Nepeta and Bumblebees

In front of our garage is a large stone planter, about 6’X10’, stuffed full with lovely, fragrant Nepeta (Catmint). In late spring, at the height of flowering, the bumblebees are so numerous that the planter practically vibrates with the humming of little bee wings. I find myself enthralled watching the bees industriously moving from bloom to bloom and plant to plant. The urge to reach out and pet the fuzzy striped bodies is nearly irresistible. They seem completely oblivious to my presence. 

Several years ago, however, the bees weren’t there. Maybe a stray or two, but that was it. Much has been made of the decline of honeybee populations, but surely that couldn’t be the same thing as what was happening to my bumbles. Could it? I wracked my brain trying to remember if I or my husband used any of the 'bad' chemicals lately. And I glared in my neighbor's direction because I just knew he prioritized a big green lawn over a pollinator-friendly habitat.

Around that time, I began to read snippets in the news about a growing mismatch between biological events of pollinators and their favorite host plants. This was referred to as phenological mismatch. (See definition below). The general hypothesis is that climate change is contributing to this phenomenon, and related scientific research is being conducted worldwide.

The main theory is that the plant, like my Nepeta, uses mean daily temperature as its phenological cue to break dormancy and flower, while the pollinator, like my bumbles, uses day length. If these two species depend on their interaction with one another for pollination and food, the changing environment means they may end up missing each other entirely. Of course, an occasional occurrence of early spring isn’t going to decimate bumblebees. But if this is a permanent shift….

Because I love my garden and the birds, butterflies, and bees that occupy it, I worry. I worry enough that I included a reference to phenological mismatch early in my book, Guardians of Grace, as one of the subtle clues of climate chaos to come.

Of course, my characters don’t know this. They, like me, are just wondering why the Nepeta is blooming so early, and why the bumblebees are missing out on the nectar.

According to a quick internet search, Phenology is the study of the timing of the biological events in plants and animals such as flowering, leafing, hibernation, reproduction, and migration. Scientists who study phenology are interested in the timing of such biological events in relation to changes in season and climate.

The Earthen World

Photo Courtesy of Unsplash

Imagine the universe is one humongous corporation, founded by a creative genius-- the Matriarch. There’s a management hierarchy, employees, staff meetings, performance reviews, and on and on. Different worlds are the products of this great enterprise. This is the premise lurking in the background of my novel, Guardians of Grace, where Earth is only part of the Earthen world, and the Earthen world is only one of many worlds created by the Matriarch. 

Think of the Matriarch (or Matty to her friends) as an inventor, dreaming up worlds and the systems to maintain those worlds, conducting a beta test before sending them out for final release, and hiring staff to manage them. She's the first to admit that the Earthen world is her favorite-- so far. And the decay of Earth’s environment endangers the entire Earthen world.

So, what is the Earthen world? It’s a world consisting of multiple layers of realms, with Earth in the middle. Earth is the home of the living. When a person dies, their soul may ascend to one of the many realms in Heaven, called Halls, or they may descend to a realm in Hell, called Circles. Which realm a soul ends up in is determined by their character and actions.  But, souls have the ability to move among the Halls and Circles by proving themselves worthy so they may advance (or vice versa) and even rejoin the realm of the living. The movement of souls is what powers this world in a self-sustaining cycle of kinetic energy.

This system can get complicated, so the Matriarch charged the Archangel Gabriela and the Archangel Sataniel with directing the process for each of their territories. Gabriela relies on her organization of Guardian Angels to efficiently manage the movement of souls in the Halls of Heaven, and Sataniel has a similar organization of demons for the Circles of Hell. 

However, Sataniel's demons are a bit difficult to manage and they like to play around with the souls on Earth, maybe even snack on a few when they can. The demons aren't supposed to impact Earth directly, but they've figured out how to bend the rules by influencing the living. Human nature is ripe for such manipulation, with wealth and power being especially useful motivators in the hands of a demon who wants to push mankind in a certain direction, like wrecking Earth's environment.

This is the background behind the events in my novel. The story itself is from the human perspective, where the structure of the universe isn’t entirely known. But the prologue and epilogue provide clues. Future novels (because I’m loving this writing stuff) will explore other worlds, or the structure of this universe-- its products, customers and shareholders. Until then, I’ve got to get this thing published!

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

Dottie Part 1

“Why aren’t your two porties in the book?”

I get this question all the time. The simplest answer is my book has one dog, Dottie, and how could I possibly choose one of my porties over the other? Besides, not everybody knows what a Portuguese Water Dog looks like, but pretty much everybody recognizes a Dalmatian. And finally, porties really don't do fiercely protective very well. Snow and Boo would sell me out in an instant for a hamburger.

Just like my main character, I had a Dalmatian as a kid. We picked her up from the breeder on July 4 when I was seven and my brother was ten. We named her Independence in honor of the occasion, and called her Indy. She was a great dog-- always ready for adventure, play, or belly rubs. She stayed outdoors because Mom was concerned about my allergies. I wish with all my heart that she could have lived in the house with us. As it was, it became too easy to neglect her when the weather was bad or homework had to be done. But her wiggling butt and eager whines greeted me when I joined her outside. Dogs are pretty amazing creatures for their capacity to forgive, comfort, and entertain. Yeah, she was a great dog.

Indy and me on the day we brought her home.

Friends that are familiar with my book, Guardians of Grace, often remark that they picture the cute puppies in the movie 101 Dalmatians and can’t imagine the breed being very effective as a guardian. But Dalmatians are considered a large dog at 50-70 pounds and 19-24 inches tall at the shoulder. There are rumors that the breed includes some Great Dane in their ancestry. Indy was a bit of a runt, though. We chose her against the advice of the breeder simply because she tried to crawl into my mother’s purse. We figured the little pup chose us.

My brother and me with the new puppy.

Dalmatians are well-defined, muscular dogs with excellent endurance and stamina. According to Wikipedia, these beautiful creatures were used as dogs of war several centuries ago, guarding the borders of Dalmatia, a region of Croatia. The breed was also used to guard carriages and horses, and to clear the way through a crowd for the horse-drawn fire wagon. To this day, the breed retains a high guarding instinct. Dalmatians also have a strong hunting instinct and are an excellent exterminator of vermin. I can attest to this ability because Indy, on at least one occasion, proudly presented my mother with a dead rat. Of course, instead of praise, the poor dog was rewarded with a screech. But Dad rewarded her (the dog, not Mom) and let her know she did good.

I’ll stick to my rationale to use this friendly and loyal breed as a companion and guardian in my story. Maybe my porties, Snow and Boo, will make it into a future novel.

Guardians of Grace - Introduction and Inspiration

A few months before my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I woke up from a very strange dream. I dreamed that I died and was given a new body-- that of a pregnant woman. It’s pretty easy to see where this dream came from. I never gave my mother the chance to be a grandma, and there are times when the lost years eat at me. She would have embraced her role with delight and love, sharing her passions for books and art and baking. But it’s too late. I’m too old. She died late last spring. 

But the dream stuck with me. Crazy thoughts would spring to mind. Like, who was the child? Who was the mother? How could this happen? And why? I wrote a scene about it, and I shared that scene with two people: my best friend and my sister-in-law. It made them cry. This scene was the foundation for an entire novel, which I finally finished this year, a year after Mom’s death. 

The novel is fantasy, complete with demons and angels and telepathic dogs. I wrote it to answer my questions about the dream, and to let me use a story to fix some of the choices I made in life. Of course, that would be a pretty one-dimensional story, so I pulled in the other parts of my life that give me so much angst. Namely, the climate crisis we are in, and the politics of America. There are other themes that found their way into the book, bubbling up from somewhere in my psyche. 

I’m proud of the result. I’m even hoping to publish it someday. Advice from the writing world is to create a social presence to attract followers and create a market for my works. (Plural because there’s more to this story than one book.) And so I’m starting this blog. I’ll use the blog to explore the world I created, the places, the characters, the themes, the research behind key aspects of the story, and anything else I come up with.  But I won’t give you the actual book-- you’ll have to buy it. Someday. 

The title may change, but for now I call it Guardians of Grace, written under a pen name: N.L. Baber. Here’s the current version of the pitch:

Annie, a warm-hearted and pragmatic octogenarian, has one regret—she never had children. When she is offered a second life, raising a child destined to save a dying Earth, she can’t resist. She didn’t expect to find herself in somebody else’s pregnant body, running from a wealthy demon and his dragon consort who want the child dead. 

When Annie realizes the danger she’s gotten herself into, her life skills seem a bit inadequate to protect her child. Other than stabbing the demon with knitting needles or distracting him with banana bread, hiding seems to be her only option. Annie’s coping abilities are further tested when her daughter Grace develops amazing powers of her own—courtesy of ancestral spirits and archangels who insist on popping in unannounced.

As the demon accelerates his efforts to destroy the Earth with climate chaos, Annie realizes she cannot simply hide her daughter forever, even with the help of new and old friends. She must help Grace embrace her destiny and save the world—after she figures out what exactly that destiny entails.

Please follow this blog and explore the world of Guardians of Grace with me.