joyandbeyond.com

Hi again. Busy day here I guess.

I’ve just signed up for the Readers Circle so please join me over there. The Readers Circle is an online reading community. It lists book groups across North America. It also makes authors available to reading groups for interviews over the phone, via email and even in person. Its the cutting edge of readers groups!

As I mention on the site, I’m available for phone, email and in person visits. Even though the listing says I’m only available around St. Louis, MO, that’s not quite the case. I’ll be traveling to a number of science fiction conventions and literary fairs so if you’re in one of those locations and we can work out the scheduling for an in-person visit with your group or bookstore, all the better! Check out my website for the current schedule.

Hope to hear from you soon!

If you’re a literate person (which I assume you are since you’re here with us now) and you haven’t met the Wessex Collective yet, please allow me the honor of introducing these talented writers to you. They are a writing collective in the old sense of the word. They live all over the US but they have one aim — to publish high quality literature that would otherwise never find a publishing home. This following missive wes sent to me from Sandy Schwayder Sanchez who manages the Wessex Collective. She’s also the author of two very moving books, Stillbird and The Nun.

Dear all,
The following forward is part of an email one of our authors has sent out to his list of friends about his novel The Marble Orchard which Wessex Collective is publishing this coming summer. Paul’s first novel Killing The Blues was published by St. Martins in 1984 and received very favorable reviews in The New York Times Review of Books. His second novel Operation Remission was published by a smaller publisher ten years later but received even more enthusiastic praise in NYTRB. Paul is/has been a political activist, editor of an alternative magazine and carpenter as well as a novelist. We are very excited to have Paul join the collective.This is a book that is going to appeal most to baby boomers but I’m sending this out (after deleting the personal update) to all of you including the youngsters among you with the request that you forward it on.

Also please do check out our website(undergoing some gradual changes so eventually we should have a more modern look). We now have a distributor to market and sell our books to stores but of course whenever possible we prefer to make direct sales (that would be me: “order fulfillment” is my title). We have three new titles: Peter Burnham’s second novel set in the same small town in Maine as Envious Shadows, The Angry Dust by William Davey (posthumously published for the first time in this country) and Little Bluestem, a collection of short stories set in the rural heartland where the author, Brian Backstrand, got to know his characters well serving them as pastor, hospice chaplain and teacher since the sixties. Brian’s stories remind me of the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. I hope some of you will consider giving one or all of these new books a chance (and we still have plenty of copies of Envious Shadows, The Gift and Stillbird available). Thanks folks, Happy New Year. Sandy

Subject: New Mexico Update 1/4/05From: Paul Johnson
Meanwhile I’ve been having a glorious time by email with Sandy Sanchez & Peter Burnham of the Wessex Collective, discussing all the issues like type face & size, paper, & the cover (right now it looks like Franny’s going to take a crack at designing it), for my novel, THE MARBLE ORCHARD. As most of you know, authors don’t usually get to put their oars into those waters, but Wessex is not your usual sort of publisher, it really is a collective. With my novel, they–or rather, we– are going to try something that until the late 19th C. was the commonest manner of getting a book into print: subscription, it was called, & all it meant was that the writer & his friends would find enough people to buy enough copies in advance to cover the original print bill. That’s how Poe & Melville & everybody else went about it, & it worked pretty well until books became big business. Some books, of course, still are big business, & always will be, & big businessmen continue to publish them; but thanks to all sorts of technological breakthroughs, small-scale publication can allow good books that aren’t bestseller material to find their publics & pay their modest way.

OBEY THE WEIMARANER!
WEIMARANER Propaganda Poster Art by Kevin McCormick
A design of true Weimaraner patriotism. Show your support for this militant breed that inspires “shock and awe” from all who observe them.

Created in the colors of the Weimaraner’s homeland, this propaganda design also features the Weimaraner’s (and Germany’s) motto: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (Unity and Justice and Freedom).

Surrender to the authority of the Weimaraner, and show that you support the Weimaraner’s diabolical World Domination plot with official “Obey the Weimaraner!” propaganda.

Thank you Pete for sending in this short but moving anecdote. If we’ve been fortunate enough to live with dogs we’ve all shared this experience in one way or another. I don’t know who to credit as the original writer but if someone does, please let me know.

