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Hollow Bones

"In our life there is a time of wonder. Walking with the ancient ones as they share their world. And the dancing voices are carried by the wind. As I walk this sacred ground, I know I'm not alone, and I thank Mother Earth."  ~Alex Davis, Seneca Cayuga

Love is a Battlefield

4/22/2018

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​Ishtar, called Queen of Heaven by the people of ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), was the most important female deity in their pantheon. She shared many aspects with an even earlier Sumerian goddess, Inanna.

A multifaceted goddess, Ishtar/Inanna takes three forms:

She is the goddess of love and sexuality. She was slandered often in the Bible as the Whore of Babylon, but her very fecundity was the life of her people. She is described as having sacred priestess-prostitutes. The High Priestess or Entu was seen not just Ishtar/Inanna’s representative on Earth but as her incarnation.

Every autumn at the new year (around Samhain), she would select a young man as her lover-consort to celebrate the Sacred Mating (Greek “Hieros Gamos” = Sacred Marriage). Through the love-making of the Entu and the man, who would become the king for the next year, the fertility of all life on Earth would be assured. Any children born of this union were considered to be half divine and half human. 


In her second aspect, as the goddess of war, she is often shown winged and with bow and arrow and other implements of war, or with a snake. 

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Ishtar’s people understood the conflicting aspects of their goddess: She was the deity of fertility and sexuality, but also a jealous goddess who could bring vengeance, go to war, destroy fields, and make the earth’s creatures infertile. She protected her favorites, but brought doom upon those who dishonored her, sometimes with terrible consequences.

Ishtar/Inanna chose a young shepherd Dumuzi (later called Tammuz), as her lover. They later became joined through the Sacred Marriage ritual.
In love poetry telling of their courtship, the two have a very affectionate relationship. But like many great love stories, their union ends tragically. 

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credit: 
Inanna's Descent
by Julie Newdoll
​Life Form series

The most famous account of this myth is Inanna/Ishtar’s Descent to the Underworld (author unknown). This ancient narrative, surviving in both Sumerian and Akkadian versions (both written in cuneiform), was only deciphered in the 19th Century. It begins with Inanna’s decision to visit the realm of her dark self or sister, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld.

The story of Inanna’s descent is very much a lunar myth of the dark moon. On the way, she encounters seven gates—the number of days in the waning moon—where she has to give up the regalia of her office by removing an article of clothing at each gate as she descends.
​Pagan songstress Wendy Rule offers a haunting rendition of Inanna/Ishtar’s descent to the Underworld:
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“Inanna…
Shedding your robe
Losing your crown
Bow to the serpentine sister who calls you down.
Share with the world
What you have found
When you were underground.”
 
Wendy Rule, World Between Worlds, 2000


When she arrives before her sister, Inanna/Ishtar is naked, and Ereshkigal, fearing her sister will attempt a coup, kills her.

Her death has terrible consequences, including the cessation of all earthly sexual intimacy and fertility. Ea, the god of wisdom, plots to revive Inanna/Ishtar and return her to the upper world. His plot succeeds, but there is an ancient Mesopotamian saying:
“No one comes back from the Underworld unmarked.”

Once a space has been created in the lower world, it cannot be left empty. Inanna/Ishtar is instructed to ascend with a band of demons to the upper world, and find her own replacement.

In the world above, she finds her husband Tammuz dressed regally and lounging on her throne, apparently unaffected by her death. Enraged, she instructs the demons to drag him below with them.
Later, Inanna/Ishtar regrets her brash act. She arranges for Tammuz’s sister to be a substitute for him during six months of the year—thus explaining the mystery of the sun’s diminishing in winter and growing stronger in summer.

Ishtar/Inanna was one of the most popular deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon, yet in modern day she has slipped into anonymity. She is seen in the modern era most often in her third, celestial, form as the planet Venus, the morning and evening star.  
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But if you look carefully, you can find her. In science fiction, for instance, as a beautiful yet self-destructive stripper in Neil Gaiman’s comic The Sandman: Brief Lives. Gaiman knows his Mesopotamian myths…the “stripping” of Ishtar could be a wink to the ancient narrative of Ianna’s Descent. 

