How to Have an Argument

I’ve been re-reading the Lane Winslow series by Iona Whishaw. It’s a delightful series about a former British spy who settles in a tiny community in British Columbia to escape her wartime memories. As in every small town mystery series, the idyllic peace is regularly disturbed by the appearance of a dead body.

There are quirky characters, exuberant children, interesting back stories and, eventually, a cheerful puppy. There’s a romance that takes several books to begin to flourish. And, of course, in each book there is a mystery to solve, almost always relating back to some event or events from WWII.

Like all well-written books, the stories make important points: war is devastating, even to those who survive it; suspicion and hatred of a person or people because of the color of their skin or nation of origin is poisonous to the hater as well as the hated; no person should be relegated to a specific role based on gender; blaming groups of people for our troubles because of their                                        (fill in the blank with appearance, faith, political beliefs, sexual orientation, etc.) is a waste of time—bad things happen due bad luck, bad politics, bad personal decisions (our own or another’s) or some combination thereof, and fixating on blame just keeps us from focusing on potential solutions.

But mostly the stories are a pleasant escape.

Normally, I read a chapter or two of whatever book I’m enjoying at the time, before nodding off. If it’s a really, really good book that I’m reading for the first time, I may stay up late because I just can’t wait to find out what happens next. For my re-reads, however, I already know “what happens next,” and reading is just a way to slow down in preparation for sleeping.

(By the way, if you’re looking for your next good read, check out the recommendations on my newly refurbished goodreads Author Page.)

But lately I’m staying up late and then waking at 3:00 am wondering if it’s too early to get my first cup of coffee and dive back into whichever book I’m currently re-reading.

This is not healthy.

So why do I find myself obsessing over the process of marching through the Iona Whishaw series?

The answer, I think, is clear from my description a few paragraphs ago: these books are a pleasant escape.

I’m hiding out, escaping from the headlines and social media that scream fear and vitriol.

Fair warning: this newsletter is long, and about to get political. The political arena feels all consuming in 2025, and I’m trying, like everyone else, to figure out how to navigate this brave new world. The uncertainty is exhausting: tariffs are on, then they’re off; the federal workforce is being drastically downsized, or not; courts have stopped the spending freeze, but the government is ignoring the court order . . . . You’re living in the same world, so you know whereof I speak. If you’d prefer to just enjoy my recommendation of the Iona Whishaw series and leave it at that, you can stop reading here. Next month’s newsletter will be back to news about Two Over Easy All Day Long, including an upcoming giveaway, and more lighthearted ponderings.

I think it’s okay, for a while, to escape into the little pleasures life offers (at least, if you can, if you haven’t just lost your job, been deported, lost funding for your research, etc.). To simply be.

But for me at least, eventually I’ll have to re-engage. This is life, and I have a responsibility to be part of it.

If you are a person of my political proclivities, that means seeking out those in my community who are being hurt by current political actions, and doing what I can to alleviate their pain. And reaching out to my elected representatives to voice my opinions about new and proposed policies. I know I will find others walking that path beside me, including some who are, surprisingly, not of my “political proclivities” on all issues.

But here’s the part I’m assiduously hiding from: “engaging” sometimes means having an argument.

I don’t shy away from arguments in my fiction; good writing demands conflict. If you’ve read Two Over Easy All Day Long, you know the characters grapple with internal conflict and conflict with each other.

But in real life, I hate even mild disagreements.

So it is with some trepidation that I offer thoughts on . . .

How to Have an Argument

• Listen as much as you speak

•  Do NOT have arguments online

• Focus on common ground

Most of all:

• Don’t believe the rhetoric.

Yes, these are pretty darn self-evident. And yes, focusing on common ground
may feel like an insurmountable task. Our divisions are so significant, we’re told. We’ll never overcome our differences, we’re told.

Don’t believe the rhetoric.

Here’s an example. The headlines say recent polls showed a majority of Americans approve of the current president’s actions so far. But if you unpack it, you’ll see these numbers: 37% strongly approve of his performance, while 40% strongly disapprove. That leaves 23% who have more nuanced opinions. And then there’s the fact that 74% of the Americans polled disapprove of the pardon of the January 6 rioters who committed violence. 74% must of course include some of those who said they strongly approve overall, which means they don’t “strongly approve” of all the actions since taking office. And after the pollsters dug further and asked about specific actions (tariffs, immigration, inflation, etc.), the nuances were even more
pronounced.[i]

We are not, and have never been, a homogenous nation or even a nation where half of us think in lockstep with one party’s dogma and half hews to the other party line.

So I think there is hope for us after all, hope that we can forge community out of what we are being told is hopeless division.

But only if we’re willing to talk to each other, to have an argument or at least a frank conversation.

I'll start.

In the remainder of this newsletter, I’m going to bring up three contentious subjects, tell you what I think our "common ground" might be, and then, if you feel differently, invite you to tell me your perspective and what you think I might be missing. 

(But please please please and for good measure pretty please don't post angry comments on this newsletter or on social media—though I always appreciate an Attagirl! Send me an email, and let's have a conversation. Better yet, if you know me personally, let's get a cup of coffee and talk.)

Immigration

I assume I’m stating the obvious when I say that there is no common ground between myself and a person who asserts all Mexicans are                                                             
(I won’t dignify the slurs by repeating them). On the other hand, I don’t have much use for people who suggest all immigrants are virtuous victims of circumstance.

But I don’t believe most of us espouse either extreme, at least if we think about what we have personally observed and experienced, rather than allowing ourselves to be reduced to talking points pre-selected by politicians and amplified by social media.

Which means there is common ground, for most of us, on the topic of immigration law and border enforcement.

