Samantha Garner, Freelance Web Writer & Editor

Okay, so this post might be a stretch for this here blog, but I’m making it anyway.

I just came back from seeing Pontypool, Bruce McDonald’s new movie about, well, CBC’s writeup says it better:

Set in and around a small-town Ontario radio station, the film is an anti-zombie zombie movie, one in which the chaos that erupts is heard but not seen, where the undead were never really dead to begin with and the infected townspeople spend less time munching on people’s flesh than they do messing with their minds. Instead of spreading through flesh wounds, this particular virus spreads through the spoken English language, rendering infected people utterly incoherent.

Not only was it a good movie (psychological rather than gory, which I always enjoy more), but it was a good Canadian movie, which is refreshing to see. I’m kind of in love with the premise of it, of language used as a virus. If that sort of thing were possible, the ramifications would be enormous. Just think of how much the spoken word affects. Not even English, but all language. Imagine if we could all no longer speak, if we had to hold ourselves back from it.

On a tangentially related but slightly less sci-fi note, I’ve been in love with this site lately: Accents & Dialects of the UK. You can listen to people speak from across the UK and read about the signifying markers of their various accents and idioms. So fascinating! I have since been searching for a site like this for Canadian accents to prove my belief that it’s a very Alberta thing to say “hey?” instead of “eh?” I first felt like an Albertan when I started to say that, and when I stopped saying very Ontario phrases like “feeder schools”, “collector lanes” and “May Two-Four Weekend.”

Edit: I am currently watching a show on the CBC called “Talking Canadian.” Thanks, universe!

This is a sweet story:

She has been writing short stories for 20 years for pleasure, but last night, the 64-year-old, who has two children, was celebrating being long-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK’s annual book award for fiction written by women.

It is the second time judges have picked the the West Midlands writer to go head-to-head with the world’s best authors. Last year, her debut novel, Girl in a Blue Dress, was long-listed for the Man Booker prize.

When I was a kid I thought I would have at least one book published by the time I was 25. Now, for an eight-year-old, 25 is ancient, so my perspective may have been a bit skewed. Now, I know that a lot of authors don’t really hit their stride until later in life, so this is an encouraging article. I’m impatient. I want to get things out of my brain too early when I know some story ideas would be better served by a bit of steeping, so to speak.

(Source)

The title of this entry is the name of the book I just finished reading, which my dear friend Carly gave me for Christmas. It was a quick, fun (and funny) read, and I may just use it for a Suite 101 article or two. Here are some of my favourites:

- Thoreau invented raisin bread.

- It is thanks to Lewis Carroll that books’ titles are printed down their spines.

- Walt Whitman donated his brain to science, but a technician dropped the Walt Whitman brain all over the floor.

- Dickens could only sleep with his head facing the North Pole.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald had a foot fetish.

- Salinger tried to treat his family’s ailments with acupuncture, except he used wooden dowels.

- James Joyce was mad pervy.

My only complaint with the book was the concentration of authors from mostly the States and the UK. I’m sure the term “great authors” is one that’s never easy to define and one probably can’t fit in all the authors one would like to, but was there really not even one Canadian? Or anyone from any other country?

Either way. Thanks Carly!

The second annual Write on Bowen Festival, in BC, is looking for presenters. According to their website, anyone who has anything to do with writing or reading is welcome to apply. Writers, publishers, bloggers, freelancers, anyone. And you can go to BC in July – that’s never bad!

Deadline is March 20.

Here is the frustrating thing about finally finishing one of the short stories I’ve been working on for years: I can’t think of anything else to write about!

I mean, I could work on the other story I’ve been writing for years, but after that, then what?

I have scraps of things written down, but it seems that so much of my writing brain has been occupied with the work in progress that I don’t have ideas for anything else.

Well. It’s a snowy Sunday with nothing planned so I suppose I’d better get over this!