Canada Reads!

This week CBC, our national broadcaster, announced the line up for "Canada Reads 2009". For those of you unfamiliar with this event it is kind of a combination virtual book club and debate. Every year Canada Reads features five Canadian works of fiction each of which are presented and defended by one of five Canadian celebrity panelists. The proceedings will be hosted by the always adorable Jian Ghomeshi and will take place the week of March 2 - 6. By the end of the week the Canada Reads panel will declare a winner (although I don't think there is much of a prize other than the honour and a nice jump in book sales). In the mean time you can wade into the novels and join in with the online discussion in the forum. Or, if you're like me, you can wait until the debate, let the panellists duke it out and then choose a book. And hopefully you'll discover some great Canadian lit along the way.

This year's line up:

The Book Of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

This is the saga of a woman's life from childhood to slavery and finally freedom.

The Book Of Negroes is being defended by television host Avi Lewis.

The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay, translated by Sheila Fischman

A day in the life of the author's childhood neighbourhood in Montreal comes to life in this tale defended by radio and television broadcaster

Anne-Marie Withenshaw.

Fruit by Brian Francis
This is the story of an overweight, unpopular thirteen year old growing up in the eighties in the largely blue-collar city of Sarnia. In order to deal with the ridicule of his peers the hero of this book retreats into his own imaginery world, complete with glamorous "Bedtime Movies" and a pair of talking nipples (hey, I'm not making this up!)

Fruit is being defended by Vancouver writer and radio personality Jen Sookfong Lee.

Mercy Among The Children by David Adams Richards
This novel set in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick examines the consequences when a boy vows to God that he will always turn the other cheek.
This title is being defended by singer/songwriter Sarah Slean.

The Outlander by Gil Adamson

The year is 1903 and a young woman finds herself on the run across Canada's west after becoming a widow "by her own hand."

Gemini award-winning actor and filmmaker Nicholas Campbell will be defending.

Happy reading!

I'm a wiener, I'm a wiener!

May I direct your attention to the shiny new web badge proudly displayed in my sidebar, the lovely colour-coordinated one with the viking ship. Yes, that's right, as of 10:56 pm I crossed that elusive NaNoWriMo finish line, and five days under schedule! I have been a writing fiend (mainly out of sheer panic).

What now? Um, bed. Then I'm taking a short break from the writing thing and focusing on a pile of holiday projects that are hanging over me. I have two Christmas stockings to make and embellish, a little sewing project for Santa Claus, a scarf to finish knitting, a gingerbread house to decorate, generally putting on my Martha Stewart hat (does Martha wear hats? ... anyways, you get the picture). I still plan on blogging though, to keep some writerly momentum going. Besides, I'd miss you guys.

Ok, off to do a little celebratory happy dance, then sleep. My brain is tired.

Slight recalibration ...

Due to the continued wintry weather through the night we need to make a slight recalibration of the amount of snowfall in my previous post ...
Up until now I have never seen the words "momentous" and "colossal" used in a snow squall warning. Crazy.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Oh, yes. I don't know about where you may live (some of you Michiganers might know of what I speak), but it's been snowing here now for about five days straight. Not unusual for one of Ontario's "snowbelt" areas ... if it were January! We have over a foot of the fluffy white stuff out in the yard now and more if you look at the snowbanks lining the driveway where we have shovelled, repeatedly. It's crazy! And apparently we're not done yet.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm one of those twisted winter-enjoying types (winter-loving is too strong). We take the kids skating every weekend, we like skiing, tobogganing, snowshoeing ... but even I am not thrilled when winter decides to rear it's frosty head this early. At this rate the snow banks will be too high for me to shovel any more by Christmas (insert Ray's short joke here).

I'm trying to find the silver lining inside the snow squall:
1. the kids love it
2. we will have really impressive pictures to send to my youngest daughter's former foster family in southern China
3. I can finally bust out the funky chunky scarf I knit myself last winter
4. the Christmas decorations that we are going to put up tomorrow will look totally fab with all of the snow to set them off. Yes, my oldest convinced my dh to let the kids decorate the Christmas tree tomorrow while he clamours up the ladder to put up the lights outside. It's a tad early, but what the heck, might as well go with it.

