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The blog highlights what I found to be the three keys to getting published: rewriting, persistence, and stalking. The reader will take away practical tips for dealing with frustration, and the understanding that a manuscript is never finished until it is between two covers. The blog will also explore how writing and life are explicably connected.
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Like all good writers I've read my share of classics. And as we can see from the video below featuring the Jane Austen Fight Club, we can still draw from the universal themes that the classics present us with.
I know we're supposed to be all non-violent Buddha-like and not step on ants. But this is too funny.
Here's another one, equally funny in a different way - Emma Thompson accepting the Golden Globe award for Sense and Sensibility as Jane Austen.
I promise, next blog post will be totally deep and thoughtful, and maybe even a little boring just to make up for all this jocularity ... or not!
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| Chateau Lake Louise Canada Day 2012 |
Yes, it's that time of year again when Canadians en mass have a barbeque, drink beer and discuss what makes them Canadian - yes, July 1st is Canada Day!
Time to show some of my favourite representations of Canadian identity through the symbols of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Captain of the Starship Enterprise and, of course, beer and mountains.
Join me for a walk down Canadian identity lane:
First the Canadian Please song (song & video produced by Julia Bentley & Andrew Gunadie) where they accuse you of wanting to be a Canadian... please!
Canadians take credit for many things, the invention of basketball, insulin and Captain James T. Kirk. William Shatner gives a nod to his spoken word past with this rendition of O Canada.
Here's Oh ... Canada by Classified (they take a poke at those lame awesome Heritage Moments, then they go all rap - Oh, Oh Canada!).
And finally what anthropological analysis of Canadian identity would be complete without identifying ourselves in juxtaposition to a dominant society (read: what makes us Canadian is that we're different from Americans)!
I Am Canadian! (yes, I am!)
Enjoy Canada Day everyone, eh!?
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| Sidewalk chalk art by neighbours Clare & Thomas! |
Alright, sometimes here at Three Dead Moths … I’m all, 'writing is hard, you have to stalk people and be persistent, your characters talk smack about you behind your back, and then you have to re-write.'
Well today, it’s all chai tea and blue skies.
Sure you get very thirsty explaining over and over why you’re not selling as many books as that British woman who wrote about the boy wizard. You spend your whole life trying to convince your family and friends that you are not writing about them. But in what other profession can you talk to yourself and everyone thinks you’re a creative genius? In what other profession can you have the worst, unproductive day and still get to eat sushi and sour ju jubes, and drown your sorrows in a big glass of living the dream?!
Seven great things about being a writer …
7) Your wardrobe consists of sweatpants, sweaters covered in cat hair, fuzzy socks and you are still better dressed than half the writers you know. Underwear optional.
6) You can make fun of poets.
5) You can sit in the back yard all day, bask in the sun, watch the dandelions grow around you, re-apply sunscreen, drink fizzy water, read, and call it research.
4) You can watch your neighbours house get robbed, write an article about it and call it creative non-fiction.
3) You can threaten people with the following sentence: “if you don’t stop bugging me I’ll kill you in my next novel.”
2) When people introduce you they say, this is my: friend, sis, aunt, sasquatch, daughter, colleague, neighbour, stalker and she’s a writer!
And the number one reason why it’s great to be a writer.
1) You can follow two guys, for blocks on Robson Ave. in Vancouver, who are talking about onion ring distribution systems to try to figure out what motivates them and listen to their dialogue, er, how they talk, and you won’t get arrested (not that I would ever do that – seriously though, onion ring distribution systems?! – they must be international spies).
Note: A major fast food restaurant that claims their onion rings are “made fresh daily” – they may well be made fresh daily but not where you are buying them – they are shipped from one end of the country and back.
Note: I really like poets, some of my best friends are poets, so no angry retaliatory haikus please ;-j.
So, that's it, happy reading, I'm off to crack this onion ring conspiracy wide open, and pick some cat hair off my sweater!