For example, I agree with those calling for greater border control that: there are people trafficking in drugs and humans over our borders, and that must be stopped; and there are gangs that have been “imported” from other countries that are responsible for some horrific crimes, and that must be stopped, too.[ii] (Let us not forget, however, that we have plenty of homegrown gangs, and plenty of horrific crimes committed by people born and raised here).

And it is my hope that many of the people calling for tougher enforcement of our borders would agree with me that most immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are ordinary people who came to America to make a better life for themselves and their families, and that most immigrants are a hard-working and critical component of our economy.

And lest we get too caught up in the characterization of immigrants only according to the color of their skin or whether they arrived from south of the US border, remember that, as envisioned in the movie The Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family were undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in Switzerland and then the US.

(The true story is a bit different, but the idea remains: fleeing to the United States to escape violence or natural disasters or poverty, with or without the often years-long wait for authorizing documents, is quintessentially American.)

In other words, there is a common foundation from which we can discuss the issues surrounding immigration law and border control, if we ignore the rhetoric that tells us Republicans believe all immigrants are monsters and Democrats believe all immigrants are saints.

Environmental Stewardship

Switching to another topic, there can be little common ground between someone like me who believes the 97% of climate scientists who say drastic action is needed to prevent irreversible and devastating climate change,[iii] and someone who believes the idea of climate change is a hoax dreamed up by “radical leftists.”

But, again, I don’t think most of us reside in either extreme.

I can agree that sweeping environmental protections should take into account the individuals affected by those changes. Individuals and communities that rely on coal mining should not summarily have their livelihoods ripped away, for example; public and private partnerships should ensure a transition to more sustainable industries.[iv] And I believe that if EVs provide any hope for reducing carbon emissions, we need to make them truly affordable for average people, with charging stations as ubiquitous as gas stations, and we need to address the carbon footprint of manufacturing EVs.

And it is my hope that those opposed to some parts of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act would nevertheless agree that we should continue to develop fossil fuel energy alternatives.

And I hope we can all agree that we need to reduce single-use plastic, that it is not acceptable to find in the ocean an island of plastic that is twice the size of Texas (and growing).[v]

In short, I think tree-huggers and conservatives should be able to have a productive argument about environmental stewardship and the government’s role in ensuring protections for the earth on which we all depend, a conversation that that starts with our shared beliefs.

As long as we set aside the rhetoric.

Federal Spending and Separation of Powers

Last but definitely not least, I think most of us have long suspected that the federal government is bloated and overdue for a serious overhaul, that the feds tend to hand out money willy nilly to whatever pet project each congressional representative wants or whichever project has the most generous lobbyists.

And I think (I hope) very few of us believe freezing all government spending, with no notice, was an acceptable way to start that process, or that it was reasonable to hand over the process to an unelected, unvetted individual with absolutely no expertise in “right-sizing.”

At this point, it is likely we all know someone hurt by the spending freeze, because that action didn’t just hurt “special interests” (but aren’t we all special in our own way?); the freeze was devastating to small farmers on contracts with the federal government, Head Start providing childcare to the children of low-income working parents, Meals on Wheels meeting essential needs for seniors, and so many more ordinary Americans who rely on federal funding just to survive.[vi]

And funding remains frozen for some service providers, even after the Executive Order was rescinded (maybe?) and judges blocked the order.[vii]

Just as importantly, unless you truly believe our country would be better off run by a single person with no restrictions on his power (i.e. a dictatorship), the spending freeze and other recent government actions were in violation of the constitutional checks and balances that are designed to prevent any one branch of government from seizing all power.

On this, more than any other topic, I think it is vitally important that we talk to each other.

This newsletter is already too long and too political, but since I’ve started, I’m going to finish. Senator Angus King, an Independent from Maine, opposed the confirmation of Russell Vought to the OMB on the basis that Vought was a principal author of Project 2025, the tome that envisions, among other things, eliminating or ignoring the constitutional separation of powers, and granting absolute power to the president.

Senator King gave a nod to the almost universal frustration with the federal government, and then explained his opposition to the unified power proposals in Project 2025:

The cumbersomeness, the slowness, the clumsiness is built into our system. The framers were so fearful of concentrated power that they designed a system that would be hard to operate. And the heart of it was the separation of power between various parts of the government. The whole idea . . . was that no part of the government, no one person, no one institution had or could ever have a monopoly on power. 

Why? Because it's dangerous. History and human nature tells us that. This division of power as annoying and inefficient as it can be . . . is an essential feature of the system, not a bug. It's an essential, basic feature of the system, designed to protect our freedoms.

The speech in its entirety is worth a read (and I was so taken by its eloquence I included an even longer excerpt below).[viii]

But that isn’t the main reason I’ve included such a lengthy quote from Senator King.

I believe this speech is useful to the idea of having productive arguments
because Senator King is an Independent.
Not a Democrat, not a Republican.
Senator King’s very existence as an elected official
points to what is still possible—
independent thinking, not party dogma;
independent ideas, not screaming memes.

With that in mind, I encourage myself and anyone else who has made it this far in the newsletter to go out and Have an Argument. By all means, let us first rest our hearts in good books and good food and whatever else soothes our hearts. And then, so fortified, let us respectfully engage with our fellow citizens.

I want to be clear: I am not simply advocating Kumbaya, why can't we all just get along, kindness matters, etc. (though Kumbaya is a lovely, healing song, and we should try to get along, and kindness does matter, of course). There is widespread agreement, outside the current administration and its immediate supporters, that we are facing a direct assault on the checks and balances the founders built into our democracy. We must find a way to work together to protect the form of governance that in turn protects our right to, among other things, argue with each other about how best to run the country. I think that begins with us laying down the verbal swords currently aimed at each other, finding common ground, and then turning our joint efforts toward protecting this glorious but surprisingly fragile experiment we call democracy.

