A fantastic poem but one that is better when it’s read by the awesome Maya Angelou.

So I took the book my husband had kindly bought for me and put it away, feeling a bit lesser for owning a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. But, as is often the case, my close-minded opinions are usually turned around to show me how wrong I can be and such was the case when I needed a book to read in the bath and there, in the pile was Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul. I was in the mood to read about writing so I picked it up. And I enjoyed the stories. But there was one in particular that changed things for me. Me, who at the time, had two novels completed and safely in a drawer, another two well on the way to getting finished and portions of more in boxes and drawers and shelves all over the place. Me, who had never tried to get any of them published. I read the story of Dierdre W. Honnold and her mother. Honnold’s mother wanted to write her own story, a novel, and it would sell big and they would be rich and famous, at least that’s what she kept telling her children. But as she got older, Honnold began to get impatient with her mother because she knew that in order to be a writer, you had to write. Talking about it wouldn’t do the trick. When her mother died, on a snowy night surrounded by family, Honnold wrote, “her book died too”. Her mother never followed her own dream to write that novel, and this inspired Honnold to write and to ensure that her children could read their mother’s stories.

So, there I was in the bathtub, tears rolling down my face as I read, and while some of my stories were no longer inside me, they’d made it onto the page, but they weren’t doing much in my drawer. And I was doing nothing to get them out in the universe. I knew that I didn’t want the little napping baby in the next room to ever think I had let the things I wanted to do, craved to do, die with me. And I started to write more and work harder on stories I liked. When my friend Kathy called me, later that year, to tell me I should pitch one of my books at the Pitch to the Publisher event at the Word on the Rock Literary Festival, I at first dismissed it outright. The thought terrified me. But Honnold’s story about her mom had stuck with me and inspired me to actually do it. The idea of my child not knowing my stories or that I’d even tried to follow my dream of having them published made me draft a pitch. And although threats from Kathy and my friend Pam to physically drag me to the Pitch to the Publisher were very inspriring and immediate, down deep the thoughts of having my books die with me someday, having never tried, was the real impetus to stand in front of four publishers and tell them about a partially finished novel called this much is true.

So, with book number two out there now, my youngest child points and says “Mama” when he sees the cover of A Few Kinds of Wrong. At almost two years old, he knows now, even before he has the words to understand it, that this is my story I wrote. And recently at school, that baby who’d been napping when I first read Honnold’s inspiring story, had a chance, during literacy week at his school, to write the name of his favourite author on a big piece of paper in the school hall. Two teachers–one who didn’t know me or Sam–contacted me to tell me how this sweet, six-year-old boy wrote “Tina Chaulk” on the wall.

So, don’t let your story, or the painting you’ve been dreaming of trying, or the poem you imagine writing for your child, die when you do. I really do know how easy it is to procrastinate, and I certainly know how hard and scary it is to try, but isn’t it scarier to have your story or your painting or whatever it is you want to do or create, die still inside of you? It was to me. I hope the idea gives you a kick in the pants to get going on your dream. Or maybe you’ve set about doing it already. If you have, what has inspired you to follow your dreams?

People have been asking me what I think about the iPad and so I thought I’d let you know, even though most of the world seems to have already weighed in. I still want one. It’s pretty much what I thought it was going to be: a big iPod Touch. I actually watched the big announcement event live, well, I tried but video and audio was sparse and I ended up listening to audio from Leo Laporte’s Ustream and looking at Engadget’s coverage in pictures and words. There was an air of waiting and expecting a big reveal of some super-amazing thing that the iPad would have but I doubted it. What were people expecting? Oh, I know what they wanted. They were hoping for multitasking, which it doesn’t do, and flash, which is doesn’t have but neither does my iPod Touch and I still use it a lot. I read on it and listen to music with it and use twitter on it and surf the web on it and check facebook on it and play games on it and occupy my toddler with Elmo videos on it during long car trips and on and on and on. And I would do the same thing with the iPad and will because by hook or by crook, I plan on getting one.

There was one surprise for me, during the great reveal of the iPad: the price. Wow. I expected $1000 and hoped upon hope for $799, but a starting price of $499 was totally unexpected, although I assume it will be more in Canada. I really liked the iBooks on it and fear this may be it for the poor printed book industry, much to my chagrin as a writer and my pleasure as a reader. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still love a printed book–the feel of it, the smell of it, the look of it, especially if it’s one of my own I’ve written but I love the convenience of having twenty-odd books in my iPod Touch and knowing I can flick from The Lovely Bones to Twenties Girl to I Feel Bad About My Neck to an unpublished manusript by one of my friends who wants my opinion on her book, is a pleasure. The big problem is the bathtub so I keep some books for reading in the tub but I also put my iPod Touch in plastic baggy so I can read it there too. I figure I can find a big one for the iPad.

