Some insightful advice from Canadian author Pierre Berton:
"In order to write effectively it is necessary to hear the rhythm of your own words. In my later drafts I listen for it after each sentence, and before the next I listen to both together. I then write the next sentence and listen to it in concert with the previous two. Thus the work proceeds smoothly, like a sonata, and the sentences don't go bump-bump-bump, like a car on a rocky road."
"There is no easy way to write a book... (letter to a writer)
Dear Mrs. P. I'm afraid I have to be fairly blunt with you. If your work is not selling, it is clearly because nobody wants to buy it. If nobody wants to buy it, it is quite clear there is something wrong with it from a professional point of view. Wanting to write isn't enough; you've got to know how. It is a long, hard apprenticeship and there is no room in it for amateurs."
~ Pierre Berton, Canadian author (1920 - 2004) The Joy of Writing, Random House of Canada, 2003

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way.

To the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees."

~ William Blake (1757 - 1827) English poet.

Photos: Along The Grand

A remarkable book about Hamiltonian Thomas McQuesten, brings to mind a sad fact: many a photograph, many a bit of history is lost when the contents of closets or drawers are discarded. Sometimes sheer volume of stuff makes it impractical to go through papers, correspondence, documents, photos one-by-one.
A visit to Whitehern some time ago, home of the McQuesten family in Hamilton, Ontario, provided me with an insight to the importance of taking the time. A regular search on the internet rewarded the staff of Whitehern with a missing artifact ~ an observant curator recognized an unidentified photograph as one of the family members and was able to acquire it for the collection.
Someone recently told me that he fondly remembers the hours he spent with an elderly aunt looking over old black and white photos of Cayuga. He then reluctantly confessed that family members brought in a dumpster on the event of his aunt's death and everything was apparently lost.
One can only ponder what early history of our village disappeared with that convenient dumpster.
~ Thomas Baker McQuesten, Public Works, Politics and Imagination, John C. Best, Corinth Press, Hamilton, Ontario, 1991
Photo: Colour along The Grand River today.

The Sinking of the Steamboat Victoria, 1881, London, Ontario.

Author, John Passfield's latest historical novel.

How did so many die without any obvious memorial or lasting public awareness? Of five hundred passengers on a steamboat restricted to three hundred, almost two hundred people died.

Well over a century later, Passfield has researched and through articles in the London Free Press and London Advertiser, using the real names of victims and personalities of the day, he brings to us an amazing tale of unbelieveable tragedy.

For more about John Passfield, visit his website http://www.johnpassfield.ca/

"It's extremely important not to have one's life all blocked out, not to have the days and weeks totally organized. It's essential to leave gaps and interludes for spontaneous action,for it is often in spontaneity and surprises that we open ourselves to the unlimited opportunities and new areas brought into our lives by chance."

~ Jean Hersey, The Touch of The Earth, The Seabury Press Inc. 1981.

Autumn Thoughts ~ photo by 4 year old,  Elizabeth's Rocks