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

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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