Kate Inglis's Blog, page 6
November 15, 2018
The beasts we share
Such a big thank-you The Coast and our city’s much-loved CBC alum and novelist Stephanie Domet for such a beautiful run-up to my author salon in Halifax this Monday night:
“People say there's no wrong way to do grief. And I have a 'Yeah, but...'” she says. “You gotta do it, you can't fight or flight from it. That dragon is living inside you now, blowing fire. It's useless to pretend that dragon isn't there. You have to figure out how to live with your grief, talk to it, feed it and water it. Keep the stall clean so it can take care of itself, very much like a farmer tends to a cow. It's a big job and a lot of it is shovelling shit.”
The job is made easier, she knows, by sharing the shovelling. “Helping soothe someone who is only a year into it is not just a way of helping that other person, it soothes my beast as well. It’s animal husbandry not only for your dragon, but mine too.”
Stephanie has her own relationship to grief, and as a fellow novelist, she wondered: is it taxing to support Notes for the Everlost? Beyond the usual pressures and anxieties of being an author promoting any book, does it feel like a burden to have to time-travel back to the IWK for every publicity conversation or event?
I had to think about that. It’s such a thoughtful question. So far, it’s been an honour. Do I have to retread still-raw ground every time I talk about the book or connect with readers? Yes. But everyone else has their own raw ground, too. Stephanie and I talked about her losses, her own existential puzzles, and even though they’re distinct from mine—as our own unruly beast always is to someone else’s—but there’s so much that’s familiar. When we share the little victories and trip-ups along this road of reckoning what it means to be alive, we breathe better together.
This November 19 from 7-9 PM, join me for a salon about life after loss at ViewPoint Gallery—1459 Brenton St, Halifax, NS.
ViewPoint Gallery and Bookmark II present an evening with NOTES FOR THE EVERLOST author Kate Inglis—an intimate salon with stimulating conversation, shared creative work, and a reading that explores the riddle and illumination of living healthfully with loss.
Bereaved people of all sorts are welcome, as well as curious seekers who enjoy good books, big questions, and contemplating the human experience. Admission is free, but space is limited. Please RSVP here to help us prep. BookMark will be on-hand to sell books, and I’ll sign ‘em. Hope to see you there!
November 6, 2018
Everlost, everywhere
NOTES FOR THE EVERLOST is in the world and I am on the moon. Something like that. Kind of stunned, if I’m being honest, that eleven years of pain and growth and love and joy and plain blood and sweat have passed, culminating in something I can hold in my hands—something you can hold in your hands.
We had the launch in a seaside barn, scrambling with a generator when the power went out. A beautiful night introduced by Liam and Ben’s primary care nurse from the NICU, which felt like magic. It was reviewed by Kirkus and Foreword and in lots of other places. It was recorded with my voice and released as an audiobook by Penguin Random House; excerpted in a magazine here and there; signed and stacked in bookstores. It’s been sent back and forth across the continent and the sea, travelling the world from hand to hand in a circle of bereaved parents, accompanied by journals I can’t wait to receive back.
It’s been a blur of activity and anxiety, wondering—worrying—how it’s possible to withstand such a chunk of heart-meat existing in the world without making me spin to the point of motion sickness. Trying my best to support it, keeping it from vanishing in the cacophony as so many things do when the world is either in crisis or suffering from an abundance of information. Or both.
Catching up almost two months to the day of the release of Notes for the Everlost, because I’ve been spinning: thank you for reading the book, and for reviewing and rating it on Amazon and Goodreads and all the other big places. It helps! Thank you for passing it on at your doorstep to another loved one, as I’ve heard you’ve done. And thank you for letting me know.
September 16, 2018
A heart full of holes
This is the third video reading leading up to the release of Notes for the Everlost: A Field Guide to Grief—on the silver lining of having a heart full of holes. This one had me searching the public domain for all the things that work exactly as they’re supposed to thanks to their holes: sponges, souffles, the foam inside lifejackets. And me, and you.
September 13, 2018
On strength
This is the second video reading from the book—on strength—my closet audio patched-together with me in our ramshackle shed, and public domain treasures that felt like they fit the words.