There's a lot of talk on the internet about how to become a successful writer. Nothing new here: butt-in-chair time, steely determination and persistence, ongoing craft development, and a social media presence are some of the elements needed.
But I'm going to tell you the other things you need to become a successful writer:
1) Warm socks and a cup of tea. Because let's face it, if you're toes are cold then nothing is going to get written and if you're parched it will be hard to summon up any empathy for your protag;
2) an editor that will shred your prose with razor sharp acuity;
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| But Stubby I liked that adverb! |
3) A second editor that will make you work through distractions and force you to see through the cat hair to the essence of your story;
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| Get off the key board Sprite |
4) Licorice. Just because it's licorice;
5) The other essential food group for writers and lots of it;
6) A little irony to throw at the life of a writer; and
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| I like my irony with a side of cheese! |
7) great, supportive writing friends to share the irony of the writing life!
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| Raise a glass of irony to a supportive writing community! |
I've certainly found a supportive writing community here through the Young Alberta Book Society, the Writers' Guild of Alberta, and internationally through the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
Book launch season is coming up, support your local and international writing peeps!
And now that you know how to be a successful writer -- go forth and write!
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| Forsooth, is this a cup of tea I see before me? |
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| Warm and milky, just the way I like it! |
Writing a novel is like doing the dishes.
Just when you think they’re done, just when the last of the grimy sudsy water gets sucked down the drain, just when you’ve wiped dry your water logged hands – someone shows up with an egg encrusted fork they found in the basement. You can either choose to ignore it or you stop up the sink, run the water, get some suds going, plunge your prune-like hands in, and start all over again.
A manuscript is like that. It’s never done until it’s between two covers.
While you’re still doing the dishes, writing the novel – you be the egg encrusted fork to your writing.
That problem that you know is there, but want to ignore - that's the last fork.
Don’t just put it in the sink and forget about. You pick off that egg with your nail, scrub it with the little scrunchy-wash pad thingy, and wipe it clean.
Sure you feel like leaving it in the sink, for next time, for someone else to clean up. Like a member of your critique group. Like the agent or editor you don’t yet have.
No one is going to get the gunk out between the prongs of your manuscript but you.
Be the egg encrusted fork to your writing.
Just when you think your manuscript is done, put your mechanical pencil on the line and apply everything you’ve learned in every book, in every workshop, and in every blue pencil session.
Apply what you’re learned about tension on every page, showing – not telling, realistic dialogue, flawed, yet human characters, plot, setting, pacing, grammar, and scrub - scrub until we the reader, not only don’t see any encrusted egg, we never knew it was there.
That’s your job as a writer.
Doing the dishes … get someone else to do them!
Maybe it's because I write middle-grade mysteries about scientists creating giant frogs (Dead Frog on the Porch) or a slightly crazed-Scottish-Shakespeare-quoting owner of the bird sanctuary who's killing birds (Dead Bird through the Cat Door).
But as a writer, the question I get asked most often is: 'where do you get your inspiration?'
Once asked this question I usual gaze skywards searching for a double rainbow and mumble something about unicorns, rainbows, and cupcakes.
Or I give the cliched answer that I draw inspiration from everything around me. Which isn't really a cliche if you think about it.
Is it just me?
Am I surrounded by weird, unusual and unique things or do I just notice them?
Take this for example. It's a sign at the local electronic recycling place.
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| Seriously people, you can't recycle your children! |
So, what does this even mean? No recycling of children - that's pretty clear. But microwaves are excepted - so if you put your child in the microwave, they'll make an exception and you'll be able to recycle them?! Maybe they mean microwaves are 'accepted.'
As I unsurreptitiously took the photo the manager asked if I needed any help. (No, but clearly you do if people are dropping off their kids to be recycled). I told him that I was taking a picture of the sign because it was funny. He assured me that it was true and that kids climb into the recycling bin. Then I tried to clarify the 'accepted'/'excepted' issue and he told me he didn't know anything about that.
Tru dat.
