DartScape – Page 11 – Dart's View of Life, the Universe & Coffee

Drive to Shafer Butte Campground

Originally we were heading toward Stack Rock, but the road we were planning on taking, Cartwright Road, has been blocked off. Huge metal gate, several “No Trespassing” signs, warnings that the entire area is under video surveillance, etc. I have seen less secure areas at the National Guard base! I’ve contacted Ada County Highway District for clarification. Both Google maps on my Desktop and and my smartphone GPS guided me toward this road, so I doubt it is a private road.

Anyway, we backtracked and took Bogus Basin Road up to Bogus Basin, and from there took the extremely bumpy dirt and rock road to Shafer Butte Campground. The road and the campground were beautiful!

Click on the photos below to see full size.

White Water Adventures

Drove up Idaho 55 along the Payette River. Caught these crazy people on kayaks and rafts blasting through white water and might I add, boulder filled rapids! Amazing job they did!

Chapters

One reason for this blog is to teach myself components of writing. Like what the heck actually are chapters, and how should they work?

The issue of exactly how to use a chapter has haunted me for years like a deranged yapping poodle. Chapter One is easy. But when do I break for Chapter Two? Does the break have to be at a specific location in the story? What exactly is a chapter when you come down to it?

Chapters serve several purposes. When there is some transition in the story, such as a change in location, point of view, a chapter break sits well. Sort of like the old saying, “Meanwhile, back at the ranch”. If your chapter takes place on the prairie with cowboys and then the story shifts back to the dining room of the ranch, it might be a good place for a chapter break. So, any type of shift in the story; time, place or narrator even works.

But you can do more with chapters to improve your overall novel. Increase the narrative tension, for instance. A chapter can end upon a major revelation, a dramatic development or some danger. This may compel your reader to keep turning the pages. Not every chapter needs to rise to a concluding tension point, but a novel without any tension could be boring. So, when your prime character is kissing this beautiful woman when he suddenly discovers she is his wife’s sister, that can reveal information and increase tension. It’s a little pop along the storyline.

Few people read a novel in one sitting without taking at least a bathroom break. So, sort of like the television commercial breaks, chapter breaks are a nice resting place for a reader. Some scene or situation is resolved and the reader can put the book down to pick it up later at a new chapter.

Below are some links about chapters I found useful.

Now Novel

Magical Words

Novel Writing Help

Lavender Festival in Kuna

The annual Lavender Festival in Kuna, Idaho is a must-see event. It is not just a magnificent field of lavender, which is enough in my book. It is actually a U-Pick Lavender field! People can sign up and receive a pair of scissors and a basket so that they could then enter the fields and snip their own lavender. There is a modest charge for this, $5 a bundle.

But there is more! It is indeed a festival. Plenty of tables and chairs line the fields where people can sit and relax under the umbrellas and watch all the butts of the crowds amidst the lavender as they bend down to snip the flowers. There are probably more than a dozen booths in the shade under the trees where people sell everything from lavender bread, lavender cookies, to jewelry, hats, photographs, and artwork of all kinds.

There are food and drink as well as live music. A young woman, Renee Ross year played instruments and sang beautiful calming melodies.

The festival is produced by The Lavender Merchant in Kuna, Idaho. Depending on where you live in the Boise area, this is usually a short fifteen to thirty-minute drive.

Note – Since this event takes place usually in early July when the Idaho sun is attempting to burn its laser rays through the earth to China, wear sunscreen and big floppy hats!

June Drive to Emmett, Idaho

It being a beautiful cool day in Idaho, we drove north on N. Eagle Road through the town of Eagle. We kept going until the road became a poorly maintained one lane paved road and then became just a rock and dirt road. Our favorite way to get to Emmett, Idaho. Eagle Road became Willow Creek Road. We weaved through the empty hills with blue skies and white puffy clouds keeping us company. Eventually, we turned left onto Chaparral Road which took us to Idaho State Highway 16 which flowed into the town of Emmett, Idaho.

Along our route we saw a beautiful deer, a caterpillar, many flowers, a few butterflies and magnificent blue skies with brilliant white clouds. In the tow of Emmett we stopped at our favorite coffee shop in all of Idaho, HeBrews, a wonderful Christian coffee shop.

A terrific drive!

Day Trip to Ketchum, Idaho

Our initial thought was to drive to Mountain Home then cut north and east on highway 20 for just ten or twenty miles. Since the highway traverses through the Boise National Forest we figured birds and wildlife would be so thick we would need a wildlife plow on the front of our Kia Soul to push them off the road. Sadly, we only skirted along the edge of the forest and saw about seven trees in total, and half that number for birds. Normally we stop every mile or two in order to scout for birds to photograph. It can take us an hour to cover just fifteen miles. But with the lack of trees and wildlife, we decided to just push as far down the road as possible until we discovered something interesting. We did!

We captured some awesome photographs along the way and once we got further into the mountains the trees did show up. We drove beyond Ketchum and up to about 8,300 feet where we could get a nice look at some of the Sawtooth Mountains, which were still snow capped. We even stepped in a patch of snow along the road which is cool to do in June. For Floridians anyway.

We drove back to Ketchum and enjoyed a very pleasant dinner outside under blossoming trees caressed by a cool breeze at a great Italian place called Ricco’s. The server, Rick was awesome, filled with various life stories and truly appeared to be enjoying his job. Another couple joined us outside and we began a long conversation with them punctuated by several bursts of warm laughter. It was an extremely enjoyable dinner.

We then climbed back in our Kia Soul and headed back down highway 20 to I-84 and then home to west Boise.

Photographs from our adventure are below.

Flash Fiction Update

I am happy to report that a very short piece of flash fiction, 101 words to be exact, has been accepted for publication by 101words.org. Tentative publication date is May 2, 2019. I was surprised and encourage by the quantity of time one of the editors dedicated toward my small little piece of creative writing. It left me with the impression that they really care about the quality of the pieces they publish.

A writer’s life is often a lonely life as the classic cliche goes. Like many cliches, it is based on truth. This is especially true with new writers, or old writers that are rarely published. Or some such combination. I know I fit into one of those categories. I think I am old and rarely published, so that could be it. Whatever, it has been some time since I received an acceptance, so even this tiny one encourages. Sometimes that is all it takes, just a crumb of an encouragement to push a writer into high gear.

I also sold four photographs today from my Fine Art America site. Grand total of about $30 profit, but hey, again, an encouragement.

Black Creek Road Adventure

The wife and I started off toward Bonneville Point, which is only about 20 miles east of the city. We took I-84 east to the Blacks Creek Road exit and then proceeded to follow the road northward, sort of. Since we were actually looking for birds, we passed the road for Bonneville Point continuing on Blacks Creek Road to a section of the road where we have seen birds previously. After not seeing anything there, we decided to skip Bonneville Point and proceed further along the road. Eventually we faced a fork and while we always had turned left toward the beautiful town of Prairie, we decided to go straight toward Mayfield. We never made it there, turning again onto a road heading toward a place my GPS identified as “Regina, Id”. So we did a circle of sorts, on dirt roads through the mountains. It was a very successful trip!