A Gift of Language

Sge:no Swagwe:goh! Hi everyone! 

I've been holding onto this very exciting news for the last few weeks and now that it is September, I am super excited to share that starting tomorrow, I will be taking a year off to do more intensive language learning! 

Those of you who have been following the blog may know that for the past year or so, my husband and I have been making a concentrated effort to speak more of the Cayuga language in our home. The results of this effort have been really inspiring. The majority of our baby’s new words are all in Cayuga and our three-year old daughter also is able to speak and understand a lot of the language as well. This made us realize that things would moving along faster and even more language would be spoken in our home if I were to become a more proficient speaker. And so that is what we are going to do: take a year and focus on increasing my speaking proficiency.  

The core of the approach that we are using to learn is called the Master/Apprentice method. This approach was designed for people who have access to a speaker of an Indigenous language but not necessarily a classroom. One of the ideas that we have really taken to heart with this method is the notion that you have to “create your own language situation” (Hinton, 2002). 

A few months back, we went to an Indigenous language symposium in Thunder Bay which I made a video blog about here. The experience was really cathartic because I met many of my old friends and acquaintances from when I worked with the Chiefs of Ontario. It was also a reminder that while there are so many issues we need to be advancing as Indigenous Peoples (and we certainly need everyone, everywhere doing all of the work), the work that I’ve personally gravitated to is language, education, art and storytelling. I want to make a concerted effort now to acquire more language and to do this successfully—I have to give more time to it. 

By and large, the research shows that the most successful language learning happens in an immersion environment. And while we can create an immersion environment in our home, the depth of our conversations has been limited by the amount of things that I can say. We realized we needed to be able to get through the rules of the language more quickly. That I needed to memorize the prefixes, suffixes, negations and other elements of the language that elude me in the time we currently devote to Master/Apprentice.

Once problem I’ve encountered in trying to make a greater commitment to language is that this September, I’m starting the final year of my doctorate degree. I’m therefore not in a position to attend an all-day adult immersion program as I still need to spend a portion of my day doing work on my dissertation. And in both cases, I need to do what Cal Newport refers to as “deep work”. “Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produces better results in less time. You work as hard as your brain is capable for an extended amount of time without any distractions.” (Newport, 2012)

Up to now, we have done the majority of our language learning at home with our girls. This is something we plan to continue, but we’re now going to be switch gears because it’s incredibly difficult to do distraction-free work at home. And I am very ready to do deep work where it concerns language—especially since I came back from Thunder Bay. When I was there, it became super clear to me that I need to make a stronger commitment and blend a few approaches together to make a class that was unique to our needs. And so, I decided to take a big leap. 

I saved up the money to rent our class and signed a one-year lease for a room that has three big whiteboards and is just down the hall from one of the most successful language learning programs in our community. Over the next year, I'll spend my afternoons (I’ve blocked out 12-4, Monday to Friday) to do deep work to become more familiar with the rules of Cayuga in an immersion/distraction free environment. Some of this time I will spend with my husband and some of it I will spend working on my own. Most importantly, there will be dedicated time in my day for my learning.

The first day we got our classroom. 

Kehte hanging up paradigm charts. 

Adding some colour & posters. 

Our bookcases. We got a lovely paradigm game from the local immersion school. 

After scrubbing our white boards clean, this was the first thing we wrote on them!

Kehte and I are both very excited about the year ahead, and I’m very grateful for the support I’ve gotten from my work and my school. I’m also somewhat nervous. But all in all, it’s a good nervous and because we’ve already landed on a combination of ways to use audio resources, transcribing, drills, immersion conversation, and other strategies to shape our effort, I feel really positive about our movement forward. 

I’m also happy and grateful because as part of his work, my husband created a program framework and adapted the first year of the successful language program that I mentioned for Cayuga, so we have a strong year of proven curriculum to draw from. It’s super exciting. Anyways. we will share more about our process as our year progresses, but I just wanted to show a few snapshots of our new classroom! Isn’t it gorgeous? Hooray for language learning and wish us luck :).

Also, today is my birthday! So it seems like an extra special day to celebrate & to give myself a gift of time to try and be a better speaker :). 

S. 

Reconnecting with Writing & Art. Plus, a Surprise!

