CategoriesArchivesMay 2012 |
Chewing the FatFor those times that I want to blather on about whatever. WordFestI just did my first WordFest reading. They bused kids in from a school and we read for them. Afterwards, looking into their faces, it felt like I was looking at, remembering myself as a child. What an honor it is for me to have the opportunity to share Porcupine with them. My book that is such a big part of me. I talked with one of the teachers from the school who teaches band and language arts. And he told me this was not something that these children would normally have access to. That WordFest paid for their tickets and paid to bus them here so they could experience this. You could tell that some of them didn’t have a soft comfy existence. Not by their clothes or the way they behaved, because this group of kids was truly wonderful. It was more a look in the eyes, that said, “I’ve seem more life than a lot of kids my age. I know what it is to work.“ I wanted to scoop them up in my arms. Tell them my life story, let them know that many of the most accomplished people I know come from places and homes like theirs. Like mine. What a privilege that WordFest has given us authors access to kids like these. Who I believe need books and the written word even more than those who have so much. I feel very lucky to be here. Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Housing trickle down worriesWhen I read this article by, Leva M Augstums, AP Business Writer on Yahoo, and how this huge home furnishing convention she went to was basically empty, I got that clenching in my stomach. “Hold on,“ it said. “It’s starting.“ I’m not going to reprint the whole article, just a paragraph where she’s wrapping up towards the end, to give you the general gist.
Why I got scared is because I worry that this is just the beginning, the tip of the enormous iceberg that our ship in grinding into. I think the housing slowdown is going to have a much bigger effect than expected. And not just in construction, house sales, and home furnishings and the financial sector, the mortgage companies (like American Home Mortgage who was cut off by Fannie Mae, had to file Chapter 11, and who I read recently, has apparently been bouncing checks all over the place.) Many banks as well have made ridiculous loans and what-not. I am concerned. Ever since the Variable Mortgage rates have began to come due, there has been an epidemic of foreclosures. Now, if people are having a hard time coming up with the money for their mortgage, they aren’t going to run out and buy a new car or new furniture. Those are not purchases that are necessities. Then the next tier to cut back on is fancy vacations, visits to the spa, fancy meals out, private schools for the children and the list goes on and on and on. Now if you’re somebody who already is not able to indulge in the above list you might think, “Well, that won’t effect me…“ But the thing is, it will. Because these businesses employ a lot of people, teachers, waiters, financial advisors, bank tellers, factory workers, truck drivers who transport the goods. Anyway, I could go on all day with my worries. And I don’t want to worry all of you. It’s just I feel that if you see a whole crowd of people sitting down to have a picnic on the train tracks and you can see that there is an enormous train bearing down on them at full speed. You have an obligation to say something. So please, be careful everyone. Try to cut back on your spending. Save for a rainy day. Feeling safe, having a safety net is way more important than buying that gorgeous pair of shoes, or going on that vacation that your high interest credit cards are financing. And I know that sometimes when people get scared about not having enough, scared about bills and money, what do they do? Run out and buy something, to try and fill that hole. And it helps short term. But long term, it is a killer! Try build up a minimum of six months living expenses, while making sure to put away for retirement. I hope that I am wrong, but if I’m not, and this financial storm hits at least this way you won’t be caught unawares. Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Rosie’s bookI’m very excited. Rosie O’Donnell’s new book Celebrity Detox come out in bookstores tomorrow. I’ve read a previous draft which I found very brave and honest. She really nailed what the experience is like to find oneself suddenly famous. Personally, when it started happening to me, I found it terrifying. I remember very clearly the first time someone recognized me from one of my films. It was at San Vincente Foods 1982. He was very nice, complimentary, but the idea that someone who I didn’t know, would know me, scared me. I guess again, it goes back to my childhood, and how I kept myself safe by being a good hider when my step-dad was in a beating mood. And then suddenly, I was famous and I couldn’t hide anymore. I loved acting, but the famous part sucked. Imagine. You are pregnant with your first child and suffering from severe morning sickness, you are in a restaurant bathroom with throwing up and someone is banging on the bathroom stall, sliding paper and pen underneath for you to sign. They can hear you throwing up, they know you are sick, but they don’t care because in their mind, you aren’t a person anymore. You are a monkey in the zoo. Just one of thousands of incidences that just boggled my mind. Binoculars trained on the house, the bedroom, the bathroom? What?! Some people might say, “Well, why did you become an actress then?