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    New Year, new Book Fairs

    Happy New Year all!  Now that the festivities have come to an end, and we return to our versions of normal, it's always great to have something bright to look forward to. How about a Book Fair?!  How about several?

    I've signed myself up for a variety of fairs in the KW area (highlight area, as they're not all quite in the region, but they are all in Southern Ontario).  First up is Guelph on Feb. 9 at the Legion.  A new venue for me, but great to hopefully connect with some friends in Guelph.

    March 8 has a book fair in London, but I've opted out of that one.  However, if you're down in that neck of the woods on that date, do drop in Centennial Hall to find some great books and some fabulous crafts!

    Next for me is March 22 at the Stratford Country Club.  I believe this is my 4th time there?  They start to blur if you do too many in a short period of time.  But we usually have a great turnout of local talent, a friendly and fun bunch of artists together in a comfortable setting :)  There's even food available!

    There's a Romance Book Fair at Bingemans on April 5.  Alas, I don't write romance (some subtle undertones in some books, but not full out romance), so I shall not attend, at least, not as a vendor.  But don't let that stop you from exploring some steamy titles!

    Ancaster Fairgrounds hosts the next fair for me on April 12, and I'll be sharing my table with my friend Jen, who will have some beautiful jewelry and pottery available.  Unlike last year when we authors gathered in the Concession Building, this time we will populate the Marrit Building (it's the main one), and this will include a $2 entrance fee ($5 for family; kids under 12 free).  What do you get for this entrance fee, besides the opportunity to witness a fascinating collection of artists (many of whom are introverts) interacting with the public and eager to offer you a great way to escape life with crafts and in the pages of books?  There are craft tables for both kids and adults, reading nooks, photo ops with Princesses (last year was Elsa and Anna from Frozen), a scavenger egg hunt with prizes, and a chance at winning a door prize.  There's even snacks and treats from food vendors available!  So, more than just authors and crafters to explore, although of course, local talent is a pretty good reason to go anyway, don't you think?

    After Ancaster, there's a Fair at Victoria Park's Pavilion in Kitchener on May 3.  I'm on the waiting list for this one.  With a little luck, it'll turn into a gorgeous warm spring day like last year, which would provide a wonderful opportunity to take a walk through the park, let any kids run wild at the playground next to the Pavilion, and pop in to find your next fun read!

    May 24th will take me to Best Western Brantford for a Fantasy-specific Book Fair.  Seeing as I have 6 fantasy novels (from epic, to portal, to mythology), it seemed only fitting that I sign up for this one.  This will have a $2 entrance fee.  It includes door prizes, a crafts table, a cosplay and costume parade, a scavenger hunt, and a games table.

    And finally (so far), I have applied for a return to the West Avenue Cider House Fair in Flamborough on July 13th (again, with my crafty friend Jen).  This one is outdoors.  Last year, we did have a bit of a scramble when the threatening weather turned into a blustery rain storm, but most of us had some form of shelter/tent to cower beneath (after a battle with tarps, in my case).  Strangely, not an entirely bad way for vendors and shoppers to get up close and personal with each other!  Fingers crossed that this year we have less rain.

    So, while I'll be touring a bit of Southern Ontario in the first half of 2025, books in hand, I hope you get a chance to check out a Fair or two and find your next great adventure!

    #guelphbookfair
    #MerchantsandMages
    Ontario Book Fair & Markets
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    New title out!

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    Although I consider myself primarily a fantasy book writer, this year hasn't seen much in the way of novel writing for me.  Instead, I had poetry on the mind.  So I went with that rather than trying to force what obviously didn't want to emerge on the page.  Which has led to the release of my second book of poetry, Upon Life's Journey (published October 15, 2024).

    I had a lot of fun with this one, the poems written from shortly after the release of Dancing Words in April 2022 to mid-September 2024; about a year and a half.  Separated into sections, I chose 5 'themes' to encompass my work: Origins & Space; Nature & Camping; Structured Poems; Life & Social Commentary; and Thought, Reality, & Stream of Consciousness.

