Tag: nature

Wings of Summer

2019-07-11 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

I’ve taken a break from writing in the last few days to recharge my batteries and enjoy the summer. But it’s a rather sedentary mini-holiday. Twenty-two years ago, shortly after buying our current residence, we planted a red maple in the back yard. Today, it’s a towering shade tree with enough room beneath its leafy branches for a rustic patio, complete with table and recliners. That is where I’ve spent the last few afternoons, reading, watching birds, small animals and insects enjoy our urban glade. You see, years ago, we decided a standard, sterile, neatly bordered lawn wasn’t for us. Especially not with three small terriers in the family (sadly we’re down to one now).

As a result, we turned the yard into the sort of woodland mini-meadow you might stumble upon deep inside one of our nearby nature parks. Shrubs, bushes and small trees, punctuated with all manner of flowers, vines, and other plants thrive in semi-anarchy along our ancient, gray cedar fence. And since our neighbourhood is over forty years old, adjoining back yards also boast mature trees of every description. Sitting under our red maple I can easily picture myself elsewhere.

What I really like is that it’s the sort of space which attracts small wildlife, bees, butterflies and the like. Birds in particular enjoy the bath and feeders set up at the patio’s edge. In the last few days, I’ve taken countless pictures at close range, though the birds are less shy than the resident chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits, content to pose while taking a drink or pecking at seeds. I’ll upload a few of them to my Facebook page, so if you’d like to take a peek, the link is in the menu to the right.

At this point, When the Guns Roar (Siobhan Dunmoore #6) is 20% written, but it’ll be a few days yet before I go back to work. We waited so long for summer, I owe myself and Mother Nature some quiet time away from the keyboard. Besides, a writer who doesn’t feel fully motivated to spill words onto the page doesn’t bring forth his best work, and our backyard refuge is so enchanting at this time of year…

Fall Follies

2016-10-04 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

Although I don’t relish the idea of the upcoming Canadian winter, I have to admit there’s something enchanting about the changing quality of the light while we slowly head from the fall equinox to the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Coupled with the eruption of colour as trees prepare to shed their summer cloak and descend into the annual cycle of hibernation, autumn can sometimes be the most pleasing of times. Or, as a gray weekend proved, the least agreeable.

As I write this, I see a whole army of squirrels on the neighbouring lawns, foraging to stock up food supplies. Are they sensing a harsh winter or a mild one? Time will tell. The weatherman on the radio just said we’d see our first bout of frost this coming Monday morning, which is about normal. I’ve finally put away the shorts until our next foray to warmer climes for a bit of scuba diving and am back in my usual writer’s garb of jeans and a button-down collar shirt. Though I’ll miss summer’s warmth soon enough, the cooler nights have done wonders for my ability to sleep better.

The first draft of the fourth Decker’s War adventure is still fermenting quietly in the darkness of an enclosed hard drive or two. Once it’s ready for the revision, I’ll know. In the meantime, I’ve not been idle. I’m scoping out story lines for the fourth Siobhan Dunmoore adventure, now that she has been given command of a new ship, with an old friend as first officer. And – drum roll – I’ve gotten well into (i.e. past 20%) the first draft of the first novel in a new series set in the Decker’s War universe, one I’ve wanted to write for a while.

The protagonist is a character who’s been lurking in my imagination for a long time, almost as long as Dunmoore. I’ve decided to call the series Quis Custodiet, taken from the Latin Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes translated as “Who will watch the watchmen.” You can read more about it here. I’ll probably have the first draft done before this coming Christmas, with publication in late winter 2017. While the series will keep the Decker’s War space opera flavour, it won’t be military sci-fi. I’m not sure there’s such a thing as police procedural or hardboiled detective sci-fi, but if there isn’t yet, I’ll create it. So far I’m having fun with the story. It’s told in the first person, and hopefully comes across as reminiscent of the style of some of my favorite mid-twentieth century pulp detective fiction authors, although the murder victim is an alien and the story doesn’t take place on the mean streets of 1950s Los Angeles or New York, but on the mean decks of an orbital station dozens of light years from Earth.

Happy autumn to everyone in the northern hemisphere, and a good spring to my readers on the other side of the equator!

