The Voice

There are times when I feel as though my blogging voice is gone, and lately this has been the case. I can tell you this doesn’t feel like a permanent condition, and I’m not planning to go anywhere soon. It just means I might find it more difficult to blog on a regular basis. Truthfully, I sometimes wonder what difference blogging makes to my writing life except to take time away from writing fiction. But no sooner do I have that thought then I remind myself of all those faithful readers out there who come by to visit, and the other bloggers I’ve come to know. Blogging shouldn’t be about accumulating a huge number of followers and racking up hundreds of comments, but engaging with those readers we do have. What that means is you’re all important to me and I appreciate your visits.

While I’m on this subject, I might just as well mention that, along with my reluctance for blogging, the same has been true for Facebook. I pop on by times, mostly to see any updated photos of Miss Charlotte, but when it comes to updating my status, I find I rarely have anything I want to say. I do try to update my page more often, but days sometimes go by before I feel the urge to post something there. Does it sound as though I’m whining? I sure hope not. As a 96 year old Grace once said, “I”m just stating facts.”  BTW Grace is an amazing woman who shared a room with my mother-in-law at the nursing home.

Don’t worry though, all this doesn’t mean I’m not writing, in fact just the opposite is true. I’ve been busy every day working on my next novel, and as any of you writers know, it can be an all-consuming task. Did I say task? Well, not so true. Writing isn’t and shouldn’t be a task. Expressing our creativity should be a must for all of us.

Sometimes our writing lives seep into our everyday lives, and people start to wonder just what the heck is wrong. That faraway look we have might not be one of indifference, but our minds busy creating those imaginary worlds that feel all too true. For a writer, our characters are real people who exist in a parallel universe. If we didn’t feel this way about them we couldn’t possibly make them come alive on the page.

Hopefully, once I have the first draft of my novel completed my blogging voice will return, and just so you know that first draft feels quite close to being done.  Believe me, I’ll be doing a happy dance at that point.

 Do you ever feel as though you’ve lost your blogging voice? Do you have times throughout the year when you devote less time to blogging?

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by Laura Best on February 23, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on February 23, 2013

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The Wall

Yesterday, I took a trip to the Annapolis Valley. We ended up in Aylesford, the little village where I went to elementary school. That was a few years back. It’s a nice little village and nearly an hour by bus when I was growing up. One of the things I remembered about the village was “the wall,” where young people used to hang out. I guess all small places have their “hang out ” spots. There was nothing fancy about the wall, it was just a wall that sometimes had graffiti written over it. Not so nice if I remember correctly.

Here’s what the wall looks like today. As we came out of the drug store the wall was directly in our view and I snapped these photos.

DSC03339As someone who loves history, I simply fell in love with this mural. It’s like a step back in time, showing what this little village once looked like. I have no idea who the artist is, but I think this is such a great change from what used to be there.

DSC03345DSC03343DSC03344DSC03342Sorry about the ridge of snow blocking part of the painting, but that’s winter in Nova Scotia. This is such a wonderful idea and a great way to preserve the past. It helps makes us conscious of where we come from and how things have changed over time.

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by Laura Best on February 13, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on February 13, 2013

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Waiting Out The Storm

Adopt the pace of nature:  her secret is patience.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

For days we’ve been warned about the blizzard that is heading our way for the weekend. An old-fashioned Nor’easter as we like to call them here in Nova Scotia. It’s a good day for staying close to home, reading a book, whipping up that next novel, and just trying to keep warm. Here’s hoping we don’t lose our power today.  My computer battery is charged and ready to go if it does. I wasn’t about to take any chances.

Will we get all the forcasted snow? So far it doesn’t appear to be a great lot of snow down, but I guess time will tell. We’re definitely getting the wind this morning, but from my window I don’t see any huge drifts, in fact, the doorstep was clear this morning. Of course that was due to the wind blowing it away. Maybe if we’re lucky it’ll blow all the snow from the driveway too!  For now, everything has been cancelled for the weekend, but that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes we need to slow down and take life at a more leisurely pace. As Emerson reminds us  nature has her own pace and we need to be patient.  Mother Nature has spoken.

So, I’ll stay warm and cozy in my house and work on my novel, perhaps give the treadmill a go. It’s a good day for staying in.

What is the weekend weather like where you are?

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by Laura Best on February 9, 2013  •  Permalink
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A Penny For Your Thoughts

Calling all you penny-hoarders out there. Yup, I did say penny-hoarders.