A four year old child’s wisdom: Why dogs do not live as long as people? Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family there were no miracles left for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for the four-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.” Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The four-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Out of the mouths of babes…

A letter came across the email today from some new parent who just figured out that their new baby might take up some room and is looking to dump the first of their three pets, two dogs and a cat. It seems that their under-a year-old baby is now crawling and, gosh, surprize of surprizes, they may not have room for the baby and the pets. So they’re dumping the large dog. As they say in the letter, there’s nothing wrong with the dog, no aggression towards the baby or that sort of thing. Its just too crowded. AWWWWWWW.

Maybe it would have taken too much for them to have thought all this out before they accepted the love and trust of the dogs and the cat??? That’s right, I have NO sympathy here for their selfish inability to plan. Put yourself in the dog’s place. He’s done nothing wrong EXCEPT love and trust these nimnills and now he’s being kicked to the curb (or the euthenasia chamber more likely) because its just a bit inconvenient for the twit parents.

Here’s the letter from the twit looking to unload his guilty conscience by dumping his dog on someone who really does care about dogs:

“I have a 4 year old black lab/shephard mix that we need to find a home for. She weighs about 50 pounds, is spayed, and is really great dog. We have an 8 month old son that is starting to crawl all over and we already have a cat and another smaller dog. Unfortunately we just have a 2 bedroom house. Can you help or do you now anyone that can? I can’t bear the thought of bringing her back to the APA (we adopted her from the APA 3 years ago). I can send pictures if interested. “

Obviously, I’m not the only one who feels this is amazingly irresponsible and insensitive behavior because along with the letter from the simpering betrayer of canine trust were the two letters below. The first comes from our friends at the fabulous holistic pet store, Pets in the City on Russell in St. Louis. The second is actually published on the Mutts-n-Stuff wesbsite.

Pets in the City:

“Yhea, hello….my name is ____, I live in a two bedroom house, have four dogs, two cats, and a cussing parrot…AND I have a baby on the way. Yhea, I’m gonna need to get rid of a couple of dogs. Can your rescue take them from me? I’m a complete asshead, and I believe my pets are expendable when my life changes in a way that I assumed it would change when I invited the pets into my house. But, I just wanted the dogs and cats for fun for a while….you know, it was good while it lasted, but now I have a kid, so the fun needs to end for my dogs. Did I mention that I suck and that I am huge dicknugget (editor’s note… interesting turn of a phrase and I will have to learn the origin of this word)?

Oh….and she is a really great dog! Imagine if he had my monkeys; Lexi and Foster? haha Jackass… AHHHHHHH SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Merry Christmas, Asshole….did you think your child would never start to crawl?!?! Oh god…what about when it walks? Will the cat and small dog be next?!?!”

Short but definitely to the point.

