J.Y.T. Kennedy: Writer's Blog

Update to Fort Edmonton, WWC, Fringe. . .

2011-08-18T10:49:00.000-06:00

I have been asked to tell at Rosie's Bar and Grill (near Whyte Ave) for the 'Taste of the Festival' story cafe on September 1st. The stories run between 7 and 9 pm, but I recommend coming early to get a table and order some food. There is a cover charge of $6. MaryAnn Lippiatt and Serena Kaba will also be telling, plus there will either be one more teller or an open mike spot.

At the festival, the set I'm in will be at 1pm on Sunday. The story I'm telling, on both occasions, is 'The Fate of the Children of Lir,' one of the classic sorrowful tales of Ireland.

I don't think I will write another post about When Words Collide after all. I covered the top things I wanted to mention in the last post, and am not sure quite how to choose amongst what remains. I could write a long list of all the people it was great to see, but that wouldn't exactly be exciting to read! I did finish reading the three stories I mentioned from T15, and still feel really good about recommending them. (I have at least once before mentioned something I was really enjoying as I read it, and then come to a part I really wouldn't recommend. . .) I haven't read the other stories in the anthology yet, though. Instead I re-read 'The Stainless Steel Rat' after finding out that the book is 50 this year. It was one of the first science fiction books I ever owned, and is still a fun read, although I have a bit of a different perspective on it now.

I also spent a day at the Fringe Theatre Festival yesterday. I caught two really fun one-man shows, and got a chance to visit with Kirby Liknes, who is working there as a technician, and who wrote some lovely poetry for the Whittaker competition this year. She is also a fiction writer, although I haven't had a chance to read her work in that area yet. On Saturday night, I'm going to see ';(semicolon) the Musical.' I've already seen quite a few other shows by the talented young people who put this one together, but judging by the reviews they are getting, it sounds like they have really outdone themselves.

When Words Collided

2011-08-15T12:05:00.002-06:00

I just spent the weekend at the 'When Words Collide' convention in Calgary. I had a wonderful time: caught up with many old friends and met a lot of new and interesting people. It was a very adult sort of con: not a costume in sight, which was quite a contrast to being at Animethon here in Edmonton the previous weekend. (I went to that one with my husband and our kids: Dinosaur, Kankuro, Nameless Akatsuki, and Major Armstrong.) But just because there were no massive games of Red Rover, doesn't mean that we didn't have a lot of fun. I would heartily recommend the convention to anyone thinking of attending next year.

I am going to jot down a few highlights, but I am sure I will miss a lot. . .

I was on a panel on 'Technology, Biology, and Liberty' with Alison Sinclair and Lynda Williams. I feel as though we hardly scratched the topic, but it was certainly interesting, and clear that we had some very astute people joining us in the audience. If anybody who saw the panel happens to check in here, and is curious to know more about the Donna McMahon books that Alison and I talked about, check out http://www.drownedcitypress.com/ . I found both books excellent, although there were some parts (especially in the second) that were pretty hard to read. Of course I admitted to being a big sissy about that sort of thing in my other panel, which was on 'Writing Difficult Scenes.' Lynda was also on that panel, as were Barb Galler-Smith, Susan MacGregor, and Lauren Hawkeye.

Tesseracts 15 is out, and no less than 5 of the authors were at the convention, as well as Susan MacGregor, who is one of the co-editors. I am looking forward to finding out how their stories end, after hearing the beginning sections read. Although this is an anthology of stories for young adults, it looks to be a great read for not-so-young adults as well. Cat McDonald makes a strong mark with her first story sale, dropping the reader right into a magical realm where the bonds of hatred between people appear as physical chains, and strange beings walk along them. Robert Runte does a delightful job of speaking in the voice of a teenage girl, describing how she met aliens in her school hockey rink. (You missed out if you did not hear this live.) The young werewolves of Nicole Luiken's story really captured my heart. Susan talked about how many of the stories in the book dealt with real issues and feelings that young people have through fantasy and science fiction, and Nicole's is very much this sort of story. It seems to me that, where young readers (in particular) might be turned off a realistic story by little things that don't fit the way they see themselves, a fantasy story can get past those prejudices and encourage reflection on the real heart of a problem.

The team (well, 3/4 of) that won those Aurora awards for Women of the Apocalypse is embarking on a new venture: a series of ebooks set in a shared world, with a new one released every two months. The first part includes work by Eileen Bell, Billie Milholland, and Ryan T. McFadden, and can be downloaded from their website: www.the10thcircle.com . Randy McCharles has been asked to contribute to the next one. The group did not read from their work, but shared the premise, which looks to be dark, gritty, and imaginative.

All right, that's enough for one post!

