A memoir of God's care

"Today I am living on borrowed time," writes Frank Fox. "If an average person's life span is seventy years, then I have borrowed over a decade and continue to borrow. I have been given this time to contemplate the highs and lows of my life. ... Throughout my life I have been surrounded by God's bubble of protection. The Holy Spirit has always been with me ... even though I have felt unsure or depressed, He has been with me."

Fox' life is played out in a series of vignettes (many of which reflect his sense of humor as well as his Christian faith) in "My Life Inside The Bubble" ($16.99 in paperback from Xulon Press; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble e-book formats). Written with the assistance of Bonnie Tyler, the book contains family photos, a sampling of the author's poetry, and a series of letters written to Fox from various family members. And there are family members aplenty: a "loving wife, four children, twenty nine grand-children, twenty-two great-grandchildren. ..."

A child of the Great Depression, Frank was born Lester Lloyd Potter in 1928. By 1932 the family was living in Oklahoma, the children malnourished. A sister dies, and then his mother. His father is unable to care for the family, and the children are placed in an orphanage. Four-year-old Frank is adopted by Clarence and Olive Fox, farmers from Beaver County, Oklahoma, who give him his new name. ("It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy being 'frank,' which has gotten me into a lot of trouble as well as all the girls thinking I'm a 'fox.'")

Much later came a stint in the Navy and then, in 1949, Frank married Juanita, whom he had met when she was a first grader and he was nine. The union has lasted. "I am proud to say we have only had one family fight. Of course it has lasted for sixty-three years." Frank and Juanita and their growing family moved to California, eventually settling in Orland where Frank went into the antiques business.

"I've had many trials and troubles," he writes. "I have tried to do thing my way many times. Each time, God gently caught me as I fell." At Easter, it's an especially fitting acknowledgment.

The Sacramento River, in all its glory

"My love of rivers is deep and enduring," writes Bob Madgic. "What inspired me to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Shasta county after a career in public education was the Sacramento River. My wife, Diane, and I live in a home overlooking this magnificent waterway. The river's daily gifts are immeasurable. Constant yet ever-changing motion, myriad birds, stunning sunsets that tint the water red, and full moons that coat the surface silver are joined by a continual symphony of river sounds. I can walk to the water any time and possibly hook a spirited rainbow trout. We are truly blessed."

Madgic, aided by project contributor Walt Simmons, has created a printed homage to this great waterway. "The Sacramento: A Transcendent River" ($24.95 in paperback from River Bend Books, 6412 Clear View Drive, Anderson, CA 96007) is a beautifully designed book, replete with color photos, some taken by Madgic, that captures "the power and beauty of the natural Sacramento River, including the flora and fauna that co-exist with it."

Madgic will be signing copies of his book and presenting a multi-media presentation this Thursday, March 28, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the meeting of the Sacramento River Preservation Trust, 631 Flume St. in Chico. Books will be available for purchase; the signing is free and open to the public.

The story of the Sacramento River is told in eleven chapters, from the history of the native peoples to the development of Shasta Dam, the "decline of the Delta," the diminishing of the winter-run salmon, and, more recently, new hope for conservation. Ironically, the "age of abundance" created by new technologies also caused industrial pollution and "widespread destruction of natural habitat." But then came new conservation organizations, like the Sacramento River Preservation Trust. Co-founded in Chico in the 1980s by John Merz, it fought a proposal to, in Merz' words, "rip rap every bend between Red Bluff and Colusa," thus turning the Sacramento into a glorified canal.

But even more central to Madgic's story is the encounter with the river itself and how a "natural" river, to the extent that that is possible, offers abundant gifts. The river is a classroom, and the lesson is clear: that "a healthy human race calls for thriving river ecosystems."

From Chico to the Yukon--and the spirit world

The author's note for F. Jay Fuller begs to be quoted: "He’s turned ankles, pulled muscles, torn tendons, split nails, broken bones, fallen off cliffs, fallen out of trees, fallen in rivers, been lost, lost skin, lost teeth, lost his keys, had poison oak, had ticks, endured giardia, suffered frostbite, caught cold, and caught hell."

Fuller tells a compelling coming of age story of a young Chico boy, Ahto Twickanen, and his mysterious great uncle, Jaakko, in "Shadows In Winter" ($17.99 in paperback from Cool Waters Press; also available in Amazon Kindle e-book format). The journey begins with the annual Christmas trip to the Quincy area to visit Uncle Aigen. Ahto is ten, and his parents look forward to the big family gathering. Ahto looks forward to seeing Jaakko, seemingly a recluse holed up in a small cabin in the frozen Yukon, save for his sudden and strange Christmas Eve appearances.

A book signing will be held Thursday, March 21, at the new location of Lyon Books, 135 Main in downtown Chico (next to Peet's Coffee and Tea), at 7:00 p.m.

