a peek inside the fishbowl

I’ve been looking at this photo today. It was posted almost exactly a year ago. It’s not me in that photo, but I love looking at it all the same because I DID THIS. I jumped from a wooden scaffold into the big blue void, wearing nothing but a harness and a pair of worn work gloves (okay, I was fully clothed too) but my point is that I DID IT. And I lived to tell the tale. And I am a better person because of it.

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I’ve been thinking about how to write this post for weeks. I’ve been hinting at a big project and I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get to this point. As a gal who has an endless supply of words for a lot of different things I have found myself fumbling for the right ones this time.

I know a lot of you will be happy and excited for me and I wanted to share this with you when the time was right. 

First, let’s get something out of the way. I’m not pregnant. ;)

A few months ago I received an email asking whether I’d be interested in a different kind of writing project. 

I was. She and I met. I accepted the challenge. The end.

Ok, well, not really.

That out-of-the-blue email came from a successful and well-known Ottawa-area woman with a story to tell. She is, in a word, amazing. And passionate (oops, that’s two words, isn’t it?). She has asked me to ghostwrite a memoir based on a unique aspect of her life. Our publishing model is a bit offbeat. She’s paying me. We’re self-publishing. She has an audience who’d be interested to hear more about her but at the same time her goal isn’t to top the bestseller lists. This is a bit of a relief because I don’t know the first thing about finding a publisher.

I am honoured, thrilled and honoured, that this person is trusting me with her story. I asked her if she was interviewing other freelance writers in Ottawa. She said she wasn’t. (!)

I can’t tell you more than this. Everything is still floating around in my head and not quite developed enough to see the light of day. One of my ideas is to create a spin-off blog which I will use to hash out some ideas as well as document the process as I go along.

I am certain that many of you will find her story just as compelling and inspirational as I do. I hope you read along and ask questions and give us your feedback as we take this journey together.

As I write this I realize I’m not sure if she reads this blog.

I’m not going to reveal her name just yet. I think I’ll hold on to that one for awhile.

I’ve long used the line “effervescent writer seeks publishing adventure” as part of this website to advertise my freelance writing in a roundabout way. SavvyMom, my bits for Ottawa Magazine, script writing for various projects, my on-again-off-agains for my little local neighborhood paper … all have been great adventures in their own right. I’ll still be freelancing, but this is a little different. I can hardly believe it. I.Am.So.Lucky.

I’ve read this post over and over. I hope it doesn’t sound too braggy. I am not entirely comfortable tooting my own horn, but someone once said I should feel free to toot away every once in awhile. Besides, I just wouldn’t feel right moving ahead without posting about it here, you know what I mean?

Okay. Off to get ready for a photoshoot this morning.

We visited my mother’s place on Saturday. The weather was gorgeous – perfect for a drive along twisty highway seven.

My mom has a pretty acre near a lake. It is a very scenic and restful little spot. The girls enjoy poking around and finding stuff:

One of the best features of this place is a great big fire pit. It’s dug deeply into the grass and is surrounded by a ring of rocks.

My mom’s place is pretty woodsy. (Some of you may recall my annual moaning about the Annual Raking of The Forest) and some of the leaves and twigs she cleans up end up in said fire pit.

It’s not time for The Annual Raking just yet, but she had a sizable pile on the go when we arrived. It hadn’t rained in these parts for about a month so the pile was crackling dry, made entirely of leaves and twigs. It needed to be burned down before dinner, so I crumbled up one piece of newspaper, lit one match, and WHOOSH, there goes the fire. Thank god I managed to hold on to my eyebrows. I have never seen a fire burn so high and so hot.

Once our mini-inferno died down we roasted our dinner, which included sausages, veggies, and POTATOES we had grown ourselves.

These babies were planted earlier this year. Potato farming was a first for us. It was very exciting to pull them out of the ground. The girls loved it. There was a lot of “LOOK AT THIS HUUuuuuuge ONE” and “LOOK THIS BABY POTATO!”

It is kind of neat to see, firsthand, where our food comes from, and get our hands dirty doing it:

We wrapped our special organic potatoes in foil and buried them in the hot hot ash to bake for about 90 minutes. They were delish. The irony here is that neither girl actually likes to eat baked potatoes. (I know. I can’t believe it either.)

Afterwards we played with fire. Not exactly safe I know, but it’s fun to poke a burning stick into the fire then and watch smoke rings curling off of it:

We drove home in the dark. Only stopping at Silver Lake to stretch our legs and gaze at the stars up above.

All in all a very good day.

• I had a VERY interesting meeting on Friday, to finalize some details about a huge writing project. More on that later – I am terribly excited about it and need to find the time to sit down and write it out good n’proper.
• We’re getting new windows!
• I went to the orientation session for Dreams Take Flight on Saturday morning. I’m been invited to tag along and go to Disney for the day (!) on October 14. More on that later too. I will say this: THESE PEOPLE ARE AWESOME.
• We spent the day at my mother’s yesterday. It involved fire. And potatoes (more on that later).
• I am going to be hanging out at the SavvyMom booth at the Baby Boom show today (Sunday!) between 11-12. If you’re going to be there please stop by and say hello! Admission is free.
• There is no coffee. Or clean laundry. Or time, for that matter!

Off I go… !