There and back again...

Lots of fun and adventure on the family vacation, but there's always something comforting about home.

We got back yesterday in the early evening and things were mostly as we left them. The grass is a little longer, the vegetable garden has exploded with bounty and ... hey, wait a minute! Why is it so easy for me to walk straight through the carport? Didn't there used to be an old, beat-up 12 speed bike in here?

Gone. Evaporated, apparently. The disappeared bike wasn't the new one that I have grown to love - that bike was safely locked in our potting shed. And something told me to throw a chain through the spokes of the wife's and children's bike, so they're all there, but that shitty 12 speed ball-cracker is gone. It isn't so much that I'll miss that bike - I was going to put it at the end of the driveway with a "free" sign on it anyway, but the point is someone (really tall without much respect for his testicles, if he rode it away) came into my carport and stole it.

Man, that pisses me off. I hope whoever took it enjoys it and rides the bike often. That way, maybe, his balls will become so hopelessly crushed (have I mentioned the uncomfortable seat the black bike has?) that he will become insignificant from an evolutionary standpoint and not be able to pass on his thieving genes.

Other than the stolen bike - and really, I don't care that much - the vacation was a lot of fun. There was fishing - brook and rainbow trout and bass, boat rides, hikes through bear-haunted woods (lots of bear sign on this visit - scat - one huge pile crawling with slugs near a pick-clean blueberry patch, torn open trees and smashed apart ant hills). I took the kids on their first atv rides.

In Sault Ste Marie we toured the locks along St Mary's River, explored the museum ship Norgoma and patronized the world's most unfriendly Used Book Store.

We attended a Pow-wow on the local Indian Reserve (and yes, I checked, the Thessalon Native North Americans prefer the term Indian) and what a blast that was. With the Thessalon Pow-wow there's a really strong element of respect for veterans and soldiers (something I believe to be a common thread running through all pow-wows). One of the dancers, a veteran of the Korean War, had a poppy as an integral part of his traditional regalia. It was wonderful for the kids. They were invited to join in many of the dances. The dances ranged from a very dignified and sombre entry dance with 49 drum beats of remembrance for 49 Indian (Native North America) prisoners of war who were executed by Nazis during World War II to the hilariously silly Potato dance where partners dance with a potato held between their foreheads. And that was the flow - sombre to silly and back and forth.

I took my nephew and the French exchange student staying with them golfing. He's here as part of an immersion program to learn conversational English. When he flubbed a short I heard him mutter "Merde.." "No, no, no." I told him. "You're here to learn English. When you fuck up a golf shot here you must say 'Shit'"

My sister-in-law was neither impressed nor surprised.

Yesterday - after a long drive we stopped of a couple of hours at a new visitor's centre at French River. Wonderful place that educates about the fur-route that opened up that part of North America to Europeans. We went on a fairly rugged hike with kids and dog in tow and were rewarded with this sight at the end of the trail (photo courtesy of my son):

Northward

Tomorrow the Beynon family heads north. Several times a year we make the trip to the north shore of Lake Huron to visit with the in-law side of my family. Sometimes we camp - sometimes not. Given the colder and wetter than usual conditions so far this year any camping will be done in a trailer already set up at a campground.

The weather forecast is ambivalent but I look forward to daily swims in Lake Huron (cold, yet refreshing), a little golf and a lot of fishing. I discovered a few years ago that Northern Ontario fishermen are a little snobbish when it comes to their fishing. Pike, muskie, pickerel (walleye) and trout appear to be the fish of choice. I was surprised to discover that bass are largely overlooked as a game fish.

My brother-in-law and I went out in his little tin boat - that's the boat up there at the top of the page - up the river that runs right by his front lawn. Over the course of a leisurely two hours we caught dozens of bass and even kept a few to eat. One of the reasons why bass might be over looked as a catch and eat fish might be the parasitic worms they get. The ones we ate after that initial run up the river did indeed have worms, but not many. Some folks painstakingly pull the worms, writhing, from the meat with tweezers. I'm not that patient. The worms cook up just fine in the frying pan. Can't even taste 'em.

Anyway - with the cooler weather this year the parasites should be at a minimum and we're all looking forward to a couple of bass and egg breakfasts.

We are bringing the lovely Willow on the trip and, to make the trip more comfortable, we've decided to rent a larger vehicle for the journey. We had reserved a Ford Flex (a really ugly car from the outside, but surprisingly spacious inside) but, I was informed yesterday, may end up with some sort of Lincoln SUV. As long as it is more spacious than the Impala we should have a decent trip.

A relaxing trip with the whole family - just what the doctor ordered. I may even get some writing done while lounging on the beach.

