Lifescapes

In Bloom This Week: American Beauty

The drought has been hard on the roses, even the heritage roses, which are better adapted to hot, dry weather. But this American Beauty keeps on keeping on, bless her. She is dangerously thorny but the fragrance of her blossoms is alluring. Lovely, lovely on a cool spring morning.

Book report. It's been a busy week, filled with lots of publishing chores. The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star will be out in September, and A Wilder Rose follows in October--two book in two months is a challenge. The publisher (Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime) pretty much takes care of the Dahlias, but since I'm the publisher of Rose, I get to do all the fun stuff myself. I finished cleaning up the manuscript after the copyeditor was done (lots of tinkering) and worked on the Reader's Companion (more about that later). Sherry Wachter (my cover artist) and I made some more adjustments to the cover, and Peggy Moody (my webmistress) and I worked on the book's website. It takes a village, and I'm grateful to all my helpers. I couldn't do this without you, gals!

Garden report. A strong cold front blew through midweek, and I was afraid for the tomatoes. But while the low temp set a record (38), it didn't quite get to freezing. The beans are up, the peas are producing (fresh raw peas in salad, YUM!), and there's still chard and kale. I've planted summer squash; when it's up, I'll interplant okra in the same bed. Today, I'll plant melons.

We've had a little rain, just enough to produce a good crop of spring grass for our cow, Blossom (this photo was taken last winter). But the soil is very dry, the drought monitor tells us that we're in "extreme" drought, and the Highland Lakes are only 39% full. Day-to-day, we're okay. But in the longterm, it's a dangerous situation.

Spring events are posted here. Fort Worth in two weeks, St. Louis next month. But I really need to be writing! I have a new writing project to tell you about--maybe next week.

Reading note. What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, 'What life can I live that will let me breathe in & out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods? --Barbara Kingsolver 

Spring gardening in the Texas Hill Country

Lest you think that I spend all my time writing, here's a glimpse into another part of my life--the garden.

The potatoes look terrific this year, there in the left foreground. I planted them in January, fended off a couple of hard freezes in March, and look at them now! But bushy green tops are only part of the story. I can only hope they're doing their job at producing tubers--we'll know next month, when we dig them. Three kinds here: Yukon Gold, Caribe, and one of the reds, can't remember which.

Behind the potatoes on the left, the perennial onions. They're topsets and blooming now--I'll have to deadhead them or I'll have way more onions than I want. I use the white part in cooking all year and in the spring, when the green tops are tender, I use them like green onions. By fall, I'll be down to just a few clumps, which I'll separate and grow on for next year.

Beyond the onions, kale, chard, and spinach, with garlic at the end of the bed. We eat the tender new leaves, and the girls (my flock of six layers) get a half-bucket of older leaves every day. I love having chickens to eat the garden produce we can't. And their poop goes into the compost, which comes back into the garden. What goes around comes around, in the loveliest possible way.

Beyond the greens bed, a bed of Roma tomatoes and past that, a new bed of Kentucky Wonders and McCaslan beans, both pole-growers. I planted them last Sunday and the McCaslans, eager to see what it's all about, are already up and growing.

On the right, at the back, a trellis of pole peas. I prefer pole beans and peas--easier picking! Beside that bed, two more beds of tomatoes: Better Boys and Porters (the famous TX heritage tomato, a hot-weather survivor). I'll plant the weedy bed, right front, to zucchini and yellow crookneck squash later today.

But I've also been doing writing-related chores. A Wilder Rose--my upcoming self-published novel--now has its own webpage. It has its own Facebook page, too. And its own Pinterest board. I've been making a list of regular book bloggers who might be interested in reviewing the book. If you have a book blog to which you post regularly and think A Wilder Rose might fit your site, email me at susan at susanalbert dot com with a link to your blog.

Happy, busy days here in the Texas Hill Country (although we're still and always wishing for more rain). Hope they're happy and busy at your place, too--and that you have just the right amount of rain on your garden!

