Joanne Betzler – IN CASE YOU'RE INTERESTED

31 December, 2022

December is always a crazy month but this year Grant and I managed a brief escape to Toronto. He attended a conference. I walked and worked on my writing – specifically helping Granny find her blogging groove. (More on Granny later.) After the conference, we allowed ourselves time to visit and dine with family and friends, and relax a bit before returning home to Christmas chaos. And bone-chilling, back-breaking cold and snow. I am forever grateful to have a roof over my head, the ability to prepare a hot meal, and a warm bed to sleep in.

Perhaps it was the weather, or maybe the trip’s distraction, but somehow I managed to contain my inner Grinch a bit better this year. Until it came time to make turkey soup. In this moment, I don’t ever want to lay eyes on a turkey carcass again. And now with the New Year countdown imminent, I’m ready to step into 2023.

The first two months of the new year find me fortunate to have two cataract surgeries scheduled. I find myself trying to picture life without contact lenses after fifty-two-and-a-half years. Extreme myopia has been my nemesis since fourth grade and sheer vanity drove me to purchase my first pair of contacts at the age of seventeen. But now, they’re simply facts-of-my-life.

… Imagine being able to see …

This post brings to a close my 2022 Website Challenge. Despite July’s mere nod-to-a-post and November’s short-cut sketch, I’ll give myself a passing grade on the self-imposed task. So far, my 2023 vision for this web page remains blurry beyond my certainty that it will be different. Maybe in small ways. Maybe in significant ones. I’ll figure it out as I go. What I do know for sure is that I’m in the process of building a brand new second page to share my great grandmother’s story.

Which brings me back to Granny. I couldn’t be more thrilled to finally share my world with her and did promise you an introductory post prior to her blogs that will begin in January. Fortunately, I managed to catch her pondering my request:

Och … she’s a cheeky bism!
At my very deathbed I felt the bairn’s lament reach out from her mother’s womb. Before she drew a single breath. And they’d barely thrown dirt o’er my coffin before th’ wean came along to haunt me. Calls from her cradle nothing more than light tickles, teasing, teasing, teasing …  
Over all those years every photo her grandma showed her and every story her da and mum shared fed her fire. How many times the lassie has pulled me back, her own deid Granny with one toe barely in th’ afterlife, I cannae say. Question after question, trying to worm into my heid:
 
Why did ye …
How did ye …
What did ye …   ?
 
Aye, I kept it all. Ship manifest, legal documents, letters, photographs. If her grandma had a lick of sense, she’d have burned ’em once I was deid. But then Jean always was a good daughter. It’s my own fault she cuid ne’er throw anything away, auld or nae. By the time she passed ’em on to her own daughter, any questions Joy had, were drowned out by that muckle-great brood of hers.
Except for Joanne. Joy’s one middle-girl. A mere babe, latching on to me the way she did. Refusing to let go. It was unavoidable my papers would end up in her lap. Maybe if our paths had crossed, that great-granddaughter of mine would nae have spent th’ last twenty years poking me awake with endless archival sleeves, heavy duty binders, and hours ‘n’ hours of scouring for details.
Nearly seventy years I’ve spent in the grave and now she insists I’m needing to share my story.
What story? All I ever did was have a go to survive. But according to the stubborn lassie, my entire life is a story. And it matters.
Och – I cannae picture why!                           
 
            Except – the title she gives it does have a certain ring:
AGNES RANKIN WATSON:
Immigrant, Widow, Divorcee.
Hmm…
 
And I suppose – if that’s what it takes to finally rest in peace, I’ll keep my heid and do what I can – for auld lang syne.
Now, I dinnae ken exactly what she means by blog. But it does sound pure deid brilliant.

A. R. Watson

THIS MONTH’S PHOTO:

We had enough snow in December to warrant two photos:

Whether you call them snow-cakes, snow-hats or whatever strikes your fancy, the heavy wet flakes touched our yard with magic.

Our front yard fell victim to drifting winds. I do love the upside-down cone caps in the foreground though.

