Beth Carpenter Books

Have you ever seen a little piece of nature that seems completely different from the area around it? Maybe a fern-filled grotto around a spring in the desert? Or a wildflower meadow in the center of a dense forest? Enchanted places? Not far from Silver City, New Mexico, we found such a place in City of Rocks State Park. In the middle of a rolling grassy plain, an ancient volcano left behind a core of hard rock that had eroded and weathered into what looks like a city on the hill.    It's easy to imagine a thriving city, magically turned to stone. Like all cities, it has streets and alleys, windows and doors. It's nicely landscaped, with wildflowers,  live oaks, and desert plants. Rock City has quite a few permanent residents, although they are a little camera shy. Weathered rocks are a little like cloud formations, stimulating the imagination. If I stare at them for very long, I begin to...

Last month I talked about a few of my favorite words ( Collecting Words ) but that's only the beginning.  Word collecting is great, because words are not only free, they don't have to be dusted. The ones I like best are words that invoke a special meaning and also dance off the tongue. How about these? Debacle Not a near miss, not even a nice try, but a huge, total, spectacular failure. A fiasco.  The debacle might well have been caused by someone's ... Shenanigans Mischief, or maybe something more nefarious. Secret, dishonest manipulations. And can't you just hear the Irish accent? Huckleberry Like a blueberry, but a bigger, sweeter, wilder version. In my mind, huckleberries  are always connected to a special camping trip to Montana. Also slang for "the man you're looking for." The one who can get the job done. "I'm your huckleberry." Mosquitos and No-see-ums Be honest. Don't you feel itchy just hearing the nam...

Last week, my husband decided to go fishing, and invited me along. At first I declined, looking forward to a full day of writing. But the weather forecast said it would be a beautiful day, rare in September. The Kenai River draws visitors from all over the world. How could I pass up the opportunity?  It was the right decision. Just on the drive down, we saw four swans in Potter's Marsh and a couple of dozen belugas in Turnagain Arm. Once we reached the Kenai Peninsula, we had to brake to avoid a bull moose that ran across the road. The Kenai River itself is beautiful, with just enough glacial silt from feeder creeks to give the river a slightly milky turquoise color. The water ran high, and the fishing wasn't good. My husband only hooked some spent cohos and one small trout. The pair of bald eagles watching him seemed disappointed, too. I guess they were hoping for the castoffs.  Personally, the lack of fish didn't bother me at all. We already have more fish in ...

In honor of National Dog Day, I'd like to share a few moments from the life of a happy, funny, and loyal companion, Roxy. Roxy likes to play. Always. She's happy to chase a ball, or tug on a rope, or pounce on a laser pointer. She even thinks the reflected sunbeams from her dog-tags are a toy and chases them across the wall. She thinks every action is an invitation to play, including vacuuming the living room, when she attacks the vacuum cleaner and lifts it from the floor.  She enjoys watering the garden ... and shoveling snow ... and she likes to find the hidden icicles and carry them away to hide them.  This one was a little more than she could handle. When we adopted her, we told Roxy she wasn't allowed on  the couch,  but she assured us she was.  Guess who won that battle. Happy National Dog Day. I hope you have someone who bring as much joy into your life  as Roxy does to mine.

E nglish is a rich language, mostly because of our habit of plundering words from other languages all over the world. As a writer, I like reaching for just the right word, the word that conveys my meaning exactly. Sometimes it’s illusive, but often the perfect word is right there, waiting. I love words, playing with them and moving them around. I love collecting interesting words and storing them away for later, like jars of jam.  These are a few of of my favorite words. Not that I necessarily use them often, but I love the pictures they paint. Illumine    http://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Sistine-Madonna.html It means to enlighten, to convey the truth, but to me it means so much more. I picture illuminated manuscripts, with rich detail incorporated into the text like the ones at here , at Diana Wilder's blog. To illumine is to bring knowledge that glows with light, like a Raphael painting. Kerfuffle   Can’t you just see the dust flying, ...

Hospitality: the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers .   -dictionary.com Summer is the time for visitors, at least here in Alaska . As we’ve been getting the house ready for guests, I’ve been thinking about hospitality. I’ve been on the receiving end of hospitality countless times, with friends and relatives who share their homes, their meals, and their lives. They’ve been welcoming and generous, but one of my most memorable acts of hospitality was unexpected. Once upon a time, my husband and I were on a camping vacation in Montana. We set up the tent in a state park campground. The woman in the camping spot next door greeted us and said they'd come to pick wild huckleberries. When I mentioned I'd never tasted a huckleberry, her mouth dropped open in surprise. She ran into their camper calling, "They've never tasted huckleberries!"  and returned with a small box full of what looked like giant blueberries. They tasted like blueb...

Have you ever had one of those encounters where someone wounds you with a cutting remark, and you’re tongue-tied? You know they’re wrong, that you should be able to defend yourself, but you can’t think of anything to say that doesn’t make it worse. Then later your think of the perfect comeback? I know I have. One of the perks of writing fiction is the ability to use these moments, to rewrite life so that this time, I come out on top. And in my writing, I can capture other missed opportunities. Photography is a long-time hobby of mine. My father taught me to use a twin-lens reflex camera with manual focus and light settings. It produced a 2 1/4 inch square negative that made developing and printing a breeze. But I missed a lot of shots trying to adjust the focus and aperture/shutter speed on that camera. Besides, the thing was huge, not something you’d carry around casually. Nowadays, the high-quality camera in my cell phone means I can snap a picture whenever something catches my ...