Snow fell the last two days. Until then, our fall extended from early September to about Thanksgiving and our valley shimmered in gold: hills, grasses, wildflower seeds, leaves. A cold October short-circuited our usual yellows and oranges. Often aspen and cottonwood leaves turned brown from freezing temperatures and simply dropped off. Even today, the snow piles up on the wheat tops of Great Basin Rye and penstemon seed stalks. What an amazing world we live in.

I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful – an endless prospect of magic and wonder. Ansel Adams

MOONSCAPE, my newest Nellie Burns mystery, keeps my mind on Craters of the Moon. We visited Craters again in October and found gold among the lava there, too. We visited Lava Hot Springs, east of Pocatello, and enjoyed the fall road trip. Amber fields harvested of their crops paved our way through central Idaho. I gave a well-attended talk at the Hailey Public Library, and at a book club gathering at Mountain Humane (our no-kill animal shelter)—a great place to talk about Moonshine, Nellie’s black Lab dog. If you have read MOONSCAPE, or any of my other MOON books, and enjoyed them, please write a few review words on Amazon, Goodreads, B&N or Facebook. All reviews help a writer!  

Book News!

A new book is in the offing! Gerry and I are collaborating on a coffee table book about our travels a while ago in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. We visited national parks and monuments, small towns and desert areas. Gerry photographed along the way and I kept a journal. The Magical Universe of the Ancients: A Desert Journal is in process from Big Wood Books, a new imprint. The book showcases Gerry’s stunning photos. I fill the spaces in between with anecdotes and experiences, including blisters and cactus quill wounds, llamas and their idiosyncrasies, archaeological and cultural information on the peoples who once lived there, and I speculate on why they left their homes, along with meditations on life and death and the Universe. One of our guiding principles for this book rests on saving the wilderness, parks and monuments from the devastation being heaped upon them by the current administration. Here are a few of the photos to discover in the book: Because we’ve been working to get the Magical Universe out, my reading has not been  quite as prolific as usual—but here are some of my recommendations.

Reading:

• The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power. This memoir by an ambassador to the United Nations opened my eyes to the world of diplomacy in all its ups and downs and sideways. Well-written and fascinating.
• The Women of Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell reminded me so much of the long strike in Kellogg when I was a teenager and writing about it in my memoir of place. It is an in-depth tale of community, family, tragedy and heartbreak, but the women were so strong and determined.
• The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung presents a masterful story of mathematics and the difficulties of women scientists in a largely male world. But it does show that we shall overcome!
• The Secret Commonwealth by Phillip Pullman. Best read in a long time—since Dust. Now two of the second trilogy by Pullman are out. They are so worthwhile. A recent column in the NY Times quoted Pullman as saying he is still creating the third book in his head. This trilogy is a follow-on to His Dark Materials, which I enjoyed equally well.

These were the best for me this fall. Others included Water Dancer by Te-Nehisi Coates, No-No Boy by John Okada, A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott, and The Secrets We Kept by Lisa Prescott. Please share some of your favorite reads in the comments (using the little balloon at top)! I am always looking for recommendations. Be sure to look for Magical Universe sometime in the new year! Have a great rest of the fall. And join us on the slopes of Bald Mountain in Idaho! All photos by Gerry except the two of us. I don't know who took that one.