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M.D. Benoit on Authors on the Web
2007-04-04 11:00:00
M.D. Benoit on Virtual Tour outside Lethbridge WaterTower (now resturant) via this blogRobert: One of the factors that attracted me to your writing originally was your blog. It was one of the very first blogs of someone I didn?t already know that I started reading on a regular basis. How important do you think it is for an author to maintain a presence on the web?Dominique: It?s absolutely crucial, especially for an emerging writer or a writer who can?t get a lot of financial support from her publisher. I think blogs are becoming the medium to communicate with people, but still a website is important. Websites give static information that gets lost from one post to the other. By having a blog, visitors can get to know you, see what?s important to you, how you look at life. Robert: How much time do you put into your blog? Do you have more than one?Dominique: I have my own, Life?s Weirder than Fiction. I also contribute to It?s a mad, mad, world: Writing confessions of ten mad author...
More About: Author , The Web , Authors , Thor

M. D. Benoit on Synergy
2007-04-04 08:36:00
Robert: What drew you to your interest in genetics?Dominique: I became interested in genetic engineering during the controversies about Genetically Modified Organisms. Then I came upon a newspaper article about genetic warfare, and I followed avidly the issues around cloning with Dolly the sheep and the race to map the human genome. This gave me ideas for stories. Synergy is about genetic modification and warfare. The next in the trio of novels about genetic engineering, Catalyst, is about human cloning farms. The third, which I?m working on right now, is entitled Entropy, and deals with the consequences of monoculture and genetically modifying food staples like rice, maize, and wheat.Robert: Where did the complex characters come from in this novel? Did you model the characters on people you know, or are they entirely from your own imagination?Dominique: Torver Lockwood, one of my two protagonists, popped out of a dream, all grown up. I woke up one morning and there he was, standing...
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M. D. Benoit on Jack Meter Series
2007-04-04 08:26:00
Robert: Are your previous two books still available? Dominique: Yes, both Meter ed Space and Meter Made are available on amazon.com and amazon.uk. Metered Space is also available on amazon.ca. And of course, both are available as ebooks from fictionwise.com.Robert: Can you briefly talk about the Jack Meter books for those who may be unfamiliar with that series?Dominique: Jack Meter is a Private Investigator living in Ottawa, Canada. In Metered Space, after Jack?s physicist girlfriend died in a lab explosion, he?s gone on a downhill curve of smoking and boozing that leads pretty much to only one conclusion. Unfortunately, it?s not going to happen. Jack gets kidnapped by aliens who ?repair? him, give him a universe-hopping device, and the job of retrieving a stolen transporter. In Meter Made, Jack teams up with a sexy intergalactic agent to find out who is stealing pieces of the universe, and why. I call them my ?Sam Spade in space?, Dashiell Hammett mixed with Terry Pratchett. They?re...
More About: Series , Benoit , Serie

M.D. Benoit on M. D. Benoit
2007-04-04 08:20:00
M.D. Benoit on Virtual Tour to University of Lethbridge, via this blogRobert: So, let me ask you about your heritage. Are you primarily a francophone or an anglophone? How does your francophone heritage influence your work? I hadn?t thought of it until you mentioned it again just now, but now that I think of it, I believe I can detect a francophone literary undercurrent, though it?s hard to put my finger on exactly. Maybe a slightly more literary edge? Or am I imaging that?Dominique: I am a francophone writing in English. I didn't learn English (enough to be functional) until I was 21, so I read only in French until then. I come from a small town in the Hautes Laurentides where to this day it is still 100% francophone, mainly white, and Catholic. Fortunately, we had a great library, and I've always been a reader, so by the age of 15 I'd read at least one book from most of the Nobel Prize winners from 1930 to 1960. I'd also read the classics ?Hugo, Stendhal, Verlaine, Apollinaire...

