I zip down the freeway in my 1991 Mazda Miata. Blood draw at Lab Corp. Pick up fair trade bananas at Whole Foods. Return home in time to work on the income taxes. Review my notes from last weekend’s writers conference. My to-do list overflows. My brain keeps track in sentence fragments.
One parking spot remains open near the blood drawing center. I slip into the slot with ease. My stomach gurgles. I last ate twelve hours ago. No big deal for me. Far too many people in this world, however, live with hunger every day, and the situation has nothing to do with blood tests. Lack of food security is one of the world’s most critical issues. If only solving the problem was as easy as parking a Miata.
According to The Hunger Project, 795 million people—one in nine in the world—don’t have enough to eat. Fifty percent of those are farmers/farming families. I bet they’re not working in a fair trade environment. In a fair trade system, explains Co-operative news, workers get paid a living wage in conditions that are safe and secure. Labor is voluntary and workers have a right to collective bargaining. Producers are guaranteed a fair price for the goods they produce.
For well over a century, says Equal Exchange, banana conglomerates in Latin America have have been notorious for poor working conditions and blatant labor abuses. Several have been sued by their workers for respiratory illnesses, cancer, infertility, and birth defects, a result of continued exposure to pesticides used on the banana plantations.
These poverty and labor issues are why I and some other members of my Methodist church are going out of our way to purchase fair trade bananas—or eat no bananas at all—during this Lenten season. I plan to continue the practice even after Lent’s in my rearview mirror.
I enter Lab Corp. The phlebotomist draws my blood. I notice a photo of two young women posted on the wall. One wears a white ruffle gown—not the typical prom or wedding dress. Maybe for a Quinceañera celebration?
Regardless, no daughter of an exploited banana farmer could own a dress like that. I sigh, and think about Juanita, the Latina main character in my spirits-meet-steampunk novel manuscript: The Engine Woman’s Light. Juanita, a heroic resident of an alternate 19th Century California, is well-acquainted with hunger, poverty and danger. And she’s never even seen a banana tree. She just wants to save the lives of people society throws away, and then marry the man she loves.
Which carries my thoughts back to the writing conference I just attended in Van Nuys, California: Digital Author & Indie Publishing Conference, presented annually by West Coast Writers Conferences (WC2). Tony N. Todaro, Executive Director of WC2, planned an amazing lineup of speakers and faculty. How honored I was to be included on a panel. And I learned so much—about publishing and promotion—and not only from other members of the faculty. What a great place to network! I no longer feel fenced in by traditional publishing options.
The phlebotomist tapes a gauze pad to my arm. I head for my little red car. Bananas, networking and publishing. I’m off to shop fair trade while my train of thoughts travels along a free-range track.
An indie publishing house I highly respect continues to consider The Engine Woman’s Light. I hope they accept my work. But if it’s not right for them, I’ll self-publish. Twenty years makes for a long gestation. In this era of free-range authors, it’s time to birth my baby.
But one mission to accomplish at a time. I rev up the engine and get going. 