“ An understandable question. You see, I liked acting, thought I would try to make a living, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would get leads in movies become recognizable. I just liked diving into other people’s skins is all. And if I had known what being famous was like and that it was going to happen to me I don’t know that I would have made the same choices. Rosie takes the mask off the cult of celebrity and generously lets us peer inside to the human. It took a lot of courage for her to write this. Even more to publish. And I have to say, it moved me deeply. I’m flying to Calgary to participate in WordFest and I’m going to buy her book to keep me company. I’m planning on blogging, but if I can’t figure out the hotel’s Internet situation (i.e. make it work) then you won’t be hearing from me for a few days. I have five events to do in five days and the big question is…do I have the foggiest idea what I’m going to wear? Did I learn from my last near fiasco? Of course not! And I don’t have to even wait until 8:30 pm to start packing because today is Canadian Thanksgiving and I imagine all the shops are locked tight. And to make matters even more dire, I received an Author’s Information Pack from Ian, (the lovely man who’s in charge of organizing this whole thing.) a couple of days ago, and there was a mention of media. “ You can expect a fair number of television Cameras and news crews to be at the major venues, especially our official photographer and our major media sponsors (the CBC and the Calgary Herald) Eep! So it won’t be just a school full of children, or some kindly white haired gentle readers who shall witness my lack of apparel finesse…No it shall be recorded, photographed for all of those people out there who were unable to attend WordFest, but still wanted to have a good laugh. And yet, what do I do? Am I scurrying like a mad woman, throwing clothes by the armload onto my bed. No. I’m figuring I won’t be reading at one of the “major venues” They didn’t mention which ones were major. And then of course, I have the old Mark-of-the-hiking-store-string trick in my back pocket. So I’m set. I’m good to go! I’ve got all these outfits from days-gone-past that surely will fit now that I’m armed with my new weapon. It would make sense I suppose for me to have tried out the string trick before I started counting my clothing chickens. Oh well. I like to live dangerously! Hee…hee…hee! Hmm… I just read back over this blog. I think it’s interesting how these two subjects (Ro’s book, Wordfest and my lack of preparation) are side by side. I suppose how I deal with my fear and being public now, is by being me. Refusing to act or be seen as anything other than who I am, foibles and all. Because I have to tell you, when I walked away from being an actress, I thought that would be it, I would be able to finally disappear again. So many new films, actors, but I hadn’t counted on Cable. That the films would still be playing. I had thought if I let my hair go grey, wore my glasses and wore undistinguished, disappearing clothes, no one would know it was me. But people did, do. So I’ve had to make my peace with it. Allow people in, to see the real me, hence this website. That way at least, hopefully, I become more of a person to people than a thing. Because this strangers knowing me situation, is not going away. Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, October 08, 2007 in Chewing the Fat All fixed!Okay…the audio download problem has been solved. It was some button that hadn’t been activated. There is some technical term for it, but when Susie explained it to me, the term and description just went flying into one ear and out of the other. It’s sort of like what happens to me when somebody tells me their name. I know that I’m really bad at remembering names (sequencing numbers as well) so when I’m in situation where I’m meeting new people, or even old friends, when I get to the name situation, my brain starts panicking. And then I’m cooked! I might as well give up and go home because the harder I try to pull people’s names up out of the mushy recesses of my brain, the faster and more throughly the names elude me. And this isn’t just treatment reserved for new names, I have been in social situations (yes…even I get invited out once in a while…) where I turn to introduce a very dear old friend of many years, and