Though Lutheran, the family emigrated to America in the 19th century because they "disagreed strongly with church dogma regarding the treatment of those who clung to their native beliefs and practiced the old traditions. ... These were the Sámi, the pastoral people of the reindeer whom the outside world called 'Lapps'--one of the oldest and perhaps the least understood native people in all Europe."

Jaakko is deeply connected to the old practices and, as years pass, it become clear that Ahto (Jaakko calls him "Otso," "the name of a pet bear in the Kalevala, Finland's national epic") is also able to channel powers beyond the ordinary. When the teenage Ahto has a waking vision of Jaakko sick in his cabin, he and his father make the harrowing trip to the Yukon, to Jaakko. While his father and a guide travel back for help, Ahto stays to tend to his uncle. And Jaakko introduces him to the ways of the shaman, the noaide, which opens the door to the Land of Shadows, the spirit world.

Full of adventure and discovery, this well-written story carries on an ancient tradition--and brings it to Chico.

A dystopian novel of Northern California

By "Northern California" London-based novelist Cory Doctorow actually means "San Francisco" (with a glace toward Sacramento). I caught up with him by email during a promotional book tour in the US and asked whether he had ever been to Chico. He thought for a long time, he writes, and though he hasn't journeyed through Butte County, he likely has flown over it. What little surveillance he has given us is nothing compared to the digital dystopia he imagines in "Homeland" ($17.99 in hardcover from Tor Teen; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble e-book formats).

Doctorow (craphound.com) is a prolific science-fiction novelist, co-editor of the Boing Boing blog, and a writer and speaker on digital freedom issues. He is a foe of "digital rights management" (DRM) software that, for example, prevents lawfully obtained e-books from being given to others. (The electronic versions of "Homeland" are DRM-free at the publisher's request.)

"Homeland," which takes place in the Bay Area and at Burning Man in Nevada, presents readers with a not-so-distant future in which electronic surveillance (especially of mobile devices) has become the norm by local governments and civilian organizations with contractual ties to the government (think Blackwater, only in the novel it's called Zyz). "Homeland" begins a few years after "Little Brother" and traces the further adventures of now 19-year-old Marcus Yallow who had been brutalized by officials in San Francisco after a terrorist attack.

Now, Marcus has received 800,000 files (think "WikiLeaks") that detail technology's misuse in the name of "keeping us safe." There are the school officials who can view what goes on at home without student laptops' camera lights coming on; the Hearts and Minds "persona management" software Zyz uses that creates "astroturf" (not true grass roots) movements designed to sway public opinion with "paid operatives"; and lobbying efforts to make student loans even more difficult to pay off.

Marcus and his "hactivist" friends are targeted by Zyz as trouble. Doctorow details the geeky use of the "darknet," a place online that the files can be kept without links to who put them there, and amid police roundups, Zyz rough-ups, political run-ups, and relationship break-ups, Marcus finds a voice for a utopian vision of justice and freedom in this fast-paced and unnerving story.

Painful memories from a Chico visitor

The last conversation Kristine Godinez had with her dad was by phone in 1997. "Three days later," she writes, "he died of a massive heart attack while sitting on the toilet." Though they expressed mutual love, their relationship was "complicated." Now a therapist in Arizona, Godinez grew up in Gridley, attended a "fundamentalist" church in Richvale, and eventually came to Chico State University. She was a recent guest for a book signing at The Bookstore in downtown Chico.

Godinez' father was a local attorney, an accomplished man with a penchant for stirring the pot wherever he went. "My dad's behavior was bizarre," she remembers. "The man prided himself on being a faithful marine and a good Christian, but he would get involved in emotional affairs, left, right, and center. Not sexual affairs, emotional affairs. He would find a woman and idealize her and seek to spend as much time with her as possible."

That was not the half of it. Godinez tells her sad and challenging story in "What's Wrong With Your Dad?: Growing Up The Child Of An Addict With Borderline Personality Disorder" ($14.95 in paperback, self-published; available in Amazon Kindle e-book format). The book is the kind of journal Godinez recommends her clients keep. "Normally I would burn this, but this is to show how it is done. Writing it, I experienced every emotion, every tear, every laugh. I made it from the beginning to the other side intact and so will you."

What is Borderline Personality Disorder? Those "with BPD tend to have very low self-esteem to no self-esteem and are terrified of abandonment. They engage in reckless behavior and persist in suicidal ideation or gestures. They also express the belief that they are unique somehow in their suffering; they have an inability to accept personal responsibility for their actions. ... They are master manipulators." The book details a litany of physical, emotional and sexual abuse perpetrated by the man on his family.

There's plenty of swearing in the book, something the author says helps relieve the hurt, and "aside from the fact it makes people I don't like immensely uncomfortable, I enjoy doing it." There are touches of humor (Godinez calls her mother "Cleopatra Queen of Denial") but the wounds are still there.