Stories to Thrill and Chill

2011-06-22T10:58:00.004-06:00

On July 9th, I will be part of a group of storytellers telling scary stories at the Edmonton Municipal Cemetery. This program will be hosted by Stephanie Benger, and will also include stories by Pearl-Ann Gooding, Dawn Blue, Laura O'Connor, and Bethany Ellis. I don't know how scary the other stories are, but Stephanie asked me to retell 'The Night Doctors', which I have been told is one of the scariest of the ones I tell at Spooktacular (where we try to be really scary) so I think the even will be limited to adults and teens 13+ for a good reason.

The cemetery is at 118th Street and 107 Avenue, and the event starts at 8:30. Tickets are $20 cash. For more information, you can contact Stephanie at (780)489-9621 or sbenger@shaw.ca

On a completely off topic note, the Haiku word of the day for today over on the Write Idea forum is 'deciduous.' I thought, in honour of Canada Day, I'd share my haiku:

While the land is green

We wave flags glorifying

Deciduousness.

Whittaker Contest, Fort Edmonton

2011-04-17T11:04:00.007-06:00

I am currently taking part in the Whittaker Contest, which is on the Write Idea forum: www.helenwhittaker.net/phpBB2 The forum also has a variety of less intensive writing challenges and places to share work, and seems to support a nice community of writers. So far the only thing I've participated in other than the Whittaker is the 'Word of the Day Haiku,' but I've got a feeling I'll be wanting to keep checking in with this group. I told the story 'The Fate of the Children of Lir' at our annual storytelling concert in Sherwood Park, and will be reprising it for the Fort Edmonton Storytelling Festival at the beginning of September. (Details at www.talesstorytelling.com .) I'll be in a set with Laura O'Connor and MaryAnn Lippiatt, who will also be sharing their stories from our concert. It seems a bit of a shame we can't put the whole concert into a set; it was a great afternoon. Our TALES Strathcona tellers just keep getting better! For some reason Blogger is taking out all my paragraph breaks today, hence everything run in together in this post.

Fall Update Part 2

2010-10-25T06:51:00.004-06:00

I had a great time at Pure Speculation, which I attended on the Friday night and Saturday. Many of my fellow Cultists were there, including Barb Geiger who now lives in southern Alberta, and who graciously agreed to give me some feedback on the horses in the book* I'm working on.

(*Speaking of the book, I wrote the first draft of it as my NaNoWriMo project last year, but this year I am not signing up for NaNo because I want to keep working on it rather than shifting gears to a new project for a month. I am getting really hopeful that this will be the second novel I finally finish!)

I had a chance to catch up with some non-cult friends as well, and my brother Ian. I don't see that much of him these days, but he is arguably even geekier than me*, and was there covering the convention for the http://www.anime-alberta.org/ website.

(*My husband told me, after outscoring me on a geekiness quiz, that the problem was that some of the geeky things I was interested in were just too far out in left field to have made it onto the questionaire, while he was unfairly marked up for computer knowledge that he only had because of his job.)

The panels were very interesting, although I think I am becoming something of a dinosaur before my time because I kept wishing panelists would just talk to me instead of fussing around with multimedia. At least Judith Graves, an up-and-coming writer of paranormal young adult fiction, thought to bring speakers. My hearing is good enough for general purposes, but understanding a clip played across the room on somebody's laptop is way beyond me. I was impressed with the GoH, Tanya Huff, and think I will be checking out one of her books soon. (She did not bring any multimedia stuff. At least not that I saw.)

Speaking of books, I added a couple books to my LibraryThing page last week. One was Tolkein's Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, which I enjoyed a great deal. I have always felt a bit disconnected with Norse myths and legends, but this book really managed to get me excited about them. I especially enjoyed all the background material. As a storyteller, I have often gone through the process of putting together a version of a story that I find satisfying, and it was fascinating to see how Tolkein had done the same thing. His great knowledge of and appreciation for the source material was obvious, and contagious.

I also added Dance of Knives, which I labelled at the time as 'currently reading.' Luckily, I don't have to update that yet because I have started reading it a second time. It is one of those books where you discover further in that what was going on back at the start wasn't quite what you thought. I also found that my sense of time in the book seemed to be distorted by the fact that I read the first third or so over several days, and the remainder in about a day and a half. It was not a confusing book, but definitely complex, and I enjoyed it so much that I have been thinking about the story a great deal and really wanting it straight in my head. I already flipped back to re-read a couple sections, and finally just decided to take it from the top.

The book has a common element with the one I am working on*: a character that has been isolated from physical contact with others. The characters are otherwise completely different, and the isolation is for completely different reasons, but the portrayal of her character has certainly made me think a bit about how I am handling my own.

(*There you go. I'm actually talking about my writing on my 'writer's blog.' Must be getting braver!)

Fall Update

2010-10-23T08:39:00.004-06:00

I have a bit of time before heading over to Pure Speculation, and thought I would quickly post a bit about other things going on right now.

