Suzanne Stengl's Blog, page 8

Canadian Winter

The weather office brings good news, telling us the extreme cold will let up on Sunday. I miss doing “buggy walks” in the park with Baby Bob and Makita, the Labradoodle.

I’m avoiding stores at this time of year. Often, after I swim at the Y, I like to go to Starbucks for a latte and I like to wander around Chapters, looking at all the books. But at this time, pre-Christmas, both places seem overwhelmed with rushing shoppers. And that is definitely not relaxing!

For the most part, my Christmas prep is done. But then, I don’t go overboard. We went to the forest on December 3rd and got our trees. And we had decent weather for that, hovering around freezing. We even had a picnic in the sunshine beside a frozen lake. The next day, it was minus 28 Celsius.

(Translation for my American friends: – 28 C = -18.4 F)

Meanwhile, three of my sisters are in Cabo in +28 Celsius. But they will soon be returning to the Canadian winter. Brrrrrrr!

The presents are bought. (Just little token things, nothing extravagant.) I still need to wrap them. Maybe I’ll get Rolf to do that. The menu is the usual Deli Night for Christmas Eve. It only involves going to the store and collecting once-a-year delicacies. Plus, I’ll probably make some salads. The whole family loves Deli Night.

The next day, my sons and their loved ones will each spend Christmas Day with their own traditions. Rolf and I will go for a walk, do jigsaw puzzles, relax and have a quiet no-fuss supper. Then the next day, the whole family will meet again, this time for lasagna and Caesar salad, and we’ll get to play with Baby Bob’s toys.

On my “home” tab this year, I have collected some of my favourite “Christmas posts” from other years. I find it fun to go back and reread, and I hope you do too.

The Thurston Heirloom

Today is the Launch Day for my book, THE THURSTON HEIRLOOM. That’s Mariah and Teague on the cover. And that’s Larch Valley in the background. Larch Valley is a very popular hiking trail in Banff National Park.

You can read the first chapter of the story here.

The Thurston Hotel Novels are stand-alone romances connected by the Thurston Hotel and the town of Harmony. Each book represents one month in 2016. I am the “September” book.

The Thurston Hotel is located on Main Street in the mountain resort town of Harmony, Alberta. Built by Thomas Thurston, the hotel opened in 1916. His three grandchildren—Wendy, Bailey and Ben—operate the six-story hotel today.

The town and the hotel are fictional, but the actual location is not. Working as a group, we found it was  helpful to know our surroundings, so we chose beautiful Canmore, Alberta as our setting. Tucked in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, Canmore is just outside the gates of Banff National Park.

And here’s the view from Mountain Jewel Sports of the Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters

Actually, the Three Sisters can be seen from almost anywhere in Canmore. (Or, from anywhere in Harmony!) The three peaks are called Faith, Charity and Hope, or Big, Middle and Little Sister, respectively. They are one of the most photographed views in the Canadian Rockies and have come to be associated with the town of Canmore.

If you would like to find out more about the Thurston Hotel, you can read my posts on The Thurston Hotel and The Thurston Hotel series.

You can also visit the Thurston Hotel website at www.ThurstonHotelBooks.com for more about the books and authors of this series. There is even a map of Harmony.

Since 1916, the hotel’s motto has been: We promise you’ll enjoy your stay at the Thurston!

Three Sisters from Depositphotos.com #31762611_l-2015

 

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CARWA Workshop with Megan Long and Adam Dreece

On Saturday, October 15th, I attended a workshop put on by my local RWA chapter. We had two presenters: Megan Long, an associate editor at Harlequin, and Adam Dreece, a local author and public speaker.

Here I am with some of my writer friends, Shaa Dickson, Win Day and Janice Harvie.

For more pictures of the workshop, go here.

In the morning, Megan gave her talk on “How to be a Hybrid Super Author”. Hybrid means you publish both independently and with a traditional publisher. She followed that presentation with “Love in the Mix: Genre Blending in Romance”. Megan took pitches in the afternoon.

For once, I did not pitch. I’m too busy with my indie publishing right now, but I’m thinking, maybe down the road, I’ll send something to Megan. I would love to publish with Harlequin for two reasons: I know they have fantastic editors, and I would love to attend the Harlequin Party at Nationals!

For now, I’m taking care of the final details for my next book—The Thurston Heirloom—which will be released on Thursday, November 24th.

For the afternoon session, Adam Dreece presented his popular workshop, “The Author’s Final Frontier” and he talked to us about brand, social media and everything you need to know about having a successful book signing.

I haven’t had a book signing. Not yet, anyway. Maybe I will host one, once I get my first six books published.

The workshop was held at CARWA’s usual meeting spot, the Highland Park Community Centre. It’s a large, bright room. There’s a  kitchen and the parking is free. It’s also easy to find and easily accessed off the main roads. The event was catered by An Affair to Remember with a selection of sandwiches, and we also had fruit and veggies.   