A bestselling fitness book from a Butte College instructor

"I have a long and colorful diet and exercise history," Lani Muelrath writes, "30 years of constantly battling my weight, being at war with food and with my body, and not having the lasting success or real results I craved." Even workouts weren't working.

What was missing? Balance, what she calls "the three pillars of successful body transformation": exercise, diet and mind-set. In developing a balanced fitness and plant-based food program, and focusing on achievable, motivational goals, Muelrath was able to lose 50 founds (and keep it off) while at the same time eating until she was full (no caloric number crunching) and exercising in a way that didn't take over her life. Her encouraging guidance is available in "Fit Quickies: 5-Minute Targeted Body-Shaping Workouts" ($19.95 in paperback from Alpha Books/Penguin) and at lanimuelrath.com.

Muelrath will be speaking and demonstrating her "Fit Quickie" approach Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at Lyon Books in Chico.

Her book presents fourteen "Fit Quickies" (from "7 Seconds to a Flat Belly" to "Shoulder Shapers") which can stand alone or be part of a regular gym program. Each "Quickie," including repetitions, lasts only about three to five minutes. The key is to isolate the muscles that help shape the body, challenging them so that they "sit up, take notice, and change shape."

The book also provides combinations of Fit Quickies for ten-minute workouts (one bundle focuses on "Bums and Tums"). "Fit Quickies," she writes, "are perfect for revolutionizing your workouts. These research-driven, physical therapist- and exercise physiologist-approved targeted exercises promise to change the shape of your muscles and restore your strength in a refreshing and innovative format."

Muelrath doesn't neglect diet and motivation, either. The calorie-counting "rabbit food" approach only leaves the eater hungry and prone to keep eating. Her approach: "By day's end, if I were to take all the food I ate that day and put it on a big tray, half of it would be starchy veggies and whole grains, and the other half would be high-water-content vegetables." The rule: "Eat when hungry until you're not." As for motivation, "practice for success." When a setback comes, forgive yourself. Evidence shows it's easier to get back on track.

With "Fit Quickies," readers have a wise and compassionate coach.

Upbeat poetry from a Chico writer

Looking for just the right time? Well, consider: "It's not too late / It's not too soon / To watch the stars dance toward the moon. / Paint rainbow colors across the sea / Invite the ladybugs for tea. / Ride the clouds to fairy lands / Grow cookie gardens in the sand. / To see a world where nothing's wrong / And make it so through silly song. ..."

"Just the Right Time: A Magical Mixture of Poetry and Paintings For Folks of All Ages" ($7.99 in paperback from CreateSpace, available in Chico at Lyon Books and Postal Plus) is a collection of poetry by Robyn Alana Engel. It's beautifully illustrated by Robin Mead, "a Mixed Media, Water-coloring, Acrylic using Artist" who uses digital tools for added effect.

According to an author's note, which is worth quoting in full, Engel "is a native Californian and Bay Area migrant who proudly made Chico her home two years ago. Her writing spans various genres, and Robyn is best known for her humorous dating antics. She's published in Being Single Magazine and the Journal of Jewish Communal Services. Currently, Robyn freelances for Examiner.com as a local expert on Sex and Relationships. Besides writing, she enjoys dancing and eating chocolate, though not necessarily in that order nor simultaneously. When she's not working in social services, you'll find Robyn devouring chocolate while blogging at Life by Chocolate, rawknrobyn.blogspot.com."

The poems, the author says, grew from thinking about the special people in her life. In "Kindred Spirits" the poet writes of "Fragile souls / Enduring ties. // Secrets known / Never shared. // Countless fears / Never scared. // So much achieved / Though never proud. // So much lost / Though not out loud. // My ground / My heart / My love and calm. / My kindred spirit / My soul // My mom."

So much change to face in the modern world! "Back in the Day" "... Courage and valor defined one as great - / Not being a whiney, crazed parent of eight. / Actors could act and performers could sing / Reality shows starred Carson an Bing."

Nevertheless, "No Matter What": "Whatever the season / No matter the reason / May you love beyond fears / And laugh past your tears / May you like what you see / And hear harmony."

Chicoan makes a list and checks it twice

For a long time the Carol Williamson had in mind publishing a fill-in-the-blanks reference book that would keep the information about one's life close at hand. As a publicity release puts it: "With all the special dates and events to remember, important checklists to accomplish, valuable documents to keep track of, life just seems to be one giant juggling act."

Now the Chico resident's dream has come to fruition with "Know It All: The Book About You" ($19.99 in paperback from Xlibris at cwknowitall.com; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats). About the cover, she notes that "my daughter-in-law, Kaci Koistinen ... took the picture of the Oregon Coast with my granddaughter Sarah and her dog Cooper. It signifies how big the world is and how we'll never really 'Know It All.'"

