Hello and welcome to spring (well, nearly spring)! Here in the lower mainland of BC, we roared into March like the proverbial lion, with an unexpected dump of snow that temporarily halted our budding trees and flowers. But as I write this, the sun is shining and birds are singing outside of my window and once again I can feel the promise of a new season right around the corner.
Plus, this month my daughter turns 21 AND is performing in her first main stage play at the University of Victoria. I’m so proud of her and we’ll be taking the ferry over to beautiful Vancouver Island to watch her show and celebrate with her. And in early April, before my next newsletter comes out, my son turns 18 (!) which feels like a big milestone when it’s your youngest child.
I’m through my busy winter travel and conference speaking season, and looking so forward to a lot of library classes, a new online monthly author wellness workshop series, book design for Post Civ, writing a memoir called The Negative Space, and all kinds of other goodies in the coming months. What are you looking forward to this spring?
One-Word Feeling Check-In
How are you feeling right now, in one word? Right now, I’m feeling vibrant. My head and heart are both buzzing with a lot of new possibilities and projects. I’m not quite ready to talk about them yet, because they are still in the percolating phase, but innovating is my lifeblood. When I take some time to ponder ideas that are outside of the box, and feel exactly right, I get really excited and hopeful.
Now the trick is to continue to be intentional about what I’m saying yes to, in order to be sure I have enough energy and time to dream into these other new things. Taking risks costs us energy, and we need a long runway of time to get fresh concepts up and onto their feet. I LOVE this process. But it means I have to start saying no to opportunities that sound cool and fun and interesting to be able to invest in these new things. And that can be a challenging process.
Book Corner
I really enjoy Clare Mackintosh’s books, and After the End moved me to tears. It’s a departure from her usual twisty thrillers, but she went through the agony of losing a young child to illness and I could feel her grief through this novel as two parents fight on opposite sides of whether a child should live or die.
I’m a massive fan of Barry and Arrested Development, so I was eager to read Henry Winkler’s memoir Being Henry. I didn’t know that he struggled with dyslexia. I loved how vulnerable and open he is in these pages about therapy and starting to build true self confidence instead of pleasing others. The book is funny, entertaining, moving, and filled with great Hollywood stories.
I read the first Thursday Murder Club book by Richard Osman last month (now optioned for a movie by Steven Spielberg’s production company!), and felt happy when the second book in the series showed up on my library shelf. This sequel grabbed me from the opening page and made me laugh out loud all the way through. It’s even zippier than the first book and now I’m excited to read book 3 and 4 in this series set in a British retirement home.
The Soul Says
This month, I’m working on the second word I’m focusing on in 2024: Intentional. I adore the meme I shared at the beginning of this newsletter, which reminds me to live life less out of habit and more out of intent. Our brains possess this lovely feature where they automate so much of our lives so we don’t have to think through every single thing we do, but the downside of this is that our habits become invisible to us, and we can start to sleepwalk through our days.
I’m trying to wake myself up. To notice my coffee as I’m drinking it. To be present when my loved ones are talking to me. To laugh more, and notice how good it feels to laugh. To cultivate gratitude and awareness for my hour-to-hour, day-to-day existence instead of dreaming about some future date or obsessing about something from the past. As I found myself saying to teachers in conference workshops last month: “This is our ACTUAL LIFE. It’s happening right now, right here, and we won’t get this moment again. We don’t want to miss our own lives because we failed to slow down and pay closer attention.”
How about you? What is your soul saying right now?
Spring Library & Community Writing Classes
My full teaching schedule is on my website (and below!), and more dates are being added regularly. Please come join me for some fun and interactive writing classes in the coming months, either online or in person!
I’m super excited about all of it, but especially The Writing Well Author Nurture series with Alexandra Writers’ Centre in Calgary. I pitched them a few wellness sessions for writers and the executive director jumped in with me to design a monthly series (and she came up with the fabulous title The Writing Well - I do enjoy a title that has several layers of meaning baked into it!). It starts on Tuesday, April 9th and the link to sign up is below.
Upcoming In-Person/Online Class Schedule – 2024
Write Your Novel or Memoir - Clearbrook Library, Abbotsford: Saturday, March 9 from 2 - 3 pm
The Writing Well Author Nurture Series Establish Your Unique Identity on Zoom: Tuesday, April 9 from 11 am – 12:30 pm PST
Write Your Memoir: Key Building Blocks - White Rock Library: Saturday, April 13 from 2 - 3:30 pm
Write Your Novel or Memoir - City of Langley Library: Saturday, April 27 from 1 - 2 pm
Sharing Life Memories - Kent Street Activity Centre in White Rock: Thursday, May 2 from 1 - 3 pm
Write Your Novel: Key Building Blocks - White Rock Library: Saturday, May 11 from 2 - 3:30 pm
The Writing Well Author Nurture Series Trust Your Intuition on Zoom: Tuesday, May 14 from 11 am – 12:30 pm PST
The Writing Well Author Nurture Series Create an Inspiring Writing Routine: Tuesday, June 11 from 11 am – 12:30 pm PST
Conversation Cafe - Kent Street Activity Centre in White Rock: Tuesday, June 11 from 1 - 3 pm
New Novel Introduction - Post Civ!
I’m now a little more than 6 months away from my release date of September 14th for my new novel, Post Civ. This is a story I’ve been dreaming about for the last four years, and wrote as my thesis project at UBC for my MFA. Now that the book has moved into interior design and cover design, it’s all starting to feel real and I’m getting SO excited to share it with you.
The idea for this story came from my frustration with how slow societal gender equality was progressing. I began to wonder if true equality was even achievable within the framework of capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy - hierarchical systems of power designed for oppression. So I decided to destroy everything, through a series of climate disasters, civil war, political upheaval and other horrors, and start over with a small group of characters to see if a better, fairer world could be possible if we lost everything we count on to make up our current civilisation.
Here’s the short write-up:
A post-apocalyptic climate novel with a feminist introspective focus, Post Civ imagines a better, fairer world in microcosm after our current civilisation is destroyed. Twelve survivors make their way to a mysteriously inhabitable island near what used to be Vancouver, where they begin to rebuild.
TV Recs
On my flights to and from Alberta in February, I watched two movies that were both ideal plane fare: You Hurt My Feelings with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Prime) and Good Grief with Dan Levy (Netflix). Both made me laugh and cry in equal measure. I love movies that are gentle, and profound, and ring so true for me at this stage and age.
We signed up for Apple TV+ again because my husband Jason has been eagerly awaiting Masters of the Air, so we were able to treat ourselves to season 3 of the masterpiece that is Slow Horses. Gary Oldman was born to play the part of Jackson Lamb - the slovenly, rude, whip-smart leader of the agents that failed out of MI-5 to end up in Slough House.
I discovered the Australian sitcom Fisk while killing time in my hotel rooms last month and absolutely fell in love with Helen Fisk. She has three identical brown suits, limited people skills, and ends up at a law firm that attracts the weirdest possible clients (and staff members). It’s a gem.
Now that we finished The Sopranos, William wanted us to start The Wire as he’s trying to see the most highly rated series that end up on the critics’ must-watch lists. It took me the first 5-7 episodes to get into the swing, as there are so many characters to follow, but now that we are nearing the end of season 1 I’m in a good groove and starting to like it.
Write Your Novel or Memoir Online Classes
If you want to join us in October for the next 20-week class, please reach out to julianne@rubyfinchbooks.com and we’ll chat. The class is half full right now, so don’t wait too long! The full schedule is on my website, along with the growing number of in-person creative writing classes I’m scheduling around the lower mainland and online. If you’ve always longed to write a novel or memoir, you are warmly invited to join us!
Flower & Teddy
In late February, both cats had to go to the vet for their annual wellness check. I usually dread this appointment, because Ted gets so anxious, and when Flower goes to the vet without Ted, he gets hissed at when he comes back home.
This time, I asked the vet if I could bring them both at the same time and she said sure. This made everything much easier all around. Ava came with me, and we brought each cat in two separate carriers, but when we unzipped Teddy’s he ran straight in with Flower. Then Flower tried to crawl right into my purse while we waited for the vet to come into the room. But we made it through, and they both have a clean bill of health which is always worth celebrating!
Libraries forever,
Julianne and Ruby Finch Books