Routine

Howdy, all.

It has been a while but I'm finally getting around to putting together a post. Settling back into routine proved to be a little harder than expected upon returning from vacation but while I'm not yet in the groove, at least I can see it.

One little vacation story to relate and really something kinda cool. On our last day of vacation while heading back toward the highway through Kingston, Ontario my wife asked if we wanted to visit the grave site of Sir John A. Macdonald - 1st prime minister of Canada. While visiting the grave we stretched our legs in the impressive old cemetery. The first thing my son noticed were a number of holes in the ground around one of the tombstones. I assume they were rabbit-holes but it was the only tombstone that sported holes around it. A little creepy to be sure but my son also spied a stick apparently dragged deep into one of the holes. Without a hint of hesitation his arm was suddenly shoulder deep in the hole retrieving the stick. It has since been dubbed "the Ghoul Stick" and is not allowed in the house. A few minutes later I was photographing an impressive family plot when my son came up behind me and said, "Hey, Dad, look at the box I found under that bush!"
I turned and saw my son with the ghoul stick in one hand and in the other he held a sealed Tupperware container completely covered with camouflage tape. Now I had a pretty good idea what was in the box but I told everyone to stand a few feet back while I opened it anyway. Inside was a stamp,an explanatory note, some markers and directions to the next box. I wish I still had the note but it has been misplaced but it explained that this box is part of a game called Atlasquest - basically a scavenger hunt on a grand scale. Check out the website - they're all over the place.

During my first week back I received a rejection letter. I have read somewhere that a rejection letter from the New Yorker is supposedly the holy grail of rejection letters - I forget where. Well, a rejection letter from the New Yorker has no useful information so like any form rejection letter it is exactly that - useless. Here's the letter - note the milky-white stationary.

Speaking of rejections - I had a useful one before going on vacation regarding my story Just Business. In the letter there were suggestions and constructive criticism and from those suggestions and criticisms a story evolved. The story is called Old Timer and I think it's pretty damn fine. It has, of course, been submitted to the magazine that took the time to offer the suggestions.

Finally - and it's funny because as I type this I just received an e-mail from them - The 3 Day Novel Contest is closing in. Each Labour Day Weekend a contest is held to see what kind of novel can be written over the 72 hours of the holiday weekend. I have entered the last 2 years and both novellas - The Platinum Ticket and Patriot - are works of which I am very proud. This year, however, I will take a pass. There are a few reasons - kids start school the day immediately following the weekend and I don't need to be exhausted for that. I am also building a routine in which writing a set amount each and every day is a crucial part of my success. I don't want to mess with the routine just as I'm establishing it. In the past I have found the exercise of the 3 Day Novel extremely rewarding - I highly recommend it to others and will no doubt do it again in the future - but just not this year.

Anyway, speaking of routines - I need to get back to mine...

Time flies...

It feels like just yesterday that I was writing about DAW’s rejection of my manuscript for Loremaster and the next thing you know it's July 18th and you're readying yourself to go on vacation.

A lot has been going on since last I posted.

Let's start with the story, The Witch. I'd wanted to keep it in the neighbourhood of 8 to 10,000 words but it just didn't want to stay there. It has grown in complexity and the characters are taking on a life of their own. I do have a bit of a cautionary tale here, though. I've been happily working on this story each day, nurturing it and watching it grow. At the end of the day I got into the unfortunate habit of simply reducing my document on the computer screen but not actually saving it. Well, Microsoft had one of their usual security updates that took control of my computer and shut it down without asking me, thank you very much. Imagine my surprise after failing to save my document to see the startup screen of my computer smiling at me one morning. "Oh well," I thought, "no problem at all. Microsoft Word has an automatic recovery system built right in and I know for damn sure that it is set to save every 10 minutes so all I have to do is start up Microsoft Word and I'm back in business." It's a really nice theory that if your computer shuts down unexpectedly Microsoft Word will step up and help you out. And you know what, most times it does... but not this time. I tried and tried but to no avail. As near as I can figure I lost nine pages of really good stuff. Fortunately, it was nine pages that I was able to improve upon during the second, forced rewrite. The Witch is shaping up to be a fine, fine tale.

I heard back from a couple of stories making the rounds. Small Town Secrets, submitted to The Missouri Review, came back with a rejection but it did have a personal note from the reader inviting me to submit other, perhaps slightly shorter work. I've since submitted Small Town Secrets to The Paris Review . I also received a rejection for the story, Just Business from Dark Recesses Press. The person who reviewed Just Business gave me a very detailed explanation regarding the story's rejection. She praised the quality of my writing but told me the story, which concerns a man with a very cavalier attitude toward human traffic, just wasn't what her readers would consider horrific or terrifying. Fair enough. I decided to submit it to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Unlike the rejection from Daw, which was a form letter and as such is to be ignored, these last two rejections actually had useful information and constructive criticism and feedback. I'm feeling optimistic.

