The Artist Date – Part I

Once upon a time I wanted to be an Author.  Not just a writer, or someone who writes, but a bonafide published Author, with my name on covers, and readings and book signings, and book tours, the whole legit gambit.  I used to practice my autograph, the one I’d use for book signings.  I used to imagine walking into my local Chapters and see my name on a book cover, on the store shelves.  I wanted this more than anything.

And I used to write.  Voraciously.  Not that I ever finished anything more than a short story.  But I did have a few published.  That was very exciting.  But it wasn’t what I imagined writing a book would be like.  The dream continued to thrive and I continued to write, until one day I just stopped.  People would ask me why I don’t write anymore and I’d joke that the voices inside my head didn’t speak to me anymore, but it was more true than not.  All the stories that swirled inside my mind, the movies that would play as I fell asleep, all these ideas for stories just waiting to be written seemed to have dried up.  I blamed it on growing older and growing up.  Maybe all those stories were just a product of childish imagination, fantasies that had been usurped by the reality of life as an adult.  I didn’t really know why the stories and characters that had populated my brain for most of my life had disappeared but I did know I missed them.  I felt I had lost a part of myself. Life wasn’t as bright and colourful, or as full of “life” as it could be.  Instead I was locked into a dreary day-to-day non-creative existence of banality.  It made me very sad.

Then one day a friend was saying how she longed to write fiction, but didn’t think she was creative enough or had the imagination for it.  Bullocks I said!  We all have the ability to play, and that’s all imagination is.  I challenged her to rethink her statement and she in turn started up an online creative cluster to explore Julia Cameron’s 12-week course, The Artist’s Way as a way to tap into that creative, imaginative side of herself and unleash her ability to write fiction.

Thinking I’d be far too busy this summer what with the distance education course I was taking, and well, life in general, I trepidaciously asked to be added to the group, thinking I could cheer from the sidelines at most, and at best, could participate as much as possible in the activities laid out by Julia Cameron.  But really, I was just hoping to sponge off the creative collective, hoping that something in the ether would wriggle its way into my little dried up brain and re-ignite a spark of interest in the creative again, in writing again.

Little did I know how eternally grateful I would end up feeling as I tentatively embraced one of the basic tools of the Artist’s Way, the Artist Date.  Julia Cameron speaks about restocking the well of our creativity and to do this we have to go out and play each week.  It can be anything we deem creative – a trip to an arts supply store, a museum, or anything inbetween.  I happened to hear about a poetry reading and book launch happening this week and decided to take myself out.  On a date.  And I am so very glad I did!

 

The evening started off with me feeling rather grumpy.  I was seriously moving out of my comfort zone.  I dislike going places by myself.  I always feel so alone in the crowd.  It’s much safer to be with someone you know.  To have a crutch you can sit with, talk to, etc.  But the point of the Artist’s Date is to do it by yourself.  You can’t restock that well if you’re too busy gabbing to a friend and missing all the creative goodness that should be flowing inward if you sit quietly by and drink it in.  So despite my grumpiness and that inner voice that kept telling me to stay in the comforts of my home, I made myself go.  I ended up parking several blocks away from the venue and found myself walking along an old, familiar haunt.  Biblioasis, the bookstore hosting the event, is located in a part of the city I used to call home.  I have fond memories of the Saturday afternoons I would spend strolling along Wyandotte St E in Old Walkerville, checking out the small boutiquey shops and eateries in the area.  There have been many changes since I moved out of that part of the city, but it still has the same feeling of arty trendiness and I drank it all in as I walked the blocks to Biblioasis.

 

Along the way I passed the Arts Council of Windsor Essex County and paused briefly in the doorway.  In progress was a drum circle, and the sign on the sandwich board outside invited one and all to enter and join in.  If I hadn’t been so set on the poetry reading I would have done just that.  And this morning, I feel some regret I didn’t take the time to join in, if only for a few minutes.  Note to self to check this place out for future Artist Dates.  Lesson to be learned: plan on being spontaneous on these Dates.  Let your creativity lead you, rather than stick to some pre-planned schedule.  Sometimes, when you veer off the beaten path, a treasure trove of new experiences are your reward.  Don’t be afraid to explore.