If you’re a Canadian there’s a pretty good chance that you’re a penny-hoarder. Take heart, though, there are far worse things than hoarding pennies I wager. If you’ve ever seen the show Hoarders, you’re likely nodding your head.

I heard last night on the news that the average Canadian is hoarding at least 600 of these little copper beauties in jars and containers in their homes. I always wonder where these stats come from, how there’s some invisible force out there that knows exactly what I’m doing. Spooky.  Take this morning, as I was sitting down to breakfast, the radio show host claimed that 13% of all kids have hidden food in their socks from their parents. Really? I mean how do they know these things? And why the heck would anyone put food in a sock, and why is money being wasted to collect these useless, albeit fun stats, why?

As for these penny stats, I’ll admit there are pennies in my house; there have been for years.  Gee, does this mean my kids even hid food in their socks?

When the kids were small, their father began hoarding pennies in gallon jugs. Over the course of many years he’d managed to hoard a gallon of pennies for each of them. It was more of a novelty than anything, I suppose, important in a way that perhaps only another penny-hoarder would appreciate. Those pennies have long since been rolled and put back in circulation. At least I assume they’re in circulation. They could be sitting on someone else’s dresser or shoved into a drawer never to see the light of day.

Today, businesses will begin rounding up or down, and the Canadian Mint has announced it will no longer be making pennies. It just costs too much. They’ll be gathering them all in and melting them down, and the penny will be no more. And this morning, Google.ca is paying tribute to our penny, as only Google can, so you know it’s got to be a big deal, right?

And what about a penny for your thoughts? Has anyone thought of that? Will it now be replaced by a nickel for your thoughts? My guess is that old saying will slowly be taken out of circulation as well as soon as this next generation comes along.

If you’ve been hoarding pennies for years and have decided to finally part company with them, here’s a good thing to know. The 1936-penny with a dot is worth mega-bucks. Last night on the news they said only three were ever found in circulation. Now, something makes me think that more that three were put out in circulation that year! Makes you wonder where they could be? You know what that means, don’t you? Some penny-hoarder out there could be sitting on a gold mine. It might even be you—um, or me! Hey, I’m just an average Canadian living my average life. I know you won’t judge me since you’re probably just as average as me. Come on, fess up!

So if you’re planning to roll up your 600 pennies today and exchange them for “real money” you might want to check the dates. I’m all for finding out I’ve been rich for years and didn’t know it. Better late than never, I say.

Now here’s a moment of truth for my fellow Canadians, have you been hoarding pennies for years? Do you have at least 600 of those puppies pennies sitting around gathering dust? And my American friends are you an average Canadian? Do you have at least 600 pennies hoarded away? And lastly, for all you penny-hoarders out there, have you been hoarding for a specific reason, you know saving up for something really big like your next car or something?

 

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by Laura Best on February 4, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on February 4, 2013

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Candlemas Day

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter won’t come again.

Candlemas DayOn Facebook this morning people are talking about Groundhog Day. It’s also being talked about on the radio. Bright and early this morning we were being told that we were due for six more weeks of winter, but growing up we always went by what the weather was like at noon on this day. Somehow things get changed along the way without any of us knowing how or why. Who knows, maybe that was just a regional thing?

But Groundhog Day isn’t the only happening thing going on today. The 2nd of February is also known as Candlemas Day an ancient festival that marked the midpoint of winter.  Yay! We’re half-way there. Isn’t that enough to make you shout for joy? Already, you can see a big difference in the amount of daylight hours we have and I find it exciting. I love the way the longer days are becoming more noticeable. It makes me feel happy and hopeful in a way that I don’t feel any other time of the year.

From what I read Candlemas Day was originally a pagan festival called Imbolc which was called the Festival of Lights and focused on lighting fires. The lighting of fires celebrated the increasing power of the sun over the coming months, and we’re certainly feeling that!

So how did The Festival of Lights become known as Candlemas?

The church turned this pagan festival into Candlemas Day. It was the day when all the candles, that were to be used in the church during the year, were blessed. They were then distributed around and a lighted candle was placed in the window of each home. Sounds kind of nice actually. Of course, back in the day, candles were important, not only for shedding light, but people thought they gave protection against nasty things like the plague and famine. Nothing like a famine or plague to take the fun out of winter I like to say.

So while I did know this day meant we were half way through winter I didn’t know exactly why it was called Candlemas Day. Thank goodness Google can answer all our questions.