M. D. Benoit Virtual Tour Here Tomorrow!
2007-04-03 13:19:00
Just a reminder that tomorrow, Wed April 4, 2007, Dominque (the 'D' in M.D.) Benoit will be here on the next stop of her Virtual Book Tour promoting her new book, Synergy. I will be posting my extensive interview with her (about five posting's worth) and she will be monitoring my blog all day on the 4th to respond to any comments or questions you may have. Should be interesting!I find the idea of a virtual book tour a fascinating development...googling the "virtual book tour" demonstrates that the concept is already widely in use throughout cyberspace. It represents an interesting compromise between the personal contact available through a book tour and the practical reality that most publishers no longer fund travel to the extent they once did. And such virtual activities somehow make cyberspace's geography more 'real' somehow. I'm sure there's a paper in there somewhere.
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Gotcha!
2007-04-02 12:57:00
Having Slept in sich on Saturday, Sunday was my turn to get up with the kids.Tigana and Kasia played together nicely, Kasia now being old enough and articulate enough to take part in Tigana's elaborate role plays. At one point Tigana pulled out her kid friendly makeup kit and drew crowns on herself and Kasia's forehead. Tigana's artistic efforts weren't half bad in creating reasonably believable crowns, once I had verified that the makeup came off with just water. As Tigana wandered off to watch TV, Kasia came over to me and proceeded to draw a crown on my forehead.Kasia worked at her artistic creation for a long time -- maybe fifteen minutes -- taking meticulous care to get everything just so, switching back and forth between the various shades of purple and pink available in the kit. Being semi-comatose, I was happy just to have her somewhere I could see her, so we were both happy with the activity. Eventually, I went over to the mirror to see what my crown looked like.Okay, ...
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Benoit Virtual Book Tour
2007-03-29 17:28:00
M. D. Benoit Dominique Benoit is now in the second day of her virtual tour and can be found at Joshua Palmatier's blog for the rest of the day; i.e., will answer questions posted there today.Check out the list of tour dates, and remember that Benoit will be appearing HERE on April 4th, 2007.
More About: Book , Tour , Virtual , Al B

Fire on UofL grounds
2007-03-26 23:19:00
Fire as seen from my wife's office windowThis one is from my wife's cell phone, taken about a month back when there was a fire on the grounds next to my wife's office. About the time she snapped this photo it occured to her that the fire was also moving towards the parking lot, and ours was one of the half dozen cars in the stalls right by the front doors. She ran out and moved the car; we came back later and found the the burn line had come within about 20 feet of where we park. But no harm done in the end, partly because one of the campus security staff stood between the fire and the building with a fire extinguisher. Not sure that holding off a grass fire that way is exactly my idea of a safe job.
More About: Fire , Round , Rounds

More lunch time art
2007-03-26 23:12:00
Tigana's serviette artTigana produced this "portrait of a young girl in dress with a bow" while we were waiting for our order at East Side Mario's the other day. Photo is from my cell phone again, so little blurry, but I think you can make it out.
More About: Lunch , Time , Tigana , More

Three more videos
2007-03-21 16:47:00
From John Herber's blog:Why Star Trek Fans Can't Get DatesAnd these two from Randy Reichardt's blog Kids complaints choir (great example of class music project)Stop Motion Battle (what a battle between magicians would really look like)
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Upcoming Book Tour - April 4th, 2007
2007-03-19 15:52:00
From 28 March to 11 April , M. D. Benoit will be going on a virtual book tour to promote her upcoming alternate reality novel, Synergy. During that period, ten people (myself included) will host her on their blog for one day. There will be discussions on the book, interviews with the author, and so on. Every day during this period, on her own blog, Life?s Weirder than Fiction (http://mdbenoit.com/blog), she will announce where she will be that day, as well as talk a bit about her host.Synergy?s Virtual Book Tour will culminate with a Virtual Book Launch, on 14-15 April (http://mdbenoit.com/synergy). M. D. can be contacted at mdbenoit (at) gmail (dot) com.I'll be hosting the Benoit Virtual Book Tour April 4th. Please be sure to come by the blog on that day, as she will attempt to respond to whatever comments you leave on my blog that day.
More About: Upcoming , Ming

Infestation
2007-03-16 03:51:00
photo of our roof, showing replaced cedar shakesRegular readers know that we have had problems on a couple of occasions with field mice; we've also had to deal with ants on an ongoing basis. But our current infestation is completely different. As we came home one evening, I happened to look up at the roof of the house as we drove into the garage, and saw that about 10% of the roof tiles were gone. Not just gone, but replaced with new cedar shakes. I stopped the car, got out, pointed up to the roof, and announced to Mary and the family the only possible conclusion: "Oh my, we have elves!"Yes, hard though it may be to comprehend, we have an infestation of elves. This isn't the first time they've shown up either, On a previous occasion, we'd returned from summer holidays to find the garage doors re-painted, and the doors to the garbage bin replaced. And about half the time during the winter, my sidewalks are shoveled before I even get home, and the garbage put out on garbage day be...
More About: Home , Station , Fest , Stat , Festa

