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Bullying

7/13/2014

I want people to know that I’m here now, that I got past all that, that life got better. I kept going and it got better. I almost stopped, many, many times, but I didn’t, I found reasons to keep going. It probably wasn’t until I was 20, but it got better. Everyone should know that. I built a life that I enjoyed. I excelled at being a nerd, and I built companies, I write books. I have a wife and kids. Life got really good. But it took a long time.

I must have been 38. I’m 51 now. But when I was 38 I took my son to visit the new high school he was going to attend, it was in Australia, high school starts in year 7 there. I had a panic attack. I thought I was over it all, but it turns out it was just there in the background. Not for my son, his life was better.

I went to Junior High and Senior High in Canada. Senior high was not okay, but I got through it. It was better than it had been. I was happy to be ignored, to have next to no interaction, I was happy to be left alone. But that’s crap, I wasn’t happy at all. I just wanted to be left alone. That was enough, it was better than Junior High - that was absolute crap, that was shit.

I just want kids to know that it can get better. When you get older you get to make choices. You can choose to leave, I did, and it was better. Sometimes you’re just in a shit place, it really is, and it’s better somewhere else. Australia was better for me. Hang out until then. Find your place to escape to until then, even if it’s just in your mind; stay strong within yourself. Books helped me, God helped me too (as cheesy as that sounds). I learned to escape. That’s what got me through.

Life can get better. It can take a while, but the day can come when you can make it better. When you get old enough you get that choice. I’m still here. I was really alone for many years, but I made it past that, I found people to love and who love me. My parents had been there, they hadn’t understood, they didn’t know, they couldn’t do much back then. I had to keep going, it was me. Eventually it was me who had to make a new life. It took three years beyond Senior High School, but I did it. I know you can do it to.

I had cancer when I was 46, funny, I wasn’t afraid in the least. I’d had a good life, I just thought that everything I’d lived through in recent years was bonus. Life was shit before that. I’d made it through though, and life got better. Every day now is just a bonus. Keep going, you’ll be stronger than you ever realise. Stronger than most. Stronger than anyone. Don’t let them win, those others, they don’t give a crap, they don’t even notice, but then again they don’t really count for a hell of a lot. Make a new life for yourself, away from the crap. Make yourself, you’ll be able to, just keep going and you’ll make it.

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Was John Wayne Conceived Under a Bridge?

6/17/2014

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Birth place of the Duke.

Well, the question has to be asked. My wife and I were travelling through Iowa, Colorado bound (for work) and came across a sign that basically said, covered bridges of Madison county thata way. We did a double take, and missed the turn off. Well, given highway travel etiquette, everyone knows that once you miss a turn off there’s no going back, uh huh, can’t do it, not allowed. However, on the return journey, we were prepared, I knew there’d been a movie, because Clint Eastwood was in it; my wife had actually read the book – so she gave me a recap. Famous stuff! Had to see the bridges ... romance, adventure, etc, etc.

We made sure that we turned off this time! And, bonus, the birthplace of John Wayne is in the same Iowa county. A coincidence? I think not. There are rumours that John Wayne was actually fathered by an alien because he was just too awesome to be human. I can discredit this assumption: I used my tricorder to search for an ion trail, and apart from some localised ion production from a local town clock (was Back to Future filmed in Winterset, Iowa?) I could detect no residual ion trace. But is it a coincidence that there are only two famous events in the history of Madison county? i.e. the writing of The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller, and the birth of John Wayne (then Marion Morrison)?

Town clock tower for Winterset - Back to the Future???

I, of course, prefer the theory that John Wayne was the son of Butch Cassidy. I think this stands to reason, I mean how could he not be Butch Cassidy’s son? Everyone knows that Butch survived Bolivia and came back to the US. Who else could he father but a John Wayne? However, I cannot discount the alternate theory that Robert James Waller had actually researched an early part of John Wayne’s family history, and …discovering the truth… had transplanted it to a later time to hide the not so innocent. I mean, why write about Madison county at all? The only eventful occurrence to that stage had been John Wayne’s birth. Is Robert James Waller a fan of John Wayne? Well duhhh. Of course he is, everyone is. So, attracted by the mystic of the Duke (that was John Wayne’s nickname), he researched and found a truth that went beyond what could be told in a straight forward sense. Hence The Bridges of Madison County.

I looked it up and there are supposed to be six covered bridges in the county. I think this is a myth. We could only find one, Hogback covered bridge. Incredibly romantic that name, Hogback, just rolls off the tongue. We think the rest were transplanted by tornadoes to Kansas. Anyway we took some pictures, and felt very romantic. We thought of making love under the bridge, just like in the book, but it looked seriously overgrown under there and after Gennie got bitten by a horse fly we thought better of it. The real event mustn’t have happened in June, it just wouldn’t have been practical. We gave it away as a bad lot.

Welcome centre, Northern Iowa.

