Green, Threa, and Science-Fiction Books

Devastating cataclysmic events such as floods, fires, tornadoes, and earthquakes along with seemingly minor weather occurrences like the wave after wave of storms packed with heavy rain, high winds, sleet, ice, and snow. And, what about the temperature roller coaster? In Northern New Hampshire, we literally went from 20 below one week to 50 above the next. As for snow, we're 120 inches and counting - five feet above normal. Global warming? Some say, "I don't think so!" I do believe these are the people who take everything "literally" and believe everything the government tells them. The environment, whether we want to admit it or not, is changing. I don't think there is anywhere within the contiguous 48 states that haven't experienced phenomenal weather this winter.

So what does this have to do with Green, Threa, and Science-Fiction? - These are all wonderful settings utilized by the science-fiction author, or if you prefer, the speculative fiction author. To be environmentally friendly - or to be environmentally irresponsible, green products versus ecologically damaging ones, total devastation or self-discovery and healing - an endless realm of possibilities for the science-fiction writer to weave into plots intent on educating the reader - to engage critical thinking, to realize that all actions have reactions, some of which occur instantaneously while others far into the future. Cause and effect happens in science-fiction. We are responsible for our actions. Science-fiction is a genre ideal for science-fiction authors to question social mores and standards, political issues, and government policy. Writers such as, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and George Orwell are widely known. A new science-fiction author to try is Jayne Lytle and her first science-fiction novel, Euroswydd's Caverns. This science-fiction adventure contains current political issues - among other things. This book can be purchased through places like Barnes and Nobel and Amazon; however, the cheapest price is directly from the publisher - Streaking Donkey Books where the book is only $9.95 plus $2.81 shipping and handling. I dare you to go on a journey to a planet called Threa where you may find yourself...well.... Find out for yourself.

Don't be Threanoid.
by

StreakingDonkeyBooks

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Sale! $4.00 off T-shirts

Quick! It will be over before you know it! Zazzle is having a sale on T-shirts - $4.00 off of EACH by entering the code: ZAZZLESTPATS! Hurry - this offer ends, Wednesday, March 5th. Cruise on over and check out the Zazzle lineup. I've pictured two of my favorite designs here: Mort by Streaking Donkey Books and "If it's illegal to raise a child in an unsafe environment, then why is it okay to expose that child to a contaminated planet?" by Snoflake8892.

What would Mort do? - T-shirt
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Illegal to raise child in unsafe environment
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snoflake8892

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Euroswydd's Caverns

Euroswydd's Caverns by Jayne Lytle is a 352-page science-fiction novel published by Streaking Donkey Books.
ISBN: 978-0-615-18840-9

The synopsis on the back is as follows:
All appeared to be going according to plan when signals of unknown origin were detected on planet Threa's surface. A surface believed devoid of life. The Four Caretakers - natives of Casyo - must locate, identify, and neutralize the threats without compromising Threa's violent attempts to return to health or the safety of the deep sea Caverns and their unique inhabitants. In addition to aquatic Beings of unexpected sophistication, off-world Beings able to transmit through Threa's maelstrom join forces with the Casyoan shape shifters to resolve the crisis. Will chaos triumph and take over - dooming to failure the rescue operation known throughout the connected Universes as Euroswydd's Caverns?

Though listed as science-fiction, this novel is more speculative fiction - that is, it inspires thought and intrigue without the tantamount bludgeoning of the reader through excessive violence. Current political issues are prevalent - including the environment and living harmoniously with others, the planet, and oneself. Lytle's background in marine biology, Reiki, and herbs provide a strong foundation for her plot.

If you like and appreciate the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean and care very deeply about the health of the planet, give this book a try. You might be pleased that you did.

This book can be found in a number of locations including Amazon, Alibris, and Barnes and Noble; however, the cheapest copy comes directly from the publisher - Streaking Donkey Books. They sell their copies for $9.95 plus $2.81 shipping and handling - in the USA. This independent book publisher is also creative in their advertising. They've created a number of products associated with this book, including T-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, magnets, and aprons on Zazzle. If you need to be intrigued a bit more with this title, visit their Zazzle Store - don't worry, none of the products give the story away!

