Bionic Perry's Hideout

Manitoba Book Awards - Pleasant Surprises!

2011-04-18T23:02:00.006-05:00

Last night my wife and I attended the 23rd Manitoba Book Awards where I got to hobnob and rub elbows with many wonderful Manitoba writers and publishers, enjoy some wine, and eat some nibblies, and of course take in the awards.

It was again held at the CCFM (the Franco-manitoban cultural centre) which is nice but a little squishy. Catherine Hunter was an excellent MC for the evening, and Kelly Hughes was co-MC. Oh wait...he wasn't? Well...he sure talked a lot! ;)
Mr Hughes presented three awards and made some jokes, most of which were funny, again reminding me of Classic Kelly, before the bitterness of crushing his enemies hardened his soul.

One of the awards he awarded was to my friend Ariel Gordon, for the Aqua Books Landsdown Prize for Poetry (yay Ariel!).

One of the nice surprises was seeing Maureen Fergus take home the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award: Older Category for her book Ortega. I will definitely have to check out that book now!

Other highlights of the evening: Goofing around with Daria Salamon and Ariel, a great conversation with Tory McNally, chatting with many authors (like Maureen, my boss Charlene Diehl, David Bergen, Chandra Mayor, and this is the name dropping portion of our program if you hadn't guessed yet), and talking with Paul McNally about building a fence.

For full details on all the awards, check out the Manitoba Writers' Guild website, or the new CBC Manitoba Scene website.

Latest MS has a packed lunch

2011-04-16T23:47:00.003-05:00

Well, since this blog is supposed to also be about my writing, I better mention this (or else Ariel will punch me).

My MS (short for "manuscript" for those non-writery fans of mine reading from Iran), the one entitled "The Ghostcatcher Club" is now in the hands of a publisher in Kingsville Ontario! Palimpsest Press, the same press who publishes the lovely poetry of my friend Ariel Gordon, also has a YA/Kids imprint called Magpie Books.

I queried, and the publisher asked to see the whole thing! So I packed the MS a little lunch and sent it out the door! Good luck little dude! Good luck! (sorry for yelling with all those exclamation marks, but it IS exciting!!)

I'm guessing that I'll hear back from them in less time than it took Tundra (who actually lost the MS at one point...and then finally rejected it after a year and a half).

Eileen McTavish Sykes award is Close Race!

2011-04-15T13:29:00.004-05:00

I was at Aqua Books last night for one of their pre-Manitoba Book Awards evenings, where they invite the nominees of some of the awards to read.

I was there to help support two of the people I know nominated for this award: Ariel Gordon and Craig Russell. I knew virtually nothing of Sheila McClarty or Keith Cadieux before last night, and I must say I was quite delighted to meet them and hear bits of their work (the fifth nominee, Theodore Fontaine, was unable to attend; since he was one of our guests at THIN AIR 2010 I had already heard him read before, although it would have been nice to see him again, as he is a pretty swell guy).

Kelly Hughes, the Man Himself, hosted, despite a horrible cold. He was quite funny, although nasally and coughy, and reminded me of Classic Kelly, before the days of 400+ events, before the days of the now bi-weekly new books update, and before the days he started to poo-poo all my very knowledgable and helpful advice. ;)

Ariel read from her poetry collection HUMP, steering away from nipples and breasts but serving up a deluge of water breaking and morning sickness poems instead (see what I did there? Heh). Very nice readings as well, interspersed with her typical Ariel humour which is always as bracing as a polar dip, but very funny.

Craig read from the beginning of Black Bottle Man, a book I absolutely love. Craig didn't so much as deliver humour as he was the object of humour from Kelly throughout the evening, but he took it all in good form.

Sheila read from her short story collection, High Speed Crow, touching on the beginning of two of the stories. I must say the second story about Edison testing electricity on an elephant from the 30's was very engaging and tragic. The story I mean, was tragic, not the reading. Sheila read quite well.

And Keith read bits and bobs from his novella Gaze, which was very H.P. Lovecraftian in its delivery about a man building something called a psychomanteum, which just by its very name gives me shivers, but the fact that it is a room built out of mirrors where one sits in the dark to gaze into the reflecting darkness simply scared the living shit out of me. Well done Keith. I didn't sleep a wink last night.

So the readings were all excellent, and I discovered two new authors! Best of luck to all on Sunday's Manitoba Book Awards!

Cantus Borealis - musical poetry

2011-04-14T18:03:00.010-05:00

Last night I attended the Winnipeg premiere of Cantus Borealis: Song of the Forest, performed by the Winnipeg Chamber Orchestra at Westminster United Church.

This was an undertaking at least three years in the making - I say "at least" because I know that Andris Taskans of Prairie Fire Press had a vision about 12+ years ago for it, but I became involved with it about three years ago as the President of the board of Prairie Fire Magazine.

To learn more about the entire project, go here: Boreality Project

But basically, it was a collaboration between Prairie Fire Magazine and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra to create an orchestral piece, with accompanying poetry and literature (more of that will still be coming from Prairie Fire Magazine in the months to follow).

I quite enjoyed the evening, and the music, despite the fact that Kelly Hughes had nothing to do with it. The choir was gorgeous, the orchestra superb, and the sound in the old church to die for. It was my first time in Westminster United and I was blown away. Overall, I was proud to be associated with one of the organizations that had taken part in the collaboration. Bravo PF peeps!

But why mention Kelly Hughes of Aqua Books, when Kelly Hughes had nothing to do with this project? Oh, that's just so the KellyBot detects Kelly's name and directs him here to read this.

Oh Kelly. You're so vain. You probably think this blog is about you. ;)

EDIT: It was recently (like an hour ago) brought to my attention by the lovely poet and writer of other writerly things Chandra Mayor (author of "All the Pretty Girls" which I am currently reading and quite enjoying) that Kelly Hughes of KHL! and Aqua Books DID have a connection with the Boreality project! Which I totally forgot about. Katherine Bitney was the W-i-R (Writer-In-Residence) there for several months during the initial stage of the project.

So...some collaboration in a helping sense.

Just wanted to clear that up before the Kellybot gets here and the KellyRant-o-Meter2000 starts besmirching my lovely name. ;)

Humpity Hump Hump Launch!

2010-05-05T23:04:00.003-05:00

Ariel officially launched her book Hump tonight at McNally Robinson Booksellers, and it was everything it should be: surrounded by friends and family and colleagues and fellow writers and editors and lots of good will and love, and even a bunch of books being sold! Heck, even bookstore owner Kelly Hughes of Aqua Books managed to slip past McNally security and make it to the launch! ;-)

Of course the core of the WWG (Wolseley Writers Group) was there: David Jon Fuller, Polly Washburn and myself, cheering and heckling as needed. Polly and I went earlier to have dinner with Ariel, who was also accompanied by many other friends, including her publicist Dawn from Palimpsest Press (who is a really great and funny person in her own right).

Just before she went up to read, Ariel said she was getting really nervous, and she did indeed look a bit...pale. But when she hit the podium and started speaking, she was right on the money with jokes and plenty of Ariel-inappropriate stories (ha!) and great poetry reading of course. If she was still nervous as she read, no one could tell. She was all poise and professional poet up there!

Yay Ariel! Congratulations again!

WWG alumnist shows us how it's done!

2010-04-26T11:02:00.002-05:00

Yay for Ariel Gordon!

One of my old WWG (Wolseley Writing Group) gang won a major award last night at the Manitoba Book Awards!
Ariel Gordon won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer. So awesome. So very awesome, and so very deserving.

As I mentioned in an email to the group this morning, she's done TONS of work in the past few years, including her annual May Day poetry project, her gorgeous photography (which I still hope one day becomes a gorgeous book of fungus poems), and her own poetry writing which resulted in two chapbooks last year and her first major published work this year from Palimpsest Press!

I still remember when the entire group of us went to the awards show back in 2003 or 2004 and David Fuller said (quite seriously) something along the lines of "we should totally be able to be on that stage one day. There's no reason not to be." And Ariel proved him right. :)

Ariel even gave a playful jab to the WWG during her acceptance speech last night, stating that being the youngest of the group she was the first to get there! Awesome.

I can't wait for her official Winnipeg launch next week (May 5, McNally Robsinson Booksellers) of her book Hump. Should be a packed house!

Now if only I could get my own writing butt moving again! Heh-heh.
My MS of the Ghostcatchers Club is still M.I.A. at Tundra books (they've had it for over 10 months, and the editor I sent it to left last year...and now they're trying to locate it). I've been doing lots of editing for my buddy Steve in the U.S.A. for his P.O.D. gaming company Rite Publishing, which has been totally awesome, and has now resulted in my getting a major editing deal with Amber-sourcebook-co-writer Jason Durrell. Looking forward to that! (I'll post the press release here later today). But Ariel's win has really uplifted my spirits, not only for her, but for myself. It shows me that it is possible to get stuff done with lots of hard work. And maybe it's high time to get this blog up and running again, with some new writing. :)

Congratulations again Ariel! You've inspired me!

Rejection #1

2009-02-26T21:26:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been a while blogging, but it's also (sad to say) been a while for writing.

Sigh.

Short: My time off from the Festival this winter season has not really been used for writing, as it has for relaxing. I seemed to have really burned out after this last festival, and my batteries usually need a bit of charging after such a big under taking (not to mention the fact that right after the festival I have to submit three grant applications in October).

Anyhoos...as I've said before, It's Not What You Haven't Done But What You're Doing!

And so it goes.

At the end of January I submitted no less than 10 queries of the Ghostcatcher Club to publishers. I've meant to send it to more, but that's a good start.

And the first rejection was today! Yay! Annick Press (big surprise). Typical form letter. Ah well. It shall have place of prominence on my wall of shame (heh).

In other Writing News:

(1) Review for Rubarb: I was approached by Sarah Klassen the other day, and she asked if I would be interested in reviewing a graphic novel for Rubarb magazine. As Anita Daher says (and I paraphrase): "being a poor Canadian writer, I said YES!" It's due on Monday, and it's all Christian-super-hero-like. Interesting...

(2) New Writing Group in the Formative Stages:
Yup. You heard it right here first. I'm going to be joining a new writing group!
And since I know that at least two of my former WWGers read this blog, I'll tread carefully over what I'll say next, and be careful not to bash my former group! (heh-heh-heh!) I wouldn't do that anyways, cuz I learned lots from those peeps!

Okay, the basic info.
Who: Me, my good friend Mr. Jason Booth, and one or two women from his crea-comm class.
What: Writing. Specifically fiction. More specifically sci fi/fantasy. Even more specifically novels.
When: First meeting soon. Maybe in a week or so. Then we'll meet over the summer between their classes. That's the initial plan. It might change if they want to meet more frequently or sooner.
Where: TBA
Why: Because my good friend Mr. Jason Booth asked me!

So, it sounds pretty good. I've suggested we all meet very soon to discuss why we want to meet, what we want to get out of a writing group, and to share some of our work with each other (i.e. read it out loud!). What I think will be really great is that we're all working on the same type of project: fiction, novel, sci-fi/fantasy. Coolness.

I've got a few projects to share: A 4th draft of The Flute of the NorthWind. The beginnings of a pretty awesome story (if I do say so myself) that looks at a reworking of the three classic monsters of our age (the Frankenstein monster/golem, werewolves and vampires).
And of course, I have my collection of short stories based on the world that the FotNW takes place in.

In any case, I've got stuff to work on, and maybe this writing group is what I need to kick myself in the pants!
I just haven't had the "bug" to write, which sounds stupid, but there it is.
Sigh.

Soon though...soon.

Northern Town Girl Really Knows How To Write Poetry

2008-10-23T22:19:00.002-05:00

I was at Rosanna Deerchild's launch tonight for her brand new poetry book "this is a small northern town." It was fabo (as I thought it would be).

Rosanna is such a great person. Very energetic and exciting and...crazy. Yeah, a little bit nuts. ;-)

Her poetry is really, really good. Very visual. It can be hard or sweet. I love hearing poetry read aloud - I get a lot more out of it than just reading it myself. Maybe that's just me.

Jane Munro, a visiting poet at THIN AIR 2008, said that she doesn't feel like her poetry is "finished" until it's been read out loud - truly delivered, to the audience. That's how I feel about poetry. I love hearing it.

Rosanna and I met through the Writers Festival, THIN AIR 2005 to be precise. My first festival, when I was a lowly Advertising Assistant (with lots of production lacky thrown in). I was volunteered to drive Rosanna and Marty Chan up on the Rural Tour that year - heading out to Portage la Prairie and Minnedosa.

Basically, the short of the long is, a few weeks before the festival Rosanna was unsure if she would be able to make the tour at all. I emailed her a few times, and to my recollection (I'm sure she would disagree here - heh!), I was sure she said she wasn't coming.

Well, the early early morning of the tour comes, and I meet Marty at the hotel, and we load into the car, and take off. We're like 10 minutes past the perimeter when my cell phone rings and Tavia is shouting "You forgot Rosanna!"

WTF?!? What do you mean I forgot her?!

Well, I felt kinda bad, obviously! Luckily it all worked out - Charlene jumped in her car and drove Rosanna out to meet us at Portage la Prairie, and we took it from there.

It was a great drive, and great to hang out with her, and hear her poetry for the first time. It's cool to hear some of those poems now, again, in their "final" form, in her new book.

Congratulations Rosanna!!

Rejection stings even when you're kinda expecting it

2008-10-23T22:14:00.002-05:00

Sigh.

Well, my query letter came back from Orca books the other day - rejected.

The editor wrote a really nice personal letter, which I really appreciate. I was really hoping this would be the one! But alas, it was not.

BUT! One can not give up hope on one rejection! Stephen King had hundreds, thousands, millions (okay, maybe not MILLIONS, but lots) of rejections before he became famous! I can't give up! I won't give up!

As the Orca editor said, this story wasn't for her, but maybe it will be for some other editor at another publishing house. We can only hope! I plan on sending out about 10-15 query letters in the next two weeks (probably in two weeks after my PBN articles and my editing for Steve's second D&D module for RITE Publishing is finished by November 3).

And then the waiting begins anew...

Navels and Birds

2008-10-01T22:31:00.003-05:00

Well, Ariel Gordon, alumnist of the WWG (that's Wolseley Writers Group) had her book launch tonight at Aqua Books.
Yay Ariel!

I was the only member able to make it out to support her. Frank and David were busy at work, Polly had some pathetic excuse about living in a different city ;-) so it was up to me to carry the WWG flag! Heh!

It was a nice event. It was not only the launch of the chapbook (Navel Gazing) but also the start of the Western Canadian tour for Kerry Ryan and Ariel (four cities in 7 days! Woo-hoo! Or something like that). It should be cool.

Bucking the traditional reading trend, Ariel forced members of her family and a friend to read her poems instead of herself (heh!). Well, I guess "forced" is a little strong. And it was kinda cool. Ariel herself read first and last.

And then, there was a draw to buy her book! Really! She only had 10 available for sale, so people had to put their names in a hat to buy one. And I got one! Yay! Nine were drawn, and the tenth was auctioned off to support the AquaBooksLandsdowne Poetry prize. Cool.

And I'm still waiting to hear back from Orca books in regards to my query letter - hopefully they'll ask to see the manuscript! Hopefully!!

THIN AIR 2008 Over!

2008-10-01T22:25:00.003-05:00

Well, it was a week of hard work (well, a year's worth of hard work, culminating into a week of deadly, hard work), but THIN AIR 2008 is over, and it was a rousing success! AGAIN!

It seemed to go a bit smoother this year (although we were super uber understaffed AGAIN!). All of the problems seemed smaller, and more manageable, although we were all very busy.

The writers were great, the audiences were great (and increased I think) and everything was great! Yahoo!

