Have You Ever Loved a Spider?

Y'all are going to love today's post. Our guest is Bish Denham, who blogs regularly at Random Thoughts. If you visited her during last year's A-Z, she's the blogger who wrote about growing up in the Virgin Islands every day.

Bish has a cool new book out, and she's going to share some information about it. But I asked her a few questions first, and her answers are awesome.

Here . . . you'll see.

Thanks so much for having me, Carol. It’s a pleasure to be visiting you Under the Tiki Hut. And Anansi is liking it, too. See him up there dangling? yes...please don't let him move He’s enjoying the cool tropic breezes and sipping on that pina colada you gave him. I'm hoping it knocks him out. Now, on to answering your questions.

1.Are you afraid of spiders? If so, how could you write about one?

From a young age I was terrified of spiders. Once, when my sister and I still slept in the same bed under a mosquito net, she made the mistake of saying, “Oh look, Bish, there’s a spider.” It was inside the net, in the corner at the foot of the bed, on MY SIDE! Because I was up against the wall – so I wouldn’t fall out of bed – I trampled across my sister’s chest knocking the wind out of her. It was just a small, harmless house spider which my father caught and let go, but I was still scared out of my mind. As I grew older, I became near phobic about them. Nothing else scared me, not even snakes. But spiders? Keep them away from me. The fear of spiders lasted into my 30s when I finally desensitized myself by letting daddy longlegs crawl on me. They aren’t really spiders, but they look like them. It worked. Now I have a deep fondness for spiders and the roll they play in being beneficial to a healthy organic yard and garden. I love watching the little black jumping spiders that visit our porch in the summer and am protective of the house spider that lives in our kitchen window. I’ve learned that the vast majority of spiders are not poisonous to me and would rather run away from me than bite.

So, to answer the second part of your question, writing about Anansi the spider was great fun! I'll take your word for that :)

2.You grew up in the Virgin Islands, and now you’re a Texas woman. What are the top three things you like about each place that you wish you could combine into one place? And why?

Three things I like about the VI: 1. My family is there, sister and cousins. 2. The hills, ocean and glorious clear blue skies with huge cumulous clouds. (Okay that’s four things, but are you really counting?) no, i'm dreaming of how wonderful it sounds :) 3. All the tropical fruits I can’t get here in the states.

Three things I like about Texas: 1. My husband and home is here. 2. The overall friendliness of the people. of course! 3. The Hill Country with a river that runs through it.

If I could combine them… I’d have all my family in one place with hills and ocean. I love to swim.

3.Who would you choose to voice Anansi in an animated version of these stories? Did you hear this person’s voice in your mind as you wrote the stories?

No, I didn’t have a voice in mind as I wrote the stories. But, I think Bob Marley would be a good choice. LOVE Bob Marley's music!

4.Spiders or snakes? Guacamole or salsa? Mountains or beach?

I like both spiders and snakes, but since I wrote about Anansi, I guess I’ll say spiders! Guacamole for sure. The BEACH! Was there ever any question LOL!

5.Tell us about your next project.

The first thing is to make Anansi available in print. As for my next publishing venture, how about an exciting anthropomorphic adventure called A LIZARD’S TAIL?

From the moment he hatches, Marvin P. Tinkleberry knows he is destined for greatness. For one, he has a marvelous, well-groomed tail. For another he can puff out his throat pouch in the most spectacular way. Maybe the other lizards in his colony don’t take him seriously, but he knows the truth. It lives in the marrow of his bones; he’s going to be a hero.

When a feral cat threatens the lives of all who live at Stone Wall in the Garden by the Sea, Marvin knows it’s HIS destiny to get rid of the fearsome beast. Travelling Over the Hill to find help should be as easy as snapping up a sleeping moth. But it doesn’t take long for Marvin to see that the world beyond Stone Wall is not the same as his pampered life back at the garden. From the deadly Sucker Cactus Forest to deadly mongooses, danger lurks around every corner and Marvin will have to decide if he’s willing to be the hero he’s long bragged about being. Sounds awesome!

How do you escape a hungry tiger? Why do ram-goats smell? What happens if you get too greedy? In this collection of ten retold Jamaican stories, Anansi the spider tricks, sings, and dances his way into and out of trouble.

But who is Anansi? It was the Ashanti of West Africa who brought the spider into the Caribbean. He clung tight to the web he wove in the minds of those who had been captured, surviving not only the harrowing passage across the Atlantic Ocean, but hundreds of years of slavery.

As a trickster, Anansi has both good and bad traits, which makes him very human. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses. When he wins he dances and sings for joy. When he loses, he shakes it off and keeps on living, a lesson for us all.

Bish Denham, whose mother's side of the family has been in the Caribbean for over hundred years, was raised in the U. S. Virgin Islands. She still has lots of family living there and visits them regularly.

She says, "Growing up in the islands was like living inside a history book. Columbus named them, Sir Francis Drake sailed through the area, and Alexander Hamilton was raised on St. Croix. Pirates plied the waters and hundred of years of slavery left its indelible mark. It was within this atmosphere of magic and wonder that I grew up. My hope is pass some of that magic and wonder on to my readers."

You can learn more about Bish by visiting her blog:

Random Thoughts: http://bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/

She can also be found on

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bish-Denham-Author-Page/553261998061448?bookmark_t=page

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BishDenham

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6439315.Bish_Denham