Spring Break stopped being a deal with me for a while on account that once I graduated high school I didn’t get it off. It’s my birthday tomorrow, and let’s just say when you have a ton of exams looming for the University, you kind of hate having a birthday at this time of the year.
However – now that my sister’s kids are old enough to do stuff (independently, even) we’ve made it a habit to go to the Royal Winter Brandon Fair if everyone’s healthy. This is only good for the people in Southern Manitoba – but it’s good clean family fun, plus we all heart horses. I didn’t get to watch the horse competitions as much as I wanted (lots and lots of petting animals, and I fed an emu which scared the oldest niece), but I decided that when I’m old I’m turning eccentric, so I might start racing miniature horses via chuckwagons.
SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
I will name the ponies after whatever political policy I’m mad at. (“On Reckless Spending! Hyah False Promises! Faster Special Interest Appeasement!”)
In other news, the 2015 Aurora Nominees list is out. I would like to congratulate everyone who made the final ballet, but alas, also point out a problem with the Nominees for Best Canadian Squirrel.
I can’t report my source, but I think it’s only fair that you, the voter, is made aware that Zippy Treeclimber is not, in fact, a squirrel. He’s not even a chipmunk with prosthetics. He is, in fact, a Sugar Glider. I suggest you all take your outrage to the appropriate aurora board members and see that this injustice does not stand, as Sugar Gliders are marsupials and in no way related to squirrels.
Before the ballet was announced, several publishers got together and put out this collection of previous Aurora Award Winners and Nominees in an ebook bundle – I’m not sure if they’re all Canadian Publishers (I have read some, but not all in the package) but it looks like a fantastic collection from a variety of authors.
As for me and what I’m reading on the Canadian Side – two Winnipeg Authors, so even though I’m living outside Ze Peg it still counts as my hometown as I was born there and spent most of my life there (and go back to see people regularly). I’m still in the middle of reading it, but I’m currently in the middle of a cyberpunk novel called The Courier by Gerald Brandt, and I hope to finish and review it soon. I also finished reading Mercy, the fourth book of the Ferryman and the Flame series by Rhiannon Paille. I’m honestly not a fan of the series but I’m also not her target audience. Honestly, reading and reviewing romance novels in general tends to be hard for me. Now, having over the years gone to I can’t even amount of writing classes, my disclaimer is that I don’t think any given genre is crap or lousy or anything like that. I think a lot of stuff is very well written and researched, and I just acknowledge that given the focus – it tends not to be my cup of tea. And when I say something is not my cup of tea, I’m sure many people will feel the same way about my work. A friend of mine read the same novel a few months ago and she reads more than I do and given her review, she really enjoyed it.
Why keep reading stuff if it’s not my thing? Well, besides pushing me out of my comfort zone and I think I can always learn something from reading just about any book, it’s a Support Locals thing. Same reason I buy my honey from a local beekeeper rather than buying it in the store, and trying to support local farmer’s markets. Supporting small businesses is important on many levels, but that’s a post for another day.
So is this post Canadian enough? I told a buddy of mine on FB that I missed the snow, so now it’s snowing – sounds like a perfect day for snuggling up with a cup of tea and writing. I finally finished that ‘novella’ which is technically now a novel at around 55k, however I am editing it, and suspect I’ll lop off 10% and then add in more setting/description to make the beta happy… I still have one more go until it’s able to be swapped, but I think I can handle it. Until next time, cheers~
ltgetty's Blog 