The book begins with a list of topical areas throughout the remainder of the work. Williamson begins with an opportunity to write in must-have telephone numbers (she suggests appliance dealer, baby sitters, piano tuner, plumber, and many more). Scattered throughout are already populated lists, like "Anniversary gifts by years" (for thirty years of marriage, it's still pearls), "Herbs and spices," and a checklist of "Items packed in my car."

I asked Williamson by email why she would want to produce primarily a printed book when so many "get organized" apps were available for computers and smartphones. "People like myself," she responded, "feel more secure that this book is something that whatever the reason, they could just grab it and go. Although there are various apps out there, I really think that people would be more apt to buy this book for convenience. No matter if they are knowledgeable at electronics or not."

Some of the lists are serious, such as "Important things your family should know." It suggests everything from adoption papers and auto registrations to warranties and wills and then provides space to fill in a location code (wallet? file cabinet?). Others are more whimsical, like "Memories to my grandchildren," which includes space to enter "my favorite hiding place" and "my favorite hymn,"; and "Sayings I've made up or lived by."

You could say that here is a book that fills you out without putting on weight.

A return to Avalon from novelist Darien Gee

Avalon is "a small, simple river town in northern Illinois," but the people there are not so simple. Darien Gee (whose husband, Darrin, has relatives in Chico) returns, after her last novel, "Friendship Bread," with a new Avalon story. "The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society: A Novel" ($26 in hardcover from Ballantine; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats) intertwines the lives of a number of young women, each in search of love, each surprised at how it finally arrives.

This unlikely group is brought together by old Bettie Shelton ("the town fussbudget") "with her mobile scrapbooking business." She pokes her nose into everyone's business. Those she doesn't know she invites to the next meeting. Take thirty-eight-year-old Isabel Kidd. Childless, her dentist husband Bill left her for his assistant, Ava, and they had a child together. Bill died soon after in an accident and Isabel is still trying to put the pieces together. She wants to sell her house and get away.

But Bettie gets to her first. Come to the meeting! What meeting? "'Scrapbooking.' Bettie straightens up to her full height, 4'11". 'I'm president and founder of the Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society, in case you didn't know.'"

Scrapbooking has taken hold in Avalon. (The author provides scrapbooking tips at the end of the novel as well as a series of recipes, including Connie's Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings; there are more resources at dariengee.com). For Bettie, "scrapbooking isn't about making things pretty on the page, but about how you feel about the details in life that are special, that feel good. Invite others to take an emotional journey with you. Using textures in your layouts is one of the fastest ways to get people there."

The novel itself is a scrapbook. There's Connie, an outsider who finds belongingness working at Madeline's Tea Salon--now charged with goat-napping. And Yvonne, a plumber who looks like a model, who ends up dating her enemy. Reed and Frances, attempting to adopt a medically-challenged little girl from China. And Ava, who wants desperately to meet Isabel.

There are surprising twists, but Gee ties everything together with a rich texture of memories and the promise that when love seems all but lost--it may not be.

Chico novelist fiddles with time

If you fiddle with time, as most science-fiction readers know, time is likely to fiddle back. Oh, the paradoxes of traveling back in time to prevent an earlier self from making a romantic mistake which brought you there in the first place. Throw in an evil Corporation that wants to monopolize time travel and a group of Anarchists who want to overthrow the Corporation, and pull together some innocent (and not so innocent) people from our own time, and you have the makings of fast-paced romp with a time machine that looks suspiciously like a kitchen chair.

The story is called "Tendence And Cavile" ($13.95 in paperback from Leeftail Press, leeftailpress.com; also available in Amazon Kindle e-book format) by D.T. Kastn (a pen name). Kastn also writes poetry and short stories and she blogs at the Unboxed Project (unboxed-project.livejournal.com).

Things begin quietly enough. In our own time (whatever that means), Sevannah (Sev) Carlson, having reached the odd age of 37, "had given up on the myth of an intelligent, handsome man and was instead looking for one who could count to ten and wouldn't frighten small children."No wonder she falls for handsome Matthew Adler. But then he disappears and when Sev investigates Matthew's basement, she finds a kitchen chair time machine. When she sit and presses "enter" on the control box she is whisked away to London of an earlier time. What the Dickens?

There she meets another time traveler, an Adept (meaning no chair needed) named Simon or "Sime (In Time)." He becomes her conversational sparring partner through wild trips to the past and future in an effort (at first) to track down Matthew. Think Nick and Nora Charles meet Douglas Adams.

But it becomes clear that Matthew is not quite a paragon of virtue and that, through all the verbal barbs lobbed at each other, Sev and the older Sime might have some kind of future. The quest transforms into a plan to destroy the Corporation. But they must deal with Corporation's Tendence and Cavile.

"They're the enforcers," Sime says. If they catch you? "They take all the years you've traveled, add them up, and tack them onto your present age, effective immediately." Ouch! What happens next? Who wins?