Terraced farmland, South West Iowa.

Walnut antique fair, Father's day weekend.

I should probably distract you now with a timely travelogue of Iowa. I liked Iowa, in the South West it had hilly terraced farmland, a cut above the average farming practise. There was also the antique town of Walnut, which was having its yearly Father’s day markets when we passed through. Noice! In the north the plains were like green seas with islands of huge conifers surrounding farm houses. It was incredibly green when we were there in early June, I’m not sure that that’s the usual state of things, we might have been there after an unusually wet period, but we took it as it was. Des Moines was easy to drive through, not overly busy like some bigger cities. It seemed modern and well cared for.

Road kill rotting on the side of the road.

There were plenty of clean rest areas along the main highways. They gave the impression of a wealthy forward looking state. The one distraction we found during our travels was the amount of road kill left to rot at the side of the road. I’m not sure if this was a conscious decision on the part of Iowa, meant to toughen up their young male children in the hopes of producing another John Wayne? Or perhaps I’m being overly harsh. Maybe there is one guy in a pickup running around the state removing all that diseased carrion. Maybe if they gave him a shovel it would increase his productivity.

Vale to our travels of Iowa. As Maureen O'Hara would say "Jesus, Mary and Joseph" its time to say adios Pilgrim. Farewell John Wayne, you did America proud, and, if its true, being conceived under a bridge isn’t the worst of things. We'll remember you for your life, that's for sure.

Gotta watch out for those deer.

A tree oasis around a farm house on the plains of Iowa.

Middle America! Winterset, Iowa.

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Were Canadian Writers Disenfranchised? Yes, They Were.

5/10/2014

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So Farley Mowat died the other day, I didn’t know who he was until he died. I heard about him after the fact. But I had only grown up in Canada for a few years, my education on Canadian authors, really began only recently.

I once had a comment from an American to the effect that there were no great Canadian authors, elsewise they would have heard of them in the US. I mentioned Lucy Maude Montgomery to him, who most people recall for Anne of Green Gables. He knew her, so there was one at least. But Lucy Maude Montgomery is unusual, her work was pre-war. I’m looking at a list of famous Canadian writers right now, I just Googled it and this is what came up

Margaret Atwood

Leonard Cohen

Robertson Davies

Michael Ondaatje

Margaret Avison

Milton Acorn

Pierre Burton

Mordecai Richler

George Bowering

Alice Munro

David Bergen

Suzanne Jacobs

Marilyn Bowering

Donna Allard

Michael Andre

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm

John Bemrose

some of them I’ve heard of, Margaret Atwood , Alice Munro, others not. But like our American friend I didn’t grow up in Canada (well only for a few years). For the most part I grew up in Australia. Would I have heard about any of these writers there? Chances are, no, I wouldn’t have.

So what happened? Did history conspire against Canadian writers? Why do people in Australia, America and elsewhere know about Lucy Maude Montgomery but not later Canadian authors. Well, the short answer is… yes, history did conspire against Canadian authors of that later era. It turns out that at the end of World War 2 the great publishing houses in the English speaking world, centred mainly in New York and London, met, and divided the publishing world. Agreements were made that left New York with America and the Philippines, while London got the Commonwealth nations and Ireland. It was pretty much an even split. A better history about this is given elsewhere, see here.

But think about it. To that time the biggest market Canadian authors had for their books, was to the south. A country with some similarity, a continent that we share, pioneering times that were not that different in many respects, but Canadian author’s books were no longer marketed there. Funny, we know about American authors here, but that was largely through the media of film and television. We heard about American novels from movies about them, so we knew about them. Some of their books even appeared in Canada because of this. There was no reciprocation. Canadian writing was lost to America for pretty much half a century.

So why was it lost to Australia? Australia was part of the London publishing sphere, just like Canada. Well the sad truth of that it is that there was/is a great deal of parochialism in publishing. Why would you print a book about Canada in Australia? Australians aren’t going to be interested in that? Are they? To get to Australia, a Canadian book first had to do well in Britian, and then be passed on to Australia, whereas prior to that there was a big enough market that if a Canadian book did well in North Amercia it might make it to Australia based on local accolades. Again, in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand it could actually be argued that there was greater commonality with the people of Canada. We might have read each others books and enjoyed them. But first they had to do well in Britain.

Amazingly these divisions still exist to a certain extent, though the internet is quickly breaking the old boundaries down. From Canada I can access books from France, from the US, from Australia, from Ireland, the UK, from everywhere, it seems, and quickly. I know a new generation of Canadian writers now, and they are writing for a trully international audience. I look forward to hearing of their successes in a world where they are no longer disenfranchised from any audience.

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Okay, I've done it! It's here. A Bloggy thingy.

5/4/2014

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Needed a picture for the post, thought this one was... totally unrelated, but hey, I'm not picky.

