After five-months of practicums, weekly classes, and a grueling 100-question exam, I graduated from the Sonoma County Master Gardener program! Here I am with my … certificate? Degree?

Anyway, I’m a Master Gardener now.

I have been married to Kyle Rankin for 20 years! I can’t believe it. Much of our marriage is recorded on this site.

He is the best, my best friend, the best father, the best husband.

We went to Paris to celebrate. Here we are in a restaurant.

Hello 2020! For the first day of the new year, I took a falconry lesson on a cliff in La Jolla, California. A lanner falcon swooped through the air and landed on my arm while the ocean crashed below and paragliders took off overhead. Not a bad way to start the year.

2019 was a strange, dramatic year, but a lot of great things happened. I sold my first novel, Right Back Where We Started From, which is coming out in 2021. I published a lot, including pieces in Longreads, Alta, and Poetry Foundation. I contributed to an article on the Kincade Fire that was on the front page of The Washington Post. I was awarded a Discovered Awards for Emerging Literary Artists and a residency with Hypatia-in-the-Woods. My essay on George Sterling was a notable in The Best American Essays 2019 and my short story Drought was included in 2019 Best Small Fictions. On top of that, I traveled all around the United States, including New York, California, Michigan, Utah, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, and Hawaii. Whew!

It’s nice to finish off the decade strong. Here’s to an even more exciting and prosperous 2020.

Kyle’s dream has come true. We bought a camper van.

It’s a 1996 Roadtrek Popular 170. Here’s the inside:

While everyone was moaning about 2016, personally it was a great year for me. But 2017 was pretty dumb. Just before Christmas, Kyle’s grandmother Ruth passed away. We just came back from her funeral in Kentucky. For much of the fall, most of California was on fire, including my own beloved Sonoma County. It looked like the fire might come into Petaluma, where I live, but luckily that didn’t happen. Still, lots of people lost their homes or were otherwise affected by the fires. And other dumb stuff happened too. My dad was sick with various illnesses, many things I tried to do failed, and Kyle had work strife that, while eventually resolved, was stressful. Finally, my friend’s cat Peja died, which doesn’t sound like much, but she was a special cat.

Lots of good things happened too. For one thing, I signed with a literary agency.

And I wrote a number of articles that I’m proud of. Some of these include:

Tight Wires Between Us: On “Difficulties of a Bridegroom” by Ted Hughes in LA Review of Books.

Why Aren’t There More Women Working in Audio? in The Atlantic.

Hollywood Loved Sammy Davis Jr Until He Dated a White Movie Star in The Smithsonian.

How Beatrix Potter Invented Character Merchandising in The Smithsonian.

Bountiful Beach Buffet: Fresh Seaweed Is Making Waves Among Foragers for NPR.

Murmur, a short story in Every Day Fiction.

I was also interviewed by CNN and on XRAY In The Morning in Portland, Oregon. This week there’s a Q&A with me on The Navi Review.

Gideon turned five this year and started kindergarten. Kyle, as I said, switched jobs and is now CSO at Purism. He also published a book, Linux Hardening in Hostile Networks: Server Security from TLS to Tor.

For travel, I went to the snow in Tahoe, which was lovely.

And Sequoia National Park, which was astounding.

And Germany and Austria, which was one of the best trips I’ve taken. I blogged about it.

Part 1: Germany
Part 2: Castles
Part 3: Salzburg
Part 4: Hallstatt

Lots of other things happened. I went wine tasting and saw Laura Marling and Martha Wainwright perform at different points and sailed a blow-up boat in the river and went out to fancy dinners and generally had a nice life. I grew a big garden.

Check out this bread I made. It looks just like bread.

I’m looking forward to 2018 being better. I’m being optimistic. I’m going to read a lot of Shakespeare and paint insects and probably go to Greece. I’ll try to write my best work yet. Our country will … not suck so much … ? Well anyway, we’re going to Disneyland on Thursday, so that’s not a bad way to start the year.

Happy New Year!

