Time for Reassessing

This fall has been a whirl wind of misfortune, reassessments and renovating.
Lately in my life there have been four women facing the prospect of breast cancer. Cancer of any kind is enough to make you stop short and take a look at your life. Especially when there are children involved. In all four cases, there are.

One of the members of the Headwaters Writers' Guild, Alberta Nye, has produced a wonderfully touching movie called "So I'm Dying...Now What?" about a woman named Margaret Hackman. Margaret had tumours in her liver, stomach and brain. She knew she was terminal and respectfully declined treatment. What she did instead was live. Margaret flew a plane, snowshoed around her yard, became a Canadian citizen and became an inspiration to everyone around her. She asked Alberta to document her final months so she could leave behind a legacy of sorts. The final movie, being premiered in Guelph on November 5th, is a moving portrait of bravery. To find out more please go to Alberta's website http://www.spiritvalleypictures.com/.

In the meantime, since I have nothing better to do, I am working with my friend Nancy to bring forth an Artist's Way workshop. The Artist's Way is a life changing book written by Julia Cameron. I worked through it when I first moved 2,000 miles across Canada and it helped to change my life and improve my outlook. Now I'll do it to refocus my energies and make sure I write every day.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

This has been a very busy month!
First of all, my husband did two karate gradings in the past two weekends and will get his first degree black belt sometime in the near future. We're all very excited that part of life is behind us. We hardly saw him for six months! At least he's home just in time to celebrate our wedding anniversary on Oct 6th.

Secondly, I've taken my Reiki Level II and, on top of all the other things I do all week, plan to start offering sessions. This came about after I was asked three times yesterday how much I charge and if I had business cards. The Universe is so subtle sometimes, isn't it?

Thirdly, my edits and information is due within the next couple of weeks for my agent Dawn Dowdle. I've gotten some great e-mails from her lately about what her writers are accomplishing and am very excited to get The Bookstore Lady on its way to her.

Number four, I've volunteered, as I do every year, to assist with the yearly fall Dance-a-thon at my kids' school. I spent the past two nights making posters that my kids are convinced are works of art! I'll have to post them just for the fun of it. Looking forward to the end of October when we actually get to have the dance.

And last, but not least, I've been doing physiotherapy for me knee and finally able to walk without pain!That alone is worth celebrating. My therapist is great and I'm looking forward to seeing Michelle for a massage tomorrow once all of this editing and polishing of my novel is behind me!

As busy as the month has been, it's all things that are going to be worth it in the long run. I love my physiotherapist's take on it: "This is a marathon, not a sprint." While he means it about my therapy. I'll take it as a life lesson.

"Life is a marathon, not a sprint."

Keep on Swimming, Keep on Swimming...

I loved the movie "Finding Nemo." One of the reason's I loved it was the character Dory played by Ellen Degeneris and her unforgettable line when things got tough, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."
Truth be told, that line alone has helped me through a lot of things in my life. It's a constant reminder to not give up.

Lately I've haven't been doing a lot of writing, mostly editing, working and doing physio. I fell and hurt my knee last fall and it hasn't healed properly so now I'm getting help to strenthen it and facing an MRI and possible surgery. My advice: Next time you fall and feel a twinge in your knee, get it looked at asap!

As much as I love hiking and yardwork, slowing down has made me less reluctant to sit at the computer and get my work done. It's also given me time to join in on Wynterblue Publishing's monthly 24 contest, a 24-hour short story contest. I love it. What a great way to spread the creative wings! I was also thrilled to find that I'd been chosen as a runner up in August! More motivation to try it again in September! Check them out at http://www.wynter.ca/

Off to work again. You can bet I'll be humming my mantra for the entire day.
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."
Have a great day!

