THE WRITER'S REPORT FOR 2017

Well, 2017 is drawing to a close and it's time to recap the year with all the writing related and travel that I did. It was a busy year, partly because mid-way I had to move out of the place where I'd been for the past year which was unsuitable, unsettling and a hindrance to my creativity. Fortunately I was able to find a quiet place in Sapperton, the old part of New Westminster which is the city next to Vancouver. It is a quiet, serene place in a friendly neighborhood and finally I was able to get back to my writing. During the summer I didn't do much book promo but I did have my book launch for SHADOW OF THE LION: THE FIELDS OF HADES in June and later a table at Greek Days to display it.

At the first of July I had a table at a book festival in Fort Langley, a suburban town outside of Vancouver. Since then I've done a couple of readings but now the new year approaches I'm making more effort to apply for readings and workshops.

Meanwhile, I'm working on my other novel DRAGONS IN THE SKY and would like to complete it for sure this year! I have also negotiated with my publisher to try and get him to put SHADOW OF THE LION (both volumes) into soft cover but the plan he has proposed is not suitable so I am facing this big decision for the first of the year of what will happen. I am not going to rewrite it or chop it to pieces to put it into an 'Abridged' version, but I will try to get it published as an ebook. I also still instructing a couple of writing group and I'm considering advertising for others including more travel writing workshops. My travels were limited this year to three weeks in Greece so I haven't done much travel writing. I am sorry to say that the Greek Islands ebook I worked on for over a year came to a halt suddenly when the American publisher dropped all contact with me. I will eventually publish it myself when I get time to finish it. My other ebook ATHENS AND BEYOND is avaiable on Kindle.

The highlights of my time in Greece were the three readings I did, one at the Canadian Institute, one for the Athens centre and I read to a grade nine class of 50 students at the Athens Community School as well as giving a writer's workshop for a smaller group of older students.

The biggest thrill of all was my three day visit to Iraklion Crete when I finally got to meet one of my writer/mentor's in person after many years of being only in contact on-line. Dr Jack Dempsey is an authority on the Minoans and has been a great supporter during my writing and publishing of SHADOW. We spent a wonderful afternoon together talking and sharing our writing stories and adventures. I'm hoping to see him again next year as he now lives in Crete (was originally from US).

So this about wraps up the activities and plans for the future in my writing career. And I hope to be more diligent in posting blogs in the coming year as well.

ANCIENT TRAVELLERS

In researching for “Dragons In the Sky” in regards to the possibility of logical travel by Sholto and Olwen on horseback from the west of France to the border of Illyria/Macedonia during the period of my novel, Iron Age Britain, 4th century BC, I found some really fascinating facts.  Not only was it quite possible (and probable) but people have been traversing Europe since the Bronze Age.  Way back then people from Chaldea and Troy came as far west as what is now Ireland.  The Druids, early Britain’s astronomer-priests, were closely related to the Chaldean Magis and were thought to have first come from the Near East. There’s evidence of the Phoenicians found in Britain with some supposition that early Britons were sea-going Aryan-Phoenicians who later became known as Celts or Kelts. The Mycenaeans also traveled far from home by ship and reputedly there were Mycenaean markings on the great stones of Stonehenge.  I read once that one of the first kings of Wales was the 50^th son of Priam of Troy but who knows if that is true or not!  (some of this information might have come from a book I have in my collection “Tracing Our Ancestors” by Frederick  Haberman, a fascinating book which traces British roots to the Near East. I believe he may be a “British Israelite” but he has lots of interesting information in his research.

Pytheas route from Massalia to "Thule"

I’ve also run across Greeks who ended up in Britain and beyond.  (The Greeks had a colony at Massalia (Marseilles) in the south of what is now France. Pythagoras had founded a school there and some time between 335-300 BC a Greek scholar/explorer named Pytheas set off from Massalia  on a voyage that would take him right up the coast of Britain almost as far as Norway.  He visited a considerable part of  Britain and is the first person on record to describe the Midnight Sun. He is the first known scientific visitor and reporter of the arctic, polar ice and is one who introduced the idea of distant “Thule”. His account of the tides is the earliest to state that they are caused by the moon.

 

Pytheas

 

So, taking into consideration that there were people traveling far distances even hundreds of years before Sholto and Olwen set off, their travels were quite logical.  As a matter of fact, looking at life in North American during the 1800’s, people were travelling by canoe, wagon and horse even farther distances than my characters would have travelled across Europe. 