Highlights:
- getting to hang out with Arthur Slade
- telling Art that he was my biggest fan (yes, I really said this after only a minute after meeting him...my brain was getting tired, what can I say. Although it makes for a great story now)
- hanging out a bit with Kenneth Oppel
- listening to Paul Quarrington sing at the AfterWords series
- finding out that Aqua Books is a really good venue for our AfterWords and Pint of Bitter Murder and our Volunteer Appreciation party
- finding out that the Big Ideas series is a big hit!
- meeting Judith Keenan from Bookshorts
- having a movie Matinee at MTYP on Sunday (and selling popcorn!)
- Tanya taking vacation during Festival week so she could keep the house in order and hang out with me every night at Mainstage! Yay!
- meeting (again) lots of really nifty, great, kind, intelligent writers!

Now...we begin the process all over again!

Ugh.

THIN AIR 2008 Opening Night!

2008-09-21T21:36:00.002-05:00

Okay, I would totally be a dolt if I didn't at least blog a bit about my job, which is totally "writing related" as it pertains to bringing in tons of writers from across Canada and the world, to read, read, read to very appreciative readers of all ages and tastes for a whole darn week each September.

THIN AIR 2008 started tonight with a beautiful Opening Night at the Oodena Ceremonial Circle at the Forks in Winnipeg. Greetings were brought by various government types, and 5 readers read original writings about our place of Winnipeg: Jordan Wheeler, Chandra Mayor, Carol Matas, nereO Eugenio, and Marc Prescott. All wonderful readings, with wonderful sound (thank God for that this year!) and all outside under the starts amid a few literary appreciative mosquitos.

Very cool. We're off to a great start. Now let the Week Begin!
Tomorrow, I get to set up the whole sheebang of the Mainstage, hang out with Kenneth Oppel for a bit (well, okay, maybe not "hang out" but talk with him about his first performance, which I'll be helping to set up for him). I'm looking forward to talking with him, not as a groupie standing in line, but as a professional Arts Administrator ("ahem!") and struggling children's writer myself (well, I'll downplay the last part...I'm sure he hears "I'm a writer too!" all the time).

In any case, we're ready to soar after tonight's Lift Off!

Gone, gone, gone!

2008-09-06T08:29:00.002-05:00

Okay, well, the manuscript didn't make it out the door the next day, but it DID make it out the door the next, next day! Thursday, September 4 and it's in the mail to Orca!

Woo-hoo! Now...we wait. Could be 3 to 4 months.

In other news: two weeks till THIN AIR 2008!?! WTF?!?! In three weeks it will pretty well be over. Wow!!

Our media conference went quite well on Wednesday - CTV did a great piece on it for the news. Also, our Watch & Win prize packs were well showcased last week at noon (and I've got one on tape to prove it!).

This weekend's plan: Relax. Try to get the energy back. I'll need it for the weeks to come. Some of our media stuff has taken up lots of my time, time I need to concentrate on my other 5 "jobs" (we all do like 10 different jobs in the office, thanks to having such a small staff). But it should be good. It will mean a few late nights, but that's okay. The payoff is gold.

Next week's Book Launches: Monday, Michael Van Rooy, Wednesday, David Bergen, Thursday, Joan Thomas (which I'll have to miss because it's Tany'as birthday that day...although I'm trying to fit in a book launch for the birthday evening - heh!).

Also, the Prairie Fire board starts up again! Ack! I just remembered I haven't sent them any minutes or agenda for next Tuesday's meeting! Crap! Well, I guess I know what I'm doing for part of my weekend now. Doh.

It's Finally Going Out the Door!

2008-09-02T22:52:00.003-05:00

As Margaret Buffie once told me: eventually you just have to pack it a lunch, and let it out the door!

By "it" I mean my manuscript!!!

Okay, okay, okay. So, I finally kicked my ass enough to write my submission letter, scribbled out and reduced, reduced, reduced my synopsis, and polished up the first 20 pages (4 chapters) of The Ghostcatcher Club and now it really, really IS going out the door!

TOMORROW!

I'm sending it to Orca Books because they are advertising on their site that they are accepting submissions right now in all genres. Woo-hoo! I can only hope!!
First step is done: submit submission letter with sample chapters and synopsis.
Second step: pray they ask for the whole manuscript! (this could take 3 to 4 months).

I'm also thinking of submitting it to a whole host of other publishing houses (Annick, Random House, KidsCanPress, etc) but I think I'll wait until October now. Mostly because I want to give Orca first crack at asking for the manuscript, but also because I'm friggen busy at the Festival right now!

But...it's actually going out!!!

More and more Book Launches!

2008-09-02T22:46:00.003-05:00

I did indeed attend the launch of the Prairie Bridesmaid for Daria Salamon. Wow! Lots of great support for her at that one! McNally Robinson Booksellers (Grant Park) in the Prairie Ink cafe was PACKED and overflowing with peopley goodness. And there were overseers as well in the kids balcony up, up, waaaaay up!

It was a great event. As part of the book's promotion, Daria found musicians who donated fresh, new and original songs to the book - basically a soundtrack! They're available for free download if you buy the book (you get a download code). How cool is that!!

Anyways, I mention them because three of the musicians were at the launch and played songs at the beginning, in the middle and near the end. Interspersed with her readings and playful, fun stories, it was a really, really great event. Much more than just a reading and Q&A!

Tonight, I was at the the launch for Miriam Toew's The Flying Troutman. It was PACKED as well. She was on the central staircase at MNR (Grant Park). She read and talked for a bit (she's very funny), and took lots of Q&A (lots more than I expected). I didn't stay for the signing because, well, she's coming to the Festival and I'll have at least one chance then to get her to sign my book! Tonight I also found out that some of the books have red lettering, and others silver. I have red...not sure if that is more rare, because everyone at McNally's who bought the book had silver (maybe because I received mine earlier? Who knows...).

Next up: Michael Van Rooy and David Bergen! Whew!

Let the Book Launches Begin!

2008-08-20T20:22:00.003-05:00

It's that time of season again. THIN AIR 2008 is right around the corner (put on by yours truly at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival of course) and that means lots of new books to be released in the Fall!

Some of the writers launching in August and September will be appearing on our stages at the festival...I can't say more until September 3rd, when our official press conference takes place, but suffice it to say we've got lots of great local talent this year!

Two nights ago I attended perhaps this city's most anticipated book launch of 2008: Andrew Davidson with his first book, "The Gargoyle." Why so much anticipation? Because he received a 1.25 million dollar advance from Random House. Oh, and his book has also been sold in over 20 countries, so after all those advances he's now looking at more like 2.5 million in advances.

We call him the "Million Dollar Man" at the office. And I can safely tell you that he is coming to THIN AIR 2008.

Anyhoos, the launch.
Well, it was quite the party. Close to 250 people packed into the McNally Robinson (Polo Park) events alcove, and it was very roomy (the new location kicks ass, quite personally). Most of the people there were family and friends, but that's what most first book launches are, right? And this one, as he himself mentioned in an interview and at the launch, was perhaps his most important event because of that.

I got to meet with him briefly before everything started. He seems really nice, down to earth, and he's excited as all hell to be part of the festival! As for his reading, he was quite animated, funny, played the crowd really well, and read nicely. Exactly what you hope for in a writer! (many times a writer is great on paper...and not so great a performer).

Next up on the old book launch list: Daria Salamon's Bitchy Bridesmaid...sorry! That should be "Prairie Bridesmaid." (heh-heh) Quite a good book, although the narrator is quite the pessimist, hates everything and everyone, and kinda gets on your nerves by the 3/4 point. But, that's who she is and you better deal with it as a reader! Overall, very well written, and to quote a phrase from David Bergen, perfect "Prairie Angst!"

Time to get back on the Blog Saddle!

2008-08-20T20:06:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been a while!

I had had good intentions to keep up the blogging for a bit, particularly during the Fringe...and I kinda fell off the wagon. Oops.

Okay, quick update: yes, Tanya and I did see lots of Fringe shows, fifteen in total to be exact. Most were quite excellent. On the second Wednesday we saw 5 in one day! For those of you who actually Fringe, the excitement of being in the midst of all that energy is such a thrill. Walking through the market, buying the food from the vendors, wandering through the little kiosks, standing in line (yes, standing in line for Fringe shows is cool...don't ask me why). In general, just being surrounded by other people excited to watch Fringe plays, and getting to talk to the actors afterwards is very thrilling. It is, really.

Some shows of note:

Die Roten Punkte (the red dots); german punk band, modelled after the White Stripes. Basically, the concept is that you are at their concert, and they sing for you (quite good) and banter back and forth with the audience and each other. Awesomeness.

The Bush Ladies; four literary powerhouses during the early colonists, these four women tell their tales of early pioneers in Canada. Fantastic.

The Movies: Abridged; the two dudes from Killing Kevin Spacey and an english dude...not so good. Disappointing, really. Some two-bit impressions and bad jokes. Meh.

Teaching the Fringe; a veteran of the Fringe circuit talks about getting a nasty letter after one Fringe show he did in Winnipeg, and his reaction to it, along with other hilarious tidbits of doing Fringe shows around the world. Really great.

The Wizard of One; one-man show, muliple characters, retelling of the wizard of oz from inside an old folks home. Loved it. Excellent!

Spiral Dive; WWII pilots. Fantastic drama. Amazing rendition of the flying - the actor/pilot would sit in a chair, weave back and forth, pretending to be using controls, while sound effects and music played, and two other actors moved wood-cut models of the planes in question beside him. Sounds silly, but it worked wonderfully.

All in all, an excellent Fringe Experience! And basically, after all costs involved, our big vacation for the year. Eep!

Fringe! Fringe! Fringe!

2008-07-18T16:24:00.002-05:00

Well, it's that time of year again. And FINALLY for the first time in like four or five years I managed to convince Tanya to FRINGE again like we used to!!!

Got a Buddy Pass (which pays for 14 ADMISSIONS, and not 14 SHOWS as it advertises in the program...they need an editor), and it's already almost used up after only two days! Yahoo!!
We'll be buying another one soon methinks.

So, we've seen five plays so far. Here they are, Title and description, and my quick one line reviews:

(1) The Aethernomicon
Puppet play of horror, based on H.P. Lovecraft
The puppets were fricken awesome, although the "acting" was okay, but definitly worth seeing if you like freaky well made puppets.

(2) Queens of Rome
Two party girls in ancient Rome
Lots of valley-girl type swearing, but very funny and crass if you like that sort of language.

(3) Quixote
Storyteller Eric De Waal weaves tale about Don Quixote
Very cool as usual from Eric, with his mezmerizing speech and tale weaving snazzy jazz.

(4) Killing Kevin Spacey
Dude wakes up one morning to discover he's living the life of all of Kevin Spacey's pathetic characters, and decides to start living like Al Paccino would.
Bloody hilarious and totally worth seeing.

(5) Yorrik
The ghost of Yorrik talks to the audience and explains his REAL role in helping Shakespeare
Not bad. Kinda like medieaval stand-up.

More, more, more and MORE Fringe shows to see!

Not much happening...

2008-07-14T21:51:00.002-05:00

...on the personal writing front.

I'm still sitting on my poor finished manuscript which is begging to be sent out to a publisher's slush pile. Ugh! Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall [bash, bash, bash]

I've been to a few writerly events, most notably Anita Daher's Writer in Residence reading at Aqua Books. Speaking of Aqua Books, the new location is looking smarter and sharper every day. It can only get better and better!

Okay. I have to stop putting off writing this submission letter and researching which houses to send my manuscript to. I already know a bunch who are going to get it - all that remains is to write the letter, several samples and lengths of summaries, perhaps a chapter outline, and then get a few SASEs together, and then it's done!

Maybe this is why I haven't been published yet...damn laziness.

Double Trouble with 2 Sasky Poets

2008-05-12T22:19:00.002-05:00

Well, if I can't blog about my own writing, at least I can blog about someone else's!

Just got back from MRB (GP), and enjoyed a lovely evening with friends and colleagues and people from far-flung communities. Fellow Facebooker Friend of mine Brenda Schmidt and Judith Krause are two talented Saskatchewan poets with new books out from the same publisher who are touring at the same time, and Winnipeg was the final leg of their journey.

First Judith read from her book Mongrel Love which was a mix of poems which touched on emotions, death, one about a horse (which was disturbing and compelling at the same time) and a few other tidbits (yes, yes, crappy poetry review, but that's what you're going to get).
And then Brenda read from her book Cantos from Wolverine Creek which had some great poetry about birds, far-away memories of nursing, and food (loved the "cookie triage" poem! Heh! The crumbly carnage!)

I should also mention that I enjoyed a lovely Dim Sum lunch with Brenda and Judith earlier today, along with a bunch of other people (all of whom were also at the reading tonight). So all in all, not only a lovely evening, but a lovely day!

One crazy fun book launch!

2008-05-02T10:05:00.004-05:00

I managed to make it out to Chandra Mayor's book launch last night (All the Pretty Girls), and let me tell you it was fun! High energy and full of life and love and of course tinged with sadness (for some of the subject matter was quite serious).

Chandra held her launch at the Lo Pub, a swanky little underground dive bar which was really quite cozy. Although I'm not sure if that's because of the clientelle who was there last night (who were all there for Chandra). What would I find if I went there tonight? Of course we'll never know, because I'm not sure why I'd go there again, truth be told ;-)

In any case, Chandra also shared the stage with another person, who's beautiful sounding name I won't attempt to spell here (I can't seem to find the hundred invitations to the event I had!). Suffice to say that her book of poetry was quite beautiful, although quite serious in many parts (having to do with missing/abused women in the Vancouver area). There was a rep from Sagehouse at the readings as well, who gave a small presentation about what she and her organization does to help young women (sometimes girls, really) in awful, awful situations.

It was a great evening to bring awareness to a problem in all of our cities, to give thanks to two great readings, to hear host Rosanna Deerchild in her true, crazy (and as Chandra said, slightly inappropriate) form! And, most of all, to enjoy the company of friends and colleagues in a very un-bookstore like launch. Fantastic all around!

The End of Manitoba Book Week

2008-04-27T09:16:00.006-05:00

Well, it was a blast. The launch of Prairie Fire's Home Place 2 (non-fiction) issue on Thursday, April 24, was a gala affair. About 150 people showed up for the hour and half of readings (and cake afterwards).

Unfortunately, the readings did go over a bit, and I was forced to miss Kerry Ryan's launch of her new (and first!) poetry book The Sleeping Life. I missed her reading, but I did get to buy a copy of the book and get her to sign it. Unlike a certain A.G. who feels autographs are so "fanboyish" I quite like getting my book personalized by the author. I like to think the writer themself enjoys doing it!

Last night was the 20th Annual Manitoba Book Awards, put on by the AMBP (Association of Manitoba Book Publishers) and the MWG (Manitoba Writers Guild). A really good time for shmoozing with the local literary crowd, including writers and publishers. The award ceremony itself went off with nary a hitch, and most of the acceptance speeches were really quite good (the greetings from the province were actually quite nice).

Speaking of "foot in mouth" disease, Morley Walker wrote a horrible article in Saturday's Freep which basically debased the whole awards show. His big rant was why the book HE thinks was the bestest and greatest Manitoba book since sliced bread (the Manitoba Encyclopedia by Great Plains Publishing) wasn't among the nominees or winners.

Hey Morley, here's a heads up: That's YOUR opinion that the book was the best.
And here's another heads up: Just because a book is submitted does NOT mean it will win or even get nominated! There is a jury that selects these things outside of your realm of influence (shocking, I know)

It's really sad to see Winnipeg's literary journalist giant constantly and consistently bad-mouth Manitoba publishing and writers.

One treat during the awards was when Kelly Hughs, owner of Aqua Books and generous donor to the Landsdowne poetry prize, lambasted Walker during his presenting speech. The crowd went wild! Funny thing then that Walker was no where to be seen after the awards...