THIS MONTH’S SKETCH:

THIS MONTH’S READING LIST:

At the beginning of every month my intentions are sincere for completing a record number of books. Even mid-way, I remain undeterred. But in the last week without fail, I find myself scrambling to finish the one that will make my count respectable.

And so I ask: Does posting my list simply give me a count or does it push me to read more than I would otherwise? Maybe it’s time to reinvent my challenge. Over the next month, what if I reactivate my Good Reads page and go from there? No promises … yet.

Books I did finish (for a modest total of 43 in 2022):

Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol (1843)

Karen Gosbee – A Perfect Nightmare (2020)

Anna Camilleri – I Am A Red Dress (2004)

Aimee Wall –  We, Jane (2021)

Arthur Conan  Doyle – The Valley of Fear (1914-15)

30 November 2022

It was a quiet month. Not that I didn’t keep busy but for a change, outside demands did not overwhelm. The highlight for me was celebrating Remembrance Day outdoors at the cenotaph.

I’ve missed the mass gathering. As far as I can recall, prior to COVID Grant and I have not skipped any since we moved to New Westminster in 1996, except for the year we were on Vancouver Island visiting family and attended the Courtney commemorations. Two isolated years of dressing up and standing at attention in front of the television may have had the same intent but lacked a level of satisfaction. Like it was just too comfortable.

This year, the turnout was impressive in front of New Westminster’s City Hall (who knew there were so many beautiful dogs in this city!), the weather was sunny, and I’m happy we got to include our twin grand-babies and their mother in our ritual November 11^th post-cenotaph lunch. This year, we went to Boathouse Restaurant at the quay.

Throughout the month, I did spend a fair bit of time planning my writing projects for 2023. The novel I birthed from my 2013 TWS experience begs for attention. Not one of my approximately 20 pitches to agents and editors failed. All but one asked me to submit a sample but none picked it up. That agent was intrigued and referred me to a colleague she felt would be more suited to it.  

So, I know two things: my topic is relevant, and I can prepare a convincing pitch.

I’ve left the novel incubating for a few years while I completed my memoir, a most illuminating process. In January, I plan to resurrect my fiction manuscript, implement feedback from the publishing industry and some insight I gained while writing non-fiction, and tweak the story. Give it the care it deserves.

Another writing project has nagged at me since long before my novel was even a twinkle in my eye: My great-grandmother’s story. Granny, (Agnes Rankin Watson) was a strong, resilient woman who died the year I was born. All my life, every anecdote I heard of her filled my imagination and once the box of her documents came into my possession, her story became an overfilled balloon ready to burst. Now, it’s time to act and all fall I’ve been wrestling with how to share the story of a woman I have never met.

Sharing her narrative should be fun rather than all consuming, so I’ve decided to try something different. In January, I will give her a page on this website and let her tell her own story in short snippets – or blog-posts. If she omits details, over exaggerates, or raises questions for readers, they can voice their concerns in the comment section and Granny (with my help) will do her best to alleviate them.

The format will be fluid and will adapt as we go. Wish me luck …

***Watch for an introductory post from Granny next month.

THIS MONTH’S PHOTO:

AN EXTRA PHOTO THIS MONTH:

THIS MONTH’S SKETCH:

THIS MONTH’S READING LIST:

I was aiming for four or five but only managed to complete three. (Pats self on back anyway).

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)

Betty Lambert – Crossings (1979)

Chelene Knight – Junie (2022)

October 31st, 2022

From a weather perspective, October has been amazing. Both good and bad. Despite the Lower Mainland’s dire need for rain (arrived at last), the cool sunny days energized me through daily tedium and rewrites towards SiWC.

I have attended Surrey International Writer’s Conference several times pre-COVID to pitch my work, join workshops, and bask in the dynamic writers’ energy. This year, volunteering at the post-COVID hybrid event gave me a slightly different experience but in a good way. The contagious enthusiasm and sense of community, shared purpose and support felt no different but in the roles of set-up, announcing a masterclass and monitoring workshops, I gained perspective and appreciation for the many, many people needed and the work involved in pulling together such a diverse event and am honoured to have been part of it.