Reading note, from Rose Wilder Lane's 1919 novel, Diverging Roads: “I’m sure of one thing,” [Helen] said earnestly [to her friends]. “It hurts to—to let go of anything beautiful. But something will come to take its place, something different, of course, but better. The future’s always better than we can possibly think it will be. We ought to know that—really know it. We ought to be so sure of it that we’d let go of things more easily, strike out toward the next thing. Like swimming, you know. Confidently. We ought to live confidently. Because whatever’s ahead, it’s going to be better than we’ve had. I tell you, girls, I know it is.”

"Why in the world are you publishing that book yourself?"

 

I did a book signing at the Wildflower Center in Austin on Saturday, a very nice meet-and-greet-and-chat affair. Someone asked me what I was working on, and I told her about my new project, A Wilder Rose. She'd read the Little House books as a kid, so she knew the Laura-myth: "Sweet little white-haired farm lady, untutored literary genius, writes stories about her pioneer childhood." She was interested to learn about Laura Ingalls Wilder's only daughter, Rose, and her work as unacknowledged coauthor of the books. But when I told her I am self-publishing the book, she was horrified.

"OMG, why?" she exclaimed. "You're a published author! It's just terrible that you have to do that!" 

No, it's not "just terrible." But since some of you might share her astonishment, I'm going to tell you why I decided to self-publish this book.

Telling Rose's story--my way

Several editors got a preview peek at A Wilder Rose. Some of them liked it, some of them loved it, and there were offers. But every editor had a different idea about how the novel should be shaped--and all of their suggestions moved the story farther away from its real-life base. I felt that they wanted me to preserve the Laura myth or tell another Laura story (as if we didn't already have lots of them!)

But that isn't the story I want to tell: Rose's story, most of it in her voice, based on her daily diary entries. I've written enough novels in my life (well over a hundred) to be confident that this is the story that needs to be told. It's the story that finally sets the record straight.

Telling the story--now

I've been in the writing business for nearly three decades. I know how it works. If I had sold the book to the first publisher who expressed an interest, it would be another 18 months before it saw print--longer, if the editor decided s/he wanted me to make serious changes. (See above.) I've been working on this project off and on since 1991 or so, and steadily for the past two years. I'm feeling urgent about it, and impatient. I want to get Rose's story out there--now, not in 2015!

Selling the story--myself

It's no deep, dark secret that publishers have cut back on their marketing. The dire economy of the past few years and the digital disruptions in their business model have forced them to do that. Bottom line: if A Wilder Rose went to one of the Big 6, she would get a marketing blitz so small it would barely register on anybody's radar. I'd be out there selling the story myself. If I'm going to do that, why not go the whole way? And if I'm going to do all that extra marketing work (it IS work, believe me), I'll be happy to pocket the rewards: a higher royalty rate and a payout measured in weeks, not years. Rose, who was entirely practical about her writing, would appreciate that.

Learning new stuff

There's so much going on in publishing these days--it's hard to keep up with it. Print-on-demand has revolutionized the production of books (no more warehouse inventory!). Online bookselling has revolutionized book marketing. Digital books have revolutionized reading. Knowledge empowers, and I get a huge kick--a psychological boost--out of learning new ways to do things. What's more, I have the feeling that things are moving so fast that if I don't jump in and start learning now, I'll be in way over my head when I finally get around to it.

Doing it both ways

I'm lucky. I've had a strong relationship with an editor and a publisher since the early 1990s. Here in Texas, we have a saying: "Dance with the one that brung ya." I'll continue with my two mystery series for Penguin/Berkley's Prime Crime, although I may decide to write just one series book a year, to give myself time to explore the new publishing technologies. So look for more of the same from me, if that comforts your soul--and more of something different, if that lights your fire.

Meanwhile . . .

While you're waiting for October and A Wilder Rose, there's a new website. Peggy and I have been working on it for several weeks--not finished yet, but it's far enough along so you can take a peek. Let me know what you think.

Reading notes. Making the best of things is... a damn poor way of dealing with them. My whole life has been a series of escapes from that quicksand.--Rose Wilder Lane

 

A Wilder Rose: Progress Report

It's been a busy few weeks. Between the books, the garden, and the girls (my small flock of egg-layers), I haven't had a lot of spare time for blogging. But here's a quick update on A Wilder Rose, which will be published in October.