From Mutts-n-Stuff—
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Average Pet Owner:
Thank you for contacting us animal rescuers, shelter volunteers, and foster-homes about your inability to keep your pet. We receive an extremely high volume of inquiries and requests to accept surrendered animals (and none of us is getting paid, OK?). To help us expedite your problem as quickly as possible, please observe the following guidelines:
1. Do not say that you are “CONSIDERING finding a good home” for your pet, or that you, “feel you MIGHT be forced to,” or that you “really THINK it would be better if” you unloaded the poor beast. Ninety-five percent of you have already got your minds stone-cold made up that the animal WILL be out of your life by the weekend at the latest. Say so.
If you don’t, I’m going to waste a lot of time giving you common-sense, easy solutions for very fixable problems, and you’re going to waste a lot of time coming up with fanciful reasons why the solution couldn’t possibly work for you. For instance, you say the cat claws the furniture, and I tell you about nail-clipping and scratching posts and aversion training, and then you go into a long harangue about how your husband won’t let you put a scratching post in the family room, and your ADHD daughter cries if you use a squirt bottle on the cat, and your congenital thumb abnormalities prevent you from using nail scissors and etc., etc. Just say you’re getting rid of the cat.
2. Do not waste time trying to convince me how nice and humane you are. Your co-worker recommended that you contact me because I am nice to animals, not because I am nice to people, and I don’t like people who “get rid of” their animals. “Get rid of” is my least favorite phrase in any language. I hope someone “gets rid of” YOU someday.
I am an animal advocate, not a people therapist. After all, for your ADHD daughter, you can get counselors, special teachers, doctors, social workers, etc. Your pet has only me, and people like me, to turn to in his or her need, and we are unpaid, overworked, stressed-out, and demoralized. So don’t tell me this big long story about how, “We love this dog so much, and we even bought him a special bed that cost $50, and it is just KILLING us to part with him, but honestly, our maid is just awash in dog hair every time she cleans, and his breath sometimes just reeks of liver, so you can see how hard we’ve tried, and how dear he is to us, but we really just can’t . . .”
You are not nice, and it is not killing you. It is, in all probability, literally killing your dog, but you’re going to be just fine once the beast is out of your sight. Don’t waste my time trying to make me like you or feel sorry for you in your plight.
3. Do not try to convince me that your pet is exceptional and deserves special treatment. I don’t care if you taught him to sit. I don’t care if she’s a beautiful Persian. I have a waiting list of battered and/or whacked-out animals that need help, and I have no room to foster-house your pet. Do not send me long messages detailing how Fido just l-o-v-e-s blankies and carries his favorite blankie everywhere, and oh, when he gets all excited and happy, he spins around in circles, isn’t that cute? He really is darling, so it wouldn’t be any trouble at all for us to find him a good home.
Listen, we can go down to the pound and count the darling, spinning, blankie-loving beasts on death row by the dozens, any day of the week. And, honey, Fido is a six-year-old Shepherd-Lab mix. I am not lying when I tell you that big, older, mixed-breed, garden-variety dogs are almost completely unadoptable, and I don’t care if they can whistle Dixie or send semaphore signals with their blankies.
What you don’t realize is that, though you’re trying to lie to me, you’re actually telling the truth: Your pet IS a special, wonderful, amazing creature. But this mean old world does not care. More importantly, YOU do not care, and I can’t fix that problem.
All I can do is grieve for all the exceptional animals that live short, brutal, loveless lives and die without anyone ever recognizing that they were indeed very, very special.
4. Finally, just, for pity’ s sake, for the animal’s sake, tell the truth, and the whole truth. Do you think that if you just mumble that your cat is “high-strung,” I will say, “Okey-doke! No problem!” and take it into foster care? No, I will start asking questions and uncover the truth, which is that your cat has not used a litter box in the last six months. Do not tell me that you “can’t” crate your dog. I will ask what happens when you try to crate him, and you will either be forced to tell me the symptoms of full-blown, severe separation anxiety, or else you will resort to lying some more, wasting more of our time.
And, if you succeed in placing your pet in a shelter or foster care, do not tell yourself the biggest lie of all: “Those nice people will take him and find him a good home, and everything will be fine.” Those nice people will indeed give the animal every possible chance, but if we discover serious health or behavior problems, if we find that your misguided attempts to train or discipline him have driven him over the edge, we will do what you are too immoral and cowardly to do: We will hold the animal in our arms, telling him truthfully that he is a good dog or cat, telling him truthfully that we are sorry and we love him, while the vet ends his life.
How can we be so heartless as to kill your pet, you ask? Do not ever dare to judge us. At least we tried. At least we stuck with him to the end. At least we never abandoned him to strangers, as you certainly did, didn’t you? In short, this little old rescuer/foster momma has reached the point where she would prefer you pet owners to tell her stories like this:
“We went to Wal-Mart and picked up a free pet in the parking lot a couple of years ago. Now we don’t want it anymore. We’re lazier than we thought. We’ve got no patience either. We’re starting to suspect the animal is really smarter than we are, which is giving us self-esteem issues. Clearly, we can’t possibly keep it. Plus, it might be getting sick; it’s acting kind of funny.
“We would like you to take it in eagerly, enthusiastically, and immediately.
“We hope you’ll realize what a deal you’re getting and not ask us for a donation to help defray your costs. After all, this is a (almost) purebred animal, and we’ll send the leftover food along with it. We get the food at Wal-Mart too, and boy, it’s a really good deal, price-wise.
“We are very irritated that you haven’t shown pity on us in our great need and picked the animal up already. We thought you people were supposed to be humane! Come and get it today. No, we couldn’t possibly bring it to you; the final episode of “Survivor II” is on tonight.”

‘Nuff said. And my dogs send their round of applause to both authors.

THANK YOU to Pets in the City for recommending Haint in their December newsletter.
Here is the full text of the letter www.thecitypet.com/newsletter.html


I am also most impressed that Amy put out this newsletter in the last weeks of her pregnancy - we are all so anxious to meet the newest Pizano! (now if she would just come over and get all the baby stuff I’m saving for her!!)