Answers will come, all in good time

"California's last glaciers"

Tim Palmer, who recently appeared at Lyon Books in Chico for a signing and slide show, knows the mountains of California. Author and master photographer, Palmer has traversed them "by foot and on skis, by canoe and whitewater raft, and in his well-equipped van." "In the spring of 2010," he writes, "I set out for the glaciers of California. I wanted to see them before they were gone."

Hear the sadness: "I wanted to climb on the glaciers' steep slopes, to feel the crunch of their snow underfoot, to drink from crystalline streams cutting their icy surfaces, to sleep at their rocky windswept edges, and to photograph their evanescent beauty so others might also know what was there. It proved to be one of the most remarkable summers of my life."

His report, filled with stunning color photographs, is simply called "California Glaciers" ($29.95 in hardcover from Sierra College Press, published by Heyday Books). It's a personal account, capturing the sense of what it is like to walk atop a glacier, coming to terms with a "glacial truth that required me to stretch my concept of what is real, or likely, or possible: a solid substance that flows. I imagined the creeping ice as if it were extremely dense clay, ever so slowly yielding, bending, and moving to the molding pressure of my hands. Gravity had exerted that kind of force on the ice non-stop for ages, and so the ice bent and slid downhill. By setting foot on the glacier, I had figuratively--and quite imaginably--reentered the ice ages of the past."

Near the center of the book is a glacier portfolio, pages of blues, whites, browns, and reds, from Thompson Peak in the Trinity Alps to Hotlum Glacier on Mount Shasta's east side. A chapter is devoted to Shasta. Listen: "On the towering stratovolcano of the north, California's largest surviving glaciers still move, rupture, creak, crack, groan, push rock, and swallow the unwary."

But these glaciers are fast disappearing. "Throughout the Sierra," Palmer writes, "glaciers are about half as large in area as they were a hundred years ago. ... From a purely nature-focused view, the changes written in the glaciers are tragic and, I might add, heartbreaking."

Here, then, is an elegy to the California glacier.

Orland history, from water towers to Whiskerinos

Orland native Gene Russell has now published some seven books on Orland history. His latest is a collection of pieces that appeared in Wagon Wheels, "journal of the Colusi (co-loo-see) County Historical Society," which he now edits. Arranged in geographical and then chronological order, the well-researched stories begin with Orland proper and then extend out to "Orland in Glenn County ... and Orland in Colusi/Colusa County--remember that Orland was part of Colusa County until the formation of Glenn County in 1891."

"Orland's Colorful Past: Scrapbook" ($20 in paperback from Rustle Inndustries; available at The Rusty Wagon, 420 Walker Street in Orland, or from the author at orly@saber.net) collects twenty-four articles that not only consider serious topics, such as "Glenn County Civil War Veterans," but more whimsical ones, such as "The Orland Area Whiskerinos and the 1925 Glenn County Fair." The cover of the book shows the "original 1849 Whiskerino emblem" which appeared on kerchiefs. "The first meeting of a Whiskers Club of Orland was held on Friday, July 31, 1925, when 18 former bald-faced men, organized and signed their names to the charter. Officers were chosen and plans made to begin a 'reign of terror for the beardless.'"

Another article charts the history of the Orland Water Tower, still standing today, "126 feet from the ground to the top of the tank," now ringed by "modern communication devices." Back in 1911 Orland had purchased the property but there was some question about how deep the water was. So an expert was brought in, a man named Cofer. "Visiting from Red Bluff was a noted north valley 'water wizard' who reportedly could tell the location and depth of water 'because his vision pierces the innermost bowels of the earth.'" Cofer told town trustees they wouldn't find water much higher than 800 feet. Later, when the actual well was dug, water was just 170 feet down. Oops!

There are also stories of the Ku Klux Klan in Glenn County in the 1920s; the coming of the Chautauqua educational movement (proponent William Jennings Bryan spoke in Willows for a dollar a ticket); and the "Orland Rabbit Drives of 1922-25."

The book contains documentary sources and an extensive name index. It's an authoritative volume that's also fun to read.

Dick Cory on "fiscal cliffs" and thunderstorms

"Much negotiation lies ahead before middle ground can be found," writes Chicoan Dick Cory in his new book, "Down To Earth" ($20 in paperback from the author--write to ubangarang@yahoo.com; also available at Made In Chico). Maybe Congressional seating ought to be rearranged. "Opposing parties should be seated next to one another. ... We must talk with each other rather than at one another. ... Let's make sure 'down to earth' progress is reached before we go over a fiscal cliff or another election occurs. That's my two cents worth. You decide if it's worth a plug nickel."