Being a writer while being in a full-time doctoral program, maintaining a full-time job, and trying to learn a language is really challenging. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reminded time and time again just how important it is to keep my creative work a priority, because stories and art are my passion. So much of the energy I have for all my other roles stems from being creative and doing creative work. 

This past weekend, I spent most of my time working on book projects and as a result, I feel happier and healthier than I have in months. And while I love all the other things I do, this made me realize I can’t let myself go this long without working on my creative projects—especially when I’ve invested so much time and energy into finding amazing resources and tools to help me do them. It’s a balancing act I think we all face to some degree, and it seems like it’s one I’ll probably continue to struggle with for the next year as I finish up my school work. 

On the bright side though—I'm super grateful I have a place to go to re-energize. Working around the house this weekend, I got so excited about all the reading, writing, creating, painting and learning I want and need to do to make the art I want to make. I have books about illustration, design, copyright, research, language learning and screenwriting all waiting to be read. I have my Wacom tablet, new paints and canvasses, and new notebooks ready to be filled. And bit by bit, I am going to do just that! 

This weekend I also got to try out a new program that I invested in a few months ago. It’s called Vellum, and it’s an amazing book creation app that formats both ebook and print layouts (Note: only available for Mac users at this time, my apologies!). I used it to format a special project I’ve been working on over the last few months and also to update the ebook versions of The Vampire Skeleton Series book, which—surprise!—now have new covers. Check them out below! 

I love these covers so much. They were designed by James T. Egan of Bookfly Designs, who just does really excellent work. I’ve worked with James a few times now and I am always really inspired by his creativity, experience and professionalism. I’m so happy with how they turned out! There are currently two books in this series and the third book will be coming out this September. The new book is called A Spectacle of Stones and I will be putting it up for pre-order in a few weeks (the first time I’ve ever tried doing this, so I'm looking forward to learning the process). I’m really excited to share the cover for this book as well, and will be doing that in a few weeks! 

Ahhhh. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I actually have more exciting news to share, but I think I will save it until my next post! Until then, happy creating everyone!

S. 

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to My Blog!

Today is the five year anniversary of my blog! I have to say, I find this so incredible. I’ve celebrated this day in a lot of different ways over the last few years, like writing super long blog posts or by doing giveaways and going to community events. This year, I'm going to spend it reflecting, planning and having some small adventures with my family. I have some giveaways planned for later in the summer, but today is definitely a day for reflecting about how to take the next step with my writing and creative endeavours, including language. 

Last year, I wrote about how I started this blog because I wanted a space where I could share the positive things happening in my community. That I started it because I loved Turtle Island and I wanted to do my utmost to honour creation, my ancestors and my family. All of that remains true today and that love has helped me so much over the past five years. It’s helped me work on difficult and important projects. It’s helped me understand how much I want to learn the language and develop a plan to do so. Most of all, it's helped me to realize my dream of being a writer and a storyteller, and given me a place to think out loud about the learning that goes into finishing a story and turning it into a book. 

I’ve written a lot of stories over the last few years and independently published the majority of them in one form or another and as hard as this journey has been at times, I've truly treasured every minute of it. I've learned something new with every project and endeavour I've undertaken and all of that learning will help me to create even more over the next five years.

One of my mentors, Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn, talks often on her podcast about how she wants to measure her life by the things she creates. I want to do the same. And when I look back over the last five years and see that I have written ten books, several short stories, and started to paint more seriously, it makes me feel incredibly happy and peaceful about this goal. It also makes me feel proud of the work I've started and positively energized about the work to come. I know that the more I learn and practice, the better a writer and painter I will become. And there is still so much to learn!

Over the next five years I intend to continue making books and art, but I also want to expand into making music, films, resources, podcasts and comics. I want at least half (if not more) of those projects to be in the language. I want to make cool stories for my children. I want to improve my speaking proficiency. I want to measure my life by what I create, and I want to share and inspire others to create things as well - if they are so inclined. In honour of this new goal, I thought I would share a little snapshot of some of the things I’ve created since 2012.

Books and Prints!

A recent painting with some interesting filters added. 

My daughter Ione looking at an inked sketch.

My current favourite painting. Watercolour and ink. 

A watercolour with some interesting filters applied to give a burst of colour. 

