Canadian Book Review ~ In the Capital City of Autumn by Tim Bowling

Happy Publication to Tim Bowling and his new poetry collection, In the Capital City of Autumn, published with Wolsak & Wynn!

Tim Bowling is in top form in his latest collection of poetry, In the Capital City of Autumn. Threading through autumnal themes such as the loss of his mother and the demolition of his childhood home, his children growing and the inevitable passage of time, Bowling writes with rich lyricism and imagery. Sweet William and loosely woven woollen mitts for his mother, the moon as “an egg in the pocket of a running thief” for time, salmon for eternity. In the Capital City of Autumn, the characters of The Great Gatsby come to life, and three a.m. brings wisdom. These are masterful poems, lightened with a touch of whimsy, poems to sink into on a quiet evening.

@wolsakandwynn

@river_street_writes

#canlit #poetry #publicationday #bookbirthday #poetrycollection #nationalpoetrymonth #poetsofig #bookishcanadians #bookstagramcanada #canadianpoet #canadianpoets #canadianpoetry #alberta  #timbowling #poetrycollection

Canadian Books ~ The Art of Floating by Melanie Martilla

Happy Publication to Melanie Marttila’s debut poetry collection, The Art of Floating, published by Latitude 46.

The Art of Floating is Melanie Marttila’s debut poetry collection, and a result of and testament to years of honing her craft. The collection of five sections of free verse poems is wide ranging and eclectic, bringing to life her deep connection with the earth and sky of Ontario. The aptly named collection describes her learned ability to ride the unpredictable waves of mental illness  and prevent herself from drowning within it, while seeking solace in the natural world around her. These lyric poems are stunning and transportative, absorbing the reader with captivating imagery, complex diction, and highly relatable themes most pivotal in life, such as loss, grief, and hope. 

The Art of Floating is an elegant and beautifully crafted debut collection of poetry by Sudbury’s Melanie Marttila. Her poems are mirrors to the tiny, often quiet, and supposedly insignificant moments in a life. In her poetic work, Marttila reminds her readers to take note of the rhythms of the natural world, inviting them to consider elements of myth, astronomy, ritual, and personal anecdote as a way of finding the poems that live in the world in both a specific and universal way. Paying attention to the supposedly small things in life, Marttila suggests, is the way in which you can enter the world—and move through it mindfully—in a truly poetic fashion.”

— Kim Fahner, author of Emptying the Ocean 

@melaniemartilla

@lat46publishing

@river_street_writes

#canlit #poetry #publicationday #bookbirthday #poetrycollection #nationalpoetrymonth #poetsofig #bookishcanadians #bookstagramcanada #sudburyontario #canadianpoets #canadianpoetry #mentalhealth #endthestigma 

Canadian Books ~ Blood Belies by Ellen Chang-Richardson

Happy Publication Day to Ellen Chang-Richardson and their extraordinary debut poetry collection, Blood Belies (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024).

Chang-Richardson writes of race, of injury and of belonging in stunning poems that fade in and out of the page. History swirls through this collection like a summer storm, as she brings her father’s, and her own, stories to light, writing against the background of the institutional racism of Canada, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the head tax and more. From Taiwan in the early 1990s to Oakville in the late 1990s, Toronto in the 2010s, Cambodia in the mid-1970s and Ottawa in the 2020s, Blood Belies takes the reader through time, asking them what it means to look the way we do? To carry scars? To persevere? To hope?

Ellen Chang-Richardson (they/them) is an award-winning poet of Taiwanese and Chinese Cambodian descent whose multi-genre writing has appeared in Augur, The Ex-Puritan, The Fiddlehead, Grain, third coast magazine, Vallum Contemporary, Watch Your Head and more.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, they were raised in Oakville, Ontario and São Paulo, Brazil, and spent their most formative years growing up in Shanghai, China. A third culture kid at heart, Ellen's writing is informed by their love of contemporary art, their concern with the climate crisis, and their experience moving through the world as they are.

The co-founder of Riverbed Reading Series, an editor for Room and ​long con magazine, and a member of the poetry collective VII, Ellen is currently based in Ottawa, Canada, on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation. You can usually find them baking sourdough bread from their starter, Bubbles, or biking the riverside trails on their single-speed.