In an effort to reduce, reuse, recycle, we asked everyone to LUG A MUG.

And they did. Here are some of the mugs that showed up at the event.

Thank you to all the mugs that attended!

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The Thurston Hotel

The 100-year-old Thurston Hotel is located on Main Street in Harmony, Alberta, Canada.

Harmony?

It’s a fictional name for a little town (population 12,000 permanent residents) nestled in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, just outside the gates of Banff National Park. You get there by travelling west from Calgary on the Trans-Canada and it takes about an hour.

No, Harmony is not really Canmore, Alberta . . . but that’s what I think of when I think of Harmony.

The town hosts tourists from everywhere in all seasons of the year, but there are two high seasons: summer and winter. In summer, tourists come to hike or mountain bike or raft down the Kananaskis River. In winter, they come for the skiing and boarding in the Canadian Rockies at Lake Louise or Sunshine or Norquay.

The Thurston Hotel is made of sandstone brick and it’s six stories tall with an impressive entrance. The expansive steps are flanked by black lampposts each with five white globes. Over top of the gabled portico are the three flags representing Canada, the USA and the Province of Alberta.

The hotel was built by Thomas Thurston

and opened in 1916 when he was only twenty-one years old. He didn’t get married until much later. On January 20th 1938, he married Margaret Thurston when he was forty-three years old and she was twenty-eight.

The hotel’s Thomas Lounge pays tribute to the founder, and the Margaret Library is named after his wife.

The couple had four children: three sons and a daughter. Only the daughter, Emily, is still living.

Emily Thurston Jamieson managed the hotel until last August.

Two of Emily’s brothers were childless, but her brother George had three children: Wendy (40), Bailey (35) and Benjamin (30). Ben studied hotel management at the University of Calgary and studied even harder under his Aunt Emily’s tutelage to finally become the Assistant General Manager.

His older sister Bailey is Chief Financial Officer, and his oldest sister Wendy holds the position of Events Manager.

As I said, Emily Thurston Jamieson managed the hotel until last August—when she had a heart attack. She recovered nicely, and decided to turn over management of the hotel to her nephew, Ben.

Rumor has it that his older sisters didn’t particularly like that decision, but then they have always given their little brother a hard time.

And speaking of rumors, there’s also a rumor that the hotel has a ghost. Of course, it’s a silly notion, since we all know ghosts don’t exist.

Have you ever stayed at a quaint old hotel? Have you ever worked in one? Did you like the ambience there? Did you ever meet any ghosts?

The Thurston Hotel Books are standalone contemporary romances connected by common settings, characters and events. To see all the covers, meet the authors, read the blurbs, and see a map of Harmony, go to: www.ThurstonHotelBooks.com.

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The Thurston Hotel Series

In 2011, my local RWA chapter began its first group project, Bandit Creek. I published my first book in that series, THE GHOST AND CHRISTIE MCFEE, and Brenda Sinclair published A BANDIT CREEK MIRACLE.

Last January, Brenda decided to do it again. She came up with a Bible for the Thurston Hotel series and invited local chapter authors to participate. She wanted published authors, but also some unpublished ones who wanted to be mentored.

There are eleven authors involved in the project. Published authors include Brenda Sinclair, Sheila Seabrook, Shelley Kassian, M.K. Stelmack, Alyssa Linn Palmer, Katie O’Connor and Suzanne Stengl (me  

The New Me

I finally got another profile picture. What do you think?

My last one was from 2011—taken by the University of Calgary people when I was enrolled in Spanish classes there. Now, five years and one grandson later, I am embracing my grey and silver and white and blonde hair. It’s like having natural highlights. Mother Nature has given me changing colour.

Besides the new ‘me’ you will notice a new layout for my website. I used to blog more often, and maybe I will again, but for the time being I am heavily involved with the Thurston Authors. I will tell you more about the project next week. Right now, I can let you know we are launching our first book on September 29th.  My book is the ninth in the series and it will be released on November 24th. You can have a look at the cover here.

My book is set in the month of September. That background image on the cover is of Larch Valley in Banff National Park, Canada. In autumn, the Larch turn golden and lose their needles.

Yes, these trees that look like evergreens lose their needles.

There are several ways of classifying trees. One is by hardwood or softwood. Another is by the leaves and seed production—in other words, the tree is deciduous or coniferous. Deciduous comes from the Latin ‘to fall’ and means the trees lose their leaves in the autumn and are bare during the winter. Usually we think of maples and oaks when we think of deciduous trees. Deciduous trees change colour in the autumn, turning red or yellow or orange.

A coniferous tree bears seeds in cones.

An evergreen keeps its leaves (needles) year round, and as such, it is the complete opposite of a deciduous tree. Pine, fir and spruce are evergreens. They are also conifers.

But not all conifers are evergreens. Some of them, like the Larch, are deciduous conifers.  Mother Nature has created what looks like an evergreen and has let it change colour.

