter Stillness

Cynthia Kraack Posted on January 12, 2017 by Cynthia KraackJanuary 12, 2017

Rabbit tracks are the only interruption of a stretch of yesterday’s snow stretching from my window to a neighbor’s stone garden walls. Lines of sparkling white rest on the bare tree branches that fracture a cloudless blue sky. Sunshine is decorative when the temperature stops climbing.

As a writing prompt snow has a lengthy positive playlist—a blanket hiding all that is gray, an invitation to be a child, flakes on lashes, a fairylike sparkling dust. And there are days when the snow prompt elicits other words—glaring cold hiding the garden’s green, icy curse on a safe journey, smothering the earth, driving animals further to find food, treacherous underfoot, frozen tundra, blinding, endless, isolating.

The newspapers this morning are filled with grave concerns about the future of our country. I am caught in an unhealthy ennui, held captive creatively, unable to find peaceful stillness. A sentence begins, crawls on screen, then my eyes return to the rabbit tracks on yesterday’s snow and wonder if the furry critter is nesting under the stones in my neighbor’s garden, what it eats in the winter, how badly the next four years might be. Will Minnesota Cold become my reality?

Mo Udall once said something like Reaganomics promised all people equal ice, but for the poor it would all come in the winter. And while our departing President challenges us to continue to hope, his words are tempered by the reality of the world where there is a whole lot of hostility and inequality.

If I wrote romances or mysteries instead of literary and speculative fiction, winter might be easier. Passion and puzzles sound like better mental escapes than thinking about emotional change or dystopia.

Posted in Blog | Tagged American culture, Inauguration, Minnesota Cold, President Obama, Thinking Out Loud, Winter | Leave a reply

Frightened Off Station Eleven

Cynthia Kraack Posted on November 8, 2015 by Cynthia KraackNovember 8, 2015

Following New Year’s celebrations in Door County, I celebrated by going to bed early and watching a movie. The next morning I woke up feverish, the first day of what would be a four-week journey through bacterial and viral mysteries. Maybe it was the flu. Maybe not.

“You know, if we were living a hundred and fifty years ago, I’d probably be dead,” I Paris museumdeclared deep into the second week when the unnamed illness turned into a sinus infection, an ear infection and swollen tonsils. My husband, who leans toward the “soldier on” philosophy of empathy, agreed and encouraged me to make a doctor appointment.

While sick I read my way through all the non-Ken Follett novels I had received as holiday gifts. Fever and a constant headache placed Follett’s thousand page volumes in the same category as learning a new language or understanding articles in The Economist. Marilynne Robinson, Maeve Binchy and Emma Straub filled my hours. Then I began Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven.

Back to that certainty that in the days before antibiotics, Tylenol and throat lozenges, I might have been a dead person. In the spirit of full disclosure, I think I told my husband if the crud took me in 2015, I wanted to be cremated.

IMG_0349In Door County, Wisconsin, where this story began, there is a joke that Peninsula State Park will one day be lined by memorial benches and ankle deep in the ashes of visitors and residents who cannot bear to spend eternity anywhere else.

I am perplexed about what is to be done with the ashes of loved ones. Urns behind glass in mausoleums give me an odd feeling. Urns on the bookshelves of friends make me wonder what happens when the Boomer generation passes and grandkids are left with an increasing number of urns holding their grandparents and their parents. I am aware of people carrying a small vial of a loved one’s ashes. My mother-in-law asked that hers be spread over her gardens. Four pounds of ash is not an insignificant amount of material.

With most of the world dying in Mandel’s book, the whole ashes disposal question is moot. When sick with the ever-changing illness, Station Eleven was not a good choice for passing the time. In the dark of my nights, Mandel’s quick killing Georgia flu seemed plausible. Two days and over two hundred pages into Station Eleven I closed my e-reader to ponder whether I would want to be a survivor of such a pandemic or die. After fifteen or thirty minutes of such wondering I knew I would not finish the book. Margaret Atwood, PD James, Cormac McCarthy and James Howard Kunstler have not bothered my sleep in worse times. But I wouldn’t sleep with Mandel’s story in my mind.

As a writer of speculative fiction, I’ve stewed for weeks about catastrophes that could alter the world. I write of things I fear might happen—nuclear missteps, military encounters, financial collapse, uncontrolled corporate growth. Mandel’s work is brilliant. Last week, fully healthy, I carried her book to the gym, set the elliptical machine on thirty minutes and read another forty pages. Over the next days I managed another forty. Close to the end, I walked away once more. To finish the book would be worse than my decision to watch Contagion while flying home from Paris. This year I’m piling up magazines, chick lit and historical fiction in case my flu shot is ineffective. Nothing stronger.

