Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

For you and you alone

HERE IS NATHAN FILLION HOLDING A BRACE OF OTTERS.

Paul came by yesterday to take me for a walk down by the Quay.  I shared with him some ground chicken meatballs in pasta sauce and we had a beer (Hop Circle IPA by Phillips) apiece because it was so deliciously cool on the deck once the sun went down.

On Wednesday Katie and Paul are planning on going to London to see Phyllis, and I’m really happy about that although poor Katie – Alex is the perfect baby inside his routine but he doesn’t do change well and he’s likely to roar. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it when he gets back.

Mike’s going to fly to Toronto and visit Tammy soon (so happy!!) It’s always good when your friends get along.

Watched Run All Night.  It is a fairly pedestrian thriller, but I’m a Joel Kinnaman fan and he was good in this movie.  There’s a scene where he’s been kidnapped by dirty cops and his da, as played by Liam Neeson, CRASHES INTO THE COP CAR while his kid’s in it, and then levers him out of a busted window, asking, “Are you all right?” and the kid says, which stunned asperity, “No I am *not* all right!” which made Jeff and I laugh.

I think I may take a day off writing and work on edits instead.

And now, coffee.  I put it on a couple of minutes ago and now it should be ready.

Have some fungus.

500 words yesterday, 300 already today

KIMA’S BABIES ARE SO CUTE I COULD WRITE ABOUT THEM ALL DAY.  But we don’t have a stick of food in the house that Jeff can eat, so we’re going SCHLEPPING.

BREAKING SPONGE. Hilarious if you know the shows, incomprehensible if you don’t.

GODDAMN STANNIS BARATHEON (Imaginary character).  This will mean nothing if you don’t watch Game of Thrones.

I need to go read a real book I think.

Grr bleugh

Well it’s a good thing the transpeople I know personally aren’t assholes, because  the idea of having a transwoman tell me I’m oppressing her for occasionally mentioning that I have a Gold Star Darwin Approved Vagina would really really piss me off.  And I wouldn’t be nice about it.

The transpeople I know would roll their eyes and ask us to return to a more useful discussion.

Some woman who is not a professional medical person on the internet put up a 7 minute video on exercises for Pubic Symphisis pain, and in a shocking development, they really help.  Mike took me for Yellowtail Thai food last night down at the Quay  (I just ate the leftovers for breakfast… there is something of decadence in being able to have deep fried oysters for brekkie) last night and I crashed at his place.  He was still sawing logs at 5:30 am like any sane human so I let myself out and walked home.  MAN WHAT A DIFFERENCE.  I can honestly say that’s the longest and fastest walk I’ve had without pain in probably a year. And the sun was lovely, and the fresh breeze, which will probably resemble a damp blanket by midday, was restorative.  So I had a 2K walk in perfect weather as a start to my day.

Still sad about Anita.  She was a good woman.  I’ll post her obit later; she was a public figure in BC so there should be one in the local papers.

Sue comes to get me at 9:45.  I FOUND MY CHURCH NAME TAG more or less in time for the last service of the year.  Go me.

I think I already mentioned I wrote 1024 words yesterday, but here I go again.

New deadline for completion of the manuscript first draft is the end of August.  If I keep up my current rate that will be accomplished.

Visits and departures

A church elder died last evening.  The elder leaves an immense gap in our spiritual life, for the elder was a person with great institutional knowledge, practical wisdom and a steadying presence.

I’ll say who when all the family and everyone else knows.

BUT  Battery is coming today, and he always brings happiness with him, so that is good.

I will try to write today, and work on other projects if I can’t.

How it is

I am now 36K words into the second novel in the trilogy.

No response from an agent yet, but I’m going to get professional help with the query letter.

The novels have a premise, not a plot.  Once I realized that this is not a problem, I turned from a woman who dreamily talks about the novels I’ll write to a woman who writes every day, unless I don’t.  So I had three days where I produced less than 300 words total followed by 1700+ words in two days.  2000 words, five days, 400 words a day, not a great average but not shameful.  The best part is, I now understand the writing process as 1) identifying who I want to write about and what motivates them 2) putting those people into conflict with each other, and then letting them use their skills to fix the problems or live with the results 3) busting up the writing into manageable chunks with definite lengths so that I can feel the progress I’m making 4) having as much fun as possible.

And some days I write 100 to 1000 word blogposts because not every thought and OOO CUTE PIC that flits through my admittedly housefly-like brain can get stuffed into the novels.

I am trying to write like a feminist, media-savvy and unabashedly socialist version of Eric Frank Russell.  Hm.  I said it.  Wonder how much that will cost me in days to come.  “Females” scarcely exist in his novels, and yet there’s something about the realism and humanity of his writing that I enjoy.

When I get stuck, I play my mandolin, watch my way through the Golden Age of Television, go for a walk with my former spouse, or kids, empty the dishwasher, make bread, work on other projects (Recovering Racist, The Book of Kind Words – exactly how it sounds, and my mOm’s been making suggestions about modern situations which need kind words, which is GREAT, Tarot for Atheists, Allegra’s Filkebuche, Broad Hints – a scraping of all my non fiction including quite a bit of humour, Oscar and his Family (a series of children’s stories regarding a non-traditional family), and a book of all my homilies which I will probably call “Not all Unitarians”.)

