Not dead!

I know, last you heard from me, there was still a possibility that John McCain would be President of the United States. It's been a while. I haven't been terribly inspired.

Plus, I took a partial break from consulting work to put some concerted effort into my book-writing project, The Canadian Saga, based on my family history. I read dozens of books related to the history of Canada, the native peoples of western Canada, and the Hudson's Bay Company. I made mid-winter journeys to the frozen homelands of my people, where I visited archives and saw really enormous snow sculptures. I diagrammed elaborate timelines of events on my white board. I discovered that sitting down and writing fiction is fracking hard. So for a while, all my writing energy was absorbed elsewhere.

I also became an aunt! Which is also way cool, and some of my time has been absorbed visiting my adorable new niece and, of course, her parents. Since it's not my place to blog about her, or her family's joys and travails in the throes of new parenthood, or to post pictures of her - that takes another big part of my life off the table.

BUT - Enrico and I (and our two geriatric dogs) are soon to embark on a month-long road trip to the far north, land of my family tale. And travel, my friends, has always generated ample fodder for us here at Miscellaneous Shellfish. We've bought a used VW van, and it should be a hoot. So I figure I'll re-activate the old blog as a way of keeping up with family while we're on the road. Stay tuned, if you care to.