Searching for Amber

December 18, 2022December 18, 2022 elizabethcaulfieldfelt amber, Gdansk, Nature, Poland, travel, weather

Gdansk is famous for its amber, which washes up on its beaches from the Baltic Sea. The history of amber is fascinating, as I’ll let that website explain.

One of my goals in living in Gdansk is to find some amber myself. My first trip to the seaside, in September, let me know I had no idea what I was doing. I saw others picking through debris, and I looked through debris too, not finding anything that fit my idea of amber, translucent and orange. I did find a few rocks/shells/whatever that could be amber? maybe? The pictures of that first amber-hunting expedition are below.

Since that adventure, I’ve visited Gdansk’s very cool Amber Museum, and learned much more about amber. In fact, amber isn’t always translucent orange. I also learned (from the museum and locals) that the best time to find amber successfully is after a storm. Last weekend, a storm was predicted but didn’t materialize. The prediction was moved to Monday. That day, there was a bit of snow and a lot of wind; as a resident of Wisconsin, I wouldn’t call it a storm, but it was the first close-to-a-storm that we’d had, and I wasn’t busy on Tuesday morning, so Andy and I headed to the beach.

(Yes, I used a broken plastic cheese grater to poke through debris and frozen sand.)

Again, I didn’t find anything that jumped out at me as “Amber!” but I picked up some rocks that made me look twice. We also gathered what we thought at the time might be coal, because… coal? There is an energy problem in Europe and maybe somebody would want a few extra pieces? Once everything had warmed up and dried out, what seemed like coal now seems like it might not be coal. I need a geologist friend to look at all this. Kevin and Sherri, want to visit?

One thing I’ve learned in my long walks along the Baltic Sea is that I’m a winter sea kind of gal. The feel of the cold sea air on my face, the frozen sand, and the frigid temperatures are invigorating. Cold air tastes so clean!

Until next time, stay cool, friends!

A Book Series You Must Read!

May 10, 2018 elizabethcaulfieldfelt being happy, book reviews, books, fantasy, Nature, reading

broken earth books

I’m not waiting until my “best books of the year” post to tell you about a series I just finished, N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy. This is one of the best fantasy series I’ve ever read–and I read a lot of fantasy! The first book in the series, The Fifth Season, won the Hugo Award in 2016. The second book, The Obelisk Gate, won the Hugo Award in 2017, and the final book of the trilogy, The Stone Sky, is a finalist for the 2018 Hugo Award (announced in August).

I don’t want to spoil your reading experience by telling you a lot about these books; instead, I’m going to focus on why you should read them.

1. Strong female characters. The main characters in this series are female. The side characters are female. The only-meet-them-once characters are female. Yes, there are male characters, and they are interesting characters, but this is a story about women. The experience of reading this is the inverse of nearly every fantasy novel I’ve ever read.

Talk about whole new worlds!

I fear that by explaining this, you men won’t want to read the series, but you should! You should read it and allow the experience to open your eyes to what it is like to be a female reader of fantasy!

Did I mention that nearly all the characters are black too? Kaboom!

There are excellent reasons, in terms of world building, that this story is populated by people of color and that women are the movers and shakers–read it to find out why!

2. World Building. Another reason to read this series. The development of the setting is phenomenal! This is sort of our world…maybe… not really. Something really bad happened to the Earth (which you don’t discover until the end of the first book), so there are problems with volcanoes and earthquakes and tsunamis, etc. The fifth season refers to a time on the planet when eruptions and earthquakes and other natural disasters damage the air and land so severely that the human race is nearly wiped out–again and again. These “seasons” happen periodically. Here is a poem from The Fifth Season that explains the phenomenon:

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall;

Death is the fifth and master of all.

Did that give you goosebumps? I got them the first time I read it.

3. Symbolism/Metaphor/Literary-ness. There is depth to this story. The plot is exciting and engaging, and you can read and enjoy it just for that. But there is so much more going on. I don’t want to spoil any of this for you, so I won’t explain all the incredible layers of meaning in these books. This is one of those stories that you think about for days, weeks, months after you finish. You can savor this story, over and over, and marvel at all the things N.K. Jemisin accomplished.

That’s it. I hope you are curious and eager to get these books. Let me know, below, if you’ve read them, or if my blog convinces you to read them, and if you love them as much as I do.