    Some of the poems are short (on our latest camping trip at the beginning of September of 2024, one of our members mistook the length of haikus, and inadvertently created what we called the 'Kevku', with a structure of 1 syllable, 3 syllables, 1 syllable [which I then also refined to make the 1 syllable words homophones], because it amused us), and some are multi-pages.  Three of the longer poems originated for a fun contest called 'Literary Taxidermy', where writers are given the opening and closing lines of different literary works that they incorporate into the start and end of their own piece without changing the word order--yet everything in between is the author's voice.  For the purposes of publication, I did later alter the wording of the intro and finale (after the contest had concluded) to avoid any plagiarism issues, so if you ever worry that I had something traumatic occur in my youth when reading The Ship in the Sea of Life, fear not; that opening and end is inspired by 'Manuscript Found in a Bottle' by Edgar Allan Poe.
    [Hope for a Shattered Future was likewise taxidermized from the Langston Hughes poem 'As I Grew Older', as was Seek the Light.]

    The Prime 53 poems in the structured section also originated from a poetry contest, spawning 12 poems over two contest periods.  They have a specific rhyming structure and syllable count (inspired by prime numbers), a form created in 2019 by the editor of Press 53 poetry (check out www.press53.com/prime-53-poem-summer-challenge if you want any details on those).  Everything else simply popped into my brain in one form or another along the way (a couple from listening to music or from just setting pen to paper to bring about some interesting stream of consciousness pieces).

    I think the most important thing to remember when reading poetry (or at least, when reading my poetry) is that a poem means what you determine it means.  I might have had some insights I wanted like to share, or some emotion or thought I hoped to bring to light, and I could certainly explain what a given topic meant to me (although there are some, especially some true stream of consciousness efforts, that simply wanted to exist, and I might struggle with their meaning too).  But what you get out of a poem is what you get out of a poem; whatever thoughts, emotions, questions arise when you read my words, that's the point of the poem to you in that given moment.  You are never wrong in whatever thought or emotion a poem inspires in you, even if it doesn't match what someone else feels or understands in their own interpretation.  Yes, I can tell you what I meant, but the power of poetry, in my opinion, is in discovering how you interact with the words.

    Can a poem ever gain sentience, or does it remain but "words birthed on a page, a structure that can only find life through the mind of another?" (from Sentience)
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    Busy, busy

    Well, we're almost halfway through 2024 already, and it's been a busy year so far.  I've travelled on more planes to more destinations with various important people in my life over the last eight months (yes I know that's more than just 2024, but I had to include at least a mention of a great trip from November of 2023 with my best bud), and I've participated in more book fairs than in any previous year in my life.  Get it in while you can, as my Father-in-Law often says :)  He knows what he's talking about.

    I went to Costa Rica for the fourth time in November, taking my girlfriend on her first visit there.  We had some great adventures (even if I did lose my camera in a raging river before we crossed it) in a couple of areas new to me, and it took our minds (especially hers) off some hard anniversaries of loss.

    In December, we had a family emergency that has, and will continue to take, months of recovery time, though thankfully, no one passed away this time.  This made our planned trip to Bermuda in January a bit touch-and-go, but Mike and I did make it to that interesting and incredibly humid island with a couple of good friends (we call them Mom and Dad 3, as we've all basically adopted each other into a fun, non-blood related family).

    ​We followed this a month later with a couple of weeks in the UAE, mostly centred around Dubai.  Part vacation (we arrived in time for Mike's birthday) and part work-related for Mike (the Dubai Boat Show took place at the beginning of March), we got to experience a (at this moment) very safe and modern/forward-looking nation.  While we had expected more of a disconnect to the familiar--a language barrier as well as a need to pay respect to cultural differences--the efforts to modernize with Western society and culture greatly surprised us.  With one exception, all signs were printed in English as well as Arabic (often with the English first), everyone we encountered spoke English, and we saw far less traditional garb, and little to no insistence for visitors to adhere to cultural modesty (I had fully expected to need a head scarf at the very least, but found almost no one else--tourists at any rate--had the same consideration).  It's my understanding, from a friend of Mike's that we connected with who recently relocated to Abu Dhabi for work, that this lax attitude is more common in Dubai (or somewhere like Ras Al-Khaimah in the north or Hatta, two other areas we visited) than in Abu Dhabi, and certainly wouldn't be as readily accepted in places like Saudi Arabia.  So while we had expected to find a far more alien (as in unfamiliar to us) experience in a distant land, we in fact enjoyed a very modern and easy to navigate (so long as we didn't have to drive ourselves through the streets of Dubai) vacation.

    Mike followed this with a quick trip to Miami for the Miami boat show, but I stayed home for a whole month.
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    ​Which brings us to May, and our cycling trip through France with our friends Tracy and Kevin.  We spent a couple of days in Paris (a fascinating city, even though some of the attractions were somewhat marred by the preparations for the Olympics--nothing like seeing the Eifel tower hedged by metal stadium seating and fences blocking off the park access) before heading out to the Loire Valley.

