Tobin Elliott over at Left to Write has put a little grin on my face by honouring me with an Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award. I met Tobin at the Ontario Writers’ Conference where I was involved in a Roundtable on Self-Publishing. One of my students, Mary McIntyre, who had taken a course from Tobin years ago and thought highly of him, ended up seated beside him at the conference and introduced the two of us. It was easy to see why she’d raved about him. He’s enthusiastic about writing, his own and others’, friendly, and has a wide range of interests.
Tobin kindly wrote: “Besides being a great writer and editor, Allyson’s also just a very nice person (and a closet horror fan, which is aces in my book!). Interviews, guest bloggers, upcoming writing contests … this blog has something for everyone.”
The rules of this award dictate that in response I do the following:
1. Thank the person who awarded me. [Well, of course I would.]
2. Tell you 7 things about myself
3. Pass this award on to some new bloggers.
Thank you, Tobin! Tobin, who’s a very entertaining writer, already outed me on his blog as a horror fan. (He’s writing a horror novel himself). Let me add that my interest is entirely understandable because I grew up in a haunted house. Really. But that’s a story for another post.
As an editor and writing instructor, I’m more used to encouraging other people to write about themselves. But here goes …
Seven Things About Me
1. I have red hair. I used to have VERY red hair. My mom had it too, and so did my grandmother. All three of us shared a blonde streak that was visible only when we wore our hair up (them, updos; me, ponytail). It always made me think of the Mallen streak (did you ever read Catherine Cookson?), only underneath rather than on top, and blonde not white. My mom and grandmother were very proud of their auburn locks, at least as adults, but for a long time I hated mine. I didn’t like friends’ carrot-top jokes, or old people telling me how lucky I was to have such pretty hair, and I didn’t like that it made me stand out in a crowd. When I was nine years old I attended a weekend ranch camp and a crew was filming a promotional video. I was in one group scene, then, later in the day, in another—that is, until the director yelled “CUT,” pointed to me conspicuously, and said, “THAT REDHEAD CAN’T BE IN TWO SCENES!” And they whisked me off-set, me blushing crimson. Needless to say, lots of blondes and brunettes got to be in TWO SCENES. (Which on top of having had to eat lumpy camp oatmeal for breakfast added insult to injury.) It took me years to appreciate my hair, and by the time I did, it wasn’t quite as red anymore. Which when you think about it is kind of a metaphor for life.
2. My siblings and I are all writers and editors, but—probably fortunately–lean toward different sorts of writing and editing. Once there were five of us. My brother Blair, who passed away in 2005, did all sorts of stuff: he wrote plays, screenplays, lots of short fiction, one nonfiction book (The Franklin Conspiracy), poetry and songs—even a period rock opera with 24 songs, never pitched or produced, titled 1812. We’ve been unable to decide whether by going into the same field we all share a natural gift, or just lack imagination.
3. I am a recovering Elvis-aholic, and it doesn’t take much to make me relapse. My parents weren’t fans at all, but when I was 7 years old an album found its way into the house, “50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong,” and my sisters and I (they were 5 and 3 at the time) discovered it and became obsessed. With the music. With him. Oh, how we mooned over his image on that cover. We’d play the record at ear-popping volume and dance about until we were frenzied and dripping with sweat. We jumped about near the stereo so much that the needle hopped and gouged the record—and those thsss thsss sounds became for us part of the songs. We thought for the longest time that we’d in fact discovered him—that Elvis was ours—despite the album title. We weren’t very good at math. (See #2 above.)
4. The scariest thing that I remember happening to me was being on the fourteen floor of a hotel room in Santiago, Chile, during the February 2010, 8.8-magnitude earthquake.
5. The scariest thing I don’t remember happening to me was flat-lining after giving birth to my second child. I recall nothing except feeling an awful pressure on my chest and telling the anaesthesiologist, I can’t breathe. There was no white light. Moments later I wasn’t even aware that I’d been gone, or that there’d been a mad panic in the OR and my husband had been shoved out into the hall. No one told me for 24 hours; they didn’t want to stress me. I heard it from a girlfriend, who, not realizing I didn’t know, let it slip the following evening in my hospital room. We both cried. I never intended my son to know and for many years he didn’t—until one of my aunts divulged it to him when he was 12, saying, “You know, your mom almost died having you!” We were in a Dairy Queen.
6. I can’t believe how lucky I am to do what I do for a living. But one of my favourite jobs ever was writing film reviews. Between DVDs and cinema screenings I still see anywhere from 100 to 150 films a year. I started as a volunteer for a repertory theatre in Ottawa and then wrote reviews for the Ottawa Citizen. I worked there under the talented and funny editor/writer Jay Stone. I eventually forgave him for assigning me, low reviewer on the totem pole, so many Jean-Claude Van Damme films. I also forgave him for once saying sardonically, when I proudly showed him a film ad that shouted, FOUR STARS SAYS ALLYSON LATTA OF THE CITIZEN, “Well, that’ll sell a lot of tickets.” He was right. It didn’t.
7. I’ve twice spent stretches abroad. In my early 20s I embarked with my boyfriend on a six-month van trip to Mexico, which was transforming and only made me want to travel more. In my early 30s I lived and worked for three years in Kumamoto, Japan. I remember once being on vacation from my teaching job, lying on a beach in Thailand, thinking that I was doing everything I’d ever dreamed of. I was living in and learning about a foreign country, meeting fascinating people, travelling to exotic destinations, freelance writing, and even enjoying the occasional wild fling (at that time with an Australian). I didn’t think life could get better than that. I was wrong, and also right.
Hey, this is getting easier. I can’t resist adding one more.
8. I get dumber every day, while my children get smarter. Recently my husband and I were admonishing our youngest, who is 14, for an increasing tendency to be sullen and uncommunicative, and he said, “I don’t know why you guys are so surprised. You’ve already got one teenager. You’d think you’d have seen this coming.”
Blogs That Inspire or Entertain Me … or Both
Blog of Green Gables: A Mother-Daughter Reading Journal – This colourful blog written and decorated by author Kristen den Hartog (newest novel And Me Among Them) and her daughter, N, is appealing to the eye and offers irresistibly sweet takes on children’s literature.
Take It From Tilya: A Woman’s Survival Guide to Any Era – Created by one of my former students, this blog illustrates an innovative way to breathe new life into older writing. The articles Tilya Helfield posts regularly were first published in two Montreal weekly newspapers between 1965 and 1973. As she says now, “Amazing how little has changed in the last forty years!”
Rose Coloured – Author Rebecca Rosenblum’s posts always make me laugh. She’s the author of two story collections, Once, and The Big Dream (to be published in Sept 2011). Rebecca and I were both judges for a University of Toronto Magazine short story contest, along with Andrew Pyper and Lee Gowan.
Matilda Magtree – This is the thought-provoking, sometimes wacky blog of writer Carin Makuz. Great photos too!
Dance Diary: An Honest Account of My Life at Ballet School – Emily Finkelstein writes an entertaining, illuminating and sometimes edgy blog. She’s a talented young writer who’s received a Quebec government arts grant to write a YA novel based on her dance school experiences.
The Dinner Guest (at Poetry of Food) – My friend and colleague Stephanie Dickison is multitalented (writer, cook, social networking guru) and The Dinner Guest is just one of her blogs. Poetry of Food as a whole is a great site if you love travel and food.
Sarah Selecky – Sarah’s acclaimed short fiction collection This Cake Is For the Party was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She has a beautiful site, recently hosted a writing contest, and Tweets cool writing prompts.
Listophelia – Author Amy Jones (What Boys Like and Other Stories) writes a fun blog made up of, you guessed it, lists.
The Spice Necklace: Ann’s Blog – Ann Vanderhoof is author of two travel memoirs, An Embarrassment of Mangoes and The Spice Necklace, the second of which I edited, and she blogs here about her sailing adventures and culinary discoveries. Fair warning, though: it will make you want to hop on the next plane to the Caribbean.
I’m Just Sayin – Becky Clark’s observations on life make for very witty bloggin.
This is a cheat because it’s just one post, but I love it:
For the Love of Book: The Parabolist – Found on BookLounge.ca, this post by one of my colleagues, Nita Pronovost, now Senior Editor with Doubleday Canada, illustrates just how far a dedicated editor will go in the service of her authors.
And although they’ve already been awarded, I’d like to recommend several of my students’ blogs: Mary McIntyre’s Washburn Island: Memoir of a Childhood, Ruth Zaryski Jackson’s Memoir Writer’s World, and Cheryl Andrews.