Author Interview: Callie Bates

June 21, 2017 elizabethcaulfieldfelt author, books, environment, fantasy, interview, Nature, reading, travel, Wisconsin, writing

Today I welcome Callie Bates to my series of author interviews. Callie is the author of the soon-to-be-released The Waking Land, a young adult-crossover fantasy novel. Her book release party will be in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, on June 27^th at the North Lakeland Discovery Center. I was lucky enough to read parts of The Waking Land in a critique group a few years ago and was not at all surprised when Callie sold the book to Del Rey Books. I’m so excited to read the whole story!

Elizabeth: Callie, welcome! Can you tell my readers about The Waking Land?

callie baties book Callie: Thank you so much for having me! The Waking Land is about a young woman who’s raised as a hostage for her father’s failed rebellion—but when she’s framed for murdering the king, she has to go on the run. Meanwhile, she struggles to understand her repressed, forbidden nature magic. Basically, it has intrigue, romance, revolution and, hopefully, lots of fun!

Elizabeth: How did the first idea of the story come to you?

Callie: I’ve been tinkering with Elanna’s character for years, and she has evolved enormously over that time! I wanted to write a story about a girl forcibly raised away from her home, but who still possesses a deep and undeniable connection to the land and people she comes from—and who, at the same time, is determined to forge her own identity. But, because I didn’t really know what I was doing, it wasn’t until after I wrote a rather long and rather awful multi-point-of-view manuscript that I realized she could have a solo story in her own right. And that I might even be able to figure out how to write an ending for that!

Elizabeth: In what ways is Elanna like you and in what ways is she different?

Callie: We are both stubborn and snarky! However, Elanna is infinitely more hotheaded than I am, has PTSD from childhood trauma, and is much more attached to her perceived truths. (In case anyone wonders: I do not have Stockholm Syndrome!)

Elizabeth: How has living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin influenced this story?

Callie: If I gave Elanna anything of myself, it’s my love of the natural world. I’m deeply rooted in the place where I live. Here, trees outnumber people, and it’s easy to see the land as a character in its own right. I have always been baffled by people who put human needs before the needs of the environment, especially in the era of climate change, instead of seeing us as an interdependent whole. Elanna’s magic is an attempt to unite the experience of being human with the living experience of the land itself.

Elizabeth: How did you get your agent, and how long did it take you to get published?

Callie: Quite simply, I cold queried, and I’m here to tell you that it does work! My agent asked to see a revision of The Waking Land in 2014 and, because I am nothing if not thorough, I took my time and completely rewrote the manuscript in a different voice and tense. Fortunately, she loved it and offered representation. That was in early 2015; we sold the manuscript a few months later. So, it’s been 3 or 4 years since I first wrote this book. However, since I’ve been wanting to publish since I was 11, you could say it’s taken me almost 20 years to get there!

Elizabeth: Congratulations! I am shocked that a cold query worked! Good for you! Can you tell us a little about your writing process?

Callie: I draft by hand in a notebook, then move on to working in Scrivener and Word. My drafts are often too short and skimp on some important moments, so I am often adding word count even in late edits. (Which is not what most writers recommend, but it seems to be how I roll.)

Elizabeth: What are you working on now?

Callie: I’m just finishing up the second book in the trilogy, The Memory of Fire! It jumps to a new narrator—and, for the most part, a new part of the world—though I can’t say too much without giving spoilers for The Waking Land…

Elizabeth: What book(s) have you read recently that you feel passionate about?

Callie: I’m currently reading two I love—The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, which is a wonderful middle grade fantasy, and A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab, which is the culmination of an epic trilogy. I highly recommend both!

Elizabeth: I love The Girl Who Drank the Moon! I’ll put A Conjuring of Light on my TBR list. Tell us more about yourself.

Callie: Aside from writing, I’m also an occasional harpist. I play the folk harp, and I’m also a certified harp therapist, trained to play one-on-one or in group settings at hospitals, nursing homes, and the like, to facilitate the healing process. Unsurprisingly, I’m an outdoor enthusiast. I love to travel, too; many of my better story ideas come to me while I’m ambling around somewhere new. I’ve been writing since I was a kid, studied creative writing in college, and stubbornly persisted until I had a book ready to go out into the world.

We’ve now reached the time in our interview for the let’s-get-to-know-the-author-better, nearly-pointless, sort-of-silly, rapid-fire questions:

Elizabeth: Pizza or salad?

Callie: Pizza!

Elizabeth: Coffee or tea?

Callie: TEA. Black, milk, no sugar.

Elizabeth: Ocean or mountain?

Callie: Both?

Elizabeth: Tree house or doll house?

Callie: Tree house!

Elizabeth: Violin or piano?

Callie: Violin!

Elizabeth: Darcy or Heathcliff?