Kasia Sings the Blues
2007-03-14 04:53:00
(Again, apologies to Googlers looking for that Polish singer....)Kasia has started to sing original compositions about her life -- commentary on events as they unfold. For example, on the way to day care in the morning, we often get this:Oh, I don't wanna go to school,Don't wanna go to schoolDon't wanna go to school,Oh, don't wanna go to school today.The thing is, it comes across as the Blues , not as whinning or complaining, or as an actual request not to go to school. (She actually seems okay with day care when she gets there and enjoys being with her friends.) She just sings her stream of consciousness, and it often has this rythmic repetition and slight melancoly, as if she's been listening and preforming the Blues for years. But once out of her car seat, it's all smiles and and three year-old giggles.What's fascinating to me is that Kasia's Blues style is developing in contrast to Tigana 's more musical theater and country tendencies -- perhaps reminiscent of Carrie Unde...
More About: Sings

Some clips
2007-03-13 16:55:00
This one forwarded by Chartlon Barreto is pretty funny:Apple's iRackAnd this one posted on Central Ganglion by Bernie Klassen is also hilarious:British shopping channel
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Wind
2007-03-13 03:32:00
Tigana and Kasia inside their tent, enjoying being blown across the yard.We're all sleep deprived today, because in addition to switching to daylight saving time early this year (insert standard commentary on American cultural imperialism) there have been exceptionally high winds last couple of nights, which in Lethbridge is really saying something. The noise of the wind buffetting our house was bad enough, but of course it also woke up the kids and drove them up to our room, to ensure that no one slept soundly.I took the kids into the backyard after work to pick up our castiron garden furniture, which had been tossed about the place, and watched tiny Kasia trying to walk against the wind. It brought back the memory of Tigana at this age, playing in the playground at Montessori, when the wind literally picked her up and deposited her a couple of feet away. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it. But as Mary and I rushed over to see if she was okay, Tiga...
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Two Launches
2007-03-07 18:46:00
On Sunday, we took the family to the Helen Schuler Nature Center for their 2PM nature walk program, but found that this week's program was instead sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency, and dealt with the sky. The talk was perfect for Tigana, bit old for Kasia, but the highlight was the launch of a model rocket -- read, 2 liter plastic pop bottle and pint of water. The speaker had the kids draw pictures, and then taped them to the rocket as payload. They launched the rocket from a safe distance, and its explosive take off ripped all the payload off in flight. To Kasia's great delight, her drawing drifted through the sky back from the distant launch site right into her waiting hands. It was way cool.In other news, M.D. Benoit (author of Jack Meter mystery novels) is launching a new SF title in April, and will be conducting a national book tour -- and "I'M Not Boring You Am I?" is scheduled as one of her stops! Stay tuned for further details as they are finalized.

Ned, Still Under the Bed
2007-01-08 07:08:00
Well, we had been interested to see if Tigana 's love of the stage would survive 9 performances of the same play, but she came through as enthusiastic as ever. Indeed, she was a little depressed it was over. Most interesting point for Tigana was a performance we weren't at, where one of the lead actors fell ill and had to be replaced at the last second...Jeremy, who plays the head bed bug, stepped in to the title role, and the stage manager stepped in as head bed bug... but there were apparently a couple of spots where in the ensuing confusion, that the villain ended up playing off bed bug Tigana rather than the stage manager, who was still running the lights and sound cues.... Friends of ours in the audience later told us, "I had no idea from what you'd said that Tigana had such a major role." News to us too!But the whole experience was great for Tigana...second time in front of a paying audience, but first time for an actual "run", of which she was in 9 performances; first time...
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Ned, What's Under Your Bed?
2006-12-27 05:29:00
...is a play for children by Jeremy Mason which had its premiere performance today. I enjoyed the performance immensely, which I say quite aside from the obvious bias that Tigana was cast as one of the bedbugs. I was already impressed with Mason (and fellow actors Andy Jenkins and Jamie Dunsdon) as instructors at the Empire Theater summer drama camps, and as writers/actors in the Empire Theater's summer series plays. I had been struck by how much more effective this camp had been for Tigana than some of the others she had attended. Part of that was the camp's structure, which incorporated the children's performances into a Vaudville night along with skits and musical numbers by adult performers -- so that kids got to perform in front of a real paying audience, rather than just a room full of relatives, as is the usual conclusion of these sorts of summer camps. Furthermore, Tigana had the opportunity of going to the Empire Theater's summer plays and seeing her instructors actuall...
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The Skating Party
2006-12-24 06:55:00
My daughter's school organized a skating party during school hours in the run up to Christmas break. I volunteered as one of several parent drivers for this field trip, a short car ride to the nearby rink. My daughter, and others, had to borrow skates from parents who loaned pairs their own children had outgrown, or not yet grown into; the school promised to provide hockey helmets for those who did not have them, which included our daughter. (School Board regulations required that every student have a hockey helmet; bicycle helmets were deemed insufficient.) My daughter had had skates, but outgrown them and had chosen to do drama and gymnastics this term, rather than skating lessons, so we hadn't gotten around to replacing them.When we arrived at the rink, I helped my daughter and another girl into their borrowed skates, then went in search of helmets. The rink staff pointed out that they did not have a key to the school locker that contained the helmets; the schools staff had ass...
More About: Party , Tigana , Skat , Part , Skating

