New Glacier Park Adopt a Trail Program

Iceberg Lake near Many Glacier Hotel

Since three out of my four novels are partially set in Glacier National Park's Swiftcurrent Valley, I'm happy to see that the Glacier Park Fund's new "adopt a trail program" includes four of the trails that have appeared in my fiction:

1. Ptarmigan Tunnel
2. Iceberg Lake
3. Swiftcurrent Pass
4. Grinnell Glacier

While more information will appear on the Glacier National Park Fund's website soon, the program features Golden Eagle Level adoptions for $10,000 a year and Osprey Level adoptions for $5,000. The money from smaller donations will go into a general adopt a trail fund.

The reason for the program is simple: Congress doesn't appropriate enough money to sustain the park and its some 700+ miles of trails. These trails are damaged by wind, water, snow, and visitor usage. Since the National Park Service cannot afford to maintain all of the trails in the park, the Glacier Park Fund is trying to pick up the slack.

Malcolm

All That Clutter on Facebook

No doubt, Facebook might in some ways be like a garage sale where one person's trash is another person's clutter.

But seriously, there are days when I think some of those on my friends list don't have enough to do. All of us on FB have probably shared or posted quotes, humorous YouTube videos, and various photographs or drawings of animals and/or famous people purportedly saying something that might be funny.

But when I see hundreds of witty sayings clogging up my newsfeed, I start noticing that some people are sitting at their computers for hours, posting a new canned graphic and "witticism" every 30 seconds. I'll stipulate that I am in the retirement generation, so it's highly possible that I "don't get it," but what's the point of deluging all of us with this stuff?

Or, are people just too bored for their own good?

It would be nice to see some actual personal news or a mention about the relatives coming to town or even the weather.

Cluelessly,

Malcolm

Plotting your personal story

I'm enjoying reading "Riting Myth Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story" by Dennis Patrick Slattery because it meshes well with my interest in mythology as well as the concept that we learn more about ourselves while writing. He uses writing meditations and prompts, of course, rather than looking at the work a writer turns out in hopes of producing published poems or stories.

Every novel and short story I've written has taught me something about myself. I think that's especially true when one writes about his or her passions and special areas of interest. Slattery uses quote from Jose Ortega y Gasset in his book's introduction that sets the tone as well as how I feel about what I like to write:

"Why write, if this too easy activity of pushing pen across paper is not given a certain bull-fighting risk and we do not approach dangerous, agile and two-horned topics."

I knew my novel Sarabande was a risk when I wrote it, for who would accept a man writing about the very personal journey of a woman, especially one that included a sexual assault?  Sure, I need money like everyone else these days and would like to see a groundswell of novel sales or some big magazine checks for my short stories. But every time I write with "big sales" in mind, the writing founders.

My personal story appears too closely linked with my writing interests for me to ever write something I don't care about in hopes of having HarperCollins call. What about you? Is your writing very personal? Do you find that it always seems to press your own hot buttons or throw gasoline on your own issues?

You May Also Like

• My interview with author Smoky Zeidel has been posted on Malcolm's Round Table. We talk about her new novel The Storyteller's Bracelet.
• I enjoyed reading River Dragon Sky and posted my review on Literary Aficionado. I think it needed a stronger plot, but the theme, place setting and characters are compelling.

Have a great weekend and make sure to include time to read.

Malcolm

Short Fiction: a great place to play with alternative realities

Childhood house and woods.

In the neighborhood where I grew up, the houses on our street backed up to a fair sized wood which had two houses in the middle of it. The people in the houses never seemed to mind that many of us climbed over the fence and played along the periphery of their property. By the time I was in high school, I seldom climbed over the old fence any more.

But I did enjoy the privacy afforded by the wood. It was a haven for birds. A very large short-leaf pine stood just behind our back fence, framing our yard; if you knew where to look, you could see that pine from the front yard high above the roof of the house. Those trees gave the impression we actually lived IN the woods.

I always worried about a developer buying out that property and shoving an ugly subdivision--complete with noisy kids and backyard stereos--up against our older early 1950s neighborhood. This didn't happen while I lived there or even while my parents lived there. But, there's a subdivision sitting in what used to be the sacred forest. I've seen it with Google maps, including their street view which shows me every house and road--and I'm happy that I no longer live there and that I missed whoever cut down the large short-leaf pine.

As I focus on short fiction this year, I can play with alternative realities. I've placed another family in our old brick house. A young girl loves the sound of the Chuck-will's-widow in the woods and her grandmother pine tree. She gets word that the property might be sold and, as I did, worries about the fate of the birds, trees, blackberry bushes and other wonders of the wood.

