Posts Tagged ‘books’
Meniscus: Reckoning … a new book of science fiction adventure
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The next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series is now available: #13 … Meniscus: Reckoning. The series tells the story of humans who are brought against their will to the planet Meniscus and are determined to build new relationships, new lives, and new communities. Meniscus: Reckoning continues the story begun in the Rosetta Stone trilogy of how the Humans discover a way to overthrow the dominant alien Dock-winders and their cruel ways.
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Meniscus: Reckoning takes the Humans of Themble Hill on an adventure like no other. In Reckoning, a small group begins the arduous journey to El’ban where Dock-winders are still in control and have captured James, the leader of the Resistance Movement. With them is the Dock-winder child, Don’est, who continues to mystify the Humans with her false-empathy and strange logic. Others in the Resistance Movement, the brilliant Bleth’nan triplets, become part of the group and part of Don’est’s Human family.
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In the book, you will travel across the El’ban Elevations, and into the Hollows (a landscape made from the discarded cocoons of alien insect pupae). Then, the group must find a way to rescue James from the layered city of El’ban and its inescapable prison.
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Many of the main characters of the first twelve books in the series have returned to this story: Odymn, expert at parkour, Daniel, the Slain (a genetically enhanced Human), Belnar and his ridiculous ways, Kotildi, wolf-like and loyal, and the evil Dock-winder Garg who has antagonized the Humans of Themble Hill though all their adventures.
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Meniscus: Reckoning is available on Amazon.ca (click here) and from me, as I travel the three upcoming Book Fairs in Moncton (July 27, 2024), Saint John (September 14, 2024), and Fredericton (October 19, 2024). Only $12 for lots of adventure! And the e-book will be available soon.
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Enjoy the upcoming days of summer when reading is one way of escaping the black flies and taking yourself on an adventure out there among the stars.
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All my best!
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
a botanical alphabet
In the last couple of years, I have had the happy task of helping Jennifer Houle, award-winning author, produce her new book, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet. The book takes the reader through the alphabet with examples from the world of botany, plants local to New Brunswick and the Maritime provinces.
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My specific work was to produce the drawings for the book and undertake its formatting on the way to it becoming a published book. I also wrote ‘Notes for the Curious,’ to enable caregivers to give a little more information to children abut the plants they encounter in the book.
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The images in the book began as black and white pencil drawings. Before this, I had never done digital illustrations, so I began by colourizing each drawing. After this, I leaned to do grades of colour and shading. In the end, I did the 26 illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet, and other images to illustrate the life cycle of the luna moth and fill in the story we wanted to tell.
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I also experimented with background colour and learned to present the images in the proportions of the final book. For the first time, I attempted images that would bleed to the very edge of the page.
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The book is an old-fashioned approach to learning the alphabet, but also a way of encouraging children to look closely at their surroundings and interact with them. To help with this, we have shown that plants are part of a larger community of plants and animals. The book shows the life cycle of the luna moth–we have hidden the luna at various stages of its life throughout the images in the book. We also encourage children to collect, with respect, examples of the plants they find and to learn about the other plants they see. Where I have left parts of the images without colour, the children are invited to add their own colour to the book.
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At last, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet is ready to present to the world! Both paperback and hardcover versions of the book are now available at Amazon.ca by clicking here. On May 11, Saturday, we will launch the book at the Kennebecasis Public Library in Quispamsis, with a special presentation and art activity for the children. After that, the book will be available in both paperback and hardcover at various events, including 2024 Book Fairs in Moncton-Riverview (July 27), Saint John (September 14), and Fredericton (October 19).
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We hope you enjoy this wonderful book! We are looking forward to showing it to you and introducing children to the world of local plants.
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All my best!!!
Jane
bookmark
In March, I promised information on a new project I am undertaking, Bookmarks and Dog Ears. I have lots of projects on the go, at various stages of completion, but I find I need something new and creative to invigorate my writing process. In April, I began a new endeavour, a poetry manuscript about bookmarks, those bits of ephemera left to mark a place in a book.
