"It is so much darker when a light goes
out than it would have been if it had never shone”
John Steinbeck, The Winter of our
Discontent
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by
this son of York
And all the clouds that
low’r’d upon our house
In the bosom of the
ocean buried
Shakespeare’s Richard 111
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think John Steinbeck’s quote is more appropriate to our winter
of discontent.
Winter is not my favourite time of year and especially so this past few weeks with heavy snow and freezing rain. Ice pellets rained down, and southern Ontario where I live and was blanketed with an ice storm most of us has never experienced. It caused untold misery to thousands of people who were caught in the blackout and cold for days on end. The damage to the trees is heartbreaking.
My writing group met at a tapas bar going into the New Year
with some trepidation as it was -15 and freezing, but the seven of us enjoyed each
other’s company with good food and drinks and swapped war stories of how we
survived the ice storm of 2013. We stayed until midnight so we did talk writing as well.
Personally I was spared the power failure and was
not affected when all around me was in the dark. Both sons and families and
many friends were not so fortunate. I heard stories of courage and acts of
kindness from many. The service workers were wonderful and what often happens
in a crisis; the community pulls together.
We are still in the deep freeze along with the rest of the
country. Roads are treacherous with ice and the cold is unrelenting. Lives have
been disrupted from flights being cancelled and travelling to work Nye
impossible for some. The economy has to
have suffered greatly and resources to cities and towns at an all time high.
The cost will have to be passed on somewhere, most likely the taxpayers.
As I
write this the news reports of good Samaritans who are waking up the homeless
who sleep on grates over the subway are trying to coax them inside as they hand
out toques and cups of coffee.
I was going to write about Jamie Tremain’s plans for the New Year, but I need to get my head around the changes that have taken place around me. I’ve always believed that change is good, change is inevitable. And as soon as we all get back to normal... what’s that?..I’ll start nagging at Liz again to send me some more of our manuscript to edit or revise, and I’ll do the same for her.
Interview
Mondays, 2014 line up
January 27th.Award winning author Gloria Ferris.
Winner of the 2012 Bony Blithe Award for
"Cheat the Hangman"
Winner of the 2010 Unhanged Arthur for "Corpse Flower"
Linwood Barclay is a Canadian humorist, author
and former columnist. He has published books of autobiography and both humorous
and dramatic detective fiction.
Nominations: Barry Award for Best Thriller, Shamus Award for Best Original P.I.
Paperback
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