I will be telling nasty, awful, scary stories at Spooktacular again this year, on the 29th and 30th. I don't have any new stories, but am looking forward to spending a couple evenings with Marie Anne and the other tellers. I'm not sure who will be there exactly, but I am hoping David Haas will be back. His renditions of Ambrose Bierce stories last year were fascinating. And of course it would be great to see Jennie Frost too.

My husband, kids, and I took a trip down to Calgary about a week ago and visited Sentry Box. They do still have my book in stock, and I really appreciate their support! I bought two books there. One was The Stars as Seen from this Particular Angle of Night, which is an anthology of speculative poetry that I haven't finished reading yet, but am very much enjoying. The other was Dance of Knives by Donna McMahon, which I have finished, and which I thought was wonderful. I will be reading the second book in the series as soon as I get my hands on a copy. (Too bad Sentry Box is three hours away. . .)

I wrote a little article on homeschooling for the SHiNE (Society for the Homeschooled Network of Edmonton; no the 'i' doesn't stand for anything) newsletter, but used Jennifer Kennedy for my byline since I meet these people socially and want them to put a face to the name. It is a very dull article really, about scheduling in different subjects, but I figured it could be classed as writing news.

Time to be on my way. I'll try to post something about Pure Spec soon.

Story in Neo-Opsis

2010-07-01T17:37:00.002-06:00

My science fiction story 'Touching Down' is in the current issue (#19) of Neo-opsis magazine. I've almost finished reading my contributor copy, and am enjoying the stories and Karl Johanson's quirky articles.

To find out more about this Canadian sf magazine check out:
www.neo-opsis.ca

Druids Review

2010-03-03T12:44:00.003-07:00

Several months ago, I reported on the Edmonton launch of Druids by Barbara Galler-Smith and Josh Langston, and promised a review. I don't really like to write reviews, though, and have been procrastinating. Meanwhile, the book has attracted quite a bit of attention, and now has made the short list for the Aurora award for Canadian speculative fiction. You can find out more about this award, and vote if you wish, at: http://www.prix-aurora-awards.ca

We don't really know a lot about the ancient Celts, and fantasy novels set in Celtic worlds are often based more on fairy tales than history. Druids, however, does not present us with a misty world of heroes and wizards, but a believeable mosaic of ancient tribes, unaware of the upheaval which their culture will soon suffer from the growing ambitions of Imperial Rome. The druids of the story are the keepers of knowledge within this culture: healers, priests, and judges. Most of the things which they do are things that might really have been done, and the problems which they face are primarily realistic ones. When magical elements are encountered, they are elusive: prophetic dreams, and a queer transformation called woad-sleep which they employ but do not truly understand.

There is a sense of eerie mystery about these parts of the story, and it is clear that the characters take a risk when they trust in such mysteries, even as they take risks in choosing what people to trust. This book alone spans about twenty years and a considerable area of western Europe, and the scope of the series as a whole seems destined to be an epic one. But so far the action is not dominated by historical events so much as by the personal choices made by the characters. As the story progresses, it is not just the tide of history which catches up with them, but the consequences of their own mistakes, particularly misplaced trust. At the end of the book, it is not yet clear what the final consequences of their magical experiments will be.

Altogether, Druids is a complex and dramatic tale, which leaves the reader with a sense that there is still much to be revealed. For those interested in the world of the ancient Celts, it strikes a nice balance, reconstructing a world based on history rather than myth, but not becoming so prosaic as to lose the sense of mystery that makes that world so fascinating in the first place.

Quick Update: WIP, Spam, and Story Concert.

2010-02-17T14:06:00.005-07:00

I should have known better than to make a point out of not posting in November. Lo and behold, I promptly did not post in January either, despite not having any very good excuse. I have been doing quite a bit of writing though, and am still working on that NaNoWriMo novel, which now is genuinely over 50,000 words, since that last un-chapter has been cut out and new material added. (This is the WIP part from the title. The acronym, particularly when mentioned in conjunction with the Cult of Pain Writer's Group, might suggest something racy, but in fact it only stands for Work in Progress.)

I have been having a lot of trouble with spam on this blog. I have just finished deleting the most egregious examples, and have now set the comments so that anybody wishing to post will have to type in the letters from one of those wobbly code things. If that doesn't work, I may end up disallowing anonymous comments (which seem to be pretty much synonymous with spam). I have a certain prejudice against that, as I don't want to exclude people who don't want to sign up with Google. That is a large part of my reason for not joining more exclusive things like facebook.

My storytelling group will be having a concert for World Storytelling Day, on March 21st. Our theme is 'Journeys through Light and Shadow.' It will take place at the Strathcona County Library from 2-4pm, and there will be a break for refreshments. Donations to the library will be collected. The concert will mainly be intended for adults; children can attend, but those under about age 10 are likely to find it a bit tedious.