 

Biblioasis turned out to be a small new & used bookstore with brick walls lined with overstuffed book shelves.  Shelves had been pushed to the side to make room for the rows of chairs set up to accommodate the audience, and a small table of offerings by the poets reading that night, along with other local and noteworthy authors, hugged the cash counter.  It was a small, intimate space, and I sat and drank it all in as people arrived and the night slowly got underway.  The poets were introduced by a faculty member of the English department at the University of Windsor, though the event was in no way affiliated with the University.  As I looked around I recognized many of my English professors in attendance.  We have a thriving literary scene in Windsor, one I’m only just realizing and appreciating.  Better late than never.

 

Jay MillAr read from his latest published work, Timely Irreverence and Phil Hall from his latest book, The Small Nouns Crying Faith.  Both contemporary poets could not have been more different from each other, yet were immensely enjoyable to listen too.  I’d forgotten just how fulfilling and uplifting it feels to be a part of a reading.  It doesn’t have to be a published author either.  Just a small group of fellow writers sitting around sharing their work with each other can inspire and light up a creative spark.  I hadn’t realized how much I missed that communal creative consciousness or how much I needed it. 

 

After the readings, I picked up a copy of both books and had them signed.  Why?  Not because I love contemporary poetry – I’m not exactly a huge poetry fan, but because I remember my dreams of reading my published work for an appreciative audience and signing books afterwards, and as I hope to see those dreams come true one day, I relish in sharing in the thrill of being asked to sign your book, signing the book, and having your copy signed by the author.  It’s a delicious, heady circle to be a part of, and I never want to get off.

 

 

I finished the night with a little desert at The Old Town Sweet Shop and while I people and traffic watched out the window, let myself sit quietly and absorb every nuance of the night’s experience, and I felt my well fill.  I can’t wait for the next Date.  I already have plans.

 

Till next time,

L :)

L Reads Alex Cross #14: Cross Country

Well I’ve been pretty clear about my feelings for James Patterson and his Alex Cross books, if you’ve been keeping up with this blog.  If you haven’t, the general consensus is that most of these books suck, and I only read them now, because I stupidly committed to reading the entire series, long before I realized most of them suck.  The odd exception, the true stand-out good read does come along now and again, which keeps me in hope that the series and James Patterson with redeem themselves and make my sacrifice of valuable reading time worthwhile.

 

Cross Country, the 14^th Alex Cross book, is one that alternately had me rolling my eyes and sighing in disgust, and gripping on to the book in anticipation of what came next.  It is a book that has partially redeemed the series enough to get me wanting to read the next book to see what happens to Cross next!  And yet, it has also given me enough fodder to complain about in this blog post, making it an overall decent read.

 

For once, the story focuses on a new villain, and we are not forced to go over the same ground covered in another book all over again.  Mind you, Kyle Craig is still at large, and does pop up a few times, but the focus of the book is predominately on The Tiger, a Nigerian mass murder who Alex Cross is determined to track down, even if he must travel all the way to Africa to do so.

 

And so to Africa he goes, following up a tip given to him by the CIA who are either the good guys or the bad guys, we don’t yet know.  We do know that his CIA contact in Nigeria leaves him rotting in prison for three days, getting beaten to a bloody pulp.  Yup, things do not go well for Cross in this book.  It is blatantly obvious Patterson has an agenda right from page one, and that is to highlight the corruption and atrocities going on in Africa these days as Cross travels from Nigeria to Sierra Leone, to Darfur and back again.  We see the police corruption, the dismal jails and horrendous treatment of political prisoners, and the refugee camps teeming with displaced nationals who are regularly attached, beaten, raped and mutilated.  Cross is charged with telling their stories once he returns to America.  But he doesn’t need to, for Patterson has made this novel a poorly written political statement.  It’s a book to educate the under educated on the situation in Africa, just in case they missed the news.

 

And to make perfectly sure his readers don’t miss all the important information and knowledge he’s imparting, Patterson makes overly excessive use of italics, just to drill the message home.  *eyeroll*

 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a horrible situation in Africa, one that should be brought to the world’s attention in any way possible, I just wish Patterson wasn’t so clumsily bad at it.  In the hands of a better writer and all that….

