Thursday, July 15, 2021

FINALIST!

The six finalists have just been announced for the Whistler Independent Book Award, three fiction, three nonfiction.

I'm thrilled to say that "Loose Woman" is one of the finalists. Very exciting! It means so much to be seen, to be read, to be recognized. 

The non-fiction finalists are:

Elke Babicki for Identity: From Holocaust to Home
Fran Hurcomb for Breaking Trail: Northern Stories from a Simpler Time
Beth Kaplan for Loose Woman: My odyssey from lost to found

The other two finalists look like fascinating and important books, one a Holocaust journey, the other about living off the grid in the far north. I congratulate both writers. 

To celebrate, I was picking dead leaves from my favourite geranium, an incredible colour I can't find the right word for. Crimson? Ruby? 


No name does its incandescent vividness justice. Anyway, somehow, to my horror, I knocked it off the wide railing where it lived and watched it smash on the basement stairs below. I've repotted as best I can and am praying it survives.

Win some, lose some. Sigh. 

However, happily, I will soon be a millionaire.Yes! This kind stranger is giving me a wonderful gift. 

Congratulations 

I'm Charles W. Jackson Jr, the mega winner of $ 344.6 million dollars
Is donating $1,000,000 Dollars to 20 lucky person's
And your email was randomly picked.
For your claim contact: 

Lucky moi! Mr. Jackson Jr. could use a lesson or two in grammar, but am I going to look this generous gift horse in the mouth?

Well, actually, unfortunately, yes. 

Spoke to Chris in hospital yesterday and will call again today. He's just waiting to get home but is in pretty good spirits, his rude, absurd sense of humour intact. We laughed a lot. I told him we miss his blog! 

Here's another possible photograph of Dad and me for The New Quarterly article. My eighteenth birthday, August 1 1968. Oh the unlined skin, the glossy hair, the adorable dachshund! Double sigh. (It looks like I have a chin rash but it's something on the print we can photoshop out.) Love Dad's face. He must be looking at my brother. LOL.

6 comments:

  1. HUGE congratulations, Beth! This is lovely news! I'm happy to see a friend's book on the fiction finalist list too, Pamela McGarry's The Unsuitable Bride! Fingers crossed, on both hands.

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    1. Thank you, Theresa. The other nonfiction books are formidable, so - que sera sera. It's an honour to get this far. Good luck to all, especially Pamela.

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  2. So much I could comment on but, for now, about that geranium colour you were asking about? I just bought a garment (forgive me for not identifying it) and its colour is listed on the website as 'geranium'. It matches the colour of your geranium. The more informed will have an opinion?

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  3. Congratulations, Beth, for being named a finalist. It is a wonderful achievement that the work and the author richly deserves. As for the colour of the geranium: fuscia?

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  4. I just Googled; there are a bunch of fuscias. Maybe French fuscia, only slightly less pink? Or red/purple fuscia. And certainly many different colours of geranium. On a trip to India, I spent a lot of time trying to name the colours of the saris - so many colours, so many wonderful names. And thank you for your good wishes on the award nomination, Unknown.

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  5. Hurrah for being selected as a WIBA finalist. I've been telling friends about the sparkling quality of your writing for the past few years. Now they'll properly appreciate my discerning eyes!

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