Posts filed under ‘Writing’
Bringing Robert Frost Home From Newfoundland
A man carried stacks of National Geographic magazines from his truck to a table in the Deer Lake Library. They dated back to the 1950s. One issue caught my eye. The face on the cover was not one I expected to see on a NG cover.
It was the April 1976 issue. Inside, unrelated to the boy’s face, was a feature on Robert Frost, which included excerpts from his poetry, matched with beautiful New England photographs. I began reading the feature on the spot and was encouraged to take it home.
This week I found time to read it. In case it’s been a while since you’ve dipped into Frost, I’d like to share a few of his words:
Oh, give us pleasure
in the flowers today;
And give us not to think
so far away
As the uncertain harvest;
keep us here
All simply in the springing
of the year.
Being November, the piece might more aptly read (with apologies to Robert Frost):
Oh, give us pleasure
in the frost today;
And give us not to think
so far away
As the uncertain crocus;
keep us here
All simply in the falling
of the year.
Or, being a writer, I might remind myself and my writing friends and students:
Oh, give us pleasure
in the flow of words today;
And give us not to think
so far away
As the uncertain kudos;
keep us here
All simply in the writing
of the thing.
How do Frost’s words relate to your life?
And . . . about that boy on the cover (photo by Linda Bartlett). His name is Paudie Boland of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. I wonder if he’s still there (he’d be 40 or thereabouts by now). I wonder if his grandfather’s farm is still in the family. Hmm. A writer could talk herself into a trip to Ireland with thoughts like these.
2 comments November 6, 2009
All My Bags AREN’T Packed
But I am ready to go. To Newfoundland. On Saturday. Or I will be when… Never mind.
Talking to a group of Keene teens a few years ago (Keene is near Peterborough, Ontario), I was mentioning how much I enjoy traveling roads I haven’t been on before, as I had that morning, and realized that what I’d said applied to my writing life, too. That’s why I’ve ended up writing such a range of stories, I think. An idea comes to me, I think, ‘I can’t write that. I don’t write…’ Fill in the blank: historical fiction, horror, biography, poetry. But it turns out that a great deal of the pleasure in writing is venturing into territory one hasn’t explored before, in terms of content, style, or genre.
I’ve enjoyed time in Newfoundland before – for National Book Week, for Children’s Book Week, and to present a session at an Eastern Horizons conference. But next week will take me on roads I haven’t yet traveled – from Corner Brook up the west coast to St. Anthony’s – and I’ll make a return trip from Corner Brook down the coast to Port Aux Basques, too. If you live in that part of the country, and our paths happen to cross on those just-waiting-to-be-traveled-by-me roads, please be sure to say hi. Mention that you read about my upcoming trip on my blog. Or, better yet, tell me you’ve been enjoying reading my books!
Add comment October 14, 2009
A New Year’s Approach to Email
I think that my new determination to manage my email time (instead of letting it manage me) has been a big help in keeping me focused and getting so much done. This week I allowed myself to look at email once early in the morning and to answer no more than one. I turned off the sound on my computer so I wouldn’t be aware when new emails came in, and didn’t look at email again right after breakfast (as I would have in the past) or at any time during the morning. There were other kinds of interruptions some mornings, but ignoring email till I was ready to break for lunch seemed to really help keep me focused.
One morning I also shifted around a bunch of scenes and sections because I found some errors in the sequence of events that I had to figure out how to fix. That took a while and wasn’t part of the [embedded notes] work, but it was responsible for the addition of some of the new notes. (I suspect that juggling 5 (more…)
10 comments January 10, 2009
7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me
My sister Janet tagged me earlier this week. I’ve decided to use her challenge to “play along” with her as an opportunity to write about some of the things I’ve only thought about blogging about this month.
1. Perhaps a children’s writer should not admit to this, but for years I’ve felt rather “bah humbug” about Christmas. It’s a complicated season for blended families blessed with kids and grandkids and other family members each with his or her own hopes and expectations of what Christmas should be. This year has felt less complicated, maybe we’re finally getting the hang of what’s do-able and what isn’t, and I have found myself enjoying all the colourful lights as I walk the streets of our new neighbourhood. Who knows, I might not even grumble as I don my silly paper hat at the dinner table this December 25th.
2. I am one of the lucky few who have seen a portrait recently created by Irma Coucill that will soon be seen by thousands. Irma has done portraits of every American president, every Canadian prime minister (including 80+ of Pierre Trudeau), (more…)
1 comment December 19, 2008
Children’s Book Week 2008 – A Breakfast Surprise
On Monday morning I walked into the dining room at the Sylvia Hotel. A woman at a table at the far end of the room waved. At me? I didn’t expect to see anyone I knew there; there must be someone behind me, I thought. But the woman seemed to be looking at me and I kept looking at her. Could this be Cynthia Nugent, the Book Week coordinator I’d met just recently and who was coming to drive me to my first school? She didn’t say she would be joining me for breakfast!
