Sparrow, Always: a guest post by Gail Donovan

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It comes as no surprise Maine is a pretty literary place. We punch far above our weight in sheer numbers,  considering there's just a tad over a million people here. (Of course, Stephen King counts for 57 writers in any other state.)

You might be more surprised to find there are four published authors in my church alone. (Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Portland, Maine, guests and visitors welcome!) One of them is my friend Gail Donovan. She writes middle-grade fiction, loosely defined as reading for kid aged 7-12. 

 

 

Gail has won or been nominated for a boatload of awards and 'best of' picks, and I used to encourage her to branch out from her stand alone novels into a series. "Everyone likes series!" I would say over tea at her comfortable and colorful home. "Just look at me!" But she never found the right character to keep bringing back on stage, as it were, until Sparrow Robinson, who "loves to dance and leap around. She loves cats. She has a million questions about the world, and she’s not afraid to ask them." Sparrow also loves animals, helping find homes for a neighbor's cats in SPARROW BEING SPARROW, rescuing an injured bird in SPARROW SPREADS HER WINGS and, in the upcoming SPARROW, ALWAYS (this November!) getting involved with a service dog-in-training. 

 

I know Gail well, and I know she hasn't personally been involved with any guide dogs (although she does have an adorable granddog who looks like Laika the Space Dog.) So I asked her what was the inspiration for SPARROW, ALWAYS?

 

 

 

This will be embarrassing, but here goes. I was young. The book was Light A Single Candle by Beverly Butler, and the character was a girl named Trudy, who loses her sight and then receives a guide dog. A guide dog! I was so transported by the story I wished that that would happen to me! I spent hours wandering the streets of my suburban Connecticut neighborhood, picturing a dog leading the way.

 

I know better now than to wish that I needed a guide dog, yet I am still in awe of both the power of writing and the deep imaginative leaps that a reader is willing to take. And I still have a deep reverence for guide dogs. So does my character Sparrow, of whom a school librarian said, “Everyone loves a spunky heroine!” 

 

See what happens when Sparrow—spunky, nine going on ten years old, and passionate about animals of all kinds—finds herself living next door to a guide dog puppy raiser, determined to do everything she can to help the puppy pass his test.  

 

Would you like a complimentary copy of Sparrow, Always? Share your story of a book that carried you away— the more embarrassing the better. I’ll pick a winner at random.

 

Sparrow, Always, the third book in a series featuring Sparrow Robinson, will be released by Simon & Schuster this November. You can pre-order here. The first two books are Sparrow Being Sparrow (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and Sparrow Spreads Her Wings (winner of the Maine Literary Award for Young People’s Literature).

Aging Is Like Puberty, And About As Much Fun

Happy Canada Day to all our Northern Neighbors!          

 

 

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I had my annual checkup with my NP recently, and discovered once again almost every physical change or symptom I experience is something "you can expect as you get older." (Did I mention my NP is literally young enough to be my son? Of course he is. Medical practitioners my age are frickin' retiring.)

Trouble with insomnia? "You can expect that as you get older." Bouts of vertigo when I lie down and get up?  "You can expect that as you get older."Acid indigestion? "You can expect that as you get older." I expect if I told him I was growing a second head, I'd find out that, too, is just one of those things that happen as you... you know the drill.

I've been thinking about the last time my body ran away with me - puberty - and decided the physical process of maturing has a lot of similarities with what happens as we age, except that after puberty we get to drink and have sex, while after completing aging... again, you know the drill.

Puberty: I am horrified to find the skin on my face, to which I had never given any thought other than to make sure it was washed, is embarrassing and betraying my by breaking out in zits.

Aging:  I am horrified to find the skin on my face, which I have been lavishing with elaborate and expensive serums, moisturizers and sun screens, has creases that don't iron out and has broken out in solar lentigines, AKA liver spots. 

Puberty: Oh, no, my boobs are getting as big as my grandmother's!

Aging: Oh, no, my bunions are getting as big as my grandmother's!

Puberty: I wake up once a month wracked with cramps. (My first time, when I come downstairs complaining, my mother dances around the kitchen singing, I Enjoy Being A Girl.) 

Aging: I wake up once a month wracked with cramps. I have dared to eat a little too much of whatever food substance my body's decided is verboten right now. Sadly, no on sings and dances in the kitchen.

Puberty: I worry a lot about nuclear war.

Aging: I worry a lot about nuclear war.

Puberty: My joints ache as they strain to keep up with my bones growing three inches in height annually for three years.

Aging: My joints ache from arthritis. Oh, and I've lost three inches in height! What the hell, bones?!?

Puberty: I experience a mix of panic and excitement with I think about cute boys in my middle school.

Aging: I experience a mix of panic and excitement when I think about the balance in my stock and bond portfolio.  

Puberty: Whenever I'm feeling scared or misunderstood or overwhelmed, I escape into books. My fictional friends always make me feel better.

 

Aging: Me too, 14-year-old Julie. Me, too. 

 

 Dear readers, what is your time of life akin to?

Only In The Summer!