One benefit of volunteering is being assigned to monitor specific sessions. In the five sessions I attended, only one of which I chose myself because it fit into my break, I came back with some level of inspiration from every single one of them. (Yes, I brought a pen and notebook)

–           KC Dyer’s dynamic master class: The Beginner’s Top Thirty spoke to some of my publishing fears.

–           Robin Stevenson’s workshop on Co-Writing – Creative Collaboration refreshed my perspective on point of view in my own work, specifically my novel waiting for a re write.

–           And Friday’s Panel: Handling Serious Subjects in Books For Kids spoke directly to that same novel.

–           Shari Green’s Words From Battered Hearts encouraged me to continue exploring poetry as a genre to blend with narrative.

–           The gem I chose to fill my break stands out for me mainly in that  Crystal Hunt’s workshop: Personality-Based Book Marketing  involves de-cluttering your web page or blog post. So far, I’ve done my best to fulfill my 2022 challenge of reactivating my web page with specific criteria but have found myself wondering “To what end?” or “Who cares?” Hunt says rather than random blogging, creating specific content to draw interested followers will help promote me as a writer. So for the remainder of the year, I’ll continue to meet my 2022 challenge while figuring out what exactly I want to share with the world and re-jig the space for 2023. Hmmm …

If you have any thoughts, please share in the comment section.

THIS MONTH’S SKETCH:

THIS MONTH’S READING LIST:

L. M. Montgomery – Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Sarah Vaughan – Reputation (2022)

Liz Levine – Nobody Talks About Anything But The End (2020)

Agatha Christie – Death On The Nile (1937)

September 30th, 2022

 Every year, September offers me a fresh outlook tinged with a nostalgic touch of back-to-school happiness. Yes. I was the eager kid who began back-to-school planning the first week of August and had first day excitement a full week ahead. Now, it makes me happy seeing kids walking by our house on their way to school, filling their days with  a sense of community, structure, and active learning.

That said, my month has been anything but orderly. Scattered with an assortment of doctor appointments, struggling with a new piece of writing, exploring the possibility of a new writing group, keeping up with queries to publishers, meeting with friends, and general life-commitments, the days are a blur.

Except of course Sunday, September 25^th. For several years I’ve had the privilege of being part of Word Vancouver by offering feedback to writers through SFU’s TWS, and this year was no exception. After two years of COVID isolation and online consults, being in the presence of real people, communicating face-to-face, felt liberating. I left energized by the power of community.

THIS MONTH’S PHOTO:

THIS MONTH’S SKETCH:

THIS MONTH’S READING LIST:

I believe this month’s book list brings me to a tally of 31 completed works so far this year.

• Julie S Lalonde – Resilience is Futile, The Life, Death, and Life of Julie S Lalonde (2020)
• Rebecca Skloot – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2011)
• Rachel Cusk – Out Line (2016)
• Arthur Conan Doyle – The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)

August 31st. 2022

Summer is almost over … and to that I say “Yay”.

Despite seeming endless, this year’s season of oppressive heat has flown by and I can’t help wonder where it went. I don’t want to use my Multiple Sclerosis as an excuse for personal shortcomings so rarely discuss the disease but hot weather is not its friend – or mine. Twenty-six degrees Celsius and higher exhausts my energy tank, fills my veins with liquid lead, and complicates every effort to achieve what I consider an acceptable level of chores and tasks. So August frustrates me.

As far as my writing goes, I’m not currently generating anything new. Instead, re-purposing bits I’ve removed in the editing process of my memoir into short pieces, playing with both fiction and non-fiction, keeps me busy seeking possibilities. There was a reason I created them in the first place, so I just need to find them a home. And I remain optimistic as I continue submitting queries for my manuscript to publishers.

I am pretty pleased with myself for creating my very first Power Point Video. Mid-month, with a little help from my grandson, Brody, I compiled a series of photos of Grant and me from the last thirty years to provide background for our vow renewal celebration on the 19^th.  “The Hunter” by Jennifer Warnes was the finishing touch and when you read my memoir “Behind the Wheel”, you’ll understand the song’s relevance.