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I first became interested in this project when the owner of Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, showed me a binder full of the bookmarks she has collected from used books coming into the store. Perusing the binder is fascinating: it contains photos, grocery lists, cash register tapes, old letters, money, even a dreidel. I imagined a manuscript of poems and drawings built around the variety of the bookmarks – their physical structure, purpose, history and symbolism. After a little research, I was caught up in the way bookmarks are an expression of the Human activity of reading a book. I am interested in the historic use of bookmarks, the past of a well-used bookmark, how bookmarks are linked to feelings about reading and the fate of the bookmark in the digital world.
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With the help of the Library Director at the L.P. Fisher Public Library in Woodstock, I have been able to identify some libraries where bookmarks are also collected, so I will have no shortage of subject matter.
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To give you an idea of the type of poem that this project could generate, I will tell you about my response to a bookmark collected from books at the Saint Paul Public Library in Minnesota. To see a short video of some of their bookmarks, click here.
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The bookmark that interested me the most was a 3” by 3” black and white photo of a woodland scene. Perhaps my preference is related to the many photos I took of the canopies of woodland trees during my Master’s thesis research. In the photo, you can see the trunk of an older poplar and, in the background, a group of about eight younger trees, their trunks curved and bent dramatically downwards. The photo is a study in contrasts between the dark trees and the bright skylight filtered through the leaves.
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After a little research I discovered that Minnesota had a strange winter last year, with heavy snow and rain over a five day period after a relatively mild winter. Some of the woodland trees, burdened with over 20 inches of heavy snow, bent under the weight. Many have not recovered, according to the Extension Department of the University of Minnesota. To read about the effect of the winter on these trees, click here.
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I don’t know if the photo is actually a response to the snowstorm, but most bookmarks are anonymous and speak to different people in various ways. To me, the photo represents the photographer’s need to document the result of the snow event. The owner of the photo may have been unhappy at the memory of the storm or the consequences to a well-known bit of woodland.
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I am still feeling my way in this project, but here is an early attempt to capture this particular bookmark in poetry.
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storm damage
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tried to take a photo
in black and white—
bent trees in the summer woodland
birch over-laden by winter snow
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a photo to capture
desecration of forest—
behind a straight and sturdy
trunk of aspen
a clump of saplings craft
an archway in forest
usher of summer light
trembling leaves
against sky
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no wish to remember
five endless days of storm
heavy snow, burdened with rain
a charming path through woodland
rendered impassable
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abandoned
the photo
in a book
about despair
after alteration
no recovery, no hope
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A rather dismal interpretation of why the photo was forgotten in a book. What does the photo-used-as-bookmark say to you?
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All my best,
Jane
soon! a new children’s alphabet book
On my list of goals for the year is a project I haven’t talked about before. A friend and I have been working on her new book, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet.
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I have known Jenn for years, since we both worked on Fredericton’s WordFeast in 2017. Jennifer Houle is a seasoned author, with two award-winning poetry collections, The Back Channels and Virga (Signature Editions). Her first children’s book, Un logis pour Molly/A Home for Molly, was published by Éditions Bouton d’Or Acadie in summer of 2022 in both French and English.
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Here is what Jenn is saying about A Child’s Botanical Alphabet:
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This book started out as a little rhyme I made up for my boys when they were toddlers. I loved teaching them to name common flowers & trees around the yard & neighbourhood. Having a vocabulary for things helps deepen imagination, sense of relatedness. I imagined it as a book that caregivers could read with children as they explored … the pages are meant to be coloured on & leaves & flowers pressed between pages. So it’s a book meant to be used. Oh! And there are Luna Moths fluttering throughout. . .presiding spirits.
Jennifer Houle, Facebook, March 20, 2024
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When Jenn asked me to do the illustrations for her book, I said yes because I loved the concept and I had some suitable pencil drawings already done. I knew from the start I wanted the illustrations to be in colour, so I did my first work of this sort in the digital world. I used GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to colourize each pencil drawing. I have learned so much about colour and its presentation. Jennifer was easy to work with, so in spite of some learning curves, we are very happy with the result.
