Transition

Jeff and I got back from the cottage (and a canoe trip) late last night. Whenever we go up north for more than a few days, it's always a bit of a culture shock when we come back to the city. In some ways, it reminds me of how I feel when I step from a darkened theatre after seeing a good movie, back into the chaos of light and noise. On the other hand, I always return with a renewed appreciation for high-speed access and flush toilets.

Today's goal: unpack, do laundry, and attempt to catch up on the mountain of e-mail that's accumulated over the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to get into my admin page to update my publishing news column for WritersMarket.com, probably because of a site revamp last week; I've let the people at WritersMarket.com know, so hopefully the problem should be fixed soon.



Just before we left for the cottage, by the way, I sent off my rewritten manuscript. As I mentioned a while back, a publishing house expressed interest (but not enough for a contract yet) and I've been working with one of the editors there. I'm grateful for the one-on-one critique discussions, and learned a great deal that I'll be able to apply to my other writing projects.

Anyway, the ball is back in their court, and I'm crossing my fingers very, very hard. Whatever happens, I'm happier with the mss now; it's stronger and more likely to find a publisher...hopefully sooner than later. Wish me luck, eh? Meanwhile, I'm excited about plunging into my next fiction project.



This time I plan to a lot more outlining (probably via Scrivener) before I start writing. The novel I just sent off was originally written for NaNoWriMo, but I did only cursory outlining; I could have saved myself several rewrites if I had taken the time to do more detailed background and plot outlining first. I know some authors can write books without much of an outline; I'm just not one of them. :-)





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14 years of Urban Tapestry

Met Allison and Jodi in Newmarket for an Urban Tapestry practice yesterday, going over some repertoire in prep for a Rochester house concert next month. Of course I had to take along my new camera. :-)



We don't tend to get together for practices anymore unless we have an upcoming performance, mainly because of geography; we all live about 1-1.5 hours away from each other (an hour on the Toronto and North York transit, that is).



Karma points to anyone out there who can guess what Urban Tapestry song this flute part was written for:



Hint: we recorded it on our first album in 1994.

Geez. Sometimes I still have trouble believing that Urban Tapestry has been together for FOURTEEN YEARS (since 1993). Next year will be our 15th anniversary as a group! My disbelief isn't because we've stayed together for so long but rather that it doesn't really seem like that long.

Seems like only yesterday that we were timidly approaching Dave Clement ('cuz he's sooooooo intimidating, you know) about whether we could have a concert at Conadian in Winnipeg.



While I was at the cottage, I found some early song lyric notes for "Duct Tape Man" in a pile of old papers:



I ended up dedicating it to the sound engineer of our second album, Dave Goulden, after he used duct tape on my mouth when I wouldn't keep quiet during a recording session. :-D

I recently got back in contact with Dave through Facebook. You can find his blog at Davidgoulden.net.

Facebook also got me in contact with Shane McEwan again, someone I met while doing my Waiting For Frodo comic strip:



Here's a letter I got from Rebecca at Weta Digital (who did the special effects for the Lord of the Rings movies) back then:

"Your strip caused much hilarity in the office today (I sit next to Shane, who mailed you a while ago). I thought that you might like a photo of Shane with the rest of the crew. :-) Sorry about the image quality. I was in a hurry and couldn't be bothered cleaning the scanner. :-) Cheers -rebecca -ps- Shane is the one at the right hand side of the photo in the yellow shirt. I'm the girl in the black t-shirt at the front. Otherwise, on top of the renderwall there's Tomek (at the front) and Ben (at the back). Paul is standing next to me and Nik is sitting behind him. James is looking very cool in his sunglasses and orange shirt, and Cam is standing on a box behind him. Our team is bigger these days, but this is the most recent photo. :-)"

Every time I saw the movies in the theatre, I always clapped when Shane's name came up during the credits at the end. :-)

I eventually put Shane in the comic strip:



You can now find Shane at OzPod and Virtual Doughnutland.




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Happy birthday, Walter!

It's my friend Walter's birthday today. He inspired an Urban Tapestry kids' song; you can hear it here. :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WALTER!



Some more cottage pics...

I took the following photo with my Canon 70-300 lens, leaning it again the deck railing:



A close-up of the moon via my Canon Rebel XTi:



Our friends' cat, using the Sigma 30/1.4 lens:



Deer skull found in the forest, also with the Sigma:



So much to do, too little time. Hoping to actually SEND OFF MY REWRITTEN NOVEL to my agent at last tomorrow (!).

Getting together with Allison and Jodi tonight to polish up some repertoire to perform at a private house concert in Rochester this fall.





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Hummingbird thoughts

I've been taking hundreds of photos every day. Deleting most of them, but I'm learning lots about my new Canon Rebel XTi and its various lenses. The photos on this page were taken with the Canon 70-300 lens.



I've always been fascinated by hummingbirds. We get Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds at the cottage, where these tiny birds are as nasty (to each other) as they are gorgeous.




I'm assuming this one is a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, but I welcome corrections:




All these photos were taken without a tripod. I just waited around until the birds got used to me (about 10-15 minutes); I had to change out of my red sweatshirt because they kept coming up to ME and hovering way too close for me to get a shot with the telephoto. :-)



There's something zen-like about waiting for a good bird/animal shot that may or may not happen. Unlike a building or landscape, your subject won't hold still for you and may not show up at all. And yet the waiting itself (at least for me) is part of the enjoyment, I find, forcing me to slow down and enjoy one moment at a time instead of always multitasking and rushing around. Even if I don't get my shot, I still come out of the experience feeling more relaxed.

What about the rest of you bird/animal photographers?



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Courting My Muse

The drugs worked; I actually slept through the night without a coughing fit, for the first time in almost a week and a half. Yay for drugs!



I am feeling a tad overwhelmed by all the work and e-mail I need to catch up on, however, so am going to be opting out of regular Blatherings for the next couple of weeks.

Something that is helping to keep me sane, though: yay, my copy of Mary Crowell's new CD, Courting My Muse recently arrived!

This is a fantastic CD. Truly. I've always loved Mary's sultry voice and performance style (ah, the way she caresses those keys!). The songs on this album are polished and professional yet retain their emotional core -- something that doesn't always happen when performers take their music into the recording studio.

The CD also showcases a nice range of Mary's songs, from the heartbreakingly beautiful ("Two Hours Away") and soulful to playful ("Magnus Retail") and smoky-sultry. Lord of the Rings fans will LOVE "Legolas." :-)

The instrumentals on the entire CD are excellent, and wonderfully arranged. It's clear that a lot of work went into this project: every song, every instrumental, every NOTE contributes to the whole. There is no filler on this album.



I love all the tracks on this CD but if pressed for a favourite, I'd have to pick "Get Down Mama." Wow...amazing arrangement. My favourite melody: "Two Hours Away." But I reserve the right to change my mind multiple times since I anticipate listening to this CD way too much in the next while. :-)

You can hear samples from all the songs on CD Baby. You can find out more about Mary Crowell and her upcoming gigs at her Web site (including lyrics)







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