Ultimately, I think the extent of our divisions are or may be largely manufactured. I don’t think most Republicans are crowing over vanquishing evil libs who are out to destroy us with some combination of communism, environmentalism, and DEI, and I don’t think most Democrats are convinced all Republicans are racists, misogynists, and homophobes.

Don’t believe the rhetoric.

I think we are all hurting from the divisions,
and in our woundedness we are blind
to the real problems we face,
and the potential solutions
that can grow out of our shared beliefs,
our common ground.

We’ll never know unless we try. 

[i] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/07/trumps-second-term-early-ratings-and-expectations/

[ii] The Pope, in his recent rebuke of the US’s mass deportation plans, agreed that “nations have the right to defend themselves and keep their communities safe from criminals.” https://apnews.com/article/pope-trump-migration-09a89091f8e7dc3270099f0947d04e90. That opinion is shared by many immigrants living in border towns, as well. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5289254/arizonas-new-democratic-senator-is-latino-but-backs-tough-action-on-immigration. The common ground ends, though, with the new law that doesn’t require conviction of a crime for deportation, but rather allows government agents to deport people based solely on an allegation of criminal activity. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/29/what-is-the-laken-riley-act-a-look-at-the-first-bill-trump-just-signed/#:~:text=The%20Laken%20Riley%20Act%20will,signing%20at%20the%20White%20House. (““In this bill, if a person is so much as accused of a crime, if someone wants to point a finger and accuse someone of shoplifting, they would be rounded up and put into a private detention camp and sent out for deportation without a day in court.”) The freedom from government agents swooping in and making you disappear in the middle of the night, without any chance to prove your innocence, is or should be a basic human right afforded by democracy, as is the concept of “innocent until proven guilty”—regardless of citizenship or immigration status.

[iii] https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/#:~:text=Yes%2C%20the%20vast%20majority%20of,global%20warming%20and%20climate%20change.

[iv] I am aware that “transition to more sustainable industries” is not as simple as it sounds, as discussed in this article about the problems with free trade with China: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/g-s1-47352/why-economists-got-free-trade-with-china-so-wrong

[v] https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAwaG9BhAREiwAdhv6Y77oX0enMkI-pLKFfaonV8QWljBS5wLtDSrmwxRAkTY9LnXZQE_spRoC5_gQAvD_BwE

[vi] https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/release-unlawful-federal-funding-freeze-causing-confusion-and-harm-on-farms-and-in-communities-nationwide/; https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/learn-more/national/press-room/news/2025/01/28/meals-on-wheels-america-issues-statement-on-potential-impact-on-meals-on-wheels-programs-from-freeze-on-federal-grants-and-loans-outlined-in-omb-memo

[vii] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/us/politics/grant-funding-freeze-nonprofits.html

[viii] https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-to-senate-colleagues-now-is-the-time-to-establish-a-redlinethe-constitution-itself#:~:text=Our%20oath%20was%20not%20to,assault%20in%20our%20nation's%20history 

*****

A bit more of Senator King’s speech:

“Madison put it this way . . . , ‘if men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither internal nor external controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this -- you must first enable the government to control the governed.’ That's the function. And in the next place, oblige it to control itself. 

Our framers understood this. They were deep students of history and also human nature. And they had just won a lengthy and brutal war against the abuses inherent in concentrated governmental power, George III. The universal principle of human nature they understood was this -- power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That's a universal principle, all over the world throughout history. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

So how did they answer the question? How did they answer the question who will guard the guardians? They answered it by building into the basic structure of our government two essential safeguards. One was regular elections. In other words, returning the control of the government to the people on regular scheduled elections . . .  [And] the other essential safeguard is the deliberate division of power between the branches and levels of government.

This is important, Mr. President. The cumbersomeness, the slowness, the clumsiness is built into our system. The framers were so fearful of concentrated power that they designed a system that would be hard to operate. And the heart of it was the separation of power between various parts of the government. The whole idea, the whole idea was that no part of the government, no one person, no one institution had or could ever have a monopoly on power. 

Why? Because it's dangerous. History and human nature tells us that. This division of power as annoying and inefficient as it can be, particularly to the executive, I know because I used to be a governor, is an essential feature of the system, not a bug. It's an essential, basic feature of the system, designed to protect our freedoms. 

Now, this contrasts with the normal structure of a private business, where authority is purposefully concentrated, allowing swift and sometimes arbitrary action. But a private business does not have the army, and the President of the United States is not the CEO of America. 

Power is shared, principally between the President and this body, this Congress, both houses. In fact, this herky-jerkiness, the two houses, the war power divided between the President and Congress, this unwieldy structure is the whole idea. No one has or should ever have all the power. 

So the concern I'm raising today isn't some academic exercise or manifestation of political jealousy or abstract institutional loyalty. It's the guts of the system, designed to protect us from the inevitable. And I mean inevitable abuse of an authoritarian state . . .
It's the guts of our protection. In fact, this clumsy system is the main spring of our freedom. By the way, it's worked so far, so far . . .”

Images by: paulacobleigh from Getty Images Pro (arguing tortoises); arifarca from Pixabay (coffee); We the People by Unsplash.

Optimism - Take 2

For the writers and the dreamers.

For all of us.

The Atlantic recently included an article called “Be Like Sisyphus,” written by Gal Beckerman.*

I was a student of Classics (M.A. 1989 University of Washington, thank you very much), and I was intrigued by the idea that anyone would ever exhort us to emulate the miserable character who, in Greek mythology, was doomed to roll an immense boulder up a hill, whereupon the boulder would roll back down again.

Forever and ever.