No-vember

2009-12-01T21:30:00.002-07:00

Tasha Tudor's book, A Time to Keep, has the following quote to introduce the month of November:

No fruit, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November!
-Thomas Hood

And this year November has meant no blog posts from me as well. Why? In one word, NaNoWriMo.

Okay, maybe that isn't exactly a word. It's an abbreviation of National Novel Writing Month, which is an online program where you sign up to try to write 50,000 words in a month. You get a page with a nifty graph showing you how far you are falling behind the necessary daily word count, and a page where you can keep track of how far your Writing Buddies have gone. You can also post things about your novel, and there are a bunch of discussion forums and events, but I've never actually found time for all that.

Now, the usual advice that is given for people trying NaNoWriMo is not to worry about whether your writing is good or bad, just write, write, write, as fast as you can go. I tried that the first two years I signed up for NaNoWriMo, and it totally did not work for me. I should have known better. One of the few things I learned from the one fiction writing course I took in University (by my own observation of the other students) was that there are some writers who tend to write too copiously and need to cut, and some writers who tend to write too briefly and need to pad. And I am very much the second type of writer. If I just sit down and write without any going back or editing, that just means I am lucky if I have used half as many words as I'm going for before I get to the end of the plot.

My third attempt at NaNoWriMo did get to 50,000 words, but could only very loosely be called a novel. I managed to get a novella out of it afterward, which was less than 20,000 of the 50,000. The other 30,000 included a lot of alternate scenes and background material and things like that, that weren't really part of the actual narrative.

This year, my plan was to come up with an idea with so much plot elements in it that I would have to use 50,000 words to get through it all. I actually reused some ideas from my first two NaNoWriMo attempts, though not any of the exact same incidents or charactors, together with a whole mash of bits and pieces from ideas for novels and short stories that have never quite managed to get written. And it actually all fell in together really well. It was like these were all really meant to be part of one story, I just had not realized it yet.

So I got writing, and found that I was really pretty excited about the story. I liked it enough that I couldn't just leave inconsistencies in it, or not go back and make little changes when I thought of them. So I did. I also found that a good way to keep myself from charging ahead too quickly was to regularly stop and go back to work on earlier parts of the story. When I was down to the last chapter I even went back and read through the whole thing, managing to add a couple hundred words a chapter as I went.

By the end of the month, though, I was starting to get a bit burnt out. Finally on November 29th, having got to the end of my plot and put in every change I had managed to think of so far, I just didn't feel I was up to getting in the 3,000 words that I needed by the following night. So I decided to just write an extra chapter of whatever silly stuff came into my head about my charactors' further adventures in life after the main story. I thought it might be fun, and perhaps I'd even come up with something I could use elsewhere.

I did manage to get the 3,000 words done in a little over two hours. I'm sorry to say that it wasn't all that much fun, and there was absolutely nothing in it that I have any intention of ever looking at again. But it did get me to 50,000 words, so I could finally take a break. I have not done any more writing on the novel since then, but have come up with some more ideas. I found last month that when I was stuck in my writing, the answer to my problem tended to come to me when I was not writing, not when I was at the keyboard stressing over how to come up with another thousand words that day. Breaks are important. Of course, it is also important not to let a break grow by procrastination into simply not getting a thing done. So I'm going to try and get back in there soon, and get my 47,000 words up to the length I think this book really needs to be.

If I don't post again very soon, maybe that will be what I'm up to.

Ghosts and Lost Souls

2009-10-19T09:03:00.003-06:00

Well, it's that time of year again. I am going to be back at Spooktacular. Marie Anne is busy promoting her wonderful Storysave CD set (which I highly recommend, especially for the stories about World War Two) but David Haas will be joining me and Jennie, with some backup from Dawn Blue and Laura O'Connor, after they are done telling for the younger set. I am looking forward to hearing his stories. He has a wonderful deep voice, which I am sure will raise more than a few shivers.

I always feel it is a bit of a wasted effort promoting Spooktacular on here, though. Either people are coming to it or they are not; I am sure it makes no difference whether I am there. However, this year I do have another Halloween event, where I am headlining! Sylvia Hertling, Serena Kaba, and I will be telling stories of Ghosts and Lost Souls at the Strathcona County Library at 7pm on Thursday, October 29th. Free passes are available at the Library, which is on the east side of the Sherwood Park Mall.

I am not going to be telling my Spooktacular stories. Instead I'm going to tell a couple old fashioned (well, actually just plain old) ghost stories, which offer melancholy chills rather than all-out horror. I'm brushing up Hoichi the Earless, which is an old favourite of mine to tell, and also working on a new-to-me story about the Legend of the Qu'Appelle Valley. I believe Serena is planning to tell a folktale about death. Sylvia hasn't told me what she will tell yet, so that will be a surprise!

Druids!