 

Anyway, back to the story, when Cross does return to America, without successfully catching his man, he arrives to find his family has been kidnapped, and thus begins the nail-biting, gripping read that redeems the book enough to make me want to read the next installment, thankfully, there are only about five more to go.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L

A Reading Year in Review and New Year’s Reading Resolutions

Happy New Year one and all!!!

 

Looking back over the previous reading year, I’m left rather unfulfilled.  My goal this year was to read all of the books on my TBR shelf with authors’ names A through C.  This led to some rather disappointing reads.  Or maybe they were just disappointing because I was forcing myself to read them, rather than because of any genuine interest I had to read those particular books this past year.  Book club picks which took up another huge chunk of my reading time were also hit and miss, though some of my favourite books of the year came via book club choices.  These were A Thousand Splendid Sons, The Book of Negros and Rush Home Road, both I still highly recommend if you haven’t already read them.  I was also in class for both Winter and Fall semesters this year, which took away precious hours of my pleasure reading time, and somewhere in the summer months I got an uncontrollable urge to re-read some past favourites, and while that was time well spent, I didn’t get very far with my reading goal.

 

Let’s recap, shall we?  My one and only reading goal for 2012 was to read the entire TBR A - C shelf.  While I made good effort through the first half of the year and cleared off about a third of the shelf, somewhere around July my enthusiasm for this project severely waned.  Add to that new acquisitions in the A – C author category, and that shelf is as full if not more so then this time last year.  Oy!

 

So looking forward into 2013, with the hopes of reading more enjoyable books than I did last year, what will my reading resolutions be? 

 

Well first, I’d like to commit to only taking the following out of the public library:

 

a)    Book club picks

b)    James Patterson Alex Cross books (cause I’m still trying to finish the series)

c)    J.D. Robb and Elizabeth Lowell new releases (cause they’ve been my favourite authors for too long to remember, and I can’t give up an old habit yet!)

d)    Books I currently have checked out or on hold (but not on my for later shelf)

e)    And anything else that should be on this list but can’t think of right now

 

The rest of my pleasure reading will have to come from my TBR Bookcase.  Hopefully I can whittle it down somewhat this year.

 

Oh, now I was going to make 2013 the year of revisiting beloved books, but I think just re-reading, when I have all those new books still to read would be far too overly indulgent, and would leave me guilt ridden, so I will re-read as the feeling takes me, but otherwise tackle those TBRs as much as I possibly can!

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L

 

PS:  C, you can definitely stop laughing at me now!  No, seriously, stop!

Indigo Lakeshore Book Club Reads: Rush Home Road

Best book I read in 2012, hands down!!!!

 

STOP what you are doing and go get a copy of this book.  Go, go now!  I’ll wait.

 

Okay, the best thing you can do for yourself is to READ THIS BOOK!  And I’m about to tell you why:

 

I love, love, love local books.  And living in a small town, they’re hard to come by.  Most CanLit books are set in Toronto, or Montreal, or on the Prairie or places other than Southwestern Ontario, so when I come across a book that is set in my neck of the woods, particularly one that’s as well written as Rush Home Road, I’m simply over the moon! 

 

Little Sharla Cody, at five years of age, has not had an enviable life.  She and her mother live in a trailer park along with her mother’s numerous boyfriends.  When the boyfriend du jour wants to be rid of Sharla, her mother goes trailer to trailer looking for someone to take in her child “just for the summer.”  Seventy-year-old Addy Shadd agrees, and ends up becoming a surrogate mother to young Sharla, teaching her not only about life, but about love.

 

The story of Rush Home Road is really Addy’s story, as through the flashbacks of an aging woman, we learn about her life, the men she loved and lost, and the children she bore and also lost.  It’s a story that travels from Rusholme, a small town in Southern Ontario that was settled by black slaves fleeing the South, to rum runners in Sandwich, across the river to a small community in Detroit, Michigan, and back to the city Addy finally calls home, Chatham Ontario.  Resplendent with small town life and charm, Rush Home Road will keep you captivated from word one until you turn the final page and bid this wonderful woman adieu.

