J.M. Filipowicz's Blog, page 5

Art by Well-behaved Artists

While waiting in line for the Mandarin’s free lunch buffet yesterday (just like their normal buffet only you don’t have to pay) my husband, kids, and I occupied ourselves by making this drawing. This was done in a round robin style with each artist taking a turn before passing the drawing pad to the next person. Turns continued until the page was reasonable filled and it was time for dinner.

Near as I can tell, this scene takes place on an alien planet where a group of extra-terrestrials are arguing about their favourite tv series. Come to think of it, perhaps they aren’t aliens at all, but humans doing elaborate cosplay.

I’m delighted that my whole family is artistic, or at least we’re artistic enough to have this activity sustain us for an hour. As a side note, we considered having one parent hold the place in line. I’m glad we waited as a group instead. We had more valuable family time than we ever would have at home doing our own separate things. Also, a woman behind us complimented us on how well behaved our children are.

Happy Canada Day!

I almost missed my blog post marathon and it’s only the second day. It was a full one. Swimming lessons in the morning, despite it being Canada Day. Afterward, my husband and son did the patriotic thing and saw the Transformers movie, while my daughter and I went down to the waterfront, ate strawberries and ice cream, made our own buttons, and scored some stylish Canada headbands. We also met up with some of our favourite friends.

It was ridiculously hot, so we ended up back home and hung out in our backyard wading pool until the boys came home. Then we went to wait in line for the Mandarin’s yearly free lunch buffet. Canadians will go to great lengths for free food, but surprisingly we only waited an hour and a half.

Afterwards, back down to the lake again. This time with the whole family, plus more of our favourite friends. We watched fireworks, then spent an hour trying to escape from a crowded parking garage. All in all, an awesome day.

This is usually the point where I search for an image to put with my post, but it’s almost midnight and I don’t want to miss my post-a-day deadline. Just imagine a bunch of smiling happy people wearing an inordinate number of maple leaf flags.

Summer Marathon

Daisies for summer. Photo by Adam Filipowicz

I’ve been a bit lax in my blog posting of late. Well the dry spell is over! Starting now, I have decided to embark on a summer marathon of blogging. I can’t promise to be brilliant, but I can promise to be daily. There will be a few challenges, like finding wifi during my vacation, or attempting to ignore my battling minions (who are off school for the moment).

For those of you who want a writing update, I am still in the process of editing my novel. Working title: Tribrid. About an alien society and the shock a family suffers when their egg hatches and out comes a part-human child.

Speaking of human children, today the kids had their first swimming lesson of the season. This means I spent much time sitting at a sweaty poolside while the one of my minions splashed as directed by their instructors and the other waited patiently using the magical iPad. (Annoyingly, I could not schedule their lessons at the same time). They seemed to do well but what do I know?

Two weeks of this routine and then…New York City!

Peach Girl

Rebecca Bender signs copies of Peach Girl for adoring fans.

As a parent, my home is home to a staggering collection of picture books, and I’ve read every one several times. And by several times, I mean that I have memorized most of these books. So when I say that I am a fan of Rebecca Bender’s Giraffe and Bird, I’m telling you that I am eternally grateful to Rebecca for providing a work that is funny, smart, beautiful, and infinitely re-readable.

So I was excited when I heard about Rebecca’s book launch for her new work Peach Girl  (created with author Raymond Nakamura who couldn’t attend). The event was held at my favourite book store Different Drummer this past weekend. Original artwork from the book were displayed on the walls. Rebecca gave a wonderful intimate presentation. She read from the book and drew for us, using audience suggestions to create a Canadian version of the Japanese folktale. We all enjoyed the talk and the snacks, which included peach cupcakes.

Peach Girl is a welcome addition to our collection. Rebecca’s vibrantly coloured acrylic paintings bring Raymond Nakamura’s story to life and give the main character Momoko energy and spunk which remind me of all the best little girls I know.

Fireworks

This past weekend was Victoria Day, which means celebrating the long-dead Queen’s birthday in the best way I know how: with fireworks. I love fireworks. I love the small ones that produce a single coloured shooting star. I love the big ones that fill the sky with bright spaghetti tendrils. I love the accompanied boom that resonates in my chest.