The retired teacher brings his small-town Nebraska heritage to bear on a multitude of observations. These reflections, the sixth collection of essays since he began writing more than a decade ago, consider "culture and environment" (Cory has been deeply involved in a group considering the disposition of Chico's Teichert Ponds); education ("I am a teacher!"); family ("life hasn't been without pitfalls, but it has never been pitiful"); and "nostalgia and wit" (whatever happened to the Chico "Community Bench" project?).

Cory writes that if he taught English instead of science he would use a thunderstorm as a way of teaching composition. "If you are lucky enough to live on the plains, you are able to watch as the storm approaches along a squall line. This is a slow moving curtain of water flowing from clouds at the front of a storm. Call this the topic sentence. As this shower line reaches you, the precipitation increases, barometric pressure drops, and lightning flashes and thunder courses the sky. This shows the brilliance of the storm and your paragraph. A funnel cloud, called a tornado or cyclone, adds exclamation to your paragraph!"

There are poignant moments, too, as Cory adjusts to life without his wife, Jan, who died in 2012 "the day after our twenty-six wedding anniversary. She was a pillar of strength and love."

The book contains daydreams, letters to the editor, sometimes crotchety observations, and a lot of "chewing the fat" (the term "in America may have arisen from having to chew salt port or fatback when food supplies were low").

As for Cory's views? "You may disagree, but remember I'm only shooting the breeze, gabbing, and chewing the fat."

Former Chicoan builds a marina in Abu Dhabi

"My Chico existence," Steve Burton writes in an email, "dates back to 1971." His website (http://stephencburton.com) notes that "he spent twenty years in the real estate development and construction industries, followed by eight years in the maritime industry." Now living in the Bay Area, he and his wife Pamela became "expats" by moving to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in 2007. Money was no object back then. Burton and his and other teams were tasked with building a world-class marina, hotel complex, and Formula One racetrack in just thirty months. Piece o' cake--well, sort of--when just a nod from a member of the Royal Family takes care of any red tape.

But day-to-day living in the area, one of the richest venues on earth, was not exactly a cakewalk. That's when Burton's sense of humor kicks in, and his wry observations humanize a jaw-droppingly lavish project without peer in the world. "Staying Afloat: Three Years In Abu Dhabi" ($17.95 in paperback from iUniverse; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats) is part history, part travelogue, part memoir. But it's also a serious reflection on cultural diversity and economic realities, especially as the worldwide recession began to affect even the Emirates after Burton's project was completed.

"The $125 million Yas Marina and quay in the channel immediately outside the entrance to the marina were designed to handle 146 yachts up to 325 feet long. ... For comparison, a multi-billion-dollar Los Angeles class nuclear submarine is 353 feet long. Yas Marina is to date the most high-tech marina facility ever constructed. The F1 racetrack wraps around five sides of the fifteen-sided marina and provides yacht owners and their guests with an unobstructed view of much of the race." Monaco has nothing on Yas.

In the end, "the Sheikhs' expectations were met. ... Yas Marina and its yacht club have been added to the esteemed list of premier global yachting destinations. ... The inaugural Abu Dhabi International Yacht Show in 2008 was timed to highlight the construction of the Yas Marina." Burton and his group had done it--with just weeks to spare.

It's great yacht reading, even if some of Burton's all-too-human gaffes are, uh, a little dinghy.

Lookout Point: A spiritual oasis

Lookout Point is "nestled next to the Skyway," where "Butte Creek is barely visible when gazing down from the canyon rim at the Lookout. It meanders like an ebony thread between the cavernous walls of the canyon. ... On cold, misty days, mountain ravines are hidden from view by thick layers of fog."

This was the place Norma Brumbaugh visited, for an hour each week for a year, starting with Good Friday 2009. "The Lookout became my place of release, its view inspiring me to contemplate and pray." There she found "solace and healing. I received in a seamless blend the awe of creation knit with my belief in a loving and caring God." Her journal has become "The Meeting Place: Moments With God At Lookout Point" ($17.99 in paperback from Inspiring Voices; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats).

The author "is still active in agriculture in the Chico area. She is a mother of five, grandmother of two, reading specialist, and teacher. For most of her life, she has been active in the church." Though she has been involved in many ministries, "her passion ... is to help draw people to find God in an intimate relationship." The author's own deep emotion and spiritual questioning are recorded in each of the meditations in the book. She is faced with the loss of a marriage, the estrangement of a daughter, job stresses, and her own anger and fear.

Influenced by the Christian mystical tradition, Brumbaugh's meditations range from poetic reflections ("the sun--hidden for these moments: / the brightness subdued in grey screen / but your glory is here--I feel its warmth. ...") to contemplation ("It is interesting that even in my fifties, I am still learning many lessons about life. People are complex beings. To be healthy in our human emotions is formidable at times").

"Father," she prays, "I want to think about you. Draw my thoughts to you. Fill me with your presence. Renew my mind. Speak truth to me. Expose my wrong thinking, wrong conclusions, and areas of blindness."