The Larch typically grow in the cool temperate zones and high in the mountains. Every year, a huge number of hikers head to Larch Valley to see the trees change colour.

Have you ever been to Larch Valley? Do you like watching the leaves change colour. Do you colour your hair?

Larch Valley image from bigstockphoto.com # 127344314

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Boom Lake

Quadra Mountain and Bident Mountain at the end of the lake

Yesterday Rolf and I hiked the five kilometre (3.2 mile) trail to Boom Lake in Banff National Park. There’s an elevation gain of about 175 metres (575 feet) and it’s nice, gradual climb.

We’ve had a wet summer this year, so the trail was muddy in places, but nothing serious.

The rain has provided lots of moisture for the vegetation.

We had lunch sitting beside the lake and looking up at Boom Mountain.

Here are Suzanne and Rolf. They play minor characters in my next book THE THURSTON HEIRLOOM which will be released on November 24th.

Boom Lake has clear cold water and good fishing.

“the boom”

Near its east end, the lake flows over an old moraine that barely touches the surface. The crescent-shaped moraine extends just beneath the water and catches the driftwood floating down the lake, thus creating what looks like a lumber boom. For this reason, the lake is called Boom Lake.

I love hiking, especially in the Rocky Mountains. I love the views and the quiet and the way the air smells. Hiking is one of the best ways I have found to relax, rejuvenate and reorganize my mind. Plus, it’s pretty good exercise.

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On a particularly trying day . . .

It is a particularly trying day when—

—The string on my pretty new blue bead necklace breaks.

—My computer will not update.

—I didn’t sleep all night because I’m worried about a writing project.

—I’m out of milk for my tea. (Never mind milk, the fridge is empty.)

—And nobody cares what I think of semicolons except maybe Kurt Vonnegut.

Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.

—Kurt Vonnegut

Besides the semicolons, there are the redundant adjectives, the poorly used past progressive and the misplaced modifiers. On this kind of day, I am reminded of the Principal’s Song and I can go to the garden to eat worms.

The Principal’s Song (aka Nobody Likes Me)

Nobody likes me,

everybody hates me,

I’m going to the garden to eat worms.

Long thin slimy ones,

short fat fuzzy ones,

ooey gooey gooey gooey worms.

The long thin slimy ones

slip down easily.

The short fat fuzzy ones

Stick!

When the short fat fuzzy ones

Stick to your teeth,

Your blood goes

Yuck!

So you bite off their heads

and spit out their tails

and throw the skins away.

And nobody knows

how I can survive

on a hundred worms a day!

Besides eating worms, I can toss my tangled mess of a fairy garden and start over.

This involves going to the Sunnyside Greenhouse. Here, I can walk around, calmly watch the Koi in the pond, talk to the parrot, take in the greenery and the ideas. After that I can bring home some new fairy garden plants.

Variegated Basket Grass, Polka Dot Plant, Creeping Thyme, Blue Star Creeper, Blue Moneywort, Pink Cranesbill

A quick stop at Starbucks on the way home for an iced coffee and my mood is already lifting.

What works for you on a particularly trying day? Have you planted a fairy garden recently? Do you think iced coffees help put the world in perspective? Are you annoyed by semicolons?

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Super Secret Project

Since January, I have been involved in a multi-author project, along with authors Brenda Sinclair, Sheila Seabrook and eight others.

Sheila has been calling this the “Super Secret Project”  or “SSP” because we are not at liberty to talk about it yet. All I can say is: I am totally enjoying myself!

The books will be released this fall. If you have not already done so, please sign up for my newsletter (Suzanne’s very Occasional Newsletter) and you will be sure to receive updates.

image from bigstockphoto #88230965

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My First Painting

On Friday night, Liz (my D-I-L) and I decided to celebrate Mother’s Day by going to an art class. We took our lesson with a group of eight budding artists at the Grasby Art Studio. This is the first time I have ever painted a picture.

We started by choosing some colours and squirting them onto our “palette”. These paints are called acrylics. We spray the canvas with water . . .

and create a background of greens and stems.

Fill in the background flowers. For this, you need to use your imagination. I know they don’t look like flowers. Then we figure out where the tulips will go and choose what colours they will be. And so on, until I get to my final version. Here is Liz’s final version. Here are some of the other paintings in the class:

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. — Pablo Picasso

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. —Charles Bukowski

A picture is a poem without words. — Horace

Each of these paintings shows its own separate personality. I think this would be an excellent family activity. Have everyone paint their own picture and then collect them all and hang them on a feature wall.

In this kind of class, there is no right or wrong way to do this.  We learned a few techniques and there are many more to learn, but that is for another day.

At this point, I am simply happy to begin. I know this is not a “masterpiece” but I am impressed with myself and I want to try this again.

What do you think of my first attempt? Have you ever painted a picture? Would you like to try?

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