If you've been following this saga, you know that I've been working on this novel for a couple of years. In February, I decided to author-publish it. That meant that I needed to set up a small publishing house. I have some other writing, in various genres, that I'd like to make available online, so it makes sense to handle it that way. I named it Persevero Press: Latin for "I persevere," which is my mantra. The website is up and you can peek, but Peggy (my webmistress) and I have more work to do on it.

The first task was to get the manuscript copyedited, a job that Berkley (my usual publisher) takes care of with no input from me. But since I'm publishing the book, I get to choose the copyeditor (a woman I worked with on my two University of Texas books). She's finishing her work now, and in a couple of weeks, I'll have a manuscript that's ready to be formatted, converted, and uploaded. It could be published then, too, but I'm holding it for October publication in order to get pre-pub reviews.

The next major task was to create a cover. There, I was lucky, since Sherry Wachter, one of our Story Circle members, is an accomplished, experienced cover artist/designer. I had some fairly clear ideas about what I wanted, and Sherry used those to come up with four sample covers. It was hard to decide among them, so we had an online contest. It wasn't even close: the white cover was a huge favorite. (The drawing winners are posted on the contest page.)

The third task was to put up the book's website. We're still working on it--when it's ready for readers, we'll let you know

Whew. In betwixt/between all this, I finished Death Come Quickly, China Bayles 2014 book. Widow's Tears is out there now, and I've been getting notes from readers who have enjoyed it. I've also come up with an idea for a spinoff from this novel, and will let you know more about it as the details are firmed up. I'll be doing that with Berkley.

Which reminds me to repeat that I am not forsaking traditional/legacy publishing. I've enjoyed my two-decades' association with Berkley and look forward to continuing our work together. But I'm also looking forward to author-publishing A Wilder Rose. The process has already taught me a lot about the publishing business that I didn't know. And I do love to learn new stuff!

Garden report. I lost the first planting of tomatoes and peppers to a late freeze, but the second planting looks very good (Roma, Porter, Sweet Million). I built a new trellis for the peas, and I'll be planting beans (Kentucky Wonder, McCaslan, both pole beans) today. All six of the girls are laying, so we're enjoying plenty of quiche, omelets, deviled eggs, and egg salad. Yum!

Reading note: “Starting your book is only the first five miles of a twenty-six-mile marathon that’s one-third of a triathlon (authoring, publishing, and entrepreneuring).”--Guy Kawasaki

 

Help me choose a book cover

 

Cover designer Sherry Wachter has sent me drafts of four possible covers for my new book, A Wilder Rose: Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Their Little Houses. Peggy has posted them here for you to look at. Which one do you like best?

Vote, and you'll be entered in a drawing for two free copies of the book, when it comes out in October!

In Bloom This Week: CrossVine

The crossvine (it looks like trumpet because they're cousins) is blooming against the house on this beautiful spring day, and the trees and grasses are celebrating the half-inch of rain we got last night, accompanied by a great deal of lightning and thunder. The volume on our weather radio has gone bonkers and we can't turn the darn thing down, so last night's frequent warnings definitely woke us up. I ordered a new radio this morning.

Lots of garden news. Our TX temps are breaking records again this year (listen up, you climate-change deniers). We've already hit 90, twice, while it was still "winter."The peas are up, the potatoes are flourishing, the tomatoes are in--oh, dear, the tomatoes. I transplanted 24 them on Sunday but forgot to water them on Monday, so I lost two. Lost two more to cutworms last night, which leaves 20. I installed cardboard collars are the tomatoes this afternoon, to foil any other cutworms--and caught and squashed the two murderers. Yuck. We've been eating spinach, chard, kale, and onions from the garden.

And eggs from the girls. Five of our six hens are laying regularly, so we're enjoying fresh eggs, with enough to give to friends. While my son Bob was here, he repaired and dog-proofed the chicken coop, so the girls are living in luxury--and security. I've been letting them out in the evening for an hour, keeping an eye out for marauding dogs.

From the writing desk. Ah yes, the writing. Lots of it. Yesterday, I finished Death Come Quickly, China #22 (the 2014 book) and sent it off to New York. Every time I do this, I remember the old days, printing 300+ pages of a book x 2, packaging it up, shipping via Fed Ex (expensive even then!). I'm more than happy to hit "send" and zip the book into my editor's computer. How's that for magic? You don't catch me being nostalgic about the "good old days."

The other project--A Wilder Rose and the Reader's Companion that goes with it--is almost finished. The book itself is being copyedited, and several beta readers are working on it, as well (many thanks to Nancy, Laura, and Susan!). The Companion turned into a bigger job than I imagined and isn't quite done yet. This is a self-published project, so there's a lot of extra learning and work that's going into it, from the publishing end of things. I've been meaning to write a post about that. Now that China's done, I'll have a little more time. For a few days, anyway. I'm expecting the copyedited manuscript of the next Dahlias mystery, The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star, sometime in the next ten days.

So life at Meadow Knoll is busy, and good, with spring in full bloom. Hope spring is coming to your neighborhood very soon!

Reading note. “Whatever you may have heard, self-publishing is not a short cut to anything. Except maybe insanity. Self-publishing, like every other kind of publishing, is hard work. You don’t wake up one morning good at it. You have to work for that.”--Zoe Winters

 

Researching A Wilder Rose

I've often thought that writers and readers of historical novels have the best of both worlds. Historical fiction, when it's done well, gives us a deep view of historical events and people--not a deep, dry view, as in a history book, but a lively dramatic view that draws us in, makes us want to explore further.

I've been writing historical novels for twenty years, beginning with the Robin Paige mysteries that Bill and I wrote from 1993-2005, then my Beatrix Potter Cottage Tales series (2003-2011), and more recently, the Darling Dahlias. Several of the China Bayles mysteries have historical backstories, as well: Bloodroot, Wormwood, and Widow's Tears, for example. If you're guessing that I love to dig around in the past, you've guessed right.

It might be that my love of historical fiction began with the Little House series, which I read to tatters when I was a child. And then, in the 1980s, as an adult, I bumped into The First Four Years, a short novel set after These Happy Golden Years. I was surprised and dismayed: the book was not the same as the eight books in the series.The story was clumsy, the writing was clunky. What had happened to my favorite author to make her write as if she'd never written a book before?

I began searching for a possible explanation. I discovered that Laura's daughter was a well-known bestselling author in the 1920s and 30s: Rose Wilder Lane, named for the wild roses on the Dakota prairies. Suspicions aroused (did Rose give her mother a hand with those first eight books, but not with the ninth?), I began to dig. My explorations took me to Rocky Ridge Farm, then to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, where I found Rose's diaries, journals, and letters--and Laura's letters to her, as well.

I also began to read the work of scholars who were writing about the Little House books, particularly Rosa Ann Moore and William Anderson. About that time (1993) William Holtz published The Ghost in the Little House, and I could see the writing of the Little House books in the Depression-era context of Rose's and Laura's lives. I went back to the Hoover Library for more of Rose's unpublished work, and began a concentrated search through the primary materials Holtz had used for his biography.

But in those years, I was just getting started with the China Bayles series, and then Bill suggested that we write the Robin Paige mysteries, which led to the Beatrix Potter series, and . . . well, you get the picture. It wasn't until I had finished with the eight Cottage Tales that I had the time to go back to my boxes and stacks and shelves of Rose Wilder Lane (RWL) materials, and especially to her diaries and journals--and start thinking about the kind of book I might like to write. A scholarly, academic book? A narrative nonfiction for a general audience? After trying out several approaches, I finally decided to write a novel. I have, after all, been writing novels for nearly three decades now. An easy decision, right?

Maybe. But it would have to be a fact-based novel--tightly fact-based. All of us who grew up loving the Little Houses deserve to know the real story behind the books. And I do mean real: a story that details the way the books were actually written, based on the real, day-to-day record that Rose kept, as well as on the letters her mother wrote when they were working on Plum Creek and Silver Lake. I want readers to see and understand why the two women kept their collaboration a secret and how the books changed both their lives, in the short run and the long run.

The novel is nearly finished now, and will be published in October (the current plan). To satisfy those readers (like myself) who always want to know more, there will also be a Companion, which documents the fiction and connects it with the research: the facts, references, and sources (published and unpublished) from which I've created the story. I hope that both the novel and the Companion will help readers see through the long-standing myth that Laura wrote the books by herself, with just a little editorial touch-up and some promotional boosts from her daughter Rose. That literary legend does a disservice to Rose, who deserves credit for her real contributions to the Little House books. It also does a disservice to Laura, who deserves to be known and respected for the brave, resourceful woman she was, not the literary miracle we imagine her to be. And I believe it does a disservice to us as readers, for we deserve to know the real, collaborative story behind the books we love: how they were written, and why, and by whom.

