Seonag and the SeaWolves by M. Evan MacGriogair

Authors take the ordinary and make them extraordinary. Fiction pushes the boundaries, making the impossible seem possible.

I'm reminded of this once again while reading the fabulous TOR short story by M. Evan MacGriogair, "Seonag and the SeaWolves."

Wolves became extinct in Scotland in the 17th century. They were never known to be sea creatures. In this story, "Seonag and the SeaWolves" wolves inhabit a mystical, unreachable island.  

MacGriogair frames the story as a bard telling a tale. This perfectly sets up the tale as either a true story, a fable, or something in-between. 

Seonag is herself a woman who exists between boundaries. People whisper about her and say she is "not of this world." The bard knows that Seonag is an outcast, yet he obviously admires her.

Choosing not to emigrate with her parents to Canada, Seonag becomes even more vulnerable to those who would malign her. "Why do you hate me?" she asks one of the main antagonists, Domhnall Geur. He offers no explanation. 

A woman like her, who has no parents or husband, is a threat. She is likened to a Kelpie, the water spirit who drowns unsuspecting people in lochs. Deeply suspicious of her, Domhnall insists that Seonag will become a criminal who steal farmers crops. 

The bard, however, wants to help Seonag, so he tells her about the sea wolves. He gives her these strange instructions, which seem to be sending her to her death, "You will go west, into the water, and swim until you can't see land." He tells her she must keep swimming until she hears the sea wolves. 

Domhnall, who follows her in a boat, wants to rid the island of all the wolves. Callum, the son of the bard, has also followed her. He functions mainly as an observer who stumbles upon the surprising reversal.

Though he intends to abduct and victimize her, Domhnall becomes rooted to the earth. The hunter who victimizes and preys on others has become powerless. Seonag, who was just an ordinary woman, becomes extraordinary. 

Tor published this short story by M. Evan MacGriogair without DRM (digital rights management). 

https://reactormag.com/seonag-and-the-seawolves-m-e-macgriogair/

Design Happy: Colorful Homes for the Modern Family by Betsy Wentz

 

Design Happy: Colorful Homes for the Modern Family by Betsy Wentz.

In Design Happy, Wentz gives readers valuable professional tips and design lessons while detailing renovations of twelve homes. Many of the houses are from an affluent area in Pennsylvania but some are vacation homes. In each of these homes Wentz brings vibrant colors e.g., fuchsia, kiwi, turquoise, and citron. The colors, however, flow naturally from a carefully orchestrated plan she makes with clients.

Though she loves bold colors Wentz always starts with something the client loves—a color, a rug, or a piece of art. In the Rabbit Hill house, for instance, she chooses design palette from the colors of the client’s existing art collection. In the Bunker Hill home, she uses a client’s album collection for inspiration.

In addition to beauty, Wentz’s designs are functional. She chooses vinyl wall coverings in colorful patterns or grass textures for their durability. Vintage rugs provide softness and color, especially when she has them vegetable dyed for a startling effect. She employs pops of color except for bedrooms where colors tend to me more muted. Walking space is an important part of her designs as well.

Readers can learn much from Wentz’s book even if these homes and renovations are beyond their budget. A complete list of sources for furnishings and textiles is included.

Start Here: Draw: 50 Ways to be an Artist Without Really Trying. by Moira Clinch.

 Start Here: Draw gives beginning artists prompts and easy, non-intimidating exercises that help beginners build skills. Using a variety of strokes and shapes, Clinch covers the basics while also giving tips on using various types of media. Many of the exercises are experimental and fun like fingerprint characters, pixel pets, print collages, mug and mouse pad designs. 

Moira explains how to use different mediums, even digital formats, for different effects.  Stressing that quirkiness and imperfection add to the character of a piece, Clinch offers timeless advice. 

When layering colored paper in a collage, for instance, she advises to let some of the original background show. Tips for achieving two-point and three-point point perspectives are presented clearly and concisely. 

In the last part of the book Moira covers drawing figures and portraits. She even offers advice on how to get family and friends to sit for portraits. 

Filled with valuable takeaways, Start Here: Draw shines in the last portion of the book where readers learn how to make projects for friends or keepsakes for the home.

Flowers for All by Susan McCleary

 

Susan McCleary presents thirty accessible flower projects that can spread joy. The simplest projects involve gathering flowers from your own yard, farmer’s market, grocery store, or flower farms. Since she eschews floral foam and uses reusable materials her designs are environment friendly. The tools she recommends are practical and simple e.g. floral frogs, floral wire, and snipping tools. The projects described in “Flowers for Me,” are the simplest and grow progressively more complex in “Flowers for Friends” and “Flowers for All.”