Today's article in the Freep about the Manitoba Book Awards is surprisingly neutral. It mentions all the winners, and there are even a few choice quotes from winners about the importance of Manitoba publishers.

Huh. Change of heart Morley? Or trying to save face?

Mystery Crime at MB Book Week and Aqua Books

2008-04-23T23:06:00.003-05:00

Tonight was a reading and panel discussion about crime/mystery/true crime writing, and featured three writers (one of whom was Michael Van Rooy...I can't remember the names of the others and I'm too lazy and tired to check right now - wait! One was Mike Macintyre (sp?) from the Freep).

It was pretty interesting.

Plus the event took place at the new Aqua Books location. Even though the bookstore was not nearly ready for business, the cafe in the back looks quite swank, and the upstairs events room worked beautifully. I also took a sneak peak at the writer studios, and they look pretty awesome!

Can't wait until the bookstore is up and running. Here's wishing Kelly all the luck and stamina in the world to get it ready for March 26!

Next up for my Manitoba Book Week flurry of events: PrairieFire's Home Place 2 launch, Kerry Ryan's poetry book launch (the same night at McNally Robinson Grant Park) on Thursday, and the Manitoba Book Awards on Saturday night. Can't wait!

Another great YA book launch

2008-04-22T20:40:00.002-05:00

As part of Manitoba Book Week, Rae Bridgeman was launching her new book "Fish and Sphinx" at McNally Robinson Booksellers tonight (Polo Park location).

A great launch, and well attended by young and old! Full house! Complete with town crier at the beginning, a power point slide show of some of her drawings from the book (sliding along as she read), and a great reading with great questions.

A great night!

Getting out to meet the Writers

2008-04-10T22:09:00.002-05:00

Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman (what a swell name) launched their new collaborative book today: Ghosthunters 1: The Proof that Ghosts Exist.

Very nice launch with lots of people (young and old). It was a virtual who's who of YA writers! Anita Daher! Rae Bridgeman! Margaret Buffie! ME! (well, not quite yet - heh!)

The launch was at the new McNally Robinson Booksellers at Polo Park (nice and close to me wittle house now!). A beautiful store. I had the privilege of getting an invitation to the gala opening night (la-dee-da!) two weeks ago. Very cool.
Tanya and I had dinner in the new Prairie Ink restaurant tonight, and the food as usual (for MRB standards) was very delicious. Tanya was drooling all over her cherry pie - quite disgusting, really ;-)

All in all, a nice night.

What happened to March?

2008-04-10T22:08:00.003-05:00

Well, March was a blur.
I was fine until March 5. Then, I got sick. Then, I got food poisoning. Then, I was lingering and lingering ill for four weeks. Then I woke up and WTF? What month is it? APRIL??

So, that's why no blog.

And yes, no submission letters yet. Ugh.
I'm planning on working on them this weekend and next week FOR SURE!

Fourth draft - in DA BAG!

2008-02-22T17:20:00.004-06:00

Woo-Hoo!

Well, I did it!

Yesterday I took the morning off from work to write, and write, and write, and suddenly it was 11am, normally when I start packing stuff up and get ready for work, and I was all "I can't stop! I can't!"
So I didn't. I kept writing, and writing, had a quick 20 minute lunch break, and then more writing, until suddenly it was 2:30 pm and I was done! Finished! The biggest rewrite I had to do (the last part of the book, which included moving chapters around, killing chapters, and rewriting chapters) was pulled off! Yahoo!!
Mind you, I got to work at 3:30 and worked till 7:30, but it was all good.

I like it. I like it a lot.

Today I just left it, and on the weekend I'll pull it out and reread the new parts to see if they still make sense (heh-heh).

My plan for next week is to get a submission letter going and start putting together some packages, do a little research on some publishing houses, and submit!!!!

Very exciting. "8)

Just get in - Hip Deep!

2008-02-14T09:44:00.002-06:00

Okay, well after a week and a bit of NOT working on my manuscript I have finally buckled down (in some cases) and found the time in-between grant reports, to get some more work done on the 4th draft!

Yesterday morning was spent mostly rereading the changes I had ALREADY done on the first 8 chapters a few weeks ago, which really in the scope of things wasn't much. I think it was mostly a psycholgical exercise to get back into the 12 year old mindset of my characters and re-enjoy this yarn!

Today, more rewriting, and right into a major rework! Chapter 11 - GONE! Chapters 10 and 12 - AMALGAMATED!! Woo-hoo!! Very cool. This rewrite REALLY sets the stage for retooling the tone and pace of this book (based very much in part on Anita's comments).

Very exciting!

Funk, Funk, Funk

2008-02-05T09:45:00.000-06:00

Ugh!

I think I need a vacation. Which is weird to say after coming off two weeks of Christmas "vacation." Well, two weeks away from work and surrounded by family stuff, which, although nice, can be a little much if you just want to hide away and rest.

Am I suffering the mid-winter blues?? I don't feel depressed. But I feel bored. I'm having a hard time concentrating these days on anything to do with work, including my writing some days!
And this messy office is just frustrating me. I hate being so disorganized sometimes! Grrr!!

Ah well.

I finally got my interview done yesterday for PBN (that's Prairie Books NOW) so I'm mulling over that during my morning writing time. Mull, mull, mull.
Also putting together my final report for the WAC grant I received last year. Yay!

Okay, enough complaining and mumbling. Time to write and then off to work to get some stuff done! Gotta just bite the bullet, make a list, check it twice, and manage the time. There's lots to do but lots of time to do it!

Mull, mull, mull....

2008-01-30T08:48:00.001-06:00

I've been mulling over possible changes based on the advice and comments from Anita, and let me tell you it isn't easy. Not that I'm against the changes ("Don't touch my manuscript! NO! Stay away you monster! AAAAAH!!"). I just want to delve into the right places and make the right changes for myself.

Good news is, I have lots of ideas! Yesterday I put together a 2-page outline for my next plans. Now, the implementation begins...

Ugh. And my right knee is still sore. I aggravated it on Sunday while helping Kelly at Aqua Books move junk out of his new building. I didn't think it was that bad, but the more I've walked on it, the worse it gets - and it's not a muscle sprain, more like joint pain. After a few hours of rest it's pretty good, and then after a half-hour or so of walking it starts getting sore again. Yesterday, after three hours of grocery shopping my knee was so sore I was like the shuffling undead!! ("Braaaaiiinssss...."). Ugh.

Well, back at it. Then to prepare some ribs for dinner tonight in the slow cooker (Yumm!) and then shuffle off to work in the freezing c-c-cold.

They're Here! They're Here! The Comments are Here!

2008-01-29T09:27:00.000-06:00

Yup! Anita finished reading (and rereading and rereading it looks like) my manuscript for The Ghostcatcher Club, and it returned to me chock-full of notes within, and a 4-page detailed report! Yay!

I've already delved into the notes, and this morning I'm doing the same. Quite exciting to have a roadmap now to help me move forward. There is always a point as a writer where you look at your work and you might see something "wrong" in parts, but you can't quite know where or what or why... you need new eyes.

Thanks for your eyes Anita!

GST and Me

2008-01-24T21:35:00.000-06:00

Well, I haven't blogged in a bit, because there was nothing really noteworthy to report.

My manuscript is still being read and critiqued (yay!) and I haven't done anything new because I've been spending my time in the mornings either reading (which is good) or going to work and preparing my financial books for year end (which is also good, but bad for writing).

Today I spent the morning applying for a GST number. The good is that I'm actually making enough money as an Arts Administrator and writer/editor that I need a GST number! The bad is that it's a lot of boring reading about taxes and getting a BN (Business Number). But, it is done! Yay me!

Tomorrow's plans: work in the morning, and do some writing in the afternoon before my brother comes over and we play an evening of Mighty Empires, a great little strategic fantasy wargame (yay games!).

Tonight I was at Aqua Books to enjoy the "AquaBooks Landsdowne Poetry Prize readings" or whatever the title of the event was actually called. Lots of fun (Kelly always makes it a good time with his MC-ing abilities) and great poetry from some great Winnipeg poets like Deborah Schnitzer, Clarise Foster, Lori Cayer, Maurice Mireau. Oh yeah, and Ariel Gordon (if I don't mention her, she'll hurt me! Ha!).
A great evening all around with a big appreciative audience.

Unfortunately, sometimes Work comes First

2008-01-14T08:41:00.000-06:00

Last week I had a message from one of our Federal funders that their deadline had changed - from April to JANUARY 15! Thanks for the notice!!

So, needless to say, since the WIWF needs money to pay ME I of course put in a couple of full long days last week. But it's all good! This is the second time around now for me on these grants, so they're much, much less daunting.

I'm planning on working on some more writing later this week (Wednesday), some old short stories that had been abandoned years ago. Looking forward to it!

And right now the Ghostcatcher manuscript is in the hands of the very professional writer Anita Daher! Yay! We'll see what happens in the coming weeks...

I'm BAAAACK! It's a New Year!

2008-01-07T08:35:00.000-06:00

Wow! I hadn't realized that the blog had fallen so far behind.
Well, it was just resting for 2008!

Quick 2007 year-end: I managed to finish the 3rd draft of the Ghostcatcher Club (yay!) although I hadn't done another read-through of the entire thing. Christmas was great, with lots of friends and family. I managed to squirrel away about two or three days of my two weeks vacation for myself to just veg and play video games and watch movies and paint miniatures (yeah, I gots meself too many hobbies). A quiet evening at home for New Years with the wife was very pleasant.

Zounds!! Second week of January and I've slept in on my first day back on my writing schedule! Ack! Okay, okay, no need to panic.

I've spent the morning so far catching up on reading other blogs and writerly things. I plan on reading the whole of the whole manuscript of Ghostcatcher Club wholey today and tomorrow. I also plan on getting up earlier tomorrow!

The plan now: hand over the manuscript to Anita for her own read-through and then meet with her sometime in the next few weeks (based on her schedule) to get some professional feedback. Then back at it for another round of edits (I'm sure).

On the side, I want to work on a few short stories that have been hanging around on my computer for a while, and edit a few of my card and board games which have lain unloved for a few years.

I'm really hoping to keep to my part-time sched until mid-March, but that will really depend on what needs doing at the WIWF. My brain is already working full-time thinking about what needs doing before Spring, then during Summer, and Fall, and then THIN AIR 2008.

Gadzooks! 2008 is almost DONE!

Catching up

2007-12-18T23:31:00.000-06:00

I had to sacrifice my writing mornings so far this week to catch up on some work at the Festival office, to make sure I'm ready for my Christmas holidays! Today was a bit of a long work day, but I got lots accomplished. Tonight, Tanya and I managed to get a bunch of Christmas cards signed (better late than never), and now I'm pooped.

I have set aside Wednesday morning for a little reading and writing, which is good. And I plan on carrying on into my holidays!

Delving into the first book of the Series of Unfortunate Events. Quite cool. I plan on setting aside at least an hour tomorrow morning for some reading...

I forgot! More reading!

2007-12-12T22:37:00.001-06:00

Hey, forgot to mention, with all my writing I've also been doing a bunch o' readin'.

Finished off Simon Rose's other two books (the clone conspiracy and the sorcerer's box), and polished off the first of the Spiderwick books today (they're quite short - but bloody expensive to buy!!! Like $15 a book! Lucky me I got a few at a second hand store.

Okay, sleep now.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just when you thought you were done...

2007-12-12T10:24:00.001-06:00

Ugh.
The Trials! The Tribulations! The...Tie Fighters??

Okay, I ran out of T-words, but you get the point.

"Finished" the last chapters yesterday (and a bit more fiddling today)...but now I'm not happy. .
It seems too long, too complicated, too wordy, too MUCH! Argh!!

BUT! I believe I do have a solution, which will most likely shave off tons of wordage and a bunch o' chapters, and some of that extra plotty stuff that's gumming up the works. Lots of rewriting up ahead again.

That's the plan anyways.

Although I'm thinking of still handing it over to Anita to see what her initial reactions are (if she has time...and actually with the holidays just around the corner, it might just be more polite to let her read it in the New Year...)

Okay, back at it.

Lots of Christmas cheer to enjoy this week, in any case. Last Saturday was the 3rd annual Brendon and Fran Christmas Party (or as everyone likes to tumble their tongues over: Bran and Frendon). Today is the WAC christmas open house, and then the Prairie Fire christmas dinner for the Board of Directors (at the East India Palace - yumm!). And then tomorrow is the MAC christmas open house. And then Friday I'll be sampling Dim Sum with the Prairie Fire staff, and friends (Anita and Ariel). Fun and yummy week!

I'm still writing and editing!

2007-12-06T08:59:00.000-06:00

Whew! What a week so far!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all good editing mornings. Today I'm working on chapter 24 (and the manuscript has 26 chapters!).

The is the section where I have to make one of the big decisions (can't really mention it w/o destroying part of the surprise of the story) but suffice it to say now that I'm here I'm having a hard time! I think what I will do is write these next three chapters twice and have two alternate endings. Kinda like what they do in the movies. Then, I'll give both versions to my readers, and get their comments. Kinda cool - especially for the readers, I would think. Maybe I'll add a section of deleted scenes and bloopers, and - no wait...that would be dumb. Heh.

Took the evening off yesterday to play some Heroclix at Maxx Collectibles. Heroclix. My current crack habit. Sigh. But it's so cool and geeky to play and collect. Last night, just for showing up and playing, I got a new map and a free figure! Rampaging Hulk! Very cool.

Okay, back to work. Lots more editing to go...

Oh! I forgot to mention: I finished reading Simon Rose's "The Alchemist's Portrait." Not too bad. More writing info for the ol' brainpan. And now I'm well into his other book, "The Clone Conspiracy" which I am quite enjoying.

Editing, Games, and Meat!

2007-12-01T13:41:00.000-06:00

Okay, quick writing update: Thursday and Friday went quite well. Another 5 or so chapters under the belt.

There are several steps during my editing: first I read through the chapter on paper, making changes; then I make those changes on the computer, and a few more. THEN I pull out the old notes from the WWG (that's Wolseley Writing Group from a few years back) when this manuscript was work-shopped out by the group (to death, I might add).

The notes from the group are the most interesting, and painful. Exhilarating when I make the same edits on my own, heartbreaking when I see something that should have been horribly obvious (action before dialogue; screwed up homonomynom like heal for heel; etc). Ugh. Editing is hard. Heh.

I took a break on Thursday and Friday from dusting. I think some of the dust I disturbed was still floating around the room. I had to write with a dust mask for the last two days (no kidding). It worked though - no allergy attack! And today I have no mask on and I'm fine. I think I'll tackle some more dusting tomorrow! Death to Dust Bunnies!!

Friday night saw some old friends drop by for some board gaming: 4th Edition Talisman. Very nice artwork, but basically the same rules as 2nd Edition. Here are some pics from the night, including one of Basil with his puppy.

Ain't he cute? He loves his puppy.

Oh, and here's the 20lbs of deer pepperoni that my Mom and Dad just dropped off for me. Yummy!!!!

Houstan, we have a problem...ACHOO!!

2007-11-28T12:38:00.001-06:00

Okay, this really sucks.
Suddenly, I'm a raging Sneezoid from the planet Dustalon. Ugh.
I spent another 2.5 hours last night dusting the office. It looks great! (and...I'm still not quite done..too...much...stuff...on...shelves!).

BUT, even though all that dusting has removed most of it, some of it (I guess) got airborne and is still around. Problem is, I can't keep the window open too long (-20 degrees!) and I have to keep the door closed when I'm not in there or the pesky cat (Basil) will be parkouring his little heart out! Little destructive bugger...

