My father

I’ve been thinking about my father a lot lately. Last night, I was kept awake by thoughts of him. These thoughts have been stimulated by a couple of things. I recently finished a book, Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels. It tells the story of a young boy who watches his family get massacred during WWII. My father spent a year in a concentration camp during that war, and stories, movies etc that are set in that era are always difficult for me. I generally avoid them, but didn’t this time.

Another thing that set me down this path is this picture that i saw in Found Magazine. The man in that picture reminds me of my father, not just the way he looks, but the way he sits, the directness of his gaze, he seems to be left handed. It just struck me.

Found magazine has had a number of finds, these days, that seem to be things that people would be sad to have lost. Those photographs, notes from children. It’s sad, the way things get lost, people get forgotten.

I think that is what’s bothering me. I don’t want my father to be forgotten. My own children were young when he died. They have no memory of him being the incredibly vibrant man that he was when I was growing up. I think it’s sad that most of my nieces and nephews didn’t have a close relationship with him, mostly due to distance, I think. My children had the most potential to be close to him, and they were robbed of that by his sickness.

I see parts of my father that have been passed on. Two of my nieces are talented artists, as was my father. Several of them are talented in other ways, musically, creatively. My brothers can all build things without being taught how to do it, they have this instinctive knowledge of the way things go together. My oldest sister has an eye for beauty, and the sister closest to me is a talented artist, as well as having his trust of people. All of us have a love of nature, a love of water, and an appreciation for freedom.

So. I think it's up to me, to find a way to ensure that he's not forgotten. I don't quite know how I'm going to do that. But I will.

Trying to keep up to date. And shelf monkeys

Please excuse me for not updating sooner. I got a new laptop, and I can't get the hang of editing on it. I think i need to change my settings or something, and, frankly, i need some more nerdiness before i can do that.

So, on to the blogginess of it all.Well, holy cow. I have eight Followers. That's just crazy. I think that i can thank my friend Paul Michael Murphy (no relation) for most of them. He posted about my blog on his blog, and, well, you know what happens when blogs get together. It`s bloggariffic. It`s PMM`s goal to take over the webosphere. Frankly, he can have that goal. Mine is more simple, i just need an outlet for all of this thinking that I do.

So, thank you, Followers of mine. Including my sister, Mary Ellen. Special kudos to Big Plain V, who was not only my fifth follower, but made the fifth comment. For that, he gets a fifth of gin. Or Beethoven`s fifth. Or something like that. Check your mail, Big V. Shawn, thanks for following. I know you're probably thinking "when will she blog about the chick using the laptop in the middle of the main street?". I can only talk about the things i see, dude. Thank you to all of my followers. Again. I really appreciate your support. You'll get a list of your initiation tasks later. Don't worry, only a couple of them involve tattoos and piercings.

The title of this post includes the phrase "shelf monkeys", which probably requires a little explanation. There`s this Canadian author (cuz i`m all about canadians)Corey Redekop . He wrote a book called `Shelf Monkey`, which is also the name of his blog. Shelf Monkey is really, really good, you should definitely read it. I`m wondering if i should do a review of that book, but my reading of the book predates my blog... I think i will, anyway, but i need to look over it again to refresh my memory with the details.

Anyway. On Corey`s blog, he talked about his publisher ECW Press, giving away free books. (followers, please note, i`m always up for a free book)(just as an aside, i`m sitting with my back to a window, and there`s a bird in my eavestrough, tossing out debris. It`s kind of freaking me out. I don`t really like birds)

ok... back on track. ECW Press giving away free books. Yeah, they said they would, and they did. You just have to register as a shelf monkey, and promise to do some sort of review, either on Amazon, or other places, or on your own blog... So, this week, in the mail i received a copy of `Ìn Tongues of the Dead`, by Brad Kelln. I`m finishing up a book now (Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels), but i`ll get to this one after that. So many books, so little time.


Just some notes for people who aren't regular blog readers. In order to comment on my blog (please comment, i thrive on feedback), take note of the words at the bottom of my writing. It will say "0 comments" (or another number, depending on how many people have commented). Just click on that, and it will open up a thingy where you can make your comments. If you post as anonymous, just leave your first name after your post, that way i can answer you if you have any questions.


See you soon. (i should probably come up with some sort of witty catch phrase. I'll get on that)