Jane Spavold Tims's Blog, page 4

bookmarks and dog ears: new poetry

Hi everyone. I have been working on a new project, honouring bookmarks, such an important part of our reading life. I will be exploring the humble bookmark in poetry and drawings.

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In Oromocto in New Brunswick, we have a wonderful second-hand bookstore, Dog Eared Books. When used books are brought to the store, staff save the bookmarks they find. My project is to capture some of these in a book-length manuscript. To learn more about this project, click here.

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drawing of a dried bunch of flowers used as a bookmark

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I am about five weeks into the project and I am having a very rewarding time. The bookmarks are diverse in character and I have had to learn a lot about subjects quite new to me. Just an idea of the variety I have encountered:

class notes on ways of presenting arguments in the field of logic;a hockey card of one of the Soviet players in the 1970’s;a chart showing the Queens and Kings of England;a local teacher’s permit from 1959;a bookmark from Owl’s Nest Bookstore in Fredericton (now closed);a stack of small cards made for a game of charades;a card with the number ‘150’ — from an Irish dance feis competition.

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These are only a few of the collection.

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Because I love bookstores, the bookmark from the Owl’s Nest Bookstore was of interest. The word ‘bibliosma’ refers to the smell or aroma of books. The books I mention in the poem were in the bookshelves of the store in the weeks before it closed, evidenced by their Facebook posts and photos.

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bibliosma

‘… went all the way to Fredericton to buy this old book’   

-saying on a bookmark

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Owl’s Nest Bookstore

grey cat purrs in the window

prowls between stacks

while I search for wildflowers

careful steps between hardwoods

lifting of leaves, counting of petals

rummage for botany among 

overflowing shelves of books

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first find, hardcover, dark green, old

1919 Botany of the Living Plant 

Frederick Orphen Bower, botanist, 

lover of ferns

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and here, The Wildflowers of Canada—1895

a reprint classic, on the cover, scant

specimen of golden chain tree ‘Laburnum,’

scentless but inside—heady smell

of mayflower, lily of the valley, lilac—

colour plates of wildflowers

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and a hardcover, The Blossom on the Bough: A Book of Trees 

Diane Ophelia Dowden, 1826

delicate apple blossom overcomes

almond and vanilla smell of books

three bees buzz, overpower

rumble of traffic on Queen Street

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copies of The Fiddlehead

 my poems in some of them

‘Old Man’s Beard’ The Fiddlehead 180, 1994‘

‘The Gazing Ball’ The Fiddlehead 196, 1998

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find the book 

you didn’t know you wanted

at the bottom of a pile

glimpse of indigo shimmer of water

No Faster Than a Walk

Gillis and Gillis

love covered bridges

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book on the top shelf

always 

a 

stretch

Gavin Maxwell

Ring of Bright Water

‘it is no will-o’-the-wisp 

that I have followed here’

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book store closed in 2018

blue and white bookmark 

left between pages

sketch of an owl

memory of a grey cat

a forest of books

bibliosma

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I hope if you are from the Fredericton area, you remember the Owl’s Nest Bookstore. And I hope you enjoy my poem.

All my best!

Jane

the rock project: plans for 2024

As I have said in past posts, one of our long term projects on our property has been to develop a woods side road to be a turning loop for the driveway and an easy walking trail for me.

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This year, I have three things to do to move the ‘rock project’ a little more towards completion.

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1. Clean-up of wind storm debris:

Over the past winter, we have had a couple of storms that made a shambles of our ‘walking loop.’ After the wind storm on December 18 and 19th, 2023, we had 18 softwood trees fall across the roadway! After a little chain saw work, the roadway is clear again, but it may never return to the tidy woods we once had. I am a biologist and I realize that trees are always falling in the forest, but I think we will do some clean-up. Just putting branches and bigger tree chunks into brush piles in the woods will suit me well, because I know animals will use a decaying pile for shelter and habitat. My plan is to gather stray branches and sticks when I go for my walks around the ‘loop.’ I will deliver them to a convenient brush pile and get my exercise at the same time.

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the side road last year, before the wind storm

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the side road this year, showing wind debris to left (under trees), centre (in front of tractor),
and to the right

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2. Collection of a few more rocks for the rock wall:

On every drive we take, I bring back a souvenir rock from a ditch, a bit of landscape to contribute to our ‘rock project.’ I have always loved aspects of geology. I understand the role of landscape, and geomorphology in our lives. When we go on drives, we think about the terrain we move within. Since New Brunswick has a glacial history, I know that elements of landscape have glacial origins … small hills are parts of eskers, the sediments once deposited by rivers and streams flowing within a melting glacier. Some elements of landscape display a sedimentary history … as we drive, we see cuts through bedrock, exposed when the highway was built. The rocks we collect remind me of our many drives through the New Brunswick landscape.

