Another day, another bunch of books

...in the mail.

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science by Alice Major.

Catalysts: Confrontations with the Muse by Catherine Owen.

There. That should do me for a while.

More summer reading

...arrived and I do plan to spend the summer reading. To put it another way, I plan to keep reading, just like I do every day. Here are the new additions to my collection on top of a freshly dusted bookcase. 

Blue Duets by Kathleen Wall.

The Smooth Yarrow by Susan Glickman.

Maya: Poems for the Summer Solstice by gillian harding-russell.

Seen Reading by Julie Wilson.

As I was dusting I noticed a bunch of books I'd neglected to post about. Not that the internet really needs more images of my books or appreciates the danger to which I subject myself in order to obtain such pics. I went on dusting. Of course I found more. Dusting has become an adventure.

The 22nd International Virginia Woolf Conference

...will be happening at the University of Saskatchewan, June 7-10. Looks like a dandy. Here's the poster I found in my inbox for Angel in the House, a Virginia Woolf-related play. The play will run June 5-9. Details on poster.

The playwright, Eureka, is associated with the Ridiculous Theatre Company in New York.

(There's a ridiculous Woolf-related scene in my book Flight Calls, but that's another story...)  

As one of the public events for the conference, Louise Halfe will be reading from her work on Friday, June 8, 8:00 pm, at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon. I'd love to be there.

These two books have been in hand

...the past few mornings. Fine mornings indeed.

Flat Side by Monty Reid (Red Deer College Press, 1998).

Contributor's Notes by Monty Reid (Gaspereau Press, 2011). 

Those of you who attended my session at Talking Fresh in 2011 heard me refer to Reid's essay "Small Town, Small World" which I found in Trace: Prairie Writers on Writing, edited by Birk Sproxton (Turnstone Press, 1986). I'd spent time with Reid's work before, having bought his Luskville Reductions (Brick Books) back in 2008. That's how I learned he was born in Saskatchewan. He doesn't live here anymore.

I don't believe book trailers do much

...beyond entertaining the author during that waiting period between the final proofs and the arrival of the finished copies of the book. Here's the little trailer I made, just so one day I can say I was part of the trailer phase, brief as it was. The video was shot by H. I loved it when I saw it, so I borrowed some frames and asked for his help with a couple elements I couldn't figure out. So here it is. Ta-da! 

I'm often confused

...when it comes to the names of people and places in this area. Nicknames galore, various names for a lake or creek or road. It never ends. Like today. We turn onto a road that frequently shows up in my work. Here's what the sign on this end of the road looks like today.

The little sign at the top says Mistik Road. We look for birds along its length and turn around at a kind of corridor junction and head back. Here's what the sign on that end looks like today.

Whew. Mystic is the word I used in my latest two books. I was just going by the signs at the time. I guess as long as I remember my own name, I'm doing ok. I imagine there are other names for me as well, but let's not go there.

Warblers galore this weekend along this road and along the grid from Denare Beach to the Sturgeon-Weir River:

Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Palm Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat

We went back out today hoping to add the Wilson's, Canada, Black-throated Green, Connecticut and Mourning Warblers, but no luck.

Yesterday the 40 km/hr gusts made for some wild warbler watching. I could still see the Blackburnian whipping around when I closed my eyes for the night.

Dandelion control