A Deadly Arrangement
by Denise Osborne

Sprinkled liberally with tidbits about life energy and feng shui, the art of placement, this book suffers from only two things: poor proofreading and poor editing. Or should I blame it on the author, who perhaps wrote flowing pithy prose that was butchered by an editor? Can't see it. But she wrote a lot that a good editor would have cut.

The storytelling gets in the way of the story. I’m aware of the writer as I read. At this point, I don’t much care about any of the characters or what is happening to them. I just want to find out more about feng shui so I can do more than close my bathroom door and toilet lid for financial stability.

But as I read last night, I debated whether even that was worth slogging through this pedestrian novel when I have more than a half-dozen unread treasures on my gateleg table in the office.

Now I do, that is. The picture above was taken on the first day I set it up, before I covered it with books and tarot cards and more books.

Note the mysterious white box. It has been filled with Hawkins Cheezies, Macintosh Toffee, Saskatoon Tea, and a set of my friend Ray's beeswax candles, and mailed to a kind benefactor.

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How about some real writing?

We all come and go unknown
Each so deep and superficial
Between the forceps and the stone

Well I looked at the granite markers
Those tributes to finality - to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality

- Joni Mitchell, the song Hejira

An unfamiliar car drove past our driveway and into the other yard. Farmbeau came into the house later and said “There was a carful of people here this morning, looking for our neighbour’s place. They were coming to see his crop circles.”

“Which neighbour?”

“I don’t know. It’s funny we haven’t heard anything about it till now, the way people talk. It would be pretty hard to keep it a secret, especially from my brother -- where he works, he talks to everyone and hears everything."

He paused.

"Maybe they don’t want a whole bunch of people driving on their crops to get to it. That could be."

He added, "It wouldn’t be the first time there have been crop circles in the area. My cousin and her husband had some little ones right near their house once. Nothing fancy.”

To see fancy, follow the link below. There are some pretty snazzy crop circles. I didn’t know that. But I want one of those calendars.

http://www.earthfiles.com/

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My boys are home, and it is luvvly luvvly luvvly.

xoxoetc
~~~Kate