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Do you know a great nature writer among us?
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/14/2009, 8:24 pm    Post subject: Better types of kayaks Reply to topic Reply with quote

Thanks for the clarification on kayaks and rolls. I'll investigate this area more for the kayaking factor.

We are going to do a vigorous hike tomorrow to skirt the base of Thimble Mountain in the Warm Springs Wilderness near Golden Valley in the Black Mountains.

I hope to try out some writing ideas I've been pondering.

...Listening to a creative writing workshop tape set now to get a flow going.

I'm going to focus on what really seems to motivate me to bother putting words down, take my tape recorder, experiment. Idea

I'm writing a paper for my Master's and moving toward what inspires people to write about their experiences in or with nature. No better way to start is by being my own guinea pig!
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/14/2009, 10:24 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Finally got to your site. It was the "org." that got me stuck. You can fix it sometime.

Is this your own creation?

Cool, if it is.

I'll check it out more, later.

Didn't catch too may errors...!
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azbackpackr
Hi Tech Wizardess




Joined: 31 Dec 2005
Posts: 3639
Location: Needles CA

PostPosted: 2/15/2009, 4:25 am    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

I can answer a little for Deborah. The website she blogs on is for the Southern Arizona Hiking Club, which is pretty large club in Tucson, over 1,500 members. She and I are both long-time members and guides. It's a really great outfit, something for everyone--the monthly bulletin can offer as many as 150 different hikes to choose from. The club recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. We call it SAHC for short.
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Deborah





Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 297
Location: Tucson

PostPosted: 2/15/2009, 7:28 am    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Kids just need to start feeling the passion to write. I guess that's why I love Jack
Kerouac.

I found an old beat up copy of On the Road in the High School Trash of all places a few summers ago when I was over there teaching.

His # 1 thought was "Wild typewritten pages for your own joy".
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/15/2009, 8:17 am    Post subject: Getting the passion to write... Reply to topic Reply with quote

That is so right. When passing a note to a friend, there will be a lot of passion and the page will fill up very fluently and quickly!

If they have to write a 5 paragraph essay, and go through the writing process to get there, ugh! That takes forever.

Brainstorming sessions are something I started recently to encourage fluency and freedom. This is almost stream of consciousness writing off the top of the head. There's usually a topic...

Deborah, do you ever have breaks on your hikes, where people are naturally "processing" their experience of being out in nature? (Talking, sketching, taking pictures, being...?)
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PageRob





Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 859
Location: Page, Az.

PostPosted: 2/15/2009, 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Don't know if it'd really count, but I'm in the process of trying to get an outdoor-related book published. We'll see if it really goes anywhere.
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/15/2009, 8:18 pm    Post subject: Outdoor-related book Reply to topic Reply with quote

Sounds interesting. What is it about, exactly?

How close to publishing are you?
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PageRob





Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 859
Location: Page, Az.

PostPosted: 2/15/2009, 8:24 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

It's a novel about the ethics of archaeology site visitation/exploitation. I've got an e-mail into an agent. Waiting to hear back now, I guess...
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Deborah





Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 297
Location: Tucson

PostPosted: 2/15/2009, 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Quote:

Deborah, do you ever have breaks on your hikes, where people are naturally "processing" their experience of being out in nature? (Talking, sketching, taking pictures, being...?)


I wish! I have a friend named Alice Olsen who is 80 and an artist. We try to sit down to sketch but most of the folks in our hiking club want to either talk or go! Anytime I want to just chill out and sketch or write I go hiking by myself.
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/16/2009, 12:52 am    Post subject: Time to Process... Reply to topic Reply with quote

I hiked to a wonderful place in the Black Mountains near Kingman today and we wound through several canyons and along ridges. So many places were majestic and had natural amphitheater-like structures, with echoes, and natural spots to sit and contemplate. We are planning to go back into that area and backpack so there's more time to explore and hang out.

I hope to really slow down and process several wonderful areas in many ways, from writing, to rudimentary music, to sketching, and wandering around... Rolling Eyes I'd like to try out a few ideas.
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/16/2009, 9:23 am    Post subject: Ethics of excavation... Reply to topic Reply with quote

As a child I wanted to be an archaeologist. I also like geology. I used to also play around with those rock and mineral kits. I used to also go to the Smithsonian and get intact geodes. Then I would go outside and break them open on the sidewalks.

Your fiction idea sounds really intriguing. I guess you are weaving the idea of ethics into excavating sites, and do we have a right to dig up the past? Have you done some archeological digs?

Who are the characters you developed? How much attention did you give to the natural surroundings vs. the items being discovered?

(This reminds me of a recent argument I had with someone about reparations and how do we decide who gets reparations and for what, exactly. How far back do we go in time? Are there guilty parties who are deceased now as well as those who were transgressed upon who are also now deceased? Do we owe them something today? Personally, I like the idea of reparations being made to our Native Americans, but how do we go about it?)
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PageRob





Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 859
Location: Page, Az.

PostPosted: 2/16/2009, 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Well, the ethics of the site are just the most obvious level the story works on. It is about whether ruins/canyons/special places should be guarded by keeping knowledge of the place secret, or whether it should be publicized but also heavily regulated/guarded/protected by the government/state/etc. What responsibilities do we have as hikers to help protect something, and to what extremes will we go to in order to protect something. Sure we should all pick up litter we see on the trail, but what about lobbying for protection of something? What else?
That whole debate leads into it also functioning as a critique of Ed Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and where its ideas are today. Then there's a whole religious subtext to the entire thing as well.
The primary characters include a wilderness guide, a computer technician, and archaeologist, a female college student, a Navajo gal, a Hopi gal, and the primary protagonist; a misfit outdoorsman/perpetual student with a strong sense of right and wrong, even if it isn't always correct.
The natural surroundings are essential to the entire story; in fact I think that as the story moves along the canyons and weather become characters in their own right. The artifacts/sites are primarily metaphors for what any of us might find important in the backcountry.
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/16/2009, 12:47 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Thanks for highlighting your novel's components! Sounds as if it takes place on the Navajo and/or Hopi res. I'll check out Abbey's article. The ethics dilemma is a subject that I came across in my Adventure Ed grad studies in "Sense of Place." How invested do we get in protecting a place and what becomes ultimately our personal priority?

If the misfit is the protagonist, who is the antagonist...(maybe you don't want to share this just yet).

Good luck with your novel and its strong moral calling. Cool
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PageRob





Joined: 03 Mar 2005
Posts: 859
Location: Page, Az.

PostPosted: 2/16/2009, 6:24 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

"They" are the antagonist(s). Cool

Quote:
The ethics dilemma is a subject that I came across in my Adventure Ed grad studies in "Sense of Place." How invested do we get in protecting a place and what becomes ultimately our personal priority?

This is a large part of the book.
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MerMuser





Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 77
Location: Winslow, AZ

PostPosted: 2/16/2009, 6:36 pm    Post subject: Aha! Reply to topic Reply with quote

"They" are always "The Other."



I just finished a paper for Prescott on Sense of Place as a very personal reaction.
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