Hell on Wheels Sequel: Durant Family Saga - Durant Family Saga

Hell on Wheels Sequel: Durant Family Saga - Durant Family Saga

Early Winter

View of Skaneateles Lake looking south from boat launch.

Early Winterscape in Skaneateles

Here in the Finger Lakes we were 'blessed' with an early snow storm. A few years back I took these pictures when in November, when we got a dusting.  When it snows here, the skies are  gloomy, filled with moisture. I was having a hard time getting just the right shots.  For three days in a row during the Thanksgiving break I woke each morning at the required time for this season of the year  (7 am) and it was always overcast.

One morning I got lucky enough to capture the sun rising in the gloom, and paid for it with a nasty fall on the ice as I took a picture from the town of Skaneateles' boat launch.

Then it happened.  The perfect-picture-taking-dawn.  I arose at 7 am and the sun was rising with just wisps of clouds in the sky, and magically, it had also snowed overnight.  I grabbed my coffee, my camera and my boots and waded through the newly fallen snow in the farms fields at the end of my road.  And I was rewarded with crystal images.

Sun rising on farm field of corn stalks.

So, it was worth it - waiting - for the right moment in time to take the pictures that would capture the beauty of this landscape that I live in; that shows itself when it wants, not when you need it to.  A lesson well worth remembering when the days get shorter and the darkness sets in. A lesson to keep in mind in general.

Ephemeral Summer

A few years ago I spent my ephemeral summer writing my first novel.

There is nothing like the feeling of accomplishing something; especially when it is a labor of love. That is how I feel about my novel Ephemeral Summer. So I was especially pleased when I received an email from a women's book club in Twin Cities of Minnesota who are coming to the Finger Lakes region and want to meet and speak with me about my novel.

Ephemeral Summer is a coming of age story about a young woman named Emalee who loses both parents die when she is 15. After the tragedy she is sent to live with her Aunt Audrey who summers at the family camp on Canandaigua Lake in Upstate New York. Emalee is beset with the usual problems of a young woman, but her familial relationships and 'lake friends' make her life even more trying. In her twentieth year she falls in love with a young intellectual philosopher named Stuart, whom she can't seem to get over even after years away from him and the lake setting where they met.

Although this is a love story, Ephemeral Summer is also about the wonders of the natural world. Starting in the Finger Lakes region and ending there, this story takes the reader from the shores of Canandaigua, Seneca, and Erie, to the Canadian wilderness where Emalee finds herself tracking Moose as part of a research project in Algonquin Provincial Park.

I wrote and edited this book (with the help of many people) over the course of a few years. My purpose was to educate about this great place - the Finger Lakes - in which we live; and to entertain. I hope I have done both. And I hope you will enjoy reading Ephemeral Summer.

Tracking Stories in the Algonquin Wilderness

Jack Pine
by Tom Thomson
Source: Wikimedia

Writing placed-based literature is a great experience because there are always stories embedded in the culture of an area that a writer can use as a springboard.

When I wrote Ephemeral Summer I placed my college-age protagonist, Emalee, in settings that were familiar to me. She attends colleges in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York because I know the area well. However, like most college-age students she moves around, and in the last chapter, she visits the Canadian wilderness to assist a fellow graduate student track moose in Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada.  


Although I had stayed in Algonquin twice myself during graduate school (tracking moose), my research on Algonquin went beyond the ecological setting and into the realm of art. While conducting my research I was surfing the Internet for information about the Northern Lights to include in the novel, and stumbled upon the artwork of Tom Thomson, (1877-1917) an artist from the early 1900s who painted landscapes in Algonquin.

The Northern Lights by Tom Thompson

Thomson first visited Algonquin in 1912 and fell in love with the place. He stayed, found jobs as a ranger, firefighter and any other occupation that the woods would allow, and painted in his spare time. His paintings are considered the forerunner of a movement of painters called The Group of Seven: a group of Canadian landscape painters who spent considerable time painting in Algonquin from the 1920s-1930s.

As I delved into his story I found parallels to my plot. There is an accidental death by drowning in my story Ephemeral Summer, and Thomson likewise drowned under mysterious circumstances. In 1917, at age 40, he went out canoeing and was found dead a week later. Foul play was suspected but never confirmed.

