Snowy Day in June

A snowy day in June? Now how could that be? It's actually warm and sunny in Montreal today, but in my head it's snowing. That's because in my head I'm in the far north!

I spentthe weekend reading a terric book by Vancouver author Cathleen With called Having Faith in the Polar Girls' Prison. The story is narrated by Trista, a 15 year old part native girl. She is in a detention center and she has just given birth to a baby named Faith. At some points, I thought the book was almost too sad to read, but in the end, I'm glad I stayed with it. The author does a terrific job of capturing life in the far North. Here's one of my favourite lines from the book (the grammatical errors are part of the story in that they are meant to capture a girl who has not yet completed high school): "I'm on some line that says I'm good and feel like going to fall off that line every second like them circus girls we see on TV, their feet curling around the tightrope." What I love about that line is that wherever we live, whatever our education, we're all a little like Trista -- trying to hang on.

I've been reading another book about the North too -- MY BOOK! Today I got the proofs in the mail for my upcoming novel The Middle of Everywhere.  The term "proofs" means a typeset copy of the book with page numbers and everything. It's my last chance to read through the text and see if it needs any final changes. And you know what -- it's hard to tell when it's your own book -- but I think I like it!!