Then we have my newest pet - no care and feeding - you just have to squeeze it until it's head (or other body parts) threaten to explode. My nephew, knowing how quirky I am, knew it would be the perfect Christmas present.
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Purple Squishy Dude
Who wouldn't be inspired by this purple squishy dude who I can squeeze, stretch out and manipulate to my tactile heart's content! |
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| He loves my books! |
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| And he glows in the dark! |
Okay, get a load of this sign at a local pet store:
Okay, walk me through this. You're sitting at home with your favourite boa constrictor, you figure she needs a little outing and you think, I know, let's go to the pet store. So, you wrap her around your shoulders like a reptile stole, you hop in the car and head out.
Really?! People! Behave!
Final one. On the window of a local hamburger restaurant:
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| Hmmmmm bacon! |
This one is self-explanatory. I guess I won't be applying since I'm a cat person and probably a flake as well!
Inspiration is everywhere - you just have to notice it!
Unicorns, rainbows, and cupcakes!
Alright, it's been a while! I'm sorry. I know I've been neglecting you. I've been busy finishing the latest draft of my contemporary young/adult manuscript. What's that blog? You're busy too, everyone is busy, but you're still here for me. Alright, that's fair. Stings a bit, but fair.
What's that blog? If only you'd been a better blog, maybe I wouldn't have neglected you so badly for so long - crikey, I still have a Christmas blog post up!
No blog - it's not you it's me. This one is all on me. Don't blame yourself. I'll try harder to update you regularly.
What's that blog? "No! Try not. Do, or do not. there is no try." ~ YODA, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
Oh, you are seriously not quoting Yoda to me are you blog? Is that where this is going, you're going to lay a Yoda wisdom guilt trip on me? We'll that's it! I'm not even saving you in draft - I'm posting this as is.
(Some time later after a chai tea).
So, I'm back in full blog-on fashion. I am in the throes of re-writing hades and will be posting some of my writer friends thoughts on rewriting. And, yes, I'll be nicer to my blog and followers! Thanks for sticking around during my brief hiatus!
Merry Christmas to all my bloggowers who celebrate Christmas. Happy Wednesday to those who don't! Here's hoping everyone will have a nice break over the holiday season (to do some writing and eat chocolate).
As you know I'm all about the flash mob. I've said it before and I'll say it again, pleeeeeze someone, somewhere invite me to participate in a flash mob. I'm waiting for an invitation (I dance gangsta y'all!).
What do I like about flash mobs? They make people happy - simple enough! The people who participate and the people who watch - all happy.
Here are three flash mobs to enjoy.
The first one is dedicated to the memory of Nelson Mandela for showing us that we can change the world.
The second is legendary and I'm sure you've seen it (if you haven't you must live in a cave and haven't heard that aliens invented the world wide interweb). It is a classic flash mob - random people, dressed randomly (not like performers) in a random location (mall food courts seem to be popular) who break into song (and often dance) perform, and then go about their business like nothing has happened - that's a flash mob!
This is a Canadian flash mob (in les deux langues official no less), gotta love those Canadians eh?! The security guard is running a little schtick in the beginning when he tries to stop it before assuming his rightful place on stage as the lead singer.
Looking forward to a productive and peaceful 2014 for one and all!
Shout out to Young Alberta Book Society (YABS) members in Calgary as we present another YABS-Confab.
This time it's about meditation and writing or as I like to say: we're going to get our Ommm on!
Maureen Bush will talk about meditation, with a brief introduction to how to do it, and then talk about how it supports writing.
Note: Carolyn Fisher and I asked Maureen to talk about this as we know that she meditates. She says that she is a serious meditator, but not a meditation instructor.
Tuesday, November 26,
6:45 pm, Louise Riley Library.
We only have the space until 8:30, thus the early start time.
The program room is in a separate building, at the far end of the main parking lot.
The room is free, but the library requires we each have a Calgary library card. If you do not, please let Maureen know, so we can work around it.
She'll bring a meditation cushion so she can demonstrate while sitting on one.