    Starting in Nantes, we cycled for seven days, ending up in Orleans.  The Loire Valley, south and west of Paris, has a bike route that follows the river, a mostly flat stretch of well-maintained trails.  The problem we encountered, being early May and after a lot of rain, was flooding.  At times, we had to detour from the trail (sometimes, the detours were even marked), and this added a bit of adventure (and distance) to our tour.  Ever had to portage while on a bicycling trip?  It's quite an experience!  Especially if you have an electric assist bike, which I did.  While it made going up some of the hills a breeze (even assisting with carrying extra luggage up a surprisingly hilly Amboise, seeing as I alone chose the eBike), carting a heavier bike up some hills and through some undergrowth not meant for traversing was a bit of a slog.  Lucky for me, the guys let me carry the paniers instead of the bike.
    We then took the train to Lac Annecy (about an hour from Switzerland) for a couple of days before popping across the border to Geneva, where I got to spend my birthday, before heading back to Paris and then home.
    Until two weeks later, when Mike and I took a long weekend in Halifax, where we got to watch the SailGP racing.  I do enjoy the big boats!
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    That concludes (so far) our adventures to distant lands and exotic adventures (OK, so Halifax isn't that far, but we did take a plane to get there).  But apparently I didn't find that hectic enough, so I also participated in some book fairs.  I'm even getting better at interacting with people I don't know!

    I went to Stratford in February (five days before Dubai), Victoria Park Pavilion in Kitchener in April (in my month without travel), Waterloo Square in May (one week after France and four days before Halifax), and Federation Hall at UW at the beginning of June (5 days after Halifax).  I have one coming up at the end of June in St. Jacob's (two days from now, at the writing of this blog), and one in Flamborough three weeks later, mid-July.  Then I'm off for a bit until I return to Stratford in October (which will take place a month after a week-long backcountry canoe trip with Tracy and Kevin to Algonquin Park--no planes involved we hope, though quite a few portages).
    But don't fear that I'll find myself bored, as I also have a busy summer of concerts with the Kitchener Musical Society Band!  Now if only I could get up enough creative juices to do some actual writing too...
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    A successful Book Fair

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    On April 14, 2024, Victoria Park Pavilion in Kitchener hosted (well, Eerie River Publishing hosted and organised; the Pavilion merely accommodated) a Book Fair and Bookish Market.  Around 35 local (KW, Cambridge, Hamilton, London, etc.) authors and crafters gathered together to showcase their art, and I had the privilege of being one of them.

    I have now participated in 4 book fairs, with a good number of others lined up in the coming months.  So far, this has proved the most successful one for me.  It also felt like the best attended, and part of that might have had to do with the venue.  The Pavilion is situated in Victoria Park, which has a lot of space for walking, biking, picnicking, or playing.  Add to that a glorious sunny and warm day (especially for mid-April in Ontario), and you have a perfect combination for visitors.  A playground within sight of the Pavilion had a constant crowd of happy children, the paths were well travelled, the open spaces overlooking the water well utilised.  This undoubtedly brought in additional folks to those who already knew about the Book Fair.  And that, of course, generated additional interest and discoveries to our event, beyond what word-of-mouth and advertising induced.

    It's wonderful to see so much interest in the written word and in a desire to support local talent--of which we have plenty!  I met some first-time vendors (one of whom even sold out her stock and took to arranging future deliveries of her work) and reacquainted myself with authors I met at previous fairs, and hope to see again soon.  We have a great community of artists who support each other, whether by sharing our experiences--the challenges and rewards of writing, publishing, and selling (interacting with strangers isn't always easy for some of us introverts)--providing encouragement and welcome, or buying another artist's work.  It's gratifying to be part of a group who seek to lift one another up rather than put anyone down.

    For those who didn't do as well at this particular event, keep trying; keep holding on to your dream; keep sharing your hard work.  The next event might lighten you soul.  We all have good and bad days, and each new effort will bring something to inspire, even if it's only a bright smile, or a man who tries to make everyone laugh.  We're all here for you, and we're grateful for your support!
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    Algonquin, Sept. 2023

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    At the beginning of September, Mike and I once again went backcountry canoe camping with our friends Tracy and Kevin for 5 nights.  This year's theme: pack light.  We wanted to do a loop instead of an out-and-back like we've done in previous years, and our chosen route meant several portages, the longest about 3 km, and a different campsite every night.  As the longest portage we'd ever done previously measured under 500m, this at first seemed, perhaps, a little daunting.  So we planned ahead.