When I’d made my way half way down the dining room, with this woman (who wasn’t Cynthia) and I studying each other the whole time (it was probably ten or fifteen seconds), she spoke. “I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
“That’s okay,” I said, “I thought you might be someone else, too.”
At the same instant, we recognized each other’s voices.
2 comments November 24, 2008
A Word on the Street Surprise
It’s always nice when a fan of one’s books comes up to you at the end of a reading, and yesterday at Word on the Street was especially so. At the end of a long afternoon of reading and signing, on a gorgeous fall afternoon, a woman sat down beside me in the Little Reader’s Tent, and I knew who she was even before she introduced herself – even though it has been over 30 years since we worked together.
I was a student teacher in Gillian Al-Jbouri’s Grade Six classroom. I was not yet twenty years old. (You didn’t need a university degree to teach elementary school back then.) I still have the report she wrote up about my performance in her classroom.
Gillian was an excellent model for me, and after I’d completed my year at Lakeshore Teachers’ College, I had the privilege of being on staff with her for four years (at Millwood Public School in Etobicoke).
I was happy to be able to sign copies of A Pocket Can Have A Treasure In It for her grandchildren, and I hope she’ll visit my website and get in touch with me. I meant it when I told her I’d love to be able to continue our conversation.
This at the end of a session where I was lucky to have in attendance at my reading – in addition to lots of “little readers” and their parents – my daughter, my granddaughter, a grandson, my husband, my dad, his friend, and my dog! What a great Word on the Street afternoon!
Add comment September 29, 2008
Summer Reading
Well, it’s off to a great start! This morning I had a million reasons to get up and get going on my day, but I had to stay in bed to finish reading Dooley Takes the Fall by Norah McClintock first. You don’t often see “literary” and ”page-turner” together in a review, but both words apply to this book. The characters are complex, and how those complexities are revealed to the reader is the work of a master. Similarly, the plot twists. Just brilliant! And Norah doesn’t fall into the easy trap of wrapping things up too neatly either. Nuff said. Except – read it!
The other book that makes me feel pretty good about my summer reading so far is The Good Lie by D.F. Bailey. It might not quite qualify as a summer read because I started it some months ago, but I did just finish it last week. No, it’s not that I’m a very slow reader. I was reading the book aloud at the CNIB recording studio, where I’ve been a volunteer reader and technician for several years now. Bailey has set up a web site that offers fascinating glimpses into his writing process, so check it out and his book.
Coincidentally, guilt and blame and what happens when people do wrong things for right reasons are explored in both books. Both can be said to be mysteries but I consider them “mysteries of the human heart” more than (or at least as much as) mysteries in the traditional sense of the word.
If it seems over the coming weeks that I have abandoned my blog, it’s just temporary. Between packing up for a move in the fall and our workshop in Nova Scotia - and of course more summer reading – I may not be around here for a while. In the meantime, enjoy your summer reading!
2 comments July 9, 2008
Six Word Memoir
My sister Janet, tagged me with the following challenge:
- Write a six-word memoir.
- Post it to your blog including a visual illustration if you would like.
- Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
- Tag 5 more blogs with links.
- Don’t forget to leave a comment in the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
My sister’s memoir is brilliant. Mine not so much…
Her life: one book after another.
I’m only tagging Cheryl Rainfield, but if anyone else would like to play along, please leave your memoir here!
2 comments July 6, 2008
More Honours for Cornelia
Last week I had the privilege of attending the graduation ceremony at Dalhousie University where Cornelia Oberlander was receiving yet another honorary degree. Giving the convocation address, she spoke the importance of taking risks. To paraphrase: “To make the world a better place, we cannot keep doing things the same old way they have always been done. We must take risks.”
What a treat it was, after this inspiring event, to spend some relaxing time with Cornelia – now that I wasn’t “trying to worm things out of [her]” (as Cornelia put it), and with her husband, who helped bring me and Cornelia together four years ago, when the seed of the idea for the book Love Every Leaf, the life of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander was planted. And how tantalizing, to find out things about her (more…)
3 comments May 27, 2008
National Landscape Architecture Month
A couple of weeks ago I received a very excited phonecall from Cornelia Oberlander. She wanted to tell me that April 2008 – the very month my biography about her was being released – had been declared “National Landscape Architecture Month”. The reason? The American Society of Landscape Architects wants to encourage students and parents to “Discover Careers in Landscape Architecture”.
That was part of why I wrote Love Every Leaf: the life of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander too. I wanted people to know about this remarkable woman and the work she has done (and continues doing on into her 80s!) And I wanted young people contemplating their future careers to be aware of the landscape architect option. “It’s a magnificent profession,” says Cornelia.
3 comments April 24, 2008
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