First Frost

by Tam Linsey

Autumn is busy for me, scrambling to bring in the harvest before hard frost ruins everything. Winter arrives quickly and decisively here in the High North. So without further preamble, I leave you with photos and haikus from this week's first (and late, I might add) frost. Now back to my garden; it's supposed to get cold tonight.

Sun cuts through first frost

in gentle reminder that

winter is coming

On sigh of chill wind

the sun warmed curves blush crimson

and fall to the earth

Vines taken by frost

pumpkins glow with autumn's kiss

a call to harvest

Tam is the author of the Botanicaust series of post-apocalyptic romances. When she's not writing, you can find her in the garden or in the kitchen. If you'd like to read more about her self-sufficiency experiences in Alaska, sign up for her newsletter or visit her website.

Spring Gardening in Alaska




      Snow in April????     Come on, Mother Nature!

 I was planning on writing something about spring and gardens today, and including sprightly photos of my melting garden, but as you can see, it doesn’t feel like spring here. In fact, it feels reversed. Mother Nature decided winter wasn't over this weekend, and dumped two more feet of snow on us. So much for me getting my hands dirty any time soon.

In Alaska, it isn’t unusual to get snow in the Anchorage area as late as May. I’ve been a certified Alaskan Master Gardener for 13 years, now, and gardening much longer than that, and boy do I have gardening stories to tell. One year I remember rushing to lay bed sheets over my zucchini plants because it snowed in June. Farther north, they routinely get snow even later. Nineteen years ago, my husband and I were staying in a cabin at Poker Creek (the northern-most border crossing in the U.S.) in July, and one night the sky dropped three inches of snow.



Pea Flowers

 So how DO we manage to garden up here? Well, for one thing, we start almost everything indoors, even those “touchy” plants like cucumbers and zucchini. The photos above are broccoli. Green beans and corn get their own little pots and I transplant them out well into June when I’m fairly certain we won’t have a freak frost. I’ve even known people who transplant peas, although I’ve never bothered, since they don't need a long growing season to produce. I do, however, "pre-sprout" them, otherwise, our cold soil may delay germination long enough for the seeds to rot instead of grow.



Wallo' Water

 We also use season extending tricks, like row tunnels, Wallo' Waters, or plastic Infra Red Transmitting Mulch (not to be confused with black plastic, which actually makes the soil cooler up here.) In a pinch, clear plastic will work to warm the soil, but won’t block weeds. And I stopped bothering to attempt growing tomatoes or cukes in the ground, because our soil never warms up enough to make them happy, no matter what I do. Instead, I use an unheated greenhouse and, being the frugal Alaskan I am, I made some homemade self-watering containers and plant in those. As for beans and corn? Well, let’s just say depending on the weather, there are bean years and there are lean years. You take your chances, and make sure you always plant enough broccoli and carrots to make up for a lean year. 

The water that comes out of my well is a frigid 38˚ and will shock plants, so I never water things like tomatoes or cucumbers right out of the tap. Instead, I allow the water to warm either in the hose or in watering cans before applying. A sprinkler is okay for the main garden because the air takes the chill off the droplets before they hit the plants. 



June in the Garden

 In spite of fighting the chilly short season, there are some really nice things about gardening up here, too. We don’t have many garden pests. Slugs can be a problem in a rainy year, but I simply trap them or use iron-phosphate slug bait (organic.) Root maggots can be pretty bad, but I let my chickens into my garden beds every spring and they root out most larvae. I’ve also watered with beneficial nemotodes, but it’s hard to tell if they made a difference, and they are expensive to ship. Using a breathable row cover right after planting seems to work best of all, keeping the flies from laying their eggs on the baby plants. 

Finally, our loooooong daylight creates some monstrous veggies. Last year, Scott Robb set the world record for largest cabbage at the Alaska State Fair, with a monster weighing 138.25 pounds! I've grown 35 pound cabbages with little effort. Plus, it is awfully nice to be able to garden while the sun sets at 11 PM.

Tam Linsey lives in Alaska with her husband and two children. In spite of the rigors of the High North, she grows, hunts, or fishes for much of her family’s food. During the long Alaskan winters she writes speculative fiction. You can find her at http://www.tamlinsey.com or on Facebook or Twitter.

Fishing in Alaska - A Winter Activity?

Our first trout of the day

The weather lately has been frigid – single digits or less – but today broke warm (18˚F) and windless, so my son and I packed up and hit the lake for our first ice fishing this winter. Ice fishing season in Alaska begins as early as October, and runs through March before the ice becomes too soft. Many local lakes offer not only rainbow trout, but landlocked king salmon, silver salmon, dolly varden (Arctic char), burbot, and grayling.

We have two lakes within a few miles of our house. One of them is full of pike, and Alaska Fish and Game attempts to purge it every few years without success. The other lake is stocked with lovely little rainbows, so we favor that spot. Our bait of choice is cocktail shrimp, the stinkier the better. I’ve known people to fish with small chunks of herring, last year’s salmon roe, even kernels of corn or cheese puffs. (And, of course, there is always Power Bait, but I’m cheap.)