Santa and Imaginary Friends
2006-12-15 19:41:00
Kasia has developed an imaginary friend this week named Doe-go. Doego seems to be a minature toy car, which is kind of an odd avatar for an imaginary friend, but its hard to tell if I have this right, since we are dealing with an invisible object. Tigana never developed an imaginary friend, so its been kind of fascinating watching the emergence of this character out of nowhere over the last four days to become a central focus of Kasia?s attention. We?re keen to see how this develops.Meanwhile, Kasia is impatiently awaiting the arrival of Sant a . Having a three-year old around the house makes Christmas magical in a way it hasn?t been since, well, since Tigana was three. I love seeing the season through three year old eyes. But I have to confess that when Kasia was still awake at 10:00 on Tuesday, after two hours of various unsuccessful bedtime strategies, ending with a round of pathetic sobbing/begging on my part, I kind of lost it, and said (Lord forgive me!) ?KASIA! If Santa sees y...
More About: Friends , Ends

Grant McCracken on China
2006-12-09 15:29:07
Quote of the day, from Grant McCrack en, first rate anthropolist and pop culture commentator."China is now finished with catch-up and will someday begin to pull away. This is a country moving at time-lapse speed. It won't be long, perhaps, before it passes us and disappears into the future."
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Kasia Lyrics
2006-12-09 15:29:07
The title will probably frustrate googlers looking for that Polish singer, but I wanted to jot down about Kasia's singing to me last night before I forget... I find that my blog misses too many of the big events in our lives because we are too busy going through said events, and then I miss the trivial stuff because I feel I ought to write up the big stuff first, which I never get around to, so everything gets missed.....Anyway, while putting Kasia, our 2.5 year old, to bed last night, she started singing to me -- largely to forestall my signing to her, I suspect, but that is another story -- I was vastly entertained to hear her rendition of that old classic:Bad sheep,Bad sheep,Bad sheep,Bad sheep,Have you any fluff?This was followed by a rousing rendition ofTwinkle twinkle little starHow I know I know I knowwhich either indicates that she is a child with a high degree of certainty, or an odd attraction to existentialism.Later in the evening, when I was trying to get her to lie dow...
More About: Asia , Lyrics

Penny, the Frisky Tardis
2006-12-09 15:29:07
We've bought a new car. This is, in fact, my first actual NEW car, never having had the cash before for anything other than hand-me downs. My last two cars were from my Father-In-Law, and the one before that was purchased for $800 from a sympathetic co-worker. (Okay, the word "cash" may be a bit inaccurate here since we are buying entirely on credit, but you get the idea.)The car is a Honda Fit, which is new to the North American market, but has been selling in Japan and Europe as the Jazz for several years. The "Fit" name is undoutbably to emphasize that it has a roomy interior, even though it is a subcompact. I confess myself surprised when I actually fit into it, since whenever we have rented cars, I've had to specify the high end models because at six feet, 250lbs there was never any possibility of my getting into the compacts. But damned if there isn't more head room in this new Honda than in the wagon we were driving before. It feels as roomy as our Van, for crying out lo...
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Tigana and Robert Munsch
2006-12-09 15:29:07
Took Tiga na to see Robe rt Munsch reading tonight at the Yates Theater. This was our third Munsch reading, having previously seen him in Halifax and at the University in Lethbridge. I thought he ws strating to look older and bit tired at the strt of the reading, but he gathered momentum as the show progressed, and I always enjoy hearing the stories about how the stories came about. Munsch, as is his standard procedure, invited kids from the first few rows to either offer their names to be substituted into this or tht story, or occasionally to join him on stage while he told the story. Tigana inevitably put up her hand to be chosen, but I pointed out to her that since we were way back in row H, she might as well not bother. "No problem," she says, and calmly walks down, and then onto the stage. "Tigana, get back here!" I whisper shout, as Munsch, says, "Who would like to volunteer for...?" He turns and sees Tigana walking onto the stage. "Ah", he says, "Perhaps this young lady who is...
More About: Gana