Feel free to bring a cushion or sit in a chair.
Comfortable clothing and a relaxed attitude a must!
There are a few distinct seasons in Canada - Fall: ushered in by Thanksgiving with awesome amounts of turkey, stuffing and the near famous Skor Cheesecake my niece and I make!
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| Well, that went fast! |
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| My demented halloween cat! |
That is followed quickly by halloween at which time I affix my demented halloween cat decorations to the side of my house and my small neighbours show up on my step and ask if I have any sidewalk chalk decorating needs that they can fulfill.
Then the leaves begin to fall and as the nights grow longer and your facebook events tab is filled up with events you know it is the start of another season in Canada: book launch season!
Here is a recent snap of my to be read shelf (don't show them the other shelf where you started a pile of books you've borrowed from your y/a author friends Jan and don't talk about the books you continue to take out of the library!) You'll see lots of titles written by my local writing peeps and many more.
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| Heaving with words ... to be read! |
Which is why I had to institute the rule that I can't buy more books unless they are written by my friends (or are for research purposes).
Well, I have no shortage of friends who write books so there is no fear of that shelf being clear for a long time!
Here's a short list of my writing peeps launches coming up, in this, the season of launches.
Saturday October 26th at 2pm at the Memorial Park Library - Join Calgary's contributors to SHY: AN ANTHOLOGY, for poetry and essays and a semi-raucous celebration of shyness. Hosted by editors Rona Altrows and Naomi Lewis. Readers will include Micheline Maylor, Aritha van Herk, Weyman Chan, Sydney Sharpe, Natalie Simpson, Lori D. Roadhouse, Vivian Hansen, Madelaine Wong, Debbie Bateman, Cassy Welburn, and Stuart Ian McKay.
November 14, 2013 at Owl’s Nest Books, 815A – 49 Avenue SW Calgary Inge Trueman will launch A Root Beer Season 7:00 – 8:30PM. There will be wine and coffee and assorted goodies for nibbling, and to help you soar into a nostalgic past, there will, of course, be root beer!
Then there's the annual
Literary Vaudeville: Loud in the Library - Sara Tilley
Thursday, November 7, 2013 - 7:00am
Special Guest: Sara Tilley, Host: Ken CameronWriters: Rita Bozi, Ken Cameron, Kris Demeanor, Naomi K. Lewis, and Marika Smythe
Memorial Park Library, downstairs (1221 2 St SW)
Plus too many launches to list here - check the events page of your local independent book store for more launches! Coming to a book store near you!
I be presenting y'all!
This is a joint Young Alberta Book Society (YABS) and Society of Children's Book Writing and Illustrating (SCBWI West) event and it's free to members and non-members!
Social Media for the Social Media Scardie Cat (or as Shakespeare put it: What is this mobile device I see before me?!)
Okay, maybe Shakespeare never said that, but if all the new mobile computing devices and social media make you feel like an Elizabethan dinosaur then this workshop will help.
You know how there are no dumb questions? Well, this is the place to bring them. Questions like: how do I change my profile picture or upload a different picture to Facebook? I've created a video which is in you tube, how do I post it on my Facebook status update and share it? How do I comment on someone's Facebook status update?
Who are all these people and why do they want to be my friend all of a sudden? How do I 'share' something on Facebook or twitter and why would I do that? What's twitter? What's a blog? I don't want to have a web site, can I still have a web presence? (yes, is the short answer).
My grandchild dropped the f-bomb in his Facebook status update, should I tell his mom? (well, that's your call).
Why are there so many crazy cat videos on the web (that is unanswerable and defies all logic).
If you are intimidated by technology and think WTF means Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, LOL means lots of love, and apps are what you eat before a meal, then this workshop is for you.
Bring all those questions and more. It will be interactive, so bring your devices (iPad, iPhone, laptop etc.,) your passwords, we'll supply the Wi-Fi and we'll give you some crazy mad social media skillz!
