Authors Electric

 It was a 'sliding doors' moment. If you've seen the film then you'll know it's a 'what if' moment. What if Gywneth Paltrow had caught the train and what if she hadn't. For some, it's incredibly serious - waking up late for work in New York on September 11th 2001 or, more recently, denied boarding an Air India plane.  For me, the 'what if' relates to my grandfather. He emigrated to Canada in 1921, aged 20, to work on the railways. A family member in the UK became very ill so he returned for her. He then stayed, met my grandmother and the rest is history. But what if he hadn't returned? Obviously, I wouldn't have been born. There would have been another wife, other children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. My grandfather died when I was six. I didn't really know him but the desire to go to Canada - to see the land where he had been - has always been strong. This summer, I finally went there with my family. We had a whirlwind to...

March 2020, two months after Authors Electric welcomed me, I wrote a blog called “Splendid Isolation.” It was named after Warren Zevon's song about the difference between being alone and being lonely. Feel free to hop over and read it if you haven't already. During that time, much of the world was trying to figure out how to combat the Corona virus. In Canada, we were doing the same. Even though there was a lot to deal with—closing borders, face coverings, shutting down businesses, our leaders worked together and appeared to be taking the right steps forward. There was so much to learn.  The pandemic also produced an explosion of neologisms. Phrases and words like: self-isolation; shelter in place; social distancing; flatten the curve; curb-side pickup became part of everyday news feeds and conversation. New acronyms cropped up too—PPE, WHO, Covid-19, HCQ. We were more digitally connected than ever before—in a way we weren’t during the SARS outbreak in 2002. I zoomed daily with...

This is my first post of 2021 here, so I'd like to wish a Happy New Year to readers!  When I was thinking of a topic to write, I came across a post on a friend’s Facebook page that made me laugh.  The caption read: For the next time you think the 80s were cool.  Yeah, it was the decade of big hair and outlandish fashion.  The reason I found it funny was because I used to be a slave to fashion. My jeans had to sit above the waist, not below it. They couldn’t be too faded or too dark. They had to conform nicely around my butt and not cut off the circulation in my legs. I preferred the skinny fit over a baggy, loose pair, and if there were holes in them, they had to look as if they'd been ripped accidentally, not deliberately. The pressure of buying a pair of pants!  I wanted "the look" with Jordache jeans. Didn't we all? Looking back now, I pity my younger, insecure self. I was pretty shy in the eighties, and fashion gave me a sense of belonging. The eclectic styl...

Yesterday, I spoke with author Bill Kirton about another new experience in the slew of new experiences since lockdown. Over the weekend, my husband and I got tested for Covid-19. Neither of us was symptomatic, but we wanted some assurance that we were not carriers. As we are both fortunate enough to still have our mothers, we wished to see them them without the worry of infecting them. Of course, this goes for all family and friends, but in particular, for our parents. Initially, the test sites in Toronto, Canada, where I live, were not accepting patients unless they exhibited specific symptoms of Covid or suspected exposure to it.  In June, this changed.  First responders and employees of liquor stores were ordered to undergo testing, along with staff at certain adult correctional facilities, hospital personnel, and workers at congregate residential settings.  This was followed by “pop-up” testing centres in neighbourhoods hardest hit by the virus. We...

In these Covid times, many of us are streaming or renting movies online. Last night, I watched  If You Could Read My Mind ,  the Gordon Lightfoot story. If you don’t know who Gordon Lightfoot is, here’s a brief intro. Before Canada produced stars such as Justin Bieber and Drake, we had bonafide legends like Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, and Neil Young. For a relatively small country (roughly 36 million), Canada has contributed some impressive talent to the music industry. Amongst this group is Gordon Lightfoot, whom I would consider one of Canada’s greatest songwriters. He’s a homegrown talent who continues to live here today.   Suffice it to say, he is an icon and a treasure. If You Could Read My Mind  was co-directed, co-produced, and co-written by Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni. Martha is a friend, and I’ve wanted to see this film ever since it first came out late 2019. For one reason or another, I was unable to get to it, but then my husba...

“Splendid Isolation,” a song written by Warren Zevon is about the difference between being alone and being lonely. I’ve featured it on the Music Monday segment of my blog today. Being alone is spending time with oneself; being lonely is a state of mind. Though the two are distinctly different, we can slip in and out between them. Many of us have probably done just that, more so this past week than any other time. Life with the COVID-19 pandemic has meant self-imposed isolation for us here in Canada. Like most countries, we are asked to “social distance” and to isolate ourselves physically from others for fear of spreading the virus.   I believe it’s the right thing to do, and whether you are living on your own or with others, you must reconcile how to do this.   Social distancing is a misnomer, really, as we’re not being asked to socially cut ourselves off from others. A more accurate description would be physical distancing. As writers, many of us are ...

A year ago I was here, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, very close to Alaska, on the islands of Haida Gwaii.  It was a trip that changed my life.  I was supposed to be studying the mythology of the First Nation people here for a new collection of poems, but I began writing a travel memoir instead and it turned out to be one of the most personal books I've ever written. Totems in abandoned villages, photo courtesy of Go HaidaGwaii I was made to face the realities of the growing environmental crisis, as well as the ‘cultural’ and actual genocide committed by the British Colonial government which was begun in the latter part of the 19th century but carried on through the 20th.  It seems horrific that children were still being taken from their families to have their ‘Indian’ identities stamped out of them as late as the eighties and nineties.  The last of the ‘Residential Schools’ only closed in 1996. What I found was a wild landscape of enormous beauty, fr...

The trouble with February is it's too short and means my blog turn has come around quicker than ever On the other hand it means less time between last payday and this one! Thank goodness the sales last longer than a month these days. But what's that got to do with getting older? Well nothing actually, but we’ve got another year stretching ahead of us, fresh, clean and hopeful. A year that can be filled with activities, memories and ambition. A year to maybe take a break from the usual and do something different. But how many of us will? I made a list at the beginning of January of things to do, things to finish, and things to start and how many have I done so far? Not that many, although I've almost completed my next novel, but I'm sure I'll get to December and the list will still be pretty much intact and all that will have happened for sure is I'll be another year older. Life just vanishes in a blink these days. It never went this fast a few years ago. ...

Feuer und flamme - another of the evening's entertainments           A bout a mon th ago, I had a phone call from Switzerland. The caller asked if I would take part in a 'Lesenac ht.'            This means 'Reading Night', and is something which has taken place reguarly all over Switzerland for some time. A bit of a party is held in the school, and stories are told or read. Some schools take the children on camping trips, and tales a re told around the fire.           The caller, Alan Hess, explained that his school had not taken part previously, as their academic standard wasn't high enough for it to be considered worth while. But, four years ago, he had introduced 'Functional Grammar' i nto the school, as a way of teaching reading and Engli sh La nguage. Michael Halliday           Functional Grammar is based on the theo ries...