While this is totally unrelated to Candlemas or even Groundhog day, I do want to mention that there’s still time to enter a contest over at Lynn Davidson’s blog for a chance to win a copy of Steve Vernon’s YA novel, Sinking Deeper OR My awesome brilliant Questionable Heroic Decision to Invent a Sea Monster. I’ve already read the book and enjoyed it a lot!  Here’s the link if you’d like to enter.

So what am I planning this Candlemas Day? Well, I’m not building any bonfires I can tell you that right away, but I may just light a candle tonight to welcome in the second half of winter. I’m also going to enjoy this sunny day and feel glad that we’re half-way through winter.

Happy Candlemas Day! Do you have any special plans for today?

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by Laura Best on February 2, 2013  •  Permalink
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On the Writing Front

For the most part January’s been an uneventful month. I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m enjoying the quiet to some degree, although the quiet can sometimes keep me awake at night.

Every once in awhile I can’t stop thinking about the story I’m working on when I go to bed. It’s often at night that some new insight will strike me, and I suddenly know what needs to be done or what has been missing. Knowing the story I’m writing isn’t always enough to keep me writing through to the end. Sometimes I get bored by my own words or else sense that something isn’t quite right, but don’t always know just what that “something” is. So I end up lying awake. Thinking. There are worse things.

I’ve been experiencing some discontentment with my present WIP. I know the writing I’ve known it from the start, but knowing exactly how to tell it has been a bit of a stickler for me. But then something clicked the other night  as I was lying in bed and I figured out what was wrong. Yay me! So now it’s just a matter of whipping it up! Wrong. It’ll still take me sometime to do that, but at least I now know what wasn’t quite right.

I’ve experienced something similar when I first finished writing “To Fly With a Broken Wing.” I had that feeling that something didn’t quite feel right yet I’d convinced myself it was the only way the story could be told. I couldn’t see how it would be possible to write certain parts through the POV of a visually impaired girl since, well, her impairment would prevent her from seeing what was going on. So, I originally wrote some parts in first and third person. (I used third and first when I wrote Bitter, Sweet.)

So while I was flirting with the idea that my novel was complete, I was still having second thoughts about this POV issue. Finally, I decided I was just being silly about it, the novel was written and I was ready to send it to my editor. All that it needed was to be printed off and mailed in. The rest was out of my hands.

Funny, how we don’t always have a choice in things, and what we think will happen ends up happening in a totally different way. Before I had the chance to send my manuscript off I awoke one morning with this thought in my head, “Write it all in first person.”

But I’d ruled this out earlier. My main character is visually impaired, remember. Still, I couldn’t ignore a thought that was so crystal clear mere seconds after awakening could I? I spent the day considering if this was possible. How then would I make it work? I’ve got to tell you I don’t often get these jabs from the Universe, but as the day wore I decided that instead of wondering how I would do it, I would just do it. I would make the scene where Cammie describes what’s going on at a distance work. So yes, I figured it out. And you know what? It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

Often times, I think, we hold the answers to our questions inside us. And for that reason, I like those times just before sleep arrives or immediately when I wake up. I believe when we’re most relaxed that thoughts come to us more freely if we stay open to the answers to our questions.

Have you ever experienced a time when a new insight came to you just before drifting off to sleep or immediately upon waking?

 

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by Laura Best on January 29, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on January 29, 2013

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It’s That Time Again

“No skill is more crucial to the future of a child, or to a democratic and prosperous society, than literacy.” 

- Los Angeles Times, “A Child Literacy Initiative for the Greater Los Angeles Area”

Family Literacy Day here in Canada is on January 27th.  It’s a day set aside to remind us all about the importance of literacy, and to help promote reading. It’s a time for family, and reading, and anything regarding the written word. You can find out more about Family Literacy Day by checking out the ABC Life Literacy  Canada Site.

In honour of Family Literacy Day I thought it would be fun to give a shout-out to some great Canadian books enjoyable to those of us who are young at heart.

51UHUD2iHkL._SL500_AA300_How To Tend A Grave. I’m currently reading Jocelyn’s book. Seriously enjoying this read. Here’s the backcover blurb.

When Liam’s mom dies, he thinks life can’t get any worse. He’s wrong. Forced to live with a grandfather he’s never known, in a small town where Youth and Crime are king and queen of a hick-town gang, Liam only wants to be left alone. Not easy, considering the gang’s favourite hangout is the cemetery where his mom is buried. A popular place, this cemetery, as there he meets Harmony, a gorgeous but unusual girl who records the names of all the babies buried there long ago. Like Liam, she has a secret. The very different stories of these two grieving fifteen-year-olds interweave brilliantly in this fast-paced, engaging and unforgettable book about family, love and healing.