As Wikipedia notes, “tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean.” **

The article purports to be about “hopeful pessimism,” which surely sounds like an oxymoron. Hear me out (or rather, hear Gal Beckerman out).

Beckerman shares this quote by Mara van der Lugt: ***

“’If hope can’t emerge from any concrete belief that you will actually achieve your hoped-for outcomes, then what can sustain it? Values . . . The simplest way to put this is to ask yourself whether the cause or the change you are fighting for would still feel worth fighting for if you knew you’d never see it realized. [This kind of hope is] . . . driven by principles such as justice, duty, solidarity with your fellow human, and  . . . your sense of goodness. You act because you feel you must.’”

[Hopeful pessimism is] . . . driven by principles such as justice, duty, solidarity with your fellow human, and  . . . your sense of goodness. You act because you feel you must.

Beckerman goes on to say:

 “Václav Havel, the Czech dissident who would become the president of his country . . . [says of hope] that it is not a ‘prognostication’ but rather ‘an orientation of the spirit’: Hope is ‘not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.’”

For February I will share a full newsletter - complete with Two Over Easy All Day Long news and upcoming promotional campaigns, and reviews of a couple of lovely books I’ve read.

For now, I wish you strength and perseverance and a dose of hopeful pessimism for every good and just Sisyphean task you face, and leave you with a simple reiteration of Havel’s words:

Hope is . . . an ability to work for something because it is good.

(And this - I leave you with a photo of a sweet encounter
with a burro on the beach.
Because donkeys make me feel hopeful.
Always.)

*Beckerman, Gal, Be Like Sisyphus, The Atlantic, 1/22/2025 (available online at https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/01/case-for-sisyphus-and-hopeful-pessimism/681356/)(last accessed on 1/23/2025)

** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus

*** Mara van der Lugt, author of Hopeful Pessimism (Princeton University Press 2025), and professor of philosophy at the University of St. Andrews.

Optimism

Rhett reminding me that a world where belly rubs and bacon-flavored treats exist, there is always reason for hope . . .

I am a hopeless optimist.

I know, the bit on this website says I’m a possibilist, and that is, in fact, my word.

Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

There’s an interesting history behind the word possibilist. According to the Wikipedia entry about Dr. Hans Rosling:

In his posthumous book Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think he wrote, “People often call me an optimist, because I show them the enormous progress they didn't know about. That makes me angry. I'm not an optimist. That makes me sound naive. I'm a very serious ‘possibilist.’  . . . It means someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason, someone who constantly resists the overdramatic worldview. As a possibilist, I see all this progress, and it fills me with conviction and hope that further progress is possible. This is not optimistic. It is having a clear and reasonable idea about how things are. It is having a worldview that is constructive and useful. (Emphasis mine)

Hope for further progress, and a constructive and useful worldview. Who wouldn’t want that?

So I aspire to be a possibilist, but in my clearest moments I admit to optimism, to believing the best may come, in spite of any evidence to the contrary.

Which is why I love celebrations of the solstice and the new year: light in darkness, celebrations in spite of sometimes grim reality, hope for the future. And most of all, a belief, however irrational, that love will prevail, that all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Book Review

It’s a place where good things happen.

In anticipation of reading Somewhere Beyond the Sea, I am taking a moment to savor the first book in the series, The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Tor Books 2020). If you haven’t read this book, described as Harry Potter for adults, I strongly encourage (admonish, commend, suggest, urge, advocate, tout, and put in my two cents) you to run right out and buy it or borrow from your library. Or—fine—scroll to the appropriate page and purchase it online, if you must.

What’s it about, you ask?

A tired and dreary case manager living a tired and dreary life, beset on all sides by unpleasant people, his only friend an even more unpleasant cat, is suddenly cast ashore (almost literally) on an island paradise. He has been sent by Extremely Upper Management to shut down the island’s orphanage, which houses children with magical abilities who are considered second class citizens at best, and at worst dangerous creatures who must be quarantined from the rest of civilized society.

But here, at the orphanage, these children are allowed to be themselves, and loved because of, not in spite of, who they are.

Like I said: it’s a place where good things happen.

There is a bearded garden she-gnome, and a devil’s son. There is a boy who turns into a dog. There is a charming sea slug. There is unexpected romance in an otherwise romance-less life. And there is joy and kindness and friendship and laughter. In a world peopled by petty bureaucrats and bigots, the house in the cerulean sea is a place where love exists, in spite of everything.

Telling more would require an extreme Spoiler Alert, and I won’t do it. 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes, to whet your appetite.

 _______________________________________________

Mr. Parnassus arched an eyebrow. “The world is a weird and wonderful place. Why must we try and explain it all away?” 

#

He began to cackle.

Mr. Parnassus sighed . . .  “Did you just tell that entire story to be able to make a joke?”

“Yes,” Lucy said, wiping his eyes. “Because you told me once that if we can’t laugh at ourselves, we’re doing it wrong. Am I doing it wrong? Nobody seems to be laughing.”

“Humor is subjective, I’m afraid,” Mr. Parnassus said.

“That’s unfortunate,” Lucy said . . . . “Humanity is so weird. If we’re not laughing, we’re crying or running for our lives because monsters are trying to eat us. And they don’t even have to be real monsters. They could be the ones we make up in our heads. Don’t you think that’s weird?”

“I suppose. But I’d rather be that way than the alternative.”

“Which is?”

“Not feeling anything at all.”

# 

“It would be better if there were actual treasure,” Lucy muttered.

“And what if the treasure was the friendships we solidified along the way?” Arthur asked.

Lucy pulled a face. “That’s the worst treasure in the world. They already were my friends. I want rubies.”

 _____________________________________

Consider your appetite whetted - if you want more, you'll need to read The House in the Cerulean Sea!