Sigh. All I can do is keep cleaning and KEEP it clean. Tomorrow night I'll dust some more. Also, I've started the long process of rearranging everything to reduced the clutter. Also, tomorrow, I'll be taking apart my computer and squirting some air into its guts - I'm sure that's the real reason I'm sneezing (the little fan keeps blowing it around).

But, despite the sneeze attack late this morning, I did get another two chapters edited and under my belt.

Tonight, Tanya and I get to see Walking With Dinosaurs at the MTS Center - HUGE dinosaur puppets! Cool! The tallest is like 5 stories!! Crazy.

Finished off Anita Daher's Two Foot Punch this morning. Crazy Cool!! Amazing, really.

Oh, and two webcomics from Pearls before Swine about blogging:

Death to Dust Bunnies!

2007-11-27T16:32:00.000-06:00

I'm about at the 1/3 mark right now in the manuscript, and some of the big changes are REALLY occuring, which require a lot more rewriting, and whole lot of rethinking about the story. Changing of characterization in some parts (in regards to Wally and Katey), plot (in regards to Charlie and his bully problem), and storyline (in regards to the background of the old "haunted" Johnson house). But, all good.

Long, long ago I took a writing course with YA author Margret Buffie - one of her bits of advice was "never throw out/delete any draft!" Good advice, until you've got five files for Chapter 5, not that I do, but I guess it could come to that quite easily depending on how much you rewrite ideas and plots and shtuff like that.

I also spent about 2.5 hours last night CLEANING and dusting my office. Yuck. Let's just say it's a little...cluttered....in there. Lots of piles of paper and books and toys and stuff on the floor, and plenty of places for wild dust bunnies to hide and plot insidious plots against my poor alergic nose. Nasty dust bunnies! Now you die!

I figured it was time to give a major dusting when I had three alergy attacks in the last few days after sitting in the office for several hours on end, with the window closed (cuz it's cold outside now!).

I just own too much stuff - all of it cool, and completely necessary I assure my loving wife every day - but the problem is that I'm well organized, but lazy. I've got boxes and space in the basement or in my office for lots of things, but sometimes I just put in on "the pile" for "sorting later" and then three years go by and it's all like "where the hell did that thing go?" Duh. And now it's covered in dust. Like three inches of it.

So, tonight I will spend another 2.5 hours (good estimate) dusting the Spider-Man action figures, assorted do-dads, and books in the office. It was already better in there this morning. Tomorrow, it will be even better!

Die Dust Bunnies! Off with your fuzzy heads!

Oh, and poor Bombers. Sigh.

New ideas, new research, and new directions

2007-11-23T13:20:00.000-06:00

wow. Things change a lot in the five years you take to make a story.
Five years ago kids were less likely to own a cell phone, and do you even SEE any 35mm cameras anymore?

My story is BASED on the use of 35mm cameras, so I had to update a few things (like making sure to mention that they need cameras that use FILM), and stuff like that.

Also, one or two websites and ghost hunting groups I had in the book don't even exist anymore on the web, or are totally different! Instead, I discoverd TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society. Two guys: plumbers by day, ghost hunters by night. Very cool website!! Lots of info. They have a tv show (on the scifi network, which I don't get), radio show, and a new book that just came out. Plus, there's the weird (but cool) kids show on YTV where two kids are trained in the art of ghost detection, and then sent into a reportedly "haunted" site to test their skills. Wow. Things do change.

And so does the manuscript. The good news is, my story is not so much about the accuracy of ghost detection, as it is about the inaccuracy of ghost detection and capturing (that's why it's funny...or at least I think it is).

Spent a good couple of hours reading on the TAPS website yesterday, got some good edits done, and also this morning. I'm bushed! But happy!

POV or no POV. There is no question, except WHICH POV.

2007-11-20T16:51:00.001-06:00

It's amazing how differently you read your work when you haven't looked at it in over a year.

Some things stand out like sore thumbs (grammar, horrible cliches you missed, etc), but sometimes the POV hits you in the face and you still can't see it.

Yesterday I spent about an hour mulling over one chapter, KNOWING something was wrong with it. I experimented with a couple of different things until EUREKA! The POV was all screwed up. I fixed it up, and now it reads great!

I also spent a few hours yesterday reading Anita Daher's "Racing for Diamonds." Quite an exciting story!! Next up, "Two Foot Punch" which I just know will be great!

My day today was kinda screwed - I was expected at a "PD" day through the government Competitiveness, Training and Trade program. Ugh. 50% okay, a decent free lunch (the chicken was kinda overdone) and 50% "Let me outta here!!"

Well, back at home. I'm hoping to do some editing tonight, although I'm going to have to spend a couple of hours working on PrairieFire reports for a business meeting tomorrow. Ugh.

Day three - reading and more reading

2007-11-15T21:39:00.000-06:00

Well, today I polished off Anita's "Flight from Bear Canyon" (very cool and exciting!) and got well into my manuscript.

I only made a few major notes on the sides - I really just want to read this thing once through as a story to see how it settles in my gut, and then go through again with minor changes, and then again with the major stuff (like I said, the ending is going to be TOTally different).

I also had another idea for taking out a chunk of the book about the bullying, which would alter a lot of stuff, and cut it down by about 20 -30 pages. I'm thinking I might write a separate draft to see how it flows, but right now it's kinda central to the main character of Charlie...

Sigh. The trials of the big edit. Writing the first draft really IS the easy part! Heh! But it's exciting to be reading it and working on it!

Tonight was also very exciting because I got to enjoy Anita Daher's launch of Two Foot Punch! She is such an inspiration for all aspiring writers - 2007 has been a GREAT year for her, and I'm so happy to see her soar to new heights! Next stop: her picture on the wall of McNally Robinson Booksellers! (It'll happen Anita, you wait and see). I can't wait to tear into the book.

I've also grabbed a book from the WIWF library (yet another perk of the job) - Frieda Wishinsky's "Just Call Me Joe," an Orca young reader book for ages 7-10, again around the age group I'm aiming for with my Ghostcatcher Club. Although I think right now it is more for ages 9-13, but who knows what it will look like at the end of the editing. My first job is just to create a good story!

In the Beginning...there was a lot of confusion??

2007-11-14T09:57:00.000-06:00

Well, one might ask, what happens when you don't seriously write for over a year and then want to get back into it?

Answer: your office becomes a NIGHTMARE of confusion, of binders and piles of paper, of lost short stories and novellas and novel-length manuscripts. It's like a treasure hunt! Once, a long time ago, during a warehouse job far, far away, Perry had been quite into his writing. He had organized his stuff in binders and folders, with notes and blurbs, including all his research on submitting and suchwith, and on his computer he had everything neatly organized in folders.
Now, it's like finding a lost civilization - "Wow. Did Perry really write this? Cool. And look! Spreadsheets of where he sent stuff. Whoa, take a look at that binder of rejection letters!"

That's the funny part. The not so funny part is trying to find out where you left off.

Easily enough, thanks to my studious organization waaaay back in the past, I was able to find my manuscript of the Ghostcatcher Club. And, on the computer, there are the folders.

Now then. The manuscript papers are filled with scratchings and blurbs which (ostensibly) are notes for the next draft. Of course, I'm not sure if they had already been implemented or not. The last two days have been filled with some research and more organizing, and what I have now in my hot little hands is a clean copy of the latest draft! Yay!! Now to read! And then, on to edit!

I've also spent some time reading. I polished off Anita Daher's "Flight from Big Tangle" yesterday, and I'm about half-way through "Flight from Bear Canyon." Perfect books to read because the Ghostcatcher Club is geared for this age range....at least that's the plan.

So, so far so good, and very exciting to be digging into all these lost short and long stories of mine! Now, to read the latest draft for the next hour before I head off to work, and then tomorrow, finish reading it and start making notes and changes. I already have BIG plans to change this story - the ending will basically be completely rewritten.

Okay, back at it!

The Writing Schedule BEGINS!!

2007-11-11T10:16:00.001-06:00

YAY!

So, I've basically finished all the major "to-do's" on my To-DO list at work, so starting Tuesday, November 13, my Writing Work Schedule kicks into HIGH GEAR!

Basically, I'll be working Mon - Fri at home (on writing) from 7:00 - 11:00 am. And then at the WIWF from noon- 5 or 6 pm.

Very exciting!

The time in the morning will be ME time, which means anything that encompasses writing which includes (but not limited to) reading, editing (my work or someone elses), working on my myriad of games, and WRITING (including, but not limited to, short stories, novellas, games, novels).
The time WILL NOT be used for: housekeeping, house reno, doing dishes, watching TV, playing video games, or any other "work" related stuff.

Did I also mention that ME time will include blogging? Yes, you lucky ducks (the few), I will be blogging nearly every day with short snippets of writing related shtuff.

Stay tuned!

Oh, and the reason I'm not writing Monday, is because I'm taking it as a holiday, and Tanya has it also as a holiday, so we're spending the day together.

Later!
Perry "8)

Hallowe'en

2007-10-31T23:41:00.001-05:00

I love Halloween, and I never get to do as much as I want every year. Sigh.

This year was the second in a row where Tanya and I were unable to go to any costume parties. Sucks. But I did dress up at work!

As you can see, I was ready for stats, financial numbers, and crime!

We had about 49 kids at the house tonight for candy. Not too bad. The pumpkins kicked butt! And lots of cool comments from the kids about my own spidey/Parker costume. Heh!

Gatenight...

2007-10-30T23:01:00.000-05:00

Well, I carved me last pumpkin, and it turned out quite well! The teeth are cool.

I put them out with a short prayer that no punks would kick them in before Halloween tomorrow. Heh. I kept my milk-jug skeletons inside just in case they get stolen! Damn kids...

I'm dressing up tomorrow...or I should say dressing down. I'm going as one of the walking dead. Mwha-ha-ha! I bought some rotting skin makeup. MWHA-HA-HA! I'm planning on putting it on at work instead of shuffling all the way to work with it on. Although who knows what i'll feel like doing tomorrow.

Okay, off to bed before the ghouls get me.

2007-10-29T21:18:00.001-05:00

Okay, I'll try to make it quick. But I had to update this blog.
And sooon, the writing schedule will BEGIN!
YAY!
And then the blog will be more writerly, but right now, it will be about Geek stuff.

THIN AIR 2007
Awesome. HOT AIR blog by Ariel Gorden was tre cool, and the whole festival, despite it being a very, very, very trying and difficult year, was fantastic. I am very proud of myself, and the slim, thin, team (especially with one of our crew quitting on us at the end of August...). So far the set up for TA2008 is looking much, much milder, and calmer. I've already done two grants mostly by myself (some help from Charlene), which took me about three days this year - last year it took both of us a month and a half. Yup. THAT's an improvement. It can only look better from here-on-in.

MANITOBA COMICCON
Very cool. Very Geeky. Bought some comics (duh!) and some action figures. Hung out with friends from Brandon who came to stay with us, and it was all in all very relaxing and cool. ComicCon sucked my wallet dry, but filled my geeky soul with glee.

GAMES

Speaking of games, I just got my latest Ebay purchase in the mail today: HACK! the cardgame. Very cool!!!! And the dealer even shipped the decks in the display box the stores once used! Extra cool and geeky! Now I have a cool (and geeky, don't forget geeky) box to store the decks in. A very cool game: five different decks, representing four goofy characters and a DM from D&D. Players play down dungeon room cards, monsters, npcs, magic items, and so on, trying to find the fabled Hand of Vectra. As I said - cool.

HALLOWEEN
I'm a big halloween geek, although I haven't really had the opportunity to really explore it every year. Last year (and now this year) we didn't make it to a halloween costume party. Poo. That sucks. I'm SOOO going to dress up for work. Haven't decided what yet. I haven't really tried to put a cool costume together, so it might be a zombie or something gross. Heh.
I finally raked my leaves last week in the two hours it was dry, and bagged 'em. Today, I finally got to draw on them (as I do every year). Check out the photos!

Oh, the last one here is my poor pumpkin with no teeth. One fell off, the other was eaten by some creature of the night (and then frost killed the nub. Poor guy).

Okay, gotta go! Heroes is on!

Days away from THIN AIR 2007!!

2007-09-19T19:22:00.000-05:00

Well, it's almost here.
My first THIN AIR literary festival as the General Manager with the Winnipeg International Writers Festival.
Everything looks good, and of course there are the bumps to deal with. Ads not appearing when we've put them in...people and corporations taking advantage of our writers now that we have them here and NOT giving us credit for it (by CONTRACT all the THIN AIR visiting and local writers belong to THIN AIR and we have a say in what they can or can't do, and everything is still under our umbrella).

Wow. I'm getting so "corporate." Heh.

Okay, but in any case, it's been a long, slow, slog in some cases, with lots of long hours, many weekends, and some evenings to get this far. I can't even remember my damn financial courses I took waaaaay back in Jan-March of this year. Sheesh (I'll have to review my notes again...and to think I got 100% in the course. You'd think I'd retain SOME of that knowledge).

After this (not that I want it to be over so fast) I feel in my heart of hearts that I'll be able to control the workload a bit better. Take some days off, take some shorter days. AND DO SOME WRITING!!!

The goal is to have the 3rd draft of my one manuscript done by mid-November so that Anita Daher can read it for me!! Yay! Very exciting.
I plan on doing craploads of writing, Gaming, and Game Creation!! (which includes creating new games, working on older games I've already created, and playtesting them with friends and family! Some of these games have been sitting untested for about two years!! SAD! A CRIME!).

Okay, enough talk. Back to work (ugh).

At least I love my job ;-)

PerryCon2 Unprecedeted Success!

2007-09-06T21:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, yes it has been a LOOOOONG time since my last Blog entry. Oh well. I blame Facebook.

But, I thought this would be a better place to log my September long weekend Gaming extravaganza!

Basically, Tanya and I went out to Brandon to visit friends, and I went out to GAME! Jokingly, I refered to the weekend as PerryCon2 (PerryCon1 had been held two years ago).

Lowdown:
Friday, pick up cool rental car (red Hyundai somethingorother), drive out to Brandon after work.
Friday night: Cthulhu Munchkin with John, Mo and Pam, and Craig (along with Tanya and myself). Great night! Event though poor Pam spilled coke on some of my cards (she was devastated - and if I was 18 I would have been as well. Heh). Up till 2am Gaming and chatting. Good times.

Saturday morning: GM Breakfast at Humpty's; Perry and Tanya are joined by Craig, John and Amanda, and Tanya's friend Laura. A couple of skillets and eggs and pancakes later, we're ready for more Gaming. Well, after some shopping for food. Tanya and Laura head off to shop and hang out for the day.
Craig and I spend the rest of the afternoon and evening playing 2-player games: a couple of rounds of Wrasslin', a few hands of HACK! (KoDT card game), and the new boardgame Formidable Foes (great art, not so great rules). Tanya returns home and we play game of Groo the Wanderer before bed (earlier evening, 1am).

Sunday morning: sleep in, and set up Arkham Horror boardgame for that evening!
Sunday afternoon: Tanya and Perry search Brandon for a sportsbar that's open on Sunday, and settle in at Smitty's to watch the CFL Labour Day Classic (Winnipeg in Saskatchewan). Good game, but Bombers lose. Boo. Return to Craig's where we proceed to play a marathon game of Arkham Horror till 3am with Mo, John, Craig, Craig2 (can't remember his last name...), Xanthe, Richard Whidden, Graham, Tanya and myself. Very cool.

Monday morning: sleep in. Monday afternoon, Craig and I try out his Quebec "Stratego-esk" game. Very cool. A few more games of Wrasslin before Amanda and John come over for a great game of D&D minis. Then, a bunch more hands of Wrasslin before it's time to leave (sob!).

All in all, a very cool weekend of meeting with friends, Gaming with friends, and all around hanging out and relaxing. Pictures up on Facebook!!

