Alison O. Bender

Work Day

Posted on October 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

Coffee and M&Ms to get into edit mode. Let the chaos begin!

Parental Procrastination?

Posted on October 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

I just spent the last 30 minutes taking screenshots and compiling my submission to STFU Parents (which is a great blog for anyone fed up with parental overshare on social media). This is what happens when I get on Facebook and see a “friend” write yet another nauseating letter to her toddler son and make it her profile picture. Really, it’s okay to not share intensely personal moments and stories with the rest of the world! Anyway, I would call it procrastination, but people like my “friend” give the rest of us parents a bad name, so I found it incredibly cathartic to submit her to the site rather than writing something snarky on her posting. So, I’m going to consider my submission time well spent. Okay, and NOW time to get working!

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Posted in Life

Winding Down

Posted on September 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

It was busy, busy here to round out the summer! Last week, I turned in my edits on the novel I’ve been proofreading for a client. It’s pretty exciting—she has just a few minor details to address, then she’s ready to look for an agent. I’m happily assisting with the process—I would love to see a book that I edited get published, plus I feel like it’s good practice for whenever I complete my novel and am ready to start the publication process. In other news, last week, I also finished up two proofing days at TQ on the Ski & Ride issue. It’s a fun magazine with lots of great articles and photos to get you geared up for ski season in the Sierra. I also just got out my monthly newsletter for the timeshare company that I do work for, and have been helping the owner with his website postings.

I’ve got a little bit of downtime before I need to start focusing on my articles for the Winter issue of TQ, which is good timing because the weather is getting cool and all I want to do is hike in the mountains, drink pumpkin lattes and watch the aspens change colors. And on that note, off to the coffee shop!

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Posted in Freelancing

Smoked Out in Reno-Tahoe

Posted on August 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

My view normally/My view as of 8/26/13 because of Rim Fire smoke 150 miles away.

My view normally/My view today because of Rim Fire smoke.

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Not great news from Reno-Tahoe: The smoke from the Rim Fire in Yosemite (150 miles away) is so thick that there have been air quality warnings locally that it’s basically unsafe to be outdoors. It’s putting an unfortunate end on summer, but the fine particulate is so dangerous that it’s not worth trying to be outside. It constantly smells like a campfire (not in the good way) and I’ve been getting headaches in the few moments I am outdoors, just to let the dog outside or run into stores or to the neighbors. Here’s a view of the smoke from the International Space Station: The two lakes are Tahoe on the middle-left and Pyramid above and there’s me just under that big white cloud!

Anyway, between the headaches, my already-asthmatic baby and the fact that this will most likely still be burning for a few weeks, I don’t think I’ll be spending much time outdoors. Now I just need my writer’s block to go away and maybe I’ll find a silver lining to all this time indoors…

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Posted in Life

Mountain Home Articles

Posted on August 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

This West Shore home opens to breathtaking views of Lake Tahoe.

I just updated my site with some of my stories from the 2013 Mountain Home issue of Tahoe Quarterly. Feel free to browse about a family-minded home in Martis Camp (East Coast West), a modern Martis home that enjoys life at an angle (Skewed Spaces), a West Shore update to a home that had already been through several not-particularly-well-done remodels (Redesigning a Remodel), and a superbly crafted lakefront estate that owes its success to its owner’s involvement (West Shore Refinement).

In other Mountain Home news, I get to help sort through this year’s entries on Friday. Can’t wait to check out the latest and greatest in Lake Tahoe architecture and design!

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Posted in Architecture & Design, Published Work

Current Projects

Posted on August 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

I’m so excited about my current projects! For TQ, I’ve got a couple of stories lined up, one of which involves talking with local Winter Olympic hopefuls, the other interviewing a South Shore artist who rediscovered painting after a growth was removed from the right side of his brain. I’m researching the functions of right brain versus the left brain, and it’s really fascinating to see how he changed when his right brain was freed from this growth.

My other project is really fun: I’d been back and forth with a client about editing her novel and recently completed Chapter 1 as a sample to ensure that she liked my work. I’m having a blast editing it (not only is it the first novel I’ve undertaken to edit, but it’s an erotic novel!), so I was pretty happy that she likes my editing. I just got the green light to move forward with the rest of the book, so for the next few weeks, it looks like I’ll be splitting my time between arts, athletes and erotica. Quite the combination!

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Posted in Freelancing, Writing

Born to be Wild, from the Summer issue of Tahoe Quarterly

Posted on July 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

Summer in Tahoe means a spectacular display of colorful blooms: fields of yellow mule ears gazing at the sun, seas of blue lupine and orange poppies nodding in the wind.

More than 700 kinds of wildflowers grow in the region, according to Zephyr Cove resident Roger Rosenberger, wildflower expert and founder of http://www.wildflowerhikes.com. “It’s an endless palette, which, of course, makes it so interesting.”

Wildflower season typically begins in June and peaks in July and August; the season progresses uphill, so the best spots for end-of-season blooms are high, north-facing slopes. Continue reading →

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Posted in Published Work, Writing

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

Posted on July 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

I just finished Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and couldn’t put it down. It’s written in 1938 and tells the story of a young, unnamed narrator who, after a whirlwind romance, follows her new husband back to his estate, Manderley. There, she learns more about his first wife, Rebecca, who has been dead not even a year and to whom she feels she can never measure up against. It’s thrilling to watch as the second Mrs. de Winter, young and naive, finds herself fighting a ghost and her imagination for her home, sanity and love. I love the narrator’s imaginative tangents, I love the evocative language, the sensual descriptions that allow me to almost smell the azaleas and see the English mists, and above all, I was captivated by the mystery surrounding Rebecca’s death. Highly recommend!

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Posted in My Book List

PA & Projects

Posted on July 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

Just back from a two-week hiatus in central PA ❤

I’ve been bad about updating again, but got back on Tuesday from a wonderful, two-week-long trip to Pennsylvania. Was great spending time with family and passing child-care duties off to more-than-willing grandparents.

Anyway, excited to be back! Lots of projects have been popping up lately, which is always fun. I recently proofed a magazine for the local hospital system, and received a very nice thank-you note, which, I think, reinforces how important it is to get a fresh set of eyes on anything before it goes to print. I’m also meeting a client soon to discuss editing her manuscript, which sounds like it will be a very entertaining read. And I’m staying busy with newsletters and work for upcoming issues of TQ. It’s a nice amount of busy for summertime in Tahoe!

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Posted in Freelancing, Life

Wild about Wildflowers

Posted on June 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

In the Summer issue of Tahoe Quarterly, I have a story about the wildflowers of the Tahoe Basin. The area includes some 700 different types, so it was hard to narrow the article down to a sort of “top ten” list, but it was very interesting to write! (Side note: Did you know there’s a rare, local flower called a phantom orchid that is non-photosynthetic? It gets nutrients via fungi versus chlorophyll.) I took out a couple of local wildflower expert Laird Blackwell’s books on the topic from the library, and I’m wishing I still had them because I saw some white flowers on a run though the trails recently and couldn’t identify the little beauties. Off to buy my own copy, I suppose! On another note, just received my copy of TQ Summer and it looks great!