Tudor Robins's Blog, page 8

I guess I can tell you now … Objects #1

It feels strange to be able to officially say this after so long, but I have the rights back to Objects in Mirror.

Which means what? Which means many things, including (but not limited to):

Offering the book to my readers at a better price!
Getting a new cover that’s a better fit with the rest of my work.
Writing a sequel – it’s already outlined and I’ve written a (very) few words.

More to come – I’ll walk you through the rights reversion process and what comes next in a series of posts. But, for now, I’ll leave you with an image of what my side entrance looked like when my first book came home …

The gentleman who made the delivery asked me if I was opening a store. I just may be …

sleep ׀ slumber ׀ shut-eye ׀ snooze

Recently I was lucky enough to interview Leah Lang-Glusic about her amazingly talented (CANTER-sourced) mount, AP Prime, and when I asked her what she does to prepare herself, personally, to be in four-star event shape, she said, “Well, I sleep eight hours every night.”

I was all like, “Good for you!” and I moved onto the next question, and it was only later that I thought. “Hey – if it’s good for her, why isn’t it good for me?”

So, I’ve started sleeping more.

It really was that simple. Don’t get me wrong – for a long time I’d been thinking, “I should get more sleep.” I usually especially thought this as the clock was approaching midnight and I still had three or four chores to do.

There’s a huge difference between thinking, “I should get more sleep,” and deciding, “I will get more sleep.”

Making the decision means procrastinating less – doing things earlier in the day. It also means asking myself, “What will happen if I don’t get this thing done before I go to bed tonight?” The answer, very often, is “the world won’t end.” And that’s all I really need to know.

Why is it worth it?

Because I’m actually getting more done. Yup – even taking an hour out of the end of my day, I’m accomplishing more during the day.
Because I look forward to sleeping. It’s a big money-free, calorie-free reward at the end of my day.
Because I do, truly, believe my body is able to do things to take care of itself when I just leave it alone overnight to fix things, and fight germs, and just work in the amazing ways it does.
Because I’m practicing what I’m preaching. We tell our boys, “Sleep is important.” They still go to bed quite early (then again, that’s largely because they still get up well before the crack of dawn). If I believe it for them, why don’t I do it for myself?
Because the dark circles are going away. Eventually. It definitely didn’t happen right away, but as I claw back the hours of sleep, and build my bank, I think the circles under my eyes are lessening. Which is both a) symbolic and b) nicer to look at.

I’m very lucky that even when I was shoving it in, and short-changing it, sleep never deserted me. I could always fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and, although I’m a light sleeper, I mostly slept steadily and soundly. However, I don’t want to take that for granted. I want to value my sleep. I want to practice good sleep etiquette before my sleep decides it’s had enough with me, and abandons me.

Is sleep something that’s important to you? Do you struggle with it? Do you wish you got more? I’d love to know!

Voice

Voice is such a powerful thing. I just stopped reading a book after three paragraphs because I couldn’t gel with the voice.

When people tell me they like my books, I do think it’s about my voice. And, yes, I think my voice is just a little tiny bit different than anybody else’s voice. It’s like those customizable colour charts they give you in software programs, when you want a blue, but not exactly any of the pre-made blues, and you can dive in and click around and create your own blue which is not precisely like any other blue anybody else has used before because you made it.

Well, I think that’s voice. Somebody’s voice can remind you of another voice – or of a mix of other voices – but a worthwhile voice always gives you an itsy-bitsy something new.

Finding voice is very moving. Trusting your own voice is huge but, I’ve discovered this week, discovering voice in somebody you love is mind-blowing.

My kid has voice. This is it:

 

I was out, and when I came home in the middle of the day, he’d been home for lunch and had left this art assignment on the counter. I wanted to stare at it forever. I wanted to run out and show it to my neighbours (you should be glad you weren’t home, guys). When I look at this watercolour my son’s voice talks to me. I love it.

I also found it quite interesting to see the sketch:

 

Now I’m heading out to buy a frame!