Looking at them makes me so excited.  I am so grateful for all of the learning that has gone into these projects. Five years ago, I couldn't have imagined how awesome it would be to focus some of my time and energy around being creative or how much it would help me to focus my passion and love for my community and Turtle Island. I am so excited to see what more I will learning in the next ten years! 

Happy writing and creating! And Happy Indigenous Day Turtle Island!

Reflecting on My Writing Journey

This is a bit of a reflective blog. Now that my stories are available (YAY!), it made me look back on why I write and how my writing has changed and what I hope my writing will be in the future.  I've written about this before, but it occurred to me again what a powerful impact certain experiences have had on my life and how grateful I am for them.

A number of years ago, I became very sick. I went to several doctors but none of them could figure out what was wrong with me. Finally, at the suggestion of a friend, I decided to get a reading done. Almost instantly, the person doing the reading was able to tell me what was ailing and how I could fix it. A month later, I was feeling much better. It wasn't easy, but it started me on a long journey of healing that has transformed my life for the better. In many ways, it was like I had been given a clean slate. I definitely had a new respect and overwhelming appreciation for my people's ceremonies and I will be forever grateful to the language speakers and knowledge holders in my community.           

I also realized that our ceremonies and the stories behind them were real and important. It made me wonder what else in our culture was real and important that years of mainstream education had led me to doubt (or simply not know). Today I feel very lucky to be in a position to learn and grow my appreciation of how cool and wonderful my culture is. Not that the appreciation wasn't there before, but it's deepened the more I learn and the more experiences I have. And so, for the last seven years, I've been involved in this process of learning and listening and thinking. Of trying to live better - to live well. Reading story after story. Various accounts of history. 

Along the way, I've tried to attend more ceremonies and learn more language. The whole process makes me intensely happy though quite honestly, it's been a slow one. Being a writer makes it hard for me to surrender English completely (which would definitely help my Cayuga along) and I am hardly bursting with knowledge of anything. I know a tiny, fraction of a bit and I'm grateful for every time someone or something adds to that kernel, helps me to grow my thinking or helps me learn new words. 

My writing is very different from this learning process, although it's a part of it as well. The things I write about are entirely made up out of my head. They are in no way cultural canon. They are creative works, works of imagination. But in them - there are some things I choose to do. I love my people and my community so most of my main characters love their communities as well, but recognize the challenges their people face and have their own set of struggles they are working through. Because my people have had a delicate history with anthropologists/researchers and our knowledge being exploited at times, I try to be careful of sharing too much of what I know I shouldn't because it's sacred and important and real and a gift. I do that because to this very day, I am grateful that despite many efforts to the contrary - our knowledges and ceremonies and languages survived. I want to help them thrive. But I think I can do that in places other than my writing - by learning and participating and through my work in education. 

So most of my stories are just that. Stories I make up out of my head. A lot of the magic in my books works the way I wish it had as a child playing, as a video game player, as a reader. I loved movies like Labyrinth and The Never-Ending Story and the Last Unicorn and Harry Potter. I wished we had stories like that with characters from some of our oral histories, myths and legends. And so that's what I started writing. Will I always write like this? I don't know. Every once in a while I try to write something slightly more serious and  magic invariably enters the story in some way. And when it happens it feels right. Like my story. The story I want to be writing. The story I should be writing. And so I definitely let instinct and spirit guide me here. Or at least I try to.

What I know for sure is that I will always write. That I am thankful for the opportunity to write and that writing has helped me to bring the things I've learned to life in a creative way. I will definitely keep going and whatever the reasons are that you write, I hope you do too!

Happy Writing!

S

Books I Read in 2015 That Helped Me Along My Writing Journey

I read a lot of great books this year. I used to read around fifty books a year but once I became pregnant with my daughter, I realized it was highly unlikely I would make it through that many (though I have read a lot more board books), especially since I was also finishing my Masters at the time. So I decided to aim for at least twenty-five. For the last two years, I’ve managed to hit that number fairly easily. This year, I actually managed to read 30 books, as well as a whole lot of articles on educational leadership. I also read some great books that helped me with my writing. I’ve decided to list them here for you, in case you’re interested in reading some as well.

Publishing for Profit – Successful Bottom Line Management for Book Publishers, 5th Edition – Thomas Woll

Being someone who writes purely for the love of it, this title made me a little uncomfortable, but title aside—it was a great book. For the last two years I’ve contemplated taking the Certificate in Publishing program at Ryerson University as a way to keep myself learning about the publishing industry in some kind of structured way. But deciding to pursue my doctorate, working, writing and raising my daughter puts some severe limitations on my time. Plus, I’ve learned a lot from just jumping in and doing things. Once I realized it was highly unlikely I’d be able to take the program, I decided to check out which course materials they were using and found this book in their Intro/Foundational course, so I ordered it.

It was very informative and definitely gave me a glimpse into the publishing industry from a certain perspective and since I decided to start my own publishing company, a lot of the information helped me to see what I needed to do. There were a lot of tools in the book that I found useful for organizing my own company, like templates for contracts, profit and loss statements, editorial plans, marketing plans, and sample job descriptions. Reading this book helped me to write a business plan, an editorial plan, and a marketing plan (though I had to readjust them all later to make them simpler for my needs). One thing the book did not really address though was independent publishing. So for that, I turned to other sources—some of which shared similar information and in a far more relatable context.

Discoverability: A WMG Writer’s Guide – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

I love Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s blog. I can’t even remember how I stumbled across her but I think it was from reading about Hugh Howey and then reading the Passive Guy’s website and seeing one of his comments about how he’d never read anyone with the unique long-term perspective that Kristine has about the publishing industry. Once I found her blog, I slowly read my way through all of her articles and because I appreciate how willing she is to share information with new writers, I began to buy her books as well. This was a great one that has to do with Discoverability. Definitely a book I would recommend for any independent writer. Also, her blog is awesome. This blog in particular, Writing By Committee, couldn’t have come at a better time for me—I was experiencing doubt and wanting validation, instead of writing out of love and sharing what I wrote with the world as a way of learning and improving. After I read this, I got back to work writing the stories I most wanted to tell.

Killing The Top Ten Sacred Cows of Traditional Publishing & Indie Publishing (Two Separate Books) – Dean Wesley Smith

Kristine’s husband is Dean Wesley Smith and his Sacred Cow books provide really unique insight into the publishing industry as a whole. The purpose of them is to address myths that plague writers and empower them to make more informed decisions about their writing and writing careers. There is a ton of practical wisdom shared in these books and multiple light bulbs went off in my head as I read them. When I talk about different books approaching the same cogs and wheels of the industry in a more straightforward and relatable way—I’m talking about books like this. Dean and Kristine both have a lot of knowledge about traditional, indie and hybrid publishing and it shows in how they’re able to break down publishing trends. I particularly enjoy when Dean talks about the historical aspects of publishing, how the industry evolved over time and how that evolution impacted everything from the price of books to the size of them. Compelling stuff. I’m hoping to take one of their online workshops in 2016.

Rivet Your Readers With Deep Point of View – Jill Elizabeth Nelson

I picked this book up on the advice of an editor I worked with in early 2015. It was a good read and provided some valuable exercises that helped me think about how to dig deeper to find unique and compelling ways of writing. I read this book every now and again to remind myself to do more showing than telling. Definitely recommended.

The Emotional Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression – Angela Ackerman, Becca Puglisi

One thing I did in 2015 was create an Evernote document where I listed various emotions and then listed various ways to show or describe a character feeling or expressing those emotions in unique ways. It became a super valuable note to me as I was doing rewrites. This book is similar to my Evernote (definitely more comprehensive than my Evernote is at this point) in that it aims to provide a list of physical signals, internal sensations and mental responses people experience from different emotions.

This is another one of those books that helps me dig deeper during a second draft if I’m stuck or need to find a way to show instead of tell. I can have a look at a particular emotion, check back through my Evernote for something I can modify and/or create something new. So in that way, it’s a bit like a prompt—just for description instead of story.

So that’s it! In 2016, I plan to read some more, including this one (recommended at the back of Rivet Your Reader With Deep Point of View), The Definitive Book of Body Language. I read a ton of other blogs and listened to podcasts that were really great and helpful as well, but perhaps I’ll talk about those in a different post.

What about you? Did you read any books this year that helped you with your writing? Do you have any lined up for 2016?

Please feel free to share and as always, happy writing!
S.