    First, knowing we shouldn't pack the entire kitchen (only one small whisk and far less cutlery), obtaining light-weight equipment (tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, chairs, stove with fuel, etc.), and testing just how much weight we could each carry.  Next, figuring out what food to take (mostly freeze-dried packs), and making sure we ate the heavier food in the two days before the big portage.  Luckily, we started planning and prepping several months in advance, so we didn't have a huge rush the week before.  Perhaps we're starting to get the hang of this...

    We started our trip by heading up toward Round Lake, stopping for a nice picnic lunch near Bracebridge along the way.  It has become our custom (this being our 3rd annual camping trip together) to stay at a Voyager Quest cabin the night before, enjoying a lovely supper prepared by the friendly staff.  This year, we got our canoes early and paddled them to the cabin in what turned out to be the windiest evening of paddling.  But, this enabled an early start the following morning, and that was the plan.

    The day dawned bright and calm.  Early starts before the wind picked up would become key to pleasant paddling and maximizing our enjoyment of each campsite.  We made it across Round Lake to the Algonquin entrance, then through the river, through West and East Tea Lake, and finally into Mangotasi, a journey of 18 km, happily downwind.
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    Perhaps I should mention now, Mike started this journey with a sore back, yet kept a cheerful disposition, even knowing he'd have to carry a canoe over some potentially rough terrain after sleeping on the ground (well, on a thermorest on the ground).  He did not complain.  He did, however, come up with a philosophy that we all soon adopted: portaging is better if you think of it as a hike, carrying some stuff.

    Our first full day off-grid took us a short distance to Biggar Lake, only about 6 km of paddling, including 3 small portages no longer than 500m.  Mike repeated them so as not to carry as much (once with canoe, then again with pack), and to stretch out his back (he had discovered in the weeks leading up to the trip that a good morning walk helped sort out the pain somewhat), while the rest of us tested out single-trips with our pack-light packs.  We had absolutely still waters and encountered few other paddlers.

    We shared our site on Biggar with a variety of fun frogs and birds, enjoyed some swimming, and generally relaxed.
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    And then we headed out on another calm morning through Kawa and Upper Kawa Lakes (beautiful, as is most of Algonquin) toward Three Mile Lake, about 11.5 km total paddling and four portages totaling about 3 km.  Along the way, we saw cormorants, a bald eagle, and some frogs.

    ​Three Mile has some unfortunate history to it, including an island where, during a storm, a camper died after lightning struck a tree and fell on the poor sod.  Some people report uneasy feelings around that island.  Mike dubbed it 'Murder Island', and we decided to steer clear of it, just in case.  We did, however, encounter another spot that left us a little nervous.

    As we approached a campsite, both Mike and I saw a man reading in a chair by the water's edge, its clear occupation prompting us not to look too close at it as a potential stopping point for the night.  However, a moment later, the man disappeared.  This caused some confusion, and Mike decided to investigate.  We pulled our canoe close; Mike got out and took a look around, finding no one and no equipment, and no indication that anyone had just vacated the area.  Tracy and Kevin, who pulled up nearby, were confused by our bewilderment, for they hadn't seen anyone, and wanted to know if we were stopping for the night.  Once we determined that, despite the decent quality of the camp, we really didn't want to share it with a reclusive ghost, we continued on our way, eventually reaching the 3 km portage, which had a campsite right beside it, though well sheltered.  We stayed there instead.  No Murder Island, no Ghost Island.  Probably a good choice.
    A SPECTRE OF SANCTUARY
    Pristine waters
    still as glass
    with nary a breeze to disturb the
    calm surface.
    The gentle glide of a canoe
    washes slow ripples in a languid wake
    across the peaceful lake.
    The approach to an island campsite
    shows a man sitting, reading,
    his gaze, should he glance up,
    encompassing a serene view of forests
    touched by the first kiss of autumn's flames,
    skirted by sky-blue waters.
    The canoe presses past,
    slides near-silent along its watery highway.
    A tree obscures the man on the shore,
    yet he doesn't re-emerge into view--
    has disappeared into nothingness,
    his chair, his form, his very presence
    vanished.
    The canoe stops; the paddlers stare,
    but no sign of the mysterious camper remains.
    A moment of hesitation
    before one ventures to explore the island.
    Not a trace of the reader,
    nothing to signal his presence--
    no scuff, no mark, no indentation of a chair.
    A retreat to the canoe,
    a swift resumption of the journey.
    They'll find no rest on this abandoned campsite.
    Too many tales of haunted woe already stain the lake
    and some of its otherwise inviting islands.
    They'll not add another by invading
    the sanctuary of a ghost.
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    An early morning start the following day, where Mike and Kevin took the canoes on ahead over the 3 km portage while Tracy and I packed up camp.  We enjoyed some tea and reading by the lake as we awaited the guys' return, then had breakfast and set off together for a nice hike while carrying things :)