Don't get your wool in knots
by

StreakingDonkeyBooks

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Be Green

Time flies when you're working on self-sustainability! Since my last post, my partner and I moved to our new home (actually, an existing one) on 4.3 acres in northern New Hampshire. We have also obtained two miniature donkey weanlings; they will be our main garden fertilizers, built a small barn, put up a fence using trees and downed limbs on the property, chipped a LOT of mulch for use as barn bedding from all the tiny twigs we didn't chop for firewood or use as fencing, and winterizing the house. Busy, busy, busy! Next spring will be the building of a chicken coop, buying chickens, and marking the property boundaries; however, game trails for the deer, moose, and bear will be open for their use. It's not just our home!

Slowly, but surely, my partner and I are realizing a dream - to become self-sustaining. Proceeds from book sales and from sales garnered from Cafe Press and Zazzle contribute to this dream. Interested in helping someone "go green?" - click a link and browse. Thanks for your support.

From the home of Planet Shortbread to yours, Happy Holidays!

Wolves, Ignorance, and the Oh-Holy Dollar

While sitting in the library I thumbed through the magazine, Alaska. It seemed like a good idea at the time - after all - I lived in this wondrous place as a child. I flipped the pages to the "letters" section and read with horror ". . . let the wolves die. . . . I go to visit Alaska to see moose and caribou not cowardly wolves." I blinked in horror. The author, a resident of Tennessee, went on to explain how "those conservationists" have had the audacity to reintroduce wolves and, heaven forbid, rattlers, to the Tennessee landscape. It's against the law to shoot them I'm informed by the author, but by golly the tax paying citizens of Tennessee get to reimburse ranchers and farmers for the livestock killed by these horrible creatures. I then read that wolves are, apparently, entitled to lamb chops and steaks and that the author is just sure that those conservationists live in 7-story condos [rules out NYC] where there aren't rattlers or wolves!

Not only was this letter appalling, it was frightening in its depth of ignorance. First - it is fact that the more habitat humans destroy or claim, the less there is to sustain other forms of life. This reduction often leads to the disappearance or even extinction of wildlife species. Second - we live in the time period of greatest extinction rates. We destroy hundreds of acres of rainforest daily, raze forests for logging and building, drain swamps and lakes, and dump pollutants in the air, water, and soil in the form of car exhaust, pesticides, herbicides, and manufacturing waste - all in the name of humanity and "progress." Yes, humans do impact life on Earth, and have been doing so since we hit the savannah on two legs. We are living beings who happen to reside on this planet. As such, we are highly successful - being able to adapt to different environs and over-power or kill other living creatures for our survival. From the earliest days of pastoralism in Africa at the Dahkleh Oasis in Egypt, wild beasts were kept away from watering holes and wild herbivores kept away from lush grasses so that the pastoralists' livestock would be safe and fed. This practice lead to the disappearance and extinction of several species. In the American West, great herds of buffalo were slaughtered in the name of Indian annhilation - in affect, whites chose to starve the competition. The added bonus for the reduction of buffalo was that locomotives could travel unhindered across the vast plains.

Humans are part of Earth's ecosystem; however, if people are supposedly "advanced, superior," and are to have "dominion" over plants and animals - perhaps we should recognize our responsibility and stop acting like spoiled children who feel they are entitled to whatever they want all in the name of the oh-holy dollar. I had the great fortune to see the Grand Canyon as my grandfather saw it; watched moose nibble bark off a tree in winter; watched bears eat wild berries, saw eagles soar on invisible air currents, and heard the eerie - yet majestic - call of wolves. God bless capitalism, egotism, corporations, and the church of Wal-Mart. Death to wolves! Amen.

Live harmoniously with nature. Appreciate Her beauty.

