Camping, misery, epiphanies, August 2020

I went into the car-camping wilderness, endured over 24 hours of on-off downpours. We went through it all―leaking tents, failing rain gear and blow-up mattresses (for those who had them; I used a single foam mattress), soaked gear, crushed spirits, and misery. All of our modest plans, for hiking, walking to the beach and swimming, dissolved. 

But, thanks to my resilient party who re-rigged the tarp to give us cover during the deluge, we stuck it out, rewarded by a clearing sky on mid-Saturday evening and  a waxing moon with clouds scudding past, playing perk-a-boo, and glimpses of sharp constellations. 

There was beer, wine and whiskey and other drugs of choice around the fire, of course, including pre-rolls and drops, but we also shared coffee and food, potatoes; carrots, beans, beans, pork, spinach and all sorts of potato chips, two-bite brownies and even lemon cake. We also shared jokes and memories and grievances and passions to raise each other's spirits.

I went looking for epiphanies and found them, pinned them to the notebook page in the morning of Sunday, the only sunny, temperate day we had. The view of the three-quarter moon and the Sunday weather felt like recompense after our grim uniting experience. Some of us have camped together since 2002. I am exhausted but grateful. This was one for the books.

Five Healthy Coping Mechanisms during COVID-19

These healthy coping mechanisms helped me through early on in the pandemic, and I should be talking about them (consider them recommendations.):

- Positive Lists: A regular list of positive things - daily, weekly- all things count, both banal and monumental, from cleaning the kitchen to checking something off my list to getting through a day to leaving the crossroads I reached in revising my second horror novel and the ensuing weeks of blocked agony

- Physical: stretching every morning, working out, doing push-ups and sit-ups every other morning, dancing spontaneously, walking around the neighbourhood when weather permitted

- Watching movies and shows, from Movies 'n Stuff but also free from the Ottawa Public Library and kanopy, and itunes, Netflix, DisneyPlus, as well as YouTube for virtual panels (ComicCon@Home 2020, TylerCon, the KGB Fantastic Fiction series out of Manhattan, run by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel)

- Listening to podcasts, primarily John Siuntres’ Word Balloon outta' Chicago, my go-to podcast for in-depth, sportscaster-style interviews with comics creators. I found Sasha Wood's Casually Comics on YouTube hilarious, irreverent, pithy and sexy.

- Reading books such as Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Sonya Taaffe's Forget the Sleepless Shores: Stories, Adam McOmber's Jesus and John; comics; John Allison's wonderful and life-full Giant Days recommended by Amal El-Mohtar, Gail Simone's Clean Room, a vast conspiratorial number reminiscent of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, if that's possible...; anything by Tom King (thanks, rob mclennan, for recommending!), Chip Zdarsky, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Jerry Ordway, Alex de Campi)

Books on Writing Desk

Pictured on my writing desk are:

- The Headless Man, Peter Dubé's new poetry collection from Anvil Press.
These Lethe Press titles:
- Sonya Taaffe's Forget the Sleepless Shores: Stories.
- Adam McOmber's novel Jesus and John (review copy).
- Daniel Braum's short-fic collection Underworld Dreams (review copy) and Braum's mummy-themed antho, Spirits Unwrapped.

Also - very excited to review:
- Jeffrey Round's new Dan Sharp mystery, Lion's Head Revisited, from Dundurn Press.
- Jonathan R. Eller's Bradbury Beyond Apollo, the third and final installment in Eller's rather brilliant Bradbury bio trilogy
(The two above titles are advance review PDFs, and not depicted. Know anyone who wants a review of either one?)