Who Calls - Into the Past to Reach the Present!

A road trip this summer took me to the Qu'Appelle Valley. I spent happy days in my childhood free ranging in that valley as we visited my grandmother. In the city there were rules - in a small town, we could wander free. That left me with great memories of the valley.

In fact, my first book From the Dust was set there. I always imagined that the farm perched on top of Cemetery Hill and bordering the cemetery, belonged to Binnie Clark, an activist for women's rights, who came from England and pulled her brother's farm from the brink of bankruptcy.  Of course, while Binnie and her farm were real, I'm only hypothesizing on the exact location. 

Cemetery Hill - is that its real name? I don't know. What I do know is that a cemetery sits on the peak of this hill that overlooks the town of Fort Qu'Appelle. As the hill drops into the valley - you find the oldest graves. There are plots of people who died as far back as the 1800's. As the cemetery pulls away from the valley, the graves ease into years rather than centuries ago. 

In my latest story - a two decades old tragedy begins on this hill.  And, as I wander around the cemetery, I read the tombstones which tell their own stories. Stories I realize that can't be told in a line or two so I fill in the blanks with my imagination. 

It's a happy place and a sad place all at once. There's lives well lived and lives cut short. But there are also so many stories. Those stories are real but they inspired another - this time, it's completely fictional. 
So, as I settle in to work on the next story, the valley and the history of those that came before become both an inspiration and a guide. 
The adventure begins today!
Ryshiawww.ryshiakennie.com

   Ryshia

           The adventure begins today!

Yep, autumn began a few days ago but this week has the promise of a lingering summer. It began today, I admit - cooler temps. 

But...

 the weatherman is promising a margarita weather type day for the rest of the week. I'm not holding my breath. Instead, I'm enjoying the week.

First up - I hauled out my roller blades. Yep - hauled, there can be no better word for they were buried in the storage room after more years than I want to admit of stagnation. So with some trepidation I pulled them on and tottered off. 

Soon, the old spring in the blades came back and I went not once but twice around the neighbourhood. And yes - for you safety conscious, I should have strapped on the helmet. But all was well...next time...yep, there's a next time...next year - fingers crossed.

Meantime, I'm looking forward to the next "end of summer" adventure.

And while I do that, my latest heroine, Jorie, has just received a message from the hero - Justice.

     Her reaction, or more appropriate - thoughts, immediately after his text?

What a name to go through life with. It was off-putting. 

Of course, with a murderer on the prowl in this story - who was named what for why is the least of their worries.

Sign up for my newsletter, The Walkabout, for more story tidbits. In the meantime I'm continuing "the last of summer - into fall adventure week".

   Ryshia

           The adventure begins today!

(been there, done that)

Dinosaurs - Not Quite a Stroll on the Beach

 Welcome to “Throw Back Monday”. These are the posts where I’ve gone back and delved into my blog and pulled some posts from a few handfuls of years back – yep, I’ve been blogging for a long time…

Too much work, and no vacation,
Deserves at least a small libation.
So hail! my friends, and raise your glasses,
Work's the curse of the drinking classes.
~Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde did have an interesting spin on things. 

A few years back I was on the road exploring another bit of this great country - Canada.  While I’m calling it a vacation, I'm still thinking about what I’m writing - this story or that. But the guilt at having fled from my computer for days at a stretch is like sand in my shoes or flip flops, easily brushed aside.  Anyway, while choosing one road over another that took us on a quaint drive through ranch land with patches of scrub brush giving subtle indicators of what's to come.  The villages along this route reference women in one way or another; Princess, Patricia, Duchess, Rosemary, Countess and Millicent.  I want to know why but don’t find the answer. 

But I digress.  It was a zig instead of a zag that led to the road to Alberta’s badlands and Dinosaur Provincial Park. 

There were dinosaurs with absolutely no hint of Jurassic - I hoped. Okay, it was a road sign that sent us down a road to the past. It was a twisted road and took a few turns to get there.  And no, there were no sign of dinosaurs, not yet. There was the sign however, the one that said slow down for snakes. 

          Slow Down for Snakes?

My rule on wildlife – slow down for anything! Okay, back to snakes – fortunately, there were none. Of course, it was a hot day, and any self-respecting snake would have long ago hunted down shade.

The rough, prairie scrub grass opens into a vast, timeworn valley.  It's beautiful and yet eerie, especially if you think of it in the context of what it is - a giant reptilian cemetery.  Okay, maybe that was slightly macabre, but the truth is that the valley is littered with dinosaur bones. In the summer months, paleontologists come here from around the world to participate in digs.     

           Then there’s the warnings!

There are numerous signs, warning of preserved, off-limits sites with notices to leave all bones and fossils where they lay.  And then there’s the warnings that are a little more disturbing. Again, watch out for living critters who aren’t as friendly as the dead - black widows, scorpions and, of course, rattle snakes.   

No worries there – I didn’t venture off the path. Who knows what slithery thing is out there!

Creepy crawlies aside, it's not often in my day-to-day life that I'm reminded of the ice age or the extinction of the dinosaurs.  But when you stand on the precipice of this valley it's like you've been rushed back in time to a place you can barely imagine.  The valley is a testament is a reminder of 

the power of nature and that  once, the earth looked nothing like it does now.

  Way back when, when dinosaurs  

          roamed the earth.

All in all, it was the perfect detour that only created a small zig instead of a zag across a secondary highway and into another world. It was a detour that could kick anyone's imagination into overdrive.

Did I find a fossil or even a bone - nope.  But I did locate a piece of wood that looked amazingly like a leg bone.  That is, if you used your imagination

                              Ryshia
          …the adventure begins today!

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada's Birthday!  Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian Friends.  Here in Saskatchewan - the land of living skies - July 1 is looking extra special, we're finally going to get good weather.  Considering all the rain and cool temperatures - barring more rain, I'm heading for the deck. What better way to celebrate your country's birthday but with a margarita. 

No matter what you're up to today - have a great day!  

          Safe Adventures!

              Ryshia

Summer flowers - not quite - but May's here and with the promise of summer around the corner. It's a great month to receive well - good news.

My news? I placed in my city's writing award! That meant I had to emerge from my "writer's cave" aka "basement office" to attend the festivities just last week. Besides meeting some great people and reconnecting with others, I received a plaque and a bag of cool stuff including a  sweet little notebook that I'm not  sure I dare deface with a pen .

Prizes and awards aside - I got to talk to other writers  including a young aspiring writer. That was conversation was incredibly  inspiring,  for it took me back to my teenage years when all I wanted to do was write but I didn't know what.  That long ago dream never left and in the years that followed, it has taken me on an interesting journey. It's a journey where the road still stretches into an unknown horizon.  I'm expecting that there will be a lot more curves in that road that may not resemble those I've already navigated. 

What I know is, writing isn't a race that you win but it is a  journey that you take your readers along on. So let the stories go on.

I'd like to say that's it for May excitement but we're only mid-way through. Who knows what might happen next.

Stay tuned - till next time!

Safe Adventures!

Ryshia

Up here the frozen north  isn’t so frozen. In fact,  we’re having a warm winter. While there's snow on the ground and sub zero temperatures that seem pretty chilly to those of you from more tropical climes, it's way warmer than usual. Although warm won't have me hauling out my shorts and sandals, for it's not flip flop weather. Nope, not that kind of warm at all. It’s, the snow is melting, hanging - rotting a bit more and hanging, kind of warm. Temperatures hovering around that melt or don't melt zone  which is almost hot for February. Although it’s still chilly enough to want to curl up after a walk with a good book.

Well that leads us the fact that today is the first day of  Freedom to Read Week in Canada. If you ask me, that event should go on all year. You can’t sweep history under the rug and pretend it never happened. That only ensures that you’re poised for a replay. No matter how many times you say it - Ignorance is not bliss. Of course, there are other reasons for banning books like frightening content, magical beings etc. etc. but are those reasons any better? 

From an author perspective, Stephen King said it best when he heard that some of his books were banned from school libraries.

“16 of my books? I must be doing something right.”

And that's not all that's going on today...

It’s a busy day for it’s also National Wine Day. What could be better this evening than curling up with a glass of wine and a good book? What book? Well – you’re only limited by your imagination.

Safe Adventures!

Ryshia

In my travels both near and far, I've discovered something that is common everywhere - road craziness. There is always the person who doesn't signal, speeds etc etc.but it's the different traffic rules that can truly broadside you.  Here's a sampling of what I've experienced in my travels.

Cambodia

·  Don't assume that the cab driver with perfect English that you hired to pick you up the next day, is the cab driver you're going to get to take you cross country. 

·  Speed and the ability to understand English sometimes has an inverse reaction. The more you tell the driver to slow down, the faster he may drive.

·  Your driver's continual horn honking does not actually ensure your safety nor get other vehicles out of your way.

Canada

·  The cab driver you hire is the one you'll get.

·  Radar is common and painfully slow drivers plentiful - a rather inverse correlation.

·  Horn honking is rare but glaring and speeding up to cut you off when you signal to change lanes - common

Malaysia

"The left hand side of the road - the left, the left..." 

This from the passenger - coming from a place where cars stick to the right except to pass.

Safe Adventures

Ryshia

Dec. 12, 2023

In the heart of the Canadian Prairies, is a road that runs straight and unpaved for miles. There are no sign posts to indicate where it leads. There’s only an abandoned stone schoolhouse, the only beacon that can be seen along a road that points straight into the horizon. I imagine that if there were time, it would be an adventure to drive this road to the end. 

And that’s exactly like the beginning of each of my stories – it’s an adventure that I drive to the end. That opening sentence, like this road, runs straight into the unknown. While I know the characters and where I want to take them, there are twists as sometimes the characters and even the villain(s) decides to lead the way. They drop what I consider surprise bombs that are encouraged by me saying “what if” over a coffee break. Those two words can change a lot. 

What is an adventure really? Not too many of us are going to climb a mountain, jump from a plane or, hopefully, run for our lives. But we can shake up our day to day lives, change up our schedule, sign up for a new sport or club or go on the occasional trip – even a local trip. We can also dive into fictional adventure. Books have been my escape since I was a kid back in the day when I road my bike to the library. Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't had my share of travel adventures with hopefully, more to come. But in the gaps in between...

If you’re looking for an adventure and you’ve no plane ticket in hand - check out a book. I'll try not to suggest which one.

Safe Adventures!

Ryshia

"The border means more than a customs house, a passport officer, a man with a gun. Over there everything is going to be different; life is never going to be quite the same again after your passport has been stamped."- Graham Greene

Dec. 6, 2023