Saving an Endangered Species with Guest Author Kathleen Kaska

I am thrilled today to offer an excerpt from Kathleen Kaska's marvelous book about Robert Porter Allen, one of our environmental heroes. Kathleen has offered to give away one copy of her book - she will choose the winner randomly from those who leave comments. Check out Kathleen's links, too - especially her blog. I've been reading it since it began. Good stuff! ~ Sheila

Excerpt from

The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: 

The Robert Porter Allen Story

 by Kathleen Kaska

Whooping cranes who currently live
on the Aransas National  Wildlife Refuge
in Texas. Photo courtesy of Mike Sloat.

It was April 17, 1948 in the early hours of a muggy Texas morning on the Gulf Coast. The sun at last burned away the thick fog that had settled over Blackjack Peninsula. The world’s last flock of wild whooping cranes had spent the winter feeding on blue crab and killifish in the vast salt flats they called home. During the night, all three members of the Slough Family had moved to feed on higher ground about two miles away from their usual haunt. The cool, crisp winter was giving way to a warm balmy spring, the days were growing longer, and territorial boundaries were no longer defended. Restlessness had spread throughout the flock.

           

As Robert Porter Allen drove along East Shore Road near Carlos Field in his government issued beat-to-hell pickup, he spotted the four cranes now spiraling a thousand feet above the marsh. He pulled his truck over to the roadside and watched, hoping to witness, for the first time, a migration takeoff. One adult crane pulled away from the family and flew northward, whooping as it rose on an air current. When the others lagged behind, the crane returned, the family regrouped, circled a few times and landed in the cordgrass in the shallows of San Antonio Bay. It was Allen’s second year at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. He had learned to read the nuances of his subjects almost as well as they read the changing of the seasons.

           

In the days preceding, twenty-four cranes left for their summer home somewhere in Western Canada, possibly as far north as the Arctic Circle. This annual event, which had been occurring for at least 10,000 years, might be one of the last unless Allen could accomplish what no one else had.

Related Information:

         

Allen in his office.

Learning of Robert Porter Allen’s story, and seeing the whooping cranes myself on numerous occasions at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, inspired me to bring attention to Allen’s work preserving these magnificent birds. In 1984, I had the opportunity while studying marine biology at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, to observe dozens of shorebird species along the Texas coast. I returned one December to take my first whooping crane tour at the Aransas Refuge. Learning of the cranes’ endangerment, I immediately knew I wanted to make a difference in the species’ survival. As a middle-school science teacher, I included a bird unit in my environmental curriculum. I was determined to instill in my students a passion for any environmental cause.

         

Years later when I began freelance writing, I realized I had another outlet for spreading the word. In researching an article about whooping cranes for Texas Highways magazine, I learned that few people had ever heard of Robert Porter Allen or the work he did to save the species. This was when I decided to continue my research and turn the project into a book. Robert Porter Allen’s story needed to be told.

UPDATE!
9/30/13

Operation Migration announced today as the official start of the Class of 2013's migration south to Florida. Eight young whoopers have completed their flight training at White River Marsh in Wisconsin and are ready for their maiden migratory flight to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida where they will join the Easter Migratory Flock for the winter. Wish them luck; they have a long, exciting journey ahead. To follow their progress, log on to OM's In the Field.
http://operationmigration.org/InTheField

Kathleen Kaska, writer of fiction, nonfiction, stage plays, and travel articles has just completed her most challenging endeavor. The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane, a true story set in the 1940s and 50s, is about Audubon ornithologist Robert Porter Allen whose mission was to journey into the Canadian wilderness to save the last flock of whooping cranes before development wiped out their nesting site, sending them into extinction. Published by University Press of Florida and released in 2012, the book has been nominated for the George Perkins Marsh Award for environmental history. Kaska also writes the award-wining Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series and the Classic Triviography Mystery Series.

My Links:

www.kathleenkaska.com

www.kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/kathleenkaska

Want to learn more about the whooping crane, check out the following websites?

www.operationmigration.org

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/crane/

A Synergy of Image, Text, and Dogs, Part 2

Dogs Days continue with part 2 of two posts about how texts and images featuring dogs have been combined since human beings began to do such things. You can find Part 1 here. Thanks for being here - comments welcome!  ~ Sheila

A Synergy of Image, Text, and Dogs, Part 2

by Sheila Webster Boneham

Medieval and Renaissance artists often depicted saints in the company of faithful dogs. Saint Roch (Rocco) is a case in point. Legend holds that Saint Roch was born into a wealthy family in 1295 but gave away his earthly possessions twenty years later when both his parents died, and soon became known for miraculous cures. When he himself became ill with an unspecified “plague,” he was banished from human society. A dog, it is said, found him dying in the woods, licked his wounds, and brought him bread. The healer was healed. As the patron of dogs and of people who love or work with them, Saint Roch is often portrayed with a dog at his side or licking his wounds. Even today his image holds power and appears on medals given in many traditional “Blessing” ceremonies. Originally meant to secure safety for hunters, especially riders following hounds, such Blessings are now commonly held for pets of all kinds in religious and secular ceremonies around the world, and in my experience, dogs are far better represented at such events than are other animals.


