July 21, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Canadian Book Festivals I’d Love to Go to Someday

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Map of the provinces and territories of CanadaI chose Canadian literary events for this week’s prompt because most of the bookish event and festival lists out there are heavily slanted towards the United States.

I think there’s something to be said for shining the spotlight on other parts of the world, too.

Word on the Street, the first entry on this list, is something I’ve attended on numerous occasions in the past. It’s a great deal of fun, and I can’t recommend it highly enough to all of you no matter which genres you enjoy.

Everything else is still on my bucket list!

See the map at the beginning of this post if you need a refresher on Canadian geography as you read about all of these wonderful festivals. The provinces will be highlighted in red in the photos below for the festivals that always occur in the same provinces.

Ontario highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS.

1. Word on the Street

Location: Toronto,Ontario

Target Audience: Everyone

Why I Love It: It includes such a wonderful variety of books and authors for every age, genre, style, and demographic group you can imagine and maybe even a few you’ve never encountered before. The food there is incredible, too!

 

2. The Festival of Literary Diversity 

Location: Brampton, Ontario

Target Audience: Diverse authors and storytellers (and anyone who wants to read diverse books!)

Why I Want to Visit It: What’s not to love about celebrating diversity in the bookish community? I really need to rent a car or hop on a train and take a road trip to this festival after we have a vaccine for Covid-19.

 

Quebec highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS.

3. Atwater Poetry Project

Location: Montreal, Quebec

Target Audience: Poets and anyone who loves poetry

Why I Want to Visit It: A well-written poem makes my heart sing.

 

4. Bloody Words

Location: Various Canadian cities (the location changes every year)

Target Audience: Mystery writers and readers

Why I Want to Visit It: I occasionally read mysteries and think it would be cool to learn more about this genre.

 

The Northwest Territories highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS

 

5. NorthWords Writers Festival Society

Location: Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Target Audience: Aboriginal writers and anyone who is interested in reading their work

Why I Want to Visit It: Canada has an amazing literary community in general, and it includes many talented Aboriginal and First Nations authors. I’d be thrilled to attend a whole festival dedicated to their work.

 

Yukon territory highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS

 

6. Yukon Writers’ Festival

Location: The Yukon Territory

Target Audience: Anyone who is part of Canadian literary scene in the Yukon or who wants to learn more about it.

Why I Want to Visit It: I must confess to not knowing a lot about the culture of the Yukon or what the literary scene is like up there. That’s something I’d love to change someday.

 

Nova Scotia highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS

 

7. Read by the Sea

Location: River John, Nova Scotia

Target Audience: Everyone who wants to read Canadian works

Why I Want to Visit It: It sounds like an all-Canadian version of Word on the Street. If that’s true, this festival must be amazing!

 

Newfoundland highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS

 

8. Writers at Woody Point

Location: Newfoundland

Target Audience: Anyone who writes or reads stories set in this province

Why I Want to Visit It: I only know a little bit about the culture of or literary scene in Newfoundland and would like to change that.

 

British Columbia highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS

 

9. Vancouver Writers Fest

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia

Target Audience: Anyone who writes or reads stories set in Vancouver

Why I Want to Visit It: I used to live in Vancouver. It’s a beautiful, bookish city, and reading about it makes me feel like I’m back there.

 

Saskatchewan highlighted on a map

Photo credit: TUBS

 

10. Saskatchewan Festival Of Words

Location: Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Target Audience: Everyone who enjoys Canadian literature

Why I Want to Visit It: This festival lasts for four whole days! That alone is enough to make me eager to check it out.

Do any of you have other Canadian literary festivals to add to this list? I’d sure like to hear about them.

90 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as

July 20, 2020 · 1:00 am

A Summer Without Tourists

Toronto, Canada skyline. The famous CN Tower is one of the buildings in this shot. The foreground is of part of Lake Ontario There are a few things about Canadian and, more specifically, Torontonian culture that I should explain here for anyone who isn’t already familiar with them before diving into the meat of this post.

