metro mama

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

First Stop on the Elizabeth Hay Blog Tour!

Several months ago I recommended a book I loved, Elizabeth Hay’s Giller winning Late Nights on Air (now available in paperback).

Yesterday Elizabeth began a tour up North, the setting of Late Nights on Air, retracing her steps in Yellowknife and the Yukon. I’m so pleased to tell you, she is also embarking on a blog tour: she'll write about her travels as they take place, guest posting on several blogs with her updates.

This is the first stop on the tour; other participants include The Book Mine Set, The Library Ladder, and Pickle Me This (I will round up all of the posts at the end).

So without further ado, over to Elizabeth…

April 28/08

In Ottawa a deep, cool rain soaks the flower garden, but Great Slave Lake is still frozen fast, I’m told. Longjohns are in order.

I’ve made a list and feel rather like Huck Finn, not that I’m taking a fry pan. Besides longjohns, I will pack a warm hat, low boots, a neck warmer, scarf, gloves. Also sunglasses and sunscreen. My old friend John Stephenson, who has lived in or near Yellowknife since 1973, tells me that the thaw hasn’t really started, though snow has begun to disappear. He underscored the need for sunscreen: you get a double dose of rays standing on the frozen lake, direct and reflected.

This will be my first trip north since 1988 when I was pregnant with my son Ben. Yesterday that same red-headed boy came home from McGill for the summer. Another sign of the passage of time: John, who spearheaded this visit and did huge amounts of organizational work, won’t be in Yellowknife when I arrive; he is having a hip replacement operation in Victoria on April 30. That we won’t see each other is a great disappointment. He and I, along with two others, did the six-week canoe trip on the Thelon River in 1978 that forms the basis for the fictional canoe trip in Late Nights on Air.

The first stop, however, will be Whitehorse in the Yukon (not to be confused with Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.) We arrive Tuesday evening and the itinerary set up by the Yukon Writers’ Festival is a northophile’s dream. The prospect of seeing Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Mayo, Carmacks and Dawson City has rekindled the wanderlust I had in my twenties. To see the Yukon for the first time in my life, to revisit Yellowknife for the first time in twenty years makes me feel not just lucky but rejuvenated. How can it be anything less than fascinating?

Labels:

8 Comments:

Blogger Heather said...

Even her journal entries are written with a sort of magic. I'm almost finished her book - just wonderful.

10:33 AM  
Blogger karengreeners said...

what a great guest - she is worthy of all praise sent her way.

1:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm lovin' your blog, and just delurking to tell you that...

5:05 PM  
Blogger John Mutford said...

Off to a great start! Well, except for the hip replacement-- I hope that went okay.

It must be surreal to return to a place after such a long time.

Now I can't wait for my turn on the blog tour.

6:55 PM  
Blogger moplans said...

have I mentioned how I love your new job?

10:20 AM  
Blogger Teddy Rose said...

I have about 30 pages left to read of the book, but I don't want it to end! The book is both hard to put down and hard to pick up. I know I will have to read it again someday, which is very rare for me to do!

It will help to read the journal entries, so thanks for this! I hope the hip replacement goes well and that the rehab is short.

3:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My girlfriend is jealous of my computer and my iphone. How can I save the relationship and still have my toys.
[url=http://forexrobot-review.info]best forex software[/url] [url=http://hijosdecain.lvlercenarios.com/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=680]unlock iphone[/url]

1:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey I'd love to congratulate you for such a terrific made site!
Was thinking this would be a nice way to make my first post!

Sincerely,
Laurence Todd
if you're ever bored check out my site!
[url=http://www.partyopedia.com/articles/tinkerbell-party-supplies.html]tinkerbell Party Supplies[/url].

4:59 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.