I’ve seen many fireworks displays in my life. Some took place at small gatherings of family and friends. Like this Saturday, at my friend Becca’s birthday when we lit up the baseball diamond behind her house, and again on Monday when my improv family gathered in the parking lot behind the Staircase Theatre to play with sparklers and ignite low explosives. Some, like the display I experienced this Sunday, filled an entire city park with hundreds of families huddled in blankets and staring in awe at the sky.

In every display is a mixture of sameness and surprise. We oooo and ahhh as much out of tradition as out of admiration. And as I enjoy time with friends, family, and strangers in a park, I know I’m not alone.

Today I road my bike to the bank

Me with my bike on a much sunnier day than today.

This is the first time I’ve ridden my bike since before winter. This is an accomplishment for two reasons:

1. It is the culmination of all the physio exercises I’ve been doing since March. Though my elbow surgery continues to make it difficult to do the actions to “Head and Shoulders”, the fact that I can comfortably ride a bicycle means I can consider myself recuperated.

2. It was raining.

My Mom is better than your Mom

It’s difficult to adequately describe how awesome my Mom is so I’m just going to give you examples. Like when I broke my arm and she not only drove me to my writer’s group, but also participated, which meant reading group files in advance and offering sage critique. Mom also came to my house almost every day, bringing me food and scratch tickets so I wouldn’t feel all sad, hurt and alone.

When I was able to drive again, she lent me her car so I could get to all of my physio appointments and also my work as a background performer, and basically anywhere I felt like going. She put herself under house arrest so that I wouldn’t feel stranded.

Ever since my kids were babies, she’s been there to babysit at the drop of a hat. She even watched them all summer when I was working at the art store, putting aside her book-writing time to take my children to the library just like she used to when we were kids.

When I was younger and the kids at school made fun of me, she convinced me that it was because I was smarter than my classmates, and that they were jealous. She also let me stay home to finish school projects, or even just because I needed a day off. She was always on my side and in my corner.

When my first book came out, she and I shared a book launch because her Dying to Go Viral came out at the same time as Wardroids. She made fudge and chocolate covered bacon for the event.

Every Friday, my Mom cooks dinner for our ever growing family. My kids get to know their cousins, aunts and uncles in a way they never would without these get togethers. We eat spinach squares and have a big crazy meal, and when it’s someone’s birthday she bakes a cake.

I sometimes feel I’m taking advantage of my Mom too much. At the same time, she apologizes profusely every time she’s not available on a random weeknight when I call at the last minute to see if she’ll watch the kids so the hubby and I can go to the movies. She’ll buy me stuff too, like clothes and food, all the time acting as though it’s her pleasure to treat me and spend time with me.

Mom, I love you. Thank you for all that you do. Happy Mother’s Day.

 

Comedy should win more awards (and I want an iPad mini)

I want an ipad mini so badly that when the Egg Farmers of Ontario hosted their annual virtual egg decorating contest, I entered five eggs.  (The farmers donated a dozen eggs to school nutrition programs for every entry, which made my extra entries feel a lot less like cheating). Unfortunately, even with my years of artistic training none of my creations made the final cut.

My hero and husband Adam came through. He made the finals in the 30-49 category with this masterpiece:

The other finalists are lovely scenic eggs, impressive especially when one takes into account the contest’s frustrating paint program. But only Adam’s egg has the power to make us laugh.

We live in a world where comedy doesn’t win the awards. Where the Oscars go to depressing tales of human suffering while thoughtful humour goes unnominated. (As an author I should have thought of a more bookish analogy, just pretend that instead of Oscars, I said Nobel Prizes in Literature).

I say we put an end to this trend and vote for Adam’s egg. Yes the winners are selected by vote. Despite aggressive campaigning, Adam’s egg remains in third place, and the poor egg farmers only have enough iPad minis to give to the first and second place winners. Alas, is our chicken bomber doomed to be so close and yet so far from the ultimate prize? With your help, we can prove that funny can and should come out on top.

You don’t even have to register or anything annoying like that. Just go to this website, click on Adam’s chicken bomber egg and click vote. We have until May 12th.

