Posts Tagged With: london

So I Accidentally Got Elected VP of the London Writer’s Society …

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Michelle Proulx

Big news! Last night I accidentally got elected VP of the London Writer’s Society. Well, not technically “accidentally”, but close enough to count. Here’s what happened …

So my local writer’s society is really great — we go on handgun field trips, have great critique groups, listen to interesting and informed lecturers at our general meetings, etc. etc. The thing is, elections for the exec board are in September every year, and all positions decided to step down this year … leaving all the exec spots open. For some reason no one in the society wants to be an exec, which led to the former VP basically bribing me into becoming VP on the promise that all I have to do is attend general meetings, exec meetings, and sometimes answer emails.

Und hence, I am now the VP! Huzzah!

Of course, immediately after the meeting concluded, a member hurried over to me and started asking about assorted VP-related matters. To which I had to shame-facedly say, “Actually, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on at all yet, so … yeah, sorry.” It was awkward. But she was really nice about my incompetence and congratulated me on my new post, so it all worked out.

I had another brief panic attack when the former treasurer came up to myself and the new treasurer and started talking finances, handed over the PO box keys, etc. My panic attack was due to the fact that I’m staggeringly irresponsible at the best of times, and I just knew I’d lose the keys the second they got into my possession. Luckily the new  treasurer is far more competent than I, and she accepted the keys and the stacks of financial folders with a confident smile. I fully intend to ride her coattails to glory.

So basically I’m hoping that this new VP position will mostly involve me being a figurehead, and then the president and treasurer can be the real power behind the writer’s society. Mine would be a ceremonial position, if you will. I’ll probably get roped into organizing at least a few events, because that’s just what happens when you get involved with something, but hopefully I’ll pull through and said events won’t be a complete disaster.

Well, that’s all that’s new in my life! Anyone got any exciting news to share? Writing-related is great, but I’ll also accept anything involving a new pet, passing a test, getting promoted, going to the supermarket wearing real clothes (i.e. not sweat pants), etc. Share away!

 

Unrelated media of the day:

Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/l32HFPg

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

Pictures From My Assorted Book Events (OMG)

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Michelle Proulx

It just occurred to me that I haven’t shared any pictures from either the Chapters book signing or the Gathering on the Green festival from last weekend. Shame!

First of all, we have some choice photos from the Chapters book signing …

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Me at the signing with my shiny book.

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Mother and I chilling at the table near the end of the signing.

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Just chattin’ up some peeps. No biggy.

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My friends stopped by to say hi.

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Dramatic shot of the table.

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Mother is amused. I am not.

Next up, select photos from the Gathering on the Green folk festival …

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The Wheel of Imminent Danger! (And my friend Peter, who helped set up the booth.)

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Me, myself, and I.

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Jesse (my brother) setting up the tent.

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Dramatic shot of the table, including the legend for the Wheel of Imminent Danger!

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Jesse and I at the booth. Note our classy set-up, tablecloth included.

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Close-up of our classy book display.

There you have it, folks! Two events down, two to go! Well, two that are scheduled, at least. I’m sure I’ll accidentally sign up for a few more before the summer ends. Thanks again to the lovely Rhiannon for photographing the above pictures. To see even more photos from these events, click here.

Unrelated media of the day:

I think we’ve had quite enough pictures for one day, don’t you? Here’s a cute video of a dog attempting to sing and play the piano.

Categories: My Works | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 49 Comments

My messy writing space (and why it is slowly sucking out my soul)

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Michelle Proulx

I am a messy person. This has been evident since … well, since as long as I can remember. I have gotten into multiple arguments (read: screaming matches) over the years over my inability to do the dishes, vacuum the carpet, refill the water jug, etc. I have accepted this about myself, although my living companions still live in hope that I will one day reform and become a cleaning goddess. This will never happen, but I try to encourage them by occasionally cleaning the bathroom so they don’t give up on me entirely. I haven’t been thrown out of a house/apartment yet, so I’d say my plan has been largely successful thus far.

Anyway, today’s topic is on writing spaces. I was inspired to write this post because I’ve been feeling very aimless recently when I sit down to work at my desk. And then the reason behind my aimlessness occurred to me — it’s because my desk is a disaster. If this were Jurassic Park, my desk would be the bloody remains of that goat the T-Rex chomped up. Disturbing mental images aside, check out the horror that is my sacred writing space:

20130201_141929Because that isn’t the greatest image in the world, not to mention the cherry blossoms somewhat detract from the point I’m trying to make, I will now provide a listing of everything currently scattered across my desk. Ready?

  • 4 printouts of my book cover, in various states of wrinkley-ness
  • a pricing sheet that lists the various author discounts at which I can purchase my book
  • 4 notebooks
  • a diagram of a high pressure boiler feedwater pump
  • 3 to-do lists
  • assorted papers
  • “Be Still” bookmark
  • 3 pens
  • 1 mechanical pencil
  • 2 silver sharpies
  • old book manuscript (spiral bound)
  • fancy leather binder my dad gave me for Christmas
  • Flipcam
  • glass of water
  • note with directions to London Writer’s Society meeting
  • “Im in ur cassel, advizin ur king” mousepad
  • mouse, keyboard, monitor

In case this hasn’t become apparent, the moral of the story here is that clutter stifles your creativity. This mass of junk is a reminder of all the things I have to do, or that I haven’t yet accomplished, and it’s exhausting. So if there’s one thing you should take away from this post, it’s that some mess = fine, but stupid amounts of clutter = bad.

So if you’re swimming in a sea of random papers, old journals, and a truly unnecessary number of writing utensils, just do as I do — write a post about how horrible clutter is, and then do absolutely nothing to fix it.

Success!

In other news …

I’ve been intending to do a blog tour to celebrate the release of Imminent Danger, but I keep putting it off. I had intended to continue putting it off, until the lovely and talented J.R. Wolfe informed me that she had A) read and enjoyed my book, and B) was going to post an author interview with me on her blog on Saturday, whether I liked it or not. Just kidding! Mostly …

Anyway, a few hours later the equally lovely and talented Celeste DeWolfe also requested an author interview, and before I knew it, I had somehow become involved in a mini blog tour. I will definitely be holding a longer blog tour (probably in March), so don’t despair — you, too, will have a chance to be a part of my blog tour, aka the greatest blogging event known to mankind.

I’ll post links on Saturday and Sunday to the respective lovely ladies’ blogs, where you’ll find insightful (ha!) interviews in which I reveal assorted facts about my life and writing. So stay tuned for Michelle’s Mini Magical Weekend Blog Tour! (I think MMMWBT rolls off the tongue, don’t you?)

Feel free to stop by and ask questions if you feel so inclined. Here are some example questions you might consider asking:

  • Has your giant teddy bear come to life and eaten anyone yet?
  • Why is your hair tied up in all your pictures? Do you have some sort of weird phobia about having hair on your neck?
  • Why haven’t you reviewed my book yet? ARGHHHHHH!
  • Why do you feel that bacon is the greatest and most magical foodstuff in all of creation?
  • What are your thoughts on unicycles?

Unrelated image of the day:

Source: http://i.imgur.com/5YbbaBO.jpg

Categories: Random, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 61 Comments

How to Train Your Dragon LIVE SPECTACULAR!

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

You probably guessed this from the image, but I went to see How To Train Your Dragon LIVE SPECTACULAR! last night. Here’s the abridged story of the experience.

The set-up.

I went with my mother, whom I have been living with since I got back from teaching English in South Korea last November. Is it weird that I hang out with my mother? No, because she’s awesome.

We had intended to get there with time to spare, but due to a road being under construction, and half of the John Labatt Centre parking lot being reserved for performers, we barely made it in time. Luckily there was a parking lot just across the street, but we ended up in line to pay the parking attendant behind the world’s slowest coin-counter. He/she paid the $10 parking fee entirely in coins. And then it turned out he/she had miscounted, because the parking attendant had to give her back some change, further slowing down the process. Ack.

Into the theatre!

Having conquered the parking lot, we proceeded into the theatre. Now I have to say, it’s a pretty cool set-up they have going. They basically clear out this huge rectangular space, which is ringed with big boxes that can shoot out plumes of fire. And then on the back wall there is a gigantic screen onto which is projected scenery and backgrounds for the play.

The show begins …

The show started, and it was … honestly, it’s hard to describe. The acting was kind of sub-par, although that might be because the stage was so huge that the actors were tiny, and it was hard to really make a connection with them. The dragons, on the other hand, were just phenomenal. They spared no expense with this show. They had full-size animatronic dragons rolling around the floor, jumping and walking and breathing fire (well, smoke with a red light flashing from the dragon’s mouth), and it was just insanely cool.

The best part, hands down, was when Hiccup got on Toothless and flew into the air. They had Toothless attached to a rolling platform mechanism on a track on the roof of the stage, and then the cables were able to mimic Toothless swooping up and down through the air. The effect was heightened by that projection screen I mentioned, on which they had beautiful clouds and sky and … honestly, it looked like the guy and the dragon were actually flying. It was SO cool.

Holy dragons, Batman!

Then disaster struck! Toothless was supposed to take off with Hiccup and Astrid for their romantic flight … and nothing happened. “Come on, Toothless, let’s go!” shouted the actor, patting the animatronic dragon on the head. “Let’s go, buddy!” But nothing happened.

“There will be a brief pause as we deal with some technical issues,” said the announcer.

I actually really liked that part. Everything had been so seamless that I almost forgot we were dealing with giant, robot dragons. Of course they’re going to malfunction sometimes. I also wisely chose to remain in my seat, instead of heading for the bathroom like about half the theatre. Which was clever, because the problem was fixed about three minutes later, so at least 20% of the audience had to rush back to their seats and missed part of the show. Silly people.

Time for the big shampoo.

The big king dragon guy at the end was pretty cool, although they only built his head and tail. Still, they had Toothless up in the air again, and the projection screen showed lots of fiery smoke and clouds and stuff so it looked very much like they were flying. The bad dragon died, Toothless and Hiccup survived, and the actors had a big dance party to a rather boring song as they took their bows.

The end!

Has anyone seen How to Train Your Dragon LIVE SPECTACULAR? Does anyone want to? Does anyone NOT want to after reading this post? Does anyone think dragons are super cool? Does anyone like answering endless questions about their likes and dislikes? Does anyone enjoy a nice platter of assorted cheeses?

This next part isn’t remotely related to the post.

Check out this youtube video. It’s about a guy who went to North Korea and filmed his journey. It’s awesome, mostly because North Korea is crazy.

Categories: Random | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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