We (the Festival) have a Book!

2007-08-08T22:36:00.000-05:00

After several weeks (months?) of slogging and program development and a week and -end of layout and editing, we have a book!
It still has a few bugs, but the paperback program is done! And it looks GREAT! The lineup is stellar (as usual) and the shows are spectacular (as usual) and the whole sheebang looks great.

Now we just need to advertise and get people out to see it.

In other news, Tanya and I went over to Dylan and Teena's last Saturday (Aug 4) for some BBQ Madness - the Dylan and Teena Meatfest 2007! It was great! They bought a whole tenderloin for everyone, cut it up and wrapped the pieces in bacon (yum!) and even had dogs, burgers and salads galore! Oh, and hot peppers stuffed with cheese. Crazy man.
Here's the link to my photo album in Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9913&id=738050849 (I'm not sure if you have to be a member to see it).

And my friends have lots of other shots from the evening. A great time all around.

Where's all that Time go anyway?...

2007-08-04T16:11:00.000-05:00

Wow! What happened to July!?!

I've been busy with the Writers Festival planning (very exciting!) and spending some time (not a lot) on Facebook, which is where I tend to post pictures now, since it is very easy to do.

I've got a "few" more cute kitty pics, which I'll post here in a bit (I'm actually at work right now).

Anything else exciting???
I finished up my gig as a Jurur with the Winnipeg Arts Council. That was very cool. A great experience, one I would gladly do again. And the money I got paid was enough to cover my new Ebay expenses! Gulp. Yup. Found a bunch of Heroclix figures I really wanted, and this one Seller had great prices, and FREE SHIPPING if you bought 3+ figures. Which I have.

One batch is already in the mail, the next should be in about a week (I still two days left on some auctions). Coolness.

I'm so addicted to Games. Heh.

Lazy Saturday

2007-07-21T09:12:00.000-05:00

I'm planning on spending the day reading through this binder of applications for WAC - I'm on a jury for one of their grants (can't say which...) and it's pretty cool. Never done this before. Monday is the jury meeting (all day). I've read through some of the apps, but today I'll spend all day doing so. Reading, relaxing, and hangin out with the new kitties. Tough day ahead.

Now let's just keep that heat (in my un-AC house) at bay...

Speaking of kitties, here's some pics of them! (for those who aren't my Facebook friend yet).
Speaking of Facebook, that tends to take some of my time away now, although NOT nearly as much as others. I try to only spend about 15 minutes a day on there. I'm not big into finding every single person I've every rubbed shoulders with in my lifetime. The applications are what make it fun, but there are SO many, you could spend a lifetime just going through those. I use it for what it is, and that's about it.

On with the kitties! First four are Basil, the last is Cora. You can't tell how small she is here, but she's tiny! And yes, I don't have any with both of them in it, so it looks like ONE cat instead of two. Trust me, there are two little scamps running about.

More kitty news!

2007-07-16T18:20:00.001-05:00

Second night was MUCH better. They're much more relaxed around us and the house. Cora slept at our feet pretty much all night (she's a blanket cat - loves her blankies!). Basil was exploring, checking out the windows, watching outside, playing with cat-toys on the floor. And sleeping on the floor. Only once (at about 4:30am) did he suddenly get a little hyper and bounce around on us - but less licking than the night before (thank God!).

They're so cute! I miss them here at work. Damn that softball game tonight! I won't be home till 10pm!

New members of the Household

2007-07-15T11:50:00.000-05:00

Well, we did it.
We went to D'Arcy's Arc yesterday and came back with not one, but two kitties!

They're brother and sister, Basil and Cora (their original names at the shelter were Bruncle and Connie, but they didn't fit...although Bruncle was a composite name for Brother-Uncle, because they were found together...with kittens...and it was highly suspicious that he was the father. Sick little incestuous kitties...heh!).

Anyways, they're adorable. If I had a damn digital camera, I'd post their little faces here. They're both tabbies, dark grey with black bands. Cora is a little dwarf kitty (teeny, tiny little body!) and Basil is a big oaf of a kitty. Both very affectionate. Although last night, they (especially Basil) were a wee bit TOO affectionate! Basil kept trying to lick my face and arms and neck and burrow under the blankets! Kept me up half the night, little stinker. I thought we bought a kitty, not a dog! First night for them, and lots to see. They should settle down in a couple of days.

Introducing them to the house is like introducing goldfish to an aquarium. A little at a time. Not that we don't want them the run of the house. They kinda freaked when we brought them home. Too much space!!! (compared to the shelter rooms they were living in). They're getting comfortable with upstairs, and slowly making their way downstairs. Cuties.

They're a little younger than we were looking for (they're both approximately a year old), so still very hyper and excitable. Well, Basil is. Cora is much more laid back. It's so cool to see their little personalities!

Okay, back to work. Cleaning up the house, and re-cat proofing the place! We've lived with lazy, fat, old cats for far too long! They didn't care about jumping up on counters and stuff. Plus, they knew they're boundaries. These youngins are just learning.

Cuties.

CrackBook

2007-07-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally did it. I joined Facebook.

Broke down. Had to, really. Badgered from all angles, positions, pinned down I was! Also, we at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival just put up our THIN AIR Facebook group page, so I needed to get on there to check it out and help monitor it.

Yeah. That's it.

Man, there is just too much to do on that Facebook. Haven't figured out half of it yet. Maybe 0.01% so far. I just DON'T have the time to devote to tooling around on it. I spent about two hours just setting it up, looking for a few people I knew were on there, and trying to just figure out how the thing worked. Not too bad. I can see how people spend HOURS on there.

I also totally agree with workplaces BLOCKING Crackbook. Makes sense to me!

Tanya and I have been shopping around for new kitties for our home. We've checked some dossiers out on line (some shelters have them posted). We'll take a good look this weekend. Who know? Maybe the house will have the pitter-patter of tiny paws sooner than I thought!

Empty House

2007-07-08T13:01:00.000-05:00

Our little kitty is in kitty heaven, and the house seems so quiet.

We pushed the appointment back by a day, so that we could have one more night with her, which was tearful, but very nice. Saturday morning we took her in, and Tanya and I spent the rest of the day walking the sun, and then getting a few giggles in at an afternoon movie matinee of Ratatoullie (quite funny). Evening spent with friends capped of a warm (sometimes sorrowful) Saturday.

Today is lazy day. Cleaning up, hanging out. I've got a softball game tonight, and Tanya's coming with me to watch me play and hang out.
This will only be my third game of the season!! I'm waaaaay out of practice (not that i was a stellar player anyways). But two of the games I was supposed to play in got rained out.
Should be a fun game tonight, probably with some drinks and hanging out later on tonight.

Feeling Helpless

2007-07-04T19:55:00.000-05:00

My cat is dying, and there's nothing I can do about it.

This is the place in life where one asks oneself, "do I consider pets to be disposal?" The answer for me, is no.

I don't call my cat "baby" or myself "daddy" (I think that's silly). But when you've spent 13 years living with the little furry being (who squawks hello to you, who runs to the door and greets you when you come home, who tactfully and purposefully ignores you when you really want to play with her (that's an art), who nestles in your lap while you're watching tv, or who nestles next to your feet or stomach when you're sleeping), it's hard to feel heartless.

Spot likes beer!

Spot was Tanya's cat, barely a year old when I first petted her furry head. She started to get to know me when her owner and I started dating. A year later Tanya and I moved in together, and suddenly Spot had a new roommate. She has always been a bit aloof, more independent than our other two cats (Exie and Cassie). But she has her charms and her ways. She's cuddly when she wants to be, and affectionate in her own way. Over the years she's grown much more affectionate.

Mine was the first lap she ever sat on, so I guess that makes me special in her eyes.

After we had to put her sister Cassie down last October, Tanya and I hoped to have Spot for a couple of more years. Now it looks like it will only be a few months.

She's suffering from kidney failure. Last week she had started to barely touch her food. We took her into the vet last Thursday, got some pills for a bladder infection and got the bad news about the kidney failure, but with the hope that she might still last a year or so.
Well, despite the medication, she has failed to eat anything. I put out a seven course dinner for her every morning, and refresh some of the dishes every evening. Barely a nibble here, a nibble there. And then she throws it up a few hours later. Her system can't digest anything anymore.
She's wasting away, and there's nothing we can do.

Early this morning, around 2 am, I woke up and found her in Tanya's studio, lying in her favourite window. She was barely moving, so tired from the heat, so weary from lack of food. I sat and petted her, and couldn't help but cry, knowing that she was going to die soon.

We've made an appointment for Friday evening to put her to sleep. It's hard to think she'll be gone in two days. I came home from work today and just sat with her. I can't think about it too much. Even writing this is hard. But it's for the best for her.

Pictures from last Christmas:

Spot finds stocking.............Spot opens stocking

Spot finds catnip! .............Spot plays with ribbon!

Spot with loot...................Spot under tree

Spot napping after Christmas morning

I could cook an egg on my computer...

2007-06-24T17:59:00.000-05:00

Damn it's hot.

Okay, yes, it has been a while since the last blog update. But, as the last entry stated: "I'M ALIVE" and Happy!

Okay, quick summary of the last few weeks.

My week of vacation (June 7 - 14) was EXcellent. BookExpo Canada kicked butt. Saw a whole mess of excellent writers (Clive Barker, Sean Cullen, Stephen King (yup!), Richard Scrimger, and of course, Anita Daher! Yay!), and got a whole mess of free books (cool). The vacation part was most relaxing, and Tanya and I had a blast. We walked Yonge, King, Queen, Bloor, Dundas, went into Little Italy, Korea Town, China Town, Greek Town. We ate at a bunch of little restaurants, and only once at a big chain (Hard Rock Cafe, but c'mon! We don't have any of those in Winnipeg...).

This last week has been quite good. I seem to have control over the stress levels at work again (always good). Did a lot of work at work, and a bit of cleaning up at home.

These last two days have also been quite good, in regards to Cleaning House. Literally.

I have begun Phase 1 of "Project Basement" which is actually STEP 1 in "Getting the Damn House Organized" MegaProject. I built (with my own two little hands) a bunch of shelves in one corner of our basement. Woo-hoo! They look good! And sturdy. You could use them as bunk beds (as Tanya pointed out).

Today I've been purging a bunch of "garbage" from the basement, as I was filling the new shelves. Let me tell you, long past due! Now that I've acutally started on the shelf building, Phase 2 involves building a few walls in the basement, a few more shelves, and then reorganizing the entire basement so we can actually USE IT!

I've been planning, and sketching, and planning (in between loads of laundry and cleaning up). It's gonna be GOOD!

Oh. And the writing. Gonna get to that writing! I meant to do some this weekend but it is so hot in the office right now, I could cook an egg on my computer (see how neatly I worked the title into the blog? Heh.)

But I will! Promise! I've already been looking at the 3rd draft, making plans. I've got some great ideas on how to improve it. Very exciting.

Life is so much better.

I'm Alive!!!

2007-06-05T17:23:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to say, yes, I am alive. Tired. A bit worn out. Excited to see the end of it, and that the end will be merciful (heh-heh).

I'm on the tail end of two grant applications, and they will be done for sure in the next week and a bit. My parts will be done by tomorrow, and then my director just has to put the finishing touches on the text parts and viola! Done!

And then, Toronto! BookExpo! Vacation for a few days! Yay!!

Now, I'm finally excited. It took the sacrifice of PrairieCon (yes, I ended up cancelling on them, which really bummed me out, and bummed some of my friends out there, but it was a necessary evil), but the Toronto trip will be well worth it. And I can then plan out the rest of my festival work schedule (taking care of those deadlines creeping up!), and my WRITING SCHEDULE!

Can't wait to start really digging into the 3rd draft of the Ghostcatchers Club, for which I got my WAC grant for. That'll start third week of June after my return for Toronto.

Okay, I've got an article to write for PrairieBooks NOW tonight (finally getting to it). At least it's different than writing a grant...

Later.

Stress Excess

2007-05-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Ugh.
I have not been this stressed in years.
Double Ugh.

I know this is supposed to be a blog about my writing (writing? what's that???) but right now, at this time, my job is my life. And I need to use the blog to vent.
Which, is not a bad thing - I still like my job, believe it or not - it's just that too many deadlines make for a stressed out Perry.

I was stressed this morning, knowing that I had two final reports to finish this week (one is 98% done, the other about 35% done), and get a big, big start on the APC application due June 15. Now, that doesn't seem bad, lots of time till June 15, right??
Well, I'm suppossed to be going to PrairieCon this weekend (Friday till Monday), then I'm back on Tuesday, Wednesday, and then gone to Toronto from Thursday till the following Thursday.

Boiled down, I have 5 working days left till the 15th of June.
Triple Ugh.

Oh, and then today, just today, I found out that another grant application, which has been due for the end of June for years, just THIS year, they have changed it to the end of May.
Ha-ha. May. That's THIS week.
Quadruple Ugh.
I have a headache.

I'm seriously thinking of backing out of PrairieCon (which is bad, because I'm not just a guest there but a member who is supposed to be running three games, and I have prize support to bring out, and registration fees from a Winnipeg games store). And most of my friends in Brandon I only see once a year, at this convention.
But, backing out will give me four full work days. It might not be a choice.

Ugh.

Yay!! I'm a Writer! A Real Writer! They say so!

2007-05-22T20:04:00.000-05:00

By "they" I of course mean the Winnipeg Arts Council!

Got my letter in the mail today, and it was good! I was awarded the $2000 Individual Artist Grant to work on the third draft of my kids book The Ghostcatcher Club! Yay me!

Now, I just have to get through these next few weeks of grant report/application hell, enjoy myself at PrairieCon, and then off to Toronto for BookExpo!!

And THEN, come mid June, I can start in on this third draft, and slowly work on it for the next 6 to 8 months. Yay!!! AND I can start soliciting Anita (the talented!) to see if she'll have time to read through the manuscript in a few months time (not right away- I need to work on it a bit first).

Whew! Exciting!

Looking forward to PrairieCon, Brandon's annual weekend long Gaming convention! (June 1, 2,3 this year) I go every year, and I even help run and organize it (although this year I didn't do any organizing, just complaining that I was too busy in my new job to help organize or sell any advertising for the booklet). I'm running three games this year, and for the first time I will take part in the Dungeons&Dragons tournament. Cool.

I'm such a Geek! Yay!!

And Toronto in just a few weeks! Off to BookExpo and then a couple of extra days after the convention to relax and visit friends, the ROM, the CN Tower, and to enjoy Evil Dead: The Musical!! (got our tickets a few weeks back. Should be fun!).

Last night I played my first Softball game of the season. Not too bad. Caught a pop fly and got a couple outs. Hit a couple of nice balls. Also missed a bunch of easy catches. Heh! That's the great thing about my team - no one cares! You're all there to have fun! I'm a little sore today, but it's a good sore. I guess...

I'm taking tonight off from work (yuck) to relax my brain and read Martha Brooks' new book Mistik Lake. I'm reading it for PrairieBooks NOW and get to interview her for an article. Cool.

And tomorrow: season finale of LOST! Cool.
Not that I watch a lot of TV, but Heroes was cool yesterday. As was Smallville on Sunday (Bizarro! Kick ass!).

Man. I AM a Geek.
Yay me!!

I'm alive!!

2007-05-14T21:24:00.000-05:00

Well, the week of triple stress threat is over.
Welcome to your new life!

The Ondaatje event was beautiful, and the Prairie Fire benefit on Saturday was delicious. Neil Besner (as host for the evening) was gracious and funny, and Lori Cayer read wonderful poetry (about drugs...not so wonderful, but she made it sound nice...) and David Bergen shared with us the first part of his new, not even yet finished, book!! Very cool.

Did I mention I got to take home the left over sweats and treats again? Yummy.