That’s not the only drawback of the iPad, though. There are others and it is not the perfect device quite yet. It’s mostly all screen so, just as my iPod Touch, I will be nervous of cracking the bloody thing. And I will probably have to get a case  to make me feel safe with it and probably a big screen protector, which I haven’t gotten yet for the iPod Touch. The truth is if I had a lot of money, or even a moderate amount, I’d have tons of iPod Cases because there’s something about them that I like. So, now a new obsession may be checking out the huge variety of cases for the iPad, no doubt being developed as we speak.

And where will I put it? The iPad won’t fit in my little purse or my coat pocket or my kid’s diaper bag. How will I carry my iPad? These are all questions to be answered and I think I’ll have fun figuring it out. So, what do I think of the iPad? iWant!

I’m looking around my house for things I can sell to make money. Not because things are that bad here but because I want to buy something. I want to buy something really, really bad. And I don’t even know exactly what it is. Apple will announce what “it” is tomorrow. But everyone says it’s going to be an Apple tablet with touch interface and its name is the iSlate or the iPad or the iDontReallyKnow. Apple has called it, in their invitation to tomorrow’s announcement, their “latest creation”. Now, if you’re a geek, you know this already. The Apple Tablet is to geekdom what the Sex and the City movie was to women in their forties, and then some. There is so much speculation around this thing, it’s actually getting a bit boring. Yawn, bring the damn thing on, for God’s sake. But, if you want to know all the speculations and rumours, Gizmodo has their “Exhaustive Guide to Apple Tablet Rumors” and  their Jesus Diaz has done a great job speculating about the interface. I can synopsize much of the speculation for you though and tell you that most of the rumours are about telephone companies, magazines, newspapers, and booksellers who may be teaming up with Apple and  their “latest creation” and that the Apple Tablet will be bigger than an iPhone and smaller than a laptop. It  also looks like it will have the following cool features:

• able to run iPod/Iphone apps
• WiFi and 3G capabilities
• a 10-inch color display (which has newspapers, magazines and book publishers all in this deal because that’s the perfect size for their digital versions)

I’ll be checking out all the details tomorrow for sure but since I already love my iPod Touch more than any other device I have ever had and have basically forgone my laptop for it, and since Apple’s new tablet is bound to be like a grown up version of the Ipod Touch/iPhone, I know I want it. And I know it will be expensive. The big question mark for me is going to be battery life. My iPod Touch depletes the battery way too fast for my liking and my laptop is worse. So, what’s Apple going to do about that? A pretty, portable thing like an Apple Tablet plugged into the wall? That’s just not right.

I gotta go now and hunt around and find some stuff to sell. Let’s see. The laptop looks like a likely place to start. Oh, but I have time. I’m not an early adopter. I let other people deal with the bugs in the system and then when they’re straightened out, I’ll try to find some money to hop on the bandwagon. But I’ll be watching and wanting. Really, really, really wanting.

So, this past Friday evening, we’re sitting down for supper when a knock comes to the door. Vince answers it and our next-door neighbour, Jason thrusts a paper in my husband’s hand and says “here it is and here’s a laminated copy”. Vince must have had a blank look on his face so Jason said, “she doesn’t know about this yet?” and Vince said, “no.” And then “all right, see ya” and Jason was gone. I leafed through the paper as Vince opened the rolled up laminated page and we both saw the list of Current’s Six-pack of the best books of 2009. And A Few Kinds of Wrong was there. And this pleased me very much. Thank you Gina Gill and Current.

When he was diagnosed, he talked about projects he had in progress and how he hoped he could get them finished. That hit me hard. Leaving projects unfinished is something I hate to think about. I know it happens, know it has to happen. If it doesn’t, then you leave your life having finished all your projects and I wouldn’t want that to happen. Another writer, Robert B Parker of the Spenser series, passed away this week at his desk, leaving behind an unfinished project. If you’re a writer, or an artist, or anyone who does anything as a passion rather than a pastime, you will leave things unfinished. I work on numerous things at once, and leave things and come back to them. So I will leave things in progress. I don’t see the day coming when I will put down my pen and say “well, I’m done. I’ve written everything I had to say.” But still the idea bothers me. Not as much as the idea of  leaving the earth before the boys are grown and living independent lives, but it does bother me.

He did continue to work on his projects, right up to the end, practically. The Globe and Mail says that he finished final revisions on his memoir, Cigar Box Banjo, this past weekend. Cigar Box Banjo is set to be released by Greystone Books in May.

