Floods and disappearing cable needles

Well, it has been a week since my mom's operation, and she is continuing to do really well!  Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and good wishes.  (And if I owe you an email, I promise it's on its way.)  

It turns out that knitting is a better "sit and keep company" and "sit and wait" activity than writing fiction, so until yesterday, my hat-in-progress had come along further than my story.  (If anyone has a tip for how to not lose a cable needle, oh, about fifty times an hour, I'm all ears.) But now the story is coming on strong...I just need one of those pesky endings.  Right now I have the characters circling around one another, talking about this or that.  Before long they're liable to start checking their watches or something. 

In case you're not on Twitter (or maybe even if you are...some days there are a lot of links flying by), below are a few things I clicked on recently that were worthwhile...

This is a really interesting article by Samantha Francis for BookNet Canada on what makes a bestseller (according to sales data).  In case you've ever wondered what makes a bestseller in Canada.

We can’t reveal sales numbers, but to give you a very rough idea: when a book is in the “Top 10,” it’s usually sold several thousand copies across Canada in one week. 

An enjoyable Q&A by Ali Smith at The Daily Beast on "How I Write."  

A piece about how Canada's crime novelists are making a killing.  This was enough to make me pull out and revisit a plot outline for a light mystery novel I'd dreamed up last year during an idle afternoon, as well as another project close to my heart which has changed imaginary forms many times (TV show, screenplay, graphic novel), but which has finally come to rest (not surprisingly, given my actual skills) as what I hope will be a YA novel.  One day I'd love to write a mystery, and not just because it seems to be the one of the best ways for writers to make money these days.  

In other news, there was a ton of flooding at McGill yesterday (over 40 million litres!).  Below is a photo I took on Friday afternoon on my way across campus, of construction in progress on the reservoir pipes and the weathered old pipes on display (I think they're around  a hundred years old):

bless the brain surgeons

My mother came through 11-hour brain surgery yesterday to remove a benign, but very large tumour.  The operation was very successful, and I’m hopeful that her balance, which has been affected since the spring, will be restored before too long.  I saw her last night and she was awake and talking and not even groggy.  She was so chatty that the nurse hinted that talking to me was raising her blood pressure (they don’t really like visitors in the recovery room, anyhow). 

I’m happy to say that everyone I spoke with at the Jewish General Hospital was caring and professional (nurses, orderlies, surgeons).  My mother used to be an RNA, and she has both worked and been a patient in hospitals in three provinces, and she was stunned by how nice all the nurses are.  I think this is generational shift (or maybe something more?  maybe a larger change of approach within hospitals?) as I know a lot of very nice girls who have trained to be nurses over the last few years.  Maybe it is even silly to say there is any reason to be surprised by caring people in the health care system.  But it’s a nice thing, regardless. 

Say what you will about the Canadian health care system, but it is amazing that we live in a country where a family does not need to bankrupt itself or go into debt for critical procedures.  It is terrifying to think that if we lived somewhere else, my mother might not be able to get the operation she needed.

The operation was so long I finished both books I brought with me within the first four hours.  I did spot some evidence on the waiting room furniture of what somebody else had been reading, though:

weekend / contest

There are still a few hours left to win an advance reading copy of Bone and Bread through House of Anansi's awesome Friday Reads giveaway.  All you have to do is go to their official Facebook page and hit like or add a comment to the contest announcement before midnight tonight.  (I love contests!  I've won probably more than my fair share of books off of internet contests like these over the years.  I especially love contests for ARCs because it means you get to read the book in question even before it hits the stores.)

This was a quiet weekend.  The Australian contingent of my husband's family flew home on Friday after a farewell dinner, and I mostly stayed home and did some reading and writing (I did manage to get up early on Saturday, though I kept half falling asleep on the couch...this always produces some interesting sentences) and knitting.  

The weather is beyond bizarre.  After Friday's dip to the minus thirties, on Saturday it was hovering around zero.  There was a trip to the park and the used bookstore.  

Quality finds at Encore Books.

 

deep freeze Friday

The warm spell is over.  It’s a deep freeze now.  The cold doesn’t bother me too much – it’s all about knowing how to dress: long johns, thermal shirt, wool sweater, fleece-lined mitts and a dense scarf.  Plus a down coat, shearling boots, and a fur hat.  Winter in Canada isn’t for amateurs (nor for vegans, apparently).   

This week I’ve been trying take to heart all that good advice about living in the moment.   Singing, seeing friends, catching up on emails, reminding myself about what’s important (that same old moving target).  Typing that out, I'm reminded of Jo Knowles' blog, where she recently shared some powerful words about Maurice Sendak and the importance of living one’s life.     

And while I'm sharing links, here's another great blog post by Caroline Wissing I stumbled upon via Twitter about acknowledging your talent.

And at the Guardian, Philip Roth picks his best novels.  (I’ve only read Portnoy’s Complaint, many years ago, and more recently The Human Stain, which I loved.  I think American Pastoral will be next on the list…although probably not next in the reading lineup, not when I have the new Alice Munro and Zadie Smith at home.)  I love the idea of being prolific enough to actually have an oeuvre to consider – to have a body of work from which you can pick and choose your favourites.  (There.  That should be enough of an ambition spur to get me up early tomorrow to work on my new story.)

There’s also this hilariously accurate article on Slate about the dark side of the book tour.  I’m planning my book launch for Bone and Bread right now and am plagued with similar visions of nobody showing up.  Say you’ll come? 

2012 round-up, part two

The second half of my big 2012 update.  It was a year of big changes, with editing squeezed in everywhere else.

The second half of 2012 started with the culmination of what dominated the first half: the wedding!  I was so happy with how it went, and I still can’t believe the weather cooperated.  (There had been storms looming for days, and even the forecast that morning called for thunderstorms.)  I love the rain, but all the decorations were planned for sunshine.

I was also really happy about how well everything came together in just 13 weeks.  It’s too bad this kind of major event planning isn’t something you can put on a resumé!   I had lots (and lots) of help, of course, especially at the end, but I still view it not only as a truly wonderful, magical day with friends and family…but as a day I’m really proud of, too.  I had so much fun, and I think our guests did, too, and everything ended up looking exactly as I’d dreamed it. 

A very small sampling of, oh, millions of beautiful pics from the day.  These ones are all by our  wildly talented photographer Dallas Curow, though I have many favourites that were taken by friends and family, too.

 

 

Livre Service Boxes -- Book Exchange Program in NDG Montreal

A new take-a-book, leave-a-book program is underway in NDG in Montreal. I was excited to discover this book box on my way to subway this week:

Libre service boite â livres - book box

The boxes look just like newspaper boxes and have a prominent notice indicating that they are not a return box for library books.  It's a great idea, and I really hope it catches on!

Click here for the official announcement of the new initiative from the City of Montreal.

writing links open in my browser

Time is running out for me to finish my 2012 update.  I’ve been strictly informed that January 15th is the cut-off date for wishing people Happy New Year or posting best-of lists or year-in-review lists.  So I guess that’s happening tonight.

In the meantime, here are some things I’ve been reading:

Lena Dunham interviewed by Miranda July for Interview Magazine.  Some of my favourite parts of this interview are where she talks about what it was like growing up with parents who were artists.

Cynthia Newberry Martin's inquiry into good sentences for Brevity i.e. the novelist’s perennial  question as she beats her head against the keyboard: does every sentence need to be great?  (The answer is that they at least need to be very good.) 

Related to the last:  Michael Cunningham’s New Yorker Letter From the Pulitzer Fiction Jury: What Really Happened This Year.  (In case you didn’t hear, in 2012, there was no Pulitzer Prize awarded for fiction.) 

Nova Ren Suma "On Chasing Ambition and Being a Girl and a Woman."    This post resonated with me so much, especially lines like the ones quoted below: 

I have and want one thing, and I’ve been single-minded about it since high school: I write. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, to the detriment of everything else.

I think more needs to be written about women and ambition.  Or maybe it’s already out there…perhaps I ought to say I’d like to read more about women and ambition.  If you know of any good books or articles, send them my way, please.