The Hills Are Alive

2016-07-03 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

With the sound of tiny flapping wings. Lots of flapping wings. Gatineau Park was obviously hosting a butterfly convention this weekend. They seemed to be everywhere, such as here:

We also saw ladybugs getting frisky, in public! Gasp!

The view, as usual, was splendid. That’s the Ottawa River in the distance.

A lovely 7 kilometre hike to end the Canada Day long weekend was just the right thing for us. Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind… at least for Mrs Thomson. For me it’s back to revising Like Stars in Heaven. I’m about three-quarters done as of right now, so it should land in my editor’s inbox this coming Tuesday. Then, I need to get back to the renos I started a few weeks ago – while working on the first draft of Howling Stars of course. I hope all my Canadian readers had a great Canada Day and to my American readers, have a great Fourth of July tomorrow.

Here Be Dragons

2016-06-26 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

Or at least dragonflies

And magic mushrooms

We’re lucky to live in a part of town where a 10 minute drive will take us to several nice woodland trails (which also accommodate cross country skiing in winter) and even though they’re close enough to the hustle and bustle for us to hear distant traffic, trains and plenty of airplanes overhead, it’s still enough for a good two hour hike in the forest, far from the concerns of everyday life and a world that, at times, seems to have gone insane. All in all, it was a good way to spend part of a Sunday afternoon. For Mrs Thomson, the hike brought a bit of peace before another week in the bowels of the demented bureaucracy and it gave me a few hours away from my current work, revising Like Stars in Heaven. Progress on the latter has been good over the last three days and I intend to keep plowing ahead during the coming week.

June is Bustin Out All Over

2016-06-20 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

Yesterday, we did our weekly trek through nature, this time at the northern edge of Gatineau Park, and though the temperature was 31 degrees Celcius, it felt quite pleasant in the shade of the trees and under a light breeze. Flowers everywhere, dragonflies buzzing, birds chirping and running through my mind was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s June is Bustin Out All Over from the musical Carousel. We ended up walking for two hours, covering about 7 kilometres of woodland, open glades and over hill and dale, as it were. Of course, the rest of the day was spent in lazy repose, our fifty-something bodies having given their all. As a result, I didn’t quite reach my word count goal for the first draft of Howling Stars, but since I’d written over 5,300 words on Saturday, I forgave myself for only writing 1,100 words on Sunday.

Flowers as far as the eye can see:

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And the remains of a tree:

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But, it’s Monday and back to work. Zack Decker’s latest adventure won’t write itself (sadly).

A Walk in the Woods

2016-05-29 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

Today, we had our first walk in the woods for 2016. Nothing too complicated, a simple 1.5hr hike in the Gatineau Park. It was also the first hike since the day when I decided to take early retirement and focus on writing. What a difference! I can still recall my state of mind late last summer, on this very same trail, when I knew that the next day would see me back in the bowels of the demented bureaucracy, fending off dragons and battling orcs. It was nice to simply enjoy nature today, without worrying about work. My commute tomorrow morning will be measured in meters and my boss will be looking back at me from the mirror when I brush my teeth.

I took this picture along the Lauriault Trail, just above the waterfall. It was just cool enough to be comfortable on an otherwise sweltering day, and the bugs didn’t bother us too much.

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Fatal Blade has been out for five days now and seems to be doing well. In another two months, Like Stars in Heaven will join it. At the current rate of progress, I should have the manuscript in my editor’s hands by the end of June. Perhaps I’ll be able to celebrate the one year anniversary of my decision to retire with the publication of the fourth Decker’s War adventure this coming November.

Autumn

2015-10-19 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

Mrs Thomson and I spent a lot of time over the weekend recovering from a painful Friday in the bowels of the demented bureaucracy. It was a rare moment of convergence, since we work in very different corners of the dungeon of stupid, but both of us had to deal with unpleasant senior-level bozo eruptions. To try and bleed off the poisons of bad stress, we went for lengthy walks in the cold autumn air on both days.

Saturday saw us strolling through our extended neighbourhood, taking delight in looking at houses and properties, wondering about the people who lived there and in some cases, what they did for a living in order to be able to afford a small castle (and more to the point, why someone would burden themselves with the extensive property taxes and maintenance cost – priorities in life, I suppose). And yes, we saw our first snow flurries along the way.