their name will just evaporate like a mouthful of smoke. Gone! I could tell you all sorts of details about that person, their family, their weight loss or gain struggles, their disappointments, lost dreams, sense of humor…But give you their name? Ha. I wish I could be hypnotised or something to be a cracker-jack name rememberer. Except, I’d never let myself ever be hypnotised. The idea of placing myself into someone else’s power. Someone I don’t even know. To just walk in because they have a sign on their door saying they’re qualified! No way. Now I know this isn’t fair. I’m sure there are wonderful hypnotists out there. Many people I know have been able to quit smoking by being hypnotised. I think my fear and distrust comes from my childhood. Feeling like I had no power over myself, my body and the things that happened to me. Actually, in all truth, that feeling followed me well into adulthood. No, being hypnotised is not for me! My dear friend D___a went to a hypnotist once to get hypnotised to stop eating chocolate. It worked too! That is until I came into town. Called her up, invited her to take in some theater in the West End. This was, oh maybe 15 years ago. I don’t remember what show we saw. What I do remember is being so pleased that I was back in England after being sequestered in the wild wood of Whonock for months on end. Friends, adult conversation, West End theater, and best of all…English chocolate. Keep in mind, this was well before they started selling Maltesers and Minstrels on every street corner. D___a went to powder her nose in the ladies room and I headed straight for the concession stand to load up. I bought myself a huge box of Maltesers because I knew that I would not be eating alone. D___a could sling back the chocolate with the best of them. I tried to wait until she returned from the ladies room, but my mouth wouldn’t let me. I opened up the box, pulled a delicate little malt covered morsel out and laid it in my mouth. I let it rest gently on my tongue for a while, like a secret. Then, when the chocolate was nice and creamy soft I crunched the malt portion between my teeth so it could mingle with the chocolate. When D___a returned I has managed to restrain myself from devouring the whole box of these wickedly delicious candies. “Do you want some?“ I offered generously, ready to pour out a whole handful. (That’s the thing about growing up poor, I find I always give away way more than people actually want.) “No thank you,“ D___a demurred. She’s just being polite I thought. I know the deal, done it myself. Said no when I wanted to say yes because I didn’t want people to think I was a greedy pig. “Really, it’s okay. I bought a big box. There’s plenty for both of us.“ I rattled the mostly full box at her. “Oh…It’s so tempting, but no,“ D___a said. “Are you sure?“ I asked, worried that maybe she had a fever or something. “I’m sure,“ she said peacefully. “I’m trying to stop eating chocolate.“ “Why? You aren’t overweight.“ I can’t remember what she said next. I do remember her seizing my arm as I went to tuck the Maltesers into my purse. I do remember her throwing a large portion of them down her throat all the while muttering “Oh shut up…“ I do remember later, her confessing to me that she’d paid good money to a hypnotist to stop eating chocolate. And that she had managed to hold off for three whole months before I rolled into town. I do remember how horrified I was that I’d unwittingly foiled her stop-eating-chocolate plan, but how I felt even worse because when she told me about it, the visit, the hypnotist putting her under, how the whole time she was throwing the chocolate back she was hearing the woman’s voice saying in a witchy, disgusted tone, “sickly…sweet...chocolate.“ I couldn’t stop laughing. We laughed so hard that tears came. And my poor friend, even now, to this day, 15 years later, every time she indulges in chocolate she has this woman’s voice in her head saying, “sickly… sweet… No. I am not a good friend to have. Dangerous is what I am. But I’ll tell you this right now. I’m never, ever going to frequent a hypnotist on my own free will. Hmm… I think it’s so funny where these blogs go. This was just going to be a short hello to inform you that the audio downloads are now up and running. Oh and Don says to tell you that it’s going to take around 5 minutes for the download to complete (is that the right phrase?) Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 03, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Yikes!Hi everybody, Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 03, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Singing Songs Audio BookThe audio version of Singing Songs is READY! I’m kind of excited. I spent a good deal of the summer working on these. It’s hard to believe that starting tonight people will actually be able to HEAR them. Kind of exciting and kind of scary! Wow. Just writing that down made my heart start pounding… OH! And I noticed Rosie put it up on her blog so I guess it’s okay to say it now…Rosie’s optioned Porcupine and she’s going to direct it and I’m writing the screenplay and I’m so excited I could p__p my pants! Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, October 02, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Word On The StreetI woke up today to the sound of thundering rain pounding on the roof. It was one of those days where I wanted to pull the covers up nice and snug around my neck and either go back to sleep, or at the very least, lie there contemplating sleep while wiggling my toes in a carefree-don’t-have-to-if-I-don’t-want-to way. But neither of these options where available to me. Number one, because we have two dogs. One of them we’ve had for three years and is quite well-trained and will only spray urine all over place only if he hasn’t seen somebody for a great long while and feels the need to greet them in a way that will make them feel very privileged to be singled out for this special honor. Obviously this is his ploy to make them hurry back. Hmmm…It doesn’t seem to be having the desired effect however. But now at least we know how he operates, so whenever his very favorite guests, John for example, is a couple of minutes away, he gets on his Blackberry, calls us, and Scooter is sent outside to empty whatever remains in his tiny bladder. Molly, however is the unknown. She is a rescue dog we picked up two months ago, and although we’ve been doing pretty well with her training, (Only had her evil way with the carpets 4 times, and the last one was almost, fingers crossed, a month ago.) I haven’t yet, had the courage to tempt fate and have a nice lie-in. So that was the first reason I had to get up. To take the dogs outside for their morning salutations. Well, we went, as did all the other hearty souls who had signed up and volunteered to show up. The librarians were there with their signs and petitions in the soaking rain, and I have to say, the city better resolve this soon, because what is going on is really not fair! Not to mention, I grew up in libraries. How are little kids whose parents can’t afford to buy tons of books suppose to fill their imaginations and hearts if the libraries are shut? Don and I wandered around in the rain, stopping to chat with the stalwart few who were wet and cold to the bone, trying to keep the rain that was whipping around off of the books, a few depressed balloons in bright colours hung limply from their strings. I had a good time, but I got to leave when I was done, unlike the volunteers, booksellers and publishers and striking library staff who were committed to be there until 5:30 tonight! I read. It was fun. A tent full of interesting upturned faces. I was so relieved that my tent wasn’t one of the empty ones with only a couple of bottoms plopped down in the seats. So thank you to all of you who braved the weather and showed up! On the way home we stopped at the market and I got the fixings for a pot roast, because that’s the kind of food one needs when the cold and wet gets all the way into the marrow of one’s bones. Something hot and savory, cooked with red wine, fresh spices and chunks of vegetable. And I think I’ll make some Orzo too. That little tiny Italian pasta that’s almost the size of rice. Cook it up with a little butter, fresh grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper for flavor. I’ve got the pot roast on right now and it’s just got to the point where the flavors and smells have made their way to my writing room. Yum! You know what? Now that I’m nice and warm in my comfy home, with a delicious dinner cooking on the stove, I’m happy I had to get out in the elements. My body has that tingly feeling that it gets when I’ve been outside and start to warm up, and not only that, if I hadn’t gotten wet and cold…who knows what we would have ending up eating for dinner? Oh, and K.C Dyer sent me an email this morning telling me that Porcupine was an Editor’s Choice in the Vancouver Sun! A recommended title! Yay! Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, September 30, 2007 in Chewing the Fat dreamsI woke up missing my daughter so bad it hurt. The house dark and quiet. At first I couldn’t separate the dream from reality. She was around 6 in the dream, at that cozy, snuggle-in age. Full of cuddles and leaning her little body into mine. She was that age again where every thing’s more fun, more special when mom’s involved. I woke up, my happiness filling the room, and then as the dream world separated, drifted up and away, I realized that she is grown now. Twenty-three. Thousands of miles away. And this is well and good. For the truth is I prayed nightly for help and guidance. For the gift of being allowed to see my children safely to adulthood. And I am so proud of her, forging her way in the world. Landed herself a fellowship at a wonderful university. Settled into her apartment, with her Bella dog and two cats. This is how it should be. The way of life. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that there is a sorrow, a loss, mushed up in the mix. My children are grown. No sticky, plump hands tucked up into mine. Their sunshine faces turned up to me like little buttercups seeking the sun. I’m not the sun anymore. And never will be. Never was really, they just didn’t know. And it’s odd to me, how something I dreamt can effect me so much. Even now, sitting here at my computer, my heart feels so full of sorrow and joy and loss. Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, September 29, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Word On The StreetFellow Canadians, Word On The Street is this Sunday! If you live near Calgary, Kitchener, Toronto or Vancouver come on down and show your support for the authors that live in your region. If you live in Victoria, Esquimalt High School is having a celebrations of authors this Sunday as well. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon, than to be outdoors with your family, tucking into a tent every now and then to listen to an author read and answer questions about their new books. There are authors to appeal to all ages and interests. And meeting the people who write the books can sometimes spark more of an interest in reading and writing for our young ones. For those of you in the Vancouver area, if you are brave enough to face the rainy day forecast, I’ll be reading in “Canada Writes” tent on Homer St. from 12:20-12:40. And while you’re in the area, swing by the library, chat with the librarians and if you believe in what they’re striking for, sign their petition. I’m not sure what section I’m going read from Porcupine yet. Do I read part of what I read at my launch? That piece is at the beginning of the book and doesn’t really give any of the story away. Or…do I throw caution to the winds and pluck a piece from the middle of the book? I quite curious to see what I decide. Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, September 28, 2007 in Chewing the Fat audio downloadsHello everybody, Not quite. I started with Gemma. OH MY GOD! It’s one thing to write this book, that was scary and traumatic enough, but to read the whole thing out loud! And of course for me, (as anyone who’s been to one of my book reading knows,) it’s impossible for me to just read things plain. It’s like when I start giving actual voice to the words I’ve written, the saying it out loud makes it more real in a way and it grabs me by the throat and sucks me into the situation. And the whole “Gemma” situation is not one that is a picnic in the park. There were days when I’d come home from the recording studio and it would be a good hour before the shaking would stop. Not to mention, I must have doubled my grey hair count, (If I was counting, which I’m not. My grey has gone way past the counting stage!) recording these books. But I hope, hope, hope that for all of you people out there who came to my readings and kept pestering me to make an audio recordings of my books, that these recording will be everything you wished for. As it was quite traumatic and emotional recording both of these books and I would hate to think I did it for naught. I recorded Gemma first because I thought it would be the hardest one to do emotionally, and it was. But then when I recorded Singing Songs, it was a different kind of emotional roller coaster. I was expecting it to be a much gentler read, and in a way it was, but in another way, it tore me up even bigger than Gemma, because it was my first time reading anything from Singing Songs out loud since I admitted to the truth about it. And having that knowledge there, out of the closet, made reading the things and experiences I remembered as a child out loud, saying the words, remembering the incidences… Well, let me just say this, I felt a lot more vulnerable and shaky than I expected. Anyway, you will be able to download the books either by chapter, so you don’t have to download and listen to the whole book at one time. But we’ll also offer the option on downloading the whole thing at once for those of you who prefer that. Once you download the book you’ll be able to listen to it either on your computer, or on your iPod. (I say this so knowledgeably, like I’ve ever done either, but I’ve been assured that the people who do this kind of thing will know what I’m talking about!) Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, September 27, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Social Security…Fix?So this just came in as a news bulletin on my computer
Benefit cuts and tax increases. This is what I was talking about yesterday. If you are counting on your Social Security to bail you out, don’t! You need to start saving now. The article went on to say that the Treasury paper supposedly said (I say supposedly, because I don’t have a copy of the Treasury paper, go figure) that “Taking no action is thus unfair to future generations,“ This I do agree with. HOWEVER there is something else that they should look at before they start cutting already meager benefits. I’m talking about this little tidbit that I read in Richard Russell’s brilliant Dow Theory Letters in the remarks section Sept, 12, 2007. The whole Article he quotes from is in Fortune Magazine and is called,