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As we work on the last small edits, we are excited to see A Child’s Botanical Alphabet in its final form and show it to you. Stayed tuned for more information!
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All my best,
Jane
including ‘sound’ in writing
I am so proud of my new poetry book ‘mnemonic – soundscape and birdsong’ (Chapel Street Editions, 2024) because it focuses on including sound in writing. Of the five senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste), most creative writing focuses on vision. It is a bit of a challenge to include the other senses in order to give a more complete idea of the sensations contributed by your surroundings.
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My book includes bird song as a main part of the soundscape. It also includes other sounds: the singing of a rock skipped across a frozen pond, the call of the spring peepers, the clinking of ice in glasses, the sound of a kettle boiling over a woodland fire.
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For ways of including sounds in writing, you can look at some of my earlier posts here, and here.
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I think my favourite poem in the ‘mnemonic’ collection is about my Dad who took us along the Yarmouth shore to find iron pyrite (fool’s gold). The sounds in this poem focus on the shorebirds. Here is a short excerpt:
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he takes us prospecting
we wedge into crevasses
keen for pyrite gold
cube within cube
embedded in stone
we always forget the hammer
we chip and scratch with fingernails
reach across rock
dare the waves
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a sanderling cries
quit quit!
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shorebirds
befriend me
a dowitcher sews a seam with her bill
bastes salt water to shore
the sanderling shoos back the tide
terns
plunge into the ocean
and complain they are wet
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I hope you will have fun incorporating sound into your writing.
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All my best,
Jane
setting goals for writing in 2024
As usual, I have lots of writing plans for this year. I find it helpful to set goals at the first of the year (well, at least by March!) and keep track of my progress.
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In setting your own goals, make certain they are realistic. As a rule, goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. For a lesson on setting SMART goals, see the Participaction website here.
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My writing goals this year are 9 in number. This number of goals is realistic for me since I am quite productive. I will plan to report on how well I did at achieving these goals in December.
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1. Continue to introduce my new poetry book ‘meniscus – soundscape and birdsong’ to the world. By mid-summer, I will attend at least six reading and signing events and feature my book in 5 blog posts. The manuscript for this book won the WFNB Alfred G. Bailey Prize for Poetry in 2016 and I have been enjoying the readings and book signings I have done so far. To purchase a copy of this book, go to the Chapel Street Editions webpage here.
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2. A new poetry project – details soon!
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3. Continue to work on my suite of five Urban Mysteries. By the end of the year, I intend to complete the draft of all five books, edit the five, and format them in KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). These adventures are set in cities where I have lived or worked: Halifax, Fredericton and Saint John. They are short books, about 20,000 words each, entitled ‘Urban Green,’ ‘Roundabout,’ ‘Stately Elms,’ ‘City Grotesque,’ and ‘Hollow Hotel.’ Eventually they will be released as a set of novellas.
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4. Meniscus: The Reckoning – By the end of May, I will have completed the editing and formatting for this book and published it on KDP. This book is in final format with all the illustrations complete. I have to incorporate my editor’s comments and paint the cover art before it is published. This will be the last novel of thirteen in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. In this book, several of the characters introduced in the previous novels take a perilous journey to rescue the leader of the Human Resistance.
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5. A Glimpse of Sickle Moon – By early December, I will review the final proof of this book and publish it with KDP. This poetry manuscript won Third Prize in the WFNB competition for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize for Poetry in 2020. It works through the imagery of each of our four seasons, cycling through 15 years of my life.
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6. A new children’s book (as artist) with a writing friend – details soon!
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7. writing in the dark‘ manuscript : Each month this year, I will workshop 2 poems in my ‘writing in the dark’ manuscript with my two writing groups. The poems are about my encounters with writings on stone in three cultures. Included are poems of my reactions to the stelae of the Maya, the runestones of the Vikings and the pictographs of the First Nations peoples of North America. My editor has commented on the manuscript, and I am in the process of reading and discussing the poems with my two writing groups, Wolf Tree Writers and Fictional Friends.
