Welcome, Dark Creek Dinny!

 
My sister's horse arrived here from Calgary a few days ago. Dinny (formerly known as Danny, but that's way too confusing given we already have a Dani in the household...) will be here for the summer so my niece, Cyd can enjoy some mellow riding and a couple of horse shows when she comes to visit. On the subject of horse names (and re-names), Bonny was also called Danny when we bought her. What are the chances? Whatever his name, the handsome, quiet Hafflinger is happy as pie here on the farm - and we are happy as pie to have him here. We took a ride down the Lochside Trail and he was perfectly behaved. Such a pleasure to ride a horse who does not have a bicycle phobia!

Aussie Under Glass

 
Riven under the table on the deck, hoping against hope that a scone crumb might fall his way...

Bathroom renovations continue

 

Here's how my feet have spent the better part of the last several days... Meanwhile, the rest of me has been tiling the upper part of the new shower stall, installing the new ceiling panel, fixing the ceiling fan, installing the new light fixture... Is it any wonder my calves ache?

Honey bees!

  Last week we took delivery of 16,000 or so honey bees... Here's Jane playing 'spot the queen' with her new... swarm? Herd? Cluster? Bunch 'o bees...

Dark Creek Diego

 
About a month ago (or so) Dark Creek Diego joined our herd... Diego is a 10 year-old Appaloosa who is strangely sane... As in, he isn't freaked out by bicycles (unlike Bonny!), doesn't feel compelled to explore the world mouth-first (unlike Brio), and is actually quiet and thoughtful under saddle (though, Ringo is getting there...) What a pleasure to have an actual pleasure horse around the place!

This photo was taken the day we went to pick him up from just outside Nanaimo. Note, too, the new (to us) stock trailer. Plenty big enough to haul three horses, four ponies, or some combination of goats and ponies... pony and cart... goat and cart... mare and foal... A very versatile oldie but goodie... due to have a new paint job soon. We are thinking perhaps dark blue to match the truck...

Proposed cover design

 
Here's the proposed cover design for the new Orca Sports title, Razor's Edge. What do you think?

How strange... when I see the cover on my computer, it's deep blue... but it looks very orange on the screen when I upload to my blog... Any computer-savvy people out there who might know what's going on? I like the deep blue version better...

Nosmo at work

 
Alas, the spot we decided would be perfect for our new stand of giant timber bamboo was a tangle of blackberry canes. Bring in the goats! The crew (including Nosmo) was happy to oblige. The brambles have now been cleared and the giant bamboo planted. Not that the bamboo is particularly huge - yet. It looks rather weedy, actually. But, given our experience with the golden bamboo grove and our modest stand of black bamboo, we know that a little time will take care of everything. Before long, we will be building a new house with our massive, fast-growing timbers!

You're Invited!

Come one, come all to Orca's spring book launch. Monday, April 20th at 7pm. Bolen Books in Victoria, BC (at the Hillside Shopping Centre). Be there or be square...

Easter harvest continues...

  First duck eggs (found another in the orchard!) and now Kashmir underfluff. I'm sure there is a more technical term for the super-fine undercoat the Kashmir goats are shedding. We've found the dog shedding blade-comb-thingy to be extremely effective in teasing out the loose undercoat. This year the harvest is much better than last. Next on the list of equipment to acquire is a spinning wheel... not long after that, socks!

Happy Easter!

 
Look what we found in the orchard this morning! The ducks were busy last night... And, yes, Colin was right. There is such a colour as duck egg blue. When will I learn not to argue with the artist about colours? We are considering our quiche options for dinner tonight...

Coming soon to an orchard near you...

 
Beekeepers! To look after the new bees, of course! Said bees are scheduled to arrive in about six weeks. Which means we need to get cracking on hive assembly, etc... Bring on the honey!

Runner Ducks!

 
Because what our farm really needs is ducks... five of them, to be precise. Meet Henrik, Daniel, Welly, Baby, and Beauty. Ringo (in the background) was fascinated by the new arrivals.

(I know the title says Runner Ducks, but they are actually Indian Runner Ducks crossed with mallards... which gives the males a more interesting colour and all of them less upright postures.

Living it Up in California

 
Arrived back from a whirlwind 11 days travelling to Rancho Murieta with Karen Brain and her horse, VDL Odette. Karen was competing at the Golden State Dressage Festival, continuing to develop and train her horse with an eye to qualifying for the World Equestrian Games para-dressage competition next year. What a great trip - the weather was excellent (except for that wind/sand storm!) and it was way cool to see all those high level dressage horses tootling about. At various points I was tasked with taking Miss Odie out to graze. The grass was lush, the sun warm, the horse happy... Life, as they say, is good!

Welcome to the World, Little Book

Venom is out! It's always pretty exciting when the box of author copies arrives in the mail. Venom might not be my first book, but it is a book of firsts.
1. First one I've done for the Orca Sports series (not the last - we're well into editing Razor's Edge, set in the world of harness racing and inspired by one of the oddest crimes out there, horse tail theft...)
2. First high interest, low vocabulary book I've done for a teen audience.
3. First kiss... well, not my first kiss (duh) but first time characters have kissed in a book (most of my other books are written for younger kids)
4. First time I've attempted a first person narrative written from the perspective of a teenage boy... (though, that wasn't as difficult as another book I'm working on which is written in the first person from the p.o.v. of a horse...)

Which just goes to show, it doesn't matter how many books I write, every one stretches
me in some new direction.

Interviewed by a Fictional Character

I have to say this was rather fun, being interviewed by a character in a book. Darby is a rather precocious character - she has her own blog and seems to have pretty good control of her author, kc dyer. Check out her blog to see how Darby handles several interviews. I particularly like the disguises the authors wear to try to hide their true identities! While you are over at Darby's virtual place, be sure to enter your name in the comments so you have a chance at winning a free book. Good luck!

Crisis in the Blogosphere

Well, crisis in my blogosphere, anyway. I blame Facebook, Twitter, and Librarything for the complete lack of action here at Work in Progress. And, I confess, the blog is suffering from a bit of an identity crisis. I think the plan initially was to chronicle the day-to-day life of a writer, but I discovered that the life of a writer is actually pretty boring. Essentially, every day is the same.

1. Thing of something to write about.
2. Chain myself to computer until something is written.
3. Check the mail and fret over bills to cheques ratio
4. Get depressed about #3.
5. Go back to computer. Write some more.
6. Print out what has been typed.
7. Scribble all over typing.
8. Re-type.
9. Repeat ad nauseum until the mail arrives again the next day.
10. Get depressed all over again.
11. Take occasional breaks to show up at bookstore signings where immediate family members outnumber legitimate fans. Pretend this doesn't bother you.
12. For fun, muck out the horse paddocks.

Sigh. Is it any wonder I have been having some trouble mustering the urge to blog?

Teens, Titles and Tate - Remembrance Day

The link to yesterday's All Points West segment has been posted... The theme - Remembrance Day. The books:
A Boy in War - Jan de Groot (Sono Nis Press)
What World is Left - Monique Polak (Orca Book Publishers)

Vancouver Island Author Celebrates International School Library Month

Go Troy!
Hometown author salutes his saviour
Heather Reid, Alberni Valley Times
Published: Friday, October 03, 2008


Troy Wilson grew up in Port Alberni and credits the John Howitt Elementary library among the things that helped him through his childhood. Despite growing up in a nature-lovers paradise, Wilson the boy, loved books and if not for the libraries and librarians of his youth he wouldn't be what his is today, a successful author.

In his Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers bio he says his favourite activities as a child were reading writing and cartooning. "As long as I had a steady supply of food, books, comics, paper and pens I was as happy as a colt in clover," he writes. That's probably why he's become a successful author of books for kids and spearheaded a campaign to support school libraries.

October 2008 is International School Library Month and in honour of that, Wilson has launched a year-long Be a Book Hero campaign. For every $20 donated, Wilson will send the donor a personalized copy of his picture book, Perfect Man, send a cartoon poster to the school of the donor's choice and give $7.50 to Love of Reading in Canada or Reader to Reader in the U.S. Both organizations support school libraries.