Now I agree, the Social Security situation is a nightmare that we only make worse by shutting our eyes and burying our heads under the pillow. It is most emphatically not fair or appropriate to leave our future generations holding the bag. HOWEVER don’t you think it would be advisable for the Bush Administration to stop spending the surplus that is coming to Social Security right now?! Stop issuing IOU’s. Start investing that surplus so that they can meet at least a little bit more of their obligations and promises to all of us who have been working and paying into this Ponzi scheme since our very first job. It makes me so mad when I read things like this. And the sad thing is the average person doesn’t even know that the U.S government is doing this. It’s an outrage.
Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, September 24, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Don’t believe the double speakThis article just came up on Yahoo! Finance “In Aftermath of Rate Cut, Investors Watch Out for Signs of Accelerating Inflation.“ Then a couple of sentences down it said “This week investors will be looking for signs that inflation is under control.“ Please! I don’t think we need to see the Wall Street and Government doctored up numbers to know the answer to that question. DO NOT believe the inflation numbers that come spewing out every now and then. Look at the numbers. In Sept. 2002 a one ounce gold maple leaf coin cost $320.90 U.S. dollars. Now it is selling at $731 U.S. Ask yourself, do I pay more now to have a roof over my head than I coughed out ten years ago? Yes! Does it cost me more to fill up my car with gas? Pay my electrical bill? To heat my house in the winter? To put food on the table for my family? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. Now I think it’s interesting that they decided in their infinite wisdom to remove housing and gas from their inflation index because their numbers were too volatile. What? I don’t know about you, but my biggest living expenses are my house and gas for my car and to heat my house and we all know how much those things have risen. So why aren’t they included in the inflation index calculations? Yes, fancy t.v.‘s and computers, and cell phones are less, but the day to day costs of living that parents have to struggle to pay, these things are more. University or College? Through the roof! I don’t know how families are managing. And the thing that really scares me is the fact that most people are just struggling to pay the bills, living month to month, not saving anything for retirement. I think I read somewhere that the average babyboomer has around $54, 000 put away for retirement! That is so scary. The interest one can earn every year on that amount is not even enough to pay the vet and food bill for a small cat. How is that going to be enough to sustain a person? And will social security and our pensions be there when we retire? I wish I could say I believe they will, but I don’t. So this is what you have to do. If you have any credit card debit, pay it off! Seriously that is an economic killer. Then if you have any spare cash, pour it into paying off your mortgage. Now I know a lot of people think, “But no! I want to have bonds and CD and stocks for security.“ But the thing is, on everything you earn with these investments, you have to pay taxes, and with the interest rates and dividend yields at such low levels, you are going to be earning far less in these investment than the interest that is being charged to you on your mortgage. Or if your mortgage is too difficult to manage, sell it. Because if you can’t make payments, your going to lose it anyway, and better to be in control of the process and get at least some cash out of it, rather than none when the bank forecloses. Oops…I just scrolled back and see that I have gone on rather a long rant. So rather then continue boring people, I think I’ll stop right here. Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, September 23, 2007 in Chewing the Fat happy, relievedI woke up early this morning. It’s still dark outside. And I’m happy. So happy. My launch went well. Thank God. I got so scared before hand. I was fine, kept myself busy with the set up, but then, it was ten minutes to seven and the door was unlocked and as the people who were waiting outside started coming in. The noise of their chatting voices filled the Lycuem all the way up to the ceiling and the next thing I know, I was standing in a darkened storage/broom closet. I told myself it was just that I needed to focus on my reading, the book. I needed to organize what I wanted to say before hand, how to introduce Porcupine and Jack to the audience, but the truth is, I retreated to the broom closet because I was scared. At quarter after 7 my dear friend Christiane (a.k.a owner of Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature and Art) ferreted me out, and it was time to begin. And oh thank goodness, because then it was started and there was no room to be scared anymore. I don’t know why I got so scared? Everybody was so lovely and kind and supportive. Christianne’s mum had put out cheese and these gorgeous fruit platters and had made these delicious brownies! There were candies (they know of my candy obsessions) and wine, juice for the kids. By the time the evening was ended I was flying high, so happy and thankful and relieved that it went well. I went home with my heart full to bursting with all the kind words people said to me while they were getting their books signed, gifts of chocolate, flowers, these sweet beeswax candles, a lovely card with something really beautiful and moving written inside, and last but not least, some special string material that the hiking stores make that apparently works really well extending and holding pants up! Thanks Mark! (Obviously a Blog reader) He showed me the special way to tie it and how to attach it to the button hole, then loop it through itself to secure it and then take the loop and Voila! You slip it over the button. It was a well thought out solution and very much appreciated. I’m still smiling about that one. The moon was bright in the sky on the way home, lighting up the streaks of clouds in the sky. I sat in the back seat with some melting chocolate cupped in my hand, my son Will beside me, Don and his mother in the front. Everyone talking, laughing, a car full of love. When we got home and out of the car, Will leaned back so his shoulders. neck and head were lying out on the roof of the car (yes he’s that tall) “Ahh..“ he said, looking up at the night sky. And there was something about that “Ah…“ that seemed to me to be so full of peace and contentment that I thought my heart was going to explode with happiness. I tipped my head back and it was lovely. We could actually see stars last night. We stayed like that for a moment or two, looking at the stars, and then we went into our cozy house to talk a bit more and then snuggled down into our nice warm beds. Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, September 23, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Book LaunchMy husband’s mother is here for a visit and since it is a nice sunny day, they went out for a walk and I am/was using the opportunity to practice a little for my book launch tonight. I thought I knew which pieces I was going to read, but today when I went through them, I got worried that I hadn’t chosen well and should find some other part to read. The problem is the sections I really want to read are the sort of magical adventure things of my childhood that I wove into this book and they should come as a surprise to the reader. On the other hand, if I read those portions, I am sure the Q & A section of the evening will make for a very fun and rousing discussion! It’s such a conundrum. I wish I could do one reading for the people who have yet to read the book and another reading for those who have already indulged. Anyway, trying to get ready makes the book launch tonight a reality and my stomach is full of butterflies. And I never, ever should have read that book Mortification. I should have stayed ignorantly blissful. Let this be a warning to all you authors out there! Part of the book is very funny and Don and I had quite a few belly laughs at the disastrous calamities that other authors so generously shared with us…But now, whenever I have some sort of public appearance…All those anicdotes flash before my eyes and I think “oh dear God, please don’t let that happen to me tonight. So that is state I’m in right now. Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, September 22, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Pacific Northwest Booksellers ConferenceI promised Peter, the captain of a tugboat, husband of Karla, that I would mention him in my blog so his crew would know that we really met and he wasn’t making it up. While I’m at it, thank you Peter for escorting me from table to table, plying me with water, helping me sign and stuff my books. Thanks actually to all the volunteers and organizers who were at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Conference. I started out petrified and by the end of the evening I had a fabulous bottle of wine from Porcupine Ridge winery (a gift from Patricia) tucked under one arm, a beautiful gift bag of books in the other and I didn’t want to go home. I had a blast. Everyone was so kind. Thank you. Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, September 21, 2007 in Chewing the Fat |
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