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: For those of you broiling in other parts of the US, you’ll be surprised to hear we’ve been having a cold summer in Maine so far. Yes, there was the infernal heat dome last week, and we’ve managed a few days when the temperatures have gotten into the 80s, but otherwise it’s hardly been the kind of weather that inspires lingering over icy drinks on the deck or patio or grilling for guests.

 

Which is why I was delighted the other day when it hit the perfect point of heat (i.e. “Yay, it’s summer,” instead of “65 and drizzling” or “Satan’s bowels.”) It finally felt right to have my first Pimms cup of the summer. To me, it’s the quintessential seasonal drink - I mean, the bottle’s not going anywhere, but I don’t touch it between September and May.

 

There are a lot of foods tied to the calendar and the weather because, well, that’s when they taste best. Strawberries, corn on the cob, home-grown tomatoes. But there are other foods and beverages we could have at any point of the year but… we don’t.

 

An example for me: the grilled hamburger. I like hamburgers! I’ll occasionally order one in a restaurant (there are some great grass-fed-beef places in Portland; hit me up for recommendations if you’re traveling here.) But the ONLY time I make them at home is between June and August, outdoors, and it has to be hot enough that I’m a little uncomfortable standing over the grill (I have the old-fashioned, charcoal briquette kind.) 

 

Or potato salad. I literally make the exact same potato salad summer and winter, but the former gets a mustard-mayo dressing and hard-boiled eggs and the latter gets a bacon-vinegar dressing and no eggs. Why one and not the other? I don’t know! I could serve the vinaigrette cold and the mayo warm, but after 40 years of making this (and more years eating - these recipes come from my mother) they remain strictly, rigorously separated by the time of year and the temperature outside.

 

How about you, Reds? What are your “strictly-seasonal-although-they-don’t-have-to-be” drinks and dinners?

 

HALLIE EPHRON: My favorite seasonal dish is a salad main dish. A corn and basil and Fetah cheese salad. Corn (fresh, boiled and cut off the cob (NOT frozen or canned))  with season’s best cut up tomatoes, a generous handful (or two) of chopped fresh basil, and plenty of crumbled fetah cheese — dressed with a vinaigrette (⅔ olive oil, ⅓ a good balsamic vinegar, S&P). 

 

I confess, messing with the charcoal grill holds no allure for me these days. Though my favorite summer thing used to be a whole turkey roasted over coals. You season the bird as if you were roasting it in the oven. No stuffing. Get a full load of coals hot and push them to the edges so you can put the turkey on a rack with coals NOT directly under it. Let it roast with the lid down. Baste  occasionally with olive oil or butter.

Takes about what it takes to roast it in the oven (use a meat thermometer to test for doneness) and it tastes smokey and sensational and can be eaten hot or warm or cold. 

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, tomatoes! I cannot wait, CANNOT WAIT! For the good summer tomatoes. A tomato sandwich with white toast and mayo and arugula and tomatoes and crazy salt and I am transported. So delicious.

I also love sungold tiny tomatoes cut in half with a tiny slice of mozzarella and topped with fresh pesto.

Or–tomatoes again–capresed with exquisite balsamic drizzle and mozzarella.

Hamburgers cooked outside–yes! We have briquets, too, it is SO much better. 

And salmon grilled outside too, with grilled corn. 

Now I am absolutely drooling.

And you know–I always forget about watermelon. But it is so yummy!

 

RHYS BOWEN:  Summer to me means the farmers market. All that local produce, especially ripe peaches, plums, apricots. Oh, and strawberries. I am not married to a barbecue expert so we only use it if the kids come over but I do love barbecued chicken and shrimp. But a special treat is to pack a sandwich and fruit and take my lunch to a local beach. 

 

LUCY BURDETTE: What the others said–fresh corn on the cob from our favorite local farmer (I never buy grocery store corn out of season), fresh tomatoes, and blueberries. Later in the summer, the Connecticut peaches come in and I buy bushels of them. Here’s one more: a root beer float with sweet cream ice cream from Ashley’s. Oh yum, glad the grandkids will be here so I have a good excuse for that!

 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: This past week we’ve gone from “Oh, yay, I can grill,” to “Oh my God, somebody shoot me if I have to go back outside and it’s still ninety degrees at eight o’clock. That said, I will still grill. I make fabulous burgers with grass fed local beef from our town butcher shop. They also sell the most scrumptious chewy, dark molasses buns from a local bakery.  Tomatoes, however, in spite of the abundance at the farmer’s market, have been disappointing. 

 

But peaches and blueberries are in season here and they have been fabulous. The one thing that absolutely says SUMMER, though? Watermelon! I cart a quarter melon home from the market every Saturday!

JENN McKINLAY: Cherries and peaches mean summer to me. I recently found the absolute best cobbler recipe I have ever had so there’s been a lot of cobbler kicking off this summer season! It’s so hot here in AZ that we try to avoid using the oven and do most of the cooking outside (by we I mean the Hub), so it’s a lot of grilling or crockpotting until the temperatures drop. 

JULIA: What are your fave seasonal foods, dear readers? And are there any, like potato salad and Pimms, you ONLY have during the summertime?