I am speaking in broad generalities here and this is a large, diverse country, so please make friendly allowances for that if your Canadian cousin/acquaintance/coworker etc. has had other experiences. There are no secret Canadian meetings where we come to a consensus on this stuff, and it’s just about impossible to get 38 million folks to agree on everything anyways.

With that being said, people make less small talk here there than do in my birth country, the United States. It’s good manners to nod and say hello to neighbours and other folks you’ve seen around before, but you generally don’t talk to strangers unless you have an excellent reason to do so.

At least in large cities here, sidewalks are serious business. Locals walk briskly and single file unless the sidewalk is large enough for larger groups to walk side-by-side. Loitering should only be done in places where you won’t slow down the flow of traffic, especially at lunchtime and in the early evening when the sidewalks are filled with nonstop crowds.

Tourists are the exceptions to these rules. If a stranger asks you for directions or advice on visiting your neighbourhood, you always stop and help them to the best of your ability. Sometimes a large group of tourists will walk slowly down the middle of the sidewalk while trying to figure out where to eat dinner or which attraction to visit next . This, too, is okay. Guests should always be treated with respect and kindness. Just turn the corner and take another street if you’re truly in a rush. If not, slow down and savour the moment.

Now that you know a little bit about how things normally function in urban Canada, let’s continue.

Toronto was eerily quiet in March and April when the Covid-19 lockdowns began. It’s slowly grown more active again as our public health agencies have given our premier permission to reopen certain businesses and relax the quarantine and physical distancing rules.

Yet this still isn’t like any July I’ve known in all my years here. Just like everywhere else, there are no tourists here.

The sidewalks by the busiest roads are beginning to fill up again, but they’re much quieter than they should be. Some streets are still completely empty even at what should be the busiest portions of the weekend.

No one has asked me about good local restaurants and whether the trendy, expensive ones are worth the money. (Some are, but most aren’t in my opinion unless you’re a diehard foodie and Instagrammer. Let me direct you to an awesome hole-in-the-wall down the street instead if what you really want is a full, happy belly).

Nobody wants to know whether they should visit the Toronto Zoo or the Royal Ontario Museum. (They’re both fun, but save the zoo for a day with nice weather when you’re not planning to do much else at all. It’s 90% outdoors, requires hours of walking to see it all, and really isn’t close to any other major attractions at all).

People don’t approach each other much at all these days. We generally keep our distance whenever possible for disease prevention reasons. With the exception of the occasional person asking for spare change, I can’t remember the last time I spoke to a stranger.

In short, it’s quiet here.

8 Comments

Filed under Personal Life

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

July 16, 2020 · 1:00 am

Hopeful Science Fiction: Overlay

Click on the tag “hope” at this bottom of this post to read about all of my suggestions for hopeful science fiction. If you have recommendations for future instalments of this series, I’d sure like to hear them. Leave a comment below or send me message about it on Twitter.

Last winter I discovered the Better Worlds series, a science fiction anthology of short stories and films about hope that was published at The Verge two years ago. This is the eleventh and final story from this anthology that I’ll cover here.

Overlay

silhouette of a group of people rescuing someone who fell down the side of a mountainIn Elizabeth Bonesteel’s Overlay, two parents undertook a dangerous mission to save their captured son.

I know you all probably want more details than that, but this was one of those tales that’s so fast-paced and filled with twists that I have to mind what I say about it in order to avoid spoiler territory.

Setting the opening scene in sewer drains of all places was a good choice. It showed off Ray and Cass’ personalities nicely, especially when it came to just how far they’d go to rescue their kid.

I did have trouble putting all of the pieces of this story together due to how non-linearly they were arranged. The characters jumped from past to present to future and back again. While this is a storytelling device I’ve enjoyed in the past, I found it confusing for these particular characters because of how wildly different the various periods of their lives were from one another.

There was also something included in the story that I can’t mention specifically that made it even more confusing due to how little time was spent explaining what it was supposed to mean and how many different interpretations of it I came up with.

I’ll refrain from going into detail about it, but anyone who reads the first few paragraphs will spot it immediately. It was quite creative, but I sure did wish it had been explained more thoroughly. All of the interpretations I came up with were fascinating, and I’m sure there were other ways to understand it that other readers could have added as well.