Fluidity over bruce force. That’s the way to life again, and I like thinking about that. I hope you do, too.
September 12, 2018
Dandelions
In advance of the release of Notes for the Everlost: A Field Guide to Grief, I went into the crowsnest closet, shut the door, and recorded three pieces of audio that felt important. This is the first—an excerpt called Dandelions in Chernobyl, about time doing what feels like impossible work on an exquisite scale, and the first few moments you realize she’s been doing that work all along.
The closet, muffled with clothes, is the best place to record. So there I was, curled up on the floor with all my dresses, then out to the seaside with proud medusa braids and muddy coveralls. Every kind of me, and every kind of you.
September 11, 2018
The early word
Today is the one-week countdown to the release of the book and audiobook of Notes for the Everlost: A Field Guide to Grief, and I'm dreaming vividly about falling out of windows and running from tigers, and in waking hours I am pacing, on some kind of hold. I am pep-talking myself! Gaslighting myself! Spinning in circles and feeling grateful for patient friends. This is a tender week. Please treat me as you would a vinegar mother, one of those floating slime clumps of bacteria and acidic fermenting brought about by the vinegar's boorishly predictable anxiety, nerves, and self-doubt.
What helps, a little: lovely trade publication and fellow author reviews popping up, along with the most incredible cohort of early readers sharing their thoughts and experiences on Goodreads. It matters, it matters, it matters—it speaks. Muttering and pacing. A bit like watching a wobbly toddler navigate the playground for the first time, trying to hold back, let them bump up against the world. Nerves, the nerves! And love.
I am so grateful for all the literary industry readers, and all the everyday ones who have sent me photos of the book en-situ, all over the world, with cats and woodstoves and Japanese beer. It’s wonderful to see.
On to the next task, because staying busy this week is a must: I'm taking over Shambhala’s Instagram feed for the week, sharing excerpts, readings, and a photographic retrospective of life after loss. Join me over there, won’t you?
August 29, 2018
That new-book smell
Such a big day today—receiving the very first batch of finished copies of NOTES FOR THE EVERLOST, and heading towards the big launch day of September 18, 2018! Pre-order your copy now from all indie and big retailers, or if you’re local, go to Facebook for the latest news on our Lunenburg launch party.
Holding the real thing in your hands, after a decade of writing: what a thing. With love and thanks to Shambhala Publications and Penguin Random House Audio,
August 27, 2018
A launch of love
Lexicon Books invites you to the book launch for NOTES FOR THE EVERLOST: A FIELD GUIDE TO GRIEF at a gorgeous, newly-renovated hundred-year old barn in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
It’s a special night in a beautiful location—with a heart-shaped pond and evening bonfire—along with an author reading and the chance to get your own signed copy.
Bring friends and partners for a celebratory evening of high spirits and warmth. For more information, updates, or a map to the farm, check out the event page on Facebook. Hope to see you there!
A book launch of love
Lexicon Books invites you to the book launch for NOTES FOR THE EVERLOST: A FIELD GUIDE TO GRIEF at a gorgeous, newly-renovated hundred-year old barn in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
It’s a special night in a beautiful location—with a heart-shaped pond and evening bonfire—along with an author reading and the chance to get your own signed copy.
Bring friends and partners for a celebratory evening of high spirits and warmth. For more information, updates, or a map to the farm, check out the event page on Facebook. Hope to see you there!
April 15, 2018
The make light show
Karen Walrond and I had the most wonderful conversation about everything that matters—the reinvention of life, the integration of pain, the nourishment of creative effort, and the importance of pivotal 'white space' moments.
"This might be one of my most favourite episodes of The Make Light Show," Karen says. "My friend Kate Inglis lives the kind of life you imagine all talented writers of fantastical children’s books live: in an old sea captain’s house on a wild, windy coast with a history of rumrunners. And that’s where Kate joins me to today, as we talk about unspeakable loss, and creating a life afterwards that is filled with beauty, and resilience and most of all, self-compassion. So grab a cuppa (if it’s filled with rum, we won’t tell), and join us." Have a listen!