Reading Note. It rains. Slowly and moistly and indefatigibly. Little crystal drops are strung all along the wet-dark branches of the walnut and the elm outside these windows . . . The trees remain obstinately bare and uncolored all up the flint-gray slope of the hill, but the old oak on the edge of the gorge is creamy with blossoms. Yesterday afternoon Troub [Helen Boylston] and I walked to the top of the hill, and saw on the southern slope the blue of violets, like a reflection of the sky in water. We gathered two handkerchiefs full, and they are now a great mass in a bowl on my table. I do so wish that I could send you some, for it seems to me there are no violets like those that grow on Rocky Ridge.--RWL to Guy Moyston, April 8, 1925.

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A Wilder Rose

A Little Rose

A Little Rose

A little Rose, just past her second birthday, already a girl who knows her own mind.

We know a few facts about the early life of Rose Wilder Lane. We know that she was born on Dec. 5, 1886, in a claim shanty outside the town of De Smet, in Dakota Territory. Her parents were 19-year-old Laura Ingalls Wilder and 29-year-old Almanzo Wilder. Rose would be their only child; a son born in 1889 did not survive. After family illness, crop failures, and a house fire, the bank took the claim and the Wilders moved in with Laura's parents in De Smet, then with Almanzo's parents in Spring Valley MN. In 1890, they movedto Westville FL, hoping that the warm climate would improve Almanzo's health. But they were Plains people, and the Florida heat and humidity proved uncomfortable, so in 1892 they took the train back to De Smet, where Laura worked as a dressmaker and Almanzo did odd jobs around town. By 1894, they had saved $100--enough, they hoped, to buy a farm in the "Land of the Big Red Apple," in southwestern Missouri, near Mansfield the "Gem City of the Ozarks." They moved there in 1894. Just seven years old, Rose was already a well-traveled child, and travel would be in her blood until the end of her days.

Those are facts. The rest of what we know about Rose's childhood comes from her--and since she was a consummate storyteller, the stories are embellished. But that's what makes a good story, isn't it? Take, for instance, the story she tells about the unsmiling and determined little girl in the calico dress, crocheted collar, and tatted cuffs who is pictured above. In the foreword to her mother's diary of the trip from De Smet to Mansfield (On the Way Home), she writes:

"I was 2 years 4 months when this picture was taken in April, 1889. I remember the picture-taking well, was impressed by the photographer’s stupid pretense that there was a little bird in the camera. The photographer also kept putting my right hand on top of the left, and I kept changing them back because I wanted my carnelian ring to show. And in the end I won out."

Rose had a remarkable memory, an even more remarkable gift for story, and a way of enlarging personal experience that made it memorable and special. You can read more about her early childhood in On the Way Home and in several pieces collected in The Little House Sampler: "Rose Wilder Lane, by Herself"; "Memories of Grandma's House"; and "Innocence," a darkly compelling short story based on the Wilders' time in the piney woods of the Florida Panhandle. "Innocence" won second prize in the O'Henry Awards for 1922--and it wasn't the only O'Henry Prize Rose would win in her writing career.

 

Reading note, from Rose's foreword to On The Way Home, p. 12, describing the Wilders' going-away from De Smet in 1894: "Away from Grandma's house with its rag-carpets and rocking-chair, the hymn books on the organ, my very own footstool; away from the chalky schoolroom where angelic Miss Barrows taught Kindergarten, Primer, First and Second Readers; away from the summer sidewalks where grasshoppers hopped in the dry grass and the silver-lined poplar leaves rattled overhead; away from the gaunt gray empty house, and from Mrs. Sherwood and her sister who sometimes on sweltering afternoons asked me to fech ten cents' worth of icecre am from the far-away icecream parlor, and shared it with me; away from De Smet to The Land of the Big Red Apple."