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Did you ever wonder where Wonder Woman came up with her unusual garb? She was influenced by Ishtar. Both figures are represented as a warrior who graces the battlefield wearing bracelets and a tiara, brandishing a shield and demonstrating a fierce commitment to justice.

What better time than the present to remember Ishtar/Ianna? The modern female embraces all of her complex and confusing aspects: Sex and violence. Reproduction and death. Striving for beauty, but also experiencing terror. Centrality and marginality. Order and chaos.
What was true in megalithic times still rings true today.

As Pat Benatar says, Love is a Battlefield.


Author’s Note:
I borrowed heavily from several sources for this blog. Thank you to the following sources:
www.Ancient-origins.net.

Love is a Battlefield: The Legend of Ishtar, by Louis Pryke/The Conversation.
www.brooklynmuseum.org. Ishtar

Descent of Inanna
art by Julie Newdoll
​
and…
My dear friend, Wendy Rule.
Inanna, World Between Worlds
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Reno Redux

4/13/2018

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I’m home from the Reno West Coast Crime conference, and I will remember it fondly for many reasons. I got to be on my first authors’ panel (moderate it, in fact), and not only was it a success, it was also a LOT of fun.

I was disappointed that my panelist Eileen McGill got snowed in at her home in California and missed both the panel and the entire conference. Turns out, you have to drive through Donner’s Pass to get to Reno from her house and it began snowing just before she could get through. I was supposed to go on a Donner Party historical tour, but it was also cancelled due to the weather.

In addition to hosting the panel, I attended excellent workshops and met a bunch of interesting new authors.

I always like to read authors I’ve met personally, talked with or listened to on author panels. It makes their stories resonate more deeply, to know something about the author.

I became interested in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series after hearing her speak about how she decided to write that series. And her presentation on the decisions she and the filming crew made when the books were adapted for the Starz series pointed out the difficulty of cutting a six- hundred-page novel into 60 -minute episodes for the Starz mini-series.

At the first writers’ conference I ever attended, Lisa Gardner, the guest speaker, told us about sneaking out of the house and driving downtown to interview prostitutes for one of her first books, Say Goodbye.  Now I’ve read more than a dozen of her novels.

At that same conference, a handsome ex-lawyer I’d never heard of, Bob Dugoni, congratulated me on winning first place in the conference’s unpublished writer contest that year. He was so nice, I picked up one of his books and read it on the plane ride home. It was really, really good. Now, everyone who reads suspense knows his name.

So, I attended Left Coast Crime this year, not just as an author, but also as a reader…a reader with an eye out to discover some new favorite authors. Some of them have just written their debut novel. Others are only new to me. I tried to make some type of personal connection with each writer on this list.
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Please, take a look, and give some books I’ve listed a try, if you like suspense or crime fiction. Or, check out the whole gallery of titles for each author at your bookseller of choice.
Good reading!

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​Steven Cooper – Desert Remains.  A literature-loving homicide detective and a reluctant psychic stalk a psychopath who signs his gruesome crime tableaux with petroglyphs in the Arizona desert. An ingenious and promising series debut. Why I’m reading – Steven was so knowledgeable on a panel about law enforcement research. Cooper is a former TV reporter with multiple Emmys. The stuff he said about research made a lot of sense. Plus, his new novel is set in Phoenix, so I get to test those research skills. 

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​Howard Michael Gould – Last Looks - This book is touted as a new spin on a Hollywood P.I. mystery. With a blend of humor and suspense that calls to mind Harlan Coben and Robert Crais, Howard Michael Gould brings to life the quirky Charlie Waldo, a former cop confined to 100 worldly possessions and the claustrophobia of his own guilt over a former case gone bad. His journey back to the world is a ride well worth taking. Why I’m reading – My roommate Sharon Moore and I both met Howard the first night in the Lobby Bar and we found him delightful. You know how you feel when someone talks with you and listens, I mean, really listens? That’s Howard. His pedigreed background is Madison Avenue, where he won three Clios, and he was the executive producer and head writer on the TV show Cybill when it won the Golden Globe for best comedy series. I’m hoping his move to novels will be just as golden. It’s slated for publication in August.

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Timothy Halliman – A Nail Through the Heart - American travel writer Poke Rafferty is out to right some serious wrongs on the predatory streets of Bangkok. While attempting to adopt a homeless girl, rescue a potentially murderous urchin known as Superman, and build a lasting relationship with the former bar girl he loves, Poke is pulled into two brutal mysteries. One involves a notorious Khmer Rouge torturer, the other a series of child-porn photos.
 
 As he doggedly plumbs these ghastly depths, Rafferty matures from a play-it-as-it-lays layabout into a man willing to meet his lover's culture more than halfway and find his moral compass at a time when the victims can be as guilty as the murderers are innocent. The fact that the referenced pedophile photo series and Phnom Penh torture house both existed heightens the impact of a narrative that's already deeply felt. Hallinan is off to a surefooted start with this new series. Why I’m reading –Halliman is a veteran writer who happens to be new to me. I attended both of his panels and, when he described his characters in the Taking Emotional Risks panel, it was easy to see this man cares deeply about his characters. He writes 2 series. When I asked him, after the panel, which book to read first if I love character-driven suspense, he recommended this first book of his Bangkok series. 

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William Kent Krueger – Sulfur Springs - Krueger is the award-winning author of seventeen previous Cork O’Connor novels, the rest of them based in Minnesota.

For this book, he moves his protagonist to the Arizona desert and tees up on the timely subject of illegal immigration.  Whatever our political views, this is a subject that warrants thought and discussion, although Cork feels like a fish out of water.  
Why I’m reading – Krueger won the Lefty award this year for best mystery, so I came home and read it immediately. His style is a bit too back-woods folksy for my taste, but the writing is excellent. If you like cozy mysteries, and a protagonist with strong moral principles, I’m betting you’ll like this book. 


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Cheryl Reed –Poison Girls - It’s the summer of 2008. Chicago’s Hyde Park Senator is running for the White House, the city is vying to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, and “Poison,” a lethal form of heroin, has killed more than 250 people, including dozens of suburban girls from prominent families.

Natalie Delaney, a crime reporter from the Chicago Times, discovers that daughters of Democratic powerhouses are the real targets. Obsessed with finding who is behind the killings, Natalie becomes entangled in an underworld where drugs, cops, gangs, politics, and privilege collide. Risking everything, this reporter becomes the story… Why I’m reading- Cheryl is a former editor and reporter at the Chicago Sun Times, a professor at Syracuse University, and a journalism grad from U of Missouri, my alma mater. Her past is so full of excitement and awards, I’m willing to give her debut fiction novel a try—and it’s a plot that could have been ripped from today’s headlines.


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Mark Wheaton- Fields of Wrath - Following his ordination as a priest, Father Luis Chavez returns to the mean streets of his youth, hoping to put his past behind him. But the brutal murder of a worker in Ventura County’s vast farm fields compels Luis to return to his criminal roots in order to unravel a massive conspiracy. Teaming up with Michael Story, an ambitious Los Angeles deputy DA, Chavez goes undercover as a farm laborer to bring down an immense human-trafficking ring tied to one of California’s most prominent and powerful families.

Fighting to stay on the path of the righteous while confronting evil at every turn, Father Chavez finds himself in a battle of good versus evil, with the souls of hundreds hanging in the balance. Why I’m reading – A Priest who infiltrates a human-trafficking ring caught my interest. Plus, I have human trafficking in my work-in-progress, so it will be interesting to compare.