2009-10-18T19:05:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, I attended the launch for Barbara Galler Smith's novel, Druids. It was a very successful event, complete with a bard and a druid. The book seems to be off to a strong start, and has even been nominated for the Alberta Reader's Choice Award already. Check it out on the 'long list' on this website:

http://www.albertareaderschoice.ca/

I had already picked up a copy at Pure Speculation, and am about half way through. I managed to elbow in ahead of Nicole and Aaron, and was the first person to buy a copy from Barb! So far I am very impressed. I will post a review once I have finished.

Now I have a Google Site too!

2009-08-24T10:52:00.002-06:00

I finally figured out how to set up a site through Google, so the procrastination is over; I have a website. There's not much on it yet, but I'll be working on it over the next while. Here's the link:

http://sites.google.com/site/jytkennedy/

I've also got myself signed up as a Librarything Author (I get a yellow button on my page!) I am now up to three books that I have been the only person to post on Librarything. Yes, one of them is my own book, I am sorry to say. (Although there are 4 people with copies of 'In the Dark!') The second was the long poem, 'The Courtship of Hippodameia,' by Jennie Frost. Jennie is a friend, and a wonderful storyteller, but I knew her book was not exactly mass-market, so that was no big surprise.

I was surprised to discover that nobody else had posted Barbara Hehner's wonderful book, 'The Spirit of Canada' though. Anybody who has kids, and wants to give them a sense of what this country is all about, should get this book. It really brings Canada's heritage alive, and it is the sort of book that can be enjoyed by all ages, because the material is inherently interesting. I have especially enjoyed her choices of traditional songs from various periods of history. I don't normally like books that use a lot of excerpts from other books, but Hehner manages to find pieces from historical novels that not only stand alone, but beautifully bring alive the period in which they are set.

I also recommend Michael Mitchel's recordings of Canadian folksongs as a great resource. Maybe I should see if his sheet music book can be added on Librarything. . .

Phyllis Gotlieb

2009-07-16T14:17:00.004-06:00

After publishing my novel, I applied for membership with the Canadian speculative fiction organization, SF Canada. One of the things I quickly realized after being accepted was that I really had not read very much Canadian SF. I set about sampling work by various authors, and discovered several great books. But there was one author whose work I absolutely fell in love with: Phyllis Gotlieb.

Phyllis had the gift of writing work that awakened the imagination, the feelings, and the intellect. Her stories were always multidimensional. In Sunburst, she did not merely reverse the notion of psychic powers as evolutionary advancements to create the the 'dumplings,' she then proceeded to show these monstrous children not as villains, but as damaged human beings: the sort of violent youth which society all too often seems unable to help or control. The notion of sentient cats might be little more than a conceit in other hands, but Phyllis' Ungrukh are not only delightfully feline, but a race with its own heritage and challenges to face. They are a wonderful example of how very human issues can sometimes be illuminated by taking a perspective on them that is not quite human.

Birthstones, published in 2007, is about an alien society, the Shar, in which only the men are intelligent, while the women are incapable even of caring for themselves. However, this is not the natural state of things, but the result of progressive mutation, and the novel ends with hope that the Shar women will eventually be restored. It seems very fitting considering what a strong woman's voice Phyllis Gotlieb brought to her work over a period of time when women were very much in need of such voices.

Phyllis was active on the SF Canada listserver, and I felt very privileged to have that contact with her, although I think she only directly replied to me once or twice. I never told her how much I admire her work.

Phyllis passed away this Tuesday, at the age of 83. The reaction among the other SF Canada members has been very heartfelt, and a tribute to Phyllis will be in development over the next few days on the SF Canada website:
www.sfcanada.ca
http://news.sfcanada.ca/2009/07/phyllis-gotlieb-grand-dame-of-canadian.html

Librarything

2009-06-30T10:17:00.003-06:00

I signed up with Librarything yesterday. It is kind of a neat site where people post books that they own. So far I've put up my own books; a few books by other current Alberta authors, some of whom you might not have heard of; and The Ode Less Travelled, which I have finally finished. (And yes, I did all the assignments. Some of them really really badly, mind you. . .)

I'm a bit worried that I've started on the slippery slope into networking sites and before you know it I'll be on facebook as well, and spend all my time poking people. I hear that's what they do there, anyway. Something like that.

In any case, here are the links to my profile and books:

www.librarything.com/catalog/JYTK
www.librarything.com/profile/JYTK

Name that Poet

2009-05-13T10:09:00.004-06:00

March and April were very busy months for me, and I'm afraid I fell off the writing-every-day wagon. I'm trying to get back on track, though. I did another exercise from Mr. Fry last night. This time the assignment was to write a parody of your favourite poet. I don't believe in favourites, but had just finished reading a book of poetry by a very well known poet, whose style I thought would be fun to play with.

See if you recognize the poet. I'll give away a signed copy of Dominion and of In the Dark to the first person to post the right answer.

Dance, dance, dance,
Like a princess with twinkly toes!
And O for a yard of pink ribbon
To tie up my pigtails in bows.

Half a step, half a step,
Half a step and twirl round
And curtsy so pretty and graceful,
As you sparkle, O musical sound!

Dance, dance, dance,
By the moon or the splendorous day,
While the people all watch me and whisper,
'Tis a fairy princess at play.

Pagan Pathways, March 7-8

2009-03-01T21:56:00.002-07:00

I am going to be telling stories and talking about writing next Sunday morning at the Pagan Pathways event. This program runs from 9 to 5 each day at the Ukrainian Centre at 11018 - 97 Street. There is a full line up of workshops and presentations, geared toward Pagans of diverse paths, and centring on the theme 'Care of the Soul.' The cost is $40 for both days.

I will be joined by Sylvia Hertling and Barb Galler-Smith. Sylvia is a wonderful storyteller, whom I have performed with several times in the past. She is working on what sounds like a very interesting story to tell, and will also talk a bit about journalling.

Barb is a writer of fantasy and science fiction. She invited me to join the 'Cult of Pain' writer's group after my novel was published, and has been very helpful to me with her critiques and encouragement. She has a novel coming out this year from Edge, titled Druids. The book will be the first of a trilogy set in the time of the Roman occupation of what is now France and Spain.

Sestina (Blame Stephen Fry)

2009-02-28T10:18:00.003-07:00

I made a new year's resolution this year to write every day. I've mostly kept it. I can't say I've got a huge amount of work done on my main projects as a result, though. I'm writing more frequently, but not necessarily for very long each day. One thing I have been speeding ahead on, though, is working my way through The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry. This is a great little book for anyone who wants to learn or review the formal side of poetry writing. Well, maybe not anyone. Parts of the book are not suitable for children, thanks to Fry's naughty sense of humour, and the exercises are definitely at an adult level. But for all you mature would-be poets, it manages to make the elements of poetry transparently clear while being entertaining at the same time. It is like a tour through the world of poetry by a knowledgeable and witty guide, except that you aren't allowed to just stand and admire things. There are exercises.

I have found the exercises really valuable, and not too onerous. I have generally taken the view that exercises are not for writing brilliant verse, but for building the skills of writing verse. As a result, I have had fun with the exercises, but have mostly produced insufferable doggerel. This morning, however, I had a surprising experience.

The assignment was to write a sestina. I had read up to the exercise last night, and given a little thought to topics and words to go at the ends of my lines. This morning I thought about it some more as I lay in bed. I came up with a first stanza, which I thought was a little too cute to really use. I couldn't imagine actually getting five more stanzas plus an envoi out of it. But since I hadn't come up with anything better, I started thinking a bit about where I could go with it, and came up with a couple ideas. By the time I got up, I had decided I might as well try it. I wrote down my cutesy first stanza, and fitted the ideas I had so far into my second one. Then, well, it just sort of got going. I was really surprised by the things that came out as I went on. I wrote the whole thing in about an hour.

So, here it is. I suppose if I was a professional poet I would want to do some revision before I considered this poem finished, but I think as it is it makes an interesting example of how ideas can grow organically. Consider it a specimen.

This is the house that someone built
Not on the rock, but on the sand,
Not out of brick, but out of straw.
This is the heart that always fed
Not upon trust, but upon hope,
Not upon truth, but upon dreams.

Some years don't offer much but dreams.
Some years tear down all that is built,
And leave behind only the hope
Of better days. Wait. While the sand
Runs from the glass, the goats are fed
Not upon hay, but upon straw.

At times she said, "It's the last straw.
I'll do no more." But night brought dreams,
And somehow she kept the children fed -
All but one lived. For him she built
A little cross and piled white sand
Over the grave. She tried to hope

He was in heaven. But it was hope
And not belief. She grasped the straw
And lost it thinking of the sand
Above his head. He lived in dreams,
And out of dreams his mother built
A world inside. Her spirit fed

Compulsively on lies. She fed
The growing children. They found hope
In newer lands. Far off they built
Houses of sod with floors of straw
And filled the fields with all their dreams,
Numberless as the grains of sand.

This is the mouth that tastes the sand
Of death even when it is fed
On sweets. These are the lonely dreams
Of an old woman. Still her hope
Is for the child with hair like straw
To come again. What has she built?

It shifts like sand. Her weary hope
Grows thin. She's fed up with the straw
Figures of dreams, torn down, rebuilt.

A Canticle for Liebowitz vs. The Chrysalids

2009-01-25T19:43:00.002-07:00

At this year's Pure Speculation convention, I attended a panel in which paticipants argued the relative merits of Dune, A Canticle for Liebowitz, and Spin. We were asked to vote for one of the books at the end. At first, the question posed was which book was most worth reading, but few people were prepared to make a judgement. It was then suggested that we vote for which book we most wanted to read after listening to the discussion. I had recently re-read Dune, which put it out of the running, and I decided to vote for Canticle. The idea of post-apocalyptic monks definitely had me intrigued.

