“Infidelity Rules—A Menu For Disaster: The Perils Of Loving Food, Wine, And Married Men”

The metaphorical valentines lay in tatters for Quinn, perhaps in her late thirties, who describes herself as “six-foot-tall in bare feet” with “dark, wavy red hair that tumbles down my back and refuses to be tamed.” 

Her fiancé had ditched her two days before the nuptials. Later, “I divorced after stupidly marrying a different man out of friendship, not love. I had married Chris because he was safe, not because I couldn’t fathom a life without him.”

Outwardly Quinn is a successful sommelier at Persimmon, an upscale restaurant in DC. “I love the magic that happens when a great glass of wine pairs perfectly with a dish. It’s lusty and romantic, the only goal sheer and immediate pleasure. It’s akin to the ideal relationship, fleeting but swoon-worthy, each bringing out the very best in the other. … and, if you get a lucky match, the combination will make you moan. I swear it will.”

That fairly well describes what she’s looking for in men. “I don’t date single men anymore. I have affairs with married men instead. But I never, ever play with men in happy marriages. … I like my flings. Nothing but freedom and great sex. Love just gets in the way.” 

But when Marcus, Hollywood hunk material married to a woman who has grown distant, enters Quinn’s life, readers might guess that though she wants a fling, she will have to make a life-defining choice of whether to fling him away.

“Infidelity Rules—A Menu For Disaster: The Perils Of Loving Food, Wine, And Married Men” ($17.95 in paperback from Black Rose Writing; also for Amazon Kindle) is by Joelle Babula (Joelle Butler), Chico State grad, former captain of the Chico State women’s basketball team and Orion managing editor.

“I know I wanted a married man,” Quinn tells us, “and I’m trying to squash that nagging feeling in my gut that I’m getting too involved. That my lust is evolving into something more. Something I may not be able to easily shimmy out of.” All the shimmying makes for an upbeat romp—paired with a great glass of wine.

“The Oxford Handbook Of The Philosophy Of Love”

What is this thing called love, especially romantic love? Pure emotion? Some forty contemporary philosophers contribute their thoughts in “The Oxford Handbook Of The Philosophy Of Love” ($150 in hardcover from Oxford University Press; also for Amazon Kindle), edited by Christopher Grau and Aaron Smuts.

Though the work is designed for specialists in the area, the writing is accessible to those who want to hear some reasoning about what at times seems so unreasonable. While poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,” some of the essays in the book ask not how, but why. Is love, can love be, reasonable?

It doesn’t seem the case that we can reason ourselves into romantically loving another. Yet, if we do love another, we can give reasons why—at least according to Hallmark. Here’s a Valentine for her: “You give me so much to love—your kindness, our closeness, the way you put our family first.” For him: “I can count on you to be right beside me with your strength and support. That feeling of being loved is one of the best things in my life.”

Troy Jollimore, the Chair of the Chico State Philosophy Department, tries to sort things out in a key essay, “Love As ‘Something In Between,’” which focuses on romantic love. “Even when falling in love surprises us,” he writes, “it is rarely if ever experienced as a purely brute and unintelligible psychological happening.” In fact, “nearly everyone can identify something they find lovable or attractive in their beloveds.”

Jollimore admits that “talking about having reasons for loving may strike us as cold, excessively rationalistic, or unromantic. We must allow that love is not entirely a matter of reasons….” It’s not that reasons drive our feelings, but rather that our feelings can, well, be reasonable: “That an emotion is spontaneous, immediate, or unpremeditated need not imply that it is not at the same time appropriate, fitting, and justified.”

The bottom line: “love is partly guided by and responsive to reasons. It is not an entirely rational phenomenon, but something in between.” 

Could Hallmark be on to something after all?

“The New Freedom Warriors: Children Of Heremone, Book 2”

Former longtime Chicoan David Dirks, now living in Brentwood with Karen, his wife of 55 years, is imagining a world somewhat like our own but where spiritual warfare takes center stage. The first book in the “Children Of Heremone” series, “The Redemption Of Elijah Kidd Kane,” finds young Elijah under the sway of one Grant Humphreys Harvard, president of the Harvard-Westwood Academy for the Gifted, located in the southern hills of Ojai Valley.

Sent by president Harvard to nurture a science and technology center in Botswana, under the guidance of a mysterious and evil spiritual force called the Keeper, Elijah is brought into the true Light of the Almighty One by Esi Ada Ogolla, a young Botswanan girl gifted with spiritual insight. Together they must confront the malevolent god Heremone and Heremone’s proxy, Sir Bitrus Bitrus Ghirmai, the Interior Minister of Botswana.