Thursday, September 26 7:00 - 8:30 North Pointe Boston Pizza, 388 Country Hills Blvd. Please RSVP [email protected] Non-members are always welcome.
Well, I'm leaving my Sasquatch writing cave to head to the back woods of Pennsylvania (not to be confused with Transylvania) to
not get mugged by an Amish person (because they are probably too busy using my old dial up modem) and to participate in the
Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Workshop!
I'll be workshopping my contemporary (sorry no vampires or zombies!) young adult manuscript.
From everything I've heard about the workshop from other writers who've attended, and the feedback I've already received and calibre of the faculty and the other participants - it's going to be a great week!
Not only has my novel been critiqued by a New York Times Bestselling novelist
Nancy Werlin, there will be one-on-one feedback sessions, workshops and time to re-write in my cabin in the back woods.
So, I'm ready to spill some ink, write until my fingers bleed, and learn a whole lot.
Off to throw an old dictionary in the blender and make a word smoothie so I'll be full up with words and they will come spilling out when I need them!
Alright, it's been a while! I'm sorry. I know I've been neglecting you. I've been busy finishing the first draft of my contemporary young/adult. What's that blog? You're busy too, everyone is busy, but you're still here for me. Alright, that's fair. Stings a bit, but fair.
What's that blog? If only you'd been a better blog, maybe I wouldn't have neglected you so badly for so long - crikey, I still have a Christmas blog post up!
No blog - it's not you it's me. This one is all on me. Don't blame yourself. I'll try harder to update you regularly.
What's that blog? "No! Try not. Do, or do not. there is no try." ~ YODA, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
Oh, you are seriously not quoting Yoda to me are you blog? Is that where this is going, you're going to lay a Yoda wisdom guilt trip on me? We'll that's it! I'm not even saving you in draft - I'm posting this as is.
(Some time later after a chai tea).
So, I'm back in full blog-on fashion. I am in the throes of re-writing hades and will be posting some of my writer friends thoughts on rewriting. And, yes, I'll be nicer to my blog and followers! Thanks for sticking around during my brief hiatus!
Yes, it's that time of the year again!
Christmas!
Or as I like to call it, the time of the year I pontificate on how the Grinch looks like Sasquatch who looks like Santa Claus.
But this year, I'll spare you the thesis and share some of my favourite videos.
First there's the original Grinch who Stole Christmas:
Now you know I lovz me some flash mob. Flash mob = happy people. Let's shower people with song and not bombs or bullets!
Here's a famous one you've no doubt seen - it's a flash mob with a side of fries in a food court! Hallelujah for the fries!
And last, but now least, I always take a chance to brag about my various nieces and nephews. Here's my niece doing a solo with her singing group in a downtown shopping mall during the Christmas shopping frenzy (no, it's not a food court - no theme here!). You'll recognize her, she's the gorgeous one who takes after her auntie!
Here's to a peaceful Christmas and holiday season and a healthy 2012 with lots of writing.
Due to my recent, unintended participation in that zombie apocalypse that we hear so much about - my infected gall bladder was ripped out and I'll be out of commission for a while.
Darn zombies - hope they choke on that gall bladder!
I'll be taking a blogging break but will still be on facebook and twitter.
Catch ya later bloggowers!
You’ll remember my friend Jocosa of the Earrings from her
previous guest blog posts. She’s the one, in a fit delirium from all the
excitement at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference (SiWC) a few years
ago, took a vow to not cut her hair until she was published.
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| okay peeps, her hair is way longer than this! |
Her hair is long – think Rapunzel, think the 1970s long, her
fingers are nubs from rewriting and she’s not giving up her goal of getting
published or cutting her hair (well she can’t – she made a vow).
In the meantime, she’s started a book review blog. I’ll let her
speak in her own words and introduce it to you:
“My son says self-promotion is The Way of the World. I
thought is was a restoration comedy by William Congreve.
