Learning Peace from a Cat



It's no secret that cats have their moments of quiet dignity. It's mysterious, and something that dogs seldom do: to sit for hours as if in reflection, zoned out in some Zen-like state of pure being. This can have a calming influence on we humans, if we are open to it. A year or so ago, Ana Darcy Méndez was enjoying being soothed by her cats after a harrowing experience (which will be recounted in the next Distant Cousin volume).



In that quiet moment with her cats, she remembered a poem she enjoyed. (Ana has read a creditable sample of our fiction, but she's not a fast reader in English or Spanish. She tends to enjoy poetry--some poetry--more, as being shorter and more condensed, and offering many opportunities for thoughts and reflections.) She searched the poem out and read it again.



The poem points out that cats teach us "preserving," in the words of the poet. He talks of their "amazing dignity" and their "affirmation of a vital life we humans can only...admire from afar." The word "afar" applies even though the cat may actually be quite close. No one can say where a cat goes when it turns inward, but this seemingly simple poem about the life lessons we can learn from cats is "exactly right," by Charles Bukowski (click "VickiB").

A love poem to a cat

A poem about TWO cats

(More cat poems and other poems in the column to the right,
under the photo of the blue-eyed kitty-->)

Meet Ana Darcy!

An Extraterrestrial's Thoughts on Thanksgiving



Ana keeps a notebook, where she records quotations and ideas she wants to remember. She particularly likes this quotation from Walt Whitman, made for Thanksgiving Day:


"'Thanksgiving goes probably far deeper than you folks suppose. I am not sure but it is the source of the highest poetry....We Americans devote an official day to it every year; yet I sometimes fear the real article is almost dead or dying in our self-sufficient, independent Republic. Gratitude, anyhow, has never been made half enough of by the moralists; it is indispensable to a complete character, man's or woman's — the disposition to be appreciative, thankful. That is the main matter, the element, inclination — what geologists call the 'trend.' Of my own life and writings I estimate the giving thanks part, with what it infers, as essentially the best item. I should say the quality of gratitude rounds the whole emotional nature; I should say love and faith would quite lack vitality without it.'"

     Walt Whitman, The Philadelphia Press, Thanksgiving Day, 1884


Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Meet Ana Darcy!

Christmas Shopping (and Gift Shopping in General) Made Easy!

It's this easy!



 

There is now a way to send someone a gift they will love with just a few clicks--thanks to Amazon. Amazon has just made it possible to send someone a Kindle edition book in just minutes, complete with a personalized gift message. The recipients don't even need to have a Kindle e-reader, since Amazon offers free Kindle readers for computers, iPads, iPhones, and more!


This possibility applies to something like a million books for the Kindle, but we would like to suggest that Distant Cousin makes a particularly good gift for the general reader. Just check some of the many reader comments on this blog: the story appeals to nearly everyone, young and old, has thrills and chills, a little action, a little romance, great characters, no graphic sex, minimal bad language, and costs less than a greeting card that plays "Happy Birthday!" The popularity of the the books has been totally due to word of mouth--and now it's easier than ever to tell a friend.

How great is it to be able to give someone hours of pleasure for so little? Thanks to Amazon--and to Alexander the Grate (above) for the demonstration!

Giving and Receiving Kindle books as gifts


Reader comments: 

    You Suck!
    More! 
    Even More!
    A Reader Cries 
    Separation Anxiety
    The Whole Series 
    A Bride Complains!
    Commuters Read to Each Other

Distant Cousin on Amazon:

    (DC1) Distant Cousin
    (DC2) Distant Cousin: Repatriation
    (DC3) Distant Cousin: Reincarnation
    (DC4) Distant Cousin: Regeneration

What Happens When a Fan of Ana's is a Vintner



Among Ana Darcy Méndez's many fans, there is now at least one vintner. Take a look at his 2010 vintage Champanel! The champanel grape is especially suited to Texas, and this wine is rich, tangy, and very slightly sweet, sort of a Texas beaujolais. The labels aren't bad either!