Sept 11, 2011

Today marks an infamous day in history. The tenth anniversary of 9/11.
After watching hours of footage all morning, I had to get away from the media that had made it all real again.
I spent the afternoon with the HWG discussing writing and getting away from the "real world" for a while.
It was my turn to lead today and one of the prompts I had given the others was "We have an aversion to loss of control, as much as we love it." Below is what I wrote, raw and untouched:

We have an aversion to loss of control, as much as we love it. In writing, our goal is to form images with the written word and allow the flow of those words to stream from our pens like water from a tap. But taps still control.

We edit, we doubt, we scratch out our thoughts mercilessly and do rewrite after rewrite.
We seek perfection.
We seek control.
We are afraid of writing, even those of us who love it.
Live it.
Yet we seek to let go and let the words, the universe, the stream of unconscious mind say its piece. And when we do finally give up, we find great things appear. Thoughts we never would have thought.
Associations that had never occured to us.
Intuitions that have sought out an eager fountain to flow from.
Thoughts that have travelled the universe seeking to be released and not controlled.
And we become better for giving them voice.
While the words we write may never become famous or find their way to the rest of the world, they have been given voice and were heard by us.
Even if only by us alone.

Keep on writing!

Unsettling Morning

I'm a little bit rattled today. Just found out a friend of my husband's had a major seizure yesterday while hiking with a friend. He nearly fell down a cliff into a river. Thankfully, an off-duty firefighter heard his friend's calls for help and he was taken - nearly two hours later - to hospital where he's been heavily sedated since.

For me, this brings up lots of memories of dealing with my dad's epilepsy and some of the seizures he had. Once he dumped a drink on our cat. Another time, he ate a feather. Yet another time, he tried to skin our dog alive. Then there were the times he tried to jump out of a moving car and when he nearly shot my brother. Not things a kid wants to remember so vividly.

I've tried to get him to write his memoirs about these incidents and how he finally came to have brain surgery. Trust me, what he ended up writing would have caused more law suits than they would have helped anyone with epilepsy. I think this will end up being a team endeavor in the end.

For now, however, I am sending prayers and hugs to our friend suffering in hospital and feeling just a little bit hollow today.

Interesting Interview

About a week ago, David Chesterton, a dear friend who is a fabulous artist and writer, asked if I'd be adverse to talking to a writer from In the Hills Magazine. Anthony Carnovale was writing an article about local writers and had asked who David knew. I got an email from Anthony a couple days ago and met with him this morning.

Anthony Carnovale is a high school teacher who "teaches to eat and lives to write." He has a great blog at http://anthonycarnovale.wordpress.com/  We talked about the article he is writing as well as how to promote writing in our small town and get more kids involved and giving them an option aside from grafitti and vandalizing our streets. His first book focused on bullying and has gained attention from local high schools.

Meeting Anthony made me excited to get back to writing. Summer, with vacations and keeping the kids busy, hasn't been conducive to getting a lot of writing done. Fall, which is usually my New Year, looks brighter and more flexible. I am able to schedule writing time and push aside some of the usual obligations that creep in and clog up my calendar. For this fall, my priority will be polishing and submitting my novel The Bookstore Lady to my agent. Priority number two is editing on the next novel Date with a Dead Guy.

What will I do between editing, working and raising the kids? What I always do.

I write.

The Unveiling

Okay, folks, here it is! My new website is up and running for the whole world to see. All that is left to add is some artwork! My artwork!

Not a lot to write about this week. I've been busy helping a friend paint and getting in some walks with the kids. I've had very little opportunity to write - aside from a few lines here and there. Today being Sunday, I think I may have to sit down and work on a work-in-progress. My real editing will begin once the kids go back to school and I have the house to myself. Peace. Quiet. In the meantime, I'll putter with other things.

I'm planning to take a course or two this fall, depending on what I can get into, and taking my Reiki Level II at the end of September. I also plan to return to Headwaters Writers' Guild meetings as of Aug 28. I am looking forward to getting back to prompt writing, which is how I wrote a few of my books. One prompt at a time.

In case you've been looking for us, I understand the HWG website is temporarily down. We are rebuilding to become better than ever!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!