A grassroots petition has been started to get the ...
2006-12-09 15:29:07
A grassroots petition has been started to get the government to reconsider the $4.6 million they cut from the museum assistance program of Canada Heritage. The money is a small amount of the overall $1 billion package, and many museums were pinching pennies before the cuts, and the cuts will force them to reduce programs, cut collections, and delay renovations. Then of course, there's the effect on students who will be woefully ignorant of local, regional and national history and culture.Read the petition over, sign it if you want, pass it on to people you know.I've signed it.Here's the link:http://www.petitiononline.com/MapCut s/petition.html
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Tigana learns about Meteghan
2006-12-09 15:29:07
has shown up in Google already, but ranked quite low -- page 11 for "Meteghan" and page 13 for "Meteghan Nova Scotia" and page 8 for "Acadians". I'm not sure teachers will persevere through pages of houses for sale listings or classified ad pages to find my curriculum resource. It does a little better on Yahoo --Page 5 (#41) for "Meteghan"; but then only #70 for "Acadians". Hopefully, the site will rise as social studies sites start to list it and teachers click on it enough to increase traffic so Google and Yahoo promote it, so that more teachers find it, and so allowing the site to slowly spiral up. But feel free to link to it in your blogs etc to strt driving it up now....
More About: Tigana , Earn , About , Learn , Gana

Mary's article in Human Relations
2006-12-09 15:29:07
And in other news, Mary 's article "Cold War, chilly climate: Exploring the roots of gendered discourse in organization and management theory" in volume 59 #5 of Human Relations , pages 695-720 is available on the web from Sage. It is essentially one chapter from her dissertation, so gives one a good feel for what she has been doing with her life these last couple of years. (I mean, besides raising a family and holding down a full time teaching position here at the UofL.)
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How I spent my summer vacation
2006-12-09 15:29:07
As mentioned earlier, Mary's graduation from St. Mary's took us to Halifax in May, which meant taking Tigana out of school. So Mary came up with the brilliant idea that as long as we were in Nova Scotia, we could visit the town of Meteghan, which is one focus of the Grade 2 Social Studies Curriculum, thus enriching Tigana's school experience and at least partially compensating for the fact that she was missing a week of school. Being the Runte Family, we sometimes get carried away, and the following website was the curriculum resource that resulted from our visit. (Meteghan was just added to the provincial curriculum last year and a lot of Grade 2 teachers were left scrambling trying to find resources. Well, hope this helps!)Tigana learns about the AcadiansI'd be keen to hear your feedback and or suggestions for improvement. Feel free to link to it in your own blogs so that I can drive it up in the Google listings under "Meteghan" or "Acadians".
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Quote of the day
2006-12-09 15:29:07
"People tell you what you want to hear, long before you hear what they want to say." (Keith Fenske, May 2005)
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Speaking of Airports
2006-12-09 15:29:07
I'm writing a trip report on our journeys to Montreal, Halifax, Meteghan, Calgary and Banff over the past month or so, but it has to wait until I can get my Garageband files to work. In the meantime, however, I would like to relate one minor incident that pretty well sums up life with a 2 and a half year old:We are in Halifax airport. Mary and Tigana have gone off in search of Star Bucks; Kasia and I have settled into one of the three play areas thoughtfully provided by the airport authority in the departure lounge. Kasia climbs to the top of the Fisher-Price treehouse, looks out at the vast crowd awaiting for their various flights to be announced, and cries out at the top of her lungs, "F***, Dad! F***, F*** F***." Somewhat taken aback to discover Kasia has added the F*** word to her vocabulary, I sweep her into my arms and ask what is the matter. "F***, Dad, F***! "Yes, well, um, can you use another word and tell Daddy what is wrong?""F***, Dad! Put me down!"Um, Kasia, I can't s...
More About: Airport , Port , Airports , King , Speak