Any day now I should know if I received a writing grant from WAC. Exciting! Well, if I don't get it (Depressing!) I'll be fine. Really. Mildly hurt. Somewhat incensed. A bit miffed. But I'll live.

But if I DO get it, it will be great incentive to get my third/fourth draft done of the Ghostcatcher Club! And hopefully, mercifully, sometime in the next three months, the very talented Anita Daher will be able to take a quick read of the updated draft (for money of course - I budgeted for it in my grant app), which will REALLY make working on it worthwhile!

Here's hoping! Keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed!

Ondaatje Success

2007-05-10T22:16:00.000-05:00

It's over. And it was very, very good.

A near sell out crowd at the MTYP centre for Michael Ondaatje. Everything went relatively smoothly, the conversation between Charlene and Ondaatje was great, relaxed and interesting, and we had more than enough wine for everyone. And many, many people remarked at how great the evening was.

And heck, we even made a little money.

Today was tear-down, waiting around for pickups (PartyStuff glasses and the EQ3 furniture used on stage), having our open house for our beautiful new renovated office space, eating tons of left over grapes and stinky cheese, and then wrapping silent auction (sorry, RAINBOW auction) prizes for the PrairieFire benefit on Saturday.

And somewhere inbetween I'm trying to find bits of time to finish up a nomination entry for my friend Ariel for the WAC Rising Artist award for the Mayor's Luncheon on June 15.

Whew.

Michael Ondaatje TODAY!

2007-05-09T07:29:00.000-05:00

Ugh. Stress. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it hurts.

The first benefit I'm helping to organize is tonight. Award winning author Michael Ondaatje. There is as much prep for this one evening event as there is for a week-long festival!!
I'll be glad when it's over (although I'll try to enjoy it).

Then, prep-time for the Prairie Fire benefit at Fort Gibraltar on Saturday. Man, this week can't be finished fast enough (which is kinda sad, since both of these events will be fun!)

I'll try to enjoy myself.

Then next week will be DOING THE DAMN GRANTS week. Ugh ugh.

What Good Luck, What Bad Luck

2007-05-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

Ugh. What a day.

First, woke up in the morning, went to check the weather on the computer (I don't turn my computer off, just the monitor), turned on the monitor and was greeted by the Blue Screen Of Death. AAAAHHH!!! (as in, surprise and alarm).
Okay, no need to panic. Read through the dialogue on the screen, okay it says try a reboot, okay, no problem, this sometimes happened on my old computer, a little "hiccup" that's all, yeah, that's all.
So, I hit restart and wait. A bunch of computer mumbo jumbo comes up as normal when you first turn on your computer, then some other stuff.

Translation: You Have No Hardrive.

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! (as in surprise and alarm).

Basically, the hardrive had a catastrophic meltdown. SHIT!! Well, I think most of my stuff was backed up. Hopefully.

The computer is three years old and has a five year warranty, so no problems there. But, ugh, all the rebooting, resetting, and reformating. Not looking forward to it. Not to mention I have to find time to do it. And did I mention Ondaatje event and Prairie Fire event both next week????

Ugh.

Now the Good News: I saw Spider-Man 3 tonight! Perfect seats (right smack in the middle). Great movie. Kinda hokey and corny in parts, but hey, it's a comic book movie. Lots of funny stuff. And the action, and special effects KICKED ASS! Venom was soooooo cool. And Sandman was great!! And the way they melded all the villains into the movie was great, especially at the end of the movie, was GREAT!! Overall: GREAT.

Will I see it again? HELL YEAH!

Okay. Time to sign off (thank God for the laptop from work).

So, a warning to everyone: BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER REGULARLY!

And DON'T use crappy OUTLOOK EXPRESS for your email!!! If I had, I would have lost ALL MY EMAILS! I use gmail and mts (as backup), so even when the computer goes kablooie, the email is aaaaall safe. And Gmail is great for backing up files (with 2.6 GIGS of email storage).

Okay, really signing off now. Later!

It's my Birthday Blog!

2007-05-03T23:58:00.000-05:00

Yay! One more sleep till Spider-Man 3!

Excellent.

I spent the day working, meeting Tanya for supper at the mall cuz she was working (Koya Japan - yum!), and then spent the evening, alone, playing video games. Ah well. It was relaxing in any case.

Wow. Most exciting Blog. Ever. Heh.

Oh, I guess I can mention what Tanya gave me for my birthday: a small, spider-man plushy doll (cute), Futurama season 4 on DVD (yay!), some spider-man playing cards (very cool art on them!), a couple of mini-spidermen figures (does my wife know me, or what?), and a nice white shirt. (I'm trying to find the receipt for the shirt so I can get a refund and get more spidey stuff! Kidding. It's a nice shirt).

I'm already planning out where to put a bit more shelving in the office to fit the new Spidey figs. Yup. I'm a geek! And proud of it!

These are the people in your Neighbourhood, in your Neighbourhood...

2007-05-02T22:41:00.000-05:00

So, I'm walking home from work in the Exchange, up Portage Ave, and I run into three interesting people.

Person #1: I'm walking, enjoying the weather, dodging pigeon shit on the sidewalk, the occaisional horked spitball. I look up, see this woman, and my brain goes "hey! you know her!" but the other part of my brain freezes up, the part that holds all the names (the rolodexy part of the brain), and it's apparently gone home for the day. The woman says "hi" and at the last minute before I have to save myself with a "hey YOU!" I remember - Victoria! Ian's girlfriend! We chat, her bus comes and I continue walking. A pleasant encounter.

Person #2: A short while later, just before Portage Place, the sidewalk clears for just a few minutes, and I'm alone. Well, almost alone. There's a homeless dude ambling up the sidewalk towards me. I try to sidestep left, right, left again, then make eye contact. Ugh. "Hey, buddy!" he says, and grabs my hand and shakes it, laughs, pats me on the shoulder. I laugh, waiting for the inevitable, "Can you help me out?" I take out a couple of quarters (all I got) and he seems happy. Not something I usually do. There are much better ways to help the unfortunate, really good programs and missions out there for food, outreach, shelter. I don't believe in giving money. Too easy to misuse. In any case, he seemed happy.

Person #3: A short while later, like a block away, I cross the street. Some dude is leaning against the corner of Portage Place mall. Jeans, jean jacket, shoulder length dirty blonde greasy hair. Not homeless greasy. Trendy greasy. I happen to look his way and he says, "Hey, wanna buy some drugs?" I give him my patented "I'm acknowledging you" hand wave, and the patented "No, sorry man," as in "sorry I have no change to give you."
I walk a few more feet and then what he asked me suddenly hits home.
Drugs? WTF?!?
Do I look like a druggie? A crack ho? A strung out University Student??? Did I forget to put my crack pipe away? Forget to wipe the powder off my nostrils?? Holy crap!
And the guy didn't even try to disguise it, which really made me laugh. No "code words" or anything. Just, drugs.
Weird.
That hasn't happened in a long time.

In any case, it was a pleasant walk home. Drug free.

Manitoba writers and publishers shine!

2007-04-29T00:03:00.000-05:00

Wow! What a great evening. I'm still all aglow. And I didn't even win an award! (heck, not even nominated).

The Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards. A great evening for rubbing shoulders with writers, publishers, and me! I think about where I was five years ago (working in a warehouse, writing on the side), and where I am now (president on the board of Prairie Fire magazine, GM of the WIWF, still writing on the side) and the number of Manitoba artists, writers, poets and publishers I know now, and I just love it. Every bit of it! Wow! What happened?!? Heh.

Congratulations to Anita Daher for winning the John Hirsch award for most promising writer! You deserve it!! I'm so glad she'll be joining the WIWF this year on our school stage. Yay!!

And Faith Johnston SWEEPING the big awards with her book A Great Restlessness. I had a hand in geting her one award (The Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction) and her book sure deserved it. Being a jury member was great. Who knows what I'll be asked to do next??

Hmmmm...writing on the side...Full Burn? Where art thou??
Soon, my friends, soon. I've had bigger writing to fry - grant proposals. Not as exciting, but very, very necessary for my bread and butter. But soon!

Promise.

Oh, and only six more sleeps till SPIDER-MAN 3!! Can't wait!
Oh, and my birthday in five more sleeps. Ick. The big Three Seven. Ay Carumba!!

Just a gigolo, and everywhere he goes...

2007-04-25T20:22:00.000-05:00

Wow. Days flyin' by. Busy, busy, bees.

Poor bees. Have you heard? Billions dying around the world. One theory is cell phones. Yup. Radio waves screw up their little heads, they leave the hive, and never come back. Poor bees.

My scientist-sister-in-law blew holes through this theory though: if it was cell phone usage, then the massive bee deaths would have started in England (which has the highest rate of cell phone usage in the world for the longest time), instead of starting in one part of the U.S. (as reported) and slowly spreading outwards.
In any case: cell phones = evil!

And I might be getting one for my job. Ick.

I'm a no-car person. Walk, bus, and ride bike (and bum rides).
Weird people on the bus. Other day good looking dude gets on, dressed sharply (black leather jacket, nice shirt, black pants, white stylish shoes, bald, well groomed, you get the picture). Heavy accent. Starts talking to me, I keep up the conversation cuz I'm in a good mood so no problems there, plus the fact I'll be getting off in five minutes. He starts telling me he's seeing three girls tonight, one after the other.
Wow, I say, busy night.
Ya, he says.
He goes on to explain how he came from Israel two years ago. A barber by trade.
I take quick glance to his bald head. Hmm, I say.
Do you want to know how I've been sustaining myself for the last six months, he asks.
I nod.
I'm a gigolo, he says.
Really, I say.
Ya. Palomino Club. Great place to meet women, he says. They're like 42, 43, but that's cool.
Ah, I say.
Ya, he says. They give me money. I don't ask for it. They buy me gifts. Clothes. (He points to the shoes) Versache, he says.
I nod. Nice. My stop, gotta go.
Come with me, he says. We'll have fun.
I laugh.
Probably, I say. I know you will.

I spent the evening playing Destroy all Humans on my PS2. Quite a different evening, I would say.

Another week flown, wiser and happier

2007-04-15T09:02:00.000-05:00

Wow. Time is just FLYing by!

At least this time, it was a good week. Got the raffle stuff for WIWF up and going, and it looks like that's going to work out okay (launching the sale of tickets at the Ondaatje event), got the final advertising finalized for the Ondaatje event, so that will be plastered all over Winnipeg next week, and then I'm sure the ticket sales will spike!

And, of course, I did my favourite thing on Friday night: GAME!

I'm such a geek. Love games. Boardgames, cardgames, rpgs, miniature games, games, games GAMES!

So, Frank ran a small Marvel Superheroes game on Friday here at my abode. An old game. Developed back in 1985. I prefer to talk in dates and not years. To say "Hey, we played this game 22 years ago!" makes my stomach turn. Scary. Heh-heh. But it's still loads of fun as a "beer&pretzel" game! Make a superhero and beat up some supervillains! Fun!

Oh, and then Saturday, I went down to Imagine Games (in the Exchange) and picked up a new game: Munchkin Cthulhu!

It's so goofy! Can't wait to play it.
http://www.sjgames.com/munchkin/munchkincthulhu/

Today is my Dad's second birthday. Yup. He was actually born on April 4 but someone at the hospital mixed up his birth certificate date with another kid's and so his certificate says April 16. Lucky guy! Two birthdays! Not that he gets double presents. Heh.

Love this weather. Wakes up the brain. Also, I've been walking to work all week. Blood has really been pumping better, although the hip joints are feeling it. I think I'll walk another week or two to build up the leg muscles before switching to bike (my prefered summer transport). I've got to get my legs in better shape before softball season starts in May! Ugh. I'm a lump. I think the first two weeks of practice are gonna hurt. Heh.

Okay, back to the computer. FULL BURN has not completely fallen off my radar, I promise! I've just been sideshowed by other obligations (there's that "writers block" again...), but everything is starting to really come together and smoooooth out. Without so much stress, it's easier to concentrate on other things.

Like words in my brain that that reach my fingers.
Later!

First Robin of 2007!

2007-04-07T14:21:00.000-05:00

Hey! I just saw my first red breasted robin.

Does that mean Spring is actually here?? Sure can't tell from that wicked north wind out there.
Stock Footage of Robin courtesy of the internet.

WARNING: Robin I actually saw may not be this one!

I made a quick jaunt to Harry's Foods to pick up some commerical Easter chocolate for Tanya, and some salady making stuff for Easter dinner tomorrow at my brother's house. Should be fun. Big family gathering and all.

Yesterday was great. Spent the afternoon at a friend's house playing boardgames, and then Tanya and I went to MTC to enjoy The Constant Wife. We weren't actually intending on going, until Anita Daher told me how fantastic it was. So we trusted her instincts, and it really was quite an excellent play.
Thanks for the tip Anita!

For tonight, I think we'll just be resting on the couch, maybe watch a movie. Nothing strenuous. It was such a tense and long week last week (for a short week!) that I really need to just rest and think of nothing much but rest. Maybe dig a little deeper into David Bergen's "The Case of Lena S" which I'm already well into.

Ugh.

2007-04-06T08:27:00.000-05:00

Okay. That was a week from Hell. Seventh Level I think.

Among my other JackofallTrades skills, I'm also the president on the board of directors for Priarie Fire magazine. Our AGM was Wednesday night, and since we have not had a business meeting since January (the one in Feb had to be cancelled), we also had a "short" business meeting AFTER the AGM. Needless to say, Wednesday was a long day for me - in at 8am, out at 8:30pm. Bleh.

And then yesterday (Thursday for those at home keeping track), again another 12 hour day. Finished selling some advertising for the MWPA (yes, I do too much, as Chandra Mayor chided me on Wednesday), did some number crunching for our Ondaatje event for May 9, had a meeting, then met with the auditor for 3.5 hours. And also found out some "lovely" news.

The raffle which we (the Writers Festival) had been preparing for, which we were going to start selling in a week's time, can't go ahead. Even though we planned on making less than $4000, we still need a license!!! And this is mostly my fault because I had done the initial research in January, searching the manitoba gaming commissions website for 2.5 hours. What I found led me to believe that we only needed a licencse if we were anticipating net revenues of over $5000. Little did I know there was ANOTHER form for "community" raffles under $5000. And now we have to apply and wait a minimum of 3 weeks to get a license #.

Needless to say, I found this out in the middle of the audit. So the rest of the audit was kinda dreamlike. After he left I felt so sick that I thought I was either going to cry or vomit or both. I sat and brooded and refused to go home. Then I spent the next four hours getting everything ready for the application for next week, and examining a website for grants and foundations which I had planned on doing anyways, but this was as good excuse as any to make time now. I finally managed to make myself leave near 8:30pm or so. After some mindless tv and gorging on snacks and talking it out with Tanya, I felt a bit better, not so guilty. I know it isn't 100% my fault (heck, we don't even have all the prizes accounted for, and you need to list them on the application), and technically the raffle isn't even my responsibility - it's the board's (the Writers Festival). But I did some of the initial research on my own, and gave false info and for that I feel miserable.

My consolation is that we can still save this raffle - instead of having Ondaatje draw the winning ticket at our May 9 event (which was our plan) we can have the event as the raffle "kick off." Start selling tickets there. With luck, we'll have 300 people there, and we can sell 300 of our 450 tickets. That would be a great way to start. And then have the draw near the end of May or June to give us plenty of time to sell the rest of the tickets.

Also, we haven't printed any tickets yet, we don't have all the prizes, and we haven't even advertised this raffle, all of which make me feel a little better. But guilt is so very powerful sometimes, especially when you are seen as reliable and responsible. Ugh.

Okay. Ugly post, but I needed to say it. Apolgies for the angst.