@river_street_writes

@ehjchang

@wolsakandwynn

#poetry #nationalpoetrymonth #poetsofig #diversifyyourbookshelf #canlit #canadianliterature #bookishcanadians #bookstagram #bookstagramcanada #canadianreader #canadianbooks #poetrycollection #canlit

Canadian Books ~ Skater Girl by Robin Pacific

Happy Publication Day to Robin Pacific and her scrappy and sensational memoir in fragments, Skater Girl! (Guernica Editions)

Skater Girl is a collection of intensely personal essays, an archaeology of the self. Robin Pacific sifts through the midden of consciousness to find shells, potsherds, a broken piece of mirror. Themes of art, spirituality and social justice run like a current through otherwise disconnected pieces and fragments, many as short as one paragraph. Further, ideas about aging, loss and mortality colour many of them. The book is about the formation of Robin Pacific's many selves, about creativity, spiritual seeking, and the dream of a more equal society.

Robin Pacific‘s work has spanned thirty years and a wide variety of media. In addition to writing personal and critical essays, she has produced artworks in a variety of media, encompassing painting, drawing, video, installations, performance, and numerous community based collaborations. Robin holds a PhD in  English Literature from York University,  a Masters in Theological Studies from Regis College, and a Masters in Fine Art, Creative Nonfiction, from Kings College. Skater Girl is her first full-length book

@river_street_writes

@robinpacific

@guernicaeditions

#skater #figureskater #memoir #creativenonfiction #artists #torontowriter #torontolife #canlit #canadianliterature #bookishcanadians #bookstagram #bookstagramcanada #canadianreader #canadianbooks

Canadian Book Review ~ What the Living Do by Susan E Wadds

Happy Publication Day to Susan Wadds’ debut novel, What the Living Do! (Regal House Publishing)

With equal measures of compassion and bite, What the Living Do plumbs the twisted depths of survivor's guilt and childhood trauma to grapple with the question of self-worth. 

More about the book:

Sex and death consume much of thirty-seven-year-old Brett Catlin's life. Cole, ten years her junior, takes care of the former while her job disposing of roadkill addresses the latter. A cancer diagnosis causes her to question her worth, suspecting the illness is payback for the deaths of her father and sister. Thus begins a challenging journey of alternative healing that she doubts she deserves. Just as Brett surrenders to the prescribed cure, a startling discovery sends her on a more profound exploration of cause and effect. Encounters with animals, both living and dead, help her answer the question: who is worth saving?

About Susan Wadds:

Winner of the Writer’s Union of Canada’s Prose Contest in 2016, Susan Wadds’ work has appeared in The Blood pudding, Room, Quagmire, Waterwheel Review, and many more. The first two chapters of her debut novel, What The Living Do, (Regal House Publishing, 2024), won the Lazuli Group’s Prose Contest, and were published in Azure Magazine. A graduate of the Humber School for Writers, Susan is a certified Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) workshop facilitator. She lives on a quiet river in South-Central Ontario with an odd assortment of humans and cats. 

@river_street_writes

@deepamwadds

@regal_house_publishing

#canlit #canadianauthors #sexualrights #reproductivehealth #reproductiverights #morality #bookstagram #bookstagramcanada #womensrights #womenwriters #womenwritingfiction #litfict #litfic #amreading #readersareleaders #bookishcanadians #bookstagram 

2024 Craft Space Organization Challenge #10 ~ Preparing for a Crop

Preparing for a Crop

Crops can be a wonderful chance for you to get caught up on pages, catch up with friends, and enjoy your hobby with other Scrapbookers who understand your obsession. But planning ahead is very important to your success – it is a proven fact that the less you bring to a crop, the more you’ll actually get done. Here are a few tips to help you prepare:

Mission Statement: A crop is a rare chunk of time to spend on yourself. How long will the crop last? What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to socialize? Do you want to set a goal for completed pages? Would you like to complete a mini-album? Do you want to try to master a new technique? Do you want to organize your photos? Knowing what you want to get out of it and how much time you’ll have to do it is crucial to your planning, and helps to avoid frustration at the end of the day if you don’t achieve what you set out to do.

Note: I would personally pick my photos first before choosing a sketch.

Gather your Blueprint: If you’re planning to get a certain number of pages done, having a blueprint for each page, whether a sketch, a rough drawing, or inspiration from a print ad or a layout you’d like to borrow, is an important step in the planning process. If these points of inspiration are in a book or magazine, consider copying them or cutting them out of the book so you can place it directly with your photos and papers.

Match Photos to the Blueprint: Once you have your sketches in mind, find photos that will coordinate with them. Then for each set of sketch and photos, do the following steps:

Journal: You know from your sketches where the journaling will go and how big it should be, so now is the perfect time to write it. Once you have your papers together, you can print it out – that way, your pages will be completely finished at the crop!

Coordinate Papers with your Photos and Journaling: Match the papers to the colors in your photos and the mood of your journaling.

Choose your embellishments: Whether your title will be printed on paper, created with stickers, or some other type of embellishment, gather the supplies for that, and then think about your finishing touches and include those. You may want to bring more than one option so you can decide exactly how you like it when you have everything else in place.

Place your supplies in a Pages in Progress Folder: Store each set of blueprints, photos, papers, journaling and embellishments separately. Bring a few of these and your basic supplies & you can get pages done at the crop!!

Bring a Small Sticky-note Pad to the Crop: If you forget to bring something for your page, or decide it needs just one more thing, you can write it on the sticky note and attach it to your page. Now you have a perfect reminder when you get home!

Packing for crops does not need to be a huge chore the day before you go – consider pairing the above items together in Pages in Progress folders from time to time and filing them away – that way, if you get a last minute invitation to a crop, you’ll be able to grab and go! You’ll have fun, get more done, and be proud of your accomplishments!

Please note:  I did not write this article.  I don't know who did but I would like to give credit where it is due so if you know, please let me know.

Canadian Novels ~ In Sickness and In Health & Yom Kippur in a Gym by Nora Gold

 

Happy Publication Day to In Sickness and In Health & Yom Kippur in a Gym, the new set of novellas by award-winning author, Nora Gold! 

This phenomenal book was published by Guernica Editions and is now available anywhere books are sold. 

Dr. Nora Gold is the author of four acclaimed books and the winner of two Canadian Jewish Book/Literary awards, as well as praise from Alice Munro. A former professor and an activist, Gold is the editor-in-chief of the prestigious literary journal Jewish Fiction .net, which has readers in 140 countries.

About In Sickness and In Health. Lily had epilepsy as a child, so her most cherished goal has always been to be “normal”. By age 45 she has a “normal” life, including a family, friends, and an artistic career, and no one, not even her husband, knows the truth about her past. But now some cartoons she drew threaten to reveal her childhood secret, and destroy her marriage and everything she has worked so hard for. A moving novella about shame, secrets, disabilities, and the limits and power of love.

About Yom Kippur in a Gym. Five strangers at a Yom Kippur service in a gym are struggling with personal crises. Lucy can’t accept her husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis. Ira, rejected by his lover, plans to commit suicide. Ezra is tormented by a mistake that ruined his career. Rachel worries about losing her job. Tom contemplates severing contact with his sisters. Then a medical emergency unexpectedly throws these five strangers together, and in one hour all their lives are changed in ways they would never have believed possible.

@noraannruth @river_street_writes

@guernicaeditions

#canlit #novellas #bookishcanadians #bookstagramcanada #epilepsy #yomkippur #feministliterature #canadianliterature #canadianbooks #health #wellness #disability #smallpress #litfict #litfic #canadianreader #ilovebooks

2024 Craft Space Organization Challenge ~ #9 Books and Magazines

You may recall that Challenge #8 was organizing your paper cosmetics. I have a rather large collection although I am pretty sure there are lots of you with even more. But mine ARE organized.

So I am more than ready for Challenge #9 . . .

Books and Magazines

Inspiration for scrapbook pages is everywhere. But what is the best way to organize it so that it's actually USEFUL?

First consider cutting up your magazines and idea books, and only saving the ideas that you really plan to use. Magazines and idea books that just sit on your shelves aren't really useful. It can take hours to go through your books to find the one layout you remember. Having your ideas in a condensed form, arranged in a way that makes sense to you is much more effective. If you are able to cut up your magazines, here are some ideas for arranging them:

theme (holidays, birthday, babies, pets, travel etc)
number of photos used in the layout
journaling ideas
colours
quotes
techniques

Now that you've decided how to arrange them, where do you store them? A few ideas:

* a composition book or some other kind of sketchbook: you can sketch in here and adhere page ideas into it. It's also portable, so you can take it with you to crops!
* an index card box: adhere your ideas to index cards
* idea file folders. Place your ideas inside file folders and label the index tab. Store in a portable file box. Add categories as needed.
* binder with page protectors: tuck clippings into the page protectors

If you have decided you are NOT cutting up your magazines . . .

SORT: Make sure that the magazines and books are still relevant to you. If you are holding onto magazines more than a year or two old, REALLY make sure they still interest you. Sort them into piles: KEEP, DONATE, SELL, TOSS

PURGE: Trash the TOSS pile. Arrange immediate drop-off or pick-up of the DONATE pile. Bag up and assign a price and your initials to the SELL pile.

ASSIGN: sort your magazines/books by title/date of issue, and consider storing your books and magazines down low due to their weight.

