AUTUMN THOUGHTS

Autumn Leaves

It was a lovely autumn day today. I enjoyed a walk through the neighbourhood, scuffing up leaves on the sidewalk. The colours seem more vivid this year and after a few days of rain and gloom, the sun was bright. All the colours looked brighter than usual. And, after a couple of stressfull days, feeling out-of-sorts and very tired, today I felt mellow and calm.

Magic Mushrooms

On my walk, I discovered these Amanita mushrooms growing on the curb. These are poison "magic" mushrooms, just like the ones you see in kid's fairy tale books. I was on my way to take some photos for a story I was writing about the newly restored Vancouver Cultural Centre, "The Cultch", which is a turn-of-the-century former Church, now one of the best venues for the Arts in the city. You can read about it in the Vancouver Guide, www.planeteyetraveler.com


I'm in a habit of taking my camera with me most of the time now to capture the moments. Ever since I took the Field Photography classes during the summer, I'm getting the most out of my camera, trying different angles, subjects, settings etc. And for my weekly stories that I write for the Vancouver Guide it makes me feel more like a roving reporter.

City Scape

Here's a nice view of the city with the autumn trees showing it off. That's a view down the street where I used to live. And that tall, thin building in the centre with the green dome roof is the old Vancouver Sun building where I used to work when I was a copy-runner who had dreams of being a reporter. (Now I'm the 'roving reporter' taking photos around the city.)

This weekend is the Surrey International Writer's Conference. I'll be volunteering all weekend as I usually do, and introducing writers who are doing workshops. I'll write more about it later on. It's always an exciting event and a chance to talk to writers, editors and agents. Unfortunately Shadow of the Lion isn't quite completed as yet, though I had wanted it to be all finished by this time. I was disappointed to find out that being a volunteer meant I couldn't make an editor/agent appointment. So I am hoping I can get to talk to one in the hotel lobby or at one of the workshops, just to send out some feelers about my novel. One thing I'm happy about is that one of the presenters I'm introducing has just had her first novel, a historical, nominated for three top literary prizes. That means historicals are back in the limelight, and that's good news!

THIS AND THAT

Yesterday I had a very busy day, first attending the A.G. M. of the Travel Writer's Association, then dashing off from there to the Vancouver Museum for a special reception held in honor of the Downtown Memory Project. I blogged something about this last May, including the little contribution I had made about starting my career as a journalist in the Vancouver Sun editorial department. The framed contributions were first on display downtown in the Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre campus but this weekend they moved to the Museum to be part of a Vancouver history project on display there. Here's a picture of me posed beside my framed story. I feel it's quite an honor to be up there among a lot of other excellent stories about the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. AFter the reception, my friend and I toured around some of the exhibits, mainly one about the history of Stanley Park. But one that I loved visiting was the little mummy that used to be upstairs in the old Carnegie library back when I first came to the city when I was a 12 year old. I used to go to the library almost every weekend and climb up the marble spiral stairway to the top where they had this tiny museum display. It was the first mummy I'd ever seen and it was a child! Now they have done some DNA testing and investigating and identified it by name from a Greek inscription on the mummy's wrapping. It's a 10 year old boy (very tiny). I should have written down his name but I forgot. However, I'll go back again and have another look as there's lots to see in the Museum.

I've also been busy taking myself on little field trips to do some investigating around the various neighbourhoods for my Planet Eye writings. This is one of the very old art-deco movie theatres in Kitsilano. There's still a couple of these old theatres left in the city, mostly privately owned. And they still show movies. Check out my Planet Eye stories in the coming weeks for stories about the neighbourhoods, including my own 'hood, The Drive. I spent the entire day on Friday writing and researching bits for the Planet Eyes stories...I mean, I wrote and worked on this from about 11 in the morning to 11 at night with very few breaks. It was a bleak, rainy day on Friday so I enjoyed just hunkering down and getting things done.

I usually carry my camera around with me and this Autumn the leaves have been particularly brilliant. This is a street scene in my neighbhourhood. It was an overcase and partly rainy day but still the colors are quite vibrant. I love this time of year and this Fall has been especially lovely.

Now we begin a new week and this morning I will work on the novel, do some editing, and post a couple more small stories for Planet Eye. (www.planeteye.com -- I am the Vancouver Expert.) It's been a busy weekened and I have one more week of classes before the break. However I'll be continuing for a few weeks with my Wednesday Life Writing group which I enjoy a lot. However, there will be lots of time coming up for me to get busy with the novel again.

PROGRESS REPORT #14: AUTUMN MUSINGS

"There were three ravens sat on a tree,
They were as black as they might be.

The one of them said to his mate,
"Where shall we our breakfast take?"
Anonymous: Ballads "The Three Ravens" st. 1,2

(in this case, just two raven by the sea shore.)


Autumn is one of my favorite times of year, although it can also be a melancholy time with the leaves falling and winter approaching. It's been a time of loss in my life too, so these days I'm remembering dear ones who have left: my mother, my father and my friends Robbie and Anibal. But I love the colours of autumn and every day I get a chance to walk in the park through the fallen leaves, I enjoy taking my camera along to record some of the autumn sights. These were three ravens perched on a piece of sculpture at English Bay. I went for a walk along the sea-shore and into the edge of Stanley Park last Thursday after my Memoir class with one of the women and I took these autumn pictures.

Autumn leaves
are tumbling down
Some are yellow
some are brown.

We've had a lot of rain but some sunny days between. I spent a busy weekend enjoying time with friends and preparing a birthday dinner party for my son on Sunday, then a luncheon with another friend on Monday. So I haven't done as much work on my novel as I'd have liked to. Monday night I workshopped the Interlude of Part V at my writer's group. It gets a little frustrating because a number of the members are new and haven't really a clue about my novel, coming into it right near the end. And we don't allow discussion times. So to try and explain the politics and characters makes it difficult. I wish somehow I had a mentor who understood the history which I'm writing otherwise I have to trust my own instincts and skills. I think it's turning out okay but it does get complicated and I get a bit discouraged from time to time. Meanwhile, I am forging ahead and have reached a part of high drama with a lot of nasty things about to happen. This means putting my head into that rather violent space.
(In particular, into the vicious mind of Queen Olympias). It can be fun though as it really taps your imagination.

I worked on edits today and now I must prepare things for my Prompting the Muse Class tonight. That will be a bit of light entertainment as we will do word games and haiku.

From Friday to Sunday I'll be volunteering at the Surrey Writer's Conference. As I have in the past, I get to introduce some of the workshop instructors (writers and editors). There's a lot of really great things happening at this conference and in my 'free' time I get to sit in on workshops of my choice. So next week I'll have lots to tell in my blog about my experiences.

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang!"

William Shakespeare 1564-1616 Sonnet 73, l 1