Back on track

Consider my last post therapy. It always seems when I feel overwhelmed and then post about it a good night's sleep gets me back on my feet and ready to go again. I have gone ahead and submitted an idea to the newspaper for a column. The theme is green living for families. I thought it was a pretty wide topic with lots of interesting possibilities. I'll keep you posted.

Lest we forget ...

Today Canada recognizes Remembrance Day, a time when we pause to honour our veterans of conflicts past and present. A time to remember the sacrifice of those who so valiantly fought and never made it home.

Today I will remember in particular one of the many brave men in our family who have served. I will remember him because for many years he was forgotten. His name was Arthur Manuel Hall. He was my maternal great-great-grandfather.

I discovered Arthur quite by accident. I was researching the background of a medal that my father had been given years before. As I examined it, looking for information to enter into my google search I found a name and service number inscribed on the side of the coin-like medallion. The name was Arthur M. Hall. I recognized this as my great grandfather's name, Arthur Montague. Curious for more details of my great grandfather's service I performed a search of the national Library and Archive's World War I database. I found Arthur amongst many other Arthur Halls, but one stood out. It was the name just above his. The name was similar, Arthur Manuel Hall, maybe a coincidence, but the regimental number for the two soldiers was almost identical. I clicked on Arthur Manuel's name. I was amazed as I read his attestation, or enlistment papers. Arthur Manuel was Arthur Montague's father.

I called my grandmother and pressed for details. She knew none. We had worked on the family tree before and there was never any mention of Arthur Senior. Even with the details I could now provide her my grandmother remembered nothing. She explained that she knew very little even about her own father, who died when she was only a teenager from complications related to being gassed during the war. There was never any talk of her grandfather.

It was an odd feeling to be the first person in decades to be introduced to Arthur. His papers told me he was a small man, only 5'4". He had a dark complexion with black hair and brown eyes. He had his initials "A.H." and a figure tattooed on his left arm. Arthur worked as a tin smith.

Over the next several weeks I tried to find out as much as I could about Arthur Senior. It was as though this long lost member of my family was coming to life before my eyes. The information was sparse. I learned about his regiment, where he fought, that Arthur had been killed in action. After consulting with a message board of WWI experts I also learned the details of Arthur's death. One of the members had taken the particulars and found the diary record for Arthur's battalion on the day he died.

War diary of the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion 1917, Dec. 9th:
"During Day Enemy very quiet. Enemy barrage came down on right of our front line at 2:00 A.M. Enemy raided battalion on our immediate right – (27th Canadian Battalion) – Enemy never passed our wire. One non commissioned officer and 10 men wiring. Night very dark. Weather raining. Casualties – four on right killed, two on right injured"

That is all, just a notation on a page. There is no description of how. There is no name.
His military records disclose no more about his death. There is no medical report. The casualty card simply states "killed at front," his injuries apparently catastrophic since no aid was administered. He was simply one of four killed on the right, a notation in a column in a journal.

I am comforted however that he was not one of the countless unidentified soldiers buried in an unmarked grave. Arthur Manuel was laid to rest in a reportedly pretty little cemetery in the French countryside. The details of how he came to be in this serene place under the shadow of a large stone cross, rather than one in a vast landscape of crosses in one of the larger burying grounds remains a mystery yet for me to solve. But I know this. One day I will travel to France and find the pretty little cemetery known as "la sucrerie", after a sugar factory that once stood on the grounds. I will find this place and seek out quadrant II, plot C, marker number 13 and I will sit by my great-great grandfather's grave and I will tell him that he is not forgotten.

Lest we forget ...

What I've learned from NaNoWriMo, week 1 ...

1. 1,667 words per day isn't as hard as I thought it would be
2. I eat compulsively when I write (there goes my 13 lb weight loss all to hell!)
3. those little Halloween-sized Coffee Crisp bars are brutally addictive and should not be legal
4. my husband is extremely supportive of my writing (shouldn't have doubted that)
5. I really can be productive at the computer and manage with the rest of my daily routine (I just have to be creative with how I go about it)

I'm having a pity party, want to come?

