Patricia S. Bowne

Creatures from the Black Lagoon*

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Pat Bowne

* This is not a paid promotional announcement

One of my favorite places to visit is Wakulla Springs, where The Creature From the Black Lagoon was filmed. I’m more interested in the other creatures in the black lagoon, and this year it was warm enough for me to take my friends on the boat ride to meet them.

swimming gator, Wakulla springs

cypress in Wakulla river

manatee face

At Wakulla springs, the entire Wakulla River comes pouring up out of the ground, from a cavern which we are told is eight stories high. The water is warm all winter and a haven for manatees. I can’t recommend it enough, for people who like wildlife and old-fashioned vacationing, sans television and internet.

I’m vacationing here and points south with my brother and our friends Sharon and Bob, and I have set myself the task of revising a few chapters of the third Osyth novel, Swept and Garnished, every day. Just finished chapter 7 this morning! So any readers who are waiting for the next installment, fear not. It will be ready to come out relatively soon, and Double Dragon always issues them faster than I expect.

Wakulla park lodge

The Lodge fireplace

Posted in bestiary, winter, writing | Comments Off

You too can get these results

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Pat Bowne

Double Dragon took care of creating the covers for my novels, but I was on my own when it came to reissuing Kindling on Smashwords. Needless to say, I am not a professional artist. What my studio lacks in equipment, however, it makes up in ridiculousness.

To create the picture of a dragon crawling through the Kindling tribute balls, I had to create actual tribute balls. I then wanted to photo them against a black background. I have no idea how professionals do this, but I put them inside a cat carrier covered with a towel. To put the dragon behind them, I drew his face on black paper and propped it inside the cat carrier.

The difficulty with this should be obvious. Somebody else had first rights to the cat carrier — and the tribute balls.

The final results owe a great deal to my creative consultants, Maisie and Nora. Any flaws in the Kindling cover should likewise be attributed to them.

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Merry Christmas – the Huron Carol

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Pat Bowne

Here’s one I haven’t heard in any stores – a Canadian carol from the missionary days of the seventeenth century, with lovely images of the northwoods and its people. Wishing you all peace and at least a moment of stillness this holiday!

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New Publication – A Royal Academy holiday story

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Pat Bowne

Merry Christmas and Happy Kindling!

Kindling, an 11,000-word Royal Academy novella, is now available on Smashwords for only $0.99. See what happens when you mix the Demonology Department’s self-appointed curmudgeon, a banshee, a dragon, and the world’s messiest, most dangerous research museum.

This novella was previously published in Tales of the Unanticipated, a fine journal which was until this year the only source for all things Osyth. But rather than depend on the continued availability of back issues of TOTU, I have decided to try releasing the novellas as Smashword publications.

This also gives me an excuse to make book covers. I’ll post later on the jack-legged apparatus I used to make this one, and how much the cats helped. Meanwhile, enjoy!

Oh, and despite the title- it’s available for a wide variety of e-readers, including good ol’ fashioned html.

Posted in bestiary, From the museum, kindling, publication, real life, Royal Academy Archives, solstice, winter, writing | Comments Off

Poetry Friday

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Pat Bowne

My mother would never even let us make fun of the dog. I think she was affected in her youth by this poem, which is in one of the few books I have from her childhood. It had been so heavily used that its covers had to be replaced with pink fabric long before I got my hands on it.

THE FROG

Be kind and gentle to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As ‘Slimy skin’, or ‘Polly-wog’,
Or likewise ‘Ugly James’,
Or ‘Gap-a-grin’, or ‘Toad-gone-wrong’,
Or ‘Billy Bandy-knees’:
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.
No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a Frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare).

Hilaire Belloc

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New Poetry!

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Pat Bowne

I just found out about a new (to me) online poetry journal, Stone Telling. My friend Sofia Samatar has a poem in it which especially interested me because it was about Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a heroine to women in astronomy. I also really enjoyed the structure of this poem, with its riffs on academic conventions.

Sofia has published another poem, The Sand Diviner, in a past issue of the magazine. Reading it took me back to a time when I devoured the Rubaiyyat and anything set in that area of the world.

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Doesn’t Look Atheist to me…

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Pat Bowne

Images from the solstice ceremonies at Stonehenge.

solstice image, cbs news

solstice image, bbc news

Posted in in the news, religion, solstice, winter | Comments Off

Winter Solstice Pictures!

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Pat Bowne

Irene Gallo at Tor has posted a fantastic compilation of artists’ favorite winter pictures. I was thrilled to finally find out who painted a lot of the images I’d been wanting to track down, especially this one by John Bauer:

I was surprised, when I finished reading the list, to see that nobody had chosen anything by one of my favorite fantasy artists, Kay Nielsen. To remedy this, here are some of his most wintry images:

from East of the Sun and West of the Moon

The North Wind Comes Over the Sea

Posted in art, From the museum, winter | Comments Off

Blessed Solstice, More or Less

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Pat Bowne

Isn't this great? I found it at http://camelsnose.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/winter-solstice-2/, with no attribution.

The solstice crept up on me this year. In fact, I just realized it was tomorrow! No time for pulling together a celebration, and the rest of my fair city seems to be in much the same state, at least according to google. Fortunately, solstice will happen without any effort on my part. I will probably celebrate it with a walk at sunrise, followed by going out to breakfast and eating eggs sunny-side up.

The big news about solstice here this year is that the local atheists’ group has adopted it. They’ve put a solstice sign up in the county courthouse proclaiming:

“At this season of winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Not being a card-carrying pagan, I could be all wrong about this, but I was under the impression that people who celebrated solstice were about the least atheistic folks around. Who would bother dancing around fires to celebrate an utterly predictable astronomical event? But then I should talk. I’m going to have eggs.

Here’s the classic “Ring Out, Solstice Bells” from Jethro Tull. Enjoy!

Posted in in the news, Jethro Tull, pagan folk | Comments Off

Wol

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Pat Bowne

The best way to see owls is to go out without binoculars or camera. Well, not precisely — the best way to see owls is to go out without those things, having forgotten that going out without them is the
best way to see owls, so you can be suitably distressed at not having the proper equipment.

Having met these criteria, I went walking in Seminary woods this afternoon and saw two Great Horned Owls hooting to one another in the top of a big bare tree. When they saw me watching one turned its back with an air of great disdain. The other hooted a few times in my direction, but in general I was of no interest to them. My sketch doesn’t come near the mysteriousness of owls in the dusk.

Great Horned owl by Tony Northrup at http://www.northrup.org/photos/great-horned-owl/

Searching the internet for better pictures of owls, I came upon this very Victorian fellow photographed by Tony Northrup. Doesn’t he belong in a steampunk novel? It’s the mustache.