I'll stipulate that she has an author behind her story who's willing to add touches of fantasy to give her a hand in figuring out how she might save the woods. Who knows whether this short story will ever see print. But it felt good writing it.

With my quantum view of reality, I believe that everything that can happen does happen. So, in some nearby universe, my favorite tree is still standing and my woods remains healthy and inviting for seventh graders, Chuck-will's-widows, bunnies and squirrels, and the other magical creatures of the Florida Panhandle.

--Malcolm

Mystics and Avatars in a Science and Technology World

I've always liked the title of Jack Kornfield's book about the spiritual path, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. Whether it's authors attending conferences or spiritual seekers attending retreats and seminars, the high of the lectures, meditations and fellowship often wears off after one gets back home to grocery shopping, laundry and a world that often seems to discount writers' and seekers' insights.

In his introduction, Kornfield writes, "Our realizations and awakenings show us the reality of the world, and they bring transformation, but they pass."

Many years ago, I attended a weekend Silva Method course that taught, among other things, how to meditate and see with your inner eye what your physical eyes cannot see. During and immediately after the course, my friends and I felt a spiritual ecstasy that convinced us we'd been handed the keys to the kingdom. I still use the techniques I learned, but the ecstasy has long since passed.

While many people asked me about the course and were flabbergasted when I could, for example, tell them about people they knew whom I had never met, it was obvious that they also felt I had transformed into a weird, non-normal human being. Even though everyone who took the course could do what I could do, those who didn't take the course saw the knowledge coming from it as parlor tricks, the work of the "devil" or otherwise suspect.

I found it difficult to "stay true" to what I learned when society itself not only discounted it, but viewed the beliefs with contempt. Some of these thoughts were on my mind when I posted What if Harry Potter Bought the House Next Door to You? on my Malcolm's Round Table blog. My feeling was that if Harry moved into the neighborhood and openly practiced magic, he would be persecuted.

The Sun Singer and Sarabande

Since my reality is that spiritual seekers are distrusted by everyone but the choir of there own like-minded friends, this is the reality of my contemporary fantasy novels. In The Sun Singer, Robert Adams' avatar grandfather wants to teach him spiritual truths. Robert's parents--who represent society's views--are opposed to this and don't like his hero's journey quest.

Robert succeeds on his quest and The Sun Singer ends on a hopeful note. However, by the time my title character finds him in Sarabande, not only has the high of his accomplishments worn off, Robert has all but turned his back on the quest because of the way his parents and friends are viewing his transformation.

Likewise, Sarabande ends on a hopeful note after Sarabande goes through hell on her heroine's journey quest to confront her sister. Like Robert's parents, Sarbande's mother tries to discourage her from going on her journey. Fortunately, Robert came through and helped her, and I remain hopeful that the ecstasy of their suffering and transformations never wears off.

Personally, I think that what one gains from meditation and transformation never really passes away even though the initial high of it cannot be maintained or even recaptured. Kornfield's "laundry" is the reality that we face when we come back from the journey. We just need to remember where we went and what we learned while we were there. I hope my readers feel the same way as they read my contemporary fantasies.

Malcolm

Run, it's an avalanche of books

While reading and reviewing Jeffrey T. Babcock's wonderful novel Should I Not Return (based on a controversial mountain climbing tragedy on Mt. McKinley), I kept noticing the waiting stack of books I've also promised to read and review. One of the risks a mountain climber faces is getting caught in an avalanche. I'm starting to think an avalanche of books is a little-known danger for critics and reviewers.

Unfortunately, I have to turn down more review requests than I can accept simply because I'm not a fast reader. (I don't understand people who can read an 80,000-word book over the weekend and then write a review of it the following Monday.) So, here in this small den where the bookshelves already cover the walls like thick wallpaper, books are piled on top of anything. Anything (such as one of my cats) could set off a rumbling cascade of books at any moment. Note: my real shelf is larger than the one in the picture.

If you have sent me an ARC, I haven't forgotten you, I promise. I know it sounds lame, but I'm backed up, running behind, and trying to catch up.

You May Also Like:

• Briefly Noted: 'The Storyteller's Bracelet' by Smoky Trudeau Zeidel (Malcolm's Round Table)
• rivers within us I posted this after my wife and I took a float trip while celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC this past week. (Magic Moments)
• School To Track Students Like Cattle and/or Criminals  After reading a news story about a Texas school system that planned to track its students with RFID chips, I couldn't resist writing this satirical news story about it. (Morning Satirical News)

Have a great week and, if you're behind in your reading, please stand clear of any and all bookshelves.

Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasies, including Sarabande, an adventure novel released by Vanilla Heart Publishing in 2011.

The novel is available in trade paperback, on Nook and Kindle, and in multiple other e-book editions on Smashwords.com.