Ok, Vivi, I've officially joined you in the ranks of NaNo-bitch. The wheels have essentially fallen off my grand NaNo plan and I am struggling to hold on. As you all may recall I made the momentous decision to start dragging my keester out of bed at 5:00 am to allow myself two hours of uninterrupted "me time" so I could try to foster a writing routine. This worked like a charm, for exactly two days. I was productive. Things were flowing. Then the fargin' time change happened. I expected it would cause a temporary disruption in the girls' sleep (they normally awaken at 7:30, so probably count on a few 6:30 ish mornings ...) Wrong. For some reason the time change caused my youngest's "mommy detector" to go into hyperdrive. For four mornings straight she woke up at 5:15! On two of those days I hadn't even gotten my document open before I heard her staggering down the hall. And not only was she up, she was up to stay. The first morning I made the mistake of trying to take her back to bed. The shrieking that ensued was horrendous, especially since she shares a room with her sister. So the darling child was hauled into mommy & daddy's bed where my poor groggy husband was expecting us. After four mornings we decided that we were getting dangerously close to this developing into an ingrained pattern. So very begrudgingly I have given up trying to get up at 5:00. I am now trying to squeeze my writing in where ever I can grab a few minutes. I'm managing to make my word count goals so far, but this kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing. My main reason for NaNoing this year was to make some time for me and to establish a good writing routine. I would be lying if I said I wasn't feeling somewhat resentful yesterday. Apparently even by dragging myself out of bed over two hours earlier than the kids normal wake up call, I'm still not allowed to have any "mommy time".

Fortunately when my youngest woke up crying at 5:40 this morning (I guess she realized she'd overslept her previous 5:15 wake up call) I was able to get her back to sleep and she stayed asleep until 7:00. Even better was that my oldest wasn't woken by her little sister's escapades and she was able to sleep until 7:30. Fingers crossed that tomorrow sees further improvements. I'm hoping that if I can get the kids back on track sleep-wise that in a new days I may be able to try sneaking out of bed at the crack of dawn once more.

Taking a brief pause from NaNo ...

.. to mourn the loss of Joaquin Phoenix. No, he hasn't died. But he has officially announced his intentions to retire from acting to pursue a music career. I am devastated. He is my ultimate favorite actor. He was just so deliciously creepy as the spitefully jealous Commodus in Gladiator and riveting as a troubled young Johnny Cash in Walk The Line. I could go on, but I'll get depressed. Since it would be horribly bad karma I won't selfishly hope for him to fail at his newest endeavor so that he will return to our movie screens where he belongs. Instead I will wish him well and savour his last film Two Lovers. sniff. Good bye Joaquin.

Swing away Merrill, swing away ...

Work in progress!

I am happy to report that bright and early this morning I officially started Nano'ing. And yes, I hauled my sorry carcass out of bed at 5:00 a.m. And no, it didn't kill me. In fact, despite the lack of reporting on my sorry excuse of a word count widget, my tally for this morning is 1,915 words, 248 over the average daily requirement (to hit the 50,000 mark by November 30). Just like clock work, when I hit save after my last word count check my youngest rolled out of bed, but not until I had over two hours of uninterrupted writing time. I could really get into this early to rise thing (I might actually have to begrudgingly admit to my DH that he's been right all along - damn!)

Consider the trigger pulled ...

It's official. I've registered. I'm NaNo'ing. I'm also crazy, but that's not news. Here's the thing, I want to write. I've been told I should write - by three teachers, assorted family & friends, a psychic and now a tarot reader. I'm thinking maybe it's something I should pursue. On the other hand, I'm big on procrastination, self-doubt etc. so NaNoWriMo is going to be my proverbial kick in the pants. That being said, I'm now feeling somewhat naseous and quite a bit like I did before I started training for my first duathlon ... scared crapless, not really believing that I could/would really do it. But, since I had publicly declared my intentions I felt compelled to press on. I didn't want to feel like a quitter, nor did I want others to see me as one (peer pressure is a powerful thing, even if it's just imagined). I sucked up the fear and did it. Then I did it again. I'm hoping NaNo has the same affect on my writing.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo here's the rundown - copied directly from their site ('cause I'm too worried about my own word count right now to be bothered rewriting someone else's stuff):

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2007, we had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

Wish me luck! If you're NaNo'ing too and want to be my buddy here's my link.