CONTAINERIZE: store in boxes or magazine holders.

EQUALIZE: Consider getting varied colours of post-it flags, and setting up categories for ideas. Each time you get a new book or magazine, flag the pages you like according to your system, so that you an easily see from the outside of your books which one might have an idea applicable to the project you are working on.

Only one week left of our challenge . . . 

how's your space looking now?

Canadian Book ~ Deviant by Patrick Grace

Happy Publication Day to Deviant (University of Alberta Press) by poet Patrick Grace! 

Deviant traces a trajectory of queer self-discovery from childhood to adulthood, examining love, fear, grief, and the violence that men are capable of in intimate same-sex relationships. Richly engaged with the tangible and experiential, Patrick Grace’s confessional poetry captures profound, sharp emotions, tracking a journey impacted equally by beauty and by brutality. Coming-of-age identity struggles are recalled with wry wit, and dreamlike poems embrace adolescent queer love and connections as a way to cope with the fear and cruelty that can occur in gay relationships. Later poems in the collection recall vivid moments of psychological trauma and stalking and explore the bias of the justice system toward gay men. 

Collecting memories, dreams, and fears about sexual identity, Deviant makes important contributions to queer coming-of-age and intimate partner violence narratives. 

@thepoetpatrick 

@river_street_writes 

#canlit #poetry #queerlit #queerliterature #bookishcanadians #bookstagramcanada #canadianpoet #canadianpoetry #poets #poetsofig #poetsofinstagram #poetrycollection #canadianliterature #literature #whattoreadnext #poetrylovers #queerpoetry #queerpoet #canadianreaders #readersofig #canadianbooks

2024 Craft Space Organization Challenge ~ Challenge #8 Paper Cosmetics

How does it feel to know we are nearly done?  Your crafting space should be looking a lot better by now.  I bet you aren't opening 15 different storage containers while trying to find that one item you need anymore.

Challenge #8

   

It is time to organize our "paper cosmetics": paints, inks, embossing powders, mists, and other products that add a little something special to our pages.  If you do mixed media or art journaling I bet your stock of paper cosmetics is pretty substantial.  Let's get started . . .

SORT: 

First go through each of these items and make sure your colours haven't expired.  Are ink pads still juicy?  Are lids still intact? Do paints still mix together when shaken? Are your chalks still intact enough to use?  Sort all of your paper cosmetics into TOSS, KEEP, SELL, DONATE

PURGE: 

Throw out the TOSS items.  Bag up and assign a price and your initials to the SELL pile, and put them immediately in your garage sale box.  Arrange for pick-up or drop-off of the DONATE pile.

ASSIGN: 

Sort your KEEP pile into categories that make sense to you.

CONTAINERIZE: 

Inks last longest when stored horizontally, upside down on a shelf, in a drawer, or maybe a cassette tape holder?  Paints could be stacked on a narrow shelf, on a tiered rack, in spice racks, etc.  Embossing powders, chalks and other cosmetics could be stored in well-labeled drawers or bins.

EQUALIZE: 

Take a few minutes at the end of each scrapping session, when you return from a crop, or return from a shopping trip to put your paper cosmetics away where they belong.

Please share your progress on our Facebook group.

2024 Craft Space Organization Challenge ~ #7 Embellishments

So how did you make out with Challenge #6?  I'm not a huge fibre user on my pages so I was pretty sure this was an easy challenge for me. It was fun re-discovering just how much pretty ribbon, floss and washi tape I actually do have.

Are you ready for Challenge #7?





Embellishments are some of the easiest things to buy. Everything looks so good, and you really believe you NEED everything! Embellishments are also one of the supplies most affected by trends so careful consideration is really needed here.

It's also important to find a system that will help you store all of your embellishments in a way that won't overwhelm you, yet also is visible enough that you don't forget to USE them. 

Let's S.P.A.C.E. them.

SORT: 

As always, bring all of your embellishments together. Touch every piece that you have and ruthlessly sort through them, deciding what to KEEP, TOSS, SELL, DONATE.

PURGE: 

Immediately throw out the TOSS pile. Bag up and assign a price and your initials to the SELL pile, and put them in the garage sale box. Set up a drop-off or pick-up of the DONATE pile.

ASSIGN: 

Sort through the KEEP pile in a way that makes sense to you. Some ideas for sorting your embellishments:

1) by category (buttons, brads, alphabets, charms, etc.)
2) by colour
3) by manufacturer
4) by type (metal, acrylic), or
5) by theme

CONTAINERIZE: 

Now that you've decided how to sort your embellishments, the next step is decided how to store them, and how to label them! Researching online will give you great ideas. Talk to other crafters about what ideas worked for them.