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8. ‘Meniscus: A Flora‘ – Complete a list of the alien plants featured in my Meniscus Science Fiction Series and check this against the drawings I have done to see if more drawings are needed. This will push forward my work on a manuscript featuring coloured drawings of plants encountered on the planet featured in my science fiction series.
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9. More frequent blog posts! This year I will do four blog posts per month featuring elements of my writing goals. This allows a lot of scope since it will explore my interests in writing, drawing and painting, botany, bird watching and history.
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I am energized and looking forward to my writing life this year. In my next post, I will look a little closer at ‘mnemonic’ and the inclusion of sounds in poetry.
All my best!
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
My Table at the Book Fair
On April 22, I’ll be with my books at the
First Annual Greater Moncton/Riverview/Dieppe Independent Book Fair.
Over 35 tables. Lots of local authors. Books, books and more books!
April 22nd. 10am – 4pm. Riverview Lions Club
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I’ll have all my books with me:
The Kaye Eliot Mysteries…
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My poetry books.
The collection a glimpse of water fall was shortlisted for the 2022 New Brunswick Book Awards…
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My science fiction series Meniscus…
the story of building a new Human community on a dystopian alien planet…
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and my new children’s book,
Wink in the Rain...
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Hope to see you there!!!!
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All my best,
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
adding books to Little Libraries
Had some fun today. Drove around to a few Little Libraries in our area and left some of my books. I was impressed to see books for both kids and adults. The Little Libraries were well constructed, keeping the books dry and safe.
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I left copies of my books in the Little Libraries on:
Smith Road in Geary, New Brunswick
Beaumont Lane in Rusagonis, NB
The Covered Bridge Park in Rusagonis, NB
Covered Bridge Estates in Nasonworth, NB
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I left two books in each Little Library, some poetry, some mystery, one science fiction:
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If you haven’t visited a Little Library before, try it! Look for one of my books or a book that would interest you or your child. I saw all genres of writing, some Nora Roberts, a ‘Game of Thrones’ and lots of mysteries. Just take a book to leave in exchange for the one you take!
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If you would like to read one of my books, they are available at Westminster Books in Fredericton and Dog Eared Books in Oromocto.
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All my best,
Jane
How Her Garden Grew
Mid-summer and my little garden is doing well. The plants are growing in planters on my deck: three parsley plants, three climbing beans, three snow peas and one cucumber. I have to ‘weed’ every day as the maple keys keep sprouting!
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With a small garden, I have lots of time to read. Right now I am reading the forth in the Lane Winslow Mysteries, set in Canada in British Columbia after WW II here. I love mysteries and now I have one of my own. ‘How Her Garden Grew’ tells the story of a mom and her kids who find a packet of old letters and follow a trail of mayhem and murder to summer’s end. This is the first in a series of three Kaye Eliot Mysteries, set in Nova Scotia in 1995.
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‘How Her Garden Grew‘ is available on-line here. Or at Westminster Books in Fredericton (you should see their new store at 88 York Street!)
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I am spending my summer (when I am not pulling maple sprouts) writing the sequel to ‘How Her Garden Grew’. It will be called ‘Something the Sundial Said’ and take readers on another cozy mystery adventure.
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Enjoy your summer reading!
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All my best,
Jane
a reading and signing of my new book ‘How Her Garden Grew’
Have you ever seen a Grinning Tun? He is the villain of my new mystery story How Her Garden Grew.
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I will be reading and signing books at our Authors Coffee House on Thursday, May 30 at 7 PM at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Nasonworth (1224, Highway 101). A portion of book sales will be donated to the Fredericton Hospice. There will be refreshments!
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How Her Garden Grew is available in e-book and paperback formats here and will soon be available at Westminster Books in Fredericton.
Hope to see you at the Authors Coffee House!
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 