On Sunday, August 10, I’ll be sitting on a panel about Baby Boomer Literature at Calgary’s When Words Collide Writing Conference. In anticipation of the event, the panel moderator, Mahrie Glab Reid, invited me to write a guest blog post for her website. Mahrie gave my piece the catchy title: What if Trixie Beldon Turned Fifty?
Thanks, Mahrie, for this opportunity and for making me see there might be such a market as Boomer Lit.

I’m back from a terrific trip to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario. The highlight was my son’s wedding on June 13 in Toronto. The day was wonderful from start to finish and filled with memorable moments for a loving mom.

After the wedding and associated festivities, Will and I spent time visiting friends in the area. Knowing that Will is a baseball fan, our Kitchener friends suggested a day trip to St. Mary’s to visit the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. I confess, before this I hadn’t known that either St. Mary’s or the Canadian Hall existed.

As it happened, this was the day before induction weekend. Former players and announcers were due to arrive that night for some exhibition innings. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay for that, but we were able to tour the hall, an old home packed with Expos, Blue Jays and other baseball memorabilia. Now I know what a home plate looks like.

Our enthusiastic guide through the museum was Kevin Glew, a writer working part time at the museum this summer. Kevin and I traded business cards and writing stories. You never know where you’ll find a kindred spirit. Canadian baseball fans will want to check out Kevin’s website.

On Saturday, I had the honour and joy of introducing my friend, Pamela McDowell, at the launch of her first fiction book, Ospreys in Danger, a picture book for children in grades 2-3. The story, based on a real event, features two plucky girls who save ospreys in Waterton National Park. Pam’s launch, approppriately, was held at Calgary’s Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.

Equally appropriate was her choice of launch bookseller –  Owl’s Nest Bookstore.

Here are a couple more photos taken at last weekend’s Creative Non-fiction Conference. I attended the pre- and post-conference events that were open to the public.

Below, I am fiddling with my camera while author and educator Aretha Van Herk speaks at the statues of the Famous Five.

A little drizzle didn’t diminish my enjoyment of Sunday’s Literary Walk of old Calgary hosted by the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society to wrap up their 10th anniversary conference weekend. Here’s writer Shaun Hunter talking about Calgary’s near-forgotten painter and author, William S. Bates, and his connection to the Grain Exchange Building (1909), now the home of Freehand Books.

After the walk, we warmed up in the James Joyce pub.

Lots of fun, companionship and laughs at our Arthur Ellis Short-list announcement event at Owl’s Nest Bookstore on April 24th.

A bonus was having one of our readers – Axel Howerton – make the short list for Best First Novel.

My novel-in-progress, Ten Days in Summer, is a finalist in The Sandy Writing Contest, Thriller/Suspense/Mystery category. Winners will be announced at the Crested Butte Writers Conference in June. I wish I could be there. I feel especially good about this because Sandy was the name of my family dog.

Good News. My long short story “Pandemic” was a finalist in the December 2013 Glimmer Train Fiction Open Contest. “Pandemic” was inspired by my trip to Italy five years ago. I wrote the story mentally for several years before committing it to computer screen, seeking feedback, revising and sending it out. Many thanks to the following people, who read all or part of the manuscript: Brian Brennan, Barb Howard, Shaun Hunter, Lee Kvern, Marilyn Letts and Deborah Willis.