One last quote from
TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea,
to bring it back to optimism:

No, it wasn’t very fair at all.

“It’s not,” Mr. Parnassus said,
agreeing with the unspoken words.
“But I allow him to dream of such things because he’s a child, and who knows what the future will bring?
Change often starts with the smallest of whispers.
Like-minded people building it up to a roar.”

Join me in whispering and roaring of a world
where all children are loved and safe and cared for,
where each of us can be our best selves,
where we all focus on being kind to each other
and to the earth we share.

Postscript 1: As you surely know by now, I love words, and “hopeless optimist” is a delightful oxymoron!

Postscript 2: To be clear, I am not talking about Good-Ship-Lollipop feelings (or, if you’re a bluegrass fan, Big-Rock-Candy-Mountain fantasies). On any given day there will be pain and sadness - sometimes unimaginable pain and sadness, more for some who are on the receiving end of institutional and/or societal oppression. And there will be moments of gladness, for all of us. Optimism, for me, is the belief that we can fill our cups with the latter, while fighting to reduce the former in any way available to us.

Image of the earth in family hands by the oh-so-perfectly named Sunny Studios (text added)

For the Love of Dog

The one and only Rhett***

An issue devoted entirely to the dogs of Violet Vale . . .

I share a bit of Chapter Thirteen,
where we meet these marvelous canines,
on YouTube here.

I know, I know, Butch is a long-haired Dachshund.
So this is him with a haircut.
It is summer when we first meet him, after all.

Some may say there’s no such thing as too cute.

Claude begs to differ.
The photographer wouldn’t even let him
rip the teddy bear to shreds.

Did you know Great Pyrenees have “self-cleaning fur”?
Freya looks relatively clean here, but I can assure you from firsthand experience that white fur gets grimy.

There is, I believe, nothing quite so wonderful
as a Labrador leaning against you
and looking up at you adoringly.

As Crackers would say:
Oh my good and gracious me.
Who wrote this content???
Lipton’s a GIRL!
Well, male, female, or non-binary,
in my not so humble opinion
Lipton is the star of the story.

If you haven’t read Two Over Easy All Day Long
and want to know more,
or if you’ve read it and want to share it
with someone you love,
hie thee to a bookseller:
Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, BarnesandNoble.com, Powells.com, etc.
Better yet, order it from your favorite local bookstore!

To all of you from Rhett-Dog:*
A Happy New Year!
May your days be filled with
everything you like best**
and nothing you like least.***

* Rhett is currently the sum total of our own Hairy Horde, and not a character in Two Over Easy All Day Long. He did model for Freya, though, so his photo is included here as an honorary member of the pack.

** Rhett would have listed belly rubs, chicken-flavored treats, roaming the fields at his favorite dog-sitter’s house, snoozing by the fire near myself or my Other Half, and any time spent with one of my adult children, or my dad - who is visiting as I write this and is one of Rhett’s new favorite people. I agreed to share his personal list of favorites because he can’t. No opposable thumbs, you know.
*** Trips to the vet, nail-trimming, mornings when it’s raining so hard we skip the walk, and any time someone Rhett has identified as a member of his flock walks out the door. Even momentarily.

The images shared here - other than Rhett’s photo - are [mostly] how I picture these sweet and silly dogs. Butch image by NORRIE3699 from Getty Images (text added). Marigold image by Alkir from Getty Images (text added). Claude image (sans squirrel toy) by Wavetop from Pexels. Freya image by JZHunt from Getty Images (text added). Callooh image by Elina Volkova from Pexels (text added). Lipton image by Petar Tutunjiev from Getty Images (text added).

Give the Gift of Story

“You just can’t help
but feel better about life
when you read it . . . ”
Emily Quinn, A Quintillion Words

“Two Over Easy All Day Long is a story of finding meaning in the little things. It’s a story of responsibility, redemption, and resilience. Of friendship and hope. In fact, there is so much packed into this story that it’s pretty hard to define in a single sentence, and for that reason, I fell in love with it. These characters are so full of life and personality that you’ll find it hard not to consider them friends afterwards . . . . I found myself laughing one minute and tearing up the next. A really powerful journey of growth and acceptance, with a few laughs thrown in. It really is a hidden gem!”

Find the full A Quintillion Words review here.

Maybe you’ve already been inspired to Give the Gift of Story. Maybe you’ve already bought a book to give to someone you love. If so, why not buy another, or two more, or ten? Why not make it a baker's dozen?

End of year is a particularly critical time for authors, as annual sales data influence media, contest judges, and other people and organizations who can help spread the word about a good book. So if you’re considering giving a book, might I gently suggest that you do it today? After all . . .

The long dark days of winter
are just begging for a good book!

And if you need more justification, there’s this: more and more research confirms what we bibliophiles know instinctively—reading is good. Good for the soul, good for the brain, good for the individual, good for the community, good for the world. Stories, essays, memoirs, poems, plays . . . reading connects us to each other, builds empathy, and feeds the light within.

There is so much that could be said about the value of reading. In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, “Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” A 2020 article in the Harvard Business Review reported on findings that:

Fiction builds empathy, because
“fiction provides an opportunity
to complicate standard good versus evil tropes.
Good literature presents characters
with competing and often equally valid viewpoints.”

Developing empathy by seeing the world through another’s eyes is one of the  underlying themes in Two Over Easy All Day Long, as mentioned in the review by A Quintillion Words excerpted above. 

And so, “to flog a horse, that if not dead is at this point in mortal danger of expiring,” (quoting Tom Hanks as The Professor in the 2004 version of the movie The Ladykillers), here is my ask, my recommendation, and my advice:

Give a book —
Two Over Easy All Day Long
or any book.
Better still, give lots of books
and
do it today!

