Beauty vs Devastation, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

To purchase these award-winning books, click here:
https://www.bookswelove.net/kavanagh-j-c/

If you recall from my previous blogs, Central Ontario experienced one heck of a winter - true-North Canadian-style. We've had snow, more snow, ice, freezing rain, more snow... And now it appears that "Spring" is going to be a prolonged extension of Winter. 

A couple of weeks ago, we experienced a major ice storm that wreaked havoc everywhere. Roads were closed, hydro lines went down - not just from ice accumulation but from trees falling on them. Conditions were so bad that plow/salter trucks were ordered to 'stay put' as the roads were treacherous even for the salt trucks. Power outages affected over one million homes. Wind gusts were 80 km/hr (50 miles/hr) which, combined with the ice, knocked down trees and over 2,300 hydro poles. According to The Weather Network, some areas received 25 mm (one inch) of freezing rain over 35 hours and six regions declared a State of Emergency. Almost 5,000 hydro workers, including those brought from other provinces, dealt with repairing downed lines and restoring power. 

Freezing rain on top of snow

The poor wee frozen buds.

Good thing this fellow's not real.

Schools were closed due to lack of electricity. (FYI, schools in this region experienced more 'snow days' in one season than the last five years combined. A 'snow day' results in school buses being cancelled due to weather).

Gas stations were closed due to lack of power.

Grocery stores were closed. (Frozen items eventually thawed and had to be disposed of).

Some Convenience stores were open - cash only.

Roads were obstructed with downed trees and fallen branches. Even four days after the storm passed through, travelling from 'A' to 'B' may take you through 'C,' 'D' and 'E.'

For me, it was a very long and taxing six days without hydro. 

Think about it. Six days without running water. Without flicking on a light switch. Without refrigeration. Without showering.

And even worse:  six days without FLUSHING THE TOILET. 

Okay - you can flush the toilet, but you have to use an entire 4-litre bottle to eliminate your #2. And guess what? When the grocery stores finally had their power restored (and you were still waiting for your power) - all the bottled water was sold out.

And if you needed fuel to power your home generator, the line-up for an operating gas station was about 100 cars long, or 90-minutes.

Finally, when the power was restored, we ventured out to survey the damage to our 10-acre property.  Trees in the front of the house lost some branches, but none were snapped or uprooted. Temperatures were rising and the snow was melting so we headed to the back, feeling quite pleased with our 'sturdy' trees. 

And it went downhill from there.

Spider?

We did discover a few beauties, though. 

Do you see it? Check out the next picture.

The CLAW!

The hole in the tree.

Hmmm, a goblin face above the claw-root?

But how do they grow this way?

And then there was this... 

A tree giraffe?

Three dens... didn't stick around to see what animal lives here.

And just down the road, this wee girl was spotted...

Photo credit to Nicole St Amant.
Residents here call her "Mary Moose."

Life is always an adventure when you live in rural Ontario, or as some people call it, "The Boonies." But if you're looking for an adventure that doesn't involve cleaning up 10 acres of downed trees, pick up your copy of the award-winning Twisted Climb series. Enjoy!

Stay safe and don't forget to tell the ones you love that you love them :)

J.C. Kavanagh, author of 

The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3) Best YA Book FINALIST at Critters Readers Poll 2022
AND
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb,
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2022
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)
Instagram @authorjckavanagh

Writer’s Block by Paul Doucette

https://bookswelove.com/doucette-h-paul/

Hi again.

Writer’s block. The bane and nemesis of all writers. It comes at the worst of times in

the writing process, causing varying degrees of anxiety and frustration. That is the

downside and, yes, I am suggesting there is also an upside.

It might be easier to see this if you remember the ‘old saw’, “can’t see the forest for

the trees.’. This particular adage could have been coined with writers in mind. After all,

what is writer’s block? Simply put, an abrupt stop; a brick wall that suddenly appears in our

mind. For myself, and I suspect many other writers, it comes at when we reach an

impasse in our story telling when we no longer see what comes, what happens next, and

so on.

We try to break free by re-reading the story so far in the hope that it will remove the

‘block’ and reveal the next step. In my case, this does not work very often, and usually

ends up with me re-writing parts which just messes up the work and adds more work and

frustration.

I have found a solution that works for me: step away; get a cup of tea; pick up a

book by one of my favourite authors and find a quiet park bench. Put my story out of mind,

relegating it to my subconscious and let it ‘stew’ for a while. Sometimes this process may

take a few days or even a few weeks, but when it is ready to return it usually does so with

a clearer vision of what I want to tell.

If you are finding yourself struggling with a story, I recommend you find your own

escape from the ‘writer’s block’ trap. Take walks with friends or alone; read; go for drives

on the back roads of your town, anything, but remember to leave the story at home. I think

you will be surprised by what your mind will be like when your story decides it’s ready to

come back.

I hope this makes some sense to you and is helpful. At the very least, you have

enjoyed a short hiatus and an airing of your thoughts.

Good luck and good writing.

Until next time,

Paul

• Doucette, H. Paul - BWL Publishing Inc.

Awards Time, Even Better Shared

 

                                                                 My BWL author page

In a gala award ceremony in Bellingham, Washington, three of our BWL authors' novels were honored by the Chanticleer International Book Awards this month. 

The Dante Rossetti Young Adult Fiction Award First Place went to the book I co-authored with my friend Jude Pittman! It's the Newfoundland and Salem, Massachusetts-set tale of family love and rescue during the Salem Witch Trials. The Title? Spectral Evidence. 

The Chaucer Historical Fiction Award First Place went to Liz Sevchuk Armstrong for the first book of her Hotspur Trilogy, To Remain Vigilant, chronicling the last kings of the Plantagenet Dynasty of England and the brave knight, Sir Harry Percy, who questioned their claim to be above the law. "Sound familiar?" says Liz, observing how the past has deep relevance to our own day and politics. 

Liz's novel

PS: Sir Harry is a DISH, and gets a wonderful love story!

The Chanticleer Book Awards recognize outstanding books across a variety of genres. The group sponsors a yearly conference where writers gather for workshops, networking, and community. And of course, the awards ceremony. This year's keynote speaker was renowned thriller author J.D. Barker. It was more international than ever with authors from Australia, the U.S., Scotland, Canada and India gathering and enjoying each other's company. The conference truly presented a world view of writers and publishing. 

Liz and I were grateful to be among our fellow wordsmiths. We enjoyed representing our now award-winning novels and BWL!

Jane's Walks Take Over the World

                                       Please click this link for author and book information

Next month I'll do something I haven't done before -- lead a Jane's Walk. My route will explore part of Calgary's Tuxedo Park neighbourhood, the primary setting for my historical mystery novel, A Killer Whisky. Heritage Calgary lists six Tuxedo Park sites with heritage value along our twenty-minute stroll. My favourite is a continuous row of workers' cottages built in 1912-13 and lovingly preserved. I imagined my the protagonist of my novel set in 1918 living in one of these homes.  

Jane's Walks take place in numerous cities every spring to commemorate the May 4th birthday of American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist Jane Jacobs. When I studied urban planning at Concordia University in the 1970s and 80s, Jacobs was the heroine of my professors. She wrote and acted against the dominant approach to urban renewal of the previous decades -- tear down old buildings and replace them with concrete blocks, clear slums, and build expressways through neighbourhoods without regard for the residents. Jacobs espoused the opposite. "Downtown is for people," she wrote. She advocated for community life on the streets, mixed land use over suburban sprawl and separate residential and commercial zones, and grass-roots city planning. 

Jacobs rose to prominence in the 1960s during the fight to prevent New York City's Greenwich Village from becoming a high-rise development. She was instrumental in stopping the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have cut through the city's SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown neighbourhoods. At a public hearing for the latter, she was arrested for inciting a riot. The charge was later reduced to disorderly conduct. 

Hardcover edition, pub. 1961, possibly the most influential book ever on urban planning and cities. 

In 1968, Jacobs moved with her husband and three children to Toronto, Canada, where she became a leader in the movement to stop the Spadina Expressway. "Cities should be built for people not cars" was a prevailing theme of her work. After her death in 2006, the city of Toronto declared May 5, 2007, Jane Jacob's Day and offered two dozen free neighborhood walks, which became nicknamed Jane's Walks. The following year, the event spread to eight cities and towns throughout Canada, and by 2016, Jane's Walks were taking place in 212 cities in 36 countries and six continents.  

For this year's Jane's Walk Festival Weekend (May 2-4, 2025) over 500 cities around the world will be participating. When I applied to lead a walk, I had no idea the event was this huge. To find out if your city is involved, you can search the Jane's Walk website. 

Walks are led by volunteers and free, although you generally need to register as they fill up. Anyone with a proposal and enthusiasm can apply to lead a walk and will probably be accepted. Despite my research on Tuxedo Park, I still have a fair bit to prepare for the walk. Last weekend, a few friends and I did another field trip to the neighbourhood. We plotted the best route for the walk, determined the best places for me to stand for my talks, and discovered some additional points of interest.

In the spirit of Jane Jacobs, Jane's Walks go ahead, rain, shine, or snow. I'll be ready for them all.  

    

Factoids about Writer's Quirky Habits - by Barbara Baker

 

I’m sitting at my desk procrastinating about whether I should do housework or wrestle with Jillian and her next chapter. While I ponder away, a downy woodpecker hurries up the tree outside my window and a squirrel tries to get into my bird feeder. I watch him for a few minutes as he preforms his aerial antics.

Procrastinating wins again and, as always, Google is full of facts and details which are often entertaining and intriguing. Since I feel like less of a procrastinator when I research writerly information, I selected authors as my topic – quirky habits of authors.

• Did you know Agatha Christie ate apples in the bath? Nothing weird about that. She apparently envisioned the plots of her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections while she chewed on apples in the comfort of a warm tub. Why apples? Google had no idea which surprised me. But Christie would line the edge of her tub with the cores while she plotted away. Weird or not, she’s got a fabulous track record so it worked for her.

• French romantic writer Victor Hugo would order his servant to hide all his clothes, including what he was wearing. Why? It prevented him from procrastinating about writing. Interesting. Apparently, Mr. Hugo would leave the house to frequent a local brothel, and it affected his ability to meet his writing deadlines. When his clothes were hidden, being naked prevented him from leaving home. With no place to go, he would write. Go Hugo. Wouldn't working in the nude today bring a whole new element to a Zoom meeting?

• Author of the DaVinci Code series, Dan Brown, hung upside down to process his book ideas. He would wear gravity boots and suspend himself from an exercise frame. Current day practice calls it inversion therapy. He felt the blood rushing to his head kept his creative juices flowing. His other quirk was to use an hourglass to track his writing time. When the hour was up, he’d do a round of push ups, sit ups and stretching exercises before writing again. Quite the energetic fella.

• Virginia Woolf, considered to be one of the most important modernists 20^th century authors, would stand at a tall desk while she wrote. Her sister was a painter, and she stood while she painted. Woolf felt her own work might seem less important if she sat while she wrote, hence she stood. Woolf’s nephew suggested it was a case of sibling rivalry. A bit of competitive spirit under their roof.

• Irish novelist, James Joyce wrote while he was lying down on his stomach. He would wear a white lab coat and use an oversized blue pencil. Odd maybe. But he had bad eyesight. The white lab coat reflected light better on the page and the large lead on the pencil helped him to see what he was writing. My elbows hurt just imagining writing in that position.

• Haruki Murakami would wake up at 4 AM to write. He’s the author of Norwegian Wood and other famous books. Haruki enjoyed writing in the quiet of the morning because there were fewer distractions. He would sit at his desk and write for five to six hours. No hanging upside down or lying on the floor. No apples in the room. And he wore clothes. This is one I can relate to.

Enough with factoids. Jillian and I need to spend some time together. Either she needs to get on my page, or I have to figure out what page she wants to be on. Regardless, I know it will be a test of wit, will and focus. Hopefully I can get to the focus aspect sooner than later.

FYI – I found the first crocus blooms on March 19th.

 

Baker, Barbara - BWL Publishing Inc. (bookswelove.net)