Needless to say, Full Burn has been postponed yet again. My hopes is that next week will slow down quite a bit (although April is going to be busy all through).

And after all this, I still love my job. Heh. Weird.

Okay, off to play board games for the afternoon, and off to see an MTC play in the evening. I was assured by a reliable source that it was very good. The best in years, in fact. I'll let you know.

Later.

Slow down Time! Slow down!

2007-03-31T21:27:00.000-05:00

What happened to the last week of March!!?!!

Okay, I blinked and it's like April. Well, almost April at the time of this posting.

Last week was a blur. Reports, meetings, office renos up the wazoo! Writing? What's writing??

This is why I'm not published yet. Too much "writers block" as my good friend, and ex-Wolseley Writing Group partner would say.
Writers Block. Not so much a block of ideas, but a block TO those ideas, as in laundry that has to get done, the dishes, the garden planted, grant reports to pay for my job, and oh yeah! Office Renos!! Which, although a pain in the buttocks, have come along nicely and will make my whole work experience that much more pleasant in the weeks, months and hopefully years to come. New paint, carpet, new furniture. It'll be nice!

Which brings us back to writing. My poor abandoned story that I read out at Aqua Books on March 21 (Aaaahh, the memories...) and promised to post the rest of here, at me wittle blog, on Thursday, March 29.
Well, that never happened.
I'm hoping to finish it off (the last page!) in the next few days and post it next week. It's a small goal to meet, but with last week now behind me, it is totally do-able! Yay!

I did a lot of walking around today and boy I'm bushed. Not used to it anymore. That's what happens when you go from walking 30 minutes to the bus (twice a day), and then slinging heavy freight around a warehouse, to walking 2 minutes to the bus (twice a day mind you), and then slinging my lazy butt in a chair in front of a computer for the last six months. I'm getting all flabby and lazy and my pathetic muscles have left the building!

At least Spring is attempting to come out, and soon I'll be biking to work! Yay!

Oh, speaking of Yay! One month and 4 days till SPIDER-MAN 3!!
I was sorta bad and picked up a bunch of action figures today. Heh-heh. I'm a bit of a "collector" of Spider-man stuff. Those who have seen my office know what I mean.

But, as a professional toy connoisseur, and Spider-Man freak, I must say I have to give the new Spider-Man 3 toys a decent 8 out of possible 10!

They're totally cool! Collectible for the collector (that's me!) and playable for kids! They're smaller than the new breed of 9" figures, coming in at a respectable and easily playable 6", and they're actually figures! Not "action playing figures" as in "Spider-man with water squirting action" or "Spider-man with jumping backpack squirting action" or "Spider-man with purple suit and transforming sword"

Transforming sword!?! What the!?!

These are actually Spider-Man figures which kids can play with! Someone up in Toy Land was listening to my rants to the Universe. Kids don't need stupid accesories which don't belong with the superhero...they just want the superhero to play with! And villains to fight! This new set of toys comes out with no less than 8 different villains, and ToysRUs had lots of them!

Da Deadly Sandman! The New Goblin!

The Scorpion! Doc Ock!

The Rhino! The Green Goblin!

Kraven da Hunter! The Lizard!

Not like the debacle of the Spider-Man 2 toys, where there were a ton of different stupid Spider-Men with stupid accesories, and 1 Doctor Octopus figure per 10 Spidey figures (which the industry likes to call the "chase" figure because, I guess, people like me were chasing them all over the fricken city looking for them!).

The mentality is that collectors like me will buy the case of 10 figures just to get the 1 Doc Ock figure. They figured wrong.
And what about the kids?!? Sure, they could get tons of different Spideys, but no villains to fight!?? What brainiac suit-and-tie thought of this!?

BUT NOW, we have the Spider-Man 3 figures. Much better set these Spider-Man 3 figures. Much better.

Okay, I've talked way too long about Spider-Man 3 action figures.
I'm such a Geek.
Yes, I'm a Man-Child. I admit it. I'm soft. I lead a soft easy life. I've never had to chop wood to survive, or milk a cow, or build my house out of sod. But I can enjoy myself, can't I?

How else can I enjoy writing and reading children's books, I ask you. I've got to keep that child in me alive! Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket. Heh!

Okay, early next week, the complete story of "Full Burn." I promise!

Aqua Books Picture Pages

2007-03-24T01:25:00.000-05:00

Good friend and organizer of the Aqua Books reading series, Ariel Gordon, is also an avid photobug and manged to snap a couple of pics of myself, Anita and Martha. Anita's blog has a few nice pictures (check it out! http://anitadaher.blogspot.com/) and here's one of meself reading at the pulpit of doooom. (click to enlarge for even more pulpit goodness).

"Hear me, O Great Writing Gods!"

Kelly was a great host for the evening, and I really enjoyed the whole experience!

Just got back from the Melvins residence, after an enjoyable evening of cardgame madnesssss with Brett, Kim, Suzie, Frank and me wittle wife Tanya! Munchkin. It's so good. And Evil. We played Munchkin Possible, the spy version of the card game. Very cool. For more info, check out Steve Jackson's website for all the munchkin evilness. http://www.sjgames.com/munchkin/game/

Post Reading Buzz

2007-03-21T23:15:00.000-05:00

Wow!
The reading tonight at Aqua Books was great. I had forgotten how much fun it was to actually share your work with people! It's been a long time...

Not a large crowd, but that's okay. Like my director Charlene says, it doesn't matter if you are 7 or 700, you are still a gathering. And you've got to remember that those seven are there for the same reason as those mythical 700, so you better give them your 100%!

I really enjoyed hearing Anita and Martha read. And Martha really opened my mom's eyes to the wonderful world of Young Adult literature - so much of it is written so well, that it can be enjoyed (and is!) by youth and adults!

Okay. Time for sleep.
Oh, one thing: I only had time to read about half of my story, and promised in an early entry that I would post the rest of it on Thursday. Would I be evil if I promised it NEXT Thursday? Heh-heh. I need the time to polish the ending off and make it sound good. Plus, I've stupidly busy at work for the rest of the week! EEK!

Sleep now.

Just saying "NO!"

2007-03-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

Well. I did it.
And I feel guilty as hell.

I finally said "no" to something. Really. Honest.

For the last five years I've done the advertising for the PrairieCon program (www.prairiecon.com), a Gaming convention of geeks, nerds and whatnots, out in Brandon, who get together for three days (always the first weekend in June) to Game, Game, Game! Boardgames! Cardgames! Miniature Games! RPGs!

It's Nerd Nirvana, let me tell you.

I've made some great friends out in the Brandon area because of that convention, so it's kinda special to me in that way (besides the games). And it's cool being on the events committee to help organize the whole shebang. And hell, I've won the short story contest twice! (Note: independent judges, not friends, read the stories, btw).

But this year, there is just no way, no how, no sir.

With my new job as GM of the WIWF, and two benefits coming up in early May, there's no way I'll have time in April to shop around for ads. No way.
Benefit #1:
Prairie Fire Magazine Spring dinner with David Bergen and Lori Cayer at Fort Gibraltar
Benefit #2:
WIWF Micahel Ondaatje reading at MTYP with big raffle prize

So. There you have it. I'm a heel. Heh-heh.

Funny thing is, that's the core of my little story I'm writing for Wednesday's reading at Aqua Books - all about taking on too much for your little brain to handle. But if you want to hear more of it, you'll have to come to the reading!
Or, wait until Thursday when I post it on my Blog here. But it won't be the same without the voice inflections, hand gestures, and Ariel taunting me from the back row.

Blood, boxes and Cthulhu

2007-03-16T23:37:00.000-05:00

Holy!!! It's Friday already!?

Correction. It's almost over. Man, this week went fast. I've spent some lots of time at work packing up boxes for our upcoming (and exciting) reno projects! New paint! Carpets!! New Furniture! Yay!

Not without it's share of headaches, but it'll be all worth it in three weeks when we're settled into our new digs.

Saw the movie "300" last night with Frank. Man. Awesome. If you like Fantasy movies with lots of violence and blood. Yup. I do! It seems the critics are totally torn on this movie: you either love it because it's an art movie, or you hate it because it's an art movie. Weird.
Oh! But it had a new Spider-Man 3 preview!!! Whoo-hoo!!! Venom! Tre-Excellent.

"Prepare for Gory!"

Got to unwind tonight with a little board-gaming action. Love boardgames. And cardgames. And RPG's. Hell, I love games. Played "Arkham Horror" based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos books. Very cool. Deadly.

Here's the box cover (click for larger pic)

And here's what some of the board looks like. Very cool. Lots of fiddly bits.

Okay, but now it's the weekend! Yay! A whole weekend of working on writing for my reading at Aqua Book next Wednesday (YIKES!) and studying for my financial course final on Tuesday (YIKS!) and my final financial assignment on Tuesday (YAKS!)

Less Diary More Writery

2007-03-11T09:07:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days of no blogging, but that's okay.

I wanted to start getting away from the "Diary" style blog ("...so then I walked to class, and I found a loonie, and I bought some gum with that loonie, and then I walked some more, and then...") and blog about just the important things that have been happening, and suchwith notforth.

So. Well. Here we are. Less diary. More excitment. Hmmmm.

Okay, well the crux is, nothing toooo exciting happened. Charlene (Director of WIWF) and I managed to put the polish on snazzy looking new sponsor package for (you'd never guess) potential sponsors. I also started in on a new short story. Yay! Plan is to work on that today.

I'm almost finished David Bergen's The Time Inbetween. I figured, you know, if he's going to be our guest at the PrairieFire Magazine Spring Benefit, I better read at least one of his books. Quite good, I must say.

Oh, I ran my pirate-based D&D game on Friday! Yes, I play Dungeons&Dragons. So shoot me. It's sometimes the only way some of my friends and I can get together. And it's creatively fun!
The session was quite hilarious. Brett's character was swallowed by a purple worm. Mwha-ha-ha!! I'm evil. Here's a pic of the miniature. (click the image for a larger, more menacing pic).

For those not in the know, when you play D&D you tend to have a grid mat on the table, where everyone has a miniature representing themselves, and the Dungeon Master (that's me) draws on the mat the map of the dungeon, and places monsters and other encounters as necessary. And then we play out the encounters with dice, and some roleplaying, and a lot of eating of chips and drinking of scotch. Not a bad way to spend a night.

(generic picture of a typical D&D game - not my own)

For more information on Dungeons & Dragons, check out the wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons

Okay, back to the reading, writing, and some homework for today. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Children of Coolness

2007-03-06T22:56:00.000-06:00

Whew. Two days of financial classes. My poor dumb brain. It's trying to get smart. Silly brain.

Saw the movie "Children of Men" tonight. Wow. Amazing. Nothing like the book (according to Tanya) but still very cool. She really enjoyed it as well. This is a movie critics and movie lovers will study for years to come. Some of the shots and scenes were simply unbelievable. And raw. The action wasn't exciting-fun "Schwarzenegger" action; it was gritty, bite your tongue, dig your nails into your spouse's leg, tense, exciting-shit-scary action. Awe inspiring. And scary. The movie just feels so close to home, like, we're only a few years away from shitting all over the world even worse than we are now. I'd like to think that if (when?) things go to Hell in a handbasket that humans would pull together and help each other. Maybe in some places. But survival of the most desperate is the more likely scenario. Have I lost faith in humanity? Hard to hold onto it when you watch the news sometimes...

I always remember scenes from 28 Days Later, and even the new War of the Worlds, where the human spirit takes a turn for the worst. The scariest scene I've seen in years was in War of the Worlds, when Cruise's character and his kids get stuck on the road, surrounded by the mob. It was scary because there weren't any aliens or heroes around. Just desperate humans.

Crazy man.

Boy. Late night blogging sure is depressing. Heh.

Maybe I'm thinking apocalyptic because I have an audit tomorrow at work. Heh!

Well, let's end on a high note: webswinging high note that is!!
2 months less 2 days till Spider-Man 3!!!!
(click thumbnails for closer coolness)

Weekend come and gone

2007-03-04T18:06:00.000-06:00

Saturday was busy with an all day Prairie Fire board of directors seminar. Quite good (if you're into that sort of thing). We had an expert on board governance fly in from Toronto to give us a little Q&A and seminar. Fantastic food - Janine (on of the PF staff) had food ordered from Mondragon, and OMG! Spanakopita, samosa, a multitude of dips for pitas and chips. Yum!!

Tanya's dad and step-mum came in from Snow Lake last night, so we went and met them for drinks and snackies at the Elephant & Castle. Quite nice.

Then today was "HandyMan Day." I had to put a couple of stop-valves on the tub, on account of the taps leaking.
Now you're asking, "But Perry, why didn't you just change the taps?" Easier said than done. We have a quite complicated contraption that dates back to 1926 (the date our house was built), and to replace it would cost several hundred dollars! Which we don't have right now. Soon. So now, we can control the drip with the stop-valves. Quite handy, I must say so myself.
I'll post pictures later.

Thank God for Dylan and Teena's car. We have it for the next week while they're in Scotland (lucky ducks). Going back and forth to Rona for the parts I needed (and then returned when they were the wrong parts, and needed different parts) was VERY handy!
We don't own a car for a variety of reasons, but man, there are times when you just need one.

Like getting tons of groceries (which we did after the minor bathroom reno). Yay! Now we can eat something besides old carrots, dried bread ends, and not-quite-crisp-anymore apples.

Now, it's time to relax and read. This week I've promised myself to delve into my writing; rereading some of my old stories and manuscripts, so I can get to speed on rewriting something (or completely writing something new) for my Aqua Books evening of reading! Yay!

I've also had a couple of board and card game ideas brewing in my head that need clarifying on the computer and then some playtesting...

Arts for Brain = Good

2007-03-02T22:46:00.000-06:00

Just returned from MTC's newest production, "Half-Life" starring Eric Peterson, well known for his recent three seasons as bitchy old Brett Butt's dad on Corner Gas.
Not a bad play. Very minimalist. With all the wacky sound effects and dark-outs between the scene changes (i.e. moving chairs around) it reminded me very much of a Fringe Festival play. Not that that's a bad thing. I love Fringe; this must just be MTC's "budget play" of the season (heh!). I kept expecting Eric Peterson to yell out "Jackass!" every now and then.

Yesterday the artsy movie. Today, the artsy play. I'm pooped. My poor brain can't take much more culture.

Been a banner week at the WIWF. Every week I learn a wee bit more, and do a heck of a lot more. It feels great to do something I really want to do. Makes a big difference from dragging my ass to a warehouse to deal with a bitchy supervisor and sling boxes around. Ugh. Don't miss that one bit.

Okay, bed time now. But hey! I've blogged three days in a row. Coolness.

Tea Musings

2007-03-01T17:02:00.000-06:00

Man, I'm tired.

Well, when you work at the numbers for nearly two full weeks (including the weekend!) with hardly anytime to relax, you do get tired.
Mind you, I could have went to bed earlier last night, so it's not all true. Not a pack of lies, but not complete truth. More like "truthiness." Heh.

But, it's been a good two weeks. Got a Canada Council grant done at work, and Charlene (my director at the WIWF - see earlier blog on that) and I have almost finished up a nifty new sponsorship package. Plus our new fundraiser campaign is humming along, and a bunch of other work related stuff I don't feel like talking about.

But man, I'm fading now. And I still have to go to a movie tonight. My friend Brendon Sawatzky has his new feature film playing tonight for a special showing at the Globe Cinema for the NSI film festival which is on right now. It's called "Who Loves the Sun." For more info check out www.wholovesthesun.com. I promise it's the right link.

And if I want to stay awake to watch it, I need some coffee, or tea. Tea is my beverage of choice (most of the time). And Hazel's Magic Kitchen is the place to buy it.
Hazel's is run by my friend Dennis, and he is literally the "Tea Queen" of Winnipeg. His store has the largest selection of teas (loose and bagged) in the city. No lie.
Of course, try telling that to some of my friends (eh, Ariel?!?).