Still on the fence? Check out my website for more reviews of Two Over Easy All Day Long, and past newsletters for other wonderful book recommendations!

www.sharilane.com

Image of a reader by Bowie15 from Getty Images (text added).

Happiness

“I’m happy!”

This is what my grandson tells me every morning, when I get him out of his crib.

In the evening, when I ask him how his day was, he says:

“It was great!”

I can’t remember the last time that was the answer that jumped to mind. (I truly can’t remember—no hyperbole intended; my memory is a finely-tuned machine desperately in need of some WD-40.)

We are living in tough times.

Political divisions, war, famine, and natural disasters, here in the US and globally . . . It all feels overwhelming.

On a more personal note, a close family member is once again facing significant health issues, and it feels as though my overly-full bucket of worry is no longer merely trickling over the top, it’s a gushing torrent that threatens to drown everything else. (I spend much of my time wrestling with health care providers, and sometimes it feels as though the “wrestling” is literal. Anyone who has been in or assisted someone else in a health crisis knows whereof I speak, and knows how exhausting it is.)

For all of these reasons, I am finding it difficult, this year,
to approach Thanksgiving with gratitude.

And then I see my grandson’s tousled hair
and sleepy morning smile
and hear him say, “I’m happy,”
and suddenly, miraculously, I’m happy too.

Other things that make me happy,
and remind me to be grateful
if only for a few, precious moments:

Dogs . . .

. . . Good food.
(Pecan pie comes to mind at this time of year. And pumpkin pie. And apple pie.) . . .

. . . Good books . . .

(Check out the latest book review below!)

. . . Seeing how beautifully
my children have grown up . . .

. . . Friends and Family . . .

  . . . And let us not forget

Donkey Videos . . .

It sounds cheesy, but there is evidence that gratitude really does improve your outlook, your emotional health, your (dare I say it?) happiness.

If you don’t believe me, check out this 2022 NPR article and this YouTube story.

So join me in finding happiness in spite of it all. Maybe then the next time someone asks how the day was we can say with a happy grin:

IT WAS GREAT!

 Two Over Easy All Day Long News

The book won another award, but I’ve been asked by the awarding organization to hold off on announcing the details until they publish the results in early December. Stay tuned…

The reading at Bookery in Manchester, New Hampshire was sweet.

What a lovely bookstore - check it out if you are in the “neighborhood”!

You can find a small clip posted on the YouTube channel here

I was honored to participate in not one but TWO book clubs. It’s a great way to connect and share different perspectives on Walt and Nancy and the rest of the crew, alternative justice, laughter, and the power of community. If you are interested, send me an email: sharilaneauthor@gmail.com.

Book Review

For fans of Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache series, The Grey Wolf does not disappoint—I spent many happy hours lost in the story! I even took the unusual step of buying it in hardback, as I’d already heard this book sets up the next in the series, and I want to make sure I can go back and re-read this one just before the next comes out. International intrigue, an insane poet (and her duck), a Dominican friar (who may or may not be one of the “bad guys,”) children throwing marshmallows on the ceiling and, as always, a race against time to save Gamache’s beloved Quebec. Check it out!

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books 2024)

A Gift for an Author

(Repeated from an earlier Social Media Post - Ignore if you’ve already seen it.)

Have you read a good book, a book that made you hoard time like a dragon, shedding one solitary hot dragon tear when you reached the last page because by finishing the book you’ve lost the companionship of the characters, the escape of an unputdownable story, the Eureka moment when you read the very words you most needed in the moment?

And then when you dried your eyes and blew your nose did you wonder – before taking up the hurly burly of your life again – how you might thank the author for the gift of Story?

Here’s how: tell the world. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell a stranger. Rave about your favorite character to the clerk at the grocery store, while he glances, furtively, at the impatient line growing behind you. Quote your favorite line in barely intelligible garble to the dental hygienist as she attempts to crack the tartar from your upper right rearmost molar. Share a pithy philosophical point eloquently shown-not-told with your mechanic as they hmmm about the sound your car’s engine makes only when it is not in the shop.

Buy the book for someone you love (heavens, yes!), and request that your local library and bookstore carry the book (of course!), and post a review on social media and/or a review site (a sigh for the ubiquity and necessity of PR and social media) . . . . But when you've received the gift of Story from an author, the very best way to show gratitude is to pass it on.

Postscripts:

This newsletter is the third version of a newsletter sent to subscribers. If you’d like to receive future monthly newsletters in advance, sign up here. Also, the original newsletter delves more deeply into the sources of my angst, specifically related to the political landscape in the US. The Facebook powers-that-be have previously blocked newsletters and posts for that reason, so this version is purged of details. Probably for the best, if I am hoping to spread happiness, yes? The second version, posted to my personal social media, included lots of photos of friends and family that have been omitted from this version, which appears only on my Author Page. 

That’s right, dear reader, you could have not one, not two, but THREE opportunities to read this newsletter (picture the eye-rolling emoji here, if you will).

Last but not least, In writing about finding happiness, I want to state unequivocally that I am not advocating that we ignore the state of the world, let up on the fight for justice, or fail to spread kindness where we can.

Only, when drowning in a sea of hard news, it helps, sometimes, to come up and sip the sweet air.

(Friends Melissa Chureau with Fully Mindful and Monika Gold with True Move Studio could tell you more eloquently than I the value of breathing).

AND I want to be clear, with myself and with you, lovely friends, that these are the actions we take . . .

. . . before diving back in.

*** Happiness Rocks image by Jennifer Shoniker from Getty Images (text added).

***Donkey image by JACLOU-DL from pixabay (text added).

Shy People and Powdermilk Biscuits

Full quote from A Prairie Home Companion:
“Powdermilk Biscuits
—they give a shy person the strength
to get up and do what needs to be done.”

