IF- "Double"

The Illustration Friday theme this week is "Double". This is a very old illustration I used for a Valentine's Day card, which is good, because I am up to my eyeballs on getting ready to go to LA for the SCBWI National Conference- Anybody else going?

A Pollyanna look at rejection...

    So on a whim, I entered my screenplay on the beginning of archeology and tourism at Mesa Verde in the late 1800's into the Nicholl Fellowship Screenwriting Contest., considered one of the few competition for new writers that Hollywood takes slightly seriously. 5 Fellows are chosen from over 6,000 applicants, given $30,000 dollars and a year to write another script, which Hollywood insiders pay attention to, something a lot of writing contest can't claim.
Well, I didn't win.
But I'm actually kind of excited....
6,300 scripts were submitted this year- each was read one time, if it received a favorable read- it went on to a second read.
Mine, went on for a second read- so the playing field went from 6,300 to 2,900, which tells me.... I can actually write a script, not talking about a brilliant script, but I know the structure of screenplay writing, can create a story with a beginning, middle and end, have enough of a grasp of grammar that some underpaid reader in Hollywood didn't cringe and toss the script onto the reject pile like in 15 seconds!
The scripts are read a second time, so the playing field went from 2,900 to 900- and guess what I got another favorable read! Which means my standing in 6,300 scripts was 15%- ( gosh, I feel like this would make a great word problem in Math class!) 15% tells me- hey- I can write a decent story- that is somewhat interesting and is exciting enough to hold a reader's attention that is basically locked in a very small room like the girl in Rumplestilkin, with a very large pile of scripts and she can't have lunch till she reads them all, I'll take that!
Well, these 900 scripts were read again and this time instead of getting a pass or fail, they were scored, and well, no go, my script did not hit the 20% off the 900 scripts need to go to the next stage, which is the top 180 out of 6,300 scripts.
The 180 scripts will be cut to 30 scripts and then to 5 Fellows.
Sure, I had ideas of grandeur, that standing in the long line of "want to be" script writes, a slick back dark haired Hollywood type executive with a big bodyguard, all dressed in black of course with the dark sunglasses would mosey right towards me, unclip the velvet rope barricade, inform me I could go into the V.I.P. section of glory and well, go all around the monopoly board and collect my $30,000 dollars.
But I kind of knew that wasn't going to happen.
What I really hoped for, and think was confirmed- was that the two lowly readers that read my 120 pages of words and ideas pulled from somewhere in the back of my head, did not laugh themselves silly with my delusions of being a writer and head to their favorite coffee shop and continue to have a good laugh with all their other reader type friends over my expanse.
It might be "Pollyanna-ish" - But I am happy I'm in the pack, not at the front of it, but at least I am in the pack.

So.....yeah..Fire?

So, Monday I was up here...

In Telluride, Colorado, about 70 miles away from my home. A friend who has a house up there, invited me up to just hang. So took my work and really didn't do much of it, instead just hung out looking at the amazing San Miguel mountains and breathed in the air at like 8500 ft.

It was a glorious day, until Jon called, " Sooo...just in theory, but what do you want me to take out of the house, incase we have to evacuate because of the fire?"

me- "Fire?"

Jon- "It a small fire at the bottom of the canyon, at least a fourth of a mile away."

Me- " ahhhhhhhhhh? Fire?"

Jon- "They have a bomber ( i.e. a big belly plane that drops chemicals on the fire) circling in the air but haven't used it yet. And the foam truck ( which they can encase an entire house with if need be) just went down the road....I'm sure it is fine, but what do you want me to take if they evacuate us?"

Me- " ahhhh the kid's pictures and my artwork"

Which I realized was all in the same place, in the far corner of my studio- the farthest room from any exit out of the house- that is smart.

Jon- " ok, got to go soak the tree break with the irrigation water"

Apparently all the neighbor were turning their water on towards  the rim of the canyon- we are on top at the start of a flat mesa.

I get off the phone, and wander down towards the coffee shop, should I race home? Then I remember one more thing that would be heartbreaking to lose in a fire, so I call back.

Me- "the quilts"

We have two of Jon's granmothers quilts, circa 1920s, hand stitched.

Me-" the rugs"

And we have several Navajo rugs circa 1960 and 70s from his parents buying days traveling the Southwest to supply their Western Tac store in Chicago .