Foods suitable for this and similar hearty wines: frijoles   pizza 1  pizza 2  pizza 3  pizza 4  Thai crepes  Thai coconut shrimp  Korean carne al pastor

Answer to the Mystery Animal Question

Here's the answer to the question about the identity of the other baby animal in with the litter of baby serval kitties: it's a kinkajou. (Click to enlarge.)

Also known as a honey bear, kinkajous are New World rainforest mammals. As pets they are playful, gentle, quiet, and have little odor. From all appearances, they love to clean up after a fruit salad is made!

Thanks to Julie's Jungle for the photo.

The original photo, with the baby servals.

A New Litter of Serval Kitties!



Just look at these cute baby serval kittens! They're from Julie's Jungle (thanks!). Julie's servals are most fruitful. We're waiting (and waiting) for more caracal kittens and perhaps even some lynx kittens. She says her lynxes are the most laid back, sweet, and affectionate cats she has. May they get busy!


Extra credit to anyone who can identify the non-serval baby among them. (Answer.)

Even MORE kittens and cats!  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10

Meet Ana Darcy!

A Discourse on Language, and a Chinese Tongue Twister

Ana’s native language is Luvit, which was an extinct branch of the Indo-European family of languages—until Ana returned to Earth, that is. The Indo-European language family is large. It includes most of the languages of Europe (Italian, French, Spanish, German, etc.) as well as several in other countries (Iran, Afghanistan, and India, for example). This has been discussed elsewhere on Ana’s blog.

The people of her planet have developed their own literature, art, music, science, and other fields of study, but they do not have all the “academic” fields that we do. One of these is anthropology, the study of man. That’s probably because their society does not have the fascinating and perplexing diversity that human cultures on Earth have, and that includes linguistics, the study of the languages of man.

Thomans all speak one language: Luvit. There are some differences in the language between Thoman groups living widely apart from others, but these amount to a matter of accents, and do not affect mutual intelligibility.

As a result, Ana has been intrigued by the languages of Earth, which show her totally new and intriguing ways of speaking and thinking. She has had some contact with languages from other language families (Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic, for example) but she’s never been able to learn to speak any of them.

She’s had better luck with learning other Indo-European languages. Her English is quite proficient, and she also speaks Spanish fluently. She’s not bad in several Slavic languages, which are also most closely related to her own Luvit: Czech and Polish, in particular. She can communicate with some difficulty in French and Hindi (also Indo-European).

But she’s totally at sea with Chinese, to name just one. That may be why she was so delighted to find a Chinese poem that’s a tongue twister even for the Chinese. Chinese is what linguists call a “tone” language. For example, the word “ma” has at least four meanings depending on the tone the speaker imparts to it. It can mean “horse,” or “mother,” or "hemp," or “pepper,” but to the Western ear, all four sound identical. Yet any Chinese speaker understands them as completely different words. (See the Chinese character for "ma" above.)

That’s the idea behind the poem she found online. All the words sound to us like “shi,” or “shee.”

Yet the poem begins (in translation) “In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, who had decided to eat ten. He often went to the market to look for lions.” Ana played this link over and over, laughing in amazement.

Since most of us know as little Chinese as Ana, you might be similarly amazed to hear it recited. Keep in mind that the meaning of the words is conveyed by the tone. You will not hear the tones, but we promise you, a Chinese speaker will.

This is the recitation, and, for the truly curious, this is a discussion of the history of the poem.

Meet Ana Darcy!

Welcome to the Amazonians!

Ana's blog will now be a part of her editor's page at Amazon.com, where her stories have been extremely popular with Kindle owners! It's easy to see why: the Kindle is the premier e-book reader, especially suited for recreational reading, and the Distant Cousin series is budget priced for the Kindle. In fact, the whole series, not even counting Amazon's current sale prices for it, adds up to 14% of the price of a new K-3. You could buy the Distant Cousin series seven times and it would pay for your Kindle! Not that you would do that, but it does illustrate what a bargain the Kindle is, and what the millions of books available for it can yield in savings.