Okay, so I was meant to do this BLOG hoppy thing – well, let’s face it, it was a chain letter. Apparently if I don’t do it, death, torture, death, all that good stuff ensues. Not for me mind you, for Adam Oster, who foolishly tagged me for this. At least, I hope it’s not me. Oooo, goosebumps, note to self, must go back and check the note from Adam. By the way, Adam is the author of a very cool book called The Legend of Buddy Hero.

Anyway, it’s all my fault, or is it? I’m not wired for BLOG, it’s something I’ve had to figure out. It took a while. So now, what do I have to do for this BLOGGY hoppy thing? Oh, there are questions that I have to answer.

What am I working on?

Well, at the moment I’m working on a patent application and I’ve been trying to sell a plasma source to… Oh! Hang on, they mean as an author. Well, the first four Fairly Stillwart Chronicles are complete, and are being published by Morning Rain Publishing, they’re the story of a feisty pixie princess, Stillwart, and her friends. They undergo a series of adventures as they try to travel from Australia through Canada to the lands of Northern Pixie, where they must rescue the Northern Pixie from themselves. I’m working on the Hidden Chronicle now, which is basically the fifth Stillwart chronicle, but it introduces the Magic Sisters, whom I hope to make into their own series.

In the background I’m working on The Dreams of Aine’s Blood. That’s a working title only, my wife keeps telling me that it’s an unfortunate title that reminds her of a woman’s monthly cycle. Actually it’s blood as in kin, so hey, I like the title. I’ll probably have to change it for the unfortunate thinkers though. Sigh. Oh, by the way this isn’t a kid’s book, it’s partly based on the mythical invasion cycle of Ireland, though part of it is set in modern times. It’s more a murder mystery/fantasy/romance/adventure story. You can tell I have trouble with genre selection. The first chapter is posted on this website.

Does that answer that question? Can we move on now? Oh, there is a sequel for An Eagle’s Heart in the works. Might be a while before I can get to it though. Need fans who cry out for it. Takers?...sigh.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Phht. Silly question. The Fairly Stillwart Chronicles are in the Australian-Canadian fairy tale genre. I ace that genre, they’re the only one in it!

And didn’t I just say that I was genre conflicted in regards The Dreams of Aine’s Blood (by the way there should be a little accent thingy over one of the letters in Aine, hard to do on my computer – that key doesn’t work)? I hope you were all paying attention.

Okay let’s move on here. Oh, well, actually I should mention An Eagle’s Heart, children’s/young adult’s book, talking birds (it’s the birdy book) struggle for survival; very Canadian, ahhh, what else can I say about it. Hmmm, courageous chickadee, a human story too in the background - going to expand on that in the second book.

Why do I write what I do?

Why are these questions soooo hard? I feel like I’m in high school again, doing an English essay or something.

Grrr, gotta do an answer. Adam will die otherwise. Okay, for An Eagle’s Heart I was inspired by our time in Thunder Bay, we first lived in a house in the town, where we only saw crows and seagulls (the bad guys in the book). Then we moved out a bit where there are some trees, and all of a sudden we were seeing bald eagles, harriers, blue jays, robins, chickadees, phoebes, finch, all sorts of birds. Basically in the town there was too little cover for the smaller birds so the crows and seagulls would kill them. This was the inspiration for writing a book that has been compared to a Watership Down.

I don’t know where the Fairly Stillwart Chronicles came from. Stillwart is a little bit me. She’s someone out of place, growing up in a land where she doesn’t belong. She’s bullied, but she survives that, and it makes her stronger. She goes on to new adventures in places I’ve known. She has my sarcasm, my view on life, which is fairly cynical. But she also has my sense of humour, and duty, which helps her carry on.

Aine is a very long term project, it’s based on ancient Celtic legends, but spills over into modern times. It has evolved over time, and still has some ways to go.

How does your writing process work?

Well, often it doesn’t. Aine has been written over many years, but I’m hoping to finish it by next year. In contrast, An Eagle’s Heart flew out of me over a couple of months. Each of the Fairly Stillwart Chronicles has been even quicker than that, often only taking a long weekend to write. But in between there are long periods of imagining, where I’m mentally building some of the plots. When I write though things come to me, little details flow out that even I wasn’t expecting. Writing is a bit like working with a god, someone who provides inspiration from without. I’m sometimes surprised by my own writing. It doesn’t necessarily lead where I thought it was going to. It’s sometimes very much like there is another hand that guides me.

So I hope Adam hasn’t died. This is very late being posted. Who will I send this on to? I’m not sure. I’ll think about it. I have no fear of death myself, so maybe I’ll break the chain…ooooh. Everything I’ve lived is beyond my expectation. It’s all been a bonus. No fear.

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Bullying

Was John Wayne Conceived Under a Bridge?

Were Canadian Writers Disenfranchised? Yes, They Were.

Okay, I've done it! It's here. A Bloggy thingy.

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