I love reading, I love writing, and I love talking with good friends about books—my own, and others’ books. Unreservedly, forever and ever amen.

My feelings about public speaking are more mixed.

So when I am asked to talk about Two Over Easy All Day Long, I am (a) thrilled, (b) terrified, (c) proud, and (d) looking for the nearest exit.

(On that topic, if you get a chance, check out this speech by Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and other marvelous books.  A teaser: “I’m here because my agent said it would be good for my career.  . . . It will be fun, she said. So I told her that I write books. I spend eight hours every day locked inside a room with people I have made up. If I was comfortable talking to real people I would have a real job.”)

Because of the aforementioned shyness, it is with more than a little trepidation that I share my interview with Literary Titan.

Image by Marek Piwnicki @marekpiwnicki

In case you don’t feel like clicking on the link, here’s a mash-up: I refer to my background as an attorney, call into question my own sanity, throw in a little woowoo, celebrate the power of community, and make reference to my/our human penchant for making the same damn mistakes over and over and over, balanced against the possibility, always, of rising, phoenix-like, from the ashes.

Time for some powdermilk biscuits. While answering the questions was fun, seeing my answers in print, on the organization’s published website, made me the tiniest bit nauseous. Just a smidge.

But posting the interview—like Fredrik Backman’s speaking gig—is “good for my [writing] career,” or at least that’s the prevailing wisdom. So there, now I’ve done it. If you have any questions, contact my PR agency. (Hah, that was a little joke. It’s just me and my oh-so-wonderful publisher, no vast team of PR agents. If you have a question or comment, you can post it in the Comments section below, or email me at sharilaneauthor@gmail.com)  

And though I remain deeply uncomfortable blowing my own horn (see previous statements), I am also proud to share that Two Over Easy won Literary Titan’s Book Award this month.

Courtney Maum’s helpful (and funny!) book, Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book, points out it can get tiresome—for authors and for their readers—to always and only talk about their own book, and suggests reviewing others’ books. I’ve been doing that for years (because, as I said, I love reading and talking about books). But Maum goes on to note that most people have already heard about bestsellers, and suggests boosting the underdogs, so there will be lots of that (in addition to reviews of well-known books) in this and future newsletters.

Here's the first installment.

At the end of last year, friend and fellow author Gini Chin came out with her debut novel, The Beautiful Abyss. It’s got: a loveless (and sexless) marriage, an escape to Greece, a shape-shifter, passion, danger, and a criminal caper! A sampling of reader reviews: “A fast-paced thrilling read that will leave you wanting more,” “I didn't want it to end and when it did, I found myself wishing there was more. Night after night I found myself wondering what the main character might be up to now. Possibly a sequel?” “It’s the kind of story that’s hard to put down.” So do yourself a favor and check it out! It’s available on Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Last but not least, if you’d like to support Gini and any other writer you know, the very best thing you can do (after buying the book) is easy and takes very little time: talk about the book. Talk about it on social media, ask your library if they’d consider carrying it, order it from your local bookstore (and ask if they’d be willing to order another copy to have on their shelves), post a review on Amazon, and/or GoodReads, suggest it to your book group . . . . You get the idea. In this information-overload environment, it’s not so much about winning awards or being backed by a big publishing house, it is about word of mouth.

If you’ve read a book and genuinely liked it, spread the word!

Storytelling: Building Bridges

Image by Cody Hiscox @codyhiscox

I’m giving up on the ironic “so little to share” and will tell you plainly: there’s so much to share! Some of the news follows, but if you want to skip right to the heart of this particular newsletter, and the source of the title Storytelling: Building Bridges, scroll down to the bottom. Better yet, click right on through to this NPR Article.

Otherwise, hold onto your hats for news!

Two Over Easy All Day Long has received new reviews, available on the New Release page.  A few of my favorite comments:

• Readers’ Favorite gives it 5 Stars and calls it “a deeply moving and thought-provoking read” with themes of “resilience, adaptation, and the transformative power of compassion.”

• Reader Tammar Paynter says it is “a very well crafted book, finely plotted and beautifully written,” and says, “After finishing the book, I felt a sense of hope, feeling that growth and change are possible even after tragedy.”

• Midwest Book Review says, “Two Over Easy All Day Long is a fun read from start to finish, and an impressive work of literary excellence . . . .”

• Literary Titan gives it 4 Stars and calls it “a compelling story” with “richly drawn characters,” “a thought-provoking and heartwarming read that explores themes of accountability, personal growth, and the power of community.”

• Reader Heather H says she “loved this well-written, quirky, and captivating book. A highly recommended read that speaks to the power of community, hope, resilience, and transformation.”

There was also a marvelous write-up in the Salish Current by talented writer Gretchen Wing: Lopez Author’s Debut Novel Rooted in People and Place (A quick plug for the Salish Current and for independent local media!)

The book launch party was fabulous! Over sixty wonderful friends and family came, many bringing delicious food to share (potlucks are a favorite tradition here on “my” island). The Friends of the Library introduced themselves and their amazing work in our community, and several library staff and volunteers gave up their Friday evening to share the celebration - “grateful” doesn’t begin to describe it! Last but definitely not least, if you haven’t already listened to the original music Adam Brock shared with us at the party, check it out (and if you have already heard it, well, it’s worth another listen or two or three hundred): At the Library

More readings are scheduled in Friday Harbor, Washington and Bend, Oregon, with others in the works. Keep an eye on the Home Page for advance notice.

There are more updates but for today I’m borrowing
the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons,
or the Monty Python skits (if you prefer): 
“And now for something completely different . . .”

