This past week we finished the last of the juice made from this year’s crop of grapefruit and oranges picked from the trees in our yard in Tucson.\u00a0 A day or so later, while I was out getting my steps on the back forty, I noticed that the gnarled old mesquite tree out there was finally starting to leaf out. \u00a0If I were to take a quick run down to the San Pedro River (which might actually be running today because it\u2019s raining) I\u2019m sure I\u2019d find that the cottonwoods along the river are in full-dress green as well. \u00a0If you live in other parts of the country, there are probably certain colors that lift your hearts at this time of year, but for me, a long time desert dweller, those two separate shades of green\u2014cottonwood and mesquite\u2014are perennial favorites.<\/p>\n
So spring is on its way.\u00a0It won\u2019t be long before the orange trees that once held fruit will be covered with blossoms, filling the air with that indescribable scent. That was one of the things that surprised me most when I first came to Tucson and the University of Arizona in the fall of 1962. The next year, when spring came around, all the decorative orange trees I\u2019d been walking under during the fall and winter months suddenly suffused the air with that amazingly heady perfume–a powerful aroma that instantly filled young girls\u2019 heads with what one of my high school teachers, Mrs. Riggins, used to refer to as “evil thoughts.”<\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019ve gone off on an orange blossom tangent for a moment, I\u2019m going to take a quick detour to another season and another enchanting floral scent in the Sonoran Desert. For my money, the only thing that comes close to being comparable to orange blossoms would be that of the night blooming cereus. The Queen of the Night, as it\u2019s referred to around here, blooms one night and one night only some time in the early summer at an unspecified time that no amount of scientific study can accurately predict more than 48 hours or so in advance. It\u2019s as though the plants all sit around plotting before finally taking a vote and deciding to bloom on a certain night and at a certain specified time. Tohono Chul, a local botanical garden sends out notices and summons people to bloom night each and every year. If you\u2019re lucky enough to go, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll find the scent of the flower as utterly enchanting as I did. But if you can\u2019t make it to a Tohono Chul Bloom Night celebration, whenever that might happen\u2014in May or June or July\u2014you\u2019re more than welcome to settle for orange blossoms in March as a suitable substitute.<\/p>\n
It’s usually late in the evening, coming home after Tucson Festival of Books events, when I first encounter the scent of orange blossoms lingering on the air. \u00a0All of which is to say, if the orange blossoms are coming, so is the Festival.\u00a0The tenth edition of the TFOB is scheduled to take place next weekend\u2014March 10-12. \u00a0Hopefully the orange blossoms will be out In the evening, but during the day I\u2019ll be all over the U of A campus getting my steps and doing panels and signings. \u00a0Advance copies of my new book, Duel to the Death<\/i>, will be available at the festival.<\/p>\n
If\u00a0 you go to my website schedule<\/a>, you will see this is a very busy weekend. \u00a0You can go to the festival website<\/a> and order tickets for events ahead of time on line, thus avoiding having to stand in line at the various venues. One of the authors coming to the festival for the first time will be emerging Arizona based author Isabella Maldonado, a retired Phoenix Police Captain. She and I met and hit it off at last summer\u2019s Thriller Fest in NYC. \u00a0Her second novel, Phoenix Burning, will be debuting at the Festival.<\/p>\n In my opinion the Tucson Festival of Books is one of the premier book festivals in the country. \u00a0It\u2019s an enormous undertaking, a feat performed by an army of volunteers and done in cooperation with my alma mater, the University of Arizona. It promotes literacy all over southern Arizona by helping to support organizations like Literacy Connects which uses individual tutors to address the issue of adult literacy in our community. Having met some Literacy Connects graduates\u2014including Marcia Robinson who is now a devoted reader!\u2014I can say for sure that Literacy Connects gets results. \u00a0Which means so does the festival.<\/p>\n As I write this, it\u2019s raining like crazy outside. \u00a0With any kind of luck, good old mother nature should have this round of bad weather out of her system in time for next week’s festival. \u00a0We\u2019ll all need to be wearing hats and plenty of sun screen. \u00a0See you there.<\/p>\n