So, I gave myself an impossible goal for 2012. Read 100 books. I am the world’s SLOWEST reader. I’m not really sure how to get that validated, but I know it has to be a fact. I still recall my then 12 year-old son surpassing me in reading speed…and feeling the frustration. He’s not even very much of a reader! I have so many books on my TBR list…and I just keep adding to it. BUT it takes me forever to read a book. It’s SO frustrating! This year, I committed myself to reading 100 titles. I figure, this way I will try harder (I hate failing)…so I may even get 30 or 40 read. We’ll see. I’m going to be updating this post along the way with titles. I’m off to an okay start. It’s January 12th and I have 2 books under my belt! Yes…this is me TRYING.
I will be on hand at the NORTH YORK CENTRAL LIBRARY AUDITORIUM on Monday January 30th to sign copies of SUMMER ON FIRE. I, together with a ‘tough’ group of authors, will be joining in on the fight against Alzheimer’s! My reason for being there will be in support of my grandmother, who was taken by Alzheimer’s several years ago. My very first published piece was in the GLOBE & MAIL Facts & Arguments column…and it was about my grandmother and Alzheimer’s. It was later featured on the Canadian Alzheimer’s Association’s website.
Please come out to support this event. It is near and dear to me. I’m hoping for a great turn out. There will be a lot of authors there…your purchases will help make it successful!
Thanks in advance…and see you there!
Authors Fight Alzheimer’s
Book Signing Fundraiser
Monday January 30th, 2012, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
North York Central Library Auditorium
5120 Yonge Street, Toronto
Please Attend…
The Authors Fight Alzheimer’sbook signing fundraiser, the first of its kind, is an event put together by Canadian authors and publishers in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Society. Authors of various genres will be present to sign their books with the proceeds going to fight Alzheimer’s disease. The theme Read…Think…Remember is to promote keeping the mind active through reading, an important defense against the disease.
Author Attendees (as of December 18th):
MuseItUp Publishing – Joanne Elder, Sandra Clarke, Kevin Craig, Nancy Bell, Helene Prevost
Double Dragon Publishing – Deron Douglas, Anne Grobbo
Chizine Publishing – Doug Smith (two-time Aurora Award winner), Caitlin Sweet
Dragon Moon Press – Erik Buchanan, Jessica Frey
Dark Dragon Publishing – Karen Dales
Crime Writers of Canada – Melodie Campbell, Rick Blechta, Joan Boswell, Alison Bruce, Sheila Dalton, Alex Markman
The Writers Community of York Region – Malcolm Watts, Heather Lambert
And – I.J. Schecter, Peter Dennis, Mark Pezzelato.
Guest Speaker – Dr. Sandra Black, Director, LC Campbell Cognitive Neurology Research Unit, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Professor, department of medicine (neurology), University of Toronto
Thanks to Deron Douglas for publishing a commemorative book for this event.
Authors interested in participating in the event or for more information
please contact the Event Organizer:
Joanne Elder jelder1@rogers.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
THANKS TO OUR CORPORATE SPONSORS:
Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP
MuseItUp Publishing, Sunrise of Aurora, Edward Street Bistro
I actually made more than one resolution this year. The first will be as hard to carry out as the second.
#1 – Read 100 novels in 2012 – I will keep you posted on this one. So far, I’m still on my first one. Looks like I might have inadvertently picked a big one. Oops. I’m getting there, though.
#2 – Live in the moment. Or, as Baba Ram Dass says, BE HERE NOW. I spent a lot of last year living in the past. It was out of necessity, but it was tiring. So, 2012 is going to be a year of living in the moment…and maybe even a bit in the future.
But before I start chasing my second resolution, I wanted to share a bit about my upcoming novel, SEBASTIAN’S POET. A bit about the novel and a bit about the journey to and away from it. (-;
Sebastian was the result of my very first MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON, which was in 2007. I’m very proud to say that it was awarded the 2007 Muskoka Novel Marathon BEST ADULT NOVEL award. I wrote it in 48 hours…48 hours in which I did not sleep. It was the one and only marathon I participated in where I actually didn’t sleep. I wrote like crazy. When I arrived, I still had no story to tell…but once I sat down and started writing, I was 100% compelled to get the story out in full before the weekend was over. And I actually did it. I couldn’t believe it!
The real story was in the awakening I seemed to have through the experience of NOT sleeping. At first I was just exhausted. But eventually I hit this wall where I was invincible…or, rather, my fingers were invincible. And they were connected to a subconscious part of me that I had never tapped into before. It was exhilarating.
I take no credit for SEBASTIAN’S POET. It was one of those experiences where I was plugged in. It just ‘happened’. I know it sounds crazy when people say that…but that is exactly how I feel about this novel. Please don’t cringe when I say that I was only the conduit on this one. It is also, though, the novel I am most proud of. I’m thrilled that MUSA PUBLISHING picked it up (It will be published in April, 2012)!
Anyway, before I travel into the now and the future, I want to leave you with a poem I wrote after I travelled from MUSKOKA to HALIBURTON immediately after finishing the 48 hours marathon. Please keep in mind that I just got up from writing a novel in 2 days. My head was wool and I was open to the universe. I was listening NON-STOP to LEONARD COHEN during the marathon and during the drive from Muskoka to Haliburton. He was forever entwined in the SEBASTIAN’S POET story. So much so, that I later asked for and received permission to use a line as an epigraph to the novel. The line is the one I used in the title of this post. The line is from the song ANTHEM…an amazing and beautiful song that was a huge part of the marathon weekend.
So, this poem was written just before I passed out. On the journey from Muskoka to Haliburton I had deer jump into the road in front of me in Muskoka and I had bears surround my car on the road that snakes along beside Elephant Lake in Haliburton.
Needless to say, the whole weekend—from the first word of my novel, to turning off the engine of the car at the cottage in Haliburton—was something of a religious experience. Not God and higher being religious experience…but a TOTALLY TAPPED IN TO THE UNIVERSE religious experience. It was phenomenal. If you ever get a chance to take part in a novel writing marathon…I suggest you do it.
So, now that I babbled on and on, here is the poem:
After the Marathon
As winter whips its winds to frenzy
I am reminded of that time-
forty thousand words in my head
screaming white freedom
inside my withering mind.
And after the marathon,
the tears of no more words,
my insolent venting of could have-
might have beens. And the exhaustion,
like melting ice on pregnant lips,
a scream inside an empty car
with nobody else to hear.
When I thought the oddity over-
passing from Muskoka to Haliburton
with Cohen on my lips-
two deer arrive,
linger long enough to catch my eye,
to stop my hurling car,
to say, “I see you. You are real.”
And tears again. To find yourself
when you are lost; a figment
behind an endless stream of words.
After the deer, when Hallelujah
has played and the light of day declines,
I pray, one hundred-thirty pages
strewn like wild wind across the cluttered dash,
and here am I… stopped again-
a wild bear on hind legs,
pawing the slowly gloaming air.
Stopped, I wonder the wonder,
breathe to say, “I’ve been here too.”
And in the rear-view… three more,
mother, babies dawdling behind the car.
And the bear, as if he knows my head
and where it’s at, he paws again,
lifts his massive claws to night and speaks.
These are the things that I have left,
the shaking memories of a whirlwind journey took.
And forty thousand words inside my lonely head
was not enough. A bear to stand and scream
is what it took to leave it all behind,
the vent, the Cohen din inside the tremulous mind,
and most of all, the words that could have been.
So that’s it. You will notice that I tried to write it from a future place…from the winter after the marathon. I felt that I needed distance to get the experience right…even if it was a fake distance…a tacked on distance of words.
So, now…I will turn my back on the past for awhile and start 2012 with my feet firmly planted in the HERE AND NOW. Enjoy this year now.
“You’re standing on a bridge, watching yourself go by.” ~ Ram Dass
I wish I could take the credit for the catchy title. (-: But G. Donald Cribbs came up with it.
Get yourself over to his blog NOVELS BY G. DONALD CRIBBS to enter in his GIVEAWAY #4: WINTER SOLSTICE SUMMER ON FIRE You’ll never guess what he’s giving away! (Okay, maybe you will…) A signed print copy of my 2011 debut young adult novel, SUMMER ON FIRE.
While you’re there, stay awhile and read his blog. Some great books being talked about!
Here’s Donald’s 5-star review of SUMMER ON FIRE.
All you have to do to enter the contest is comment on his giveaway post.
GOOD LUCK!
Summer on Fire can be purchased in either ebook or print format at the following locations:
I think I want to talk about books. Not mine. (-: I want to talk about the books I read and loved this year…and books that are releasing in the New Year that I am waiting on.
First, a little about the drastic changes in my reading habits. There are at least 2 factors that I can point to as the reasons for these changes.
Factor #1 – Twitter: Yes, Twitter. It is the reader’s paradise. Every day there are book parties for new releases and talk of what’s hot. One can barely click the ONE-CLICK INSTANT DELIVERY button on one’s Android Kindle App fast enough. Twitter has become my BIGGEST influence when it comes to either buying or borrowing books these days.
Factor #2 – Android Reading Apps: Yes, I have REALLY taken to reading on my phone. I have the Kobo app and the Kindle app. I prefer the Kindle. The medium sized font with the sepia background rocks my world! I’m reading more and I’m reading faster. I’m a terribly slow reader, but with my phone I seem to be able to read faster for some reason. It’s not the amount of time I read, it’s the quickness of reading one page view. Something about the speed of which I can turn the pages makes me somehow faster. I can’t explain it, but for someone who reads a lot and has a huge TBR pile because he reads so damn slow…this has been a blessing!
FAVOURITE BOOK(S) OF THE YEAR:
Until yesterday, I had a definite favourite book of 2011. Then, yesterday, I finished reading Hannah Moskowitz’s new title ZOMBIE TAG. Now, I have a 1st place tie for FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2011. It doesn’t detract from my fav…it only means more goodness. (-;
My 1st choice for FAV BOOK OF 2011
Victoria Schwab is a master. Beautifully lyrical prose and a gothic tone that is so nostalgic. Just loved this book. It’s a must read!
My 2nd Choice for FAV BOOK OF 2011
Hannah Moskowitz can write about brothers like NOBODY ELSE. She captures the brother-brother relationship, and all it entails, perfectly every time! Zombie Tag is no exception. A near perfect book. It’s being tagged MIDDLE GRADE, but trust me–this book is for everyone!
You can click on the book covers above to be taken to each one’s Amazon page.
Other 2011 favourites include; INVINCIBLE SUMMER by Hannah Moskowitz & HUNTED by Cheryl Rainfield.
I recently discovered a 2010 title I absolutely love! This discovery also happened via TWITTER. A book blogger posted a review, and I knew right away that I had to read it. That book is:
FAV 2010 TITLE READ IN 2011!
Avasti wrote an incredible, and incredibly real, story of violent abuse in a family setting. Such a great read!
You can visit my book review site for reviews on these, and other, titles:
