Tag: musings

  • Thoughts on a birthday

    Thoughts on a birthday

    I turn 58 years old today. That makes me five years older than my father was when he died, and five years younger than my mother was when she died. It’s a weird place to be. And it leads to some interesting introspection. The days pass so quickly now. On some, I feel older than my…

  • Let Them Eat Cake (Especially at Christmas)

    As happens in many other towns and cities, there’s a Christmas food drive held in my town every year. Here, it’s called the Guignolee, and volunteers go door-to-door on the first Sunday of December to collect food and money for the local food bank. We’ve always given something, of course. Usually money, because I’m notorious for…

  • Paying it Forward as an Author

    We all know how hard it is to get started in this publishing gig. Sure, there are those overnight success stories we’ve all heard (and secretly wished for), but let’s face it…in the massively big picture of our industry, those stories are rare at best. So what’s a writer to do? Here’s what I think.…

  • Of Early Mornings…

    It’s six a.m. on a Saturday morning, and I’ve been up already for two hours. I know…how weird can I get, right? 😛 In my defense, it’s partly because of a post-flu hangover…that stage in recovery when you’ve slept too much for the last two days (because you couldn’t do anything but sleep), and so now you’re…

  • The Timeless Romance of Train Travel

    There’s just something about train travel… I didn’t actually take my first train ride until I was an adult, but I knew I would love it before I even stepped onto the platform, and I was right. By the end of that first two-hour journey between Ottawa and Montreal, train travel had become hands-down my favourite…

  • Pen Envy is an Ugly Thing

    For the last several months, I’ve been getting together with fellow writer Marie Bilodeau for weekly coffee meetings. Both of us are full-time writers working from home, which can be a lonely existence, and we thought it would do both of us good to get out of our houses for real live human interaction (as…

  • A Conversation With My Muse…

    Muse (peering over my shoulder): Hmm… Me: What, hmm? What’s wrong? Muse: I just don’t…I’m not sure… Me (re-reading computer screen): What aren’t you sure about? This was your idea. Muse (leaning elbows on desk and tapping a finger against her lip): Well…not really. I suggested he should do this — (points at top of screen)…

  • The Great Kitten Menace

    You’ve probably heard that Ogden Nash line, “The trouble with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a cat.” Well, I would like to respectfully disagree with Mr. Nash, because it’s not the cat stage you have to worry about, it’s the getting there. Let’s face it, kittens themselves are simply adorable. All tiny, wide-eyed,…

  • You know you’re doing weekends wrong when…

    Two weekends ago, with winter fast approaching, I decided we needed to clean out the garage (so the vehicle will fit into it) and put the yard to bed for the season. The first task took five hours of hard labour; the second, a full seven. This past weekend, my husband and I helped our…

  • There’s Something About Autumn…

    There’s something about autumn, I’ve decided, that makes me super productive. Take this past weekend, for instance. On Saturday morning, I headed to the farmer’s market…and came home with 80 lbs of tomatoes and 20 lbs of onions. By Saturday evening, I had processed half the tomatoes, giving me 18 pints of plain canned and…