Last week, NPR’s All Things Considered covered a story titled, “Abortion can be difficult to talk about. These 14 strangers took it on anyway,” by Maayan Silver (NPR 5/24/2024). Accessed 5/24/2024.

Why on earth would I focus on such a controversial topic in this newsletter?

Because the NPR article gets at the heart of what believe is the last best hope for humanity, and, coincidentally, the reason I write fiction. I believe what this world needs now (more than a refreshing carbonated beverage which shall remain nameless, maybe even more than “love, sweet love,”) is communication, people telling their stories to each other, and listening to each other’s stories, and deciding together that they don’t have to agree politically or religiously to recognize our shared humanity.  

I’ve said it before and will say it again, and again, and again: stories build bridges, bridges that span the metaphorical canyons currently dividing us.

The article points out the fourteen participants from wildly different political sides of the abortion issue forged lasting friendships, in spite of their differences, and ends with this paragraph:

“That's how this starts,” says Gardner Mishlove [one of the participants]. “A relationship develops, you get to see someone else's point of view. It challenges you.” She says maybe they only agree on the right color socks to wear, “but that’s a start, right?”

In this time of war (even as we honor those we’ve lost to war), and loss and grief (even as those losses and griefs continue, seemingly unabated), and divisions and broken bridges:

Here’s to Relationships. Here’s to Storytelling. Here’s to Building Bridges.

Tune in next time for more book reviews! Sneak Peek:

• “Stories are life lived backward.” The Book of Form and Emptiness, by Ruth Ozeki (Penguin Books 2022)

• “When we are paying attention, we see how much holds us invisibly. Love is a bench.” Somehow, by Anne Lamott (Riverhead Books 2024)

A Good Book

On Reading and Writing and Pigs in Heaven

I’d like to talk to you about
Barbara Kingsolver’s Pigs in Heaven.

Yes, this is my brand new blog/newsletter on my brand new website launched to support my brand new book, Two Over Easy All Day Long.

But I’ll have plenty of time to talk about that in the coming months, maybe even (if I’m lucky) in the coming years.

I hope so.

For now, I just want to rave about one of my all-time favorite books, by one of my all-time favorite authors.

The quotes below, from Barbara Kingsolver’s Pigs in Heaven, encapsulate beautifully what is possible in a good book.

___________________________________________

Background: Annawake Fourkiller, a newly-minted lawyer, is trying to explain to her boss, Franklin, why she believes the Cherokee child Turtle should be returned to her people, even though Turtle’s white adoptive mother is the only family Turtle knows. Annawake describes how important a sense of belonging is.

“People thought my life was so bleak . . . But I dreamed about the water . . . . All those perch down there you could catch, any time, you know? A world of free breakfast to help get you into another day. I’ve never been without that, have you?”

“No,” he admits. Whether or not he knew it, he was always Cherokee. The fish were down there, for him as much as for Annawake.

“Who’s going to tell that little girl who she is?”

. . . Franklin wears a Seiko watch and looks as Cherokee as Will Rogers or Elvis Presley . . . yet he knows he isn’t white because he can’t think of a single generalization about white people that he knows to be true. He can think of half a dozen about Cherokees.

Later, Annawake tackles Turtle’s adoptive mother, Taylor, who is deeply upset and offended that anyone would try to take her child away.

“There’s a law that gives Tribes the final say over custody of our own children. It’s called the Indian Child Welfare Act. Congress passed it in 1978 because so many Indian kids were being separated from their families and put into non-Indian homes.”

“I don’t understand what that has to do with me.” [Taylor says]

“It’s nothing against you personally, but the law is crucial. What we’ve been through is wholesale removal.”

“Well, that’s the past.”

“This is not General Custer. I’m talking about as recently as the seventies, when you and I were in high school. A third of all our kids were still being taken from their families and adopted into white homes. One out of three.”

. . . “My home doesn’t have anything to do with your tragedy.”

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins 1993)

___________________________________________

In a few short paragraphs, Kingsolver tackles identity, loss, and the desire for absolution from our ancestors’ sins. Her characters are morally and ethically imperfect, not fully “good” but—like Giles/Tony—“not bad,” and evolving into something better.

(See? I did get in a reference to Two Over Easy All Day Long after all.)

Kingsolver’s stories are full of grace, even when tackling the darkness we humans sometimes fling at each other. And humor, too, which is nothing short of miraculous; to look into the void and find, in addition to hatred and bias and hurt, an infinite well of laughter.

What does that have to do with me?

I’m a writer because I love to read, because ever since I was a child books have touched me, moved me, and, sometimes, changed my mind. I felt as if the authors were speaking directly to me, as if the characters were friends taking me along on their journey, whispering their revelations to me. I knew from the first time I opened a book and the symbols resolved themselves into words that this, this is what I wanted to do—speak through stories. Then and now, it often feels as though stories are my only meaningful form of communication. I often feel a Homer Simpson-ish ‘Doh! over every word I actually speak aloud, certain I’ve said the wrong thing, or failed to say the right thing.

Image by Elena Mozhvilo @miracleday

But when I write, I can test and weigh and sit with the words first, make sure that my words are honest, and sincere, and as often as possible, kind.

When I write, I can paint a verbal picture of how I see the world, and more importantly . . . how I imagine it could be.

The title of this, my inaugural newsletter, is A Good Book. I am, of course, hoping something I’ve written or something I write some day in the future will merit the label: A Good Book.

In the meantime, in the newsletters that follow, I’ll often share what I’m reading, in that elusive search for “A Good Book.”

Barbara Kingsolver’s Pigs in Heaven feels like a great place to start the conversation.

Got a good book to share? Thoughts on Pigs in Heaven?
Drop me a line here, in the Comments,
or send me an email.