A commitment to Tendril

Morning glories in Edwards Gardens, Toronto


Last week I mentioned it's time to reconnect with my literary children. Today while working out at the gym, I chose Tendril.

She was conceived two years ago during National Novel Writing Month. I had a fun romp, but the first draft demanded complete rewriting, and has sat untouched ever since. Now I must reconvene with Tendril. The main plot I'll keep: a teenaged girl enters cyberspace to rescue her father. Alice in Wonderland inspired it. Last week Danny and I watched the Czech film version, Neco z Alenky by Jan Švankmajer, which extrapolates the story's dark surrealism. Tendril's voyage will be a quest for adult knowledge.

I won't post it in blind_king. Two reasons:

1. To transcend my desire for immediate attention and explore the writing impulse that has filled dozens of handwritten journals in nine years. I want to see how my intimacy with pen and paper nurtures Tendril.
2. Writing on paper will free me to work in parks, cafés, libraries, Toronto.

Work starts tomorrow, 3 to 5 pm six days a week until it's written. I have a world to design and research to do, beginning with a review of Lewis Carroll and my own manuscript.

Storm in New Brunswick

I decided to post to weather_pics some storm photos I took on our trip. They brought back one unpleasant memory.

On August 22 while driving homeward through Northeastern New Brunswick, we passed through a violent thunderstorm. While the girls used the restroom at a service station, I shot some photos of the clouds. They were very tornado-like, and made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. But I love a good storm, and that wasn't the unpleasant part.

It had barely started to rain when the girls got back, so we set out again. Suddenly the downpour came, the heaviest rain I had seen in years. I slowed down, but not enough. Next thing I knew, the car was hydro-planing on a four-lane highway. All I could think was, "I have my kids in the car."The landscape was mountainous, and the highway wound like a snake, but fortunately I had a straight stretch ahead of me and managed to ride it out until I got control back. I pulled off then and waited out the storm.