They're all like "Man, I remember places in Vancouver, where there was like great places for loose tea, in like jars and stuff, where you can smell them and like there's nothing like this here." And I would say "Why, yes there is!" and propose to tell them all about Hazels, and the massive jars of loose tea he has, and how he lets you smell them, and sample them, and all that.

Then, like a week later, they're all like "Man, I remember Korea, where there were vendors with loose tea in jars. No place like that here."
And I would say, "Why, yes there is!" and propose to retell them about Hazels.

Then, like a few days later, they're all like "Man, you just can't find any tea in this city."
And I would say, "Jesus! Aren't you listening?!?!?!" and give them a pamphlet of Hazels which explains all about the tons of teas he has. And then the pamphlet would get lost, and the wonderings about tea places would (and probably still does!) continue.

So, Hazel's Magic Kitchen. Check it out. It's the bomb for tea. Loose and bagged.
And he'll even open the numerous jars for you to sniff.
Really. It ain't no Vancouver or Korea. It's Winnipeg.

I'm famous!

2007-02-28T21:08:00.000-06:00

Holy cow!

Is it legal to blog twice in one day??
Not sure, but I had to share the cool news: the reading I'm participating in at Aqua Books is already on the website (http://www.aquabooks.ca/events.php). Check it out! Nifty picture of myself, if I do say so.
Exciting!

2007 Update of Dooom!

2007-02-28T20:34:00.000-06:00

Holy cow!
Okay, bad, bad blogger doesn't quite cut it now, does it?

It is now Februrary 28th, 2007. It's been over a year since I last blogged.

I didn't really feel too bad about it, despite the ridicule from my old writing group (Polly and Ariel) and my family (my Dad blogs on a regular basis!!!), but when I started communicating with Anita Daher, children's author extraordinaire, I found out that she posted my blog on her blog links of her own blog! Eep!

Well, I better not disappoint my new legion of fans who will be redirected this way from her site.

Well, maybe not legion. Phalanx maybe. Or squad? Group? Duo?

In any case, I will now attempt to summarize the last year in 100 words or less:

[Begin Summary Now]
Februrary 2006 and onwards, I continued to work for a not bad shipping company called..well, I shouldn't name it. Let's just say it rymes with LAX and the first letter is a B. That's a good hint. Warehouse agent was my handle, and warehousing was my job. As it had been for the last 12 years of me wittle life. Ugh. Steady employment, but a "survival job" it surely was. No eternal happiness there.

Writing was on the sidelines again. Did it every now and then, but my heart wasn't in it anymore.
In May 2006 I was asked by Mary Lou McGurran, Executive Director of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, to take on another contract with them (as I had in 2005) for about six months as their Advertising Coordinator (i.e. sell advertising) and Program Assistant. I joined, and it was GREAT! Another fantastic festival had by all in September 2006.
Although it was a very busy time for me (two jobs for six months) and so writing REALLY got put off again.

Then, Mary Lou left the organization, and I was asked to join them as General Manger.
Moi?!?! Little ol' ME?! Well, hell yeah!

Bye-bye crappy warehouse job with the horrible supervisor, and HELLO new job of DEElight!

And that's been my new handle since October 2006 - General Manager of the WIWF. It's been great. A little stressful in parts, but it's been fantastic. Great people to work with, great experiences. I handle all the business stuff of the organization. Not "business" as in mob hits and money laundering. I mean the financial stuff. Without the money laundering.

I'm currently taking two courses through the UofWpg's continuing education division (Fundraising in the Not-for-Profit Sector, and Financial Management for Non-Financial Mangers). Interesting stuff. Sounds boring, but interesting, trust me. Much better than slinging boxes under the nose of a stupid warehouse supervisor whose name rhymes with Day (no first letter hints this time..).

As for writing...well, a little at a time. Slowly getting back on the horse. I've taken a bunch of writing seminars over the past four months (two of them run by the awesome children's writer Anita Daher!) and I've applied for a WAC grant to finish up one of my manuscripts.

Also, I'll be reading work at Aqua Books on March 21 in a Young Adult tribute, along with Anita Daher and Martha Brooks. I'm a wee bit nervous, but it'll be exciting. Talk about getting back on the horse! I wanted to start out by riding the donkey, not the stallion!!

Oh, and in kitty related news, one of our 14-year old kitties had to be put down last December. A very sad day (and a few weeks before and after) for both Tanya and myself. You don't really realize how much you love those little buggers until they're gone, and they're not sleeping on your feet anymore, or greeting you at the door when you get home, or bugging the shit out of you when you're trying to do some work but they want to play with this piece of string with you RIGHT NOW and five minutes just is NOT enough time!
Yeah. It hit me pretty hard, I must say.

Here's a pic of my Cassie. She had lots of love for everyone.
(click the pic for a larger, uber-cute view!)

[End Summary]

Okay, a little more than 100 words, but it was great to get that all off my chest. Feels good to put something on this space again. I'll have to keep up with it a little more regularly. That's a promise.

I'm a bad, bad Blogger.

2006-01-19T14:14:00.000-06:00

Alrighty. Yeah, I know.

It's January 19, and this is my first Blog entry since December 25! Doh!

I'm a bad, bad Blogger. So much for New Year's resolution #54, "I will keep my Blog updated."

Well, it's still 2006, so I'm not doing THAT badly. Let's give a very quick recap of the last three weeks:

Post-Christmas, Pre-New Year's Week:
Went wild on Boxing Day with my friend Greg and spent about $300 on myself! Eeep! Comics! Comics! And MORE Comics! Got some Groo the Wanderer, and pretty well the whole collection of ROM, Spaceknight (Issues #1-62, +3 annuals, all for a paltry $25!).

Also grabbed another spidey action figure for my collection (Allistar Smythe, aka the Ultimate Spider Slayer). Excellent.

However, now I'm in debt to my Visa and my wife for the next few months. All extra money I make has to go to pay off my extravagant toy spending, and as Tanya says, "No more toys for Perry!" I'm banned from buying anything else for at least the next 6 months. Heh. I'll have to enjoy what I've got.

New Year's Eve
Nothing too exciting. Went over to Christina and Marc's for card gaming and drinking madness. And lots of snacks too. Our friend Vanna was in for Christmas from Montreal, and Pam (Christy's friend) came too. A nice relaxing friend filled evening.

January, 2006, the First Few Weeks
Happy New Year! There, now I've made it official ;-)

Back to work, yadda yadda, etc etc. Been playing Hitman2 for the PS2 (bought it at Red River Books for a paltry $11 on Boxing Day). Very cool. Deadly. I'm a trained assassin, man.

On New Year's day we went to Christina's boyfriend/common-law-hubby Marc's Mom's place (whew! That was a mouthful). Marc's neice has a cut little dog named Rocky. He's about the size of a beenie baby. No kidding. Check it out.

"Hi, I'm Yoda!"

Now I've got to buckle down and get some work done. I've made a "To Do" list for myself and it's quite long. Although, with afternoons off, there is no excuse to get this stuff done.

I've got a book review for the Logberg-Heimskringla (the Manitoba Icelandic newspaper) - Viking: King's Man, by Tim Severin (the third in the trilogy; I reviewed the other two).

I've got a book "inter-review" for Prairie Books NOW! about aboriginal educational issues. It's basically a text book written by two profs in Alberta. It'll be little dry to read, but learning stuff can't be bad, can it?

Also, I've got to finish my WAC grant report from 2005 and put together another for the February 14 deadline. And, I've got to finish the 3rd draft of my manuscript the Ghostcatcher Club so that Marty Chan can have a read of it!

Alrighty, I think that's enough for now. I PROMISE to myself that I will be more diligent with this Blog, and much more creative. Ariel's Janeday Reader is absolutely poetic to read and look at with her continual foresty pictures.

Anyhoos, BionicPerry signing off

Christmas...only a year away!

2005-12-25T22:30:00.000-06:00

Well, it's all over.

Two Christmas dinners in my tummy. Two hams, lots of carrots, dumplings, pasta salad, blaukraut, Caesar salads, and tons of cookies, cakes, pie, and chocolate bits. No turkey though (darn it all).

We made out pretty good present-wise. A couple of Rona gift certificates, and a nice big cheque from Tanya's dad from your Grandmother's estates (she passed away last year); we have enough now to totally buy our kitchen pantry, and put a good amount against the credit card. Whee!

Boxing Day tomorrow. Sweeeeet. Time to hit the comic and Gaming stores for some good deals! I WAS going to go to Best Buy and pick up some blank DVD DL's, for $7.99 a pack, but just noticed tonight that everything is limited to ONE ITEM PER FAMILY! What the-?? For blank media?

-grumble, grumble-

Sooooo, I checked the Best Buy website (Bestbuy.ca) to see if I could buy them online, and lo and behold: SOLD OUT!

-grumble, grumble-

Guess I just got to wait till mid January when they're dying for a customer.

Gotta go! Must rest for the Boxing Day Bonanza!

- BionicPerry signing off...END TRANSMISSION -

Christmas in Ink!

2005-12-23T21:59:00.000-06:00

Today I enjoyed the pleasant company of the staff and fellow directors of Prairie Fire magazine, with a little brunch at Littel Saigon, a deliciuos vietnamese restaurant. Mmmm-mmm. I'm still full.

Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the big day for my family (German traditions and all that, 'cuz they just like Ch. Eve better than Ch. day is all. Don't ask me why).

Tanya and I will be heading over to my parent's place for feasting and presents! Yay! Although this year's presents will be singular, in that we've asked all our friends and family to give us Rona gift certificates. Yup. Exciting. Why Rona GCs? Well, there's a nice kitchen pantry that we would like (er...make that NEED), and it'll set us back about $700. So, we decided to do the exciting thing and make the pantry our big present, from everyone, and from ourselves.

And me with a toy list the length of both my arms. Doh. All those unclaimed Spider-Man action figures! Marvel Vs card game! More Heroclix figures!!!

Speaking of toys, and Heroclix, I just realized today that I've spent almost $450 Cdn on Heroclix miniatures in the last three months. Yup. Little plastic toys. What the hell?!? Am I insane!?!

Yes. Most definitely.

I will have to ban myself from Ebay for a few months (like at least 10 months, maybe 6 for good behaviour). But...the deals! They were so good!!

Oi.

Anyhoos, my last entry here today will be about ink. Andris, the editor at Prairie Fire magazine dubbed my "Squid-Boy" on account of my recent acquisition of ink galore! Grand N' Toy are closing their store in Polo Park shopping centre, and selling everything off for 60 and 75% off. Well, I took a quick gander at their ink cartridges and lo and behold: CHEAP INK!

To put it in perspective: the colour cartridge is normally $29.99 and the black cartridge is normally $9.99. I picked up 9 colour cartridges for about $2.50 a piece, and 12 black cartridges for about $1.50 each!! It was insane! I've got, like $400 worth of INK here, and it cost me around $50!!

Crazy man. Crazy.

I hope everyone who's reading this has a pleasant and happy Christmas and/or other holidays!
Merry Christmas!

BionicPerry, signing off.

p.s. I'm still hoping to take those Flash courses in the new year! Coolness!

Monday Excitement

2005-12-13T21:00:00.000-06:00

Not much, really. But the weekend was filled with Christmas cheer. Two parties on Saturday night - a soup party at Dennis' and a house warming at Frendon and Bran's. Both were quite excellent, and I was full mit beer und vino und fud by evening's end. And a beautiful night for a winter walk as well between parties for the wife and myself.

I haven't had a chance to come back to the blog for a bit, although major plans are in the work for myself and this site. I am going to take a major Flash drawing course through the interweb - through The Mows site (the cartoonist there is a major computer Jedi and teaches courses online, for not bad pricing). Now, with my super uber computer of dooom, I can actually use these programs!

With Christmas fast approaching, I may have to wait until 2006 (a whole year away! heh!), but that's okay. Also, I've got another grant application for WAC to fill out (although I still have to give them final confirmation of my last one...mental noted). And with all the online and offline spending I've been doing for my comics and hobbies (Heroclix, Marvel Vs cardgame (the new crackcocaine of Gamers), and more Spider-Man figs to clutter the already cluttered office space), I may have to take a part-time job at a pizza joint!

Actually, I'm going to be doing book reviews for both Prairie Books NOW! and the Free Press! I've done a crapload of free ones for Dave at the Logberg, and now it's time to get paid! With cold hard cash! Yeah!

Alright, I've got to get back to some writing...although this writing tonight is more the Dungeons and Dragons kind (I'm preparing a game for Friday night). The poor Pirate slobs won't know what hit them (I'll devote a separate Blog entry to what my D&D game is about).

-Bionic Perry Transmission...END-

More Hosting Craziness

2005-12-10T09:50:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, here is another test for a doc hosting site. Hopefully this will work and it will be sweeeeeet!

I have posted the first chapter of The Ghostcatcher Club at this site. Supposedly, one can click the link, read and make edits on the draft in the forum. This could be the most important discovery since my discovery of Three-Layer-Taco-Dip!

http://www.quicktopic.com/34/D/FvnNNnMmHTfE.html

Hopefully this works, and I'll be singing and dancing like the Bugs Bunny frog! (top hat and all).

Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Does whatever a spider can...

2005-12-10T09:24:00.000-06:00

Well, here's a practice post for picture posting. I'm using Imagevenue instead of that crappy "HelloBlogger" shtuff I was screwing around with last night for almost 2 hours. And of course, what better picture to practice with than with my fav hero: Spider-Man!

Alrighty! It worked! We'll see what the public thinks about linkable thumbnails instead of the whole hog picture plastering the blog ("Public? What public?")

Also, does one "sign off" on a Blog? Or do they just end sudde-

Learning for a Luddite

2005-12-09T22:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I just spent an hour and a bit trying to use the treacherous HELLO picture pages thingy to post my "portrait." Sheesh! What a headache (if you don't know what you're doing). This learnin' thing is hurtin' me wittle head!
Anyways, that's what everyone is gonna have to look at until I get a real picture up there.
What happened today? Nothing much. At work today we had a potluck lunch and I stuffed my face and tummy. Hmmm-hmmm good! The afternoon was mostly spent screwing around on the computer and trying to relax and get rid of this darn cold!
Hopefully I can get some writing done in the next little while. I've got a manuscript that needs some heavy 3rd drafting before it's going to be looked over by Marty Chan, a writer of books, plays and television. You can check out his website and subsequent blog link here: http://www.martychan.com/

Well, that's enough for today.

And from the Cosmos of the InterWeb It was born...

2005-12-08T22:18:00.000-06:00

Wow! My very first Blog entry.
Coolness.
Not much to say right now, just getting my feet wet. The look and feel of the place will probably be very different in a week or so (after stuffing myself at various upcoming Christmas parties and such).

Basically, this will be a place (like everyone elses in the Blogverse) to post some stuff of mine, be it stories or shorts or novel excerpts, maybe some experimental poetry, and even some intercomics or blogshorts! I'm gonna learn Flash, baby!

Tonight was a very special night - I met with my defunct writing group for the first time in months. It was good to see the old gang of the WWG again (Wolseley Writers' Group). We had been together for near on 4 years, and it was a good run. Sigh. I do miss it, those semi-regular meetings of reading, screeching, critiquing, more screeching, eating chips/cookies/cake/ chickpeas/etc. Good Times. The five of us had a great time at Charisma, an East Indian joint in the neighbourhood here. Exquisite food. Half the bill was paid for by the last of the profits from the WWG Chapbook, Ten Best Pages, published in 2002. Ah. Like I said, Good Times.

Well, it's off to bed I go. I'll have to come back tomorrow and write some more nonsense, and then get some meat into this bloggy thing.