I heard an interesting and disturbing letter a couple of weeks ago while listening to CBC Radio. The writer had written in to complain about public schools not having “traditional Christmas” concerts any more. This person went on to contend that it was “sad to see our heritage disappearing and that it’s a horrible [...]
read on... →It’s Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. and I’m glad to be in Canada…where I can still watch the Macy’s Day Parade via satellite and not have to worry about cooking an enormous turkey or wonder why the Governor of Florida allows the Miami police to hunt down innocent protestors (and people walking down the street [...]
read on... →I can see why the Celts chose this as the time of year for new beginnings. The night comes on so quickly now…cold enough to turn thoughts inward, leaving them unexpected and sometimes dark. Things I have been dreaming of, wanting, are coming to the surface, leaving me a bit frightened as well as excited. [...]
read on... →It’s no secret that I’m opposed to nearly everything that George “W” says and does. America was once my home, but from my view here in Canada I hardly recognize the “land of the free” any more. It seems that every day I hear another tale of the American government treading on the rights and [...]
read on... →Picking Apples
I went apple picking a couple of weeks ago, dragged my bum out to the orchards on a sunny, warm September afternoon. It is a bittersweet affair…marking the end of long summer days, knowing that the apples we pick will largely be used to make apple sauce and apple butter, their once red-autumn [...]
read on... →Revisions complete.
Last night I packed up my revised manuscript to send it off to its first entrance into the outside world. (its first “once-over” from eyes who do not know me)
A big moment.
I also stuck a floppy disk into the computer and sent it whizzing through cyber space [...]
read on... →Survived the “in-between” period where I refused myself the habit of working on the novel each day.
It was so hard to stay away from it, but I managed about a month’s worth of not actually touching it. I worried the entire time that I would forget where I had wanted to go [...]
read on... →Another little bit about Dorothea Brande before I close up her book and put it on the shelf… I have found yet another thread of wisdom about writing that has been pulled into the works of contemporary writers such as Natalie Goldberg and Sophy Burnham.
It is the idea that writing is a meditative [...]
read on... →Another update.
May 3 was the Atlantic Journalism Awards. (Was a finalist in the Feature Writing for Radio category) Quite the swanky affair…reception overlooking the harbour, excellent people watching opportunites, delicious food (a salad ‘sculpture’ with poppy seed dressing, salmon steak rubbed with herbs, and a decadent chocolate custard served with Nova Scotia [...]
read on... →it’s done!!!
Finished the novel last Sunday night. Of course there are things to ‘fix’ and I have to go back and smooth things out for continuity’s sake (dates, names, etc.) but the flesh is on the bones and I’m feeling pretty happy about it.
my brother asked me, “it’s done? how [...]
read on... →
When I was a child I loved finding things…a jar of my grandmother's old buttons, a cigar box filled with boy scout badges and river stones, a flouncy party dress pushed to the back of my mother's closet - circa 1955. With every relic I discovered, there came a story. Real or imagined, the tales that surrounded each object were magic, making the 'thing' more immediate, something more than it was before I'd found it.
Fact or fiction, fantastic, joyful or sad, stories make us more than we were before we found them. Welcome to my shoebox of buttons, sealing wax and scribblings.
- posted on 16/05/2012 23:03:49