All of these issues together made this story feel rough around the edges to me. I loved the initial concept of it and thought the opening scene couldn’t have been written better. It had such an urgent tone that I had to remind myself to keep breathing as I waited to find out if Ray and Cass would be able to save their son.

There were other moments like this later on in the plot. When they happened, they reminded me why I was so drawn to it to begin with. I only wish that the scenes between them had been better able to tie them all together in ways that pushed the storyline forward and kept up the high energy of the beginning. This tale had a lot of promise and I really wanted to like it more than I did.

With that being said, it definitely still does belong in the Hopeful Science Fiction sub-genre. The ending was satisfying and I’m glad I stuck around to find out what happened to everyone before, during, and after the daring rescue attempt.

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , ,

July 15, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I Collect

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A cardboard box filled with four dairy-free boston creme donuts.

.

This week’s topic was tricky for me because I’m a minimalist. I don’t own a lot of physical stuff, and almost everything I do own is used regularly and heavily.

When I go on a trip somewhere or want to treat myself, I don’t buy knick-knacks to commemorate it. Instead, I do things like:

  • Take lots of photos.
  • Try new experiences.
  • Order delicious dairy-free meals and snacks that are either unavailable at home or a bit too expensive to indulge in regularly.
  • Create vivid memories by soaking in every moment of the experience.
  • Buy a rare t-shirt, hat, socks, or some other article of clothing I happen to need that will also remind me of the good time I had there since all clothing wears out eventually.

Case in point, a few months ago I splurged on a box of vegan Boston cream donuts.

The bakery that makes them goes out of their way to source ethically produced ingredients and pay their staff fairly (which is wonderful!)

When you add all of those increased costs together, this place has to charge more than a typical bakery in order to make ends meet. So I view getting treats from them as a delightful detour from my typical diet.

The cool thing about that is how much more I appreciate them than I would if ate sugary donuts every single day of the week. And it makes my dentist happy, too.

38 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as

July 14, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Smile

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Stamps in the shapes of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.

I’m stretching the definition of the term book a bit for today’s prompt. You see, it’s impossible for me to narrow this list down to fictional stories.

Which tales make me smile has evolved throughout the course of my life. My answer at age 5 would be completely different than what I’d answer at age 20 or today. And who knows what will entice me when I’m 80!

What has never and will never change is my love of words, the meanings of words, and knowledge in general, so that’s what I’m tweaking this post to focus on.

The New Oxford American Dictionary by Oxford University Press

Roget’s International Thesaurus  by Peter Mark Roget, Robert L. Chapman

Urban Dictionary

The Complete Rhyming Dictionary by Clement Wood, Ronald J. Bogus

Encyclopedia

Wikipedia 

Most people probably wouldn’t sit down and read these sources like like they were novels, but I’ve been doing that since I first learned how to read.

Yes, the encyclopedias at my grandparents’ home were decades out of date by the time I discovered them, but I still adored reading about what the world was like in the early 1960s when they bought them!

Knowledge is power. I see everything from the Internet to antique books tucked away in the corner of someone else’s house as marvellous opportunities to learn about things you might have never otherwise discovered.

102 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as

July 13, 2020 · 1:00 am

How to Be Mindful During a Heat Wave

Woman relaxing in hammock outdoorsThis has been an unusually hot summer so far here in southern Ontario. Our current heat wave has lasted over two weeks and is showing few to no signs of letting up.

With temperatures hovering around 35 C (90 Fahrenheit) every day and soaring into the 40s Celsius range (100+ Fahrenheit) regularly, my air conditioner can’t keep up with the heat and humidity. I count myself lucky when it pumps out cool air!

It is for these reasons that I decided to blog about mindfulness and heat waves today. Feel free to play around with this format to best suit your needs depending on where you’re performing this exercise and what your senses detect while you’re doing it.

As you notice the feeling of sweat beading on your skin or the heat from the sun reaching your body, try to take note of these sensations without judging them. Simply acknowledge them and move on. 

Note the sensations of the surface you’re sitting, lying, or walking around on. Are your bare feet touching a patch of soft grass? Can you feel the heat of the sidewalk through your flip flops? Is the hammock you’re lying on moulding to your body? Is the bench you’re sitting on a smooth one? 

If possible, close your eyes and listen to the sounds of everything around you. Do you heard birds chirping? Car engines revving? A distant conversation? The wind rustling through the trees?

It’s perfectly normal to feel distracted during one of these sessions. If your mind wanders, gently bring it back into focus again. Keep your eyes open or closed as you wish for the rest of it. Soak in every part of this moment you can. 

A drop of water falling into an otherwise still pool of water

Feel your skin’s reaction to the heat. Are you perspiring? What other sensations on that part of your body are currently happening?

Breathe in and out slowly. Notice how your breath changes the sensations you’re experiencing. Is it cooler or warmer than the outside air?

How is your mind functioning in this weather? What thoughts are rolling through your head? Some people may feel less energetic on days like this. If you can, rest for a little while at the warmest part of the day. 

Gentle acceptance and curiosity is key. How is your experience in this heat wave shifting as a result of this practice? It will probably take multiple sessions to notice changes, but everyone is different. 

Breathe in, breathe out. 

May all of us in hot, summery places stay as cool and mindful as possible.

2 Comments

Filed under Mindfulness and Meditation

Tagged as , , ,

July 9, 2020 · 1:00 am

Hopeful Science Fiction: Machine of Loving Grace

Click on the tag “hope” at this bottom of this post to read about all of my suggestions for hopeful science fiction. If you have recommendations for future instalments of this series, I’d sure like to hear them. Leave a comment below or send me message about it on Twitter.

Last winter I discovered the Better Worlds series, a science fiction anthology of short stories and films about hope that was published at The Verge two years ago. This is the tenth story from this anthology I’ve covered here, and I will eventually blog about all of them.

Machine of Loving Grace

Content warning: sexual harassment, cyber bullying, and sexism. I will be discussing these things in my review.

A close-up photo of a circuit board. Katherine Cross’ Machine of Loving Grace showed what happened when an AI designed to moderate video games took on a life of its own.

The content warning for this short story might make some potential readers pause. These are some pretty heavy topics, and they’re things that women, non-binary people, and members of the LGBT+ community can often be inundated with online.

With that being said, I encourage everyone who has the emotional bandwidth for it to dive into this tale. Ami, the AI mentioned earlier, was created to permanently end this abusive behaviour in video games. Imagine being able to play any video game you wish without ever needing to worry about other players mistreating you in these ways!

That idea was so remarkable that I had to find out how Ami’s reaction to these interactions evolved over time. She was programmed to be highly empathetic, so reading abusive chat logs was as disturbing for her as it would be for you or I to read them.

The cool thing about the world building in general was how realistic it felt. While we don’t yet live in a world where AI is capable of moderating video games so precisely, this sure seemed like something that we could all live to see happen. The explanations of how she was created and why Phoebe, the programmer in charge of her, was so surprised by Ami’s actions were well done.

So, too, were the reactions of the higher-ups at Rhombus, the company that employed Phoebe, when they realized how Ami was reacting to a problem that has been around since the Internet was in its infancy.

There are so many things I want to say about later plot twists in relation to the differences between how they reacted to online harassment and what Ami thought should be done about it. This truly is something that all of you should experience for yourselves, especially if you’ve ever been in a situation where someone told you to be patient or to not overreact to something that you knew was wrong and never should have been permitted.

Sometimes hope thrives in places you might be least likely to expect it, and that’s beautiful.

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , ,

July 8, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Project or Hobby of Mine Inspired By a Book

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

You all might laugh and shake your heads when you read this response. I don’t like to assume that everyone is familiar with the same stories or genres, so I’ll explain my answer a bit for anyone who needs it.

a closet filled with shirts and coatsIn an early scene of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, one of the main characters is a young girl who has just been sent to a strange, old house far away from home to protect her and her siblings from the bombing of England that occurred during World War II.

