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Dear Reader,
There's still time to enter.... Mustaches or BINGO? Enter my Party Giveaway and take a look at photos from my mustache party. Go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/birthday-fun.html When you enter, be sure to tell me which prize you would like.
Please welcome today's guest author, Karen Halvorsen Schreck, and her new historical novel Broken Ground, a "masterfully written...must-read" by USA Today. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and an Illinois State Arts Council Grant, Karen received her doctorate in English and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She lives with her husband and their two children in Wheaton, Illinois.
Email: khschreck@gmail.com and when you do, you'll be entered in her book giveaway. Karen has ten copies of Broken Ground to send to lucky readers.
Take it away, Karen Halvorsen...
How Does a Garden Grow?
Happened again last night. Backyard flooded. Specifically, my garden flooded, the one I keep trying to restore.
"Didn't use to be this way," a longtime neighborhood resident said the first time, eight years ago. We gazed at the backyard--aka, retention pond--two-plus feet of standing water. My kids paddled about in plastic sleds like gondoliers. The neighbor sighed. "Something's wrong with the drainage."
I'd recently laid a plot in the sunny part of the yard. Kitchen garden meets cloister garden--that's what I was going for, paths flanked by herbs, vegetables, and flowers. But as the deluge surged through our basement's window well and water-falled inside, the plants suffered. A few months later and another big storm, the garden was gone altogether. I let it languish then, littered with broken stalks and moldy leaves. I let the muddy patch dry in the sun.
A year later, I learned a local church was asking around for spare yard space. Because of a local relief organization, there's a large refugee population in our town. Gardening might help with acclimation and self-sufficiency, it was thought. Many newcomers had farmed in their original countries, before things happened I can only imagine--violence, flight, resettlement.
"Take my garden," I said to a church representative. "Please."
Days later a woman appeared in the backyard, accompanied by her husband. Concilia wore a brightly patterned sarong and headscarf, a t-shirt sporting the logo of a local auto-body shop, and a pair of battered red pumps. Severino wore a dusty dark suit jacket and trousers, an undershirt, and flip-flops. His round, crooked glasses seemed too small for his broad face. I spoke no Swahili. They spoke little English. We tried French. Severino's proved impeccable; I quickly reverted to pantomime. Ultimately, they borrowed gardening tools, kicked off their shoes, and got to work.
What I call shelly beans soon grew in neat rows. When Concilia harvested, she ferried her crop away in a black garbage bag balanced on her head. By the end of the growing season, she'd harvested three times. The produce would be a staple in their diet throughout the winter until the spring.
We've dug trenches over the years to protect Concilia and Severino's garden. But my garden, located now in the shade, is not so lucky. Take last night's rains, the plants, all but submerged.
I'd consider giving up again. But when I got home from work today, I saw that Concilia and Severino had made this season's first visit, prepared the soil. If they can persevere, surely so can I.
--Karen Halvorsen Schreck
Email Karen, say hello, and be entered in the drawing for one of 10 copies of her novel Broken Ground. Email: khschreck@gmail.com
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: WICKED BURN (Fiction) by Rebecca Zanetti
Like your hot motorcycle bad boys with some magic in them? Then ride along with the Realm Enforcers. Irish witch Simone can hold her own, but her cousins want her to hide out--and they somehow convinced her arch nemesis to play getaway driver. Nikolaj, with his demon-dark eyes, is as desirable as he is dangerous. But hot pursuit and a blazing fast ride are exactly what Simone's looking for...
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on WICKED BURN to find out more about the book and the author, Rebecca Zanetti. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.
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