Summer so far
- joelcmckay
- Jul 30
- 6 min read
It's been a good summer so far - although we haven't had any lengthy stretches of hot weather, the cooler temperatures here and consistent rain have kept wildfire season largely relegated to the southern interior (thoughts are with everyone from 100 Mile House south through to the Kootenays). The last decade in B.C. wildfires haven't been a question of "if" but "where." I don't see that issue abating any time soon, and they're just as bad in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and elsewhere so don't buy into any of that claptrap about Canadian forests being mismanaged.
Here at home there've been lake days, lake evenings, a bit of golf, got on the new mountain bike (it was painful), lots of BBQs, walks, a few hikes, and a family reunion of sorts coming in early August.
I could still go for a solid week or two of sunny, mid-20s temperatures to get to the lake more with the girls. I grew up on the coast, so being a beach bum is in my nature. I don't tire of it.
Writing
I've also found a lot more time for writing - a couple articles this past month, a poem (see below), and another few thousand words on the sequel to Wolf at the Door. Admittedly, I'm on the struggle bus with it a bit but I'm starting to get a feel for how this story is going to play, though I'm anticipating heavy revisions following first draft.
Here's a link to a recent article about coasts, and B.C. and oil pipelines I penned for The Line Canada: Joel McKay: Not all coasts are equal - by Line Editor
And another piece I wrote specifically for LinkedIn after the announcement of another pulp mill closure here in B.C.: As one industry consolidates in the North, we need to articulate the challenge we face in order to address it | LinkedIn
A poem for summer
I don't typically write poetry, but I studied a fair bit of it during my MA, and, more recently, write some for my partner. It was her idea that gave the poem life, specifically the second line of each stanza. Anyway, the work is below - consider it under construction as I tumble around between word choice, rhyming conventions, and flow. Enjoy.
Late July
It’s starting to feel like August out there
The Sunday of summer
With corn climbing tall, stretching toward sunfall
Leaves thickening with middle age
And rooster tails rolling alongside dusty bales
Wildfires too, blowing plumes into the sky stacking endlessly high
It’s starting to feel like August out there
The Sunday of summer
It's off to the mall as mom and dad are planning for fall
Pens, pencils, paper, and purchasing to no end
For work to come amid dog days so still we hear only the sparrow's trill
Oh, let it slow, we’re not yet ready for the evening's weakening glow
It’s starting to feel like August out there
The Sunday of summer
Like that day formerly for rest, now only for choring and no time to feel your best
And seeing those labours hastening to arrival we ponder and pale
Upon which our anxieties grow, lamenting the season’s rapid flow
At twilight's lonely loon call we accept these months were always too small
It’s starting to feel like August out there
The Sunday of summer
With browning grass and callused feet, there’s fewer days left to feel the heat
But lo! Wait. There’s plenty to come, perhaps even harvest’s holy grail
A cornucopia of fruit and vegetable and coloured leaves that set the table
For thanks to give and then ahoy to Halloween's jack-o-lantern grins we'll soon employ
We'll share this season's bounty through the next with joy
So long as there's us, warm and together, gathered for an autumn to last forever
What I've been reading
Hamlet
I bought a SparkNotes No Fear Shakespeare copy of Hamlet a few years ago, slipped it on my shelf and only got to it a few weeks ago. I haven't seriously read Shakespeare since my undergrad days some decades ago, and even then it wasn't a lot - Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, bits and pieces of others and then a number of adaptations. The point was to push myself into something that isn't a standby reading escape for me, but actual close reading, analysis, and reflection.
Why? Well, if you're going to bother to get a grad degree then on occasion you ought to use those skills to enhance your own experience and craft, and I couldn't think of a more obvious gap in my knowledge that would also be useful.
So I read it. It's good. I mostly paid attention to structure, the length of acts, scenes, even going as far as making a determination on which character had the dominant point of view in each scene (who's leading the conversation, what responses are we hearing that we might interpret as being what they want to hear and therefore an indicator of POV). Not scientific, just an interesting way
to think about the work.
Some takeaways for me:
Hamlet is an unreliable protagonist, who feigns accountability via melancholy but is actually rather impetuous. He's a kid. And in many ways reminded me of Romeo, though in this case obsessed with revenge instead of love, but not any worse or wiser for it
I found myself reflecting on the specific scenes and what would have been their stage/set requirements in the context of late 16th century technology - how much of that informed the author's location and scene choices?
It's darkly funny, obviously tragic but almost ridiculously so - I thought of a kingdom so politically inept all its enemies needed to do was wait and walk through the front door at the right time and it would be theirs uncontested, which it was
My favourite scene was A5S1 - the graveyard. Probably no surprise there. I enjoyed the humour set against the macabre setting, the everyday-ness of it, the snappy dialogue and logic jokes. My kind of thing.
Horatio is the kind of guy I'd want beside me in battle.
All in all, a great experience combing through the text and I think very useful as a writer as I push myself to stretch my language, and think differently about plot and scene structure.
Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep
I ordered Paul Tremblay's latest and didn't even try to put it on the TBR pile. It was up top for me. I'm a big fan of Tremblay, including his first two novels, which are short noir detective stories. His writing has only been getting better as he's leaned into the craft, and I'm increasingly enjoying the narrative structures he's experimenting with.
Anyway, this is his best since Survivor Song in terms of shear page-turning-prowess. But what lingers with me is how he tackled current societal fears about AI. Check out my thoughts on it here: Writing Horror for the Times We’re In | Writers, After Dark
A few others I read in the last month:
Reconcile by Bruce Campbell (short western) - it's good - Reconcile : Campbell, Bruce: Amazon.ca: Books
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (short horror) - it's a great third instalment in this series - What Stalks the Deep: Kingfisher, T.: 9781250354921: Books - Amazon.ca
Dead Sea by Brian Keene - I subscribe to Keene's weekly newsletter, which recently let readers know that the Deadite Press editions of Dead Sea and Entombed (two of his zombie survival books) were going out of print, so I picked up both and read the first one. Fun read. I increasingly like Keene's work, voice, and style and am finding lots of little bits in it that help me as a writer. Dead Sea : Keene, Brian: Amazon.ca: Books
What I'm watching
We're still working through 90210. I can't believe they made 32-episode seasons. Still fun, yet obviously formulaic as we move into S7.
The Hawk on Netflix is fantastic ludicrous Will Ferrell golf humour. Check it out.
Working through a second watch of Widow's Bay - really enjoyable the second time around
Monsters and Minions was a lot of fun in theatre too.
What I'm playing
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings - good short game that holds up, but the controls are wonky
Spider Man Remastered (2019) - nearing the end. Webbing through NYC never gets old.
Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced - third or fourth play through of this game, but first time with this version. It really is something else.
That's all for now - enjoy August!
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