The snow over the lake wasn’t deep, but it had the fine, sandy quality only weeks of extreme cold can create, with a wind-blown crust over the top. Walking to a suitable spot was like walking on sand, and I had to take off my parka before we stopped to set up. Sweating in cold temperatures is dangerous, because once you cease moving and cool off, if your clothing is wet, you can chill too quickly and develop hypothermia. Luckily, I wasn’t that hot, and soon had to bundle back up with a cup of hot tea at the fishing hole.

We don’t have an electric auger, only a hand crank, and the ice this time of year is around fifteen inches thick, which makes bringing along a robust teenage boy a must. The ice below the snow pack was nice, solid black-ice. We routinely drive our vehicles onto the lake without a second thought (although today we hoofed it.) For safety, ice should be a minimum of four inches thick for one person ice fishing, seven inches for a group of people, and nine inches for vehicles. The National Weather Service posts ice thickness predictions, and this time of year some places in Alaska may have ice as deep as 48 inches! I wouldn’t want to hand auger through that ...

We only fished a couple of hours, until our fingers were numb, but we brought in plenty of little trout. And we had a great time hanging out, which is rare these days now that the kids are older.

Tam Linsey is a lifelong Alaskan who writes science fiction romance. When she's not writing, she enjoys gardening, hunting, fishing, and foraging. You can read more about her on her website at www.tamlinsey.com

Botanicaust has Arrived

by Tam Linsey

I've stepped over the edge. I'm now officially a published fiction author. Botanicaust is available both as an eBook and a paperback.

Blurb:

After genetically altered weeds devastate Earth's croplands, much of humanity turns to cannibalism to survive. Dr. Tula Macoby believes photosynthetic skin can save the human race, and her people single-mindedly embark on a mission to convert the cannibals roaming what's left of Earth. But when Levi, a peaceful stranger, refuses alteration, Tula doesn't think the only options should be conversion or death.

Levi Kraybill, a devout member of the Old Order, left his Holdout farmland to seek a cure for his terminally ill son. Genetic manipulation is a sin, but Levi will do almost anything for the life of his child. When he's captured, he's sure he's damned, and his only escape will be death.

Tula's superiors schedule Levi's euthanization, and she risks everything to set the innocent man free. Now she and Levi are outlaws with her people, and she's an abomination with his. Can they find sanctuary in a cannibal wasteland?

Chapter 25 Heading

Indie publishing has truly made me understand why big sellers like Amanda Hocking went ahead and accepted traditional contracts after successfully self-publishing. The non-writing parts of making a novel available to readers is time consuming. And I find myself caught up in the visual artistry of the book as much as in the writing. The cover design and interior layout have been fun adventures all by themselves.

My goal is to give readers more than an excellent story. I want the reading to be an experience. More value for their time and money. My readers deserve the very best.

Do you think the interior layout of a book affects the way you read?

Romantic Science Fiction

by Tam Linsey

Genres have been on my mind lately. Not just genres, but subgenres. Do I write "science fantasy" or "science fiction"? "apocalyptic" or "dystopic"? "science fiction romance" (SFR) or "romantic science fiction" (RSF)?

This last pair is what I want to talk about today, because I didn't know there was a difference until recently. Why do I care? Because I've had several agents who represent science fiction request my manuscript, only to pass on representation because there was "too much science" in my story.

Too much science?

How can science fiction readers not want the science explained? In my opinion, just setting characters onto another world and throwing in a space ship or two doesn't make something science fiction. There must be verisimilitude – credibility that such a world could exist. That is where the science part of science fiction becomes important.

I was baffled by the rejections.

So I did what any good scientist would do; I researched and developed a theory about why these agents didn't like the science.

Why are readers these days okay with novels not explaining how things work? This is where the distinction between SFR and RSF becomes important. Although these agents claim to represent science fiction, they are big names in the romance industry. As romance readers, they want the story – be it paranormal, contemporary, historical, or science fiction – to be about a relationship first and foremost. Any speculative, otherworldly, or scientific elements of the story must be less important to the plot than the romance. In fact, the story they want could not exist without the romance. The science is taken for granted. Science Fiction has become part of our culture. Other writers have already done all the speculation for us. Who hasn't seen an episode of Star Trek, or a movie with aliens or space ships? The proof is already out there. Why prove it again?

Most romance readers don't care about the science. They just want a really good story about a relationship.

They want Science Fiction Romance.

I like romance. Love is what binds characters together, and binds readers to my characters. But love doesn't dominate the story in science fiction. My manuscript, Botanicaust, has a love interest relationship, but the plot could proceed without the romance. In fact, it wouldn't be too hard to rewrite the novel and remove the romance altogether.

But take out the science, and Botanicaust falls apart.

I write Romantic Science Fiction.

See the difference? It is all a matter of where the emphasis lies. The rejections are because I've been targeting the wrong readers.

Do you like to know how the world works in the book you are reading? Or do you prefer to take for granted that things are the way the author says they are?

Reposted from Romancing the Genres.

© Tam Linsey, 2011. All rights reserved.