Anyway, after coaching for some 30 odd years, I thought blogging
about the interconnectedness between writing and acting would be a snap. The
format was NOT a good fit. Not really a surprise, I guess. On my journey into
wisdom, I've found what comes natural to us or what we excel at often times is
not where we think or believe we belong, but rather where we thrive
without effort. For me this happens when I write book reviews. In fact, I get
downright giddy whenever I'm composing one.
I'm launching Jocosa's Bookshelf. My ultimate goal is to
write reviews for new and classic books. But first I need to get
through my TBR pile. Fingers crossed.
Thanks for listening. Blue Skies, jocose”
Yeah, she’s kinda hippy like that!
Check out her site – she’s got loads of reviews up and she’s
working on loads more. (while I am slowly working through my to-be-read pile
which reproduces itself … then all
my friend’s book launches!)
Lots of awesome reading ahead! Let Jocosa help you read your way
through it!
In grade four I had a spelling book that had a recipe for
Thumbprint cookies. What’s a spelling book? And why didn’t you just use spell
check? you ask.
Hold on, let me get my Roy Rodgers & Dale Evans lunch box, time
travel back to grade four and answer that question. Clearly, spell check, and
the world wide interweb hadn’t been invented yet.
Why my spelling book had a cookie recipe is an even better
question.
So, the assignment was to go home and make Thumbprint cookies. What’s
a Thumbprint cookie? It’s a cookie that you press a thumbprint into (hand
sanitizer wasn't invented either!) and then fill the resulting crater with jam. My big sis and
I made the cookies.
Nice story Jan, how does this relate to writing?
Every kid made the cookies from the same recipe but they
were all different.
Just like the plot of a book.
All books need a plot and plot
devices, but you can take the same story idea, give it to five different
authors and you’ll have five different stories.
So, write the story you want to
write – it is unique to you. Don’t write what you think is popular right now in
the market – unless you want to write that.
And don’t read spelling books
looking for cookie recipes.
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| Keep that manuscript warm Stubby! |
I won’t say I’ve finished a draft of my young adult
contemporary (entirely lacking in vampires) work-in-progress manuscript, but
I’ve written the story all the way through.
So, isn’t that a first draft? I
hear you say. It might be if it
wasn’t 20K words too short. Maybe it’s a first draft and the second draft will
conclude the search for the missing 20K.
I’ve read it through and edited it on-line until my eyes
bled, then decided it was time to print it out and read the whole thing in one
sitting.
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| Stubby, are you rejecting my manuscript? |
In the olden days (i.e., before the internet was invented by
aliens) popular wisdom dictated that you should print out your manuscript and
then hide it in a drawer for six months. The idea being that enough time would
pass that you would be able to spot what’s missing in the story. Great idea.
But who’s got that kind of time? I was never able to do that in the olden days
and in the nowadays when we check our email five times a minute, I don’t see me
leaving anything in a drawer for six months (unless it’s those unwashed dishes
I do go on about).
It’s been a
little over two weeks that I’ve left it unread and that’s my limit.
I thought I’d let Stubby the cat weigh in on my manuscript
then sit in the sun this weekend, read it like a book and see what I think
of it.
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My to-be-read shelf of books recently supplemented by a shopping trip
@ Powell's Books Portland, is on hold until my to-be-read manuscript is read! |
I'm off to Portland for a few days to enjoy my nephew's wedding, hang out with my relies, and discover a new city.
I came across this blog post on the
Blog of Impossible Things that I want to share. Ostensibly (big word, right?) it's about this random meeting that the blogger has in a Portland coffee shop with the man who invented computers. Yes, you read that right, but take a minute to re-read that sentence on the computer that this man invented.
It's a cool blog post, and profound about our relationship with technology.
And for me it also speaks to character development. On the surface, he saw an old man and assumed he was probably computer illiterate along with all the other stereotypes we have about old people.
We can use this when we develop characters. There are certain assumptions that one makes when we describe someone's age, ability and physical appearance. Deepen your character development by giving your character complex emotions, characteristics, and inner conflict that goes beyond the physical that will surprise the reader and create well rounded characters.
