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End of the Round

Hi there! What have I been up to? Tons of stuff!

Writer Stuff

A friend and I have started a group to read books by Canadian authors with a special focus on local authors and review them on YouTube. It's harder for Indie authors to get the word out about their books and we're hoping to help make that a little easier. No one has to read every book every month. If someone hates sci-fi, it wouldn't make sense to force them to read a book on it and review it, would it? Want to know more? Comment on this post or send me a message via my contact page. There's also a Facebook group called Ottawa BookTubers.

Also check my announcement page for a special announcement.

I went to the quarterly reading event ChiSeries on Tuesday night. It was enjoyable as usual. I bought books consisting of the Grigori Legacy series written by Linda Poitevin and I started collecting the Dead Kid Detective Agency series by Evan Munday. His reading was hilarious!

The Blood Waitress Club

I've been puttering away at The Blood Waitress Club. I think I'm having trouble staying in character, but I have a good start on it and can tweak it after the basic idea is written. I often worry about characters being too similar to each other on all of my projects, though my one beta reader isn't finding that a problem with The Page & The Magician.

Northern Horror

I've also been working on a short story I've dubbed Northern Horror. It features cannibalism... maybe.

Writing Course

I've begun taking a MOOC on fiction writing put out by the University of Iowa called How Writers Write Fiction. It's in an introductory week right now, so there isn't homework yet, but I'm eager to get going on it!

Health

I have a result back on my CT scan. No tumors or stones in my salivary glands. They're inflamed with some small calcium deposits and that's it.

The sports doctor wants to see me about the MRI on my neck, so I'm a little worried about that. I don't see that doctor until October. He's the kind of doctor that only wants to see you if they found something...

I saw the rheumatologist on Wednesday about the joint pain I've been having. I've been worrying about all of this. A wise friend told me not to worry about it all because it might be nothing. Did I get answers? Not so much. I have markers for some things and more testing is needed to figure out what may or may not be going on in my body. She was interested in the results of the MRI I had...

Iaido

Last week a sensei that taught at the Guelph seminar, passed away suddenly. Maehara Toshio was a humorous man and skilled at communicating through body language, which made the language barrier almost non-existent. I'm thankful I got to experience his teaching and am sad I won't learn anything more from him.

Hobbies

Last Thursday night I tried Scottish Country Dancing with a friend. It was so much fun! It's less intense on the joints and muscles than highland dancing. We skip around and do some things that are sort of like square dancing but not really. I've been wanting to do something Scottish for a while now. This was fun and really inexpensive. It's once a week, so also not hugely time demanding. Here's an example of it.

I've got an initiative going to knit or crochet warm things for little ones to bring to St. Mary's shelter before Christmas. Want to get involved? Comment on this post or send me a message via my contact page. There's a Facebook group called Charity Knitting Ottawa. I want to drop things off by the first of December.

On the weekend, I braved the rain to see Of Monsters and Men in concert at CityFolk. I'm at an awkward stage in life as many of my friends have toddlers or are hermit writers. So I went alone and met some people who were fun to stand around with after helping them find the rest of their friends. Of Monsters and Men were fantastic. Multiple drums sets, trombone, trumpet, cello, viola, keyboard, guitar, and vocals. Yes, they are a large band. They're also very talented. Not sure if you know who I'm talking about? Check out Little Talks. During the year I was separated, they came out with an album and music was something that really helped me not only get through the rough patches, but find myself again. I was in a very happy place being at their concert.

Ciao,
R~

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