Wordfest Readings

I’ve finished my three Wordfest sessions, and did them all without losing my voice to a hovering cold. The first was at Vertigo Theatre with Cyndi Sand-Eveland, followed by two school visits. It was fun meeting Cyndi and seeing how we played off each other in our session – and  I was even more pleased to get into the schools the next day.

I like to really connect with the kids (I couldn’t even see them at Vertigo, because of the stage lights.) It’s one of the joys of meeting with kids, for me. And at the schools, we had enough time to invent crazy stories, which the kids love as much as I do.

Tomorrow I’m off to Banff, to hang out with writers and have some quiet writing time. At least, writing is what I’m planning for, but I’ve heard there’s a lot of partying…

Maureen

Writing Through Interruptions

Somehow I keep getting pulled away from writing. Wordfest is next week, so I’m preparing for that: 9 days between Calgary and Banff, with some awkwardness in town because I’m not staying at the hotel that’s the staging ground for the events.

There’s all the prep for Wordfest itself, and clearing the time to be busy with it, and then to be out of town, plus all the usual details of life: hosting a large family dinner for Thanksgiving, harvesting apples and pears, putting the garden to bed. The periodic things, like appointments for me and for others. The emergencies, like my printer dying just as I was scanning my Wordfest contract (a reboot fixed that). My laptop going in for a diagnostic and requiring a heart transplant – I’m hoping I’ll have it back in time for Wordfest.

Writing gets tucked into the corners, which sometimes can be successful, but is never satisfying. I feel like I’m not doing ‘my work’ – just burning up time with all the other stuff that needs to be done.

For me, writing is the work, always, and everything else becomes an interruption. Fun, important, necessary… all kinds of interruptions, but the core of work is always about writing. Perhaps I’m obsessed; perhaps I just really love to write.

Maureen

Whiplash Weather

We have a new season in Calgary: summer-fall-winter. Yesterday was a beautiful summer day, today a raw and wet fall, and there’s snow forecast for tonight.

I’m glad we picked the tomatoes, in spite of the heat this weekend. This may be one of my last flower shots this fall, of a late-blooming Japanese Anemone.

Maureen