Jon- "okay- it looks like they are getting it under control, probably fine now."

Me- "Okay?"

By the time I get home, the fire is out, it rains the next night and with the windows open the house stinks, fire smell is on of those smells that stays with you.

So yesterday I walk down the canyon with the dog and take pics of the damage.

This was an apple tree.

So walking back up the canyon, I see a growing column of smoke coming from a pile of brush the firefighters had piled up, and poof, it burst into flames while I watched, so yeah, called 911 and a crew came out and took care of the hot spot. Fire Season is just starting around here....yeah!

I'm really good at this promotion thing...

I got in Babybug and totally forgot to tell anyone about it- Actually I was really hyped to first of May- the issue is the May/June and my poem was called Tickle, about a little Polynesian girl who finds an exotic bird feather and tickles her brother with it.I would go to Magpie Newstand Cafe over in Durango, first of every week looking for it and since I have been traveling been checking the various Barnes and Nobles bookstores along the way. Apparently when it is a two month span for the magazine, they are not so quick to get the next edition out. Well, I probably found it the eighth time I had head into a magazine shop in anticipation, but finally there it was and I opened it to find..... the color sucked!
Not Baybug's fault at all, they were an absolute delight to work with- it was my fault- I did the color editing and that wasn't even the problem, what was- the fabric- I should of known better, I knew better, that super saturated colors do NOT photograph well, muted midtone colors with just a little bit of highlight and extreme darks look so much better, but it was Hawaii and all I could think of, apparently, was the bright colors of Hawaii. grrrrr. I hope they are happy with it and learned my lesson, even restarted a illustration I am doing for a promotion in the Fall over- when I realized the how crappy the blue in the sky had looked in Babybug- and was using the same blue fabric. 
I have learned that usually if I put something like that aside for a while and look at it again- it is not as bad as it seems like the first time. Here is hoping! And here is the illustrations-

SF Trip: Muir Woods

We drove up  the curvy and dippy HWY 1 North up the coast from San Francisco, apparently it takes not being able to see the perilous drop off into the sea because of fog to get me car sick- Colorado's winding mountain roads don't usually bother me, because I can see the 1000 foot drop off to death.
We perused the little villages along the way, watched the committed surfers in their full wet suits brave the waves and on the way back down stopped at Muir Woods National Monument.

SF Trip: China Town

SF Trip: Not what I expected to see...

After we got turned around and drove back and forth over the Golden Gate Bridge again, and pay the toll again, we made our way through the fog to Pacifica Beach where our hotel was right on the very misty, noicey ocean- well I think we were on the ocean, couldn't see very far and come to find out Pacifica was the eppa center of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906! Yeah!!

                      

Once settled we headed up HWY 1 in search of some really fresh sea food and on the advice of a local went into Ketch Joanne in Princeton -by-the-Sea where we feasted on Crab, Squid, Shrimp or Cod and Chips and were entertained by the large group of men fresh off the shrimp boats, clad in Carheart and Ball caps looking for some love,trying to pick up the few unattached women, during happy hour- next time I need to emphasize we do have children with us- when getting advice from the locals.

After filling our bellies, we headed down to the harbor...

                      
                               

 

We didn't expect to see Goats! Being trained for their FFA projects!!

SF Trip: Napa Valley, but I don't even like Wine?

Once over the Sierra Nevadas and on through Sacramento, we did a loop through Napa Valley, even though Jon is a pretty dedicated micro beer drinker and I am a "tea tottler", when I do have a glass I actually like really cheap, really sweet wine.

Later in the trip once in San Francisco, at a cafe in Little Italy, I got berated by the waiter in Italian, who I think was informing me that sweet dessert wine was basically a sacrilege to be paired with my crab ravioli- but it was really good to my "undignified palette".

We usually travel with friends that are wine coinsures and just follow their lead in wine tasting at the vineyards, but this time we were alone. We did stopped at one vineyard and tasted a few samples, bought some yummy dessert wine I am savoring now, and a few bottles for friends, but most importantly got directions to the real treasure of Napa- a vineyard that also makes Olive Oil- now you're talking!!

Oh my....I think Jacuzzi Vineyard sells wine, but to be honest I went right to the Olive Oil room, where just like a Wine Tasting room, there was several Olive Oil tasting bars, with pump bottles and cube bread, you could wander around and taste......ohhhhhhh ohhhh! Bread and Olive Oil- what could be better?

