by PDR-Kellie | Dec 14, 2017 | Creativity, Family, News, Novel, Poetry, Process, Seasons, Suicide, Teaching, Tim, Winter, Writers, Writing Life
So, it’s been a bit of a rough week, and I’ve got nothing to complain about. Apart from being closed up in my countryside cloister due to a broken-down car, great things have been happening. I’ve pretty much filled my pilot course (one spot is left,...
by PDR-Kellie | Oct 5, 2017 | Contemplations, Creativity, Creativity Coaching, Family, Fiction, Manitoba, Novel, Process, Winnipeg, Writing Life
So, things have been nuts. My mom came to visit, two days after the movers hauled everything into our new house. We picked her up at the airport and – you might already know this – when she got inside our front door and started climbing the stairs, she...
by PDR-Kellie | Mar 30, 2017 | Alberta, Contemplations, Family, Poetry, Suicide, Writing Life
I woke at four this morning, and with night around me, the dark, quiet fields outside, I wrote for a little while. A couple of poems came out: one about the sleek black kitten who lives in the house we’re house-sitting on a hobby farm in Alberta, another to my...
by PDR-Kellie | Mar 23, 2017 | Contemplations, Creativity, Family, Novel, Process, Suicide, Writing Life
Grief is not linear. It does not come in stages. It loops back, squiggles forward, circles and dips. Like everyone says (everyone who’s been there, I mean), it comes in waves. Buried in novel revisions, focused on creating, I’ve been doing okay. But then I...
by PDR-Kellie | Dec 15, 2016 | Contemplations, Creativity, Dreams, Family, Fiction, Novel, Process, Writing Life
Yesterday, my doctor asked me if I’m “getting past” my brother’s death. It’s only been eight weeks, I said. And he was my brother. In some ways, I’ll never ‘get past’ it. Yes, she said, looking away. We keep them in our...