Everything is Awesome! (Royally awesome …)

Everything is awesome, when:

You go to the Royal with a horse-crazy ten-year-old who has never been before.
You take the train (oh, I loves me a ride on VIA)
Your hotel is so close to the CN Tower you can’t see the tower because it’s right over your head.
The horse-crazy ten-year-old has also never been on a train before, never taken a taxi before, never stayed on the 22nd floor of a hotel in downtown Toronto before, and her mind is exploding.
You get to the Royal with no plans, and nothing to do before the Big Ben Challenge starts at 9:40.
You shop, you eat, you see the cleanest cows, and sheep, and pigs, and the most obscenely huge vegetables you’ve ever seen in your entire life.
Everybody is nice, and happy, and having fun, and being friendly.
You go to the horse palace, and find the Millar Brooke Farm section and Ian Millar is there, and he sweetly and graciously comes over to talk to the ten-year-old, and you are more babbling and star-struck than she is.
You have amazing seats and you get to watch the set-up for the Big Ben Challenge …

(here’s how that looked)

Laying out the poles where the jumps will go.

 

There was a man with a very long tape measure walking around at this point (not pictured here)

Then many, many tractors came out – there were six at one point, plus the two machines harrowing and flattening the footing.

Poles, and standards, and potted plants …

 

… and floral arrangements, and props, and so many, many things!

 

And finally it was time to walk the course

I don’t have good photos of the actual competition because a) I didn’t want to use a flash, and b) I wanted to sit back and watch and enjoy. However, there are plenty of great, official photos of the jumping many places, including here.

Just in general, I have to say, really, everything was awesome. VIA was great, the hotel was great, Toronto (even though I’m not a big T.O. fan) put its best foot forward, the Royal is like nothing else in the world, Ian Millar is – well – second-to-none – such a lovely man (not to mention a kick-ass rider), and my friend Claire, and her daughter Sarah, were awesome to travel with.

So, that was #RAWF16. I’m tired, but I’m happy, so #RAWF17 is not impossible …

Island Series NEWS!

It’s a big day for the Island Series.

Number One:

Faults is released! The eBook is on Amazon right now waiting for you to buy it …

Number Two:

The rest of the Island Series books are free! Yup – today only you can download Appaloosa Summer, Wednesday Riders, and Join Up for no charge at all. Please do it, and please tell a friend to do it, too!

As always, thanks for your support. I couldn’t do it without you!

Harvest

Cucumbers, and tomatoes, and peppers, oh my!

We tried something new this year. We moved our container vegetable garden to a long box along our fence, and it loved it …

Especially the cucumbers. The cucumbers kind of exploded. Every time we looked we’d find another huge cucumber lurking underneath leaves in the garden. It was crazy.

A side view of our ridiculously healthy, over-grown vegetable area.

Alas, it’s getting colder, and there are frost alerts most nights, and there are only so many times I’m prepared to run outside at 11:00 p.m. and use clothes pegs to fasten old bed sheets over our thriving vegetables …

… so we harvested.

The whole thing came down and out, with the plants going into the composter, and the soil left all bare and dark.

And we found these treasures in the process:

 

Let’s just say I’ve been Googling “Green tomato recipes” quite a bit lately. So far we’ve had green tomato and bacon pasta, and green tomato and zucchini gratin. Pretty good, if I do say so myself!

And that bare, black earth? Well, I’m telling myself it’s ready for next year …

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em …

This is me going from Pantser to Plotter in one fell swoop.

In fact, such an extreme swoop that I’ve outlined not one, but my next three books. What does outlining three books at once look like?

Three colours, three columns, three novels …

It might be a little hard to see, but there – on reclaimed brown paper Amazon sent me (thanks Amazon!) – are the outlines of the three next novels I plan to write.

Here’s a close-up less you doubt those are actual words:

I stole my son’s back-to-school Sharpies to do this outline – they’re so nice to write (scribble) with!

The next step is to translate all those long words onto a more concise (but still three-columned) dry erase board. Here’s the beginning of that process:

This was a completely unplanned purchase I made when I went to Staples to buy my other son a binder. So, I’m flying by the seat of my pants while I plot …

Why am I doing this now? Well, as much as I’ve enjoyed my just-sit-down-and-write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants process up until now, and as much as I value editing and revision, I’d like to be a faster writer, I’d like to completely undo and re-write my books less often, and I’d like to somewhat minimize the moments of despair when I wonder “where is this story going?!?”

My references for this new journey were:

and

I’m not doing every single thing recommended in both books, but together they have given me a new way of thinking about, and tackling my projects.

Let’s see how it works!

Fingers crossed I don’t have to completely re-write all three of these books during editing!

