Desk Space

...is a brand new blog that looks at the places where writers write. My workspace is featured today. I'm delighted to be part of this. I look forward to seeing other spaces in the days to come. While I expect them to be very different from one another, I will be looking for similarities. I did notice right away that my desk space and Evie's both have a cat to the left of the monitor. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for cats on Desk Space from here on. Of course I'll be checking out the books in the pics. And scoping for ideas that might make my space even better.

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Arts and culture contributed $46 billion to Canada's economy in 2007, but the overall impact of the sector was a much broader $84.6 billion...

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There's still time to provide feedback on Reflections: A Summary of 30 Years of Cultural Policy Discussions in Saskatchewan. The deadline has been extended to September 2, 2008.

The skies just east of here

...have been busy today. I could see the bird dog from my office window. We finally took a drive at 4:30 to see what was going on. We walked up a quad trail and then climbed a hill to get this pic.


The helicopter wasted no time. It was quite a sight. When we turned to leave we saw people in the rocks all around.

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August 25

Word has it the fire was close to the ski chalet. The cross country ski trails are excellent up here, or so I'm told. I'm not a skier. I've only hiked on them in the summer and only once or twice in the twenty-some years I've lived up here. One time I sat on a hill just off a trail and painted. A watercolour. I remember it was going really well. Then I overworked part of it. Not good. Anyway, had we gone earlier yesterday I would've got pics of the waterbombers as they knocked down the fire. I love those planes. The deep rumble. But I'm happy we went when we did, as I've seen waterbombers at work before, but never a helicopter. I liked its nimbleness. Its funky bucket.

Good news

...for the Flin Flon-Creighton region!

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The CNQ/TNQ Salon Des Refuses arrived today.


More about it here and here and here.

The chair on the left in the background is where I sit and read in the afternoon if the mosquitoes aren't too bad. But they've been bad of late. The tiny ones are out and they're thick. When it's as windy as it is right now, it's ok.

Unfortunately I didn't get out there today. I've been having power issues. First my surge protector went haywire. Then a few hours later, as I was loading pics onto the computer, we lost power altogether. Turns out someone hit a pole. Two never comes without three, they say. I hope that's not true.

It's too hot

...for my liking. The cat and I have been spending lots of time outside.


It's perfect weather for reading though and I've been doing lots of it. Right now I'm into A Passion for Narrative by Jack Hodgins. When it gets dark I'll switch to The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. I plan to read The Fionavar Tapestry in its entirety by summer's end. I'll have to read quickly. Summer is winding down.

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I see I'm not the only one who has trouble with paper cups. Poor little guy.

It's been a scary month

...for the arts sector in this country. The recent cuts to cultural programs are unsettling to say the least. And now the Globe and Mail has axed their Books section for two weeks. Here's what TSR has to say on that. And here's what Lemon Hound has to say. And here's Quillblog. I sent a brief letter to the Globe and Mail this morning.

Dear Globe Editors,

The absence of the Globe and Mail Books section is profoundly disturbing. Living in a mining town in northern SK, I've long looked to the books section as not only a source of reviews, but a sign of cultural health. The section allows the general public and writers themselves to see that the nation is producing works of significance that reflect us as a people. The books section is what gives the Globe and Mail its national voice and sets it apart from other newspapers. I look forward to its return.

Sincerely,
Brenda Schmidt
Creighton, SK

As you can see, I do not agree with the "Really, why buy the Globe" comment that was left in response to the TSR post. I certainly value many lit blogs, but already I've come to accept their sporadic and ephemeral nature. The Globe and Mail Books section, on the other hand, has been consistent and consistently keeps us talking. Its reviews are archived. Accessible. And it's more than that. While none of my books have been reviewed in the Globe and Mail, a good number of books by Saskatchewan authors have received attention in those pages over the years and this has had a positive impact on me. It makes me look more closely at my own work, my own voice, my own place. It makes me work harder.