 

I loved Lori Lansens book so much, I promptly took her next two, The Girls and The Wife’s Tale, out of the library.  I cannot wait to read them over Christmas break!  Rush Home Road is a book I very highly recommend.

 

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

 

I wish I could tell you, but I ended up missing the December meeting.  I can say that the buzz leading up to the meeting was full of love for this book.  Comments on social media posted by fellow clubbers all had good things to say about this book and the general consensus was everyone loved it as much as I did.

 

Till next time, go read this book!!

L

The Casual Vacancy, the new novel by J. K. Rowling

JK Rowling’s new adult novel, The Casual Vacancy is quite a departure from the Harry Potter series.  Pagford is no magical, mythical town, and its inhabitants aren’t wizards, or witches, or muggles, although they are every day, ordinary humans like you and I.  For me, as a huge fan of Coronation Street, this was a great book to read.  Set in the small English town of Pagford, we are introduced to a wide range of characters that occupy various levels of the social strata.  And, like Coronation Street, there is plenty of drama to be had in their lives.  Departing from the soap, however, The Casual Vacancy focuses more on the dark sides of humanity and misses the mark when it comes to showcasing quirky small town characters

 

A casual vacancy opens up with the sudden death of a council member, prompting several members of the community to put names forward, all with their own reasons for wanting to be on town council.  There is Colin “Cubby” Wall, the school principal and best friend of Barry Fairbrother the newly deceased.  He has aspirations of picking up where his friend left off, and ensuring Barry’s dreams for the town of Pagford come true, a lasting legacy if you will.  Unfortunately, Cubby has a dark, dirty secret he’s petrified will come out under scrutiny of council elections.

 

Then there is Simon Price, abusive husband and father who is sure Barry was receiving kickbacks for his work on the town council, and wants his share of the pie.  His dirty, money scheming secrets are the first to air in public.

 

Chair of town council, and Pagford mayor (had the town ever been incorporated), Howard Mollison has his own ideas about who should fill the suddenly vacant seat, and they all rest with his son and heir, Miles, someone who will tow the line and vote as daddy would have him.

 

What’s at stake is The Fields, an underprivileged neighbourhood on Pagford Parish property that was acquired many years ago by neighbouring Yarvil and who some Padfordians feel should no longer be the financial responsibility or burden of the good citizens of Pagford.  Returning the property and its people and all their problems to Yarvil is the goal of Howard Mollison and his supporters, who were adamantly opposed by the deceased, and now you have the gist of the novel.

 

Added to the local political shenanigans are the teenage children of Pagford and The Fields and their own individual problems:  one has a drug addict for a mother, another cuts herself because of her mother’s neglect, another suffers verbal and physical abuse from his father on a regular basis, while another who seemingly has the perfect family home, is slowly turning into a sociopath.

 

The dark underbelly of life in Pagford is exposed with all its seediness.  This is no uplifting novel, but rather a dark and interesting read about human nature at its most raw.

 

The Casual Vacancy will not appeal to all, but it is well worth reading.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L

Beautiful Sacrifice – Elizabeth Lowell

I have been in love with Elizabeth Lowell since I was a teen and first picked up one of her Avon historical romances.  From the very first word, I was mad to read more of her work, and between the Avons and the Harlequins, she kept me in rapture.  These were not your typical romance novels.  They were beautifully written, with well-thought-out metaphors, breathtaking descriptions of the vastness of various American landscapes, but mostly Colorado and New Mexico.  As the 80s rolled into the 90s, her books evolved into romantic suspense, and I learned more than I needed to about the jewel trade in China and Australia, the drug and gun trade between the US-Mexican border, and more.  All of which were fascinating reads, with the romance between two strong, intelligent people front and center.  The stories and the writing were clearly a cut above the typical romance, and I was beyond enamored.  I have continued to buy and devour all of her books, right up to the present day, and they, until recently, failed to disappoint.