Bounty / Harvest / Beauty

Wolfe Island is always good to us, but this past weekend it was especially – deliciously – good to us.

First of all, we got these extremely visually appealing little tomatoes from Fargo’s – the general store on Wolfe Island. Nice, huh?

 

Then we tackled the apple tree. This apple tree flourishes every year in the face of complete and utter neglect (from humans – I guess Nature treats it just fine).

The big picture

 

Moving in …

 

An inside view.

 

Close up …

 

… and extreme close-up!

 

The results.

Honestly, this is way more apples than I can deal with right now, and when you look at the tree you can’t even tell we picked a single one!

There’s more apple-picking in our future …

(feel free to send apple-storage tips and recipes!)

Thoughts on Not Drinking

I’ve thought about this over the years – the fact that I don’t drink anymore. I’ve sometimes wondered if I “don’t drink” or if I just happen not to have had anything to drink for a good long time.

At this point, far past the “I’m pregnant” and “I’m breastfeeding” disclaimers (those of you who have seen my towering sons will know just how far) I figure I probably don’t drink.

Mostly this is just nothing in my life. I don’t think about it.

In addition to not drinking, I also don’t wear perfume, and I don’t drink coffee or tea. These are things I don’t spend money on (for myself – I do buy coffee and tea for the other important people in my life). They’re just non-things for me.

Now and then the not-drinking thing comes up, but it’s very occasional. Like when I first saw my one of my best friends from university after fifteen years and I told him I don’t drink. He was incredulous and worried. He was pretty sure I’d be no fun, uptight, etc. He asked if I’d been born again.

He tried, a few times, to get me to drink, to the point where I let him give me half a glass of red wine, which I eventually poured down the sink.

Tip #1: If somebody tries to force you to drink, just pour their alcohol down the sink – they’ll stop giving it to you – I promise.

I could tell you all the reasons I don’t drink but a) you’ve heard them all before – it’s not like I invented not drinking, and b) probably the biggest reason I don’t tend to go around saying I “don’t drink” is I’m afraid other people will hear it as judgment. It’s not. Most of the people closest to me drink. They like the experience of drinking alcohol (at least, I hope they do). I don’t. It’s not complicated.

Tip #2: If you choose not to drink, that’s your decision. As long as you live in a place where drinking is legal, and as long as others are consuming responsibly – don’t be a judgy-pants. Of course, also don’t take any crap from anyone else about you not drinking – they’re not allowed to judge either – refer back to Tip #1.

The reason I’m writing this now, is I just read this story which declared “Giving up Alcohol Opened my Eyes to the Infuriating Truth About why Women Drink.”

Hmmm …

So, disclaimer – this is one woman’s viewpoint and, also, I believe she possibly had an alcohol problem (which is a totally more complicated thing than what I’m talking about here), and she is absolutely entitled to her opinion, but all I kept thinking was, “You have so been hanging out with the wrong people.”

Tip #3: If you don’t want alcohol to be central to your life, and you don’t want to be judged for not drinking, don’t hang out with people who make alcohol central to their lives.

Is it a big deal that I don’t drink? Not to me. Do people make it a big deal? (Very) occasionally, but so what? Is not drinking the best life choice for me? Absolutely.

End of story.

Tip #4: If you don’t want people to make a big deal about you not drinking – don’t make a big deal about it yourself. The best way to order a non-alcoholic drink at a restaurant is just to order a non-alcoholic drink. Done. Order taken, non-alcoholic drink will come. At a social gathering when offered a drink, you say “I would love some water, thank you.” Done. Easy. Most people – believe it or not, don’t really notice what you’re drinking, and most are fine with keeping the good wine for themselves if you don’t want it.

Why am I writing this now? I’m not really sure, but I guess it was triggered by reading the above-mentioned story that just made it seem like the world is out to make you drink, and it’s a huge deal not to, and this is a massive socially fraught topic.

*second disclaimer – I get that if you’re a recovering alcoholic it may feel like the entire world is geared to drinking, because you’re so acutely aware of it. Fair enough.*

What I really want to say is for most of us, with no addiction issues or complications, coffee or no coffee – no big deal. Alcohol or no alcohol no big deal.

It’s your life – figure out what you enjoy, what makes you feel good, what doesn’t get in the way of you doing the things you want, and do it.

Keep it simple.

