Okay so that's not Kate & Will. But hey, we had the ocean by the Cape Breton Highlands National Park!! If that's not majestically regal, I don't know what is... So yes, in case you just emerged from a cave, today there's the Royal Wedding in England. Meanwhile in Halifax Mayworks 2011 opens, a festival built upon the premise that workers and artists share a common struggle for decent wages, healthy working conditions - building bridges & creating "a true working class in Nova Scotia that we can be proud of - we have to create the society we want to live in." Friday, April 29th 1. So, yes, if you're looking for some writing fodder, be it indignation or reverence, do check out the nuptials - it's bound to elicit some sort of reaction.... 2. Later on, at 7 pm there's CAPITALISM ISN'T WORKING FOR CREATORS - a panel discussion on the state of artists as workers. Bell Auditorium, 5163 Duke Street. [Admission is free] Sunday, April 31st 3. One of my writing group friends, Chris Benjamin, will be reading from his novel Drive-by Saviours at the announcement ceremony of Halifax's talented new Poet Laureate, Tanya Davis, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, this Sunday, May 1. The event starts at 1:30 pm. +++I added another event below which takes place later this week, also part of the Mayworks festival. Thursday, May 5th Dapopo Cafe at 7 pm, Just Us! CoffeeHouse, 5896 Spring Garden Road, $5/person "All theatre is political" From their website: "A veritable feast of theatre, served a la carte by by DaPoPo Theatre of Halifax, Nova Scotia. From Shakespeare to schtick, sock puppets to songs... you order it from our performance menu, and we dish it up."
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If you're a writer looking for a 'dayjob', please consider revamping your resume with this photo's inspiration... (see clearer image by clicking on the Facebook link). Then go ahead and use it to inspire your next character - something tells me whoever wrote this is definitely that: A CHARACTER!!! To my friend Dave, wherever you are, you could've come up with this, and if you were reading it, you'd be laughing your ass off!! Will miss ya, Love Dina (Source: thedailywhat) Why not let her inspire your next rant For this week's writers' critique meeting, I'll be 'workshopping' chapter # 4 and focusing on the character development of two aunts that figure prominently in the village of Papillion. One of them may have a little Cruella coursing through her veins . . . I've posted the short excerpt/draft (2.5 pages) here. Feel free to send me your feedback - I promise not to hunt down your pets!! P.S. Reminder to Writerlies: 7:30 p.m. my place this Wednesday Have a great week, TartanFrog A: How I wish I had the version pictured below - mine's the lesser inspiring wine- coloured cover, though both are overindulgent & misleading because this story is NOT about Norah - the daughter who ends up begging on a Toronto street corner with a hand-lettered sign that reads GOODNESS - it's about her mother, Reta. I also wish Shields were still alive to write that novel, Norah. Here's a TERRIBLE IRONY - the late Carol Shields herself once wrote about Alice Munro's Friend of My Youth the following: "The Canadian writer Alice Munro once likened a good short story to a commodious house whose every room possesses an exterior door. So accommodating a house, she wrote, is capable of admitting visitors through any number of openings,..." In the pages of Shields' Unless, however, what I found could be summarized as rooms with exterior doors slamming shut rather than opening to admit visitors. I almost felt as though Shields was closing those doors onto herself as she faced death. I expected this novel to be Shields' best yet, her swan song, but unfortunately it just didn't measure up. Yes, the prose was beautifully written and I often found myself admiring a passage or nodding along in agreement, but it lacked depth, richness of plot and unfortunately I found myself somewhat bored in several parts. My main criticism of the book actually is directed at the editor or lack of editing. I believe Carol Shields may have been dying, and I'm left wondering whether there even was an editor?? The job of an editor is to work closely with the author and/or literary agent to ensure the novel is a strong as it can be. This "may mean changing major story arcs" as well as proofreading for correct grammar and style. And therein lies the problem, the story arc. For example, I've read countless reviews saying that readers couldn't get past the first 50 pages. And that's not because Carol Shields isn't a great writer, it's because amongst many other poor editorial choices, the first chapter could have consisted of an introduction limited to paragraph one. The story BEGAN in chapter two. "With 60 pages of skimpy text behind me, I could not get passed the sin of wasting any more time on the rest." M. H. Gaboury, aka beauregard I agree with more than one amazon.com review I read: "If you haven't read Shields before, do yourself a favour and read "Stone Diaries" or "Larry's Party" before you pick up this one." Ahhhhhhh...how I wish Carol could give us a revised edition!! I still treasure your other novels, especially Larry's Party. And I will always admire those nuggets of pure heavenly writing you inspired me with. Rest in peace, Respectfully, TartanFrog Word on the Street Fridays - 2.5 events (My political leaning friends can go straight to 2.5)4/15/2011 This comes from the Coast, but means a lot to me. 1. I love the Fringe! It inspires creativity! My favourite from last season was Archy & Mehitabel so please bring any ideas or support you can to the public meeting this Sunday!! Click anywhere on the excerpt below to go to the story and post your comments on the Coast's website... Atlantic Fringe Festival meeting announced Do your part! Posted by Andrew Kress on Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 2:06 PM "Action is being taken on the recent announcement that the Atlantic Fringe Festival will be put on hold for two years. A meeting is now scheduled for Sunday, April 17 at 12pm at the Cultural Federations of Nova Scotia (1113 Marginal Road). The meeting is open to anyone in support of the festival and of course, anyone who has any ideas on how to tackle this issue. Doors open at 11:45am and the meeting will run until 2pm. The meeting will address the above suggestions and any others that come up. 2011 would have been the Atlantic Fringe Festival’s 20th Anniversary." 