The next time you hear dogs making sounds you don’t recognize, you might want to stop and listen. A Spokane behaviorist has found that the panting bark of some dogs is actually a laugh AND it calms down other dogs.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=1370911

The tip on this article came from the Comparative Psych News on Yahoo Groups if you’re looking for other information on animal research.

I’m still looking for info on the Patricia Simonet who did the research. If anybody knows Ms. Simonet or how to contact her, let me know. It sounds like some useful info for the Haint sequel.

Hmm, calms down dogs… What about humans? Other species? I feel a twist coming on…

I’m watching the Weims playing with Annie and the foundling Beatrice the Beagle (don’t blame me, the HaintGirl named her, not me) and I am fascinated at how different the hound language is from that of the Weims. The Weims are more concerned with their dignity so they pick and choose when they want to be and how they are touched by the others. the coonhound Annie (who appears to be part Ridgeback) is not as standoffish. She mouth-wrestles and rolls around on the floor with some abandon.

Beatrice is even less concerned with her personal standing in the pack. That doesn’t mean she has no dignity. In fact, in some ways her open warmth and sense of fun make her even more secure within herself and with the other dogs. She isn’t tenuous when she approaches them. Beatrice just sails in and expects to be welcomed. Sometimes she is and sometimes she isn’t. In either case, she holds no grudges.

The Weims on the other hand REALLY hold grudges. Okay, maybe not true grudges but they have their own little lists. Some days it seems they take names. That’s what happened with Sol and Annie when they had their little battle. Sol seemed to be thinking about things and decided it was time to get on with it.

Everything is fine now. Sol and Annie run together and even cuddle in Sol’s somewhat diffident way with other dogs. Don’t you wish humans could get that knack? “Okay Bob, we fought it out and how its time to have a run and a cuddle. A little blood this way or that, oh well.” I guess in some ways guys do that better than women. Maybe it goes back to the fact that male primates tend to have relationships based on pack position (and that changes a good bit) and female primates have longer term relationships based on shared families, events and other types of things that don’t change as often. Check out De Waal’s work for more on this side of our “monkey minds.”

But back to dog language. Annie and Beatrice seemed to be able to communicate perfectly the moment they met. Its kind of like being in Moscow, having struggled with imperfect Russian because no one around you speaks English and suddenly up comes another English speaker. What a relief! You can relax and quit translating what you mean into their language. I think its the same for Annie. Annie and Beatrice both speak “Hound” and so they can be at ease with one another. And that’s what happened. Annie let Beatrice curl up next to her belly and hang out with her. Meanwhile the Weims stuggled to understand Annie’s language and, as is wont to happen in such cases, misinterpreted her motions.

Funny thing about that too is that some of the Weims are perfectly happy with learning “hound” and others are not as happy. Its like those of us who rejoice in human differences and learning about new cultures. Maybe its a natural way of being for some (humans and dogs) to accept and ultimately embrace difference in cultures and people. The reverse may be true as well.

Or could it be that there’s a mixture of natural acceptance and ability to emotionally handle external changes? For example, Cloudy has never been a great one for change. Some days she doesn’t even like going on walks until she’s forced out the door on a lead. She’s the worst one for leanring “hound.” Sol loves walks and meeting new people. he’s actually learning “hound” pretty well and I caught him hanging out with and playing with Beatrice.

I’ll pass on more as I learn it.

Some days even I am amazed at how the truth seems to seep out in odd ways. If you missed it, a great article from Yahoo News came out about dogs actually helping kids to read. It seems that the dogs are good listeners and encourage kids to read because they are happy to listen to anything.
If you want more details here’s the link to the article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051123/ap_on_re_us/teachers_pets;_
ylt=AprC2XTAUHNRrrhTUBSnumt4hMgF;
_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA

I wonder if this means that we need to have some dogs as Listeners in the Haint sequel? hmmm.

Two posts in one day. I must have some really inspiring articles coming my way!

This next post comes via TomPaine.com, one of the best conduits of political commentary. Its the legendary Bill Moyers’ insightful speech to the Environmental Press Corp in October 2005.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051007/caring_for_creation.php

Why do I link it here? Because I get a lot of questions from readers as to whether or not I have any hope for humanity’s far future. After you read this speech from one of America’s great journalists, I think you’ll understand why I think our species’ chances are 50/50 on a REALLY good day.