My Charlotte
Patty’s Story
1
The Tiny Orb Weaver
On a cold February morning in 2013, I stepped into the shower and noticed a tiny, tiny orb weaver sliding down the wet tile.
Orb weavers have a distinctive look, even when tiny. Two long legs arch out from the back of the creature’s abdomen, which is shaped like a bulb. Two longish legs arch out from each side of the bulb. Two very long front legs embrace the delicate cephalothorax (the combined head and thorax), culminating in substantial mandibles and the odd little face with her eight faceted eyebuds taking in the world.
Other species of spiders, while sharing the traits of eight legs, eight eyes, and carnivorous mandibles, have a different physiognomy. You would never mistake the agile jumping spider, the roaming wolf spider, the wily trapdoor spider, the muscular water spider, the delicate daddy longlegs, or the furry tarantula for an orb weaver.
However you feel about spiders—and I’ll get to that—I’m sure you’ll agree that the orb weaver is the most elegant of the arachnids.
The tiny orb weaver in my shower was charcoal gray. I easily noticed her trying to find her footing on the pale tile, though she was barely a sixteenth of an inch.
The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.
~Victorian Children’s Rhyme
I shut the water off at once and called for my husband Tom Robinson to bring the bug jar. A wide-mouthed, plastic, former peanut butter jar, we use this to catch bugs in our home and let them outside.
We’re like that.
We have respect and reverence for flora and fauna, for this beautiful blue planet we live on, a planet unique and rare so far as we know in the Universe. We’ve always loved animals, great and small.
Lisa and Alana
Tom passionately believes in not killing any creature, though he had to concede that an ant invasion had to stop. He found a poison the ants carry back to their nest, causing them to become infertile and die out.
I draw the line at moths, too, the wool-eating kind. We had a moth infestation in February of 2013. The invaders ate up a pair of wool trousers I’d hung in the back of my clothes closet and forgotten to bag, as well as a pink-and-red wool poncho my mother had gotten me on one of her travels to Mexico. We rounded up our woolens and sealed them in plastic bags or container boxes with cedar oil and moth crystals. I patrolled our place with a Kleenex, squashing moths wherever I found them.
I hate wool moths.
When a mosquito got inside one night and bit the hell out of my leg, causing a blood vessel from hip to ankle to turn scarlet with the skeeter’s poison, Tom hunted the bloodsucker down and caught it in the bug jar. I put jar and mosquito in the freezer to make sure it was dead.
I loathe mosquitoes.
Same for fleas, which caused my cats and me much distress until we found one of those over-the-counter flea poisons you put on the back of your pet baby’s neck. This excellent product knocks out the fleas’ reproductive cycle. Those horrid bloodsuckers died out and didn’t come back.
So I admit it. My Love-the-Flora-and-Fauna-of-the-World philosophy encompasses killing destructive pests dead.
So there you have it, my friends. Ever wonder what makes writers tick? Or wonder what you as a writer have in common with other writers? Try this!
My Charlotte: Patty’s Story is on Barnes and Noble, US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Netherlands, and Mexico.
From the author of Summer Of Love, A Time Travel (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
The Gilded Age, A Time Travel (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book). On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
Time Travels to San Francisco (boxed set of Summer of Love and The Gilded Age). On US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, India, and Japan.
Arachne (a Locus Hardover Bestseller). On US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle in France Kindle, Germany Kindle, Italy Kindle, Netherlands Kindle, Spain Kindle, Mexico Kindle, Brazil Kindle, India Kindle, and Japan Kindle.
Cyberweb (sequel to Arachne). is on US Kindle, BarnesandNoble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Brazil Kindle, France Kindle, Germany Kindle, India Kindle, Italy Kindle, Japan Kindle, Mexico Kindle, Netherlands Kindle, and Spain Kindle.
Strange Ladies: 7 Stories (“A must-read collection—The San Francisco Review of Books). On Nook, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
The Garden of Abracadabra (“Fun and enjoyable urban fantasy . . . I want to read more!) On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
Celestial Girl, A Lily Modjeska Mystery (Five stars) On Nook, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
Shaken On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
Hummers On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
Daughter of the Tao On US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, BarnesandNoble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
Every Mystery Unexplained On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
Tomorrow’s Child On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, India, Mexico, and Netherlands.
The Sixty-third Anniversary of Hysteria On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
U F uh-O On BarnesandNoble, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
Tesla, A Screenplay On US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, BarnesandNoble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on Kindle in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and India.
My Charlotte: Patty’s Story On Barnes and Noble, US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, and Kobo. On Kindle in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Netherlands, and Mexico.
“Illyria, My Love” is on US Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. Also on UK Kindle, Canada Kindle, Australia Kindle, Germany Kindle, France Kindle, Spain Kindle, Italy Kindle, Netherlands Kindle, Japan Kindle, Brazil Kindle, Mexico Kindle, and India Kindle.
Please visit me at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for all my books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, reviews, interviews, and blogs, adorable cat pictures, forthcoming works, fine art and bespoke jewelry by my husband Tom Robinson, worldwide links, and more!
And on Lisa Mason’s Blog, on my Facebook Author Page, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Amazon, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, at Smashwords, at Apple, at Kobo, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
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