Amanda in England: The Missing Novel– This book by blogging buddy, Darlene Foster, is one in a series of books aimed at kids from 8-12.  Amanda in Arab :The 31cqxPKolDL._AA160_Perfume Flask is the first in this charming series of books about Amanda and her best friend, Leah. Amanda in Spain: The Girl in the Painting was published in 2011. There’s lots of travel in these books and plenty of adventure.  If you’re into series you might want to give this one a try.

 

Amanda Ross is visiting England and taking in all the sights. She gets lost in the maze at Hampton Court, does some shopping at Harrods, meets the ravens in the Tower of London, explores Windsor Castle, and rides the London Eye. When she discovers a vintage book is missing from a collection, she is determined to find out who stole it. Amanda befriends a pair of tough teenagers from the streets of London, an elderly bookshop owner, and a big, friendly, clever, Maine Coon cat named Rupert. Follow Amanda through cobblestone streets, medieval castles, and underground tunnels in her quest to find the missing novel!
41ErVLb6JgL._AA160_I met Sylvia Gunnery last spring at the Bridgewater Library when she launched her new YA book, Emily for Real. It’s always nice to give a shout out to a local author. Here’s the description from Amazon. ca . Seventeen-year-old Emily’s world crumbles when her boyfriend dumps her, and when she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse, a series of secrets are revealed that threaten to tear her beloved family apart. Emily’s heart has been broken into a hundred pieces and she feels like there is no one to turn to, until an unexpected friendship blossoms with a troubled classmate named Leo.
Maxed Out is Daphne Greer’s first book is part of the Orca Currents series. Daphne and I met at the 51vp6OkWyWL._AA160_launch for A Maritime Christmas in 2008. Here’s a description for Maxed Out.
More than anything, twelve-year-old Max wants to play hockey like he used to. But since the death of his dad, his mom does more crying than mothering, and Max has to take his special-needs brother, Duncan, with him everywhere he goes. The team needs Max to win the upcoming game against the Red Eagles, but one practice with Duncan makes it evident that it’s not safe to leave him unattended on the sidelines. With only a week to figure out how he can play in the big game, Max is feeling the pressure. Will he find a way to be a good teammate, a good brother and a good son, or is it too much for one kid?
51ZlnwRkaVL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU15_Last but not least, Stolen Child by  Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. I read this book a few years back and really enjoyed it.
Stolen from her family by the Nazis, Nadia is a young girl who tries to make sense of her confusing memories and haunting dreams. Bit by bit she starts to uncover the truth—that the German family she grew up with, the woman who calls herself Nadia’s mother, are not who they say they are.Beyond her privileged German childhood, Nadia unearths memories of a woman singing her a lullaby, while the taste of gingersnap cookies brings her back to a strangely familiar, yet unknown, past. Piece by piece, Nadia comes to realize who her real family was. But where are they now? What became of them? And what is her real name?
So there are five books for young adults I’m passing along, but really they can be read and enjoyed by any age. I hope you find a way to celebrate this important day. The written word is all around. Reading should be as natural as eating and breathing. For some of us it is. Hopefully there will come a time when  illiteracy will be a thing of the past.
Happy Family Literacy Day ! Now go read something.
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by Laura Best on January 25, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on January 25, 2013

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Chatelaine–1968

I was eight years old when this magazine was printed. I know we’re not supposed to give our age away, but age is one thing I’ve never been ashamed of.

DSC03072

My daughter came across this old magazine in a thrift shop recently and thought I’d enjoy it. She was right. And who knows it may come in handy one day if I decide to set a story in that year.

I thought it would be neat to share some of the photos and ads. Love the clothes.

This outfit is a little far out there, man!

This outfit is a little far out there, man!

DSC03076

Imagine painting a room wearing this! The 60's made the world sit up and take notice.

Imagine painting a room wearing this! The 60′s made the world sit up and take notice.

Dominion was a chain of grocery stores back in the day. I Immediately remembered their logo when I saw this.

Dominion was a chain of grocery stores back in the day. I immediately remembered their logo when I saw this.

Lady Scott products I believe went the way of the dodo. Colored toilet paper--Must have been a man's idea.

Lady Scott products I believe went the way of the dodo. Coloured TP– Tell me this was a man’s idea.

This was back when tobacco ads were everywhere.

This was back when tobacco ads were everywhere.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip into the past. For some of you this is all new, but to many of us it brings back memories. I’m looking forward to reading some of the articles to compare how attitudes and ideas have changed in the past 45 years…Was it really that long ago?