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I received a response from the Globe and Mail saying this is only a two-week pause before the fall season and there is no plan or intention to diminish or discontinue the Books section. That's good news! Though it seems to me the lack of reviews for two weeks fits neatly with the definition of diminish. I wonder if they'll increase the number of reviews in the section for the rest of the year to make up for the two-week pause?

I always thought it was Nancy Drew

...who introduced me to monkshood and its toxicity, but now I'm not so sure. Google tells me I'm likely thinking of The Password to Larkspur Lane, but I don't know if there is monkshood in the book. Regardless, the title of that mystery brings back memories. I grew up with larkspur. I think it's one of the reasons I wanted to have my own garden one day.

Not long after we bought this house, H phoned home saying he heard a gardener on Trader's Post, a local phone-in radio program, who had divided his perennials and had lots to give away. H came home with a load of plants, including a good chunk of monkshood. I was thrilled. Over the years I've divided it and now have monkshood growing in every garden.


I've yet to hold a bloom up to my chin. I don't know what I'd do if it cast a yellow shadow.

I blame the colossal marble head

...of Faustina the Elder for putting an end to my holiday. The plan was to meet my deadline, which I did on Monday, and then spend the rest of the summer reading whatever the heck I want. I started with Ysabel, which I finished last night. Today I was going to curl up in a chair outside and read something else from my pile of unread novels. But that never happened. Instead I was struck by this colossal marble head. And suddenly I was writing. I must have marble in my head.

Make the world

...your salon.



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August 10

Yesterday, as some of you saw, I posted what was meant to be a brief defense of fluff, using one of my own fluffy experiments as an example. I later pulled it down because I felt it was too brief and too vague to properly support the case I was trying to make and I decided the example I'd used, a video I posted here last year, was probably not the best one to support my assertion that fluff, too, is a political tool, that fluff can be used to make a statement, to point at things, turn things on their ear. With a deadline hanging over me, I saved the post, thinking I might return to it down the road. I still haven't met the deadline, but here's the original post for those of you who didn't see it:

Make the world...your salon urges Lemon Hound. Hear! hear! While I agree wholeheartedly with the overall spirit of the post, the final paragraph causes me to pause just a bit. Perhaps I need to study the comments women leave on commentary or in the style sections of newspapers to better see what she's getting at. By fluff does she mean the comments are unimportant? Mistake-ridden? Going by the OED, one could easily say I create fluff here much of the time. And I do. But I like to think my fluff is light, loosely adhering. Loosely adhering. By choice. Indeed, sometimes I'll just pick up a blade of grass and blow. Just because I can.

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Here's another take over on Manageable Imaginations. Another wonderful direction...

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August 11

...and now a new project. The Plural Hoe.

More books

...in the mail today!


The little chair in the pic is not new, but it is significant. I stared at it today, thinking about saskatoons. How I used to stand on the steep side of a deep coulee and pick them. How my heart would race when deer crashed through the trees below. I miss that.

That said, people are already busy picking blueberries up here. Maybe this weekend we'll head out to our favourite spot, though I think it's a bit early.

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Getting back to books, Judging a Book By Its Cover is a new feature on CanCult. This is something I do, so I'll definitely be following along.

Reflections: A Summary of 30 Years

...of Cultural Policy Discussions in Saskatchewan has been released along with an accompanying survey. It's open for input from the public only until August 22, so check it out and soon!

The Cellist of Sarajevo

...is quite the novel. I finished it last night. I mentioned it briefly in this comment and in this post and now again simply because it warrants the attention. Oddly enough, I've been on the go a lot and so far this year the only other novel I've read is The Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee. I'm struck by how much the two novels have in common. They speak to the conscience. The literature of conscience, as Cynthia Ozick calls it in this New York times review of Coetzee's novel, makes for unsettling bedtime reading. It opens your eyes, eyes that would rather be closed. These two novels shook me just enough to wake me up.

For an annotated reading

...of my latest post on Select Hops, see this video. Thanks to the cat.

At least I hope you can see the annotations on your end. Let me know if you can't.