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James (Jim) Ziskin - Stix and Stones - "If you were a man, you’d make a good detective.”
Ellie is sure that Sgt. McKeever meant that as a compliment, but that identity-a girl wanting to do a man's job-has throttled her for too long. It's 1960, and Ellie doesn't want to blaze any trails for women; she just wants to be a reporter, one who doesn't need to swat hands off her behind at every turn.

Adrift in her career, Ellie is back in New York City after receiving news that her estranged father, a renowned Dante scholar and distinguished professor, is near death after a savage bludgeoning in his home. The police suspect a routine burglary, but Ellie has her doubts. When a second attempt is made on her father's life, in the form of an "accident" in the hospital's ICU, Ellie's suspicions are confirmed.
 
Then another professor turns up dead, and Ellie's investigation turns to her father's university colleagues. She embarks on a thorny journey of discovery and reconciliation, as she pursues an investigation that offers her both a chance at redemption in her father's eyes, and the risk of losing him forever.
Why I’m reading – First, every book of Ziskin’s has an intriguing premise. Second, the man has won almost every suspense award out there, and his latest novel was nominated for Lefty’s Best Novel award. Third, he was friendly and open and not at all “lofty” at the conference, despite being one of the best-known authors at the conference. Based on his recommendation, I’m starting at the beginning of his series. 

Good reading! Leave and note and let me know if you find anything you like. 


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The Battle to Defeat Lyme Disease

4/6/2018

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Here’s why I love being a writer. I get to take snippets of information and weave them together into a cohesive story, and then share it with you. Sometimes the story is a fiction novel. Sometimes, like today, it’s factual.
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​Before I get to this posting of researched facts, let me just say, the human brain is an amazing organ. As testimony, I’d like to give you the circuitous route mine took to get around to writing about Lyme disease.  

In the 1980s I worked in the advertising department at the headquarters of a national real estate company. There, at ERA Real Estate, I worked for one of my favorite bosses in my career. His name was Harvey. He was soft-spoken, had a wicked sense of humor, and honestly cared about the people he hired. So when I reported to work one Monday to find Harvey had been hospitalized over the weekend, I was concerned. He’d been camping with his wife and found a tick embedded in his arm when they got home.
Twenty-four hours later, he was dead. The diagnosis: Lyme disease. It attacked his heart.

Fast forward to the present.

I’m catching up on my many unread magazines, Prevention magazine for today, and come across an excellent article on Lyme disease. I think of Harvey and read it with interest. Turns out, one of the premier researchers on Lyme and other pathogens like tuberculosis and E. coli, Paul Keim, works at TGen at their Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff. That’s right in my backyard, and also where my son lives and will be finishing college. 
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I’ll talk more about Keim’s research, but first, let’s talk about Lyme disease itself.

The bacterium that causes Lyme disease occurs naturally in mice squirrels and other small animals. The infection spreads as the black-legged tick –about the size of a speck of dirt before engorged with blood—feed on animals and then bite humans.


​Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States, and the incidence is growing in number and geographic area. More than 38,000 cases are reported a year, but the unreported count is probably closer to 300,000. 
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​Fourteen states in the East and Upper Midwest report the majority of cases: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

A bright red bull’s eye rash around the bite warrants an immediate trip to your doctor—and take the offending tick with you. If diagnosed and treated quickly with antibiotics, most people recover fully and quickly from Lyme, according to the CDC. 

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But only somewhere between 40-70% of the people infected notice and/or receive treatment for the rash, and treating the disease after the initial symptoms is much, much trickier.

Symptoms can masquerade as those of the flu, mononucleosis, inflamed and achy joints, migraines, or be hardly noticeable at all. Receiving antibiotics at this point—even for months at a time—may not help.

Treating an Elusive Bacteria
In the meantime, one post on my Facebook page about my research revealed that I know A LOT of people who have suffered from Lyme disease, some of them for decades.

“The harder you hit it with antibiotics, the stealthier it becomes,” says Julie Grano, who contracted Lyme 15 years ago. Her doctor referred Julie to the Infectious Disease Center (IDC) when the disease invaded her brain. She had been on intravenous antibiotics for two months. She reported that she actually felt better when she would finish a course of antibiotics, only to feel awful again and be put back on meds.