    Now we had reached Manitou Lake with warm, sunny weather.  We found the site we had so enjoyed last year unoccupied, so quickly made it our home for the rest of the day.  This involved Mike setting up our tarp, as our experience of Manitou usually included rain.  Manitou did not disappoint (as Mike said).  Though we managed some wonderful swimming beneath a cheerful sun in the early afternoon, late afternoon and evening brought high winds and plenty of rain with thunder and lightning.  Although the first burst of rain tapered off with a rainbow, we had multiple other drenchings.  We were very glad not to be the canoeists caught in that weather!  Instead, we kept cozy and dry beneath Mike's masterwork of tarping, blazing fire lighting up the darkness of the evening.  Happily, it stopped raining before we had to venture out to our tents (or the thunderbox) for the night.
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    The morning dawned misty and humid with a bit of a headwind.  We set off toward North Tea Lake, taking the east portage (a bit longer portage), which has a pretty waterfall where we paused for photos and a snack.  We had intended to use the same site as last year--a nice spot on an island--but it had poor options for shelter and tarp hanging, and we didn't trust the weather.  So we pushed ahead against the wind, foregoing this fair-weather site, followed a loon, and found a much better location across the lake with lots of space, not too far from the exit portage.  We spent a lovely, quiet, lazy afternoon, watching as the early weekend crowd started to arrive.


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    ​The evening turned chilly, and we all layered up, but no one froze.  Light rain mixed with sun took us back through the river to Round Lake, but little wind hampered us, making for a pleasant paddle on our last day.

    Until we got back to the vehicle, all packed up and ready to go.  Whereupon, we discovered that someone had taken down an old sign, but left the remnant spike in the ground, right about tire level, and right next to a new sign.  We had parked beside this new sign, as the only spot left when we arrived on the Saturday of a long weekend.  Sadly, the spike and the tire didn't get along well, especially not right after Kevin called to Mike: "Just gun it!"

    But a temp tire, and the good folks at Kal Tire in Bracebridge saved the day, and we made it home all in one (mostly) piece.  And Mike's back?  Happily transformed by days of paddling, hiking with a canoe, and sleeping on the ground.  (It took about two days being home, back to the grind, for that to revert :( )
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    Stratford Book Fair, April 23, 2023

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    Another successful book fair, and by successful, I mostly mean "I sold some books to some people I have never met before."  Also met some great new authors (new to me, at any rate).  I may or may not have come out slightly ahead after buying a couple of books from fellow vendors.

    On Sunday April 23, I attended the Stratford Book Fair at the Stratford Country Club, which is a very nice venue (pleasant to sit somewhere that includes huge windows and lots of light--had a great view of the rain, then snow, that chilled the day in the last hour or so of the Fair, which greatly reduced any potential customers).  Many great vendors--mostly other authors or publishers, but also some jewelry and candles, bookmarks, stones, and other artistic tidbits that go well with reading.  Quite a few fantasy, science-fiction, thriller/dark fiction, historical fiction selections, as well as some children and young adult titles.  A nice cross-section of fiction books with a myriad of protagonists available--backgrounds including the disabled, the marginalized, the LGBTQ community, strong leads of the female or male persuasion; pretty much any hero/heroine (or anit-hero/heroine) you might enjoy, so long as they're fictional.  A few people more interested in non-fiction and biographies might have found that less-than-satisfying, though I greatly appreciate the woman who bought my poetry book anyway :)

    My best friend came to assist me, and she did a fantastic job, especially when I started to feel crappy.  Somehow, I made it through the day anyway and came home a few books lighter.

    Looking ahead to future author events, I keep finding things on days that I've already booked something, which is a little frustrating, but that's life.  Hopefully I'll find another venue I can actually attend in the coming months!  In the meantime, I really have to get back on the horse and actually write something new.  Wish me luck!
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