Perfect Man is about a boy whose favourite superhero retires, leaving him to discover his own super power, the ability to write really well, with the help of a wonderful teacher. Perfect Man has won a number of awards and his second book Frosty is a Stupid Name has also been published by Orca. Wilson now lives in Victoria.

He attended school in Port Alberni until his last two high school years, when his family moved to Nanaimo. Throughout his teen years he wrote on and off then he started college planning to be a teacher, but didn't complete the degree.

Wilson wandered the work-a-day world for awhile, working as a burger flipper, a private in the army, a gas jockey, a page at the Vancouver Island Regional Library, a daycare worker, a summer camp counsellor, an Internet skills trainer, a radio DJ and producer, a respite care worker and a market survey taker.

In 2001 he started writing seriously and he's found his calling according to the five-star reviews of his books at Amazon. The Be a Book Hero campaign gives Wilson a chance to support something that supported him, the good old school library. Visit his blog at www.beabookhero.blogspot.com to learn how you can help.

HReid@avtimes.net

© Alberni Valley Times 2008

Nominate Your Favourite Children's Books for the Cybils

It's that time of year again when Internetters around the world nominate their favourite children's books for the Cybils. Kid-lit bloggers then read the nominated titles, whittle the long-lists to short-lists and, finally, panels of judges select winners in various categories.

The Cybils website is a great source of lists of children's books - some of which originate with small, outside-the-mainstream publishers. Monitor the nominations in your favourite categories and you are sure to discover some nifty treasures!

How Bizarre is This?

While I was away, this terrible incident hit the news back at home:

Vandals hack off hair from North Saanich stallions
Stolen tail hair was a valuable selling point for breeding
Sandra Mcculloch, Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, September 14, 2008

The vandals who hacked off the tails of two stallions at a North Saanich stable Friday afternoon took more than just a metre or so of coarse black horsehair.

The horses' owners, Jan Sutherland and Kristy Rowlandson, say the thieves robbed Fiddler and Lad of their very identities.

The stallions are gypsy cobs, also known as gypsy vanners, and the small pony-type breed is best known for the flowing hair of its mane, tail and legs.

The two horses were fine at noon Friday in their paddock at Bodicea Farm on busy McTavish Road. A few hours later, Sutherland was told their tails had been roughly cut with a blade.

"I was like 'You're kidding, right?' Then I went out and I just about vomited," Sutherland said yesterday.

The tails had been in protective bags, and someone had cut them off and taken the bags full of hair. What remained was ragged stumps of hair, bluntly cut in varying lengths.

Sutherland said it's distressing to see Fiddler and Lad, both breeding stallions, in this state. "You want to grow their hair as long as you can get it. You never cut a gypsy horse's hair." Now it will be next to impossible to sell the stallions' services, since owners of breeding mares want to know the offspring will have the best traits of a gypsy cob -- and that's primarily lots of hair.

Showing pictures of how the stallions used to look won't be the same, Rowlandson said.

"It's like taking away what the breed is," she said.

Added Sutherland: "For a gypsy horse to not have a tail is totally insulting. If they had cut off the tail of any other horse on the property, it wouldn't be such a big deal." It's a baffling case, said Cpl. Marlene Martin of the Sidney/North Saanich RCMP.

"I wondered why somebody would want to do this," she said yesterday.

"The first thought is it's just malicious." But upon investigation, Martin discovered horsehair is used in First Nations artwork.

Sutherland added that there's a big market for the coarse hair of stallions -- it's popular with makers of bows for string instruments -- with 500-gram bundles selling on the Internet for $200 to $300.

Her two horses were recently at the Saanich Fair, and they had the longest manes and tails of any horses there.

Ironically, Sutherland had a bag full of horsehair she would have given away to anyone who wanted it.

"They didn't need to practically dismember my horses," Sutherland said.

She estimates it's going to take two to four years for the tails to grow back.

Police are looking for witnesses who might have driven past the crime scene Friday afternoon.

Anyone with information can reach Saanich RCMP at 250-656-3931 or Crime Stoppers at 250-386-8477.

smcculloch@tc.canwest.com


© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008