Her IDC doctor explained how, while the disease was under attack from antibiotics and losing, it would form sacs around itself and retreat to wait out the drug treatment, only to emerge and strengthen when the treatment was over.

“They did a CAT scan of my brain while I was suffering one of my migraines,” she says, “and they could actually see the sacs attached to my brain.”

Recent studies of confirmed Lyme patients report that, since many people are not treated early for Lyme, between 28 to 50% of them continue to suffer from fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and “brain fog” after completing standard treatment. 

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The reason? As Julie Grano knows, Borrelia is no ordinary bacterium. In the same way a tick burrow into the skin, the corkscrew-shaped Borrelia worms its way into tissues that have few circulating antibodies, where it’s harder for antibiotics to reach. In addition, it has the ability to hijack the immune system while simultaneously wreaking havoc on every major organ system.

“I got bit in New York,” says Kathleen Groger, a 22-year Lyme sufferer. “I ended up researching Lyme myself after I fell apart from all my strange, unexplained symptoms. Then I got a doctor trained in Lyme and was on antibiotics and other drugs for a year and a half.” It wasn’t until her mother sent her a picture of her dog, and a portion of her leg, with a bulls-eye rash on it, that she remembered the tick bite. While she cannot definitively link her symptoms to Lyme disease, she still has unexplained neuropathy and joint inflammation.

Better Diagnosis
While a vaccination is available to prevent Lyme disease in dogs, there is no prevention on the near horizon for people.

Scientists recognize that since antibiotics are currently the only approved therapy for Lyme disease, and antibiotics are only effective during the early stages of the disease, successful treatment hinges on developing a replacement for the inaccurate diagnostic tests doctors currently rely on.
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Right now genetic sequencing is the most promising possibility. 

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A Lyme activist named Tammy Crawford, who founded the patient advocacy organization Focus on Lyme after her daughter’s infection, was responsible for convincing researchers that the technology could be useful in diagnosing Lyme.

She reached out to Paul Keim at Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Flagstaff.

Keim, Regent’s Professor of Biology at Northern Arizona University, is kind of a rock star in the infectious disease research and bioterrorism world. Following the 2001 anthrax attacks on the East Coast, Keim and his research played a crucial role in aiding the United States military and intelligence community in their investigations. He conducted genomic analysis on the anthrax inside the contaminated letters that were sent, and tracked it back to a single flax of anthrax spores from a lab in Maryland. 


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Keim has applied similar genetic tracking techniques to other cases. In Haiti, months after a devastating 2010 earthquake, a cholera outbreak killed 6,000 people. Keim and his team conducted DNA analysis of the cholera strain found in Haiti, and tracked it Nepalese U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti to assist with earthquake relief efforts.

And when heroin users in Scotland contracted anthrax infections, Keim again traced the source of the anthrax contamination—this time to drug smuggling routes in the Middle East. Keim concluded that the anthrax-tainted heroin may have been cut with bonemeal that contained anthrax spores, or wrapped in contaminated animal hides during the drug’s journey to Scotland.

In his other hat, as Director of the Pathogen Genomics Division for TGen North, Keim and his team have been working on developing a test for Lyme disease. The results are promising. The test works by targeting and amplifying specific regions of the Lyme bacteria’s DNA, as well as genes from other types of tick-borne microbes. Scientists sequence the amplified DNA and determine which bacterial species are present by searching from that specific DNA. The test will be able to detect multiple strains of Lyme bacteria, plus all major co-infections and non-Lyme causes of disease like influenza and staph.

“Unlike current Lyme diagnostics, which depend on the immune system to develop antibodies against the bacteria, the new test will be able to detect even small remnants of Borrelia in the blood, and maybe in tissue too,” says Crawford.

If continued funding and clinical trials are successful, the test could be available within the year.
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I’ve contacted Dr. Keim and TGen to get any updates on their testing results, and will keep you posted on their reply. 

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