I have read Canticle now, and I was not disappointed, though I don't think I would quite put it ahead of Dune on the list of must-read SF books. It happens that I read it right after reading The Chrysalids, which was an interesting contrast. The question of whether, if our civilization destroys itself, we can continue to see human life as worthwhile is at the heart of both books. Chrysalids takes a secular view in which Darwinian competition for survival is the ultimate morality, while Canticle presents the world from the point of view of fervently and uncompromisingly religious monks.

The villains of Chrysalids are bigoted fundamentalists, while those of Canticle are worldly men, bent on gratifying their own pride. It is quite easy to see in the telepathic utopia of Chrysalids exactly the sort of impatience with our own imperfections with which Canticle accuses secular culture. Likewise, the monks of the Order of Liebowitz can be compared to the religious community in Chrysalids: like them, they seek to preserve the past rather than improve on it, and submit unquestioningly to authority and tradition.

Both books ultimately declare humanity, at least in its current form, incapable of overcoming its destructive tendencies. However, they then proceed to opposite conclusions about the value of human life. In Chrysalids, the genocide of all humanity save the evolved few is seen as an act of mercy. Canticle takes the other extreme, arguing against euthanasia even in the case of someone who has nothing to look forward to but a painful death.

My own views fall somewhere between the two extremes, but if I was asked to vote between these two books, Canticle would win hands down. I found the characters and ideas in it human and engaging, though also challenging, whereas those in Chrysalids left me feeling sickened. I'm sure other readers will differ, though. If you have read this far, please post your opinions on the matter, and perhaps cast your own vote as to which of the two is the more worth reading. I think this could make an interesting discussion.

Where to buy Dominion and other links

2008-12-05T16:35:00.004-07:00

http://www.dragonmoonpress.com/ has been offline for a while now, so just in case anyone comes by this blog wondering where they can get a copy of my book (one can hope) or wanting to find out more about it, I thought I would post a few links.

Firstly, you can order the book through EDGE publishing: http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/dominion/do-catalog.html

It is available in various ebook formats:
http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/author/jyt-kennedy-ebooks.htm
http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/JYTKennedyeBooks.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Dominion/dp/B000OI0DQY

You can find out more about DragonMoon Press on their blog:
http://www.dragonmoonpress.blogspot.com/

And finally, here is a review of Dominion by Donna McMahon:
http://www.sfsite.com/11a/do211.htm

While gathering these links, I discovered that there is another J.Y.T. Kennedy who has written a book called 'Happy Aging with Costa-Rican Women.' So much for my theory that using all those initials would prevent me being confused with the gazillion other Kennedys out there. . .

Words in the Park: November 1st

2008-10-26T10:28:00.000-06:00

I am going to be participating in a Literary Fair at the Strathcona County Library on November 1st. The Library is on the east side of the Sherwood Park Mall. The event is free, and runs from 1 to 4pm. I will have a table there, and be available to chat with anyone who would like to come by. I will have copies of Dominion and In the Dark for sale, and will also be helping to promote our local storytelling chapter. There will be other authors from a variety of genres present, all with some connection to the County. I have not seen a list of who will attend, but I understand that Joan Galat, the author of Dot to Dot in the Sky and other books of sky and star-lore, will be there. You can check out some information about her here:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dot2dot/free_new.htm

And here is the library website:

http://www.sclibrary.ab.ca/

Campfire Ghost Stories

2008-10-23T09:26:00.000-06:00

I'm doing some last minute preparation for this year's Spooktacular, and just wanted to post about a great book which I found at the library. It is Campfire Ghost Stories by Jo-Anne Christensen. This is a really good collection of scary stories to tell, including versions of many old classics as well as some I haven't encountered before. (After ten years of storytelling, that is getting rarer than you might think!) Not all, or even most, of these are strictly speaking ghost stories, but the book is part of Lone Pine's Ghost Stories series, which I assume is the reason for the title. The book includes some tips on how to tell scary stories for newer tellers.

Where'd that year go?

2008-09-14T14:39:00.000-06:00

I can hardly believe it has been ten months since I last posted. Actually, this year has not been a complete vacuum, although there hasn't been any really exciting news as far as writing goes. (Not for me, anyway. Fellow cultist Barb Galler-Smith sold her Druids trilogy to Edge!) I do have some short stories, that I am very excited about, almost ready to send out, and have also made some real progress on the two novel-length projects which I have going at the moment.

I have had a good year for storytelling. I told at the Night of Artists event and the Fort Edmonton festival, but probably my favourite telling experience was at a local seniors home. MaryAnn Lippiatt and I got trading off stories: every story seemed to inspire another one that we just had to tell. It was great fun, and just what this craft is supposed to be all about!