Lots going on. Haven't been writing, but actually part of what I've been up to has to do with writing.
First, was my awesome hubby's birthday. That was Friday. We had a quiet dinner at a local favorite restaurant with the girls and then dessert at home. The festivities continued Sunday night with my family at yet another restaurant (no complaints here with all that cooking-free dining!)

On Saturday night, at the invitation of my friend Kellie, I attended "Ghoul's Night Out" with my sister and twelve other witches. Yes, that's witches, not bitches. It was a fund raiser for our county museum. The event was a ladies only costume party (come in your witchiest attire) complete with dancing, appetizers, funky cocktails (too bad I was a dd!), karaoke and tarot card readings. Lots of girlie fun! The party was also sponsored by a local spa, so every ghoul got a nice goodie bag full of pamper-yourself samples to take home.

Thrown in with all of the festivities I managed to completely reorganize our bomb-site of a yet-to-be-finished basement. This will be ever so helpful when it comes time to haul the Christmas decorations out in about five (?!!) weeks. It also allowed us to move our desk downstairs to it's future home in our future office. In the mean time our familyroom has become much more spacious. My computer has also now moved upstairs to my stepdaughter's bedroom. OJ is rarely here anymore due to those teengerish things like work and socializing, so we didn't think she would mind. Plus we didn't think she would object to having the computer in her room when she is here (I'll just hang out on my hubby's laptop on those occasions).

So what does all of this have to do with writing?
My husband's birthday? Nothing.
Ghoul's Night Out? My tarot reading was very favourable to me pursuing my writing. I was told I should start working on this "artistic" thing in question now and that I need to get over my guilt and just do it. It is part of who I am and others will benefit from it. The only catch - the tarot lady suggested I start getting up at 5:00 am to make time to write (the thoughts of 5:00 am are extrutiatingly painful to me and is something I will definitely have to ease into)
Moving the computer? I now have a much brighter, less cluttered, quiet place to work.

In the week since I posted last I have also been trying to work on an outline. I am this close to signing up for NaNoWriMo. For those unfamiliar I will post about it once I pull the trigger. My husband has actually been very supportive of this crazy idea. I just need to work on the 5:00 am thing ...

Hippy Dippy Joy Joy ...

We spent the afternoon at my father's house today. As my hubby helped my dad with some outside work I felt myself at loose ends. I started poking around and discovered a treasure tucked away in my old bedroom closet. Years ago I packed and stashed one of my childhood favorites ... the Sunshine Family Craft Store. My intent was to save it for my future kids. Well, the future kids were happily playing downstairs, so why not break it out, set it up and let them enjoy a blast from the past.

As the store took shape I had to laugh. It is truly a relic of the 70's (totally dating myself here!). The faux bookshelves are stacked with such titles as Beginner Weaving and Pottery For Fun And Profit. There is a large macrame wall hanging adorning the shop. While there actually aren't any potted "herbs" to speak of you can almost smell some questionable aromas lingering on the premises. But what else would you expect from a family of dolls where the mother wears peasant skirts and sandals and the father sports a turle neck and dabbles in pottery?

Being schooled by my three year old ...

So yesterday we were at my inlaws. I busted my three year old for enhancing her grandmother's dining table decor by emptying and arranging a tray of ice cubes amongst the dishes. In her typical manner she wailed like I had just murdered her best friend and ran to my hubby to rat me out for being a mean mommy. When she found no sympathy there she headed upstairs. I followed her up and and found her standing quietly in one of the bedrooms. When I asked her what she was doing she said "I'm madding!" I tried not to laugh. How cute, I thought.
Everyone else oohed and awwwed at my pumpkin's cuteness when I told my story.
Well she's got the last laugh now. Out of curiosity I looked it up and guess what? Mad can be used as a verb! Who knew?! Other than my three year old, that is.

verb (used without object)
Archaic. to be, become, or act mad
Inflected form(s); mad.ded; mad.ding

Happy Thanksgiving, eh

As we embark on our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend I could post about the usual "this is what I'm thankful for." However, anyone who knows me knows what I'm thankful for and it's probably quite similar to what they themselves are thankful for. So, for a different spin on things here's what I am not thankful for:

1. A federal election here being held simultaneously with a federal election south of the border, both of which seem based more on mud-slinging than dealing with the serious issues that should be addressed.

