A few weeks back, I got a text,
“Coopers hurt. Can you check him out when you get home?”
Cooper had a deep and dangerous puncture, high up inside his back leg. It tracked into his groin and was only a breath away from puncturing his abdomen. It could have been life threatening. Considering our walking track and their playground is our zig-zagging forested trails through our maple sugar bush, I surmised Cooper must have snagged a branch in the wrong spot, at the wrong moment. Read more
Hallowe’en’s origins date back over 2000 years to the Celts when they celebrated the end of the summer, the completion of the harvest and the start of the winter season. Have you realized that this ancient holiday is the mid-point between the fall’s equinox and the winter solstice? It is a time when you begin to truly feel the change of light and shorter days.
Samhain, the name of the Celtic festival, was celebrated for three days around the end of October. It was believed to be a time when the boundary between the living and dead was thin and ghosts from the dead could cross over for a short time. Celtic priests used the night to make predictions about the future and had huge bonfires as part of the celebrations. The Celts would dress in costumes to ward off the evil ghosts who might kidnap them.
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Often, writers have other creative interests besides writing short stories or novels. There are many pursuits to indulge in, such as painting, clay sculpture, embroidery, knitting, sewing, basket weaving, jewellery, photography, etc. I do many different activities, but this month, I concentrated on creating quilts.
As I pushed a hot iron across a square piece of white cotton material for the next quilt block, I couldn’t help but notice the similarity to a blank white page on my laptop or in my notebook. It struck me how similar being a novelist and a quiltmaker really are for me.
At first glance, a novel is made from words on pages bound together and printed into book form. A quilt is made from scraps of material and sewn together to produce a warm blanket. A book and a blanket are two different items, one hard and one soft, but both are created for you or someone else to enjoy. I thought about the parallels, and I couldn’t help but smile. Check them out below.
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This year, more than usual, I am desperate for spring’s arrival.
A cluster of personal and professional situations has really sent me into a tailspin in recent weeks. It has been impossible to bounce back easily and quickly as I normally do. The hours spent working and worrying are seriously disproportionate to time spent having fun. I am rarely reading these days and writing has come to a full stop. Even recognizing the possibility that what I’m experiencing right now may be helpful to a future character, there is no energy for writing daily pages.
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Last week, I scheduled some time away from work and my every day responsibilities to attend a seven-day writing retreat in the middle of the woods in Haliburton County. I hoped to review and revise my current novel by taking my characters deeper and solving a few lingering issues I had with plot holes.
The weeks leading up to this retreat stressed me out. Lists needed to be made for everything I required to accomplish at work before I could leave. I had lists of food that I must shop for and pack. I also had a weekend wedding in Hamilton to get ready for that followed the writing retreat with only a one-hour break between them. My brain was fried when I finally arrived at the retreat, and I didn’t have a plan of exactly what I would be working on. Poor planning.
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I have been thinking a lot lately, actually ruminating, about my method of creativity. It occurs to me that I write blogs, memoire and psychological reports in basically the same way. I always have to draft something in long-hand, then let it sit for a minimum of 24 hours or sometimes days or weeks. Until now I always labeled that as procrastination or laziness. But truly I get too much done every day for those nouns to be accurate.
I know that my mind has always gone a mile a minute as they say. When I was a little girl, age 7 or so, I would hide under the covers and use a flashlight to read after being told by my parents to turn out my light. By the time I was 13, I would lay awake until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning listening to U.S. Radio Stations playing rock and roll. It is any wonder I was late for school 4 out of 5 days a week? When I was in University I ‘pulled-all-nighters’ in order to cram for exams or write essays. And my grades were always good provided I was interested in the subject matter.
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I invented a new condiment.
I know you’re probably thinking we don’t need a new condiment. After all, we’ve got ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, relish, plum sauce, salsa…is there space in the fridge and on the table for another one?
As a writer, I sometimes wonder if I have anything new to contribute to the book world. Occasionally when I enter a bookstore I have a moment of panic. There are so many books in there and how can I write another one to jostle for space on the shelves? Would anyone even pick up my book if I ever get published?
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I like a good surprised twist in a book. I love it when a book puts in a major twist that is both believable but that I did not see coming. It’s a tricky balance to manage well. Usually I can spot a plot twister before the wind even gets brisk; mostly because they are set out as if they are slowly spewing volcano.
The smoke is obvious, the billowing soot a give way, so I am not surprised when the volcano “suddenly” spits out the “surprise”.
I am looking for the kind of twist that makes a reader exclaim out loud while reading. A moment that compels a reader to tell the stranger sitting next to them, “do you know what just happened!” It’s the whoa – everyone is a ghost – kind of surprise.