Brumbaugh finds comfort in Jesus Christ, the gift of Christmas, but never complacency. There is much to learn. At Lookout Point, she realizes, "it is good to be here."

The Civil War comes to Nevada City in a riveting new novel

Though Richard Hurley's career in computer-based multimedia took him to the Sierra foothills, his love of history never left. Along with with co-author TJ Meekins, whose work took her to the Tahoe National Forest in Nevada City, the two have produced a compelling historical novel and bittersweet love story that will have readers turning pages far into the night.

"Queen Of The Northern Mines: A Novel Of The Civil War In California" ($16.95 in paperback from Bear River Books, bearriverbooks.com) spans a short but eventful four years, from November 1860, centered mostly in the area of Nevada City (then called "Nevada," the "Queen" of the title). The authors interweave the stories of Virginian Will Stafford, the handsome 28-year-old attorney, with that of Chinese mine owner Ah Tie, Austrian musician Peter Kessel, and Nisenan Maidu orphan Nutim.

The book was named a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association. The cover, "Portrait of Sophie Gray," from the artist John Everett Millais (1857), beckons the reader to settle in to a story of love found and love lost, a story of divided loyalties, both personal and political, and to a tale that mixes the absurd (think E Clampus Vitus) with the unutterably sad (war's devastation).

Will arrives in Nevada (the town) having helped dispatch a group of highway agents intent on plunder; he finds work (and friendship) with a judge, and he finds his attention drawn to the Missouri House, whose caretaker, 31-year-old widow Molly Hatfield ("richly endowed with wisdom and beauty") sparks a decided personal interest. Complicating matters, Molly's daughter Ida, 15 years old, is also smitten with the young lawyer.

People have come from all over the country (and the world) to have a go at the Northern mines. There is decided Yankee sentiment in Nevada, and Rebel sentiment in Grass Valley. When Will returns to Nevada, wounded, from fighting for the Confederacy in his home state, he must face a profound reality. If Jefferson Davis is to survive, he must have California gold. A new shipment from the mines is on its way, and Will must decide the meaning of honor, friendship and love.

Does a uniform lift him above being a mere highway agent?

Small town thriller from a local writer

John Lundquist, who works at Enloe Hospital, writes novels on the side. He tells me "I like small towns and secrets that need to be explored," especially those little communities near the Sacramento Delta area.

The hero of "Absolution" ($11 in paperback from CreateSpace; also available in Amazon Kindle e-book format) is Jake Coulter. Never one to settle down, the handsome and confident Coulter wants to be free as the wind in his travels. But, sidelined by engine trouble in the Delta area, Coulter's life is about to change forever.

Where to get service? "The next town up the road was Royalton. According to the legend on the back of the map, the population for the town was listed as eight hundred and sixty." Back on the road, Coulter suddenly realizes that another truck is aiming to run him off the road. Coulter takes evasive action; eventually the other truck "ran clear off the road, over the drainage ditch, down the slope to the water, and ended up with its nose end in the lapping water of the Sacramento River."

Coulter determines to report the incident in Royalton and then mosey right along. It doesn't work out that way.

The town and surrounding countryside are pretty much owned by Richard Davidson, a man who wants control. In that regard his son, Billy, is quite the problem. He hates his father and is generally not to be found except when he chooses to run folks off the road for sheer sport.

Billy not only survives the truck incident but now wants Coulter arrested for hit-and-run. Then, as if on schedule, a series of mysterious murders begins. First a prominent banker. Later will come an attorney and a real estate agent. Davidson is afraid Billy is behind them and has decided that Coulter is the guilty party. And he wants his hand-picked sheriff to kill him. Davidson is intransigent in the face of contrary evidence, but Coulter is equally intransigent when it comes to his reputation. If it's not Billy, who is the real killer?

The tale focuses on action, but also what it costs to be a person of integrity. It's a fun, fast-paced read, just the kind of story for a meandering trip through the Delta.

"Grooving with a healthy rhythm of yeses and nos"

In "Say Yes To No," Greg Cootsona, associate pastor for adult discipleship and college ministries at Bidwell Presbyterian Church in Chico, found that taking on too much--saying "yes" to too many things--undermines the richness of life we were created to experience. Now, a just-published companion volume focuses on discovering the yeses we ought to embrace.

"The Time for Yes: Enjoying What's Best in Life, Work, and Love" ($5.99 in paperback from CreateSpace; also available in Amazon Kindle e-book format) recognizes the importance of "grooving with a healthy rhythm of yeses and nos." This is the place "where notes and silences, beats and spaces, produce beautiful music and where we move with the heartbeat of life. Here," he writes, "I've learned from the insights of researchers and writers who emphasize that our lives produce excellence when there is a rhythm of rest and work. As a percussionist would say, when we live this rhythm, then we groove. (Since I'm a percussionist, I guess I can say it.)"