Evolution and and the Cultural Relativist

As I wandered through my collegiate education, I encountered the discipline of philosophy. One of the courses I took in this discipline concerned itself with the question, "What is art?" These three little words strung together in the form of a question entertained our thought processes for an entire semester. One by one we were introduced to various hypotheses as to how this question should and could be answered. Each time, I raised my hand, and said, "What if the people who created the object we call art, didn't think of it as such?" My professor, chuckled with a smile after I presented him with a picture of a Hopi Katchina while indicating that it's original purpose was ideological, not artistic. With a smile and a nod, he informed the class, that I was a Cultural Relativist. I smiled in return and replied, why of course, what anthropologist isn't? A cultural relativist takes the ethics of anthropology quite seriously - they view the world through the eyes of the culture or society in question. Everyone's world view is shaped and colored by what we are taught - by our parents, our community, our teachers, our friends, our religion, our government, books, TV, and radio. In other words, the world view of the Buddhist monk in Tibet will differ from that of the business man working on Wall Street. The cultural relativist tries to appreciate and respect the views of all peoples from around the globe.

Evolution. "Raise your hand if you're a cultural evolutionist," my professor asks. Two of us raise our hands. I receive glares from the student sitting in front of me. The professor then asks why we think the way we do. He started with the anti-cultural evolutionists. I heard arguments that it is a racist view.

Then, it was my turn. I smiled at the glaring faces and requested a piece of chalk - yes, in those days, we still used chalk and chalk boards. I then approached the board, drew a circle and several dots within it. I turned to my classmates and spoke, "Evolution simply means that change happens and that the way of being that is best adapted to any given situation survives." I pointed at my drawing. "Let me demonstrate. This circle is the Teotihuacan Valley in Mexico prior to the rise of Teotihuacan. These dots are small villages." I drew another circle, fewer outlying dots, and one dot in the center - slightly larger. I turned back to the class, "As time progressed, Teotihuacan's influence increased within the valley. People from surrounding villages moved into Teotihuacan, hence, there are fewer surrounding villages." I drew a third circle, a large dot in the center, and four outlying dots. "This is Teotihuacan at its height. The surrounding population is absorbed by this city which now has a population estimated at up to 200,000 people. The surrounding dots mark key resources such as obsidian. Teotihuacan has full control of this valley." I then draw a circle filled with many little dots. "This is the valley after Teotihuacan's fall. There is a power vacuum - so the people revert to a previous way of life - one that is simpler. This is the evolution of the Teotihuacan Valley. When Teotihuacan was powerful; it controlled the area - like Rome in Europe. Probably like Rome, there were armies for protection; life was predictable while Teotihuacan held sway. When the central power falls, a vacuum ensues. Society then evolves to fill or adjust to this vacuum - in this and many other cases, society reverted to a simpler way of being. You see this as well after the fall of Rome." I put the chalk down, wiped the dust from my hands and spoke, "Nothing in this world is static - including society. All things change, that is, they evolve. Whether those changes survive is due to its success in adapting to the situation at hand." No one continued to glare at me.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Having lived in the Southwest for many years and seeing firsthand the destruction of wild fires, I fully support forest thinning. Nature thins forests naturally through lightning strike induced fires thereby reducing combustible fuels such as over-crowded trees, leaf litter, pine needles, and thick stands of bramble. Without thinning, forest fires burn hotter and devastate all. With thinning, forest fires stay close to the ground and burn at cooler temperatures.

Then there's clear cutting, or to put it bluntly, razing. Flying over Washington state can give anyone a clear picture of what this entails - the literal removal of any and all trees over a vast area, usually on mountain slopes. Clear cutting is akin to unethical fishing techniques that entail dragging the ocean bottom thereby rendering that biome a lifeless moonscape for hundreds of years. Considered a "renewable resource," trees take several decades to grow. Clear cutting exposes the Earth's surface to direct sunlight which increases ground temperature. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that when it's hot outside, the temperature is cooler in the shade. Without root systems and foliage, torrential rains erode nutrient-laden soil - soggy soil moves down slope in the form of mudslides. Finally, trees produce more oxygen than any other plant. Most living creatures on this planet, humans included, breathe oxygen, not carbon. If you think you can handle carbon, you'd be able to breathe your car's exhaust without ensuing medical emergency or your death.

So, just because one can't see the forest for the trees doesn't mean that the forest should be razed.