The new issue is out! #43.

This is a good one, too. I am quite pleased with it! Every bit of it, with the exception of a few logos and such, was done in Nova Scotia. I even painted a new cover for it at the last minute to replace the cruddy one I'd done for it in Toronto months ago. The significance of this only struck me after the book pressed, and I wonder if there was some subconscious drive to make it so. . . To flush the last remnants of the old world from my system as I become part of this new place. . .

And ah. . , but I've been learning about where I have arrived. There are things about my new home here in the odd town of Wolfville. . .

First off, different places have different rhythms; different ways of expressing themselves through the ever-unfolding patterns of life. My musician friend says, "The world is a song. It's a piece of music!" --I of course see that the world is clearly a story, filled with rich and colorful characters, plot twists and adventures, drama and cliff hangers. In the end, I suspect we are both right. Music and stories are just expressions of something far greater which cannot be so easily described, and so we use the little words we have available and struggle along as best we can. This is the toil and love of the artist!

Anyhow, this place I now live has a different speed, rhythm, changeability. The narrator, (there must be one somewhere), is a happier, more playful. The story here unfolds in unexpected ways. It's much like the weather! They have a saying out here. . , "Don't like the weather? No problem! Wait fifteen minutes!"

The plot keeps twisting marvelously! It reminds me, actually, of the way I like to write. If there's one thing about T&K it's the fact that right when you think you see a convention or an expected pattern forming, chances are I'll see it too and deliberately go in a new direction. Formula writing bugs me! It's lazy, and its very, very easy for a writer to slip into it. "The desperate boxer is gambling with his life because. . . um. . . I know! Because his mother needs an expensive operation!" Thud. But cripes, it happens! For almost every problem you can face in story, there is a formulaic way out which everybody has seen before. The job of a good writer is to plot a new course. To go exploring. Living month to month in Wolfville is like exploring!

With so very few people here as compared to the big city which had literally millions, and so many more possibilities, it seems strange just how slowly the story of one's life moved and developed in Toronto. It was much more. . . Gothic. Dramatic and methodical. Out here things seem bouncier and less predictable. Both worlds have their values, I am sure. It is the difference between them which stands out!

Indeed, the challenges here are both difficult and exhilarating. --I have been forced several times now to re-examine myself in hard ways, always, always having highlit the rough spots where improvement is needed, showing where I can grow still stronger and more able. One should always be focusing in ever closer to that ideal version of the Self. --And Life rewards you for where you have been particularly deft in honing your qualities; fresh smiles and triumphs of spirit and laughter and love, (oh Love!), making you want more! And really, this is I think the goal of being alive, and I'll be damned if dating isn't a great way to engage it. Hm! Dating is rarely easy, (especially with these intense and beautiful, alive Nova Scotian women who have been catching my breath away and driving me slightly mad!). Certainly a fast track on the learning curve of life, and a welcome one, despite everything. Despite changes of heart or good-byes or any of these sad things which are always a part. And still, the narrator/musician, the Bard in charge of Nova Scotia has a twinkle in his eye and will not let you sit still long while the evening is young.

And the story bounces on. . .

While I am in charge of T&K and the characters I help live there, I can only guess what the Bard of Nova Scotia has in mind. . ! Who will we meet? How long will it last? I can only wonder what she will be like. . .

Ha ha!

It is the holiday season, and there is ice in the air, and I wish everybody all the best! It's not about the toys and the money and the dashing about. Remember that, my friends. Sit quietly for a time and just look at the people you love, listen to them speak. Be kind, to others, to yourself, for no matter where you are, even if you are alone this holiday, we are all apart of this great, weaving story and song, and you will be caught up again before you know it! A good Bard knows.

Cheers!

-Mark

December 21st, 2003
Wolfville, Nova Scotia