Death and Cookies

Death stands next to me in the kitchen watching me make cookies....

Find out why at author Judi Hendricks' Kitchen Table, where I'm this month's guest.
While you're there, please leave comments, then amble through http://www.judihendricks.com/
Set aside time for Judi's compelling book, The Laws of Harmony, just published by Harper Collins.

This image--Tied Up, Tied Down © Beth Surdut 2008
is not part of the print cycle.
Pay attention ot me, says Raven.
I will. Tomorrow. Right now I'm distracted.
Tied up. Tied down.
Looking at me, he swoops in to untie a knot.

Milky Ways

Truth be told, a blood feast turns my stomach. Raven and Coyote keep inviting me to eat with them, but in the moonlight, when Coyote turns to me, his eyes bright and unreadable as the Milky Way, he stands and stares--you know how he does--and I hesitate.
At night I leave the window over my bed open so I can hear him sing wild tunes with his buddies like liquored-up barflies.
During the day, Raven, Coyote and I are compadres. We play tag in the desert and discuss which of them really made the Milky Way.

When I'm not drawing Ravens and weaving their stories, I'm listening to yours...
Hear a discussion on storycatching that aired April 7 on Radiocafe at http://www.santaferadiocafe.org/podcasts/

Professional writer and artist Beth Surdut has written for newspapers, magazines, radio, and the web as well as produced an oral history funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Harvard Historical Society. She has facilitated real-life commentary/creative non-fiction workshops for professional writers and anyone else who has something to say.
The world being an expansive place, the mind being an expanding organ, she has covered just about everything from sewers to senators, beekeepers to Buddhists, and, so as not to get lost in alliteration, here is a random selection of topics--
a plane crash, Pakistani terrorism expert (unrelated to the plane crash), ignominious Cardinal, homophobic teacher,
a psychic tearoom, bird banding, mycology, grave robbing, wildlife management, sludge plant (not the government, the real thing), pollution, adoption, tzedakah,
an unsolved murder, small town government and all the boards, committees, and complaints,
theater, music, visual art, books, and countless profiles celebrating the creative spirits who bring us all that magic.

Telling Tales in New Mexico

Critter Tales:
Yours, Mine, and Ours
Feb 18, 2009
9:30 AM - noon

There's nothing as fun as winding people up and watching them go, so I'm facilitating this workshop at the Georgia O'Keeffe museum. Come join a round robin of your nature stories, where I bet we'll learn more about the humans telling the tales than then critters we talk about.
Here’s a great opportunity to foster concise storytelling. Bring your wild critter stories—off the top of your head is just fine—and share them with neighbors who have lived in New Mexico forever or for just a little while.
Professional writer and artist Beth Surdut, aka Gator Girl, will assist you in telling a good tale for radio—short and sometimes not so sweet. Participants will write their stories, read them aloud, and hone them for radio. Education Annex, 123 Grant Avenue. $35; Members $26 (25% discount).Reservations required by February 16: 505.946.1039.
For a few bites of the wild life, meander through my blog. Drawing Raven explains why I've come here. In Gator Girl , terror masquerades as aplomb, and join me in Raptor Rapture-- an owl prowl and oh my, what big teeth you have. There are gators and mermaids swimming through my stories here and at http://www.bethsurdut.com/

Your wild life

I'll Fly Away (sold), was inspired by a Saturniid moth in my  Hawaii studio

Here in Florida, a place I’m convinced was never meant for human habitation, we just love to tell each other stories about the critters we’ve seen. When this rustic sphinx moth the size of a hummingbird landed on my front porch and sat on my arm for three hours, well, the neighbors came over to take a look and take pictures. Just the other day I stood in the middle of my street listening to a woodpecker ratatatat Morse code over the drone of traffic on 41. A landscape guy came out to his truck as I turned in circles trying to find the bird. He knew right away why I was doing my dance and told me as he put away his tools how sad it was that he had to bury a little owl he found when he was working in some other part of town. So I told him about the Barred Owl in my back yard and the Caracara hawk I saw feasting by the side of the road on Bee Ridge extension and…see what I mean? Here we are, paving paradise into that big hurricane attracting parking lot, and mostly what we want is to see and hear the very creatures that we’re moving in on and moving out.
Now one thing I’ve noticed is that when someone tells a story about a wildlife encounter, especially one that has an alligator, the story tells more about the person than the gator. Just about everyone here has a story, and in the telling, I learn about Florida, human nature and the human heart. Fostering the telling brings people together to celebrate this unique place, weird and wacky as it can be. In my opinion, a lot of people move here and just kind of use the place, not really interacting with the wonder of it.
When I taught that Writing for Radio class at the Peace River Center for Writers, and no one showed up with a story idea, I asked everyone to write about gators. A song-writing environmental lawyer and his guitar –playing buddy picked up a gator—not too small but not so big that it didn’t just fit in their beer cooler-- and drove it over state lines just to be able to say to an unsuspecting friend, “Want a beer? Help yourself. There’s some in the cooler.” After an old man with two hearing aids likened the gator in his trailer park to an old boot camp buddy, the stories rolled out pretty smoothly, with lots of laughter, surprise and recognition.
I could stand up and tell other people’s stories, which I’m happy to do, but mostly, I get a charge out of fostering storytelling. Though I can’t resist a good Liar’s Contest, it’s the true stories I’m looking to hear in a way that people can share with each other. My student with the two hearing aids said to me. “I’ve figured you out. You like to wind people up and watch them go!” He’s right.