I’ve identified as a writer all my life, and now that I’m committed to writing every day, except the days I don’t, I feel like my life is better than it’s ever been.  When sad things happen to me in real life, or cruel things, I can immediately turn to those chapters I’m working on which need that.  When I’m happy, I’m more productive.  Best of all are the days when I tell my mood, whether lethal or sadface or brittle or calm or goofy, “Stay put! I’ll deal with YOU later…” because those are the days I write a thousand words and never look up at the counter.  YAY SCRIVENER.

I am not worthy

Best commentary by a man on the subject of maxipads that has ever been written in English.  Required reading for all men who consider themselves to be feminists, and for any woman who has ever had a period.  ALSO VERY FUNNY.  I said in my facebook post on the subject:  This is one of the funniest, truest, most ah-ha pieces I’ve ever read. By me, he’s got a man card the size a phone book – far too big to be casually ripped up!

Going well

562 words already this morning.  Poor Theo.  But not poor mOm, who is going to get the most recent production pretty much immediately.

CHUNK STYLE

I’m doing church outreach today for SAPPERTON DAYS.  I’ll be with Sue, and there will be chairs, so that will be fine.  I’m thinking of taking Otto.  What the hell, eh?

Anyway, back to the grind.

Jeff and I are still messing with the font size.  Let us know if the change is NOT an improvement.

And thank you Jeff for continuing to be the best, most honest and most unobtrusive IT professional ever.

Amaze is no longer amazing

I’ve been using the laundry product Amaze for almost a quarter of a century and it’s off the market.  I’ve been to all the places I used to buy it, and I’ve been on line, and I’ve been to the brand website and it’s vanished.

So apparently the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet has shed so much ice to climate change that it’s changed gravity.

So apparently we have ants.

So apparently I hurt my left knee walking yesterday

So apparently Pluto has 5 wobble-orbited moons.

Well then.

No words yesterday but a lovely long walk in the park (Oakalla, aka Deer Lake) with Master Alex, who was completely adorable and said Ma-ma when Katie put him back in the car.  Thanks to Paul for providing car. We saw frogs, great blue herons, towhees and little twittering birds of some description. Katie particularly enjoyed the sound of the wind in the long grass.

 

writing and eating

SO… Mike took me to Taqueria Playa Tropical for dinner and it was WONDERFUL genuine Mexican food.  The Carne Burrito was super and Mike had Flautas.  I had a Negro Modelo for beerskis and Mike had the Coronorita which is a mini Corona upended in a really tasty Margarita.

Life is good.

Working on another Pharos scene.  Katie just called and she and I and Paul and OF COURSE ALEX WHAT YOU THINK SHE WOULD ABANDON HER BABY will go for a walk later.

Truth and reconciliation

A few recommendations of my own:

 

Read the 94 recommendations.

Which of these recommendations can you action in your own life?

In your church?

At your workplace?

At home?

In your buying habits?

Do you know where the nearest Friendship Centre is?  Locate it.

Do you know what languages the First Nations in your area speak?

If you have internet access, research and follow a First Nations activist on social media.

Visit your local library and borrow and read books by First Nations authors which can be fiction, poetry, memoir, non-fiction, academic.

Donate money to a First Nations cause.

Read the Indian Act.

If you have access, watch a youtube video google “youtube testimony residential schools”.

Go to a powwow.  Dance your ass off.

Purchase and display art by aboriginal artists.

Examine your speech for racist terms and expunge them.

Listen to First Nations music.

Learn how to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you in a local First Nations language.

Support First Nations people by attending peaceful protests.

Learn the traditional territorial boundaries of First Nations people.

Read about the laws, traditions and spiritual beliefs of First Nations people in your area.

If you have school aged children, ensure that they learn age appropriate materials about the residential schools.

Blog post from May Day 2005

So my fondest memory of the May Day Worker’s March yesterday was the effigy of Gordon Campbell, flanked by the effigies of two vultures. That was inspired. John and I ran up ahead to get a good look at the effigies; John opined “He’s stiffer in real life” whereas I contributed, “and the smile on the effigy is more genuine”. Full marks to the folks who did the work on that.

Came up with a good one yesterday. Patricia said, There is no I in Team, to which my immediate response was, and there’s no F in Way.

Blog post from July 2005

So Keith has been coughing and looking and feeling horrible, and last night around bed time he said, I’ll see if I feel like going in to work tomorrow. Paul and I both said, why don’t you call in sick NOW and then you can sleep in!

He sez, “I can do that?”

So he calls in sick. What I heard, “Hi, it’s Keith; feel like ratshit, so I won’t be coming in on Thursday.”

What he REALLY said was, “Hi, it’s Keith, I feel wretched, so I won’t be coming in on Thursday.”

Then I hear Paul say, in his proud voice, “Very professional!” at which point the top of my head caved in. I think I’m slowly going deaf…. it does run in the family.