EQUALIZE: 

Take a few minutes at the end of each scrapping session, when you return from a crop, or return from a shopping trip to put your embellishments away where they belong.

Please share a photo of your organized embellishments with us here.

2024 Craft Space Organization Challenge #6 ~ Ribbons and Fibres and Washi Tape

Are you ready for Challenge #6? 

Let's talk about Ribbons and fibres and washi tape. 

There is no "right" way to store your ribbons and fibre. The most important factor is that the system works for YOU. First, let's make some S.P.A.C.E.

SORT: 

Gather together all of your ribbons and fiber, and sort them into piles: KEEP, TOSS, SELL, DONATE.

PURGE: 

Throw out the TOSS pile. Immediately make arrangements for pick-up or drop-off of the DONATE pile. Bag up, and assign a price and your initials to the SELL pile, and immediately put these in your garage sale box.

ASSIGN: 

Sort your KEEP pile into types/colours of fibre and ribbon. If your ribbons are in a big wrinkled mess, take time now to give everything a pressing (careful with the heat, some synthetics may melt!).

CONTAINERIZE: 

Consider the space that you have, and the way that you work. Here are some ideas that work for both ribbons and fibres:

1) on those little cardboard bobbins meant for embroidery floss

2) organized by colour in big clear glass jars on a shelf

3) wound and paper clipped and stored with their coordinating embellishments

4) Cropper Hopper mini embellishment boxes and sorted by colour

5) in small ziploc bags stored in a photo box, or on a big ring

6) in sports cards organizer pages, sorted by colour and in a binder

7) wound on index cards and stored in a photo box

EQUALIZE: 

Take a few minutes at the end of each scrapping session, when you return from a crop, or return from a shopping trip to put your ribbons and fibres away where they belong.

Share your progress by posting photos at in our Facebook group.

2024 Craft Space Organization Challenge #5

 Challenge #5 - Stickers, die cuts, rub ons, and swaps 

Stickers, die cuts, and rub-ons are some of the hardest things to organize because the different sizes and shapes pose many challenges. Rub-ons present their own challenges because if they aren't stored properly, they stick to each other and then they are useless. 

It's time to make S.P.A.C.E. 

SORT: 

Time to be ruthless. Consider if you are really going to use these items. If you bought a whole sheet of die cuts just to use one or two tags, why are you hanging on to the whole sheet? Those stickers you bought in 1999 were adorable then, but definitely not your style now, are they? So, sort into piles: TRASH, SELL, DONATE, TO KEEP 

PURGE: 

Throw out the TRASH pile. Bag up, and assign a price and your initials to the SELL pile and put them directly into the garage sale box. Make immediate arrangements to rid yourself of the DONATE items. 

ASSIGN: 

The KEEP items need to be divided into categories that make sense to you: by colour, by manufacturer, theme, size, or type. 

CONTAINERIZE: 

Here is an article about storing stickers, die cuts and rub-ons: 

EQUALIZE: 

Take a few minutes at the end of each scrap session and whenever you return from a crop or a shopping trip to put your stickers, rub-ons and die cuts where they belong. 

SWAPS

While you are busy sorting your stickers you should also sort any swaps you’ve been holding on to.  Many of us have fallen victim to the lure of scrapbook swaps among local and online groups. All the hours, material, creativity, and postage costs make these items difficult to purge. But let's face it . . . not everything is YOUR style, you are NEVER going to use some of it. 

It's time to make more S.P.A.C.E. 

SORT: 

Keep only what you love. If the colour or style does not make you smile, it must go. Keep only what is significant to you - don't keep the soccer page swap items if your kids are into hockey and dance. Sort into: KEEP, TRASH, SELL, DONATE 

PURGE: 

Pack up the DONATE pile and give it to a beginner scrapbooker who might appreciate these items. Throw out the TRASH pile. Bag up and assign a price and your initials to the SELL items and put them directly into the garage sale box. 

ASSIGN: 

Sort your KEEP items into categories, theme, holiday, colour, whatever makes sense to you. 

CONTAINERIZE: 

Store your keepers in page protectors by theme in binders, or get them into giant ziplocs to create page kits for your next cropping session. 

EQUALIZE: 

Next time a swap arrives in the mail, take a few minutes to toss or give away what you know you'll never use, create a page kit for your next cropping session, or put in a page protector in your swap binder for storage. 

At one point in my scrapbooking life I participated in a ridiculous number of swaps. Not any more . . . 

When you are done, please share a photo to our Facebook group showing your storage system.