The Leacock Medal short list release is scheduled for April 9, 10:00 A.M. at Lakehead University Orillia.
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There are people who think that ravens, whiskey jacks, robins, squirrels, voles and martins will never survive a winter unless they are fed table scrapes. Sometimes that means a mound of frozen macaroni and cheese. The smaller animals gnaw at it, the ravens pound it with their beaks and sometimes try to fly off with all of it. If you see a raven flying past your house with macaroni and cheese in it's beak don't be surprised.
This squirrel was more interested in the birdseed and only sat on the macaroni to get a better look around. That's chicken bacon in the background set out for the ravens. I sat for an hour, camera ready, to take a picture but those ravens are far too smart and only flew in when I left. There is an artsy newspaper published in the Yukon called 'Whats Up Yukon'. You can find it on line at www.whatsupyukon.com. Recently there was a contest posted in it called 'Take me to Frankfurt' which seems like a logical place to go as German tourists fly direct from Frankfurt to Whitehorse. The rules are simple, write 400 to 650 words on who you would take with you and where you would go in Germany if you won. My entry begins, "If I won the trip for two to Frankfurt I would take, Flunder, the Sasquatch that lives in the forest behind my house with me." The story goes uphill or down hill from there depending on if you believe in Sasquatches or not. I don't believe in them myself but I like writing about Sasquatches and portraying them as intelligent loyal beings. I've been researching German tourist attractions and I will have Flunder and I drive the Autobahn at 300 kilometers per hour in a rented Mercedes Benz. Flunder, it turns out, is a skillful and careful driver. We will visit the Kalkriese museum where the great battle of the Teutoberg Forest took place. Flunder says his ancient relatives are in the attached picture somewhere, not fighting but giving out first aid. The second writing contest was the 2014 CBC short story contest. It's very prestigious with a $6000.00 first prize and two weeks residency at the Banff Center plus your work is published in Air Canada's enRoute magazine. I submitted a 1500 word short story called 'Socko Klocko's Moustache', a thrilling suspense filled narrative of a rivalry between the Dawson City Nuggets and the Elsa Steamrollers hockey teams. The thirty member long list was announced in February and I did not make the cut. The hockey story that would have made Don Cherry proud will have to wait for another contest or a place in a book of short stories currently under construction. Best wishes and keep an eye out for Sasquatches, David Whitehorse has this great second hand book store. I had heard of the Book of the Hopi years ago but had never read it. At the same time I picked up 'Judaism in Theory and Practice'.
According to the Guinness World Records the Whitehorse Douglas DC-3 is challenging the Tio Pepe sherry advertisement in Jerez Spain as the world's largest weather vane. This DC-3 was written about in 'Kennedy's Weather Vane' and 'The DC-3' in the novel 'Haines Junction'. I photographed the plane a few years back when I was doing research for the stories. It has since been moved and sits closer to the Transportation Museum at the Whitehorse airport. |
About Me
I'm a general building contractor and fiction writer. Living in the Yukon since 1962. Archives
March 2016
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