Through the mysterious “Spirit of Mars” Ghirmai has provided free, unlimited electricity to Botswana as he lusts to put the country under his sway. Though popular with the people, he “secretly specialized in a massive program of adoption and kidnapping of children and teenagers for sex trafficking.” With Esi (“the Almighty’s anointed warrior”) and her parents, and later a couple of wavering friends, Elijah hopes their small group can defeat Ghirmai and combat sex trafficking, one person at a time.

“The New Freedom Warriors: Children Of Heremone, Book 2” ($12.95 in paperback, independently published through Resurgam Books; also for Amazon Kindle) tells the harrowing tale of spiritual warfare on multiple fronts.

Elijah’s friend, James Darwin Carter, arrives in Botswana to carry out the Keeper’s sinister mission, but Esi’s father intervenes and guides “James through a detailed study of the ancient text and the redemption story.” He is set free. “Thokato—love—had freed him from the destruction of his soul.”

But James’ new spiritual roots do not go deep, and he proves an unstable ally. Elijah tries to get James to understand that “Ghirmai follows a different god, one perhaps more powerful than Keeper.” 

Then, when Esi is taken by Ghirmai, all seems lost. Will the darkness be overcome? The next volume will tell the tale.

“Whispers Of The Wild: A Collection Of Poems”

Chico author and artist Meghan Irene Turner finds “nature is not a backdrop, but a living presence, a spiritual companion, a mirror reflecting our own journey.” 

In “Whispers Of The Wild: A Collection Of Poems” ($3.83 in paperback, independently published) she adds in the Introduction that “There is a voice that speaks beneath the hum of our daily lives. It rises from the hush of forests, the ripple of rivers, the soft tread of deer through morning…. May these words … remind you that life, in all its forms, is sacred. And that when we slow down and listen, the world speaks in poetry.”

Human folly is revealed when the poet says “Good Morning, World” “even though I am scared./ even though bombs fell over Ukraine,/ and over the Palestinians last night./ even though the dollar,/ isn’t enough anymore…./ even though the day that chases/ the light is uncertain,/ I say,// ‘good morning, world.’”

In “Revisiting A Vision,” the whole earth reels from human depredation. “Cook your favored meal./ Labor over every grain, dice, and stir./ Then, toss it on the dirt./ Watch the dust play in the flavor you cannot taste.// … This,/ is what climate change feels like/ when the matrix burns away.”

And yet there is “Each Day. A Celebration”: “Each and every cell of you,/ and of me,/ is life./ We will celebrate this.// … Learning to love,/ exposed and bare,/ choice given to surrender./ We will celebrate this.// Time given in breath,/ measured by memory,/ and this moment, right now./ We will celebrate this.”

Winter brings “Entanglement”: “Winter sky,/ I am in love with you./ As if,/ you are my lover.// Because,/ my lover is you,// The big chill of night air,/ I love./ Because, it reminds my skin to be alive// … Your washed skies,/ those are my lover’s eyes/ gazing at my day.”

Love requires “Optimism”: “Don’t tell me that the butterflies are dying,/ or that the sky rains weapons.// … Don’t tell me any of this./ Because I already know.// Now tell me,/ all of the ways you love the world,/ and all of the things you do to show it.”

“Dream Sweet: A Lyrical Bedtime Story”

Natalie Borer grew up in Grass Valley, attended Chico State, then became a high school English teacher and a “Substacker, Swiftie, wife, and mother of three” and now an author of a lullaby book. 

She and her family live in Corning; she writes me she was inspired by “my love of storytelling ever since I was little. I have memories of elementary school projects where, as a class, we would write a book and each have a page to illustrate. I had always wanted to be a teacher when I grew up, and only one day did I waver from this when I said out loud, ‘Maybe I'll be an author instead of a teacher,’ and my teacher responded with, ‘Why not be both?’”

“Dream Sweet: A Lyrical Bedtime Story” ($11.99 in paperback, independently published; also for Amazon Kindle), for babies and young children, celebrates seasons and special occasions with charming full-page illustrations from QBN Studios. She “decided that for my debut I'd go with a bedtime lullaby poem that I wrote, which stems from my experiences in early parenthood that I've gotten to relive and reinvent from my childhood. This lullaby commemorates these early years from my childhood combined with my children's.”

The book of dreams is about to open: “It’s time for bed now, little one. Settle in close, cozy, and snug./ As the sky turns from day to night, let the moon shine and the stars burn bright./ Now rest your head and your tired, little feet, wishing your dreams are nothing but sweet.”

How sweet? For the three children in the book, “Sweet as hot cocoa and Christmas tree hunting, Santa Claus, cookies, and present wrapping./ Sweet as fireworks and ‘Happy New Year!’ Banging pots and pans, loudly we cheer./ … Sweet as the kiss of a cute butterfly, and the sight of the first star in the sky./ … Sweet like the glow of your golden night light, your feathery pillow feeling just right.”

“I am so fulfilled by this stage of early parenthood,” she notes in the book, “seeing their faces bewildered and their starry eyes full of wonder over the simplest of things.”

G’night!

“Create More: Lessons Learned From A Life At The edge Of Entrepreneurship, In Five Acts”

Len Jessup thought of returning to Chico State as a professor. After all, he had received an MBA and bachelor’s degree in information and communication studies from Chico State, so it seemed logical. Though that didn’t happen, he did become a business professor, served two stints as a university president (most recently of Claremont Graduate University in Southern California), and two as a business school dean.

He realized his great joy was fostering innovation, leading change-oriented teams, and encouraging business startups. As managing partner of Desert Forge Ventures, which uses venture capital for just those purposes in the Las Vegas area, Jessup could write a book about the qualities needed for someone leading innovation. 

He did write it; it’s called “Create More: Lessons Learned From A Life At The edge Of Entrepreneurship, In Five Acts” ($19.99 in paperback from Entrepreneur Books; also for Amazon Kindle). He draws on his own experiences and those from leaders like Steve Jobs in each of the five chapters.

“Child’s Play” encourages childhood creativity; “Innovating at Work” introduces the idea of the “intrapreneuer,” one who innovates from inside an existing company; then there are the qualities of “The Transformational Leader”; “The Leader as A Creative Visionary”; and “The Leader We Need” (“We’ve got to continue to support and incentivize our young entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.”)

Jessup notes developing five characteristics of an entrepreneurial leader (creativity, vision, charisma, drive, and resilience) “won’t amount to much if you lack one essential personality trait: your tolerance for risk…. Successful entrepreneurs must become comfortable taking risks, and nearly anyone can learn to do this.”

Risk taking is not a random dice throw but flows out of the leader’s “core competencies,” creativity, adaptability, discernment, foresight, and “pattern recognition” (seeing common factors in organizational problems). Throw the dice, but with educated intuition.

Jessup lays out practical strategies to help the budding leader “see around corners.” “A leader with a strong ethos doesn’t just tell people what to do—they inspire trust because of who they are and how they lead.” Readers will find inspiration to “create more” by helping others achieve their own dreams.

"Free Bird"

It’s just after midnight, January 1st, 1990. Molly Kristen Sparrow, 33, is about to leave San Diego, and her husband, forever. Isaac is not home; clueless and unfaithful, he’s the scion of a wealthy family and Molly will be giving up much—including her son Grant, not yet 18, because the family will pay for his education. She hopes Grant will understand—someday. Six months later she will find herself in Mendocino, a medical assistant to Dr. Potter at a small clinic.

There’s a bar in Mendocino called The Floppy Fish; every summer owner Lyle takes off while his friend Tom, fresh from teaching archeology and grant writing at a prestige university in Connecticut, takes over as barkeep and fixit guy. Tom is Thomas James Hemingway (“no relation”), 38, and one day his woodworking skills fail him at the bar and a huge splinter impales itself in his rear end. So off to Dr. Potter.

As Molly helps Tom get undressed—Tom is in a very vulnerable position—he is stunned by Molly’s beauty, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. In his life. Molly thinks he’s cute, but soon, when they begin seeing each other, her stomach does flip flops in his presence.

Readers know this because Molly and Tom alternate chapters in “Free Bird” ($14.99 in paperback from Boyer Publishing; also available for Amazon Kindle) by Chicoan Pamela Dean. It turns out to be a spicy romance, tastefully explicit, from phone sex to passionate love play (but is it … love?). Even the kisses summon eros. “When Tom kissed me,” Molly writes, “the earth seemed to move under my feet. The way his big hands cradled my face so gently, reverently almost, was more sensual than anything I have ever experienced.”

There’s a special charm to this novel because Chico State, Madison Bear Garden and even the Oy Vey Bagel Company (remember, it’s the 90s, folks) play key roles. 

But is all of this just a summer fling? Will Molly become her own person after being in thrall to Isaac’s family? If she falls for Tom, is love a trap as well? Lovers of spice will find the meal cooked to perfection.