In the latter half of the book McCleary, an expert on wearable florals, presents semi-advanced projects. For instance, there is a bridal bouquet that can also be worn as a headpiece and earrings made of fresh daffodils and floral wire. Unlike many floral designers, McLeary uses herbs and the occasional fruit and vegetable in her design. Even more advanced projects instruct readers how to create impressive centerpieces, flower canopies, and towers.

What is great about McCleary’s book is that it stresses the benefits of flower arrangements in a clear, approachable way. Designs are welcoming, accessible, and mindful of the environment. From the simple to moderately complex, these projects offer something for everyone.

Rin-Tin-Tin

In Rin Tin Tin, Susan Orleans writes, as usual, about obsession. She writes not only about the dog star himself but also about how industries--specifically the film industry--can turn on its stars. 

Rin Tin Tin was explosive force of goodness--heroic, loyal, and brave--who would make people fortunes. He would also, through no fault of his own, cause people to lose fortunes.

Lee Duncan rescued the puppy that would become Rin Tin Tin on a WWI battlefield in France. Convincing his superiors to let him take the puppy home to the US, Lee embarked on a journey that would change his life, the dog's, and the world.

Rin Tin Tin in A Dog of the Regiment

When Duncan took Rin Tin Tin to Hollywood, the dog not only saved Warner Brother's studios from bankruptcy, he also became its highest paid actor. Other dog stars achieved fame during the silent film era, but Rin Tin Tin was the most revered and adored. 

When talkies came out, though, Duncan and Rin Tin Tin lost their elusive contract and film deal.  Rin Tin Tin worked for a less lucrative film company before he died in 1932.

After Rin Tin Tin's death, Duncan made one of Rin's puppies the new Rin Tin Tin. Duncan put Rin's son in movies, but he lacked some of the old Rin's spark. In 1934, Rin Tin Tin Jr. made 1/3 of what he had made in Old Rin's heyday.

Rin Tin Tin, Jr in 1936

The could have been the end of the story but Lee knew "there would always be a Rin Tin Tin." Lee was right. Rin Tin Tin III starred in The Return of Rin Tin Tin. Rin Tin Tin IV would have a nominal role in beloved television series, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin which became a huge hit and one of the most popular television shows in the world. 

Rin Tin Tin in The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin

Rin Tin Tin IV only played a symbolic role while another dog did most of the acting. Duncan's ability to train top dogs was diminishing, leaving others eager to step in. 

Orleans' describes another tragic figure in her book, Bert Leonard. His story also moves from rags to riches to rags. His obsession to tell stories made him a successful Hollywood producer, but his obsession with Rin Tin Tin would undo him. 

Bert's concept for the show, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, was inspired by a visit to a Hollywood shooting location, Corrigan Movie Ranch, that was used to film Westerns. The show was, thus, set in the 1870s, about a boy, a dog, and U.S. cavalry troop at Fort Apache. 

Although Bert had many other successful projects, he never wanted to give up rights to Rin Tin Tin. During the 1960s and 1970s television changed, but Bert was still steadfastly loyal to Rin Tin Tin. Another problem was that Bert was incredibly argumentative with executives at film studios.

Whatever the exact reasons, Bert had a tragic end. He died nearly penniless, but he was still attached to an idea he had with Lee. He wanted to create a movie about Lee's life and his transformative relationship with Rin Tin Tin.

That movie never came to be. A movie, Finding Rin Tin Tin (2017) is the closest to retelling Lee's story. Finding Rin Tin Tin was developed years after Bert died. The movie is only loosely based on Lee's life and it was not a commercial success.  

Orleans does a wonderful job explaining the magic behind the original Rin Tin Tin's success. Before Lee Duncan and his wonder dog, no one trained dogs the way they do now. Dogs were mostly ranch animals. Those who watched the original silent films, believed in Rin Tin Tin's loyalty, bravery, and genius. Like Lee had predicted, old Rin's legacy would live on.    

All of Rin Tin Tin's successors merge into one in the Duncan's mind: 

   "Lee knew that he had created something that meant more than any individual dog or moment--something with a kind of elastic reality. The intensity of his connection with old Rin was so special that all the dogs that followed merged in Lee's mind into one dog--one vessel for containing and carrying forward what old Rin had begun."

Orlean's book on Rin Tin Tin is an award-winning best-selling book, that is as much a biography as it is a critique of popular culture, the television and movie industries. Much of the events happen by coincidence, chance, or miracles, like the chance meeting of a soldier and a puppy on a French battlefield or the surprising success that Lee finds when he brings that same dog to Hollywood.

