Author: Christine

Christine http://www.mombie.com I'm a writer/storyteller/director/creativity & lifestory coach with a black belt in ITF Taekwon-do. I read voraciously and I write like my fingers are on fire. I'm the founder and Co-Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and I'm the current president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival. I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Index Cards…Still at it!

I accidentally took a little break from Index Card A Day when I got sick for a few days and got off track.

I’m having fun catching up though.

Here’s my card for the prompt ‘inkwell.’

A drawing of an inkwell filled with green ink and a green and gold octopus tentacle.
Image description: a drawing of an inkwell filled with green ink with a label that says ‘Octavia Green,’ in the upper right is a green and gold octopus tentacle that is slightly curled. There are black horizontal lines in the background of the drawing.

Good News: I like my book!

Various papers and writing tools rest on a cloth surface.
Image description: A clipboard, post-it notes, a typed page and handwritten notes in a notebook are resting on a cloth surface.

I spend a good chunk of today reading my novel draft and making notes on various characters.

It was boring to do the work but the reading was really fun.

I was happy to discover that I really like my book – the characters are interesting, the plot is pretty good, and the writing is pretty solid.

There is a lot of work left to do to make it into the novel that I want it to be but I am very happy with this starting point.

Not philosophical, just fun

My friends and I had an outdoor fire at our retreat tonight.

I could spend this whole post waxing philosophical about the appeal of sitting around a fire.

I could get anthropological or psychological about the needs that are met by sitting with friends around the flames.

But really, the whole point is that it was fun and relaxing to sit there chatting while the fire crackled, being grateful that things like this are possible again.

A campfire burns, enclosed by a circle of rocks and dirt.?
Image description: a campfire burns, enclosed by a circle of rocks and dirt.

Revisions

I’m on a writing retreat this weekend so I can start revising my novel.

I’ve revised stories and articles but I have never revised a whole book before.

(No, I don’t think I can do it all in one weekend. This is just for starters!)

Wish me luck!

GIF of a man typing on a laptop and saying ‘This is good.’
Let’s hope this is how I will feel tomorrow. Image description: A GIG in which, Nick, a white male character from the TV show ‘New Girl’ is typing on his laptop in his messy room and saying ‘This is good.’

On July 1, I Remember

As I was writing a post about Memorial Day here in NL today, I was struck by the fact that this province has been mourning the loss of those soldiers for 105 years.

We all know there were close to 800 soldiers in the regiment who were part of the ‘big push,’ the ‘July Drive’ at Beaumont-Hamel and that the next morning only 68 men answered roll call.

That loss affected life in our province for many years. It had an enormous emotional, personal, cultural, and economic impact on the people of NL.

Those are all facts.

Sad and horrible facts.

Writing them down today in the context of also preparing posts to honour the Indigenous children whose graves have been located near the so-called “residential schools” that were actually essentially assimilation centres where children were abused and mistreated threw the whole thing into stark relief.

This province has been publicly mourning the loss of those men for all of these years but our country has essentially left Indigenous people to mourn alone.

Even though there were far more victims. Even though the personal, emotional, social, cultural, and emotional impact has been far wider.

Even though Canadian government and church policies are clearly at fault.

This wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t a lack of knowledge. Residential schools and other racist policies were by design.

Yet, there has been no public mourning until now. And it still isn’t a formal day of mourning, it’s a movement but not a public policy.

I recognize that it is a different sort of situation. And I know that a public day of mourning is only the beginning of what needs to be done.

Reconciliation is going to be a long process and there is a lot of work to do.

But a formal public acknowledgement through a day of mourning would be a step forward.

PS – My friend Cate has written an excellent post about the movement to cancel Canada Day. Please check it out.

A photo of blue forget-me-not flowers surrounded by greenery.
Image description: A photo of small blue forget-me-not flowers amid greenery.