Posted in Blog | Tagged cremation, Emily St. John Mandel, Emma Straub, Fear of being ill, James Howard Kunstler, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, Minnesota Cold, Station Eleven, Thinking Out Loud | Leave a reply

Why Buy That Book?

Cynthia Kraack Posted on March 5, 2015 by Cynthia KraackMarch 8, 2015

With hundreds of thousands of new book titles released every year, the possibility of making a good choice to read on that next plane ride is a crapshoot. Back cover blurbs can be asBookshelf transparent as real estate listings. Does a 1912 love story gone bad really deserve a historical novel classification? What are the risks of purchasing a debut mystery? What exactly does feminist mean in describing an author? How much subject information does a true biography require?

Our book club just finished a five hundred and eighty-six page novel that promised one thing and delivered a whole different story that none of us found enjoyable. After a brief discussion about why we were disappointed our talk turned to flawed character development, ponderous pacing and a weak ending. Finally we shared our experiences with making book choices. We’re all frugal individuals and avid readers, but all of us had set aside at least one title in the past two months, often on a pile of others that failed to deliver on their marketing buzz. Of course, some of those titles are in our cloud book piles eating up digital storage space instead of shelves and floors.

How to avoid that experience? Some book buyers rely on the recommendations of friends. Others go to social media for input. Independent booksellers know their stock and enjoy talking with buyers. Small publishers often have honest back blurbs known to those who favor certain niches. Reading reviews from more than one source can reveal delicious or unpleasant facts. With a smartphone, even airport buyers have access to information beyond the back cover.

You could choose to stick with a short list of favorite authors and selectively pick your way through similar writers. Even that approach will land a few stinkers. I know people who buy many 99-cent ebooks hoping at least one will be a find.

Busy lives, crowded airplanes, too few beach vacation days mean wrong choices waste something often more valuable than the book’s purchase price–time when we could have been enjoying a good read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Blog | Tagged Book Club, Books, Thinking Out Loud | 28 Replies

Writing Retreat #1

Cynthia Kraack Posted on September 6, 2014 by Cynthia KraackSeptember 6, 2014

For most of my adult life packing a suitcase, briefcase and computer bag for a business trip would be called work. So why is it easier to characterize packing a suitcase, briefcase and computer bag to go work on an unfinished novel a writing retreat?

There are obvious differences: This is my schedule and my decision.011 There will be no paycheck arriving while I am away. Except for revisions on a different manuscript sent to my publisher on the second day and a few meetings, no one is waiting somewhere for this piece of work.

The real issue may be that in American culture there is discomfort sharing the label of work with purely artistic efforts. If I were completing scripts for a client’s videos, others would say I went away to concentrate on a work project. If I planned to develop new curriculum for a college course that would be understandable. But to the majority of Americans who work regular hours doing tasks people recognize, finishing a novel that might not find a publisher or be published is different. In fact,it is necessary time away to catch up on work that has become increasingly more disorganized while satisfying other demands. Some might say it is a bit indulgent. More a retreat than a work trip.

It’s all semantics. Embracing the retreat concept, I’m building in IMG_0855time to read, visit with other writers, take walks, and get some extra rest. I’ll miss the daily presence of family and friends, a few social events, the convenience of my regular home and routine. Unlike vacation time, I have an assignment to return home with a three hundred page manuscript ready to market to agents and publishers. And that sounds like work. Work I’m thrilled to have this time to complete.

 

Posted in Blog | Tagged #MyWritingProcess, American culture, Nature of Work, Planning, Thinking Out Loud, writing work | Leave a reply

The Night Before the Book Launch

Cynthia Kraack Posted on July 14, 2014 by Cynthia KraackJuly 14, 2014

Twas the night before the book launch, when all through the house

All the creatures were stirring, except there’s no mouse.

The clothes are all hung in the closet with care,

In hopes that they’ll fit and no one will stare.

 

The husband is nestled all snug in his chair

Watching a home run derby that isn’t there.

And Rocky with his chew bone and me with my book

Have just settled in to have one last look.

 

When out in the Twitter world there rose such chatter,

About Cynthia Kraack at Magers and Quinn. Such clatter.

Down to the basement I flew like a flash,

Practiced once again, swore to make it a smash.