Amazon customers new to Ana Darcy's blog, at Blogspot, will find a wealth of information about Ana herself and her stories: maps, photos of places she's been, some of her favorite recipes, pictures of her cats and other cats, poetry she enjoys, and even music she loves, including the Distant Cousin theme song. It's also where the fifth volume in the Distant Cousin series will be announced, early in 2011. There's also information on the new Distant Cousin Kindle skin from Decal Girl!

In the meantime, we've heard an interesting characterization from one Kindle owner who apologized for taking so long with it. He was going to read just the first volume, but found himself reading the entire series first. Here's what he said:

"I have read a lot of science fiction in the past, and this had a completely different (and believable) spin. It lacked the “techno babble” that I often enjoy, but, if we can’t understand gravity propulsion anyway I suppose it's not necessary to explain it.

"The series was a compelling, heartwarming and sometimes scary page turner.

"Well done sir. I was entertained."

Thank YOU, sir. And welcome to our Amazon visitors!

A Class Act: Distant Cousin Skin for the Kindle!

Fans have been requesting a custom Distant Cousin skin for their Kindles for over a year. Now, thanks to Decal Girl, they are finally available! The new design is subtle and classy--see the photos. The front is as shown, stunning and mind-opening. The back reproduces the cover of Distant Cousin, volume 1, with Ana's face barely visible within the Sombrero Galaxy. The photo of the skin did not do it justice; the actual photo from which it was made is shown here, and this is how the back really appears.

If you would like one of these skins to class up your Kindle, below are ordering instructions for the Kindle 2 and Kindle 3 Distant Cousin skins, in either high gloss (as in the photo) or matte, as you prefer. Special thanks to Decal Girl for their technical brilliance and their cooperation!

Kindle 2 - high gloss

A custom Kindle 2 skin would be $20 each for high gloss + S/H. To order you can visit the link below or give us a call to place the order through a representative. This link willl take you to the custom order page on decalgirl.com: http://www.decalgirl.com/browse.cfm/4,1764.htm

In the "Notes" box, please type "AKIN2-DistantCousin" so we can link the order to your custom skin.

In the "Quantity" box, please type in "20" (the cost of the skin plus the set-up fee) and then click the "Buy" button. This will bring you to the confirmation page for your order where it will show you your total and ask you for your information for shipping and billing.

ENJOY YOUR NEW CUSTOM SKIN!

Kindle 2 - matte

A custom Kindle 2 would be $25 each for matte + S/H. To order you can visit the link below or give us a call to place the order through a representative. This link will take you to the custom order page on decalgirl.com: http://www.decalgirl.com/browse.cfm/4,1764.htm

In the "Notes" box, please type "AKIN2-DistantCousin-matte" so we can link the order to your custom skin.

In the "Quantity" box, please type in "25" (the cost of the skin plus the set-up fee) and then click the "Buy" button. This will bring you to the confirmation page for your order where it will show you your total and ask you for your information for shipping and billing.

ENJOY YOUR NEW CUSTOM SKIN!

Kindle 3 - high gloss

A custom Kindle 3 skin would be $20 each for high gloss + S/H. To order you can visit the link below or give us a call to place the order through a representative. This link will take you to the custom order page on decalgirl.com: http://www.decalgirl.com/browse.cfm/4,1764.htm

In the "Notes" box, please type "AK3-DistantCousin" so we can link the order to your custom skin.

In the "Quantity" box, please type in "20 (the cost of the skin plus the set-up fee) and then click the "Buy" button. This will bring you to the confirmation page for your order where it will show you your total and ask you for your information for shipping and billing.

ENJOY YOUR NEW CUSTOM SKIN!

Kindle 3 - matte

A custom Kindle 3 skin would be $23 each for matte + S/H. To order you can visit the link below or give us a call to place the order through a representative. This link will take you to the custom order page on decalgirl.com: http://www.decalgirl.com/browse.cfm/4,1764.htm

In the "Notes" box, please type "AK3-DistantCousin-matte" so we can link the order to your custom skin.

In the "Quantity" box, please type in "23" (the cost of the skin plus the set-up fee) and then click the "Buy" button. This will bring you to the confirmation page for your order where it will show you your total and ask you for your information for shipping and billing.

Meet Ana Darcy!