While playing hide-and-go seek in that house, she ends up in a closet that doesn’t have a back wall to it. Instead, she pushes through the many winter coats stored in it to discover there’s a mysterious  snowy forest behind them. That scene was pure magic to me when I first read it in elementary school.

I may be a rational adult now, but I still reach out and touch the back of every unfamiliar closet I use just in case there’s something back there other than the usual particle board.

29 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as

July 7, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’ve Read the Most Books By

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Lit white candles on top of a stack of books. I’m the sort of reader who regularly jumps around between authors and among genres.

When I discover an author I really love, I might read everything from their back catalogue I can find only to go years before picking up anything else from them depending on if they’re still alive and how often they publish new novels.

That is to say, I’ve read many books from the following authors, but I can also go long stretches of time before returning to them again.

Almost everyone on my list is a science fiction or fantasy author because those are my favourite genres. I’m particular about which types of SFF I like to read, so when I find an author who has the same tastes I dive into everything I can find from them.

Do any of you follow similar patterns?

My list:

Stephen King

L.M. Montgomery

Margaret Atwood

Ursula K. Le Guin

Douglas Adams

Neil Gaiman

Octavia E. Butler

Robert J. Sawyer

Sheri S. Tepper

Jean M. Auel

132 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as

July 6, 2020 · 1:00 am

An Exclusive Interview with Summer

Over the past year I’ve interviewed  spring, autumn, and winter. Today I’m back with an exclusive interview with summer!

pineapple wearing sunglasses and a party hatLydia: …

Summer: …

Lydia: So about the pineapple head. Didn’t we agree that you’d show up in human form today?

Summer: Technically, yes. Since pineapple heads are more interesting, I decided to improvise.

Lydia: Okay, will I be talking to a pineapple for this entire interview?

Summer: Maybe, maybe not. But at least I’m not perpetually late like spring is! I even showed up early this year.

Lydia: I can’t even argue with that. You made your presence well known in May and June. What have you been up to?

Summer: Growing and stuff.

Lydia: Yes, that is what you’re known for. Can you tell me more about how that process works? Spring and Autumn have both talked about how much effort you three put into the growing season.

Summer: The plants are the ones doing most of the heavy lifting there. We mostly just need to keep them on task. Jack Frost and Mother Nature used to help us set the schedule there. It’s gotten trickier now that the climate is changing so quickly, but at least some of the plants like heat waves.

Lydia: You don’t seem very concerned. I’m surprised. Some of your coworkers had a very different approach to this problem.

Summer: I’m concerned about my heat-sensitive plants and animals, but I can’t fix anything. It’s up to you humans to figure out how strong you want your summers to be. You do seem to be improving lately, though.

Lydia: Yeah, we’ve been staying home more as a species.

Summer: Well, that’s good! I hope it lasts. Winter hasn’t been looking too good these past few decades. I work better when I have a stronger foe.

Lydia: Is that how you think of the other seasons?

Two pineapples floating in a poolSummer: Obviously. Isn’t this all a contest to figure out why summer is the best season of them all?

Lydia: Yeah, I don’t think that’s how any of this works.

Summer: Okay, so we grow food, too. But mostly it’s a contest and I’m winning. That’s all that matters.

Lydia: Don’t you ever think about the paperwork or logistics involved? Do the other seasons know this is how you act?

Summer: What’s understood doesn’t need to be explained.

Lydia: Wait, why are there two of you now?

Summer: Technically, you’re not talking to a pineapple anymore. You’re talking to two of us which means I’m following the rule.

Lydia: You like to look for technicalities, don’t you?

Summer: It’s by far the best way to spend your summer. I mean, how else are humans going to count ice cream sandwiches as dinner or decide they don’t need to wear sunscreen at the beach after all?

Lydia: I don’t even know anymore.

Summer: Now you’re getting the spirit.

Lydia: This wasn’t what I was expecting, but somehow you’re exactly who you needed to be.

Summer: Thank you.

Lydia: No, thank you. This interview has been very illuminating.

Summer: I aim to please.

2 Comments

Filed under Writing

Tagged as , , , ,