Write Your Story. Start Today - Part Two

Richard Wagamese has passed away. He was a wonderful and talented Indigenous writer whose books were the recipients of many awards. He was also one of those few authors whose books both my parents and I really liked. I remember reading A Quality of Light as a teenager and just being completely blown away. To this day, it is one of my favourite books. I never met Richard—I only knew him from Facebook and Twitter, but he was always kind in his posts, open about his struggles and his dedication to writing and to helping other writers. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. 

After a week where I did little else but read article after article for my dissertation, his passing reminded me of how wonderful art is and how important it is to take the time to make it. To hone your skills and share what you love and are passionate about with others. 

In December of last year, I met a lady from my community who was trying to find a printer for a book she had written. It was a memoir. I shared the name of my printer with her and asked her about her work. My baby was coming down with a cold though, so I became distracted and had to leave the event early. I found out later that the lady had passed away at the start of the year. It made me feel so sad. Sad that her book didn’t become a book, even though I know that she was loved and appreciated and will be remembered fondly by many. Still, I've continued to think about her and her story. And to think about other people I know who have creative inclinations and are gearing up to write or to paint or make something. Thinking about what I can do to encourage them or to be more helpful when people are looking for help. I have some plans in mind. Some things I am going to try. This post is one small way of sending a big burst of encouragement to you all. To write your story. To make your art. To start today. And to those of you who have already started—to encourage you to keep going.  

As you may have noticed from my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages—I’ve been doing a lot of art lately. I’ve also been reading and writing and practicing the piano a lot more. I’ve been doing all of these things because there are projects I want to do in each of these mediums. This has come as something of a surprise to me. I've always known I wanted to be a writer and a storyteller, but I didn’t know I wanted to be an illustrator or to tell stories through music. I probably should have known. There were all kinds of signs. (I used to have art shows in our living room when I was a little girl, displaying my work for my parents to come and purchase. My most expensively priced piece was $1. And guess where I displayed them? My old upright piano).

Anyways—it’s wonderful that these things have come back to me as an adult and I am so thankful I’m in a space to pursue these dreams. I’m also grateful they’re the kinds of pursuits I can include my daughters in. My toddler loves to paint and is already playing very cool little songs on the piano that she sings along to. My baby has also taken a special liking to toy instruments. They both love books.

So I’m happy to be able to share my art here. To share about my learning process and the steps I’m taking toward becoming an illustrator, similar to the way I’ve shared my writing journey over the last few years. Especially because I know there is so much learning to come—I’m definitely one of those people who embraces the notion that learning is a lifelong process. Case in point—I’ve learned more about writing in the last five years than in the fifteen preceding them and it seems like the things there are to learn next only multiply. But best of all—it’s fun. The things I’ve learned, I’ve learned by writing. By editing. By re-writing. By reading. I’ve learned by finishing one story and starting the next. By focussing on the work.

I’m trying to take some of these same principles and apply it to my art. To learn by creating things often and regularly. To take online classes (I’ll blog more about those in the future). To play with filters to learn what colour palettes I like and to give me ideas about what I can try next time. All in all, it has been awesome to be able to share the work I’ve finished with my family and friends. Indeed, every single piece of art I’ve made this year has taught me something different. But the biggest thing they’ve taught me is how important it is to just create. To practice. To try new things. To finish what I start.

Hearing about Richard’s passing was a reminder that we never know how long we have and that it's so important to make the most of each moment. To make the art that only we can make. So in honour of that, I thought I would share a few pieces I’ve worked on lately. There's even more on my Art page. 

Happy creating everyone! And if you haven’t started yet—then consider this your personal message to get going! The world is waiting for your art. So am I :). 

S. 

My Creative Goals for 2017

2016 was a difficult year for the world, filled with loss and change. In some ways, it was difficult for us too but it was also a tremendously special year and I’m grateful for all the wonder and happiness that entered our lives. 

My husband and I celebrated our one year anniversary in September. We welcomed our second daughter in May. And we moved into our new house in October—all very wonderful things.

2016 was also the year that I made the most progress with realizing my writing dreams. I launched my production company on January 21st, 2016 and published six books over the course of the year.  

I also formatted and designed a book for a fellow artist and writer from my community, Elizabeth Doxtator. We launched our books together at the Woodland Cultural Centre in November of 2016 which was a really great experience. Our friends and family came out to support us along with local MPP, Dave Levac who also gave us a very kind congratulatory certificate to mark the occasion.

I continued my language learning and started to make comics in the Cayuga language with my husband. 

I bought some recording equipment and began learning how to record some of the piano music I’ve written.  

I set-up as a vendor at three events: The Six Nations Language Conference, The Grand River Champions of Champions Powwow and The Everlasting Tree School’s Healing & Wellness event. 

And finally, I finished the first year of my doctorate program and started into the second year. 

Needless to say—it was a busy, busy year and 2017 shows every sign of being just as busy! 

 

Looking ahead to 2017

My goals for 2017 are to do more of what made 2016 as great as it was. To spend time with my husband and daughters. To write more. To paint more. To record my piano music as well as my books. To learn more language. To read more about Indigenous language revitalization. To read more legends and do more research. To be a healthy creative person who eats well and exercises regularly. And to share the positive energy I gain from creating things with the world.