On the 27^th we met our two-year-old twin grand-babies for the first time. Now that their family has relocated to the Lower Mainland I look forward to fun times getting to know the sweet bundles of energy.

So, despite my heat-imposed sloth’s pace, I have kept busy and am grateful that August has flown.

THIS MONTH’S SKETCH:

THIS MONTH’S PHOTOGRAPH:

THIS MONTH’S READING LIST

    … might look impressive but only because it includes July:

• Julian Barnes –  The Sense of an Ending (2012)

• George Bowering and Charles Demers – The Dad Dialogues (2016)

• Jonina Kirton –  Standing in a River of Time (2022)

• Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudiced (1813)

• Amber Dawn – How Poetry Saved My Life (2013)

• Jane Austen – Persuasion (1817)

• Joan B. Flood – Left Unsaid (2017)

For a handful of reasons, 2 being eye surgery and extreme heat, I have chosen to be kind to myself and cancel my July post. See you in August.

My photo and sketch are both old so don’t count as part of the challenge I gave myself in January.

June 30^th, 2022

While I love June’s long daylight hours, I can’t help feeling a tiny bit sad at the Summer Solstice signaling their ultimate shrinking. I’ll feel quite different this time in December though.

This month has had its share of challenges with me bringing COVID home from my Calgary visit. My guess is I picked it up at the airport or on the flight because no one I was in contact with while there has had symptoms. (Or admits to it anyway.) For the most part, it felt like a bad head cold with a touch of flu. The worst bit was the sensation of razor blades jammed in my throat for three days. Good old Advil helped me bypass enough discomfort to keep up on my chores and other commitments.

And one of those commitments was the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive windup reading, Saturday the 18^th. What an excellent exercise in editing it is to prepare a three minute manuscript segment! And I was most excited to have the opportunity to read my work in public. It’s been far too long.

Thanks to everyone in this year’s cohort who shared snippets of their stories at the VMI online event. From the program’s start, I knew I was in good company but – WOW – every piece was brilliant in its own way. Thanks to Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Rachel Rose for welcoming us all and for their smooth facilitation of the season. And thank you to my mentor, Mark Winston, for helping me navigate the road to memoir completion.

 THIS MONTH’S PHOTOGRAPH

The weeds got away on me this year and my granddaughter, Aubrey, is helping me in the garden Saturday mornings to get caught up. During our recent attack on the noxious trespassers under the grand Magnolia, we uncovered this cheerful cluster of tangerine coloured lilies tucked next to a Hosta ‘Spilt Milk’.

Sweet reward.

 THIS MONTH’S SKETCH

My sweet, friendly, handsome, grand-dog, Marty, turned thirteen this month and I couldn’t resist sketching him all harnessed up.

From the photo, I can’t tell if he’s just back from a walk or waiting to head out, but either way, he looks regal and content to this Grand-dogma.

THIS MONTH’S READING LIST

1. Pauline Dakin (2017) – Run, Hide Repeat
2. Charles Dickens (1849) – David Copperfield

May 31, 2022

Because I’m away from my familiar, this month’s post is short.

May has been a whirlwind of life. After finally establishing a plan to research, prepare, and submit to publishers that might be a possible fit for me and my manuscript, the days have flown by and my long-planned Calgary family visit is upon me. So here I sit, reunited, among fans of the Battle of Alberta NHL playoff aftermath, some like-minded, some not-so-much, happy my team is moving forward. Maybe Canada can win back the cup this year. Go Oilers!

THIS MONTH’S PHOTOGRAPH:

A Brief Bit of Brilliance on a Rainy May Morning

Full Moon Japanese Maple (Acer shirasawanum f. aureum) Not sure but I think this is the correct genus, species, and cultivar for this lime-green glory accented by my favourite Hino-Crimson Azalea.

THIS MONTH’S SKETCH:

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Wise words. Jazmine and Gary get a rare visit from Granddogma this month.

READING LIST: Also short this month.