Paul Quarrington talked in his part 3 interview above, about squeezing all the juice out of things before you go. I think he squeezed a lot out of life. He’s left me with some lessons about not taking things for granted, for working on what you love and getting things done and, basically not wasting time. But I will waste time, I know. That’s part of life too. I love Snood too much and am too nosy about what’s going on in facebook. Right now, though, there’s an old manuscript on my desk, waiting to be revised and a 22-month-old in the corner stacking blocks so I’m going to go now and squeeze some juice out of this. You can see Paul Quarrington, doing  the same, doing some of what he loved, in the video below. RIP

This blog was in the running for the award but I didn’t promote it or say anything about it here. Campaigning is not my thing and the truth is I don’t think I post consistently enough to warrant such a distinction for this blog. I hope the NL Bloggers Choice Award got more people checking out all of the great blogs from Newfoundland and Labrador, those that were up for the award and the many others that are on the NL blogroll.

I really want to thank Stephen Eli Harris for keeping the blogroll and for all the work he did on the contest, including picking the blogs of the week throughout the year. Stephen deserves his own award for all he does to promote NL blogs and while I can’t provide such an award, my gratitude and a link to Stephen’s personal blog (well, that’s actually two links to it now) will have to do. Thank you, Stephen, and keep up the great work.

I was a bit distracted too, I’ll admit as I had a phone-in radio interview first thing this morning. My first live interview, so I was nervous and I kept thinking about that. Plus I was watching twitter and posting a bit on twitter and facebook while I watched so that was distracting too. Maybe those were the reasons. Others have blamed the meandering of the winners as they tried to navigate to the stage but that happens every year and every year it bugs me. So, onto some general highlights and lowlights, as I saw them, at the Golden Globes 2010.

Highlight
Mo’Nique’s acceptance speech. Who knew that one day Mo’Nique would win a Golden Globe? For acting. In a movie. Not me, at least not until Precious came out. Her touching acceptance speech was fabulous.

Lowlight
The ridiculous pre-show on NBC. It was pouring rain on the red carpet and none of the people out there interviewing seemed to know what they were doing. And Billy Bush seemed downright angry. The umbrellas were the main fashion accessory and they came up way too much in the pre-show interviews. Stuff like Bush saying “Look at you, Bradley Cooper, covered with an umbrella!”. Also Bush would keep asking people if they knew it was raining. Worst pre-show ever. Even Joan and Melissa Rivers could have done a better job than that.

Highlight
Both John Lithgow and Michael C Hall winning for their brilliant portrayals of serial killers in the series Dexter.

Lowlight
Seeing Michael C Hall looking sicker than I had anticipated. The actor is battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma and is in remission so I was surprised to see him looking so pale and sporting a black toque along with his handsome tux. Also, on a Michael C Hall related note, I know Jennifer Carpenter just plays his sister on Dexter and that they married last year in real life but since I only see them as brother and sister, there’s always an ewww factor for me when I see them that way, especially when they kiss. On the lips!

Highlight
Meryl Streep’s acceptance speech. She is so funny and she brought attention to both her mom and Haiti in great ways.

Lowlight
Facial hair. What is up? Is there a big Grizzly Adams or Unabomber movie coming out and everyone wants to try out for it? There were some ugly, ugly beards there last night, beards that looked uncared for and like small creatures could pop out of one at any minute. Worst of all was William Hurt, but John Hamm, George Clooney, and Jeff Bridges didn’t do much for forwarding beard love.

Highlight
When Julianna Margulies stopped to give George Clooney a little kiss (yes, even with that beard) after she won. Awwwm, it was Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway again.

Lowlight
Harrison Ford’s presenting an award. I don’t know what is up with Harrison Ford. He was slurring his words and one side of his face seemed droopy. I was afraid he was having a stroke right there on stage. Or maybe he’s had one. I don’t know but I hope he gets better from whatever caused that.

Highlight
Colin Farrell. That’s all. He was there and he was on stage presenting or something. I don’t know. I was distracted because Colin Farrell was on stage.

Lowlight
The faces of the Golden Globes. It was like looking over a sea of scary, rather unlife-like dolls. Plastic surgery, botox, collagen, or maybe people just made a face and then had some kind of plastic coating sprayed on them to keep that look intact. Going to get harder and harder to win awards when creating expressions with your face is no longer possible.

Highlight
Robert Downey Jr’s acceptance speech. Downey chose to not thank everyone and gave what I thought was the best speech of the night.

Lowlight
James Cameron’s hair and James Cameron telling us that he had to pee. I don’t need to know that James, thanks all the same.

Highlight
Ricky Gervais as host. I heart Ricky Gervais and I wish he’d been on there more. But I guess he was a bit out of control and made jabs at people so they didn’t like it. Some of those jabs made me cringe, but they hit the mark too. Ricky said it best when he joked, after implying that perhaps a Golden Globe could be bought, “I’m not going to do this again anyway”. If you missed it, here’s a video of Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes.