The Girdle of Melian

emembering two authors today, who've recently passed away, Farley Mowat and Sue Townsend. I've done "why doesn't my newspaper report on the important stuff" features before, on the passing of favourite authors: Peg Bracken , Madeleine l'Engle, Norma Fox Mazer , and so on. This time, of course, I don't even know if the local Montreal paper reported on Sue Townsend, though I'm sure they did write about Farley Mowat since he's Canadian. I heard about both of these through Twitter. It's been many years since I read any Farley Mowat. It's possible that I only ever read one - Owls in the Family , about his childhood. Now, of course, I feel guilty about this. I'd especially like to read his autobiographical works about World War II, though the ones about Canada's North are intriguing too. Here's a list of his first 15 works: People of the Deer (1952; revised 1975) The Regiment (1955) Lost in the Barrens (1956) The Dog Who...

atching up! Slowly, but surely. I'm still working my way through A to Z Challenge posters and commenters, but I did catch up on all the blogs I was due to visit as part of my minion duties! Here are a few of the new bloggers I met: A Taste of Travel Reflections En Route Joyful Antidotes Anseo A Mhuinteoir My Sweet Peanut Trigger's Horse Moon, Light and Shadow Word Stories I've also moved a little further on one of my ROW80 goals, which is to participate in the May exercise on the writers' forum. Here's a brief description of the exercise: "The Power of Place. How does a writer go from a generic "dark and stormy night" to creating a world that is so real, so tangible and vibrant that readers and characters alike live in it? This power of place goes beyond simple world-building such as sketching maps of towns or creating blueprints of buildings. It goes beyond a mention of the weather, or the mountains, or ...

eviews! I've been reading lots of great books lately. First up is Medeia Sharif 's Snip, Snip Revenge , a fun and moving tale of a few months in the life of young Tabby Karim (a Turkish protagonist, yay!): The best part of this book, for me, was how well Medeia captures the teen voice. A lot of times I felt and remembered feeling exactly the way Tabby felt about certain situations. And of course I loved the romance as well! Also in new books, there's Talli Roland 's The No-Kids Club , coming on 3 June: I can't recommend this book enough. Of course, I say that about all of Talli's books, but the characters in this story really resonated with me. I also found it exciting to see how each character's personal dilemma was resolved by the end of the novel. There are no easy answers in any of their situations, and Talli does a great job exploring the nuances of each relationship. Can't wait to get this one for all my friends! And the third...

is for... I mean, and now back to our regularly scheduled programme. It's hard to get out of A to Z mode! The challenge was really fun this year. I'm still busy making my rounds, so don't be surprised if I come by and comment on older posts! This was my third A to Z Challenge and third year having a theme. In 2012 I covered Favourite Books and 2013 was the year I showcased all sorts of favourite posts and links from Twitter . That was a fun theme, actually; maybe I'll do it again next year. I favourite a lot of stuff on Twitter and don't always have a chance to go back and read or watch them all. This year it was nice to have a built in theme based on my life! I'm still collecting random items I'd like to share with all of you, from the world's steepest mountain-side cable car to this fact I just discovered yesterday: author Graham Greene lived his last years in Switzerland and is buried here. I'd definitely recommend a theme for anyone wh...

is for zzzzzzz... We've reached the end of the A to Z Challenge ! Congratulations to all the participants; I think we all deserve a long nap, like the kitty in the drop cap. I shouldn't, though - I've got ROW80 goals to live up to! I'm still hoping to do a full day's writing marathon, and there are some great Ask Me Anything questions over at the Forum that I can use on my characters. Of course, it's not over till its over. I've got lots of blog visits to make and so many lovely comments to reply to! Thanks to everyone who came by. I don't quite miss Canada yet -- but I'm happy to promote it whenever I can! I hope you enjoy my latest YouTube playlist, featuring an awesome Canadian band: Now it's naptime!

is for wish You were here! I'd love to be able to host a writers' retreat (like Jessica Bell's awesome Homeric retreat in Greece coming up in August) or some other blog-y get together here in Geneva, but as it's not possible at the moment, I've got a prompt for you all! The instructions go like this: "In Fortunately, the Milk by master storyteller Neil Gaiman, things get rather odd on a father's trip to buy milk for his children. He soon finds himself transported through time and space on an extraordinary adventure where the fate of the universe depends on him, a time-traveling Stegosaurus (in a hot air balloon), and, fortunately, the milk. Some may call this a "tall tale" in which someone tells an exaggerated story to keep an audience's interest. Whether you believe the father or not, use the story as inspiration to write your own tall tale in the space below. Let your imagination run wild, and be sure to make it as detailed as po...

is for cliches. I'm not sure why the letter X made me think of the word cliche, but I've got one heck of a cliche for you: Chocolates from Switzerland! And if you don't like or can't have chocolate, how about some cheese? And if you don't like or can't have cheese... I'm sure there's a cold drink of some sort I can offer you!