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the existing ‘wall’

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as he works around the ditch and yard, Glen finds new rocks for the project!

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3. Continue creating interesting stops along the walk:

this year we want to purchase a concrete bench for the loop, at the half-way mark. I have my name for one at Scotts Nursery, to arrive in a week or so. I also want to improve the small stone pile where my iron lantern sits to make it more like the stone platform I made last year for two small meal birds.

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If you would like to see more about the history of our ‘rock project’ have a look here.

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All my best!

Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)

Meniscus: Reckoning … a new book of science fiction adventure

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The next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series is now available: #13 … Meniscus: Reckoning. The series tells the story of humans who are brought against their will to the planet Meniscus and are determined to build new relationships, new lives, and new communities. Meniscus: Reckoning continues the story begun in the Rosetta Stone trilogy of how the Humans discover a way to overthrow the dominant alien Dock-winders and their cruel ways.

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Meniscus: Reckoning takes the Humans of Themble Hill on an adventure like no other. In Reckoning, a small group begins the arduous journey to El’ban where Dock-winders are still in control and have captured James, the leader of the Resistance Movement. With them is the Dock-winder child, Don’est, who continues to mystify the Humans with her false-empathy and strange logic. Others in the Resistance Movement, the brilliant Bleth’nan triplets, become part of the group and part of Don’est’s Human family.

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the adventurers travel across the El’ban Elevations

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In the book, you will travel across the El’ban Elevations, and into the Hollows (a landscape made from the discarded cocoons of alien insect pupae). Then, the group must find a way to rescue James from the layered city of El’ban and its inescapable prison.

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a map of the El’ban area of planet Meniscus

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Many of the main characters of the first twelve books in the series have returned to this story: Odymn, expert at parkour, Daniel, the Slain (a genetically enhanced Human), Belnar and his ridiculous ways, Kotildi, wolf-like and loyal, and the evil Dock-winder Garg who has antagonized the Humans of Themble Hill though all their adventures.

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Daniel, the Slain

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Meniscus: Reckoning is available on Amazon.ca (click here) and from me, as I travel the three upcoming Book Fairs in Moncton (July 27, 2024), Saint John (September 14, 2024), and Fredericton (October 19, 2024). Only $12 for lots of adventure! And the e-book will be available soon.

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Enjoy the upcoming days of summer when reading is one way of escaping the black flies and taking yourself on an adventure out there among the stars.

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All my best!

Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)

a botanical alphabet

In the last couple of years, I have had the happy task of helping Jennifer Houle, award-winning author, produce her new book, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet. The book takes the reader through the alphabet with examples from the world of botany, plants local to New Brunswick and the Maritime provinces.

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My specific work was to produce the drawings for the book and undertake its formatting on the way to it becoming a published book. I also wrote ‘Notes for the Curious,’ to enable caregivers to give a little more information to children abut the plants they encounter in the book.

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The images in the book began as black and white pencil drawings. Before this, I had never done digital illustrations, so I began by colourizing each drawing. After this, I leaned to do grades of colour and shading. In the end, I did the 26 illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet, and other images to illustrate the life cycle of the luna moth and fill in the story we wanted to tell.

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I also experimented with background colour and learned to present the images in the proportions of the final book. For the first time, I attempted images that would bleed to the very edge of the page.

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The book is an old-fashioned approach to learning the alphabet, but also a way of encouraging children to look closely at their surroundings and interact with them. To help with this, we have shown that plants are part of a larger community of plants and animals. The book shows the life cycle of the luna moth–we have hidden the luna at various stages of its life throughout the images in the book. We also encourage children to collect, with respect, examples of the plants they find and to learn about the other plants they see. Where I have left parts of the images without colour, the children are invited to add their own colour to the book.

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At last, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet is ready to present to the world! Both paperback and hardcover versions of the book are now available at Amazon.ca by clicking here. On May 11, Saturday, we will launch the book at the Kennebecasis Public Library in Quispamsis, with a special presentation and art activity for the children. After that, the book will be available in both paperback and hardcover at various events, including 2024 Book Fairs in Moncton-Riverview (July 27), Saint John (September 14), and Fredericton (October 19).

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We hope you enjoy this wonderful book! We are looking forward to showing it to you and introducing children to the world of local plants.

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All my best!!!

Jane

a life-list first: sandhill cranes

As the result of a posting on Facebook (in New Brunswick Birders), my husband and I took a drive to the Canaan Forks area of New Brunswick to see if we could see any of the sandhill cranes spotted there. We had given up on finding them and were on the road out of the area when my husband spotted two in a field between us and the river. I wish I was a better photographer: they were so elegant and deliberate, walking the edge of the field. As they walked and fed, their legs and necks were in a strange sort of synchrony. They appear quite ‘muscular’ and could be confused with a deer if their heads are down feeding.

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Both birds had the red patch on the front of the head. They stayed together, turning to retrace their steps when they came to a small ditch between fields.

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The sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) can now be added to my life list!!!!!

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Have fun watching the birds now returning from their migrations!

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All my best,

Jane

Cover Painting for ‘Meniscus: Reckoning’

In preparation for the release of ‘Meniscus: Reckoning,’ the next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series, I have finished the painting for the cover.

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The painting is based on the pencil drawing ‘Travelling the Lip.’ It shows six travellers as they cross the treacherous El’ban Elevations, on their way to rescue James, imprisoned in El’ban. The group, in order, are Kotildi (the wild alien ‘wolf’), Belnar (one of the Slain), Odymn (heroine of many of the stories), Daniel (also a Slain), carrying Danny (Odymn and Daniel’s baby), and Don’est (the Dock-winder child, with her long neck).

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To be consistent with other covers, I need a distant view of the Meniscus moons (Cardoth roe and Cardoth grill’en), a mid-range view of the travellers, and a nearer scene from the book. Campfires are a common theme in the story and who better to sleep by the fire than wolf-like Kotildi?

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I was pleased with the painting. For a couple of days, I showed the travellers as black silhouettes against the Elevations. In the end, I gave them some colour, to suggest clothing and hair. I love the browns, blues and yellows in the painting. 

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To make the painting fit the space on the book cover, I made some alterations in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). I brought the moons closer to the mountain silhouette and moved the fire and sleeping Kotildi closer to the travellers. In the end, the image fit well with the cover design. Here is a sneak peek at the final cover.

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I am now re-reading Meniscus: Reckoning for the last time, making a few revisions as I go. I have also sent the proof to my beta-reader for her reactions.

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I plan to release Meniscus: Reckoning in early May. I am looking forward to my reader response!

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All my best!

Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane) 

bookmark

In March, I promised information on a new project I am undertaking, Bookmarks and Dog Ears. I have lots of projects on the go, at various stages of completion, but I find I need something new and creative to invigorate my writing process. In April, I began a new endeavour, a poetry manuscript about bookmarks, those bits of ephemera left to mark a place in a book.

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I first became interested in this project when the owner of Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, showed me a binder full of the bookmarks she has collected from used books coming into the store. Perusing the binder is fascinating: it contains photos, grocery lists, cash register tapes, old letters, money, even a dreidel. I imagined a manuscript of poems and drawings built around the variety of the bookmarks – their physical structure, purpose, history and symbolism. After a little research, I was caught up in the way bookmarks are an expression of the Human activity of reading a book. I am interested in the historic use of bookmarks, the past of a well-used bookmark, how bookmarks are linked to feelings about reading and the fate of the bookmark in the digital world. 

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With the help of the Library Director at the L.P. Fisher Public Library in Woodstock, I have been able to identify some libraries where bookmarks are also collected, so I will have no shortage of subject matter.

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To give you an idea of the type of poem that this project could generate, I will tell you about my response to a bookmark collected from books at the Saint Paul Public Library in Minnesota. To see a short video of some of their bookmarks, click here. 

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The bookmark that interested me the most was a 3” by 3” black and white photo of a woodland scene. Perhaps my preference is related to the many photos I took of the canopies of woodland trees during my Master’s thesis research. In the photo, you can see the trunk of an older poplar and, in the background, a group of about eight younger trees, their trunks curved and bent dramatically downwards. The photo is a study in contrasts between the dark trees and the bright skylight filtered through the leaves. 

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bookmark from the Saint Paul Public Library in Minnesota

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After a little research I discovered that Minnesota had a strange winter last year, with heavy snow and rain over a five day period after a relatively mild winter. Some of the woodland trees, burdened with over 20 inches of heavy snow, bent under the weight. Many have not recovered, according to the Extension Department of the University of Minnesota. To read about the effect of the winter on these trees, click here.

