War and Pussycats- More Twos on Tuesday

A proper cat scan.

I was so tickled last week to join in on the Women of Mystery’s Two Sentence Tuesdays I thought I’d give it another go this week.
It keeps me writing, for one thing, and for another it forces me to tap out something that I can share with the blogging world without cringing.

This is something we read this week. My husband reads me a bedtime story and has done so virtually every night for the 19 years we’ve been together. We received the Warriors series for a Christmas gift from friends and we’ve just started it. I absolutely love it and can’t help but refer to it as “War and Pussycats.”

Here are two sentences from Warriors: Into the Wild, by Erin Hunter, Avon Books, 2003.

“After a moment’s pause, several of the cats moved forward to lick Redtail’s bedraggled fur. As they groomed they purred hushed phrases to the dead warrior.”

My contribution is from the novel I started late last week about a mirror that randomly plays back images it has reflected.

"Light bounced around the room from the mirror. In its face a man in his mid 30s slapped his forehead and raised his arms to the ceiling."

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be out for most of the day. In keeping with the theme of the today’s post I’m off to the U of A Hospitals for a cardiac CAT scan.

Thought Banned

It’s Banned Books Week.

Virginia Lee, over at her amazing blog wrote about it and included a few links like this one to the Forbidden Library.

It was fascinating, in a chilling way, to read the titles of books that have been banned or challenged.

The Nazis burned Jack London’s The Call Of The Wild. I really don’t know what to say about this beyond book burning is never right. I haven’t read it, but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard it was a danger to any society.

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell was banned at a California High School. It was challenged in Illinois due to its use of the word “nigger.”

Much as that word makes me shudder, it was in use when Mitchell wrote it and certainly in the time period in which her book is set.
It is reflective of the times and not using that word in proper context is a lie, plain and simple.
We can’t go around sanitizing everything because that's a lie, too. You can argue that fiction is lie if you like, but don’t bother doing it around me. The greatest truths are disguised as fiction.

Using the words appropriate to the times, especially those that make us cringe, shows us how much we’ve grown as a society.
If it doesn’t, then it shows us that we need to grow.

And in a lovely bit of irony Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury had its cuss words blacked out for school use.

Perhaps whoever did it was making a point as the book is about censorship and book burning. Somehow I don’t believe it’s the case.

At the top of the post I wrote about a book not being a danger to society. No book is a danger to any free and open society that is a democracy in practice as well as in name.

The only danger to society presented by books is they create and foster a society of thinkers. Who would want a world of intellectually curious critical thinkers?

Bedtime Stories

For 17 years now my husband has read me a bedtime story. He thought everyone needed a bedtime story and to this day I can’t find a reason to disagree. We even took a book along on a camping trip to Inuvik, NWT. It was June in the Canadian north and natural light was abundant so a bedtime read was easy.

We’ve gone though many, many books over the years. We’re just in the home stretch of finishing Manda Scott’s quadrology on Boudica, England’s warrior Queen. Next is the final installment of Harry Potter.

He switched jobs recently from running a small health food store to driving a truck. Days are long and he is usually very tired. He’s up early and therefore has to go to bed early.

The fun in the mix is my circadian rhythms have altered a wee bit. I get a minor energy surge right in mid-evening. Right around the time he needs to sleep I feel like writing.

I have a choice: write or spend time with my husband.

If I absolutely must write I can scribble out a few notes and attend to them in the morning. I can get up after the story and write if need be. Certainly there are those moments when I feel I should just get the writing done. I can always have the story tomorrow night.
Well, maybe. But the day will come when I won’t have that option.

What it comes down to is how would I rather spend my time and which would I regret later?

The only thing that matters in life is how we treat people, ourselves included. Work and money and gaining more stuff are secondary. Yes, work is important. If I didn’t think my writing was important I wouldn’t be doing it. Certainly it’s important to me.

But stack it up against time with my husband and a bedtime story? No. That’s just not a real choice.

Story time is sacred. It’s time together and it adds to our quality of life. It’s relaxing and helps us both sleep.

And who would turn down a bedtime story?
Not me. Especially now that the Boudica is about to boot Rome out of Britain and Harry Potter is waiting in the wings.

Bookcase Betrayal

I picked up this meme from Dawn at The Flightless Writer who got it from Michael at Avatar Lore.

According to the rules I have to provide a list of books that I have on my shelves to see if anyone can learn anything about me. It’s not just any book. It has to be them as I’ve paid for as opposed to been given, begged for, borrowed, or stolen.

I was going to be careful about what I selected, but frankly, that just plain defeats the fun.

Here’s my list:

1. The Bible and Flying Saucers – Barry H. Downing

2. Many Lives, Many Masters – Brian L. Weiss, M.D.

3. Coffee, Tea, or Me? – Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones

4. The Past Through Tomorrow – Robert A. Heinlein

5. Tama of the Light Country – Ray Cummings

6. Atlanta Nights – Travis Tea

7. Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendships and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present – Lillian Faderman

8. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – Christopher Moore

9. The Psychic Mafia – M. Lamar Keene (as told to Allen Spraggett)

10. Eats, Shoots and Leaves – Lynne Truss

I tag anyone who wants to play.

Meanwhile, it’s unlikely I’ll post tomorrow as we’re off camping in the blue Canadian Rockies with friends for the weekend.

May I suggest (being shameless ‘n’ all) that you check out Prozac Palace? I did the eight random things about me meme there the other day.

Readers might be amused.