L.E. Carmichael's Blog, page 34

Stuff Like This is Why We’re Friends

Crafty Sister of the Traveling Chocolate calls me up the other day – SOTC: What’s up for you this week? Me: Not much. But Tech Support is heading to Kalamazoo. SOTC: Kalamazoo… I know that name… Wasn’t the guy from Don’t Tell Her It’s Me going there? Me: Yup. For Randy Grower’s wedding. Both: *laughing hysterically* For those of you who’ve never heard of this obscure 1990s romantic comedy, Don’t Tell Her It’s Me (also released as The Boyfriend School) is about an ordinary guy (Steve Guttenburg) whose romance novelist sister (Shelley Long) turns him into a mysterious leather-clad hero so […]

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I Don’t Care If It’s Fantasy, It Still Has to Make Sense

Back spasm results in a lot of hours on the couch with a heating pad, and when my eyeballs get tired of reading, it’s movie time. Tech Support and I tried to watch Highlander (1986), a fantasy about a group of immortal beings locked in a fight to the death. Sean Connery, we figured. 7.2 on IMDB, we figured. How bad can it be? BAD, is the answer. So, SO bad. Not only does this movie suffer from the slowest, most boring sword fights ever filmed, it makes absolutely no sense. Here are just a few of the questions that […]

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Monarchs on the Move – How Do Butterflies Navigate?

This is the second writing sample that landed me my very first book contract. It’s written for young readers and based on some cool Canadian experiments that helped figure out how monarch butterflies navigate during migration. Monarchs on the Move Every autumn, monarch butterflies make an amazing journey.  They fly from their summer homes in the northeastern United States all the way to Mexico.  The trip takes two whole months, and it is dangerous.  But if they make it, monarchs have a nice warm place to spend the winter. Scientists understood why monarchs migrate, but could not figure out how the […]

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A Matter of Faith

In 2000, I was lucky enough to spend six weeks in various parts of Europe. My travel buddy, now answering to the name “husband,” was confused by the fact that, while I’ve never been religious in a traditional sense, I love cathedrals. Nothing less than 100 years old, mind. If it doesn’t have stained glass, flagstones, and flying buttresses, it doesn’t interest me. My fascination with churches has nothing to do with my personal faith. I’m the type of person more likely to find holiness in mountains and oceans than anything constructed by man. It’s not my own faith that […]

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How to Completely Embarrass Yourself In Front of the Love of Your Life

Is Throwback Thursday still a thing, or am I totally behind the trend (as always)? Either way, here’s another piece pulled from the depths of my hard drive – an essay I wrote about the most embarrassing moment of many in my childhood, and how it changed my life for the better. Come, cringe with me! Laugh at First Sight A cute guy; a first love. A Home Economics kitchenette. The most embarrassing moment of my life. Mostly a cute guy. I was six years old, a second grader in Pincher Creek, Alberta, when I first fell in love with […]

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I Survived Science Literacy Week… Mostly

It was Science Literacy Week last week, a Canada wide celebration of science and science books. *emerges from whirlwind* *plucks twigs from hair* *empties biscuit crumbs from pockets* *collapses in heap*   I visited one school and three branches of the Halifax Public Libraries. Altogether, nearly 300 kids (and a few grown ups) helped me rock out to “What Does the Fox Say?”. Then, we compared videos of wild and domesticated foxes, and did a live human-animal communication experiment with special guest dogs from Therapeutic Paws of Canada. It. Was. Awesome. I got sick about three seconds later. Totally worth it. *crawls back […]

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Word on the Street!

I’m at Word on the Street today, at the Halifax Central Library. If you’re in town, come check out this amazing free literary festival. I’ll be reading at 2pm in the BMO Community Room. Stop by and say hello! For more info on the festival, click here.

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I Have Fat Arms… And Other Myths Perpetuated by the Fashion Industry

Earlier this week, Kristen Lamb wrote a blog post about the fashion industry’s unwillingness to believe that 90% of women are not, in fact, waif-thin teenagers. Every woman I know has a story about the time she tried to buy clothes and wound up crying in frustration and despair. I am one of the luckier ones – except for a few years in grad school, when a combo of antidepressants, undiagnosed food allergies, and unhealthy lifestyle caused me to gain 30 pounds in 6 months, I’ve always been in the middle of the BMI. But I have a cross to bear […]

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Should I Watch The Curse of Sleeping Beauty?

So apparently this happened, and I totally missed it: Did anyone see it? I am a sucker for fairy tale retellings, but the IMDB ratings are not favourable. Would love opinions from people I trust.

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Back to School = AUUUUUGGGH!

Well, it’s that time of year again. The time when proud kindergardeners and tearful parents say goodbye. The time of new clothes and annual teeth cleanings, and mattresses piled up outside of college dorms. The time when my schedule goes from “I got this” to “flat out hair on fire what the heck just happened” in approximately 3 seconds. I work at a university writing centre, helping students master effective communication. A lot of it is one-on-one, but I also spend a lot of time visiting classes to talk about good writing. Between the September frenzy at work and the unusually […]

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