It’s nice to be asked how I do things. Although I’ll be honest and admit I don’t usually analyze how I do things, I just do them. But it was a lovely idea for Susan Hughes to ask me to think about how I generate my ideas.
Susan Hughes is May’s writer-in-residence blogging for Open Book Toronto. She gives great insights into how she comes up with ideas for nonfiction in Looking for the Lightbulb–Part 1. It’s a good read for anyone interested in writing non-fiction. Thank you to her for including me as part of her article.
And there’s a whole month more of her articles to look forward to. That’s definitely a great idea.
It’s not often that one of the books I’ve written as a work for hire project ends up having something that’s close to my daily life in it. That’s because a work for hire book has been thought of and planned out by someone else and I just fulfill the project parameters.
But this small life/project overlap happened with a photo on page 41 of a few world leaders talking at the G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario in my book The Legacy of the War of 1812. And the overlap? This world leaders’ meeting happened in my corner of the world and I see a commemorative display to this particular G8 quite regularly.
Painting containing world leaders’ brush strokes
It’s a wall display of a painting and the paintbrushes used by the world leaders when they added their brush strokes to the artwork. The artwork itself is a large wall mural replica of a famous Group of Seven painting. I made myself stop and look at it carefully not too long ago. Usually I walk right by it as I hurry to and from the community centre for my kids’ sporting activities. But I was glad I decided to stop and really look at this display for once.
There’s a nice YouTube video of part of the process of the leaders actually adding their colors here. And there’s lots of information behind the whole Group of Seven Outdoor Gallery mural project, which puts mural sized replicas of Group of Seven paintings all over parts of Muskoka, available online.
So what’s my point? Don’t know. It’s nice to see painting and politicians mix. Most likely the photo on page 41 just happened because it was a recent current event…or maybe the universe is telling me to stop and admire paintings more often.
I am a bad, boring blogger lately, aren’t I? I mean, if I don’t post it’s just bad and boring by default. Better to post and be bad and boring while trying. Maybe?
My problem seems to be I constantly put other things before my writing or my blog. It’s a sickness and I have to figure out how to cure myself of it. It’s the *constantly* that’s a problem, because there are legitimate times other things have to come first. But surely I could learn to put myself first sometimes, couldn’t I? Here’s me saying I’ll try.
So to make this post not entirely whiney, yesterday I went to the local library and it’s not everyday this greets you in your library parking lot:
Yes, the Canadian military is conducting exercises in the area and they were camped out at the community centre. But they were more than happy to answer peoples’ questions. My kids and many other kids were able to peek inside the vehicles and find out more about what it’s like to be in the military. Here’s a brief article on the background for them being here: http://www.moosefm.com/cfbg/news/10067-military-on-local-training-maneuvers
So let that reinforce the lesson about libraries again–you never know what you’ll learn at the library.