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I don’t know if the photo is actually a response to the snowstorm, but most bookmarks are anonymous and speak to different people in various ways. To me, the photo represents the photographer’s need to document the result of the snow event. The owner of the photo may have been unhappy at the memory of the storm or the consequences to a well-known bit of woodland.

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I am still feeling my way in this project, but here is an early attempt to capture this particular bookmark in poetry.

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storm damage

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tried to take a photo 

in black and white—

bent trees in the summer woodland

birch over-laden by winter snow

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a photo to capture

desecration of forest—

behind a straight and sturdy

trunk of aspen

a clump of saplings craft

an archway in forest

usher of summer light

trembling leaves

against sky

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no wish to remember

five endless days of storm

heavy snow, burdened with rain

a charming path through woodland

rendered impassable

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abandoned

the photo

in a book

about despair

after alteration

no recovery, no hope

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A rather dismal interpretation of why the photo was forgotten in a book. What does the photo-used-as-bookmark say to you?

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All my best,

Jane

solar eclipse

On Monday we joined other people of New Brunswick, all eager to view the total eclipse of the sun. We planned carefully, arranged to pick up our son and drive to our chosen viewing place, at the picnic grounds of the Department of Agriculture Experimental Farm. Other people had the same idea so we were among a small crowd of viewers.

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We had obtained the necessary ISO eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2 standard) to protect our eyes from harmful rays but I take extra care since I have several problems with my vision. So I did not look continually at the sun but glanced at it occasionally with the glasses on. The sequence I saw was:

the sun in normal mode – seemed much smaller than usual since ordinarily when we glance at the sun, we see the sun itself and a glare of light;a curved black shadow at the right edge of the sun;a bigger ‘bite’ of darkness from the sun;a larger ‘bite’ of darkness so the sun resembled the crescent moon;a creeping towards totality where the crescent became smaller and smaller;the moment of totality when you could see nothing at all but darkness through the glasses;with the glasses off, totality, a dark disc with a thin rim of light;a moment when the edge of the sun re-appears, a sort of flaring diamond on the edge of the ring.glasses on, a gradual return to the crescent, through the bite of darkness to the disc of the normal sun.

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Between my glances at the sun, I gazed at the scene before me, the shadow of twigs from a young maple tree on the gravel road. As I watched, the area around us darkened and all along the horizon in every direction was a rosy glow, as though evening had arrived. But the effect was not really like that of evening, more like a wan darkness, eerie. On the road, the shadows looked like those cast by a full moon.

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taken with cell phone (copyright)

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And now, all this in a poem:

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total eclipse of the sun

Fredericton New Brunswick

April 8, 2024

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twig shadows drowse on road

red maple carved into gravel

sun dazzles against blue sky

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first moment of eclipse

a nibble from a dark cookie

a bite

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crescent like a waning moon

creeps towards

totality

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image

through special glasses

goes dark

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evening settles on the hill

russet sky at every horizon

street lights blink on

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a white bird climbs, confused

whisps of corona

around silhouette of moon

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eerie lull in murmuring

as a diamond sparkles

along the lower edge

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twig shadows

tremble, pale-washed

beneath full moon

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taken with Nikon camera, see rosy glow at horizon; the black line is the top of a chain link fence (copyright)

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Hope you enjoyed your look at the eclipse if you were in an area to view it!!!!

All my best,

Jane

new book coming soon! Meniscus: Reckoning

Today, after many hours of editing and formatting, I sent for a proof of my new book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. Meniscus: Reckoning will be out in early May. This will be the story of a perilous journey to a distant city, over difficult alien landscape, to rescue a member of the Human Resistance. The book is set in the El’ban District of Meniscus, a city mentioned but not visited in other books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series.

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the adventurers of Themble Hill rest by a fire in the El’ban Elevations

To find out a little more about the steps from draft to proof, have a look at the whole story here. Below is a peek at the first draft of the cover for Meniscus: Reckoning (the final cover will be a painting of the scene).

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All my best!

Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)

soundscape and birdsong

These last two weeks have been fun for bird watchers. I saw my first dark-eyed junco, just back from a winter spent to the south. I also heard that lovely, impossible-to-imitate song of a winter wren. And I have cleaned up our feeding area so the spring birds will be easier to watch.

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This weekend, I am looking forward to talking with other bird watchers about my new poetry book ‘mnemonic – soundscape and birdsong.’ 

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I am looking forward to the event, hosted by the folks at the L.P Fisher Public Library, who have been so supportive of my writing through the years! Wish you could come and hear me read …

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All my best!

Jane