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean – review | Film books | The Guardian

How to be a GirlBoss

 

I remember seeing Girlboss in the library and wanting to read it. However, despite what many think, librarians do not spend all their time reading. In fact, most of the time, I would defer reading popular books because they had too many holds. The number of holds a book signifies its popularity. Holds means someone is waiting on a list to read it.

That’s why I was surprised to find a video on Giant Ideas, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5zW9h8vS8U. The video from Giant Ideas features an interview with NastyGal founder, Sophia Amoruso.

GirlBoss is also a comedy series loosely based on her life.    

Amoruso began a vintage clothing shop on eBay that grew exponentially until she was kicked off the site in 2008. By 2014, she had her own brick-and-mortar shop.  That was only the beginning of her career rise.

She became a wildly successful CEO of NastyGal. Amoruso’s company was worth 250 million at its peak.   

In 2016, the company filed for bankruptcy, yet Amoruso’s business career continues to flourish with the success of her foundation, the GirlBoss Foundation and Business Class.   

The GirlBoss Foundation helps women start companies by offering grants to qualified individuals. Business Class teaches the art of entrepreneurship.

The Horses Who Made Me: The Journey to a Horsemanship Philosophy

Former French international dressage competitor, Alizee Froment, profiles the equines that shaped her life—from her childhood Shetland pony to the horse that she calls her "heart," Mistral. The stallion not only helped her achieve success in the competitive world of dressage but also altered the course of her life. Though horsemanship was always a passion, Froment was not initially drawn to competition. 

Two horses from her childhood, Shapati and Kazan, taught her that a horse could fly. At 12, she is asked to join the French Equestrian Training Camp. Plagued with self-doubt, the author drops equestrian training for acting at 16. While she nearly gives up her dream, two remarkable events occur. Froment finds Mistral—a horse that she wholeheartedly believes in—and she finds a mentor who scouts her for dressage. 

With Mistral, Froment becomes proficient in dressage and competes at the highest levels. She represents France at the European championships, achieves worldwide success, and finds a way to combine horsemanship with showmanship, developing and performing equestrian shows throughout Europe that showcase dressage, liberty work, and elaborate costuming.

This title introduces readers to the competitive and risky field of equestrianism. In addition to being a great memoir for animal lovers, it will inspire anyone who faces seemingly insurmountable career obstacles.

History of Bees by Maja Lunde

 

Divided into three sections, this dystopian novel looks at beekeeping from three different vantage points–Victorian England, America circa 2007, and China circa 2098.

 While ostensibly focusing on bees, the novel examines the tensions that exist between family members, especially fathers and sons. This is true for the Victorian century beekeeper, William, and his son, Edmund, and in his American descendants, George, and his son, Tom circa 2007.

 The sons in each case want nothing to do with father’s dream of harvesting honey and raising bees. William Savage is not only estranged from his son but also becomes more and more alienated from his mentor, Rahm. The only child who understands William’s dream is Charlotte yet he coldly dismisses her achievements. She is the wrong gender.

In the last time period, which takes place in China, bees and other pollinators are extinct. Their absence which leaves a void in the world further alienates family members. Without bees, everyone is undernourished and forced to work long hours hand painting pollen onto flowers.

In this horrific time, parents can only see their children one day a week. Children are forced to leave school and work as pollinators at younger and younger ages. Tao and Kuan can barely speak to each other, especially after their son disappears. Tao leaves her husband and goes off into unsafe areas of Beijing in search of her child, Wei-Wen.

Tied into all three stories is The History of the Bees, a book written by Thomas Savage who is distantly related to the Victorian bee keeper. Tao read the book and insists that the leader of the Committee, Li Xiara, read it as well.

The army and Chinese government finds a new colony of bees near the site where Wei-Wen goes missing. Knowing and acknowledging the past, however, is necessary before they can move forward. Tao’s boy becomes a symbol of hope.

What is fascinating is the way Lunde compares the disappearance of bees, also known as colony collapse disorder, with the disintegration of family and natural bonds. This is a chilling speculative novel about what may happen if red flags about pollinators and the climate are ignored.

FIFA madness

Some fans are paying more than $2,000 to see the FIFA games in person.

Others are watching on TV and maybe buying a memorable item. Even CVS has FIFA World Cup items for sale, including FIFA turnover chains. 

Developed by Manny Diaz of the Miami Hurricanes' defense team, the turnover chain was designed to boost the Miami team's morale. 

A turnover chain is now widely used in other sports to award standout defensive plays. 

The 2026 FIFA is a historical event because for the first time there will be 48 teams instead of 32. 

The games will be hosted in 16 cities across North America. 

For more information, choose FIFA World Cup: The Official Guide.