Laura Langston's Blog, page 16
July 22, 2020
What I’m Reading
Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest, bringing sunshine, warmer temperatures and garden happiness. Our veggies have stopped pouting and are galloping to catch up to where they normally would be at this time of year. It’s been an odd gardening year though. Summer started out cool and wet; we’ve been dealing with Covid restrictions and stock limitations at many garden centres; and we’ve been in observation mode in our new garden – watching what flowers when, checking out the light...
July 8, 2020
The Long Reach of an Influencer
The word influencer is used these days to describe a
person with the ability to influence public buying habits by promoting or
recommending products or services on social media. People make entire careers out
of being influencers.
In truth, we’re all influencers in one way or another. Life is an interactive gig. We can’t help but be touched and impacted by people, often for as long as a relationship lasts and sometimes even after. But occasionally, a single brief encounter can influence a...
July 1, 2020
Happy Canada Day!
July 1st will be different this year without the concerts, large street parties and especially without the fireworks (Team Sheltie is quite happy the latter are cancelled). I hope you get a chance to celebrate somehow. I’ll be away from my desk, aiming to catch the sunrise and hopefully the sunset too. We aren’t a perfect country by any stretch, but I’m proud to call myself a Canadian. Enjoy the holiday everybody!
June 24, 2020
Perspective
I had an interesting lesson in perspective last week
when I received my second review for No Right Thing.
Perspective is all about our individual reality. A luscious, triple decker ice cream cone
viewed through the eyes of a hungry five-year-old will elicit a far different
reaction than the same ice cream cone viewed through the eyes of a diabetic adult
who also has a heart condition.
On an intellectual level I understand that my taste in
movies, restaurants, shoes, art, politicians...
June 17, 2020
My June Reads
As I write
this, summer is only four days away. It’s been a different spring. We’ve had
wetter, cooler weather than normal for this time of year; we’re still spending more
time at home because of Covid precautions; and we’re dealing with more wildlife
than we’re used to in our new garden too. Specifically, rabbits. Mom and Dad are
regular visitors to the front lawn, and we’re (mildly) content to let them nibble
on the grass. It’s less for us to cut. However, Mom and Dad are clearly using
our...
June 3, 2020
A Writer’s Better Half
Today happens to be my anniversary and though the news of the world is grim, I’m choosing to focus on happiness. Here’s a blog post I wrote five years ago in honor of my husband. It’s as true now as it was back then.
Happy anniversary to my better half . . . a guy who wears a variety of hats: Mr. Petrol Head, Dad, son and lord & master over Team Sheltie (and thank God someone is in control of those two).
The phrase
‘better half’ is something of a cliché these days. While it’s come ...
May 27, 2020
For Those Who Missed Out
Shameless
promotion time . . . and for those who missed either of these items, here’s
your chance to check them out.
Lois Peterson
interviewed me on her blog last week. Here’s a link to the interview: http://loispetersonwriter.ca/2020/05/22/author-qa-laura-langston/
And a week
or so back, a group of Crwth authors did a Facebook live event with publisher Melanie
Jeffs to talk about writing and illustrating for children. The one-hour event
is now up on YouTube. Check it out here:
http...
May 20, 2020
The Parkour Club
Parkour. Pardon me?
Until authors Pam Withers and Arooj Hayat used parkour as the springboard for their new novel, The Parkour Club, I’d never heard of the sport. Parkour, in its truest sense, is quite literally moving from one point to another using the obstacles in your path to increase your efficiency. Think leaping, vaulting, climbing or rolling in the style of James Bond or your favorite superhero. Although parkour grew out of French military obstacle course training, it has evolved ...
May 13, 2020
Watch For It
What are you doing next Tuesday, May 19th? Can you spare an hour? If so, plan to catch this Facebook live event (find it under events on your Facebook page) at 4 pm, Pacific time. Thats when a group of us will be talking about writing and illustrating and all things childrens books. Ill be answering questions about my latest YA, No Right Thing. Thanks to Crwth Press for setting everything up. Were looking forward to it, and we hope you can join us!
April 29, 2020
Release Day!
No Right Thing is out in the world! A big thank you to Crwth Press for loving the story and shepherding it through to publication.
Theres always a profound sense of satisfaction on book release day. Theres joy a job well done! and a touch of trepidation too. Will it find a home? Readers? Will people love it as much as I do?
These days, of course, Covid-19 has changed the book release dynamic. Book store signings, author talks and school visits are out of the question. Thankfully, people...