In the meantime, I'll be scouring Portland coffee shops looking for the old guy who invented the computer - maybe I can get him to program my PVR remote, my cat walked all over it and dis-engaged the codes.
I'll also be visiting
Powell's City of Books. They only have a million books - I expect they'll have a few less when I'm done with them!
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It's a city people! A whole city of books!
With directions and everything! |
REGISTRATION CONTINUES for the SCBWI Calgary Conference
Building Your Brand Online
This two-day conference on September 15-16, 2012 will be facilitated by Vancouver-based author, publishing consultant and social media coach Crystal Stranaghan.
You'll recall that Crystal was the publisher at Gumboot Books, which published the first two books in the MegaByte Mystery series, Dead Frog on the Porch and Dead Bird through the Cat Door. She has a wealth of knowledge about marketing, social media and publishing. Plus, she's a super nice person!
Registration is limited to ensure small class size and personal attention for each participant.
Saturday September 15, 2012 from 9am-5pm
During this intensive full-day workshop for writers and illustrators (published or unpublished), participants will define their goals for building their own brand online and learn how to achieve those goals using the free tools available to them. Each participant will craft a personal plan for building their web presence, identify what they want out of the experience, pick which tools are right for them, learn how to use the available tools (twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, websites, blogs) professionally, and formulate a workable plan to achieve their social media goals without compromising their writing time.
You know when you go to a writing workshop and the
instructor is all: ‘show not tell.’ Then you read a book on writing and the
author is all: ‘show not tell.’ Annoying right!?
When you write you need to show (not tell) what your
characters are thinking through action and dialogue. I know what you’re
thinking – it’s far easier to tell the reader everything that’s going on in the
characters' minds than show it through action and dialogue. I know, right. It’s
tough – but tough bananas (as my mother always says) that’s writing!
There's a tool I’ve been using as I’m
writing my current w-i-p (a y/a contemporary drama) that helps me show how my
characters are feeling through action.
It’s the Emotional Thesaurus written by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. For availability, check out their popular blog, The Bookshelf Muse, which is where it all started.
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| Now that's a bunch of tough bananas. |
I have a hard copy version of the Emotional Thesaurus that I keep by my computer, and when I’m writing I
think: my character is feeling agitated, or paranoid, or resentful (just to name a few emotions the book covers) how would I show that? I look up the
emotion and there are a whole lot of actions that show that emotion. (Which leads me to a brief musical interlude where I sing "I second that emotion." I'll stop now.)
It’s great. But I still have to get away from my characters all
having gastrological, cardiac and neurological issues – their stomachs always seem to be clenching, hearts pounding, and hands trembling!
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Put a slab of back bacon on this and it'd be the
perfect Canada Day doughnut! |
Yes, it's that time of year again when Canadians en mass have a barbeque, drink beer and discuss what makes them Canadian - yes, July 1st is Canada Day!
Time to show some of my favourite representations of Canadian identity through the symbols of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Captain of the Starship Enterprise and, of course, beer and mountains.
Join me for a walk down Canadian identity lane:
First the Canadian Please song (song & video produced by Julia Bentley & Andrew Gunadie) where they accuse you of wanting to be a Canadian... please!
Canadians take credit for many things, the invention of basketball, insulin and Captain James T. Kirk. William Shatner gives a nod to his spoken word past with this rendition of O Canada.
I was going to title this blog post: a hippy, a nun, and a guy who was trying to pretend that his wife was buying the five bags of chips in his grocery cart were in the 15 items or 'less' line up at Safeway. But it sounded too much like the intro to a really bad joke. (But seriously it happened.)
Then I was going to title this blog post: what I learned from the
hippy who butted in line in front of me in the 15 items or ‘less’ line, but
that was a tad long.
The first thing we’ve all learned is that the sign is
grammatically incorrect. It should be 15 items or fewer … but try telling them
that.
I’ve had four experiences in this line up recently that
have led me to contemplation.