2. Timeless classic for a reason - Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is re-imagined to a modern day musical on the streets of New York, where two young teenagers find love despite loyalty to their rivaling street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. Go watch it and then spent the rest of your weekend spinning your own version of young love against the odds. Where: Neptune Theatre, Downtown Halifax, 1593 Argyle Street (429-7070 or www.neptunetheatre.com Have a great weekend all, TartanFrog 2.5 Election Mania - Yes, if it hasn't hit you yet - LET IT SINK IN ++ If, like me, weekdays are so hectic that reflection is scant, please let the earlier photo I linked to sink in too... Sarah Gunn posted ealier: Pregnant woman to little kid at grocery store: I can grow people. What's your super power? Now think about asking this to current politicians and imagine how many of them will answer the following: "My super power is that I can lie, cheat & steal their money and Canadians will be so daft as to give me MORE power!!" Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! Halifax Monk Writers Update: Next meeting at my house on Wednesday, April 20th - 7:30 p.m. Ah...weekends...finally got to Atlantic News to buy my favourite writing magazines - the ones that promise glorious Saturday mornings. They (along with the coffee) delivered. Here are a couple of great lines that you could use to get you going on that next bone-chilling tale: 1. "I plunged the claw of my hammer between my agent's startled eyes." [from Sanguineous, by Anna Kittrell - winner of contest # 29 in Writer's Digest**] 2. "Long before I first met Evan Hunter, he bought me a drink." [from The Murders in Memory Lane, by Lawrence Block] 3. "The Rhythm Bar was a brick barnacle clinging to the underbelly of Hell's Kitchen on Manhattan's West Side." [from Hell's Kitchen Homicide, by Charles Kipps] Can anyone explain why I love the word 'barnacle' so much? **Btw, the prompt for the first line was: "While remodeling a room of your house, you discover a door to another room you didn't know existed." Happy Scribing Writerlies, TartanFrog Finally found enough (non-smoking) serenity to sit down and finish a book. And despite my mood of late on more than one occasion I laughed out loud. The charm in this book is that it captures our cynicism towards politics and dives into that cynicism with gusto & comedy. Meet Daniel Addison, 32-year-old burnt-out former speechwriter to the leader of the Liberal opposition, whose voice reminded me a bit of a restrained Rick Mercer (or maybe he's the parallel-universe-Mercer born in Toronto?). The main plot revolves around Addison’s attempts to find someone with a pulse willing to run for the Liberal seat in Cumberland-Prescott, a riding with about as much hope of electing a Liberal as Canada has of electing a female Prime Minister from the Green Party(:. My favourite Addison observations are either about Parliament Hill absurdities like how the pendulum of power swings between the cynical political operators (CPOs) and the idealist policy wonks (IPWs), or the way he describes falling into dogshit (both literally and figuratively:) Addison finally finds the pulse he's looking for in one cantakerous Angus McLintock, an engineering prof who also happens to be Addison's new landlord. McLintock is a crazy-haired Scot, grammar-freak, unkempt, brutally honest, bereft of social graces, ...in other words, a bit too caricature-esque for my liking but I managed to get over both him and 'the Petes' because I liked the story. I thought Muriel, on the other hand, to be a very believable and loveable character. I also had a love-hate relationship with those love letters McLintock wrote to his dead wife at the end of each chapter. Great idea in theory, but the execution left me wanting those letters to move the plot rather than stall it. Even as a sober second thought, wisdom thing, it didn't do enough to satisfy me. Here are the two main take-aways of this book that make it worthy of the Canada Reads title: 1. Yes, Canada is being run by short-sighted people with self-serving agendas. At the very least anyone running for office should read this novel before hitting the campaign trail. At the most, if we don't want Canada to continue being run by short-sighted people with self-serving agendas, we should start a scavenger hunt for some Angus. 2. Beyond the novel, I think the story behind this book's publication serves as an inspiration to those of us who are neither university English profs nor MFA graduates. We all know that the deck is stacked against us by that publishing culture of elitism. However, it reminded me (and hopefully some agents & publishers) of a sign I once read - it was posted on an outhouse in St. John's, Nfld. See below... Here's to Canada finding Angus! TartanFrog |
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