Shakeup and shakedown

I caught this in the CBC newsfeeds while distracting myself from finishing the novel.

"Que. cardinal grateful for Vatican promotion"

Maybe it is time for Vatican 3.0  I tend to agree with some of the 357 comments (so far).  This one says it in a nutshell, I think:

"When an organization sees the need to change the way it does things, it brings in NEW ideas, NEW people, NEW standards.  When an organization sees the need to PRETEND to change the way it does things, it brings in the same old people with the same old standards... a shuffle."


See:  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/06/30/vatican-shakeup-.html

I look forward to the day when the Church changes its view on birth control - and a few other things.  

Love Child

I felt compelled to clarify the term "Love Child" used in the proposed logline for the novel.  If you will remember the lyrics from the 1968 song by The Supremes, this refers to a child born out of wedlock.  An older writing acquaintance thought it meant something else.  I just wanted to make that clear, that this wasn't that kind of a relationship.

I realize an error in my earlier logline:  Sera wasn't born out of wedlock; she just had a different biological father. So did the twins.  Their mother got around...

Sera's nephew Harry was born out of wedlock.  Now, that created a bit of a stir in the small town mentality. 

Train of Thought

I am in the last few days of wrapping up the manuscript for this gd novel.  The last two chapters need more work.  The murder scene in chapter 10 will have to wait until last.  I am running out of gummy treats (my writing reward for accomplishing a few paragraphs at a time).

This weekend I managed to collect the first few excerpts that needed response from my SMEs (Subject Matter Experts)  One is for history, terminologies and semblance of believability for sections related to the Roman Catholic Church.  I spoke with my RCC SME last night over the phone and she agreed that since this story took place between 1969 and the mid-1970's, there's room for creative license.  It is fiction, after all...

The other SME is for trains. I have a pretty good memory of the sights and sounds from growing up near TWO train tracks: one CP Rail and the other a CN line that ran along the Seguin River just below our old neighbourhood.  The one that stands out more vividly is the Canadian Pacific Rail train and the huge trestle that still spans across the Seguin River.  I need clarification the models and sounds to make the story have some historical correctness. 

One fond childhood memory I have is waving from our backyard at the CP passenger trains as they streamed through and observing if someone waved back.  If a freight train was passing through on a boring afternoon, we would count the stream of cars.

My favourite section was the caboose as that was the term of endearment bestowed upon me by my parents.  One of my ten older siblings has an interesting theory about our conception dates.  If it wasn't related to a birthday present ;-), New Years or Valentines Day, it must have been due to an early morning train passing through and waking up Dad.  If he couldn't get back to sleep or it was too early to get up, what else was a warm-blooded man to do?

Well, time to focus on the story again.  Back to more tapping away at the keyboard.  

Thanks for visiting and reading along... or just passing through.

T

Thoughts of Huntsville and Muskoka

It has been interesting over the past few weeks hearing news about the big G8 summit held at Deerhurst Inn just outside of Huntsville, Muskoka.  

I think back to my happy days there, finishing high school, making friends, getting some valued work experience, finding love and loving the natural surroundings. Those were good times.

I wonder if that anniversary coin with the Bigwin Inn stamp is worth much by now?

These last few days of June will be dedicated to finalizing my creation of fictitious "Seguin Sound", plus the personal trials and character development of Father Gio and his unexpected daughter, Sera. 

Made you want to read the novel, eh?  See the poll to the right of this page ;-)

The first post

Call me optimistic, pretentious or crazy...  but I wanted to get a start on the Year of the Rabbit blog even before the novel has been published. 

Thanks for visiting.  You can follow progress on the novel here or on the www.yearoftherabbit.ca domain. I have some tidy-ups to do still. 

Now, back to tapping away at the last two chapters.  It's almost like I don't want to let go of Sera and Gio, to expose them to the world.