imagiNation 2018 in Quebec City

This past Saturday I travelled to Quebec City for the imagiNation Writers' Festival. 

I love reading and working and sleeping on the train, and I brought an overstuffed purse filled with more podcasts, albums, books, games, pens and notebooks than I could have used in 16 hours. But Quebec City is only three hours away, so after some reading and a nap, I got there in time for dinner with good friends from Montreal (also visiting Quebec City), followed by drinks with my fellow panelist and her partner.

Not only had spring not yet arrived in Quebec City, there was actually a snowstorm while I was there. I was glad to have been warned to wear my boots.

A picturesque view from my hotel window.

The next day I got ready for the festival.
  

Festival program! I wish I could have stayed all week.

I got there early and had a chance to take a tour of the building. The Morrin Centre is run by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, which was founded in 1824 and is the oldest existing learned society in Canada.

Nothing like some bracing April snow

Housed in a former jail (which held prisoners of the War of 1812!), the Morrin Centre has a gorgeous old library, as well as cells in the basement that have been preserved as a museum. It also has an old science lab: the jail was renovated in the mid-nineteenth century to house Morrin College, which awarded degrees through its affiliation with McGill University.


If you're interested in history or just love books, the Morrin Centre is well worth a visit! Just look at this library:

Me in the gorgeous library of the Morrin Centre, with the famous statue of James Wolfe in the far background. 

(Top tip to lovebirds: if you've always wanted to get married in a library, you can do so at the Morrin Centre!)

Then it was time for the panel itself. I was reading with awesome fellow Montrealer Anna Leventhal, author of Sweet Affliction. We talked about Montreal and female narrators and other writing-related topics with the lovely Julia Caron of CBC. Then I had a glass of wine, chatted with friends and festival-goers, signed some books and then it was back to the train, where I actually did manage to do some of the reading and listening I'd planned on before it was back to Montreal and real life. 

Holiday 2013 and the ice storm at Glen Villa

(A belated word on my holiday, as I wrote this last week but have only just now started looking at my photos.) 

A number of things on my holiday to-do list remained undone (going to the movies, various home improvements), but the important things got done, such as reading and writing. I read a LOT and started a new story. We even managed to be a little bit social with two birthday outings and a New Year’s Eve Party.  And we kicked off the break by hosting one teeny tiny holiday gathering where eggnog was consumed (and I learned again: never drink eggnog) where we truly got in the holiday spirit.

We also went snowshoeing once out in the Eastern Townships, where the ice storm had wrought its beautiful damage. It was hard to stop taking photos. These were all taken around 4 p.m., as the light was starting to fade.

Snow, reading, holidays

Not much is happening here except for this....

 There is a lot of snow.

I took this photo of our street last week some time (and, rather pathetically, almost slipped and fell down the stairs in the process). Since then, it has snowed the same amount three times over. Yesterday, neighbours with snowblowers were out in force in the back alley, while neighbours without snowblowers hailed and cajoled them or blessed their all-wheel drive.

It took some doing, but we finally got our tree up last week! There are even a few presents under it.

 Our tree!

Today is my last day at work, and I'm looking forward to our first Christmas in our new home. And to heading out to North Hatley for more family time, and some time for snowy walks and cozy reading, too. I complained on Twitter that Goodreads sent me an email congratulating me on having read 45 books this year. But I plan on making it to 50! It's not the end of the year yet, Goodreads! This weekend I finished another, which leaves four to finish before the end of the month. The one I mention here, in this round-up of what the McGill community will be reading over the holidays, I likely won't start until January. And it will probably give me a less impressive total for 2014.

What are you planning to read over the holidays?

Winter in April and what I'm reading

It is actually supposed to snow tomorrow.  Snow.  15-20 centimetres.  

In a way, I don’t mind.  I’ll be able to bundle up in my full winter gear and not feel bad about it.   It has been cold for days, but the worst kind of cold, where the weather forecasts have only prepared you for double-digits until the night before.  The forecast giveth, and the forecast taketh away.

I’ve been missing the simplicity and warmth of my black shearling boots.  I never thought I would miss winter boots, which I guess means my careful selection process and expended ($$$) funds were well worth it.  It’s possible that what is making me grumpiest about this changing weather is my general confusion about how to dress to stay warm enough on any given day without the ability to rely on a giant parka. I hate being cold.  It's April, after all.  There isn't supposed to be any more of this: 

 A photo by T. from our knitting weekend

Enough about the weather. 

Well, I wrote all that yesterday.  It has now snowed, stopped, started again, stopped, rained, and it is now a light hail, I think.  Oh well.
 
Yesterday I finished reading Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.  A super-quick and easy read that I enjoyed…perfect for the subway.  It didn’t really light a fire under me to start running, as it isn’t really that kind of book (though I sort of hoped it would be).  I can really only relate to that kind of striving when it comes to writing, or the occasional personal pet project.

I also recently finished reading Diana Athill’s Midsummer Night in the Workhouse.  I wish I had put down my thoughts about this collection right away, but it probably enough to say that I really enjoyed it.  The style and the social mores are very of the era (I don’t know this for a fact, but I have a feeling most of these were written many years ago), but the intellect and observation of the writer are profound.  It reminded me of the power of well-balanced explanation in fiction.  Writers are so frequently exhorted to “Show, Don’t Tell,” but there is plenty to be said for telling when it is artfully done and when what is being communicated is complex and unique.

Right now I’m reading The Dinner by Herman Koch, which, so far, is the perfect follow-up to Athill.

This weekend I really need to start preparing for a few upcoming events, even though just thinking about them makes me nervous.  And nervousness = avoidance mode.  Wish me luck.

To spite the weather, here's a cheery, spring-y photo of some yellow in the kitchen, including some beautiful tulips Z. gave me at my launch, which lasted and lasted.

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm with all this sleet and ice and snow all over!

secrets of highly successful people

Some of the freelancing I’m doing consists of personalizing some rather dry bio profiles of several very impressive people. 

Although I’ve been a little intimidated about the conversations (I wouldn’t say I’m overawed by position in general, but it’s safe to say that I don’t interact with a lot of CEOs on a daily basis), I’ve actually been enjoying them more than I would have guessed.

Successful individuals tend to have great people skills – so it’s not surprising that most of them were patient, congenial, curious, and passionate.  But I was also interested to note that most have also had at least two or three very different kinds of careers, as well as a lot of professional training along the way.  Many of these individuals have also spent time teaching in their area of interest(s) at one point or another.

Also, curiously, all of them have cited snowshoeing as among their favourite outdoor activities.  Now, is this just a wholesome, non-elitist winter sport self-consciously selected to humanize an extraordinary individual  in the eyes of a general Canadian audience?  Or will my prospects in life improve once the snow falls and I can get out there on snowshoes again? 

To summarize, here is what I have gleamed from my conversations with some very successful Montrealers:

Secrets of highly successful people

• Be who you want to be
• Follow your interests, both inside and outside of work
•  Get involved in those areas
• Connect with like-minded individuals
• Have a good, hard work ethic
• Enjoy snowshoeing

podcasts, Skype, tax fantasies

I’ve been listening to podcasts lately (finally). Radiolab is my current favourite. It’s probably a reflection on the sad, stale state of my music collection, but I’ve been having a great time putting them on while I’m cooking or doing the dishes. This month I’ve also Skyped for only the second time ever. I see more of both in my future.

These days one of my fantasies (hold onto your hats!) involves doing my taxes early and oh-so-leisurely. Ever since a procrastination-induced panic attack during my third year of university, I have been extremely careful not to cut things too close. In fact, starting a very short project only two or three days before a deadline is enough to almost make me nervous and uncomfortable at this point…even if it leaves me plenty of time to start and finish. It makes for some inefficient work -- there’s no doubt that deadline pressure is effective in getting things rolling, and I understand perfectly why people leave things to the last minute, as I relied on this method for virtually all of my undergraduate papers – but I’ll happily accept some inefficiency as the price of peace of mind. I like to do my taxes over a few evenings – it takes that long to organize all my receipts – with a glass of wine. It makes me feel wonderfully organized and competent, as well as a little buzzed.

Another daydream is that Instagram will hurry up and make an Android version of their app, which was one of my favourites before I ditched my iPhone (or rather, relegated it to the practical status of an iPod touch). I love the dreamy, retro style photos it makes, and there’s nothing else quite like it. I can still use it on my iPhone when I log into wireless, but it’s definitely less convenient. Hurry up, wonderful Instagram!

Also there has been a lot of this here lately:

A Monday Morning in Montréal from CloudRaker on Vimeo.

The good thing about a snowstorm is that it usually means it's (relatively) warm out. What a strange country we live in!