A small invention that sheds a whole new light on things.
The other day, I got my first pair of reading glasses. All of a sudden, reading, computers, knitting–even the fine print at the store–is SO much clearer. I’ve had regular glasses since the third grade, so you’d think I wouldn’t be surprised, but it’s easy to forget how much difference a new pair of glasses can make.
My optician told me he’d been to a workshop to learn to make a pair of glasses out of one piece of wire. It was challenging even for people trained to make glasses. You only get one shot.
But it doesn’t need electricity and it means people don’t have to wear glasses that almost work because they’re someone else’s old glasses.
The raw materials for each pair cost one dollar which means the sales tax from my recent glasses would pay for 30 pair.
It makes me happy to think that 30 people could finally see what they’re looking at! Hope they have good books to read! đ
If youâd like to stay in touch, sign up for my Readerâs List. Once a month, I share new middle grade fiction, story-related freebies, and/or related blog posts. If itâs not your thing, you can unsubscribe at any time.
If youâd like to stay in touch, sign up for my Readerâs List. Once a month, I share new middle grade fiction, story-related freebies, and/or related blog posts. If itâs not your thing, you can unsubscribe at any time.
These 500 olive trees have nothing to do with antifreeze colors, so this is foreshadowing. Sciacca, Sicily. Š Laurel Decher, 2016.
We have a supposedly American car, a Ford Fusion, but it lives in Germany, so it has to have German antifreeze. Natch.
Instead of 5-gallon, yellow, Prestone jugs, Germany has white, soda-bottle-sized KĂźhlerfrostschutz bottles.
I was a little leery about KĂźhlerfrostschutz, because buying oil for the car was a major research project, even after I copied down all the numbers from my two-volume car owner’s manual. I’ve lived in places with cold winters all of my life, so I get the 10W40 and 5W30 and such (thanks, Dad!).
Still, I was unprepared to be an oil buyer. In Germany, the make and model of my car influences the kind of oil. Really? Remember, it’s a Ford Fusion, not an airplane.
Newsflash: Germany is the land of car drivers. I somehow missed that. I was taken in by the excellent train system.
So, I was cautious about making an impulsive antifreeze purchase. The wrong kind might give my car culture shock. At a local building mart, I asked which antifreeze I should buy, figuring the Hellweg* would be as close to Target or Wallmart as I could get.
*(The name doesn’t mean what you’re thinking–it actually means path of light, but that’s only true at Christmas decoration season. The other building mart is called Obi which sounds like Star Wars, but isn’t.)
My first advisor said he thought the blue antifreeze was for newer cars and red was for older ones, but–maybe because he was half my age–we weren’t quite clear on what ‘older’ meant.
My second advisor said if the car had ‘red’ already in it, it should always get red, because you NEVER mix them. This seemed like an astonishingly simple answer for a car-related topic in Germany.
I asked if there could possibly be another color, but he was very firm: “There’s red and there’s blue.”
So I bought ‘red’, diluted it 50:50 with water, filled up my car, and felt generally virtuous and good-stewardly.
At the grocery store, I found the same antifreeze for half the price. Forget all those rules about what to buy where. What’s worse, I found another color: purple!
What if the red and blue got mixed together one day at the factory and. . .presto, new product? I can’t tell you. I shut my eyes to the purple. It’s the color of Byzantine Emperors and has nothing to do with lowly writers. I remain true to ‘red’.
While at the grocery store, I tried to buy black olives for salad. They all were labelled “geschwärzt” meaning ‘blacked’ like. . .uh, shoe-black.
I always thought black olives were ripe forms of green ones, in the same way that red sweet peppers are ripe forms of green peppers.
Another newsflash: Black olives can be simply ripe olives, but some have Eisen-II-Gluconat (E 579/ferrous gluconate) added to the brine to make them blacker or to ‘fix’ the black color. Evidently, this doesn’t make black olives a good source of dietary iron, but I’m not sure why not.
If you’d like to read about the 500 olive trees from the beginning of this post, you can find their story here.
Best wishes with your purchases of whatever color! May your 2018 be filled with happy meals featuring a healthy Mediterranean diet and safe transportation!
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If youâd like to stay in touch, sign up for my Readerâs List. Once a month, I share new middle grade fiction, story-related freebies, and/or related blog posts. If itâs not your thing, you can unsubscribe at any time.
Need book recommendations for the 9 to 12 year old readers on your gift list? Here are the 10 books for this age group I really, really enjoyed in 2017.
This list has heartwarming adventure stories about orphans, the Middle Ages, life in the theater, and adventures at sea. Quite a few of these will make you laugh out loud!
For more about a book, click on the title to read my GoodReads review.
1. EMELIN by Jackie Randall is a story of a girl with a rare talent for illustrating books. Her talent is the only thing that stands between her and lifetime of hunger.
Who is this for?
Readers who love the Middle Ages!
Readers who love scrappy heroines!
Readers who love books about books!
2. THE INQUISITOR’S TALE by Adam Gidwitz is an exciting story with entertaining illustrations–arrows shoot across one of the pages–and three very different children and a magical dog.
Who is this for?
Readers who love the Middle Ages + magic!
Readers who love funny + true characters + amazing plot twists!
Readers of graphic novels/comic books who enjoy fast-paced, illustrated adventures.
3. E. G. Foley’s THE LOST HEIR (Book 1 of The Gryphon Chronicles)is a historical fantasy set in a fantastic Victorian London and is charming all the way through. E.G. Foley–the husband and wife team who author these books–clearly know what young readers will enjoy.
Who is this for?
Readers who like to fly!
Readers who love unicorns, mermaids, villains, fairies and Queen Victoria!
Readers who want every chapter to deliver!
4. Gary L. Blackwood’s THE SHAKESPEARE STEALER is the exciting and twisty story of a scrappy orphan boy called “Widge” who gets the job of stealing Mr. Shakespeare’s newest play.
Who is this for?
Readers who love theater!
Readers who love backstage secrets!
Readers who love series!
5. Holly Goldberg Sloan’s SHORT is the hilarious story of a girl who is short for her age. She gets a part as a Munchkin in the local production of The Wizard of Oz. Short people are calling the shots and that changes everything!
Who is this for?
Readers who love theater!
Readers who love to fly!
Readers who love when kids are in charge!
6. Linda Sue Park’s A SINGLE SHARD is about the orphan, Tree-Ear, who wants to “throw” the famous pottery vases that are beautiful enough for royalty. A philosophical, whimsical, and beautiful book!
Who is this for?
Readers who love the film, THE KARATE KID!
Readers who love the Middle Ages + Asia!
Readers who want to know what life was like for an orphan in Korea a long time ago!
7. Lauren Wolk’s BEYOND THE BRIGHT SEA is a warm adventure story with lots of fascinating angles! I loved this book.
Who is this for?
Readers who love ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS and sea adventures!
Readers who love ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and warm friendships and adoptive families!
Readers who love buried treasure!
8. Ellen Booraem’s TEXTING THE UNDERWORLD is a wacky story that really shouldn’t work at all and the perfect cure for a gloomy winter day when you need to laugh out loud!
Who is this for?
Readers who love to laugh!
Readers who love when the underdog wins!
Readers who love colorful families!
9. Jessica Day George’s PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL is a re-telling of the fairytale called the twelve dancing princesses in English and die zertanzte Schuhe in German. I actually liked the second book in the series even more: THE PRINCESS OF GLASS.
Both of my children really enjoyed this book when they were younger. I finally read it and it’s so much fun! Excellent and funny.
Who is this for?
Readers who love school stories!
Readers who want to make their mark on the world!
Readers who love stories about what happens when you don’t follow the “rules”!
BONUS: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer’s THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND (Young Reader’s Edition)Â is the true story of a boy who reads about physics in his tiny village library after a famine means he can’t pay school fees any more. He’s determined to build a tower that will keep his family from ever going hungry again.
Who is this for?
Readers who love libraries!
Readers who love true heroes!
Readers who want to be inspired!
WARNING for sensitive readers: there’s a very sad part about William’s dog that could be challenging. I skipped over some parts during the famine times, but the rest of the story is perfect for all readers!
Best wishes for wonderful holidays with your loved ones!
Happy reading and writing!
See you in 2018!
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The more I think about it, the more I wonder if we are spending our imaginations in the wrong direction. My husband suggested that it was about time for something really, really good to happen. How about a peaceful reunification of North and South Korea?
As a writer of fiction, I know that imagination is a muscle. The more you use it, the longer it works and the stronger it is. Whenever I talk more than I write, the muscle atrophies a little.
I mean, if you could imagine any wonderful thing coming to pass in 2018, what would it be? Is it hard to come up with a positive suggestion? It’s so much easier to complain about things that need to be fixed.
In Berlin, there’s a fascinating and, I think, even-handed exhibit about the pain and hope in Sweden, Korea, Tanzania, and the U.S.A. after the Protestant Reformation.
