Refreshing your writing space, Anne of Green Gables-related reads, pesto, and travel reads.

Content galore for writers, readers, and travellers!

Happy month-end friends!

For all the travellers and readers here, I hope the recent long weekends in Canada and the US have given you ample time to do the things you enjoy the most.

For all the writers on the list, I know that means you’re busy with invoicing and paperwork - keep fighting the good fight! And if you need an excuse the procrastinate, the following mini-article was made with you in mind.

5 Five-Minute Refreshers For Your Freelancing Space 

• Upcycle quirky mugs, old vases, and pretty glass jars to corral pens, pencils, and markers. Play around with different organization schemes. Do you like to organize things according to the type of writing instrument, your writing mood, or how frequently the item is used?

BTW, did you see the viral photo about the tiny Iranian pencil shop? I found a video where the owner talks about his work!

• Improve air quality by adding a plant. Consider giving an overgrown houseplant a much-needed division or ask a friend for a spider plant baby. (Is your office already crowded with plants? Do the opposite and give some away or move them to another room to free up some space.)

• Tidy your bookshelves. Cull any misplaced items. That’s not where your knitting needles go and you know it! Collect books for friends and libraries and stick them by the front door. Run a dust cloth over any exposed shelving.

• Get a pretty storage box or basket to store mementos. You may well have one in your home already that’s under-used. Give all those press passes, airline tickets, and quirky odds and ends a lovely little nest. I guarantee you’ll smile every time you open it. (Pro tip: I use my box to elevate my laptop to the right height during Zoom calls. Multi-tasking!)

• Rearrange things on a small scale. That might mean switching around some photos. You may need to remove your end tables but bring up an old chair from the basement. The idea isn’t to tackle an all-day project to find an arraignment that is the ideal set up for writing your next novel. The intent is to remind yourself that this is an important space and that caring for your writing next is valuable. 

Update! I tried this subscription for writers…

In the last newsletter, I talked about subscription boxes for readers and writers and I’m happy to report that I got my first Hello Writer delivery. This subscription service mails out beautifully packaged writing prompts and exercises. One of the first exercises was to create an elimination poem. Here’s my effort!

Book Club Reminder!

The Thursday Murder (Book) Club meets again on Thursday, June 8 at 7:00 PM EST. We’ll be reading A Killer In King’s Cove by Iona Whishaw. Here’s your Zoom link.

What I’ve Been Writing

• New on the blog this month: These ten books are not traditional travel guides, but boy, do they make a big difference in a person’s travel experience. From poetry to fiction, these texts will greatly impact your global adventures.

  

• Pesto is besto: My latest byline for Chatelaine is all about using those tender spring greens in the early farm boxes and transforming them into delicious, sumptuous pesto. I’m thrilled that the editors used MY photos for the piece too!

What I’ve Been Reading

• We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian: A beautifully crafted story about the ugliness of the American foster care system.

• I was thrilled to discover this blog post talking about Anne of Green Gables-settings not in Prince Edward Island but in Nova Scotia. Did you know that Halifax was the real-life location for the fictional Redmond College? (And if you loved the character of Gilbert Blythe, you’ll enjoy this article in the New Yorker about why we ALL loved him!)

  More below…