Writings

It’s been sixteen years since my father, George Campbell, passed away. A natural storyteller, Dad would often share his memories of growing up in a small town in southern Saskatchewan. Recently, I was thrilled to find his written words in this book of Whitewood community history . . .

When Separation Anxiety first went out into the world in 2015, I couldn’t have predicted that six months later I would receive a letter, my name handwritten on the string-tie envelope and a return address I didn’t recognize.

On a cold afternoon in January, I met Carl Hahn at Red Deer’s Meeting Waters Cafe. We settled in front of the fireplace for a warm conversation about writing, life and the writer’s life.

Sharing my stories in Separation Anxiety helped readers know they weren’t alone. Readers sharing their words with me calmed my anxiety of “what will people think?” Thank you, gentle readers, for these past four years!

I’ve been feeling wistful and nostalgic for Christmases past — not so much the ghost as the spirit — which seemed gentler in my 1960s childhood, as we waited for the gradual arrival of Christmas at Chinook Centre.

I dropped into the launch of “Dropout: How School is Failing our Kids” by Leslie Gavel at Calgary’s Memorial Park Library. It was a memorable evening worth blogging about.