How to Hang a Hammock Seat from a High Branch

29 Monday Apr 2013

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Our son got a hammock seat from his grandparents and we wanted to hang it from the backyard maple, so he could swing and read and max/relax in the yard now that it’s warm.

It didn’t come with rope so my wife and I went to the almighty Tractor Supply. We bought polypropylene rope with a load weight of 420 lbs., so our son would have to do something really crazy to break it.

First off, cool trick: with this kind of synthetic rope, you can melt the frayed ends together with a lighter so it doesn’t unravel:

fray

 

melt

The tricky part was getting the rope tied to a branch thirty feet in the air. I learned how to tie a double bowline knot, which leaves a secure loop at one end of the rope.

knot

Then I had to get the knot over the branch and pull it back down. Even with a stick tied to the throwing end, this was hard to do. The stick wasn’t quite heavy enough to compensate for the weight of the slack rope, which kept slowing the stick and preventing me from getting it over the branch. I finally did, and then the stick just dangled there. The easy solution was to snap-ripple the end of the rope I still had. Each ripple let the stick fall a little farther down, until at last I had both ends on the ground with the rope looped over the branch.

I slipped the loose end into the earlier knot loop and pulled.

loop

The knot rode up and tightened itself on the branch. It was incredibly satisfying, as good knots often are.

tied

After that I tied another double bowline at the opposite end and clipped on the hammock seat. Our son spent hours in this thing. He had his iPod at one point, but for the most part he was content to hang there, watching the dog and daydreaming. He even went out this morning when it was cold enough to need a puffy vest. Total success.

success

Night Lights

15 Monday Apr 2013

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I’m not much of a runner and haven’t gone night-jogging in years. Last night, still full from Saturday dinner and finding that the gym closed early on Sunday evenings, I ran around the neighborhood.

The weather was comfortably warm/cold, Jupiter was bright near the moon, and although I missed a huge green meteor that two friends witnessed from locations two-hundred miles apart, I made the enjoyable discovery that neighbors around the block illuminate their garage year-round with decorative pastel lights. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It made the whole little hill road cozy.

Photo1

The Plain Dealer on FELLOW MORTALS

12 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by in Fiction, Writing

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The Plain Dealer in Cleveland has this to say about FELLOW MORTALS:

Every character in this tightly knit debut novel has a choice to make in how to handle the aftermath of the tragedy. What each one does affects the rest, bringing home the truth that ‘you’re not alone, even when you are.’

Read the review (halfway down the page), and please buy the book!

The New York Times Book Review Loves FELLOW MORTALS

04 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Fiction, Writing

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Terribly excited about this Times review of my first novel:

FELLOW MORTALS, while full of vivid interactions, is perhaps most moving in its subtle depiction of people alone, trying to find ordinary meaning amid disarray…. [It] will stay with me for its watchful portrait of people, imperfect in life as in art, trying to find goodness in one another and themselves.

Read the whole review, and please buy the book!

0407-Graver-articleLarge

 

Life Beyond Writing Q&A: Kate Southwood

28 Thursday Mar 2013

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Twenty questions for authors, none about writing. Some questions are not in the form of a question. (Previous Q&As may be found HERE.)

This week we have KATE SOUTHWOOD, author of the novel Falling to Earth.

Kate Southwood Falling to Earth1. Rename yourself.

KS: Elizabeth Jarvis. This is from the “what is your romance novel author name” game. Take your middle name and the street you grew up in. I grew up on a corner, so I could also be Elizabeth Sheridan.

2. Satan hoofs up and says two words to you. What are they?

KS: “You’re up.”

3. Give us an A+ summer song.

KS: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” [Youtube]

4. What is the worst injury you’ve ever sustained?

KS: A really dumb cut on my inner forearm. Basically dragged my arm across a rusty nail head and it never even bled, just unzipped the skin on my arm.

5. Form a supergroup using any four musicians, living or dead, that would be thoroughly awesome to experience, for better or worse.

KS: Does the Muppet Band count?

6. What was your best Halloween costume?

KS: Frida Kahlo. Complete with mono-brow and bike handlebar coming out of my stomach. This was when I was an Art History student, and one of my friends dressed as The Sack of Rome.

7. Tell us something you built.

KS: Drawing a blank, although I do know how to use tools and must have built something… Does Ikea flat-pack assembly count?

8. If you could safely have one non-domesticated animal as a lifelong companion, what would it be? (Fantasy creatures are allowed.)

KS: Tiger, please. I really want to pet a big cat before I die.

9. What do you like to grow?

KS: I have a balcony garden in Oslo, Norway where I grow what I can, which is mostly flowers and herbs. I want to grow potatoes.

Kate Southwood Falling to Earth10. Name a thing you love that nobody else you personally know also loves.

KS: Minimalism. I live with packrats, and even the cat has too much stuff.

11. How would you like those eggs?

KS: Scrambled, moist, and salty.

12. What’s the worst thing about your favorite holiday?

KS: Thanksgiving, and that I now live in Oslo. Norwegians don’t do it, don’t get it, don’t get that Thursday off, plus three members of my four-person family are vegetarians, so there’s no point.

13. You’ve just been turned into a lousy superhero. Who are you, and who is your nemesis?

KS: I’m Intergalactica, and I clean up space junk. Do I have to be lousy? My nemesis is NASA, who keep putting more junk out there, so maybe I’m just overworked.

14. Name a thought that has profoundly scared you in the night.

KS: That I would never publish a novel.

15. You’re stinking rich. What’s the first thing you add to your home?

KS: An office. View of trees, bookcases, big comfy chair with ottoman, and a door that stays shut unless you ask nicely.

16. What are you up to this weekend?

KS: Hopefully something to do with St. Patrick’s Day. Again, difficult to do in Oslo. [Editor's note: this Q&A was done a few weeks ago, obviously.]

17. Which color makes you feel the most comfortable? The most anxious?

KS: Most comfortable, probably blue. Most anxious, red. My mother had red carpet in her bedroom briefly in the 1970s, said it was emitting energy and keeping her up at night, and got rid of it. I’ve been mildly suspicious of the color red ever since.

18. What is the strangest job you ever had?

KS: Part-time secretary for a State Farm agent in Chicago when I was 17. He never really taught me to do anything. His dad was the other agent in the office and his dad’s secretary would show me stuff occasionally. I felt I had accomplished something if I got him to put his cigarette in the ashtray before he accidentally ashed on someone’s policy.

19. I mean honestly: aren’t you better off living without ___?

KS: Oreos. But not really.

20. James Cameron discovers something new at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. What do you hope it is?

KS: Well, obviously, it has to be intelligent life sitting there with a smug took-you-long-enough smile.

Kate Southwood received an M.A. in French Medieval Art from the University of Illinois, and an M.F.A. in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts Program for Poets and Writers. Born and raised in Chicago, she now lives in Oslo, Norway with her husband and their two daughters. Falling to Earth, a Barnes & Noble Discover pick, is her first novel.

Kate Southwood Official Site
Kate Southwood Twitter

Previous Q&As may be found HERE.

Buy FALLING TO EARTH:

IndieBound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

My Bookmagnet Interview

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

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I did an interview with the super-nice Jaime Boler at Bookmagnet.

Bookmagnet: Your writing has been compared to that of Stewart O’Nan and Richard Russo.  How do such comparisons make you feel?

Theodore Sr.

Theodore Sr.

Dennis: Honored, since I’m a big fan of both, and somewhat confused, as I don’t entirely see myself that way. I don’t mean that negatively or positively. I just don’t know who I’d compare myself to because I don’t really think that way. Take a parenting analogy: I try to raise a happy, well-adjusted son, but wouldn’t it be strange to compare my parenting style to that of more famous parents? “Mahoney’s fatherly lectures are reminiscent of Theodore Roosevelt Sr.’s inspirational words to young Teddy…”

Read the full interview here.

New Year’s Resolution Checkup

22 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Fiction, Home Life, Writing

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How’s that resolution list going, you ask? Here’s a spring update.

1. Do 100 consecutive pushups.

– I may have been overambitious here. A hundred in a single session will be doable, allowing myself breaks between sets. Right now I can manage a feeble twenty without resting. I slacked pretty hard in the exercise department so far this year, but I’m picking up steam.

2. Finish the first draft of my next novel.

– The Fellow Mortals release predictably derailed me for a month, but I’ve made terrific headway in recent weeks. I’m hoping to finish the first draft by fall. Here’s the current stack:

photo

3. Learn to do that crowd-parting, taxi-stopping finger whistle.

– Still can’t do it.

4. Reread all of Shakespeare, for fun instead of duty.

– Progress. I’ve read:

  1. The Taming of the Shrew
  2. Richard II
  3. Henry IV, Part 1
  4. Coriolanus
  5. Titus Andronicus
  6. Romeo and Juliet
  7. Hamlet

5. Washboard abs.

– I lost a few pounds. Long way to go, but I’m eating lots of vegetables and watching calories.

6. Straighten out my sleep schedule.

– I’m up at 5AM every day for a few weeks now. My bedtime varies, so I usually have to power nap during the day. My body’s finding a rhythm, though.

7. My wife is pining for an island in our too-small-for-an-island kitchen, so I’m going to build a wall of cabinets with an island that emerges from, and then returns to, the cabinet wall.

– This was always slated for the summer. I am mentally preparing.

Weather
Different birds around. Good sign.

antlers

Colonial-American Word of the Day
Doctor: (n) milk and water, with a little rum, and some nutmeg

Music
William Boyce, Symphony 4 ‘The Shepherd’s Lottery’, “Gavot, Allegro”

Life Beyond Writing Q&A: Eric Devine

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Author Q&A, Fiction, Life Beyond Writing, Writing

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Twenty questions for authors, none about writing. Some questions are not in the form of a question. (Previous Q&As may be found HERE.)

This week we have ERIC DEVINE, author of Tap Out.

Eric Devine Author1. Rename yourself.

ED: Liam McCallister. Protagonist of a novel that didn’t make it.

2. Satan hoofs up and says two words to you. What are they?

ED: “You’ll do.”

3. Give us an A+ summer song.

ED: “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”. You just need the windows rolled down and a trip to anywhere. [Youtube]

4. What is the worst injury you’ve ever sustained?

ED: ACL and LCL tear of my left knee during a football game. Almost severed the artery. Separately, I broke my back at L5.

5. Form a supergroup using any four musicians, living or dead, that would be thoroughly awesome to experience, for better or worse.

ED: Jim Morrison, obviously — his darkness was astounding. Eddie Vedder, because he is die hard. Clapton, because…Clapton. And Dave Grohl. Dave can do anything.

6. What was your best Halloween costume?

ED: Train conductor, homemade, complete with giant cardboard train wrapped around me, held up by my suspenders.

7. Tell us something you built.

ED: A paver patio in my backyard. I’m not handy but can follow instructions, almost too well. The pitch on the blocks is a bit too severe.

Tap Out Eric Devine8. If you could safely have one non-domesticated animal as a lifelong companion, what would it be? (Fantasy creatures are allowed.)

ED: I love hedgehogs, not that I’ve owned one or would know how to take care of it, but they are adorable, with a capital A.

9. What do you like to grow?

ED: The grass. I detest mowing.

10. Name a thing you love that nobody else you personally know also loves.

ED: Poetry, mostly William Stafford. No one even likes poetry.

11. How would you like those eggs?

ED: Scrambled with spinach and cheese, and about a half dozen. Bacon, too, if you have it.

12. What’s the worst thing about your favorite holiday?

ED: The lack of sleep and my inability to put toys together at Christmas.

13. You’ve just been turned into a lousy superhero. Who are you, and who is your nemesis?

ED: Self Deprecator. I am at odds with myself.

14. Name a thought that has profoundly scared you in the night.

ED: I’m not good enough. At what is open to interpretation.

15. You’re stinking rich. What’s the first thing you add to your home?

ED: A detached writing studio. My home has an open floor plan and no basement, so my office is semi-permeable.

Eric Devine16. What are you up to this weekend?

ED: Whatever my wife tells me we’re doing.

17. Which color makes you feel the most comfortable? The most anxious?

ED: I love black. As a teen my walls were painted this color. Orange and teal are unnerving, separate or together.

18. What is the strangest job you ever had?

ED: Figure model for an artist. Yup.

19. I mean honestly: aren’t you better off living without ___?

ED: My fashion sense.

20. James Cameron discovers something new at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. What do you hope it is?

ED: Something he can’t use to turn into a movie. Something more profound.

Eric Devine is the Young Adult fiction author of Tap Out and This Side of Normal. His next novel, Dare Me, will be released in the fall of 2013. He lives in Upstate, NY, where he teaches high school English and tries to be the best father and husband he can be.

Eric Devine Official Site
Eric Devine Twitter

Previous Q&As may be found HERE.

Buy TAP OUT:

IndieBound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

Buy THIS SIDE OF NORMAL:

Amazon

Necessary Fiction Interview

19 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Once I said, “OK, I’m going to die someday, and this love for my son is too enormous to control,” I just went with it and lightened up. I got a lot more serious about pursuing the life I wanted, and I had a lot more fun doing it. There’s more life in my life now, and what could affect writing more than that?

I did an interview at Necessary Fiction, in which I discuss CHARLOTTE’S WEB, nuclear-war anxiety dreams brought on by the birth of our son, and advice I would give to my younger self.

YOU MAY READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

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