The Fire

So I'm at home just before a late dinner last night, typing away, when my hubby returns from working out and says, all out of breath, there's a fire very close to us. He called 911 when he reached the scene on his drive home and got out to knock on doors and warn people. I'm like "Do we need to pack up and get out of here?" He's like, IDK. We hop in the car and drive the windy road down from our house to see what's what and stop when firetrucks block our path. It's smokier now. And scarier. We can't see flames and we are so incredibly happy to see firetrucks. They were there late into the night and are here today traveling up and down the road, keeping watch. Where we live there are watchtowers for wildfires. I can see one now as I type pearched on the peaks of the Ventana Wilderness. We've lived through some horrible fires. Here are some photos. I even blogged a little bit for latimes.com for the Basin-Complex fire in Big Sur. It's amazing how smoke can bring it all back. We were very lucky last night because the typical on-shore winds we get here we not blowing. All was still. I shudder to think what would have happened if they weren't. So I guess it shouldn't surprise that Ginny gets caught up in a wildfire on her way to Winnemuccca.


The Teaser:

The prologue of Winnemucca:

PROLOGUE: The Ripening

The truth of how the music and I came into the world may never be known. Shaped in blood, and over vast journeys, conquerors passed the instrument to the conquered as easily as they all had a hand in fashioning its name. Sehtar. Citar. Kithara. Chitarra. Guiterne. Guiterre. Guittarre. Guitarra. Guitar. Named by the world, it can bubble up the world inside. A person’s fears and dreams. Alegría. And so it found me, one in an ancient line.

Some say the music took its name from the honored virgin, María H [mah-ree-ah AH-chay]. Others say it was named during the rule of the French Emperor of Mexico and comes from the French word for marriage. Scholars believe the music was named after the kind of wood used to make the platform where the performers danced to the music. From the very start, it was music to be danced.
Those closest to me say my road blood ripened in spite of what they thought was my nature. Others insist the ripening was some sort of tonic. But there was only one reason why the ripening visited me. And what surprised me most about the whole deal was how far I’d go.