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| The resplendent quetzal, king of the highland forests of Talamanca, is set to make a cameo appearance in Eolyn's third companion novel, Daughter of Aithne. |
This week Avila University professor Amy Milakovic and I did
a scouting trip for a new course we plan to offer next spring, entitled Ecology through the Writer’s Lens. The course was inspired during my
residency for the Long Term Ecological Reflections (LTER) program at
Andrews Experimental Forest in the mountains of Oregon (see my May 2011 posts).
Like the LTER project, our goal is to integrate scientific
and literary approaches to understanding the forest. Of course, we will be
working on a much shorter time scale than LTER.
The program at Andrews Experimental Forest is set to run about 300
years; our course will run about 10 days.
Still, it’s going to be a fun and memorable experience for us as
professors and for all our students.
On the scouting trip, we visited Savegre Lodge, nestled in
the oak forests of the Talamanca Mountains, at about 2300m elevation. Fans and followers of Eolyn know by now that these are the magnificent forests that inspired Eolyn’s
childhood home in the South Woods.
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| Ballena Marine National Park, Costa Rica |
After a night in Talamanca, we visited La
Cusinga Lodge in the Pacific lowlands, surrounded by tropical rainforest and
overlooking the stunning Ballena Marine National Park. Along the way, we saw quetzals, monkeys, whales,
and all kinds of other wildlife. We travelled with long-time friend and colleague, Jose Rogelio Vargas, owner of Ruta Verde Tours.
While I was off the grid, Mark Nelson wrote a wonderful
reflection for Heroines of Fantasy, marking
our 100th post for the blog. Mark contemplates the same question we will be asking in our upcoming course: How do the landscapes we encounter inspire the stories we write? Please
stop by to read Mark’s post and share your thoughts on this topic.
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| A howler monkey in the lowland rain forest |
Next week, I’ll be starting a blog tour with Orangeberry
Book Tours. The tour will last through
September, including guest posts, interviews, reviews, giveaways, Twitter views
and Twitter blasts. Eolyn will also be
one of the featured titles for the Orangeberry Book Expo, which runs through
the end of August. For the full schedule, visit my author page at OrangeberryBook Tours. I will, of course, post events as they occur here, as well as on my
Facebook page and Twitter account for Eolyn.
That’s the news for now.
Enjoy the sunny weeks to come. Autumn is on its way.  |
| Members of this week's tropical expedition (from left to right): Dr. Amy Milakovic, Rafael Aguilar, me, Jose Rogelio Vargas |