The summer is in full swing and it's a busy time with the kids. It's a little unnerving when your five-year-old has a more active social calendar than you do. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that he is a very gregarious five-year-old. One of the things that both kids are signed up for this summer is the reading program at the local library. The five-year-old's program lasts a half hour on Wednesdays before lunch. My daughter's program is on the same day but for an hour in the afternoon. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with this floating hour and a half where I needed to be close to the library but had someone else watching the kids. The first day I use the time to run errands downtown and did a little people watching. On the second day I had no errands to run so I took a notebook with me and planted myself in this incredibly comfortable chair in a quiet section of the second floor of our local library. In the crisp air conditioning, surrounded by countless shelves of books, with the distant sound of kids on the lower level enjoying their reading club, I opened the notebook and tried to come up with something that I could exclusively write during these summer reading club times. Well, the constructive criticism for Just Business was still fresh in my mind so I decided to work on a conversation between a person who deals in very specialized merchandise and a customer. Since then the character, a British gentleman named Alastair Middleman, his family business (in continuous operation for 26 generations), his tragic past and his wayward daughter who now must be put through her apprenticeship in preparation to take over the family business have been occupying many of my waking thoughts. They promise to be an entertaining family and speaking of family...

Today, just before I decided to write this post, I was busy strapping a car carrier to the roof of the Camry in preparation for the start of our family camping vacation. We're heading out to the east coast to visit friends we've not seen in far too long. Along the way will be camping and sightseeing and generally enjoying each other's company. When I get back I'm sure there'll be a host of pictures and a great number of stories to pass along.

Till then behave and play nice.

Back in the saddle again

One thing I've discovered this week is that the end of August is just about the crappiest time of all to reacquaint yourself with former customers after an 8 month absence. Everyone is, of course, busy with wrapping up summer vacations and getting ready for that great exodus - the back to school phenomena.

Here at the Beynon homestead we too are watching the summer wind down. The missus is on vacation and the kids are eager to start school. The girl, 6 years old, is looking forward to entering grade 2 and the wee lad, 4, can't wait for his first taste of junior Kindergarten. Yesterday we spent some time at African Lion Safari. I know that zoos of any kind are generally frowned upon by PETA and like-minded groups but I don't see how anyone could criticize the work they do at this place. The enclosures are mammoth(hundreds of acres) and they boast some of the most successful breeding programs in the world.

Over the past week I've been looking at building solid writing time into the schedule. Increasingly difficult. Three things on the go right now - Loremaster (kind of on the back burner) - reworking The Platinum Ticket (for Jim Baen's Universe - needs to be submitted before Sept 30) - and finally the short story, Small Town Secrets. I'd hoped to be finished this one by now, but no luck. I'll keep plugging away and have it done soon.

Back from Vacation...

Well here I am after 11 days in a tent.

A great time up North with only a smattering of familial bickering. Everyone survived the ordeal and we're all the better for it. Actually, it was great. We swam in Lake Huron and Big Basswood Lake pretty much ever day. We had campfires and there were sing-a-longs with the in-laws (I had quite enough of those for a while). We ate too many hotdogs and if I see another hamburger in the next month it'll be too soon.

Read the latest Harry Potter book and it was pretty much what I expected. I am really enjoying The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly. It's everything you'd want in a Burmese Prison story and much, much more.



While on Vacation I discovered a few things that need fixing in Loremaster so the submission to DAW will need to wait for a few days.

There's a pile more stuff to add but the lawn needs cutting, the garden needs weeding and there's a short story in my head just aching to get out.

Loremaster...done

It has taken a while but I am pleased to report that Loremaster is finally re-written. I finished yesterday but was too whacked from the battle to do anything else. It took just this side of forever but I am happy with the result. Many thanks to Bruce and Roy and Dawn for their suggestions and editorial input.

Today I paid a visit to my local printer and had the manuscript printed in two formats. One was double-spaced, single-sided for submission. The other was reduced to 9pt font, single-spaced, double-sided and spiral bound for me to read and for additional proofing.

The manuscript for submission will be sent to DAW Books on the morning of August 9th.

August 9th??? Why wait?

Well, the family and I are going on vacation. We're heading up to the wilds on Northern Ontario for some much needed rest and relaxation. We'll be camping and swimming and fishing and maybe, if I'm especially lucky, I might get some golf played, as well.