Again, though, darker aspects of humanity are frequently embodied in images of dogs and in language. The unflinching loyalty that makes dogs “faithful” in human eyes also makes them appear to some as cringing cowards. For stray and feral dogs, survival often depends on scrounging for food in garbage dumps and other unsavory places, and malnourished, parasite-ridden dogs have been used to symbolize depravity, cowardice, thievery, and other negative human traits. Some Medieval and Renaissance artists were obvious in their use of the dog as a negative symbol. Titian, for one, is said to have included toy dogs in many paintings of female nudes to symbolize female seductiveness and infidelity, and Flemish artists often used dogs to denote treachery and persecution. In modern American culture, these negative associations are primarily linguistic; calling a person a dog, bitch, son of a bitch, cur, or pup is rarely well received. Images of dogs used to provoke negative responses seem to involve specific breeds rather than dogs as a species, and which breeds are held in negative public regard changes over time. 

As secular works emerged during the Middle Ages, and as Europe drifted toward the Renaissance, interest grew in understanding the natural world. Books on animals appeared, usually with an emphasis on husbandry and hunting. The fourteenth century Livre de chasse (Book of the Hunt) by Gaston III, also known as Gaston Phoebus, is perhaps the most famous and most lavish of medieval hunting books. The work, which is “organized in four parts and written in a clear narrative voice” (“Gaston Phoebus”), covers a range of topics, from training and handling hunting dogs to their selection and care to methods and equipment for hunting various types of game. According to the Phebus Historical Foundation, it was a book ahead of its time, “present[ing] an impressive knowledge of the natural sciences—long before the age of modern empirical science—with detailed observations on the various animal species” (“Gaston Phoebus”). Like its counterparts today, Gaston’s Livre de chasse is illustrated with exquisitely detailed miniatures, and it is easy to imagine the book’s select few readers scrutinizing the dogs in the pictures while their own dogs slept at their sides.

From The Book of the Hunt by Gaston Phoebus. I love this
illustration - the images could be from a modern book on canine
care, or from someone's website or social media page!

Invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century spurred a publishing surge. Although religious texts dominated early press publications in Europe, by the following century tales of strange places and creatures brought home by explorers had captured the popular imagination, and “scientific” bestiaries and herbals became ever more popular. Woodcuts were used for illustrations in early printed works, but during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, technological advances gave rise to better methods of printing illustrations. Eighteenth-century printers developed copperplate etching and engraving methods that further improved the quality and detail of printed images. 

Illustration from Robinson Crusoe,
1893 Czech edition

As books became affordable and literacy in Western countries increased, secular fiction and nonfiction books became more popular. It seems natural that our best friend the dog should appear in many of them, whether in a minor or major role. In fact, illustrations sometimes elevate dogs to larger roles than they enjoy in the texts of certain books. In Robinson Crusoe (originally published in 1719), for instance, Daniel Defoe barely mentions his hero’s dog, but illustrated editions of the book often include the dog in at least one image (Britton). Other classics such as Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz feature dogs as prominent if not central characters, and show them in cover and internal illustrations. Novels with dogs as central characters, including such classics as Beautiful Joe (1893) by Margaret Marshall Saunders and the Sunnybrook Collie books (1919-1940s) by Albert Payson Terhune, first appeared in the nineteenth century, and judging by the sixteen thousand titles listed under “Fiction and literature: dogs” on amazon.com, the genre remains alive and well.

