Exporting Alberta; Betty's Run; Alberta Acrostic

These are the flowers my good friend Suzanne Harris took home after reading for me at the Canadian Authors Association Exporting Alberta Awards ceremony in Edmonton on Friday night. And although Nothing Sacred did not win the award, I am very pleased to say it did get Honourable Mention. And now I have these flowers to enjoy forever, how about that?


So on June 13th I'm taking part in Betty's Walk / Run for ALS in Calgary. My mother was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in November and I feel this is at least something constructive I can do. Things like this put everything into perspective, no question.


On the lighter side, today my copy of Alberta Views magazine arrived  and get this, Love Minus Zero is the subject of the monthly acrostic puzzle. There's a quote from the book (the bit about Alberta blowing up hospitals and never changing the government -- yeah!) and the first letter of the clues spell out my name and the title of the book. Honestly, it was the weirdest thing to do this puzzle. Weird but fun.

Fiddlehead review; WitWorks 3 rocked it!; I wrote a story!

Thanks to The Fiddlehead and Ian Colford for the great review of Love Minus Zero in the spring issue. You can't actually read the review there, but you can see the table of contents. What I've read of the issue so far is excellent. Perhaps you should just run out and buy it.

Our third annual Writing in the Works event at Memorial Park Library on Thursday night was a huge success. We had a big crowd, awesome readings, tasty refreshments and succulent Wild Rose beers at the Hop In Brew Pub afterward. Nice work, everyone!

Finished that story I was working on, with the help of my dear friend, Diane Girard. It's on its way, in the mail. That does feel good.

Bridesmaid; Writing in the Works 3, yet; Weird!

The family and I had a great time in Edmonton last weekend, and although I did not win the Georges Bugnet award (Michael Davie was the winner for Fishing For Bacon), I am still honoured to have made it on to the shortlist at all. Congratulations once again to all the winners and shortlistees. Good to catch up with all my Edmonton friends and of course visit the mind-boggling West Edmonton Mall. Whoa, WEM -- build another couple of washrooms, eh? Standing in line at a mall? I don't think so.

Tonight is the third annual Writing in the Works event, 7 PM at Memorial Park Library, 1221 - 2 St SW. This year's lineup is Faye Reineberg Holt, Elaine Morin, Jane Cawthorne, Donna Sales and Judith Galbraith. And I am pleased to say that this evening I am not reading. I'll be hanging around whining, getting in people's way and helping myself to the wine. Heh. Seriously, come on down for some fine readings, vino and snacks, book sales and camaraderie.

Finally, on to the weird part: I'm almost done (I think) a short story. Haven't written one of those, or any fiction in fact, since last summer. It did feel good to get through it, since I was kind of afraid I'd forgot how to do it. It's now in the hands of my gracious first reader. Phew!

Well, best get ready for the show, now.

Shortlist readings; Gala; snow again

The Calgary Shortlist readings event at 100 Wines turned out to be a lot of fun. Good readings, good wine, good food and a nice turnout for the event. And here I am, eating the mike and standing in front of more Dom Perignon than I ever dreamed of. Thanks to my intrepid photographer, Jan Markley.

It already seems so long ago, maybe because it actually wasn't snowing that day. But it wouldn't be the month of May in Calgary if we didn't have some wet snow. And having it we are. That is all I'm going to say about it.

So next up is the Writers Guild of Alberta's Literary Awards Gala, May 14th in Edmonton. Looking forward to that very much. There are going to be a lot of Calgarians in the crowd -- hell, there'll be a lot of Calgarians at my table -- and we intend to rock it. Should be a blast!