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A Wilder Rose

A Wilder Rose

Mysteries and Such

At last! Finished China's 22nd mystery yesterday: Death Come Quickly. And yes, the title is the name of an herb (pictured above): Geranium robertianum, Herb Robert, which may be growing in your backyard. Death come quickly is one of its folk names, along with Red Robin, storksbill, stinky Bob, and dove's foot. I still have the book's back matter (recipes, resources, author's note) to clean up, but I'm going to let the text sit and cool off. It's not due until the end of next month.

The other mystery I'll be writing this year is The Darling Dahlias and the Money Bush, the fifth book in that series. It's due at the end of August, so I'll start work on it in early June.

A Wilder Rose

Meanwhile, I can go back to my historical novel about Rose Wilder Lane's collaboration with her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the writing of the Little House books--now titled A Wilder Rose. After a great deal of thought and discussion with people whose opinions I value, I've decided to go the indie route and publish this book myself. I love my mystery editor/publisher (Natalee Rosenstein at Penguin/Berkley) and I expect to continue writing under the Prime Crime imprint. I have no special problems with legacy publishing in general, either. It is what it is, and while its models reflect a huge investment in old technologies, it serves readers well.

But I love a challenge. I love to learn new things, research new areas, explore new territories. If I go with a traditional legacy publisher, I'll be replicating my quarter-century of experience in writing and producing books. It's time to see what's on the other side of the fence--not necessarily a greener pasture, but a new and larger space, new ways of doing things, new ways of interacting with readers.

So A Wilder Rose will be my first indie book. I'll be blogging about the process here, as well as writing a series of posts about Rose's life. (There's a general post here.) She was a remarkable woman, and while she has been eclipsed by the mother whose author-persona Rose herself created (such a fascinating irony!), she deserves attention in her own right. Look for the book this fall (2013)--probably October.

Reading note. We are never aware of the present; each instant of living becomes perceptible only when it is past, so that in a sense we do not live at all, but only remember living. And we are blind to conditions forming our lives, until those conditions are becoming part of the past.--Rose Wilder Lane, Old Home Town

Hill Country Winter

We enjoyed a surprise snowfall last week, unusual for the Texas Hill Country, where our winter precipitation usually falls as a cold rain or sleet. The snow was pretty while it lasted, which wasn't very long. Now in the fourth year of drought, we're desperate for soil moisture. Rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow: fingers crossed that it brings us something. The Highland Lakes (Buchanan and Travis) are at 41%. Inflows into the lakes for 2012 were about 30% of normal, and 2011 was worse: 10% of normal. Here at Meadow Knoll, we're right on the border between the "severe" and "extreme" regions on the USDA drought monitor for Texas. Anything wet is welcome, even a single snowflake!

If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I've been letting it slide, primarily because I do daily mini-blogging at Twitter and Facebook and post regularly to Pinterest--but also because I've been doing a lot of writing. I finished Wild Rose and sent it to my agent; she'll send it out later this month. In November, I corrected the copy-edited pages for Widow's Tears; last week, I corrected the typeset pages. The process is all-electronic now: I won't see anything on paper until I get the actual book. You can read the prologue and something about the signature herb on the book's webpage. I started the 2014 China Bayles mystery (#22--would you believe?) and have around 40,000 words, aiming for 85,000.

Other than the writing work, there is the usual gardening. There isn't much out there right now except for spring spinach, some kale and chard, garlic, and a nice crop of perennial onions. I pull a bunch or two every few days and replant at least one onion from the bunch to keep the crop going. This week, I need to plant more spinach and kale and get cabbage and broccoli seeds started: I love Gonzales mini-cabbages, great little cabbages that make a super slaw. I'm going to plant twice as much this year: they are good keepers.

And finally, the 2012 chicken project. The last of the meat chickens went into the freezer just before Thanksgiving, dress weight, about 7 lbs. Big birds, and worth every ounce of work we put into them! The 6 laying chickens (3 Buff Orpingtons and 4 Red Stars) are thriving. We're expecting their first eggs around the end of February.

That's pretty much it, up to the minute. I do write every day: usually, all day. I just don't blog very often. I'll try to be more consistent in 2013, but no promises. Okay?

Reading note: There is no excuse not to write. Do not wait for inspiration to descend from the heavens. If you find you cannot write your latest novel, then move on to a short story, write a blog, a poem, or rework your novel. ~ Stephen Gaspar