Friday 6 November 2015

Never Another Winter

A short story, Never Another Winter, that I wrote some time ago has just been published in Quarter Castle Chronicles Volume One by Quarter Castle Publishing, a small Nova Scotia publisher. Link to their website is Quartercastlepublishing.com.
The volume is available in paperback form on Amazon.com; http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Quarter+Castle+chronicles
or Amazon.ca;http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Quarter+Castle+Chronicles
My story chronicles the last moments of an old  man's life, but with a happy ending.  
This little volume of thirteen stories contains three written by the Evergreen Writers Group of Dartmouth NS. Website for the group is evergreenwriters.weebly.com. Interesting that all three of our stories, written without each others knowledge, are ghost stories.  We appear to be getting typecast; we previously published our own anthology of ghost stories titled Out of the Mist.  There is more about it in earlier posts on this blog.

Saturday 25 July 2015

Evergreen Writers Group webpage

The Evergreen Writers Group, the writers I associate with in Halifax/Dartmouth Nova Scotia, has just made a giant leap into the modern age.  We have developed a website! 
We hope it will accomplish four things.  First, we wish to establish a greater presence so other writers in the Halifax/Dartmouth area who might be looking for a group can find us.  Second, we hope it will give a little extra visibility to the anthology of short stories we have written (Out of the Mist, see blog posts I made last summer for details of book and where it can be found).  Third, we wish to highlight novels, short stories and poems group members have published.  Finally, it will give everyone out there in cyberspace an opportunity to communicate with us.
We may find other interesting uses for the site but for the moment, those are our goals.  If you are interested in visiting the site here is the link: http://evergreenwriters.weebly.com/
 

Friday 17 April 2015

Never Another Winter

"Never Another Winter" follows the last minutes of an old man's life as he remembers the good times and prepares to join his long departed wife in the hereafter.
I entered this short story in a contest sponsored by Quarter Castle Publishing, a small Nova Scotia publisher.  My story didn't win any prizes but was selected along with nine others as stories that 'captured the interest' of the judges.  The three prize winners plus the ten honourable mentions will appear in September in the first Quarter Castle Chronicles.
The thirteen stories in this anthology will include three written by members of the Evergreen Writers Group of Halifax.  The contest attracted entries from all across Canada (and perhaps beyond), so not bad going for our little writing group.

Tuesday 7 April 2015

Haiku inspired by snow this winter 

Yesterday was opening day in the baseball season and the Jays beat the Yanks, but here in Nova Scotia we got more snow and it's still coming down this morning.  The snowfall over the past three months has been unreal and at a time when some NS golf courses are normally opening for the season, we still have snow banks more than a metre high.
Climate changes scientists say we should expect the weather to be more erratic.  It looks like they have a convincing illustration right outside my window.
Here is a little poem honouring the occasion:

Shovell'd all the snow
the gods dump'd it down again
shovelling once more.

Sorry couldn't resist.  Now I have to go out and shovel.

Saturday 7 March 2015

Another Silly Trees anthology with poem I wrote -  Aspirations


As usual I've neglected this blog.  A couple of months ago Silly Tree Anthologies produced another anthology, this one a book of poetry with the title 'The Way the Light Slants'.  It has six poems by two of my colleagues in the Halifax based Evergreen Writers Group and one of my own.  It is titled 'Aspirations'.
I never thought I would write a poem but tried it as a possible way to loosen up my sometimes stilted prose writing.  Some who heard it thought it showed promise, and low and behold Silly Tree offered to publish it.  Probably my first and last poem.
If anyone is interested the anthology is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1505292514
http://www.amazon.com/Light-Slants-Anthologies-Authors/dp/1505292514
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/497613