Belgae tribesmen

Besides their travels and the terrains they would be crossing (for this I looked at google maps and could see the lay of the land along their route), I also did some research on what people they might meet along the way.  First there were the Belgae tribes who lived in northern France (Gaul) between the English channel and the west bank of the Rhine.  Then there were the Alpine Celts, known as the “Salt People” because they traded in salt, a commodity as valuable as gold in those days. There were also the Italic tribes and the tribes of people living in the area the Danube River. These were fierce warriors who fought against Philip of Macedon and Alexander when he was young. Their languages were apparantly similar so logically Sholto and Olwen wouldn’t have had too much trouble conversing with anyone they met. Once they reached the lands of Illyria, these were different tribal people and from there Olwen meets the Macedonians.

Now that I have their route of travel sorted out I will need to do further research on potions, herbs, witchcraft and spells because Olwen is an acolyte of the Druids and has learned the spells and medicines since she was a child. She would also know how to read the stars to find directions as well as studying other aspects of nature and the seasons.  Remember, she’s a captive of this renegade warrior and she has to figure out how to escape! 

 

 

THE END OF A BUSY WRITER'S SEASON, WITH NEW ADVENTURES BECKONING

Gulls flying over the Aegean Sea.

It's been a busy few months and now I'm ready for a rest and change of scene.  So next week I'm heading off to England, Wales and then Greece for four weeks.  It will be a reunion with cousins and friends but also a chance to explore some new territory when I go down to the Mani peninsula in the Peloponnese.

I just finished round #1 of the edits on my Shadow of the Lion manuscript.  I did the spell-checks, formatting and cut a lot of chapters and repetitious passages,  but it still need major cutting.  So I will hopefully get a couple of pairs of extra eyes looking through it while I'm away, to make suggestions on what else can be cut.  Although it wasn't too difficult a task, there are many places where I liked the writing and story and was afraid to cut just in case it would spoil the flow of the prose, or leave gaps in the story.  Someone removed from the story and writing will be better able to decide on this.  As a whole I am very happy with the novel and pleased with the writing so there wasn't much to be done in the way of revisions.  Most had been done during the work on it, when I did a lot of block editing according to notes taken at my workshop group.

This term was busy with my classes as well and I was beginning to feel a little burned out by the time I got to the end last week.  Only one goes all summer, and that's my little group at WAVES coffee shop on Monday mornings.  I have someone to spare for me while I'm away.  And in July, after my return, the school board has me scheduled for two nights of memoir classes.

Last week I was asked to present about writing travel memoirs at a travel writer's symposium, I've also been contributing new stories to www.EuropeUpClose.com  There should be three more stories coming up soon, one on St. Fagans Heritage Park in Cardiff,  one about Parga, Greece and another about the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz Germany. 

The presenter at the Travel Writer's symposium

So you see, never a dull moment in this writer's life.  I'm making an effort to catch up with my blogging too, and hope to regain some of the readership that no doubt I lost when I neglected to post here for months on end. 

I'm not working on a novel now, other than retyping my old Celtic tale "Dragons in the Sky" which I will start work on later this summer.  My plan is to write poetry this summer while I'm on holidays.  I have an idea for a poetry chap-book containing poems about Greece.  We'll see how successful this project will be as I find poetry has to just come to me, a whisper from the Muse.  So, it will be more of a summer of exploring, starting with Stonehenge and Avebury and a visit to Old Sarum on the Salisbury Plain (that is part of my research for the Dragons novel), and lot of new destinations to check out in Greece that will supply me with more travel stories for the coming year.

Stay tuned, and keep track of me on my travel blog.

photo of me by Julie Ferguson
photo of the flying gulls, by me, taken on a boat sailing from Aegina.

THE ROVING REPORTER

KAYAKING ON INDIAN ARM

This past week has been a time of several 'firsts'. I'm living the life of the 'roving reporter' these days, submitting stories weekly to Planet Eye (www.planeteye.com) and as a result have had a couple of great opportunities to do things I had never done before. First was this kayaking tour.
I've so often watched the kayakers out on the waters around Vancouver, but never imagined me being out there. But as a result of requesting an interview with an adventure tour operator, I was invited to join one of the kayaking tours up the Indian Arm inlet near Vancouver. What a thrill! I'll be writing a longer blog just about this on my travel blog, so watch for it. And I've already posted a short blurb about Lotus Land Tours on my Planet Eye "Vancouver Expert" page.

LOUNGING ON THE BEACH IN MID SEPTEMBER!

After a rainy August, the summer weather returned in September and I was able to spend a day at the beach with my son and his wife picnicing and sunning. We did intend to swim but the water was chilly and a lot of algae floating around the shore so we opted to just sit in the sunshine. There were a lot of sail-boarders out in the Inlet and kite fliers on the shore. It was a lovely day just to relax in the midst of a very busy time.

My friend Patrick arrived from Germany for a holiday and I have been very busy preparing for my new writing classes which all begin this week. One new memoir group started last Tuesday, a small group which I agreed to do even though it means I won't get paid that much. I wanted to establish myself in this new community centre and the few women who came are very nice so it should be interesting. This week I start my other new Life Writing group at Brock House, which is a prestigious group out near the university, and also my other downtown group that has been going now for several years. I have two night school classes starting this week (novel and travel writing) and next month a "night school in one day" Memoir class.

So, along with these preps, visitors, other social events and writing my weekly blurbs for Planet Eye, I haven't had much time to work on my novel. However today is a writing day at home and that's what I will be doing for the rest of the day. Tonight is my writing critique group. So it will be day-long writing for me, something I've missed lately!

A DAY ON THE MOUNTAIN

One of the other 'firsts' that I did last week was to take the gondola up Grouse Mountain. With Patrick along, it made for a grand day. I had never been up Grouse on the gondola. The last time I recall going up there (on the t-bar) was when I was 14. I was reminiscing to Patrick
(who is from Germany) that when I went up Grouse back then, I was with some young German visitors and was trying to speak German to them (which I studied in school for two years -- and never mastered!) They kept laughing at my attempts. I gave up the language after that. I never did care for the sound of it compared to Spanish or Greek. I never mastered French either, although I should have because I live in a bi-lingual country.

Anyway, Patrick and I went up Grouse for the day. It was another warm sunny September day and although the view from the top was a little hazy, it was just lovely up there. Some of the entertainment was finished for the season but we did see the logger's show and had a look at the two grizzly bears in their habitat and also the wolves. I will write a travel blog about this adventure on my http://travelthroughhistory.blogspot.com site. This was also an opportunity for more stories for Planet Eye. I'm really enjoying being the Roving Reporter! (and I get paid for it too! A bonus!)

The next day Patrick and I went to Little India (the Punjabi Market) and a quick browse through Queen Elizabeth Park which was still gorgeous with all the flower beds and green mowed lawns. Having this Vancouver Expert's job keeps me on the go trying out new places, doing restaurant reviews, exploring areas of the city I've never been to before. So it's quite a lot of fun and there's no end of things to write about.

Check out some of my stories there. They are quick and easy to write. Not a long slog like the historical fiction is. But...I promise...I'm back to work on the novel right now! So there'll be another Progress Report coming up soon!

TRAVEL THRU HISTORY

Trekking in Morocco

This post is to announce the official launching of my new travel website,
TRAVEL THRU HISTORY.

Check it out at www.travelthruhistory.com

It's a new site for new writers and aside from a couple of my stories, the others are written by people who have taken my travel writing classes. It has been difficult for freelancers lately, with the larger newspapers not accepting much freelance travel, and a lot of the smaller publications on such tight budgets they aren't able to pay much if anything. Most of the travel zines on-line are free. They want you to give them stories (for their own profit) and I was getting tired of submitting in this way. In fact, last summer I was getting mighty discouraged about the whole business of travel journalism and considered quitting it. But I can't. I teach travel writing so how could I quit? And I was becoming aware that my discouragement was affecting students in my classes. What to do? Well, this is it. A leap of faith to be sure and a bit of an 'investment' on my part, as well as some blatant self-promotion. But it's mainly a chance to see that some of the talented writers I know have another place to submit where they'll get paid a small honorarium for their efforts. This way people can qualify to join the travel writing association and have a reference for other publishers. And hopefully, if enough people click the google ads, it will start to generate a little bit of pay-back for me as well.

I am pleased and excited over the site. My friend Paul, the web master, has done a really excellent job of setting it up for me and I'm very grateful. It's opened up some new doors, possibilities for me and I'm excited about that too. And I love being an 'editor' too!

Caerphilly Castle, Caerphilly Wales

So take a look, and tell me what you think. And watch for new stories to appear soon.
I'm accepting contributions and have requested some particular stories from some writers I know on subjects that aren't frequently written about. By having a focus on historical/archaeological; culture; art/literary trips; exotic adventures and travel memoirs I think the site will be well received and make some interesting reading.

Vaulted Street, Naxos Greece