Summer Catch-Up – Kingston Pen

Who knew this was inside the walls? I didn’t. All those times I walked by, I had no idea.

It was the hot ticket this summer – a ticket to tour the legendary Kingston Penitentiary. Our tour guide joked they were right up there with Hip tickets, except Pen Tour tickets were more affordable.

True, cheaper, but with a “Today’s Tours Sold Out” sign propped perpetually in front of the big doors on King Street, not much easier to get.

I saw a tweet early in the spring and bought tickets immediately, so we were sorted.

It was hot the day we went. In an unusual twist, Kingston was hotter than Ottawa – this almost never happens due to the city being perched on the edge of massive Lake Ontario, but this day it was blazing.

We walked from the ferry dock to the Pen, which GMaps told me was a 3.75K stroll. My seventy-year-old in-laws told me that was just fine with them, and we made the executive decision it was no problem for our two healthy kids, but it was a HOT walk.

Fortunately most of the way is along a path right on the edge of the lake, and we did fortify ourselves with Tim Horton’s snacks which we ate halfway there, but we were all more than a bit sweaty when we arrived. Fortunately those stone walls are thick so, despite no air-conditioning (see here for a discussion about whether AC should be a human right – especially for prisoners), we began to cool down once inside.

The tour was … interesting.

I know many people have had their socks knocked off by it. Maybe that depends on your guide, and your mood when you go, and your thoughts on incarceration.

I thought it was worthwhile, I was glad to see what was inside, it was suitable for the whole family (our twelve-year-old to the aforementioned septuagenarians), but I probably wouldn’t go back unless I was taking another visitor to see it.

It is worth seeing once, though, especially if, like me, you’ve ever lived in Kingston. I had no idea how little security there was there until quite relatively recently. For part of my time in Kingston, there were apparently no motion sensors, or razor wire along the big wall. They just figured it was a forty-foot wall so, good enough – who would try to climb it?

Well … um … these were some of the most desperate, ruthless, and – yes – creative, people in Canada. Of course, somebody did try to climb the wall and then they beefed up the security a bit.

Some of the things that hit me:

The architecture / stone work – in many spots, this place is beautiful.

 

There were lots of gasps when we walked into the workshop area – those ceilings!

 

The dichotomy of this very grim place occupying prime Lake Ontario real estate can’t be ignored. That’s the lake down at the end of this lane.

 

And a closer shot of the lake – sailboats on one side, the most dangerous convicts in Canada on the other …

 

There’s the big watchtower outside …

 

And the interior “bird cage” watch post, installed after a riot tore through the prison.

 

This is how you communicate when you don’t have email – real-life “mailboxes”

 

And these I found very interesting – these are the homes available for conjugal visits. Each one is a complete house with two or three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, etc. as well as a fenced yard where, according to our guide, children of the prisoners could be seen playing outside when they came to visit.

 

As you can see, I did find quite a lot of this tour interesting, but I’m left with the feeling that it just scratches the surface. Things about Kingston Pen seem surprisingly humane – the area in the grounds where there was a sweat lodge and a native garden – but, then again, that’s only because SO many prisoners (far too many) were / are Native Canadians.

The school seems progressive, and the former teacher who spoke to us was lovely and clearly dedicated, but it’s sad that so many prisoners need to earn their high school diploma in prison.

The former guards (and they were the best part of the tour) spoke of many prisoners with respect, and even affection. I don’t doubt both were present, but I also think there were many other, darker, emotions / events that we’re not going to hear about on these tours.

And then, just at the peak of being very hot, and sweaty, and grimy, a reporter from the local news channel requested somebody who had been on the tour to give an interview. Five fingers (thanks, family!) pointed my way, and here I am being prepped for the interview. I was so hot I hardly knew what I was saying and, no, I didn’t know this picture was being taken (thanks, husband!).

Yup, I had to thread the mic under my shirt on a forty-degree day. And, the poor reporter had to take it back after the interview!

My main hope, as I told the reporter during my interview, is that the Pen will now be used for something positive. It’s a stunning location, and much of the property is also beautiful. There’s been talk of making it a distillery district. There’s been talk of making it into a sailing school, perfectly located beside Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. I’m good with anything that opens the facility to the public, showcases the lake, and – hopefully – provides some connection to downtown Kingston which, after all, as I discovered on the hottest day of the summer, is only a short walk away.