that writer

It Shall Be Broma

Tue, 07 May 2013 17:03:00 -0700

The neighborhood of Broma in Vancouver (around Broadway and Main) used to have salmon streams and a temperate rainforest. Now it has hipsters.

My contribution to a neighborhood story contest. Please like it!

In My Place. The Mount Pleasant branch of the VPL sure knows...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:01:43 -0700

In My Place. The Mount Pleasant branch of the VPL sure knows where my book belongs: Snuggled between “I Love Bad Boys” and “I’m With the Bears”.

it’s like looking in a mirror …

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:43:00 -0700

it’s like looking in a mirror …

Holly Golightly — Animal Abuser? Am now able to report on...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:44:45 -0700

Holly Golightly — Animal Abuser?

Am now able to report on the status of my investigation into the allegations that Holly Golightly (a fictional character created by Truman Capote in his novella, Breakfast at Tiffany’s) is an animal abuser.

I recently saw the movie and was shocked to see Holly toss her cat out of a taxi and into an alley. In the rain (see photo). A perfect alley, she said, lots of rats and garbage. In the movie, after driving a block she regrets her action and runs back with her writer-friend and looks for the cat. In the movie they find the cat, and because her writer-friend is magically heterosexual, they hug and kiss in the rain with the dripping (and apparently quite stinky) cat between them. Happily ever after etc etc.

In the book, the poor cat is also thrown from a taxi into a rat infested alley, in the rain, and when Holly runs back for it, they are unable to find it. She makes her writer-friend promise to take care of it, and then disappears, forever. The writer-friend goes back over the next several weeks and eventually sees the cat in a window and believes it has found a new home.

Why didn’t Holly just ask her writer-friend (who lived upstairs) to take the cat? He was feeding it while she was in jail (and then the hospital). Instead (in the book) she asks him to bring it with her belongings and he stuffs the cat into a pillow case (!). All in all Holly, thanks for rescuing the cat to begin with off the streets of New York … but. Perhaps her actions are meant to be a metaphor for how well she is managing to take care of herself.

The Main Street Poodle A seven foot ceramic pole-sitting poodle...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:26:00 -0700

The Main Street Poodle

A seven foot ceramic pole-sitting poodle is nowhere near as exciting as a certain labradoodle.

this reminds me of something . ..

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:57:00 -0800

this reminds me of something . ..

Soon to be released, Plenitude Magazine. The first issue was...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:56:42 -0800

Soon to be released, Plenitude Magazine. The first issue was great, so it’s an honour to have a new piece of fiction included in this one. How exciting!

ladybug transformer

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:04:40 -0800

ladybug transformer

cat doctors

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:03:03 -0700

why does the rest of the world think “Cat Doctors” are doctors who treat cats, but I think that “Cat Doctors” are cats who are doctors?

A Note About the Typo This short story collection is brilliant,...

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 14:22:32 -0700

A Note About the Typo

This short story collection is brilliant, but if a publisher wishes to be high-brow and add a note about the type, they should have it copy edited. Should be “principal” not “principle”.

Sentence of the day

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:13:00 -0700

”. . . . . .” the drummer chanted.

— Hemingway (The Son Also Rises).

Cynara & Autumn

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:27:36 -0700

canadianpoetspettingcats:

Cynara Geissler (Small Stunted Ways) and her cat, Autumn

CPPC: Tell us about your latest poetry collection, Small Stunted Ways. It’s an illustrated collection of poetry and the format is very interesting. What made you decide to include an illustrative element?

CG: Small Stunted Ways is my first chapbook, published by the wonderful women at Hur Publishing (in Montreal) and illustrated by publisher Tracy Hurren. All the copies are screen-printed on luxurious stock and hand-bound and trimmed. Hur did a tremendous job on the production/illustrations; I still can’t quite believe that it’s as gorgeous and tactile as it is. I’d been really wanting to collaborate with an illustrator ever since I was given a copy of Kryptonite (a completely charming tiny-format book of Ron Koertge’s poem illustrated by Roy Fox and published by Blue Q) as a gift. I adore how Fox’s illustrations capture and enhance Koertge’s funny and poignant little poem about how Lois Lane sometimes wishes her invincible boyfriend had more human vulnerability. Tracy Hurren is a talented book binder who does her own hand-made art books and a excellent illustrator. I’d talked to her about Kryptonite, in h opes that she might want to illustrate a single poem of mine, and then a chapbook of illustrated poems grew out of that conversation. What I particularly love is that the illustrations are inspired by the poems, but not literal translations of them. They are Tracy’s interpretations of extensions of my images. The poems and illustrations are meant to play off and complicate each other adding another layer to the book and the work.

Read More

mynameiskootenay: Fun! Fraser River = wet dog

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:31:17 -0700

mynameiskootenay:

Fun!

Fraser River = wet dog

most brutally honest bio ever

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:29:37 -0700

most brutally honest bio ever:

The bio of an incarcerated writer. Absolutely the most brutally honest, affecting and gripping thing you’ve read in a long long time.

parakeet recites home address

Thu, 03 May 2012 15:01:00 -0700

parakeet recites home address:

A lost parakeet tells police home address; is reunited with his featherless family.

It easily could have turned out just like this for Gregor, if...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:05:43 -0700

It easily could have turned out just like this for Gregor, if only he’d had the proper attitude.

Sentence of the day

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:42:00 -0700

Soft good cat cat.

— Koko (a gorilla, using sign language to describe her kitten, who she named “All Ball”)

Sentence of the day

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:43:46 -0700

Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

— Herman Melville (Moby Dick)

Incredible! This Woolly Bear Caterpillar lives in the Arctic...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:56:00 -0700

Incredible!

This Woolly Bear Caterpillar lives in the Arctic and no matter how fast it eats, it can never gather enough food in one summer to turn into a moth. In winter it freezes solid and awakes four months later to start eating again. This happens year after year, but eventually a very special spring arrives. At the age of 14 it weaves a silk cocoon and becomes a moth. When it emerges the moth only has a few days to find a partner and mate. (Frozen Planet - BBC)

ebook for ManBug

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:42:22 -0800

ebook for ManBug:

If I have an ebook, does that mean I’m finally now allowed to join the century in progress?