Fruit? A extra surprise was the most glorious fruit stand on the lush winding highway back towards San Francisco- Bing Cherries- my all time favorite food, just coming into season, and apricots were feasted on as we made our way to the Golden Gate bridge and did not see our first glimpses of the Bay- which was fogged.

 Mark Twain once said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" I tend to agree!!

Mirages and Cannibalism

Are you intrigued? Or do I just have such an off the wall reputation you are not surprised, but believe it or not these two things do have something in common.

We just got back from a week in San Francisco and so here I am to share what I thought were the odd and the interesting sights and sounds of the trip....

Don't feel sorry for me this is NOT snow, that has finally melted -this Salt Flats, outside of Salt Lake City, along I-80 going towards Nevada.
Now Jon would tell you all the geological mumbo jumbo of how this massive dead valley, surrounded by mountain ranges was once an ocean and point out that you, or at least he, can still see the lines of the ancient shore lines on all the foothills. He would also point out the train tracks and the distant mining operations that are about the only thing viable that could come from such a desolate place, I did get excited when I saw the Morton's Salt icon of the little girl with the umbrella on one of the warehouse we passed... but the geology of such a place does not really hold me for very long.
What does hold me is how weird it was to drive and drive and drive through what could be described as a Dali painting, all melt-y and surreal.

There is a white salt crust, on both sides of the interstate, above that is probably just a foot of water, which looks like a mirror, so it reflects the sky above or the mountain ranges in the distance, so when there is a mound of salt, it looks like it is hovering above the water.
Periodically there are large blue signs, telling fatigued drives to pull over and rest and apparently many do, going out to make their mark in the salt, where the wind hardly blows, digging up dark rocks to form letters or smiley faces. Sometimes bottle are stuck down in the salt, and designs are made, though driving 75 mph, most messages can't be read going that speed.

Which brings me to Cannibalism, for I-80 is mostly along one of the most famous Overland trial used by pioneers making their way to California, though according to a historical marker at one of the rest stops, it would of taken then two weeks to travel the distance we had that morning, in an air condition car sipping our iced Starbucks. 3 miles is what the pioneers averaged on a good day, 1.5 was as fast as they went a day over the Salt Flats.

Timing was everything for the pioneers trying to make it to California. Timing between having enough grass along the way and making it over the passes before winter, but not getting stuck behind swelling rivers from the spring runoff.
And as today, there were plenty of self professed guides to point the way or publish books declaring the shortest distances, or before GPS leave notes on the trial declaring cut off that would save time and distance.

One such self professed guide was Lanford Hasting, whose advice taken by a group of pioneers now know as the Donner Party, would have devastating and infamous consequences. HERE is the link to read all about the famous winter of 1846-47 on Wikipedia-

We did, driving up into the Sierra Nevedas, off my Smartphone, my children and husband were transfixed and I a little car sick trying to read on such a small phone - about the delays the party made trying to follow the Hasting Cut Off, or get through the Salt Flats, about all the poor choices and arrogance that landed them almost at the top of the Pass that now bears their names...

 and how thanks to detailed diary accounts we have a glimpse of how a human being gets to place to decide to survive they will eat another human being, being careful to keep track of the meat so no one had to eat a family member...below shows the height of the snow that came early that winter, gauged by how far down the party could cut the trees. 

In the comfort of our car, going about 65 mph driving down the pass into Sacramento, our consensus was that if these pioneers had banded together, listened to the Indians, instead of literally eating them, and learned how to fish, since the lakes they were near had fish in them, they probably would of done much better.
We also wondered how a group, today, equipped with light weight gear, Gortex and modern know how would fair, and wondered with the stupid reality shows such a idea had not occurred to anyone.

No disrespect intended- I felt very sorry for the survivors in the accounts of the years that followed- how some admitted what they had done, how there was questions of whether the members who were eaten were really dead or murdered- and why some of the survivors focused on clearing their names and lied or changed their stories. Also what was very interesting was that there was a 66% death rate amongst the males who waited out the winter in the Sierra Nevedas. Only 9 women died. Why- many reasons- including women have more fat cells and can gain energy from our bodies longer, and men are the most likely to give up rations for their families, and use energy to take care of their families, etc.

 And alas once  in California, we really didn't enjoy our In and Out Burgers as much as we had been looking forward to.