Life. Novel. Blog.

Life. Novel. Blog.

 Dear reader, it’s been over a year that my first blog post went live. My cousin, Liz and I were contemplating writing blogs around the same time; in fact, I think we launched our first posts within a few days of one another. It wasn’t a race or anything; it just kinda happened that way. Liz was trying to ‘bring back the funny’ http://www.lizcrocker.ca/blog and I was trying to put something ‘out there’ about my novel in hopes that one day – if I’m lucky enough – I won’t be turned down by a publisher just because I don’t have a media presence to speak of.

‘What if I run out of things to write about,’ Liz asked when we were talking about our ideas. I assured her that there would always be something to write about. I was also sure that I’d be able to make the time to keep my commitment to putting something ‘out there’ at least once every two weeks or so. I assured Liz she would be able to do the same.

So, things for my blog haven’t quite worked out the way I had hoped. Despite my best intentions (there are a couple of half-baked posts sitting in my blog folder on my desktop), and at risk of sounding whiny, there’s been a lot going on.

Let’s get caught up, shall we? My last post was on December 15, 2015.

We all know what happened on December 18: Star Wars The Force Awakens came out. I saw it three times. Need I say more?

Christmas happened and then I spent half of the first three months of 2016 on the west coast. It’s been five whole weeks since my last trip to Toronto and this weekend coming, I’m headed to Goose Bay.

I took another eight-week writing workshop after Christmas with author/editor Valerie Compton. Despite the fact that I had to do most of it remotely because I was away, it was fantastic.

I’m NOT complaining; I like the travel and will miss it when/if there comes a day I don’t get to do this anymore. I’m just saying; it can feel like the ground is shifting underneath you sometimes. You know you travel too much when one of the airport security personnel says ‘hello again,’ as you take your liquids and gels out and free your computer from its case. A month and a half without having to get on a plane and live out of a suitcase has helped me get grounded again.

I’ve tried to fit in some reading– it took me two months to finish Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and his Cosmic American Music. I devoured Liz Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear in something like a week. Sadly, Mitch Albom’s The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Jennifer Manuel’s The Heaviness of Things that Float, Camilla Gibb’s This is Happy and Bruce Cockburn’s Rumors of Glory are all stacked on my bedside pile, waiting for my attention.

I signed myself up for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Reading Challenge a week or two ago and reading this, I promised Jennifer Manuel who initiated the challenge, will take precedence over reading anything else. Check out the challenge if you’re so inclined: http://trcreadingchallenge.com

The weather is slowly getting nicer, so Steve and I have been trying to take advantage of living on the Atlantic by getting out for beach walks whenever possible.

David Bowie and Alan Rickman died.

Sam Roberts Band went to the Tragically Hip’s Bathouse studio to record a new album.

We lost Merle Haggard.

Spirit of the West said their ‘goodbyes’ at The Commodore.

We lost Prince.

And I’ve been writing, and editing, editing, editing.

All of this to say that quite like my bedside book pile, the blog has fallen to the side of my desk, but I plan to rectify that starting now, so stay tuned, dear reader …