The first happened when apparently I had 16 items. It was
the after-work rush hour and all of humanity was picking up a few items on the
way home from work, and the supermarket didn’t have enough cashiers on duty.
I
stood in line with my basket stretching my arms and my patience as it got
heavier with every second. I finally unburdened it and my wallet when I was rung
through the cash register. The cashier, thinking she’d do me a ginormous favour
and impart upon me some life advice – advised me that I had 16 items, and that
next time I should go in one of the other lines. I advised her that the should
hire some more cashiers and then maybe I would have gone in the other line, and
that I didn’t want her imposing her ‘rules’ on me.
 |
| And don't butt in! |
The
This blog is about where writing meets life - which translates into me telling you how many sour ju jubes I eat and hours spent either in the sasquatch writing cave or outside reading in the sun. And I occasionally complain about cliches and the line ups at Safeway.
Today it's about something different. It's about the strength of the human spirit and a lot of hard work and dedication.
It’s about a boy named Alexander and Alexander’s Fund.
It's about my friends, editor and photographer Ashley Bristowe and Governor General nominated author Chris Turner. They have two amazing children. The youngest, Alexander was born with Kleefstra Syndrome a rare chromosome defect. His parents were told he may never walk and may never talk. A devastating diagnosis for any parent.
While Alexander was properly diagnosed at 8 months, in the province of Alberta, Canada he would not be considered for cognitive and physical therapy until he was two and then there would be at least a year’s waiting list. Which meant he would be at least three years old – missing the key developmental years – before he would get any specialized therapy. That was unacceptable.
Ashley and Chris did not accept that there was nothing they could do for their son. Ashley started an in-home therapy regime based on books she read. They then discovered the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia where they design cognitive and physical therapy for severely developmentally disabled and/or brain injured children. They have a proven track record of developing children to their full potential given the genetic cards they were dealt.
Travelling back and forth from Calgary to Philadelphia and paying for the specialized treatment (which is not covered by Alberta Health Care) is not only expensive, but running the program means Ashley has given up her career and half the family’s income. The program is extensive and all encompassing. She runs the therapy program 8-10 hours a day and spends the rest of the time documenting outcomes for the institutes’ rigorous program.
Many of the therapies take two to three people to do on Al, so Ashley is scheduling volunteers all day to help out in shifts. I’ve done a few shifts and it is overwhelming. Then there is the specialized diet and food preparation. You can get from this that it is an all encompassing feat that has taken many family members, friends and strangers to get them this far. Big sister Sloane get big kudos as well.
Alexander recently turned three years old.
Guest Post this week! From my cousin Pat Markley, journalist, writer and awesome museum person! She lives in High River, Alberta Canada where famous Canadian author W.O. Mitchell used to teach school in his pajamas! (Good strategy W.O. I should try that!).
Here's Pat with a tale of a museum, a fire, and that prairie thing of raising a barn and never giving up!
Like my cousin Jan, I seem to attract
strange events – and even stranger people – into my life. However, I never
imagined when I took a job at the Museum of the Highwood in High River in June
2010 – a place where nothing much had changed in decades – that a month later
I’d be standing on the sidewalk watching it burn.
Now, most small museums do
not survive a building fire. Thanks to the dedication of board members and
other volunteers, staff and folks who just wandered in off the street, the
Museum of the Highwood is alive and well and will re-open to the public on May
19th.
I think one of the things we’re proudest of
is that we never stopped being a museum – even though we were without a
building for almost two years. We answered research requests during breaks in
cleaning and sorting artifacts. As the museum’s programmer, I found myself
doing presentations in classrooms, gymnasiums, church basements, seniors’ homes
– and perched on the edge of a buffalo jump! The experience brought home to all
of us that a museum is more than a building and more than ‘old stuff.’
1 Comments on Out of the Ashes - The Museum of the Highwood rises!, last added: 5/16/2012
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Mmmm. I love thumbprint cookies! And you are so right about plot. We all have unique ideas!
I agree with you on both points Angie! Now I want another cookie ...!