Baton Pass – One of the ways that writers support each other

As an author, it can be disheartening to walk into a bookstore and face the unending sea of titles. My novel is a drop in the ocean. The idea that someone might accidentally stumble on my book and buy it seems unlikely. And yet, behind the unending sea of titles, is an unending stream of authors, each one willing to offer support. Writers do not compete with each other the way other businesses do. Since reading one book fuels the need to read more, one author’s success boosts us all. Plus we’re generally nice, non-confrontational, introverts.

And in the spirit of helping my fellow authors and giving myself a little boost while I’m at it, I’ve taken up the baton on this blog hop. The metaphoric baton was passed to me by fellow Double Dragon Publishing author Linda Nightingale. Linda was born in South Carolina, and has lived in England, Canada, Miami, Atlanta and Houston. The mother of two sons, she enjoys sports cars, piano, symphony and theatre and has spent thirteen years breeding, training and showing Andalusian horses. By day she’s a legal assistant, by night an author. Her vampire paranormal Cardinal Desires (Double Dragon Publishing) won her the Georgia Romance Writers Magnolia Award. Check out her blog at lindanightingale.wordpress.com and her website www.lindanightingale.com, where you might just find a free vampire story to sink your fangs into.

Thank you, Linda, for passing the baton to me. Now without further preamble, onto the requisite blog hop questions.

What am I working on?

I’m working on a novel with a constantly changing working title. Trybrid or tribrid, perhaps. It’s set on an alien world whose lizard-like (but somewhat mammalian) people have a rather different family structure. The woman is the head of the household while her husbands take care of the house and the children. When a human crash lands on the planet, he fathers a part human, two parts alien child. I like to take a classic SF trope and turn it on its head. My first book, Wardroids, is a twist on the classic robots-take-over story. This new one is an alien encounter story in reverse.

How does my work differ from others in this genre?

There’s a lot of concept-driven science fiction out there. I’m more interested in characters. Those who have read Wardroids might have noticed that the wardroid uprising took a back seat to Adam Black and Emily Reid’s respective journeys of self-discovery. In Tribrid, the story is less about the human-landing itself and more about the people whose lives are affected by it. Also, though I wouldn’t call my work comedic, my sense of humour infuses itself into my writing. After a while I stopped trying to fight it and the result has been kind of awesome.

 

Why do I write what I write?

Science fiction has always been a passion of mine. Robots, aliens, time travelers and space explorers have been living in my brain since childhood all clamoring for a turn to tell their stories. My favourite things to read and watch are science fiction. It is a genre without limitations, unconstrained by time and space. I can put forth a message without hitting people over the head. You can do that with any fiction, but SF is particularly good at it because reality can be changed to suit your needs. The setting can be anywhere, at any time, and the characters can be anything. They don’t even have to be human! So I can draw attention to the gender roles in our society by flipping them around, for example. I can say something about the relationships between men and women by turning the women into wardroids. While people are being entertained by a story about robot soldiers, they’re also thinking about the roles of women, the marginalization of certain groups of people, and the nature of love. Most importantly, science fiction is a lot of fun.

How does your writing process work?

I’m still learning my process, but currently I set a 500-word a day writing quota which all goes to hell when editing time comes. Then comes a lot of procrastinating, self-loathing, and begrudging revisions. Right now, I’m just coming out of the I-hate-my-writing stage of re-writing and am entering the this-book-is-going-to-be-awesome stage. Eventually I produce a somewhat completed manuscript that is worthy of human eyes.

Well I’ve been running with the baton for long enough so now I shall pass it to some of my fellow authors. Here are three writing women who are up to the challenge.

Paula Harvey is fiction writer from Louisiana who is currently working to complete her very first YA Series, South Louisiana High School. The students are abuzz with strange rumors; teachers working for top-secret spy organizations, aliens in and around the school, even an invisible superhero. Why are there so many rumors flying around the school? Well, because at least one of these rumors is true. Each book within the South Louisiana High series focuses on the experience of a student or teacher, and in so doing, takes its reader on an unforgettable adventure with an array of quirky characters. Check out Paula’s blog at paulalharvey.weebly.com/yes-please.html for next week’s blog post.  For more info on the South Louisiana High School Series, check out southlouisianahighschool.weebly.com

Elizabeth Hein writes women’s fiction with a bit of a sharp edge. She tells the stories of people that go unnoticed in everyday life – the woman standing in line at the bank, that mousy gal in the last cubicle, the PTA mom – because there is usually something extraordinarily nasty going on in their lives. She’s on a mission is to make you care about these women and think twice before ignoring the people you meet each day. Her first novel, Overlook, is now available. How To Climb The Eiffel Tower will be published by Light Messages Publishing in October 2014. Visit Elizabeth Hein at scribblinginthestorageroom.wordpress.com and elizabethhein.com

Carole-Ann Vance is a writer and a dreamer who took on the challenge of blogging almost two years ago. She has completed one novel length tale, but must overcome her crippling fear of revision in order to return to the story to begin once again. In the meantime, another medley of characters has beckoned, and a new story has begun. Carole-Ann writes about the complex world of families and adds in a touch of magic to enhance an already emotional mix. Carole-Ann has also been an awesome addition to my writing critique group. I’ve enjoyed delved into her stories for the past six years. You can visit Carole-Ann at www.caroleannvance.com

These fellow authors will be taking up the baton on their blogs next week. Be sure to check them out! And while you’re at it, support authors in any way you can. Read and buy books, attend a book launch or signing, shop at your local independent book store, fill up your Kobo, borrow from the library, review the books you love on Goodreads or on your own blog.  Writer or not, we must all take up the baton in our own way, because a world without stories would be absolutely awful.

My Civic Duty

A month ago, around the time I shattered my elbow, I got a jury summons in the mail telling me to appear today at 9 am for selection. My Mom drove me because during my last physio appointment I asked if it was safe for me to drive and was told probably not (even though by this time I had already driven myself once, which I found awkward but doable).

There was a line to enter the court house. The woman ahead of me was interning to become a sign language interpreter. I know this because my Mom and I are both writers, and writers ask questions. The interpreter wondered aloud why so many people were there and I held up my summons.

To get inside the court house everyone had to go through an airport-style security check complete with metal detector. Yes, the new metal hardware in my elbow did indeed set off the beep. They still let me in after making me stand like a T and running a wand over me. This lead me to briefly wonder whether I could strap a weapon of some kind to my elbow.

This hardware sets off metal detectors

Once inside, I followed the crowd up a stairwell, through a cafeteria, and down a hall of painted cinder block. The decor was reminiscent of a school, except without the colourful artwork or anything else to disguise the institutional feel.

Inside, the courtroom was painted a barren beige. Two hundred or so summoned citizens sat in crowded church pews facing a pulpit where men and women in black robes and white-ribbon collars came and went, ignoring the crowd. I had my laptop with me, but it didn’t feel right to open it. The people around me didn’t seem to have the same restraint; half of them immediately began texting and surfing on their smartphones.

After an hour of people watching, I finally decided to open my laptop. I barely had it booted when a woman in a blue blazer addressed the crowd telling everyone to put away our electronic devices. Ah well.

Then a judge with a red sash came in and we all had to stand. Once we’d sat down again she read something about how being on a jury was our duty as Canadian citizens and that we’re super lucky we’re not made to fight in the army or anything (I’m paraphrasing here). We were then read a list of people which included the lawyers, the plaintiff, the defendant, and all the witnesses. The idea here was that if we knew anyone, then we couldn’t be a juror. I’m not sure how much I should actually talk about the actual case, so I’ll just tell you that it wasn’t a murder.

For a civil case, which this was, they needed six jurors. I understand why they summoned a few extra, though two hundred seemed excessive. In any case, they selected us in the same way they select the winner of the 50-50 draw at a stag-and-doe. They drew numbers at random, which coincided with our jury numbers on our summons letters. I was neither rooting to be selected, nor rooting against. As an author, I’m interested in the experience, but at the same time I’d have to arrange childcare and all for something that wasn’t even a murder.

One woman got out of being a juror because she had a vacation booked, and an older lady was excused because she couldn’t hear what anybody was saying, but eventually they got their six without the need to call my number. The lawyers all agreed that this jury was a-okay (I’m paraphrasing again). The six jurors were given the choice of swearing on the bible or just swearing an oath. Everyone chose the bible. After they were sworn in the rest of us were all allowed to go.

And that was that.  I did my civic duty.