On Sunday, we took a longer walk through wooded trails, along with a large number of people who also wanted to enjoy one of the last few weekends before winter sets in. It wasn’t the kind of crowd we saw the previous weekend, but then it was a lot colder yesterday, with snow flurries that almost looked like miniature blizzards. Nature was still wonderfully ablaze with colours and we tried to capture some of it, though it’s hard to do justice to riot of reds, oranges and yellows.

The small bird in the next picture, a chickadee, did its best to avoid posing as it flitted around along with several of its friends, preparing for winter. This bird species is non-migratory and well adapted to the deep cold. We see them along the same trails when we’re out cross-country skiing.

I’d like to say that the hours spent in the chill air helped with our dispositions, if only for a moment, but sadly, no. While I did manage to work through a couple of chapters of Cold Comfort, I didn’t get nearly as far as I hoped and am still partway through the second page (of eight) of my editor’s comments, proving that stress is anathema to literary creativity.

Moving Right Along

2015-10-14 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

My lovely and talented editor graced me with her comments on Cold Comfort a few days ago, and I’ve been busily absorbing the suggestions she’s made. I’m now at the point where I can post a teaser on the book’s page, so if you’re a Zack Decker fan, go take a look. I’ve also made some modest progress on Like Stars in Heaven, to the point where Act I is all but complete.

Autumn has finally arrived in our part of the Great White North and the trees are quickly going from fall colours to bare branches. Last Monday, it being our Thanksgiving, we wanted to go out and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather, only to find that most of the city had the same idea. In all but a few spots, the parking lots at the trail heads were overflowing, sometimes for almost a kilometre along the access roads. I can’t recall seeing the like in all the years we’ve lived in the area. It’s nice to see urban couch potatoes go out and enjoy nature, but I must confess I prefer having the woods to myself. We ended up walking a more urban pathway along the river to the almost constant bell ringing of passing bicycles. At least everyone was polite and considerate, so I’ll give my fellow nature lovers high marks. Sadly, the last two days have been colder, windier and mostly grey, so I’ll have to work my way through the five stages of grief at the departure of the warm weather. Right now, I think I’m at ‘anger’, though that could also be due to the never-ending federal election campaign, with all the tiresome bovine droppings spewed by every party and candidate, and the unpleasantness surfacing in some folks who take this partisan garbage beyond mere disagreement and into incivility.

In any case, I’ve got a bit of work to do to clean up Cold Comfort, but it’s looking very good.

Mid-Week Musings

2015-06-03 / Eric Thomson / 0 Comments

The daily grind seems to have a surprisingly deleterious effect on a person’s sense of wonder and awe. Where I could once look at a riotous sunset or a cherry tree dripping with blossoms and feel humbled by nature’s glory, I now feel more of a sense of “meh” and carry on doing something else. Of course, that something else often involves suppressing the negative effects of a Dilbert-like experience at work, by flooding the senses with numbing activities such as binge-watching Netflix, compulsively building scale models or eying that half-empty bottle of Pinot Noir, all of which have only temporary effects and soon require ever more to keep the mind from dwelling on things that are the antithesis of wonderful.

The damp, cold, autumn-like weather of late has kept us from heading for the hills on the weekends to immerse ourselves in the renewed depths of nature, in places where we’re far from the noise of passing cars, unlike the last outings that were closer to home (and the city). This coming Sunday, I hope that we can finally head north and reconnect more meaningfully with the landscape to clear our minds, and hopefully restore some of that awe for the simple beauty of the woods along some of the more unspoiled trails. If we do go, it will be in the Blue Beast 2, seeing as I’m picking it up on Friday and leaving the original Blue Beast in the hands of the dealership for disposal. It has served us well and will be fondly remembered – for about thirty seconds after I drive the new truck off the lot.

In between, I’ll be working some more on The Path of Duty, and I’m happy to say that in the last week, I was able to work through my editor’s comments on the first nine chapters. Hopefully I can do as much between now and next Sunday night. Although I doubt my books generate anything like a sense of awe, at least I can work to prevent them from being awful.