While in Fussen, Germany, we visited Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles, which were the homes of Mad King Ludwig. The history is fascinating. It’s well worth the side trip to see these castles, which were built in the 1870s. Personally, I liked Hohenschwangau better. You learn more about Ludwig’s family and it’s more leisurely and interesting. They kind of rush you through Neuschwanstein.

Here’s a tip for visiting the castles: You will have to take a 40-minute walk up a mountain to get to Neuschwanstein Castle. It’s quite a hike, although my 5-year-old was able to do it. There are horse-drawn carriages that go up the hill, which may be a better option, especially if you have trouble walking. Either way, you have to factor going up the hill and back down into your visiting time, so make sure you think about that when planning your trip.

(Also, reserve tickets online or get there first thing in the morning. The tours sell out fast.)

Hey, it’s Neuschwanstein on a hill!

And there’s Hohenschwangau. Let’s go there first.

Hohenschwangau is fantastic.

Look at the views!

And this lion statue.

Too bad they wouldn’t let us take pictures inside. Oh well time for a break.

Let’s eat a schneeball, a snowball, which is really a donut ball.

Aw, those horses are kissing.

Now for a walk up the Alps.

That was hard, but here we are. Up close, Neuschwanstein is less fairytale, more scary fortress.

Too bad we couldn’t take pictures inside. Oh well.

Here’s another view with Hohenschwangau in the distance.

And the countryside. Time to hurry down the mountain so we can catch our bus. Thanks, castles.

Next up, Salzburg.

This summer we went to Germany and Austria for vacation. It was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. It was also really long, so I’ll split it up in a few posts and try to touch upon the highlights. First up, general Germany. We went to Munich, Fussen, and Andechs. While there, we:

Went to many beer halls.

Looked at the scenery.

Ate sausages, especially weisswurst:

Walked around towns.

Looked at art.

Sat in meadows.

Admired the Alps.

Wore out our son.

Visited a 900-year-old monastery, where we also drank enormous beers:

In short, Germany was great.

Next up, castles!

We have successfully remodeled our kitchen.

This is something we’ve wanted to do for nine years, since moving into this house in 2007.

Here’s what the kitchen used to look like:

As you can see, the kitchen that came with the house was probably 50 years old. It was dingy and needed to go.

I mentioned in this post how difficult it is to tear out your kitchen and put another one in. At one point, the kitchen looked like this.

We had people install the cabinets and counters, but we did everything else, including painting, plumbing, electricity, and tiling the backsplash behind the stove.

One day in an antique store we ran into a vintage tile mural of Don Quixote fighting a windmill. It was hand-painted from Spain. I knew right away I wanted it for behind the stove.

Up close:

Now the house is 90% remodeled.

Nine. Years. Later.

Whew.

How did you spend your weekend? Aside from a hike in the local park, I spent it putting my stuff away in my new kitchen cabinets. Here they are, along with the muscular harvest of the last of the 2016 Meyer lemons.

Still to do: install a new light, paint one wall, tile the backsplash, replace the blinds, replace the faucet, and–most importantly–put in the countertop. We’re going with black quartz.

It’s a lot, but for the moment, I’m just happy to have cabinets again.

* Along with several other writers, I answered this Q&A question on Howlarium: How does your partner handle those periods when you need to be in your head, be alone to talk to yourself, to lament the latest publisher’s rejection, or otherwise tend to your creative life—how does your partner make room? Interesting talk about it can be difficult for other people to understand the weird needs of writers. Click to read more.

* I went to a writer’s residency in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a great experience. I’ll write a post about it soon.

* I took a trip to Humboldt County to research something I’m writing. It was a great experience. I’ll write a post about it soon.

* My novel was a finalist in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.

* Kyle was on a podcast talking about computer security.

* He’s also Chairperson of the Advisory Board for Purism, which I think sounds so fancy.

* We’re remodeling our kitchen. You guys. It’s stressful. Right now our kitchen looks like this:

* We’re about to go on a 12-day RV trip. We’re renting an RV from Cruise America and driving through Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland.

* When we get back, Kyle is going to Amsterdam to speak at the O’Reilly Security Conference. I don’t get to go, but that’s okay. I’ve traveled plenty this year.

What’s going on with you?