Jane Spavold Tims's Blog, page 5

an alien flora

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soon! a new children’s alphabet book

On my list of goals for the year is a project I haven’t talked about before. A friend and I have been working on her new book, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet.

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I have known Jenn for years, since we both worked on Fredericton’s WordFeast in 2017. Jennifer Houle is a seasoned author, with two award-winning poetry collections, The Back Channels and Virga (Signature Editions). Her first children’s book, Un logis pour Molly/A Home for Molly, was published by Éditions Bouton d’Or Acadie in summer of 2022 in both French and English.

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Here is what Jenn is saying about A Child’s Botanical Alphabet:

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This book started out as a little rhyme I made up for my boys when they were toddlers. I loved teaching them to name common flowers & trees around the yard & neighbourhood. Having a vocabulary for things helps deepen imagination, sense of relatedness. I imagined it as a book that caregivers could read with children as they explored … the pages are meant to be coloured on & leaves & flowers pressed between pages. So it’s a book meant to be used. Oh! And there are Luna Moths fluttering throughout. . .presiding spirits. 

Jennifer Houle, Facebook, March 20, 2024

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When Jenn asked me to do the illustrations for her book, I said yes because I loved the concept and I had some suitable pencil drawings already done. I knew from the start I wanted the illustrations to be in colour, so I did my first work of this sort in the digital world. I used GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to colourize each pencil drawing. I have learned so much about colour and its presentation. Jennifer was easy to work with, so in spite of some learning curves, we are very happy with the result.

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draft cover for A Child’s Botanical Alphabet

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As we work on the last small edits, we are excited to see A Child’s Botanical Alphabet in its final form and show it to you. Stayed tuned for more information!

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All my best,

Jane

including ‘sound’ in writing

I am so proud of my new poetry book ‘mnemonic – soundscape and birdsong’ (Chapel Street Editions, 2024) because it focuses on including sound in writing. Of the five senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste), most creative writing focuses on vision. It is a bit of a challenge to include the other senses in order to give a more complete idea of the sensations contributed by your surroundings.

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My book includes bird song as a main part of the soundscape. It also includes other sounds: the singing of a rock skipped across a frozen pond, the call of the spring peepers, the clinking of ice in glasses, the sound of a kettle boiling over a woodland fire.

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For ways of including sounds in writing, you can look at some of my earlier posts here, and here.

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I think my favourite poem in the ‘mnemonic’ collection is about my Dad who took us along the Yarmouth shore to find iron pyrite (fool’s gold). The sounds in this poem focus on the shorebirds. Here is a short excerpt:

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he takes us prospecting

we wedge into crevasses

keen for pyrite gold

cube within cube

embedded in stone

we always forget the hammer

we chip and scratch with fingernails

reach across rock

dare the waves

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a sanderling cries

quit quit!

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shorebirds

befriend me

a dowitcher sews a seam with her bill

bastes salt water to shore

the sanderling shoos back the tide

terns

plunge into the ocean

and complain they are wet

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I hope you will have fun incorporating sound into your writing.

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All my best,

Jane

setting goals for writing in 2024

As usual, I have lots of writing plans for this year. I find it helpful to set goals at the first of the year (well, at least by March!) and keep track of my progress.

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In setting your own goals, make certain they are realistic. As a rule, goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. For a lesson on setting SMART goals, see the Participaction website here.

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My writing goals this year are 9 in number. This number of goals is realistic for me since I am quite productive. I will plan to report on how well I did at achieving these goals in December.

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1. Continue to introduce my new poetry book ‘meniscus – soundscape and birdsong’ to the world. By mid-summer, I will attend at least six reading and signing events and feature my book in 5 blog posts. The manuscript for this book won the WFNB Alfred G. Bailey Prize for Poetry in 2016 and I have been enjoying the readings and book signings I have done so far. To purchase a copy of this book, go to the Chapel Street Editions webpage here.

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2. A new poetry project – details soon!

