Burning planet. Second Waves. Spiking numbers. Anti – science. Conspiracy theorists. Mental illness. Financial stresses – you get the picture. I would say we’ve got all the materials in place for one big-ass, nasty dystopia. Read more
Thanksgiving 2020
An early Thanksgiving in Canada, with the prospect of another Covid-19 shutdown looming over us, has brought on the “winter blues” a few weeks earlier than usual. The common phrase “it gets dark so early now” has many people beginning to hibernate. The colour display this weekend on the back roads of Grey County was breath taking. Yet my morning musings seem to draw me unwillingly into the yawning void of the future.
In two months the first year of the newest pandemic Covid-19 will be logged into each of our ship-of-life books. The world moved incredibly fast in my life time (1946 – 2020) and it seems destined to continue to do so. As maudlin as it may seem I keep struggling with the question:
“What am I leaving behind?” or put it another way “What of me lasts?”
Read moreTo-Write or Not-To-Write
Every writer I know has trouble writing. – Joseph Heller
I never thought I’d experienced writer’s block, assumed it meant you couldn’t think of anything to write. For me, there was always something flowing out my pen, even if it wasn’t great literature. One sunny day this summer, I was procrastinating on my writing and picked up a book I’d been gifted: Write. 10 Days to overcome Writer’s Block. Period, by Karen E. Peterson, Ph.D.
I quickly learned what I thought of as “resistance to writing” was in fact WRITER’S BLOCK!!! Who was I kidding? I was constantly fighting writer’s block. There are many real things to keep us from writing: day jobs, kids, partners, parents, social obligations. But the real demons can often be found in our own heads.
We dream of having a block of fully un-interrupted time where we are immersed in our writing and hours go by without our noticing. Or anyone interrupting. We are able to achieve the illusive “creative flow”. But the reality is, though we may have those days from time-to-time, most of our writing happens between things.
Read moreA Writing Place of My Own
Before Covid-19 hit, one of my favourite writing spots was the local café. I loved seeing friends and neighbours, watching people chat and order their coffee, while I wrote. I have this unique skill, this ability to ignore everything around me and get fully engrossed in my own made up world. I took pride that some of my scenes were so engaging, I could disregard the rest of the world and fully immerse myself. I remember these times fondly.
Since March, with the cafés closed and my writing space stolen, I’ve been displaced. I’m nothing if not persistent and so I took to writing at home. The best time was early in the morning, before my family arose. I would claim the couch in the living room, coffee in hand, doing my best to shoo away the cats and dogs vying for my attention. This was heavenly, until my teenage children woke. Then they invaded, turning on the television, complaining about missing laundry and overall… just being their noisy selves, so I would stop writing.
This summer, my teenage son decided to move downstairs, leaving his bedroom upstairs empty. So… I’ve begun to dream of a writing space. Read more
Winter is Coming – Hurrah!
Don’t get me wrong. I love summer time. Strangely enough, I especially enjoyed it this year. It became a time to reconnect with friends in outside spaces, to play charades on the driveway under the stars, find new kayak paddles in crystal blue-green water and to weed my flourishing Covid-19 garden.
But I’m kind of exhausted by summer. Like an excellent party – it’s great fun while it lasts but the clean up the next day is daunting. I’m canning my garden bounty (turns out that 40 tomatoes plants are too many), experimenting with a dozen ways to eat zucchini and discovering that not everyone loves cucumbers. Sadly, my writing got shelved during this time of outside merriment.
Read moreBack Up There, Kelly!
I’m many things. I’ve had many jobs. I’ve had several educations in various things.
Yes, I’m a writer. And yes, I know a lot of very unusual things, trivia, minutia, facts and factoids, things that I almost have no business knowing.
It all comes from having been so many things in life and done so many jobs.
I’ve talked occasionally about some of those jobs. I’ve worked in kitchens and on construction sites. I’ve worked in a printing plant, and on farms. I’ve been an auctioneer and I’ve been a second hand dealer and I’ve been an antique dealer. I’ve been a computer programmer, and I’ve been a computer technician.
Read more
A Place of Solitude
Where is your special place for quiet and solitude? For reflecting, reading, to just be.
Is it somewhere close by where you can easily go pretty much anytime you want? Or is it someplace further afield that you can only visit once or a handful of times a year?
Mine is my backyard. Which has been especially convenient during Covid 🙂
Read more
Characters for Company
I miss people. I miss spontaneous get togethers, unannounced summer visitors and the fun of planning birthday celebrations. Inevitable, I suppose, as a result of months-long, pandemic-induced, relative isolation. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
Letting housework slide and lounging for too many hours in front of the television have lost their appeal. Puzzling to me is why even reading is less pleasurable lately. I’ve chalked it up to the fact that it is such a solitary activity and what I want these days is more connection with live people.
Amid my somewhat limiting day-to-day routines, something promising has happened that has me excited about writing again.
Read more