I am finally reading Amber Hayward's book The Healer, which I picked up at last year's Pure Speculation. It is a literary styled fantasy, with a modern setting, a leisurely pace, and understated fantasy elements. It is also a very intelligent, heartfelt, and engaging book, and well worth checking out.

Reading November 12 with Jennifer Rahn

2007-11-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

I am going to be holding a reading on the evening of November 12 at the Strathcona County Library, together with Jennifer Rahn. My novel, Dominion, was released by DragonMoon Press two years ago. DragonMoon had just released a terrific new book by another Alberta author, who happens to share my first name. Jennifer Rahn currently lives in Calgary, but grew up in Sherwood Park, and is coming back here to promote her first novel, The Longevity Thesis. We will both be reading from our respective books, and will also provide refreshments. We are hoping that this will be a fun evening, with plenty of opportunity for us all to visit and get to know each other better. We will begin at 7:00pm, and continue until 8:45.

I have read The Longevity Thesis, and found it really absorbing. It is not your typical fantasy, by any means. The story centres on a university campus in an underground land, where the inhabitants have so long avoided the desert above them that many now regard the stories of its magic as mere superstition. Antronos, who has been touched by that magic, knows better. But even he does not suspect what ancient and unnatural beings are at work within the University itself, until his desire to study longevity places him in their power. The Longevity Thesis is at turns darkly primeval and disconcertingly modern, grimly macabre and life-afirming: compounded together, these ingredients create a powerful and unsettling tale.

I enjoyed meeting Jennifer R. in Calgary last year, and am looking forward to seeing her again, and hopefully some other new and familiar faces too.

Spooktacular

2007-10-22T13:10:00.000-06:00

This Friday and Saturday, I'll be telling scary stories at Fort Edmonton Spooktacular with Marie-Anne McLean and Jennie Frost. It is a couple years since I have taken part in this event and I am looking forward to doing it again. Basically, we spend the evening in a creepy old building taking turns telling the scariest stories we can come up with. No one under 13 is admitted - there is a separate kids' storytelling area, but for some reason they only ever let me tell stories there once.

Most of the stories we tell are based on traditional tales or urban legends, but I have invented a couple as well. Last year I wrote up a more literary version of my Spooktacular story 'The Fatality Sign.' The story actually didn't go over very well at Spooktacular (not scary enough) but it did get published in the anthology In The Dark: Stories from the Supernatural . More information about that is available at the publisher's website www.tightropebooks.com . The book has quite a variety of stories, many of which explore the creepier aspects of modern life.

About Pure Speculation

2007-10-21T19:18:00.000-06:00

Well, Pure Speculation was last weekend, and once again I had a great time. There were some fascinating discussions at the panels, and I was certainly impressed with the collection of intelligent, and somewhat strange minds that we gathered together - both panelists and audience members. I also would like to thank the organizers, and especially Diane Walton for all her work in putting the writing sessions together. I only hope that this convention can grow into a bigger event without losing the hometown feel which it has for me right now.

Here is the blurb which I wrote up for the DragonMoon Press newsletter:

On October 13 and 14th, I attended the Pure Speculation convention in Edmonton. The Alberta SF scene seems to mostly centre around Calgary, and this convention is a pretty modest affair, but friendly in a way that bigger cons seldom manage. It was held in a community hall, with the main area devoted to vendors and gaming, and two smaller rooms for panels. So far, more of those panels were devoted to games and comics than fiction, but there was a strong attendance at the writing panels. The guest of honour, Peter Watts, was interviewed by Barb Galler-Smith on Saturday to a packed room, and a large proportion of the crowd stayed afterwards to hear Robert Burke Richardson, Edge author Amber Hayward and me give some hints for aspiring writers.
On Sunday, we had our 'Writer's Jam.' Ann Marston joined Peter, Barb, Robert, Amber and I for an interesting discussion in which we delved into dreams, taboos, and other sources of inspiration. Susan MacGregor and Diane Walton of On Spec Magazine also joined us for a while, before leaving to run another panel.
Brian Hades of Edge SF was in attendance with a large display of books, including many Dragon Moon Press titles.

I have a website. . .or a blog, anyway!

2007-10-06T15:33:00.001-06:00

Well, after several years of being told that I need to get a website to promote my writing, I have finally done something about it. Welcome to my brand new blog page!

I hope to be posting lots of information on here about my work, and perhaps even the odd story or rant if the mood takes me. I write mostly science fiction and fantasy, but I am also an oral storyteller, and sometimes write up my own retellings of traditional tales. I will post more about my first (and so far only) novel, Dominion soon, but in the mean time you can read all about it at www.dragonmoonpress.com

For now, the big news is that I will be at Pure Speculation in Edmonton on October 13th and 14th 2007, participating in the Writer's Jam and a panel for new writers. Pure Speculation is a small con, but I had a lot of fun last year, and was really impressed with how much the organizers manage to do with what they have.

If you would like more information check out www.purespec.org