 

Until recently.  Those two innocuous words that say so much.  Beautiful Sacrifice is Lowell’s latest publication and one of the biggest disappointments I have experienced in reading a treasured author.  First, the book jumps on the December 21, 2012 bandwagon, with the Mayan prediction that the world is about to come to an end.  To give Lowell her due, she’s done her research, and she does a decent job of debunking the myth surrounding this latest “end of the world” date.  The Mayan calendar has had many “end of the world” dates over the centuries, and rather than meaning the world will literally come to an end, it merely means that the existing period in Mayan culture will end, and the Mayan’s will embark on a new era, when ruling gods will change and life for the Mayan’s will be either good or bad, depending on the fortunes coming forth as the days, months and years progress. 

 

While the details of Mayan religion and culture made this book an interesting read, it was lacking in so much more.  What I’ve always loved about Lowell is her richness in detail, in characterization, in heady emotional connections, and stellar writing.  Nearly all of which have been lacking in her latest publication endeavours.  Particularly, Beautiful Sacrifice read very much like an earlier book of hers, so much so, that the entire time I was reading it, I kept thinking to myself: “I’ve read this before, I’m sure I’ve read this before.”  And as I own nearly every book she’s written, I can verify, unfortunately, it was a new book, if it did read like a heavily recycled one.  Perhaps it is time for Lowell to take a break from churning out formulaic books for a while, just until a new, fresh idea comes to mind, one that she can write with all the style and care she put into her earlier work.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L

Indigo Lakeshore Book Club Reads: The Sultan’s Wife

Jane Johnson’s The Sultan’s Wife was our pick for November and I must confess, I had only just started reading the book by the time we met up, so didn’t have much to contribute to the discussion, but I enjoyed listening to others’ opinions.  We were a mixed bag of read, not-read, and only partially read members that night.  Some liked the book, but would probably not read anything else by this author.  Many liked the historical detail as the book is set in Morocco in the late 1600s, as well, getting introduced to another culture.  I for one, had not enjoyed the first 100 pages of the book, not at least until the main female character, the “Sultan’s Wife” of the title, appeared.  I continued to read the book after the meeting, though it wasn’t a page-turner for me.  Overall, I found it to be an alright read, but not one I’d readily recommend.

 

What the book is about:  The story begins with Nus-Nus, a slave and eunuch in the Sultan’s court.  Nus-Nus is the Sultan’s chief scribe, in charge of the “couching” book (the book that chronicles every bed partner of the Sultan and tracks the births of his progeny).  This exalted position in the Sultan’s household leaves Nus-Nus vulnerable to attack by the Sultan’s enemies and those in the court who conspire and intrigue behind the Sultan’s.  As the first book ends, Nus-Nus is arrested for the murder of a souk merchant. 

 

I wasn’t enamored with Nus-Nus, or his story, or the details of the Sultan, who, based on a real life figure, is insane and incredibly violent.  Details of Morocco in the 1600s, while historically accurate, didn’t appeal much to me either.  I’m not that much of a history buff, much preferring to read about British history than anything else. Usually though, if the story’s good and the writing worthy, I can get excited about any book.  This one just wasn’t up to snuff.

 

Anyway, Book Two started with Alys Swann, a young English woman returning to England from the Netherlands to marry her fiancé when her ship is stopped and boarded by Turks.  She along with the other women on the ship are taken into captivity, and owing to her blond hair, blue eyes, and porcelain skin, is sent to the Sultan’s harem.  The Sultan quickly becomes captivated by her, setting up a dangerous rivalry between Alys and his first wife, Zidana.  Nus-Nus, released from prison with the sole purpose of converting Alys to Islam, also falls under her spell and conspires to protect her at all costs.

 

What transpires is a rather interesting tale of court intrigue that travels from the shores of Morocco to the court of the English king as Nus-Nus risks everything for the woman he loves.

 

Alys was a very interesting character, and I quite enjoyed her story as it started to unfold, but it soon became apparent that she was being used as a stock character, and she quickly fell by the wayside as the story progressed.  The real thrust of the book was Nus-Nus, and his yearnings for a life beyond the Sultan’s palace, which was unfortunate for this reader, because I found it took most of the book before I started to identify with him, let alone want to read more of his story.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L