 

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by Laura Best on January 21, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on January 21, 2013

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Tweetless in Dalhousie

When it comes to twitter I’ve yet to understand what all the fuss is about. That could have something to do with the fact that I haven’t tweeted in months or my oh-so-slow dial-up connection that I’m helpless to do anything about. (No pity please it’s just one of the fallbacks from living in rural Nova Scotia)Tying up your phone line while you tweet your little heart out is annoying to those who actually want to speak to you in person. Just ask my kids. Not to mention you spend ridiculous amounts of time waiting for these sites to load.

Let me be honest: maybe I don’t understand what’s so fabulously great about twitter because I’m the lamest tweeter on the planet. Oh, yeah, I’ve thought about that a time or two.

But wait, I can’t be THAT bad. Twitter’s been trying to reel me back in for months now with little messages that arrive in my inbox. @_____________just retweeted @____________. I also get lists of people who are simply tweeting. So thanks, twitter, for pointing out the obvious. You’re twitter. People tweet. I get that. It’s how it was meant to be. Not to be mean twitter, but I’m not really interested in missed tweets—not to be confused by those who are mistweeted because mistweeting others is definitely NOT cool. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

On the other side of the coin, with the little bit I’ve been on twitter in the past, I’ve actually met some pretty cool people. Some of them have gone on to become facebook friends. Imagine the potential if I was tweeting on a regular basis! I know people who absolutely LOVE twitter. When they’re home they stayed signed in all the time. The moment something happens they’re letting the rest of the world know.

I sometimes think I spent too much time in the world of make-believe. I’ve committed to spend more time writing this year in an attempt to increase my productivity. Right now that seems to be where I need to put my time. Some people seem able to do it all–tweet, blog, facebook all while churning out spectacular novels. Sometimes I wish I was one of those people, but I’m not. I’d have to stay up around the clock in order to keep up. There are SO many online sites these days, I’m simply not able to keep up with them all. But I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. That just wouldn’t make sense.

I’ve got to be honest though; those little reminders from twitter might actually be working. I’ve been thinking of logging in just to see what’s up. That doesn’t mean I’ll sacrifice my writing time. Maybe it’s a matter of finding the right balance if in fact that “right balance” even exists, but for right now you can be sure I’m still tweetless in Dalhousie.

Are you regularly on twitter? If you’re a writer do you find it a struggle to find the right balance between social media sites and writing? Or like me, are you tweetless for the time being?

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by Laura Best on January 18, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on January 18, 2013

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Finding the Piece to the Puzzle

Although it may seems as though I’ve been hibernating these days, I can assure you all I’m very much awake and active. No big secret—I’ve been busy writing. Winter is usually my most productive time since I’m around the house more and can give it more of my attention.

DSC03291A few weeks after Christmas I started working on a jigsaw puzzle, not just because I enjoy challenges, but because I can come back to it whenever I please or don’t please. Sometimes while I’m burning cooking supper, I’ll take a few moments and study the pieces. The really funny thing about puzzles is, you can look for a certain piece until the cows come how, even convince yourself it must have got left out of the box when it was manufactured, and then you’ll come back to it and find it just like that. A snap of the finger.

I’ve been puzzling my way through a story at the moment, looking for the missing pieces that will help bring it all together. It’s frustrating because no matter how much a writer writes we come upon these roadblocks from time to time. I went through this phase while writing my latest novel, knowing, as I was writing it, something didn’t feel quite right. Something was missing and I couldn’t decide just what that something was. Even as I wrote, “the end” I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more I could do, some other way of telling this story. And why the heck was it evading me like this?

Sometimes we writers get an idea in our heads of just how a certain story has to be told. Once it settles into our brain we have a heck of a hard time making it leave. Surprisingly, I awoke one morning with the answer to my dilemma. I’d found that missing piece. Turns out it wasn’t anything so complicated. The answer was actually so simple I couldn’t understand why it took me until the very end of the book to figure it out.

I found one of the missing pieces I’d been looking for in my story this morning. It actually came to me through the night and I feel quite good about it. Of course it was there all along. It always is. Life isn’t always the mystery we believe it to be. Mysteries only exist when we have some of the information but not the answer. When the piece we’re searching for finally rises to the surface it feels as though things are finally beginning to fall into place, but the answer was really there all along. Sometimes we just have to wait for it to appear.

 

 

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by Laura Best on January 14, 2013  •  Permalink
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Posted by Laura Best on January 14, 2013

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