Like many artists, Thomson did not make a lot of money on his works. Although he did have a patron, and some of his works sold, he became more popular after his death.

And that is what is most intriguing about Thomson: his drive to create art whether it sold or not. His story folded neatly into my narrative for Ephemeral Summer. Indeed, for many artists, who create for art's sake, because they feel compelled. 

Weather in the Finger Lakes

Let’s Talk About the Weather

Because it dictates our moods

 

I like to describe the weather when I’m writing a scene in my novels. Maybe it’s because I’m from Upstate New York where we can experience summer and fall in one week (literally). But it’s also because the weather is what everyone talks about around here.

The weather dictates our moods, our conversations, what we do on a day-to-day basis. I planned to mow the lawn today, can’t do it — it’s raining. I wanted to go for a swim in the lake — too cold. I was going to paint the deck today, no can-do — the wind is too strong and it’s blowing all the cottonwood seeds around and it almost appears like it’s snowing outside.

A standard joke for Upstate weather? A sunny day is called cloud failure. Yes, because of all the lakes around her (Great Lakes and Finger Lakes), the skies are gray a majority of the time. And that definitely dictates one’s mood.

You can’t go anywhere without having or hearing a conversation about the weather. As in “Can you believe this weather?” which could mean, it’s been sunny and dry and 80 degrees F for the past week or, it’s been cool, rainy and in the 40s. It doesn’t matter, we Upstaters never seem to want to believe the weather is doing what it’s doing to us.

And in my household when we turn on the local news after dinner, what’s the reason? Not to watch what’s happening in the Presidential elections, it’s you-guessed-it, to get the weather forecast.

Weather it seems, is so much part of our lives, like waking up, eating, or going to work.

I hadn’t thought much about this until recently when I noticed my mood shifting into a somber mode and had to figure out why. The weather was clear, the days were sunny, I had nothing to worry or complain about (well sort of, we all have something to worry or complain about — that is a human condition). And then I realized it was the change of seasons. The days were getting longer, the sun was rising earlier, and the birds were singing their hearts out. It was spring going on summer. One would think it would be a time of joy for me, so why the dark moods? 

 

We in Upstate wait months for summer to arrive.

Maybe I thought, the feeling is like a holiday I’ve been waiting and preparing for. You anticipate and plan and then when it comes it’s never exactly as you predicted. And you regroup and tell yourself, live in the now. Stop thinking about what the weather is going to be like tomorrow.

Ephemeral Seasons

In the wildflower garden at Baltimore Woods, NY.

Here in the Finger Lakes region our seasons are ephemeral (some may say our winters are not!) and so are many of the native plants that thrive in the woods. Spring wildflowers such as bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) are only here for a short stay. They come to life when the deciduous trees haven't leafed out and there is enough sun to reach the forest floor. Bloodroot is considered threatened and endangered in some places in the Northeast. This delicate flower's seeds are spread by ants. It has a brief life. It will only flower for a few days and then die. The leaves of the plants may last a little while longer but they too eventually return to the soil to wait until next spring.

Bloodroot has an interesting history. It gets its common name from the red root of the plant that was once used by Native Americans as a dye. It also has many medicinal uses, well know by Native Americans and discovered by the colonists. It was once used as a tonic, cough medicine, and the mashed roots were used as a skin ointment.

I mention bloodroot and some other spring wildflowers in my latest novel: Imaginary Brightness: a Durant Family Saga. Because the main storyline is set in the Adirondacks I wanted to include local lore about the woods. Although my editor told me to simmer it down a bit (this is not a forum to educate about the environment!) I threw in as many tidbits as I could. Indeed, the natives in the region, called the Algonquins, and then later the Mohawks, and other tribes that traversed through the Adirondacks, used many of the wild plants and especially tree parts such as bark for their tinctures, sweeteners, and food. I decided that since I was writing about history, the plants had their place in the story as well.

View of the sky in Baltimore Woods on a spring day.

Life in Finger Lakes Magazine

Thank you to Life in the Finger Lakes Magazine for publishing a review of my book Ephemeral Summer in their Winter 2014 edition. "The author, ..., has crafted an engaging first novel with appealing multigenerational characters and provocative plot twists." Laurel C. Wemmett. For the full review visit: http://bit.ly/1xutoO2


To purchase the book visit    http://amzn.to/1xgi495