Nonfiction books about dogs, both narrative and informational, are also published by the hundreds each year, and most of them are generously illustrated. Although line drawings are still used, most illustrations these days are photographs selected not only for their ability to convey information (“here’s what a well-trimmed toenail looks like” or “here’s a portrait of Skippy”) but also for their emotional appeal. Readers like images that tug at their heartstrings. Even highly regarded narrative nonfiction books in which dogs are central, such as Mark Doty’s Dog Years, include at least a few photographs. 

~~~

And then, of course, there are books like these! Available from your local bookseller and online. Personally autographed copies available here. 

Equal parts mystery and dog appreciation, with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure, this second case for Janet and her pals (Drop Dead on Recall, 2012) is accessible to fans of all three." ~ Kirkus Review

"The intricate plot [of Drop Dead on Recall] has plenty of surprises, red herrings, and interesting details about animals. Fans of Laurien Berenson or Susan Conant will especially enjoy this pet-centered mystery." — Amy Alessio for Booklist.

Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals "...should be in the library of any serious animal lover and any library catering to them."  — Midwest Book Review

Dog Days with Linda O. Johnston

Dog Days continue! Welcome to today's guest, Linda O. Johnston, author of mysteries and romances, including the Pet Sitter and Pet Rescue series. Join Linda and her dogs and be inspired. ~ Sheila

Dog Days and Me

Linda O. Johnston

I’m really happy to be blogging here at Write Here, Write Now, especially with the focus on August’s Dog Days! 

 

I love all animals, but most especially dogs.  I write the Pet Rescue Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime, which is a spinoff from my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mystery series.  I’m also working on a new series for a different publisher.  Can’t talk about it yet, except to say that, yes, it involves dogs!

 

My most recent full-length Pet Rescue Mystery is OODLES OF POODLES.  It centers around some rescued poodles playing the roles of rescued poodles in a movie that’s being filmed.  I also have an e-novella available in the series, NONSTOP SPANIELS, which features NKLA--“No Kill Los Angeles”, which is an initiative of Best Friends Animal Society.  And my next Pet Rescue Mystery will be TEACUP TURBULENCE, featuring rescued pets that are moved from a part of the country where new homes are hard to find for them to other areas where they’ll find loving owners right away.

 

I also write for two Harlequin series: Harlequin Nocturne and Harlequin Romantic Suspense.  For one of them, my stories involve canines a lot.  Which?  Well, I write the Alpha Force miniseries for Nocturne--about a covert military unit of shapeshifters.  And most of them shift into... you guessed it.  Wolves!    

 

My most recent Harlequin book, a Nocturne, was UNDERCOVER WOLF, a February 2013 release.  And yes, it does happen to have at least one werewolf in it.  And suspense.  And a whole lot of romance.  My next will be COVERT ATTRACTION, a Harlequin Romantic Suspense story, to be published in December.  It was fun to write, but it’s one of my few stories these days that does not include dogs.

 

And how do I do it all?  I owe a lot to my two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Lexie and Mystie.  They keep me grounded.  They give me orders.  In fact, I’m usually at their bark and call.  They insist on snuggling on my lap as I write or edit--fortunately, one at a time.  They inspire me.  They give me unconditional love, and having extra love in my life, in addition to having a wonderful husband and human family, can only help me write the conflicts and happily-ever-afters of romance!

 

In fact, both Lexie and Mystie are pawing at my arm as I write this.  Oh, yeah.  That’s because it’s their dinner time.  I’ll go feed them... then return to the manuscript I’m currently writing. 

 

Of course, my dogs aren’t always supportive of my writing.  Mystie has been known to flick the electrical switch that turned off the computer while I was writing.  She loves to chase sunbeams and reflections and shadows in our house and started licking the base of my desk to create her own reflections--and, in her excited jumping, she leaped on that switch.  Needless to say, I wasn’t happy, and I doubt she completely understood why I scolded her. 

 

But I wouldn’t change her personality, or Lexie’s.  We’re empty nesters when it comes to our human kids, so I’m really glad to have my fur-kids around.  Since I’m currently a full-time writer, I’m around for them.

 

And they’re always, delightfully, around for me.

 

How about you?  Are you inspired by your pets?  

Linda O. Johnston’s first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the year.   Since then, Linda, a former lawyer who is now a full-time writer, has published more short stories, novellas, and 33 romance and mystery novels, including Harlequin Romantic Suspense as well as the Alpha Force paranormal romance miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne. 

Linda’s Pet Rescue Mysteries, a spinoff from her Kendra Ballantyne Pet-Sitter mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, feature Lauren Vancouver, a determined pet rescuer who runs a no-kill shelter.  In this cozy series, “no-kill” refers to pets, not people!   

~~~~~~~~~~~

News News News

I'm delighted to announce the release of the Audible edition of Drop Dead on Recall! Now Janet MacPhail can talk directly to you - special thanks to narrator Erin Mallon for letting Janet speak through her! You can buy the Audible edition here. 

The Money Bird, sequel to Drop Dead on Recall, will be out SOON - it's in the warehouse, and shipping soon to vendors!

You can pre-order now from the usual sources, including Pomegranate Books, who are again offering custom autographed copies of The Money Bird, Drop Dead on Recall, and Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals. 

And more good book news ~ Alpine Publications has re-printed the paperback edition of Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals again, with the resources section updated.  Rescue Matters is available in paperback, ebook, Audible, and large print editions. Bulk discounts are available from Alpine, and autographed copies can be ordered here. 

Please come back Monday ~ 

I'll be blogging about some of my favorite dog books!  

~ Sheila