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3. Continue to work on my suite of five Urban Mysteries. By the end of the year, I intend to complete the draft of all five books, edit the five, and format them in KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). These adventures are set in cities where I have lived or worked: Halifax, Fredericton and Saint John. They are short books, about 20,000 words each, entitled ‘Urban Green,’ ‘Roundabout,’ ‘Stately Elms,’ ‘City Grotesque,’ and ‘Hollow Hotel.’ Eventually they will be released as a set of novellas.

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4. Meniscus: The Reckoning – By the end of May, I will have completed the editing and formatting for this book and published it on KDP. This book is in final format with all the illustrations complete. I have to incorporate my editor’s comments and paint the cover art before it is published. This will be the last novel of thirteen in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. In this book, several of the characters introduced in the previous novels take a perilous journey to rescue the leader of the Human Resistance.

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5. A Glimpse of Sickle Moon – By early December, I will review the final proof of this book and publish it with KDP. This poetry manuscript won Third Prize in the WFNB competition for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize for Poetry in 2020. It works through the imagery of each of our four seasons, cycling through 15 years of my life.

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6. A new children’s book (as artist) with a writing friend – details soon!

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7. writing in the dark‘ manuscript : Each month this year, I will workshop 2 poems in my ‘writing in the dark’ manuscript with my two writing groups. The poems are about my encounters with writings on stone in three cultures. Included are poems of my reactions to the stelae of the Maya, the runestones of the Vikings and the pictographs of the First Nations peoples of North America. My editor has commented on the manuscript, and I am in the process of reading and discussing the poems with my two writing groups, Wolf Tree Writers and Fictional Friends.

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8. ‘Meniscus: A Flora‘ – Complete a list of the alien plants featured in my Meniscus Science Fiction Series and check this against the drawings I have done to see if more drawings are needed. This will push forward my work on a manuscript featuring coloured drawings of plants encountered on the planet featured in my science fiction series.

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9. More frequent blog posts! This year I will do four blog posts per month featuring elements of my writing goals. This allows a lot of scope since it will explore my interests in writing, drawing and painting, botany, bird watching and history.

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I am energized and looking forward to my writing life this year. In my next post, I will look a little closer at ‘mnemonic’ and the inclusion of sounds in poetry.

All my best!

Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)

mnemonics – soundscape and birdsong

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I am looking forward to another presentation, this Saturday, of my new poetry book, ‘mnemonic – soundscape and birdsong.’ I will be at Dog Eared Books in Oromocto for a few hours, to share my book and some favourite birdsongs. When you enter the store, listen for some of our well known birds and their songs. I will be using www.allaboutbirds.com to demonstrate how well established mnemonics mimic the sounds we hear in the woodland and seashore.

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I enjoyed working on the poems in this book for four reasons:

. I feel strongly that we should include all of our senses in our writing; sounds are a significant component of our surroundings …

. my life has been enriched as I have come to know the birds in the morning bird chorus and to listen to the chorus with understanding …

. bird songs have accompanied me on many of my life journeys and are symbolic of various important milestones in my life …

. I love to draw birds, to try to show the softness of their feathers and their sturdy bodies in pencil …

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I look forward to seeing you at the reading and hearing some of your favourite ‘mnemonics.’

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Thank you so much to my publisher, Chapel Street Editions, for the lovely work they have done on this book!

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All my best,

Jane

book reading and signing

This week I am preparing for a launch of my new book ‘mnemonic – soundscape and birdsong’ at Westminster Bookmark in Fredericton. The poems are enjoyable to read and I look forward to talking about one of my favourite topics – birdsong!

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Preparation means thinking about what I will say, choosing the poems to read within the time given and deciding what to wear. It also means letting you all know about the reading.

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As you can see, I will be reading with another author whom I have never met: Christine Higdon. Her book title is fascinating and I am looking forward to reading her story of four Vancouver sisters in the 1920s. Reading with another author is great: it introduces you to someone you may not know and their books. It means the audience is treated to two readings instead of one. And it usually increases numbers of listeners.

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My talk will focus on the idea of using mnemonics to remember bird songs and calls. Mnemonic means ‘a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something.’ Mnemonics are a well-know way of identifying bird calls.

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This idea has been with me as long as I can remember. When my Mom heard a white throated sparrow, she would always answer with, ‘I love dear Canada, Canada, Canada.’ And I have always known the chick-a-dee by its name-sake call. In later years I have come to love some particular mnemonics and the birds they help identify: ‘who cooks for you?’ by the barred owl, ‘yank, yank, yank’ by the white-breasted nuthatch and ‘whirr-zip!’ by the northern parole warbler. A bird call I have never heard is the ‘cheer, cheer, cheer, purty, purty, purty’ of the northern cardinal – I have never seen a cardinal either! What are your favourite (or unique) bird call mnemonics?

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Some of the best sources for mnemonics are Audubon Vermont https://vt.audubon.org/sites/default/files/bird_song_mnemonics.pdf and Stanford (South Bay Birders Unlimited) https://web.stanford.edu/~kendric/birds/birdsong.html a great place to listen to various bird songs is All About Birds https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/browse/topic/sounds-songs/

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I am looking forward to the opportunity to read and talk to the audience on Sunday! Hope to see you there. And hope to hear an afternoon chorus of bird song mnemonics from the audience!

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All my best,

Jane

hermit thrush – a poem put to song

One of the poems in my new book ‘mnemonic’ is about my favourite bird – the hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus). Once you have listened to this bird singing in the woods, your life will be forever changed.

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Many thanks to Alan Edgar (alan@science-music.karoo.co.uk) who put the words of ‘hermit thrush’ to music after a study of the bird’s complex melody. ‘Hermit Thrush Song’ is the resulting musical arrangement. https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/hermit-thrush-song-soprano-with-pianoforte-digital-sheet-music/22120849. Thanks also to Mary Lee McKenna for playing the ‘Hermit Thrush Song’ on the piano for me, to help me know Alan Edgar’s melody.

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Here is ‘hermit thrush,’ an ‘author’s favourite’ poem in my book mnemonic.

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Hermit thrush

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Catharus guttatus

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neither visceral nor guttural, ethereal

tip-toe in tree tops

air pulled into taffy thread

a flute in the forest

froth on a wave

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rain trembles on leaf tips

guttation drops on strawberry

a lifted curtain of mayflower

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I saw you there

hidden in the thicket 

and I followed

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climb the ladder and sing

then step to the rung below

heads up, thoughts of the new day

parting of the beak

pulse at the throat

hairs lift

at the nape

of the neck, fingers

warble the keys

between middle and ring

catharsis

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This poem and drawing are with others in my poetry book ‘mnemonic,’ now available from Chapel Street Editions (https://chapelstreeteditions.com/book-catagories/poetry/mnemonic/ ). The book is also available at Westminster Bookmark in Fredericton and Dog Eared Books in Oromocto.

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Hope you love my book!

All my best….

Jane Tims

new poetry book: ‘mnemonic’ …

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Elf on the Shelf: where is she now?

A few years ago, I had a lot of fun, exchanging ideas about Vintage Elf on the Shelf with my husband’s aunt. She is gone now, but every time I see Vintage Elf, it reminds me of Millie.

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That year, I brought Vintage Elf out of storage. I have had her since I was a child. She is a little bigger than the modern elves. She has a felt body, braided yellow hair and a sweet smile. Here is Vintage Elf with another Christmas standard, Scrooge.

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Vintage Elf can also tell the story of Jesus’ birth …

First, the empty manger …

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Then, Mary and Joseph arrive because there is no room at the inn …

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Then, the angels announce the baby’s birth to the shepherds …

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And the shepherds visit the newborn baby …

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Then, Elf visits the wise men, as they follow the star to find a king …

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And, at last, they visit the baby in the manger …

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I love the story of the first Christmas and the hope it brings to all the world …

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Hope you have a Merry Christmas season.

All my best,

Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)

squirrel-proof

As a result of our focus on feeding the birds this week, my head is full of birds and squirrels and deer. Hence, a poem…..

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squirrel-proof

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plan for success

buy a feeder, smarter

than any squirrel

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fill the feeder

laughing

all the way

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drive into town

to buy more birdseed

confident, smug

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left turn

into the driveway

shadow 

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white tail

brown thighs vanish

around the corner

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feeder empty

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Photos are from years past. We don’t have much snow here in southern New Brunswick!!!!!

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All my best!

Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)