Reality Rings 

Enough fun with words. I should be practicing the readings from Leaving Ashwood one more time. Book and notes on a music stand with the timer on my phone tearing through seconds and minutes. The fourth launch will be totally different than any of the others. For one thing, this book is being launched in Minneapolis, not St. Paul, and on the same night as the MLB All Star Game which starts at the exact same time as my reading. Strike six friends who have tickets to the bigger show.

As a writer you have to hope there will be another book to launch. Maybe that was part of the reason behind selling your publisher on a trilogy. But there are no guarantees in the arts. While my next book will be released early in 2015, I’m going with an indie publisher. I expect the experience will be different.

So we’re partying July 15 at Magers and Quinn with a guest reader and music by The Patience Band. Steve McEllistrem is playing hooky from KFAI Write On! Radio to read from his new book. Speculative fiction meets dystopian fiction with musical accompaniment.

If only I say “incantation” and not “incineration” in the last reading. One more practice.

Posted in Blog | Tagged Ashwood Trilogy, Family, Friends, Leaving Ashwood, Thinking Out Loud, writing work | Leave a reply

Speechless in Snow

Cynthia Kraack Posted on February 21, 2014 by Cynthia KraackJune 16, 2014

Snow is piled higher than my shoulders along our front walk. The seven-foot wide path has shrunk by almost half. Ten more inches of snow need to be moved. With a husband hobbling about on crutches, the shovel is all mine.

This front walk had been mine to shovel for decades as his workweek typically started on an airplane versus city streets. The key word in that sentence is ‘decades’ because the twenty-something who moved into this house now has a thirty-something daughter and a month-old grandchild. Sure I lift weights and work out with a trainer, but for some loftier purpose than flinging concrete snow on a dark February night.

 Not one neighbor was out this morning as I took my third swipe at the job. Minnesota has more snow than Sochi and a whole lot less reason to horde the stuff. A tree branch cracked then fell across the street. I returned to the garage for a different shovel, a lifter versus pusher. In the still dark hour the trees, branches covered by ice and snow, move with the same wind that is blowing snow back on the partially cleared walk. They creak and groan. Like I will later this day.

YouTube has 7,880 videos on snow shoveling technique. If the sight of new snow on the walk with banks piled higher than my shoulders brings uncivilized words to mind, the very thought that almost eight thousand people have taken the time to shoot a little video about shoveling leaves me speechless.

 

 

Posted in Blog | Tagged Family, The Human Condition, Thinking Out Loud | Leave a reply

From a Hospital Room

Cynthia Kraack Posted on February 14, 2014 by Cynthia KraackFebruary 14, 2014

The view from a hospital room is always the same—a bright spot suggesting that everyone else is moving along on a normal day while your world has become different. The next fifteen minutes, two hours, full day are controlled by virtual strangers speaking the same language, but with meanings you can’t decipher owning a layperson’s knowledge.

You wait in hospitals. Noon is a relative term for something that will happen in the early afternoon. There’s a reason for jokes about ‘hospital time’ as those inside reread the morning paper, watch home remodeling shows, drink coffee or ice water out of Styrofoam cups. Just like the cable guy might get hung up on the appointment before yours and blow through your afternoon, the doctors have patients with conditions that demand unexpected time. Except you aren’t sitting on a hard gurney wearing a loose short gown tied in the back over a bare bum as the cable guy adjusts someone else’s wires. You can talk on the phone, eat a sandwich, dig in the garden. Compared to a hospital, you have incredible freedom waiting at home for a repairperson.

There is fear in hospitals, or at least apprehension. Will the kidney stone have to be surgically removed? Will meds reduce fluid accumulation? Are the migraines caused by a mass where it shouldn’t be? The staff is busy. Machines beep. Monitors squawk. Nobody runs in with comforting words. They’ve seen it before and know everything will be okay. Or not.

Miracles and mistakes all happen in hospitals. Babies respond well to strong antibiotics. Old people have their systems brought back to stability. Surgery makes pain disappear. Infections develop that resist treatment. A procedure minimizes one discomfort while creating another.

Loved ones are trapped in a time warp between the outside world and hospital. They mix work and worry. They skip breakfast to be in a parent’s room when the doctor rounds at six in the morning, carry in lunch around mid-day for a specialist’s visit and check on progress before heading home too drained to answer family’s phone calls, shop for groceries or rest. They ask for more specific information about discharge times and hope a boss will remain understanding.

Whether patient or caregiver, urban or suburban, traditional or holistic, patient-centered or teaching center, the view from a hospital room is always the same—a bright spot that suggests everyone else is moving along on a normal day while your world has become something different.

Posted in Blog | Tagged Family, Friends, The World, Thinking Out Loud | Leave a reply

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