Cootsona will be speaking and signing copies of his book this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. at Lyon Books in Chico.

But before one can begin grooving, we must listen. "Our yes implies that we hear the Voice of God calling us uniquely and specifically to do God's mission of love and justice in the world." Next comes "testing," "a process that verifies the validity of what we've heard." Then, at last, it's time to groove.

These steps work themselves out in what Cootsona calls the "triangle" of life, work, and love. "In our personal life, we say yes to what makes sense for the way we are created. In work, we seek to make the world a better place by using our particular gifts and passions for what God wants in the world. In our relationships, we learn how all this makes a lot more sense--and becomes a lot more fun--when we do it with others."

Such a life is a realization of beauty ("excellence, true success, and happiness"). "Through listening for our calling we find he One who calls. I believe God is faithful in calling us."

The book is a fun and practical guide for finding the right rhythms of our lives.

Three children's books from area writers

Vic Sbarbaro and Marcia D. (Sbarbaro) Pezzella are back with the third entry in their "Crowlyle" series for kids. This time, "Crowlyle Has A Crush" ($12.95 in paperback from Northstate Children's Books). Featuring full-page color illustrations by Ashe Lewis and Josh Smith, the book uses short rhythmic lines to tell the story of the big dance. Crowlyle has fallen for Crowlia, but a bully steps in and dances with her instead. Yet Crowlyle, grooving to "Crowbait, the coolest DJ," wins the day and wins her heart.

Northstate photojournalist Kathy Coatney (kathycoatney.com) has written the third in her "Farmer Guy/Gal Series." "Pizza, Tacos And The Olive-Fingered Kid" ($9.99 in paperback from CreateSpace; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats) features a full-color photograph on each page along with simple commentary. The book is intended for second and third graders (there's a short vocabulary list at the end) and tells the story of Farmer Charlie and Farmer Nick, both Corning olive growers. Charlie raises Sevillanos; his trees "are really, really old. They were planted before 1900." Nick raises a different kind of table olives, Manzanillos. "Farmer Charlie's Sevillano trees grow giant olives that are big enough to fit on his fingers. Farmer Nick's olives are smaller, and they fit on kid-sized fingers."

The Butte County Fire Safe Council, headquartered in Paradise, has published a cool little book called "Wildfire Ready Raccoon" (available in paperback for a small donation; contact Executive Director Calli-Jane Burch, firesafe@buttefiresafe.org; the Website is at thenet411.net). Written by Phil John and illustrated by Dave Thompson, both Paradise residents, the book tells the story of Ready Raccoon (also a Paradise resident) who one day smells the smoke of a wildfire. "Ready gathered with all his neighbors, the animals ones and the people ones, and watched the fire burning towards their little town. The smoke was thick and black, and they could see flames shoot up from the trees as the fire grew and moved closer to their homes." Some suffered great loss, and Ready was determined to make sure his own home was ready. Firefighter Jim helps out, and the book is a good guide for how to be wildfire safe. Ready is now the mascot of the Paradise Fire Safe Council.

Where is God when you're dying?

John Gilbert was born in 1976 in Castro Valley's Eden Hospital. Eventually he and his younger brother Alan, and his parents, Bruce and Cathy, moved to Paradise. In between was the terse phone call from the doctor. "I'm calling to inform you that your son's lab tests are in. John has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His life expectance is 16 years." Diagnosed at five, John would live another twenty years, years full pain and grief beyond measure, but also of a growing Christian faith. His parents' own faith, tested in the extreme, meant following Jesus in a way they had never understood before.

John left a manuscript that he hoped, one day, would see publication as a testament to God's goodness. His father has much to say as well, and the result is "From Eden To Paradise: Something Stronger Than Time” ($22.99 in paperback from Xulon Press; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats), "an autobiography by John Stuart Gilbert; a father's reflections by Bruce Stuart Gilbert."

Bruce Gilbert is scheduled to be interviewed by Nancy Wiegman for Nancy's Bookshelf, this Friday at 10:00 a.m. on Northstate Public Radio KCHO (91.7 FM).

John's service dog, Friedman, a "spry and handsome" Golden Retriever, would become his best friend. When John graduated with honors from Paradise High, John, in his wheelchair, accompanied by Friedman, accepted his diploma. When he turned to go down, "I saw something that shocked me. All of my classmates, even the ones I didn't know, and all of their families stood on their feet applauding me and cheering me on."

Bruce, in the second section of the book, notes that the standing ovation provoked not a feeling of being honored but one of being betrayed. Where were parents and students when John was being harrassed by bullies, especially in junior high, and when he needed human companionship? An ovation is easy; living the daily life with someone as broken in body as John, humbling.

But the excruciating dailyness is the place God met John and Alan, Bruce and Cathy. Bruce writes with the love of a father and heart of a pastor, John as one transformed by suffering. Where is God when you're dying? Thankfully, right here.