2. The inevitability of a second term with Stephen Harper as the hapless leader of our country.

3. The fact that a serving of Pepsi counts as 3 w.w. points (particularly brutal when I'm only allowed 18 pts/day!)

4. That my computer seems to be dying a slow, painful death (but I will be VERY thankful for the laptop that my hubby has promised as its replacement when it finally meets its ultimate demise ... )

5. That my youngest has declared all out war with me on the potty-training front. The little wench is one obstinate chiquita, but I.will.have.victory.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend with their loved ones. And to my American friends, while we may get to eat our turkey one month earlier, you get the Macy's parade and a four day weekend (as aforementioned obstinate preschooler would say "no fair!")

ARMY OF WOMEN ...

If you are a woman or have a wife, mother, daughter ... this is a revolutionary project that needs your help. The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation have joined forces to create the Army Of Women initiative. This project has two goals :

"1. To recruit one million healthy women of every age and ethnicity, including breast cancer survivors and women at high-risk for the disease, to partner with breast cancer researchers and directly participate in the research that will eradicate breast cancer once and for all.

2. To challenge the scientific community to expand its current focus to include breast cancer prevention research conducted on healthy women. "

Unfortunately, this project is currently only open to women residing in the U.S. because, at this time, it only involves American researchers. However, I know there are American gals/guys who read this blog and my Canadian readers all probably know at least one American woman that they can share this information with. This is an important, fresh approach to finding a cause and preventative measures for breast cancer that will benefit all women.
The link for the project is here. Pass it on!!!

Root and Sprout, again!

While I haven't had a chance to do much in the way of writing lately I did manage to get another piece done for Root and Sprout. It appears in the October issue. Here is the link (scroll down the page to the article titled Taking A Leap Of Faith). Thanks again to Lis for giving me a place to present my work!

Writer in absentia

With all the fine fall weather we've been enjoying it's been way too hard to park my butt at the computer and try to bang out something on the keyboard, especially since autumn is my most favorite time of the year. Call me a slacker, but a brisk walk (kid-free!) on a sunny September morning is wayyyy more appealing! I've taken three of late (completely self-indulgent).

It hasn't been a complete waste of valuable work time though. I find walking time is great for bouncing ideas around in my head. I've mulled over the angle of a piece I want to propose to a veterans' magazine, put it aside and focused on a cultural idea, and am now planning a kids' sports article while also plotting a short (?) story. Even if none of this is actually on paper (or my hard drive) it still counts. Kind of. Doesn't it?!

A little good news is hard to find

Since my last couple of posts have been about writing I wanted to do something off topic today. I started thinking about current events trying to find something to blog about. Not a lot of good news out there. We've got the mudfest that is the election south of the border and the snooze-fest of an election that is going on here at home (I could write a page about the insanity that is the Sarah Palin phenomenon and lead that the Conservatives hold here in the poles, but my husband will think I've developed an obsession). Ike is too tragic. The economic chaos is troubling. Yep, good news is hard to find. So I'll give you some of my own ...

My youngest daughter's brain MRI was negative.
My washing machine repair will be partially covered by the warranty.
The wheeze/squeak in my chest is almost gone. The cough is completely gone (until my kids bring the next virus du jour home).
I've lost 10 lbs and am now a size 4 again (no, I'm not one of those skinny bitches obsessed with my weight - I'm petite and believe me those extra few pounds do make a difference!)
Root and Sprout will be featuring another one of my articles in the next edition.

Nothing super major (except the MRI) or earth shattering. But the most important place to find the positives and celebrate the good things is right here at home.

I'm back!

Ok, forget yesterday's suckfest. Bad day. Today I refocused (thanks BPV for making me ask how much I want it), put the polish on a little article that I've had sitting on my desktop for a month and submitted it. I also started some notes for a few other ideas I've been kicking around. Tomorrow I will be digging in the basement for the research I did months ago on a particular topic (just haven't unpacked it since our move in April). It feels good to be motivated again!