It’s not that I’ve read less. I just began more, and completed fewer works:

1. Billie Livingstone (2016) – The Crooked Heart of Mercy
2. Catherine Hernandez (2017) – Scarborough

April 30, 2022

April has had its fair share of rain this year, but right now with sunshine warming the air and the soil, early bulbs and perennials colour the garden and offer hope for a COVID-free world. (That last bit would be my inner Pollyanna voice.)

For me, the business part of writing (aka: the road to publishing) is dull and daunting. Tedious enough to make me ask myself “Why bother?”  A journey with so many forks, U-turns and dead ends, is enough to test anyone’s drive to succeed.

My biggest problem though, is the anxiety caused by my entrenched mindset to get the work done. Writing and creating are the fun parts and having been raised under the mantra: work before play, I don’t feel dabbling in a new writing project permissible until I’ve got all my publishing ducks organized. It was too much; I needed help.

Many thanks for my Nourishment Call with Chelene Knight who showed me tools to break down and sort the madness impeding my progress and left me feeling more grounded and assured. And to my weekly writing-sprint friend, Andrew. Our chat took me three steps closer to confidence and recognizing the big picture needs of my manuscript.

Now that I’ve taken time to identify the source of my frustration, I’ll spend the early part of May weaving a plan of measured step towards my publishing goal and pepper it with enough fun-framed windows to tease me forward and make me smile.

Some things that make me smile:

THIS MONTH’S SKETCH and a HAIKU:

THIS MONTH’S PHOTOGRAPH:

READING LIST:

I’ve discovered that keeping track of the books I complete has me not only more conscious of my reading habits, but reading more. Not sure if that’s good or bad …

1. Aubri Black (2019) –  Did He Hit You?
2. Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911) – The Secret Garden
3. Rachel Rose (2021) – The Octopus Has Three Hearts
4. Kim Thuy (2009) – Ru

March 31, 2022

While I welcome the spring-ahead-time-change, the days can’t get long-enough, fast-enough for me. Maybe I need to spend my summers in the Arctic and my winters in the Antarctic. Who doesn’t love a good warm sweater? And this month, like any other, has had its share of ups and downs.

The biggest ‘down’ was the sudden illness of our sweet dog, Flint. We feared we were losing him and our trip to the vet was inconclusive, but over two weeks of coaxing food and water into him and carrying his limp body in-and-out, up-and-down, wherever it needed to be, he has regained most of his energy but lost strength in his left side. We suspect stroke, but can only guess. Sixteen is a long life for a little dog and with this set-back, we treasure every remaining minute he has so he deserves a photo this month.

I had two big ‘up’ moments in March… The first was the release of Resonance, Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, edited by  Andrew Chesham and Laura Farina. I am thrilled my essay, Stepping Into Perspective, is part of this inspiring collection.

After completing the last chapter of my memoir and writing the epilogue that terrified me, I sent the draft off to my VMI mentor Mark Winston. His feedback was my second ‘up’ moment. Not only was his response speedy, but most encouraging. And in fact a wee bit overwhelming:

“…my comments are on the manuscript … but as I suspected, this is a very complete and working-well draft. That is, it’s crossed that magic line from a hopeful early draft to . . . a book! Congratulations!”

Next? The business part of writing. Yikes!

IMAGES FOR MARCH

This month’s photograph showcases two eye-catching items over our fireplace. The painting, one of a pair, is done by an artist/friend from back in our GardenWorks days, Kimberly Blackstock. Her beautiful work is now making its way to Los Angeles and New York but I especially love how this specimen in our small collection accentuates the colours of the stunning teak clock my husband, Grant, built back in his theatre days. Together the pieces provide a calming visual landing spot when I need to clear my head.

The dog in my sketch this month is unfamiliar to me in every way but I fell in love with his sweet face and was compelled to do my best to recreate his good looks. A satisfying challenge regardless of my marginal success.

READING LIST

This month’s selection of books I completed comes from a wide variety of genres but each was read for its own specific reason …

1. Bev Sellars (2013) They Call Me Number One
2. William Shakespeare (1595/96) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
3. A, Conan Doyle (1905) The Return of Sherlock Holmes
4. Eric Walters (2020) The King of Jam Sandwiches
5. Andrew Chesham and Laura Farina EDS (2022) Resonance, Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing