Weird weather

We've had strange weather here in Yellowknife over the past few days. The mercury's been spending a lot of time around the -10C mark. While walking to the gym last week, I noticed the sign outside the YK Centre was showing -4C. Normal temperatures at this time of year range from -18C to -28C.

We've also had a lot of humidity - yes, the damp winter cold dreaded in so many parts of Canada. One of the consolations of living in Yellowknife is that we supposedly have a dry climate - our payback for putting up with -40.

All that humidity, however, means that the trees are coated in frost and look fabulous. Here are a couple of shots I took today.

Weekend workshop with Steven Galloway

We're really lucky here in Yellowknife, with all the high-quality writers who travel through town, sharing what they know.

This weekend we had a workshop with Steven Galloway, whose most recent novel is The Cellist of Sarajevo. Steven teaches writing at the University of British Columbia, so gave us a well-though-out presentation on writing techniques. With any luck his concept of action in story will free me of my fear of plotting. I'm currently revising a story, so we'll see how that goes. He also walked us through the technique of narrative positioning, which takes things well past the basic decisions authors have to make about point of vew. Interesting ideas.

Many thanks to the NorthWords Writers Festival for organizing the event.