Monday, November 19, 2012

the blog is back!

Sorry for the blog break. It's been almost a year since I've posted anything. Part of it was the excitement of finally having my third book, "The Thing On The Comb", come out. Nothing is guaranteed to make a writer forget about everything else for a while better than the appearance in print of new work. The response to the book has been great. As a humourist and a poet, my readers are telling me that the stuff I write is funny (thank God), touching and sad and that I push the envelope of what constitutes poetry. While doing readings of the book my audience has called me an historian of ordinary life, a curator of everyday life or some variation on that. They say that the people I write about could be anybody's next door neighbour and their problems could be yours. All of this has made me very happy about the book and thanks to everybody for sharing their feelings so freely with me. My thanks also to Everett and all my other characters whose lives have provided me with grist for my mill. I hope that his wife comes back to him soon but since she's now married to his cousin that seems unlikely. Still, nothing is impossible. Hal's wife left him too, gone to greater glory in a dry cleaning job in The Soo but he's met Edith, now, and maybe that's a good thing. Life has its ups and downs. No surprise there. The big surprise is how they all continue. But that's what life's all about and we should be thankful that it is.

I should mention, too, that my reading series at the Library, which is a real joy for me, is over for the year. Thanks to Anne Marie for all her help in making it a success and for Sam for being there at all the events. We hope he enjoyed himself. I also want to thank everybody who came to the James Reaney presentation that we have every year and to the Reaney family for helping to make the event a success. One of the great things about being writer-in-residence at the Library is the chance to meet the endless travelling show of writers who criss-cross Canada. Who says that vaudeville is dead? Mark was also a big help this year in building an audience. And, finally, thanks to that audience. We love you all! Come back next season! Bring your relatives and friends with you!

Enough said. Let me know what's going on with you. Who knows, your life could end up in a story or a poem. Suitably disguised, of course.