The exhibit is a mixture of amazing historical artifacts– like
the moose leather tunic the King of Sweden wore while miraculously surviving a battle in 1627,
an amazing rune stick/sword sheath,
a traditional wedding crown for a SĂĄmi bride, the Laplander culture in the far North of Sweden,
and eyewitness accounts from people all over the world about how their lives have changed over the last 500 years.
One of my favorite discoveries was the Peace Train that traveled from Germany to Korea via Russia in 2013 to peacefully demonstrate for reunification. Here’s a post about the Peace Train in English. A lot of people used their imagination to come up with this one.
A Freedom Train was established in 2014 that travels right to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. One bridge is broken and the other is newly repaired. It’s a powerful image of something that wants to be completed.
This pair of bridges reminds me so much of the abandoned underground train stations between East and West Berlin. As an exchange student in Germany, I spent countless evenings listening to fellow students argue about whether Germany could ever be reunited.
Guess what? There are still scars, but Germany is one country now.
Is it naive to believe that good is possible? The stories we tell ourselves matter. Imagination is a muscle that we can build. What if we all imagined something good–together?
Here’s to a wonderful, peaceful, hopeful 2018!
DMZ Train Imjingak May 21, 2014 From Seoul Station to Dorasan Station Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Korean Culture and Information Service Korea.net (www.korea.net) Official Photographer: Jeon Han ————————————————————— ííě´ě°¨ DMZ Train ěě§ę° 2014-05-21 ěě¸ě-ëëźě°ě 돸í체ěĄę´ę´ëś í´ě¸ëŹ¸ííëł´ě ě˝ëŚŹěëˇ ě í
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If youâd like to stay in touch, sign up for my Readerâs List. Once a month, I share new middle grade fiction, story-related freebies, and/or related blog posts. If itâs not your thing, you can unsubscribe at any time.
If youâd like to stay in touch, sign up for my Readerâs List. Once a month, I share new middle grade fiction, story-related freebies, and/or related blog posts. If itâs not your thing, you can unsubscribe at any time.
October vineyards in Mayschoà in the Ahr valley, Germany. ŠJan Decher, 2017.
People look beautiful and shiny to me just now. When I look at families pushing baby strollers or see young couples deciding how to spend their money in the grocery store, or older couples making careful choices, I’m struck with how “temporary” they look.
A little more than a week ago, I almost lost my husband to pulmonary emboli* while we were standing on the sidewalk, waiting for the light to change. Thanks to the quick first aid work of our youngest, a passing doctor who stopped, and a kind person who called the ambulance, my husband got almost immediate care.
The whole thing feels impossible. No set-up, no foreshadowing. The week before we were hiking for hours in the sunlit Ahr valley.
We’ve been given another chance. It’s tantalizing to know what to do with it because it feels like a “temporary” awareness. My brain keeps trying to tell me I imagined the whole thing: “There’s no need to change anything now.” But I want to remember long enough to benefit from the experience. It’s a gift that we are still here together.
The next day, I stumbled over this Bible passage in the daily reading:
19Â Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah. 20Â God is to us a God of deliverances; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death.
I underlined it in my Bible years ago, but I had forgotten it. It makes me think about all the people in dangerous places, escaping with their lives.
We were just standing on a street corner and people came to help us right away. Humbling.
Thank you to the EMT‘s Notfallsanitäter from the Bonn Feuerwehr and to the staff at the St. Peter’s hospital, the Petruskrankenhaus!
*Public health note on pulmonary emboli: I’m an epidemiologist not a doctor, so this is my population-level view. đ Basically, a thrombus or a blood clot–often in the legs–cuts off the circulation at a fixed point, causing swelling and sharp pain. Some people don’t appear to have this warning or misinterpret it as something else.
A pulmonary emboli is like a rogue assassin. It breaks free from a thrombus somewhere and gets stuck in the lungs, causing shortness of breath and sometimes collapse and death. Blood thinners can be given to prevent pulmonary emboli if you know you are at risk. See your doctor. đ
If you want to know what puts people at risk for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, this nested case-control study from the Mayo Clinic gives a good list: Surgery, trauma, hospitalization or nursing home confinement, cancer with or without chemo, pacemaker/catheter, superficial vein thrombosis, neurologic disease with partial paralysis. Varicose veins are a stronger risk factor for younger people (45 years) than for older people.
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If youâd like to stay in touch, sign up for my Readerâs List. Once a month, I share new middle grade fiction, story-related freebies, and/or related blog posts. If itâs not your thing, you can unsubscribe at any time.
6. Linda Sue Park’s 
I’m over at The Winged Pen today with a round-up of the best online mentors to help you plan a series of novels.