I have specific goals, too. They are:

1. To write 500 plus words a day

2. To edit for an hour.

3. To write two novels, one novella, two short stories and three essays.

4. To publish three books. 

5. To read 25 books. 

6. To record an audio book of Spirit & Intent. 

7. To make a short album of piano music. 

8. To continue to learn more about writing and publishing.

9. To continue working in the area of language revitalization.

But my big goal in has everything to do with art. Over the last few months I’ve realized that while I have a lot of writing and publishing goals—I have just as many goals when it comes to drawing an painting and illustrating. There is a lot of art that I want to create. Art for essays I’m thinking of writing. Art for my book covers. Art for Cayuga language books I want to write for myself and my girls. Art on canvas. Art for print. Digital art. 

Some of the work I did in 2016.

I have so much to learn when it comes to art that it sounds weird to say that I have a dream of being an illustrator—but it’s true. I have a dream of being an illustrator. So 2017 marks the start of a more intensive concentration on my art practice. I’m not ready to define my goals here yet but overall, I'm looking to amass a body of work that I'm happy with and to learn new techniques and experiment with more tools. I’m very much looking forward to sharing what I learn and I'll be sharing my work on my Instagram so come check it out!  

Phew. So there they are. My goals for 2017. I am super excited for them all and for the wonderful new space we have to work on them all in. Building our house was a long and challenging process but having a home of our own is something I am immensely grateful for every day.

Here's one last thing before I go. Since 2013, a few key words have helped me to really determine the direction I want to move my life in. I thought I would share them with you, because although they’re just words, but they really did help me quite a lot. So here they are—in picture form :). 

What about you? What are your goals for 2017?

Til next time, happy writing & creating!

S. 

Happy November

Wow! How is it almost the end of November? This year has sped by and the last few weeks have been particularly crazy. There have been a lot of things happening in my life on a personal level lately and a lot of things happening out in the world. I'm just going to take a minute here and send a huge blast of compassion to you all. I find myself more and more aware of the challenges our different experiences and ways of thinking create but I'm going to keep hope that we will find a way to practice compassion and empathy with one another. I'm also going to keep hoping that we can all find a way to come together to protect the water, because truly - no matter what views or beliefs we have, we and our children need water to survive. I'm so grateful for water and I know it's one of those things that is too important to take for granted. It's also something we can all work together for. 

The last few weeks I've been super busy with my course work and preparing my research proposal for my dissertation. Academic writing is so interesting (very different from my creative writing) and I have really valued learning how to go about it.The topic for my dissertation is exploring community-based collaboration in the area of Indigenous language revitalization - which is a passion of mine. It's nice to read about the great work that's going on and it's also nice to be inspired to speak and use the language more (I'm learning Cayuga). 

I've also been working on producing/designing/formatting a book for a friend of mine. It's called "Art of Peace" and was inspired by the story of the Great Law of Peace. She also asked me if I wanted to launch my book Spirit & Intent when hers launches next week and so that's coming up as well, which is super cool. Here's a little poster. We're having the book launch at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario - a place I love and have been going to since I was little because their collection has some of my dad's art in it.  

Last week I did a short reading of one of my stories at a really cool event called Stories From the Land. I was a bit scared - it was my first time reading one of my stories out loud and in public but I was very excited and grateful for the opportunity to be apart of the project. Stories from the Land is a podcast of 12 storytelling events happening in First Nation communities across Turtle Island. The stories are meant to be about our connection to the land, community and culture. Very cool stuff. The stories will eventually be available for listening and I'll be sure to post a link here when they are! 

Ahh. What else? Oh yes! I've been learning to make comics. I've only really done a test one so far but I'm really excited to do more and I know I will get better at them as time goes by. Along the same lines I also started another special project that combines my love of painting, stories, language and videos (and also music in the future). It's here - a short movie about the story of The Vampire Skeleton which I illustrated using a combination of watercolour and shadow puppet theatre. I LOVED this project and have already started working on another. Moving into 2017, I'm going to be doing a lot more of these. Here is some of the art that I made for it:

And lastly, I'm about to finally (after months and months of delays) release a very special YA fantasy book called The Fortune Teller's Daughter. Stay tuned for the cover release next week!

Okay. Phew. I think that is all from me. Busy busy busy times ahead as we move into the last month of the year. I hope you are all well and as always - happy writing! 

S.

Our First Cayuga Language Comic

Hi everyone! 

I am really, really excited to share a sneak peek of a project I’ve been working on for the last few weeks with the help of my wonderful husband, Kehte Deer. (He wrote the story and did such an awesome job!). 

This is our first real attempt at working on something that has always held a special interest for both of us—a comic/graphic novel style representation of a Haudenosaunee story told in the language. I know our comics will only get better as my art and language skills improve, and even though it's our first effort, I still wanted to share it with you!

My book, The Vampire Skeleton, is very loosely inspired by this story and when researching that book, I had come across a number of different versions of the story. The comic adaptation is inspired by a story J.N.B. Hewitt collected in November of 1896, a version of which my husband discovered this past summer and shared with me. This also makes November 2016, the 120th anniversary of this particular telling. Very cool! 

I am still learning about the process of making comics (and will probably redraw this one in the future), but I was fortunate to get a lot of help from my sister and frequent collaborator Alyssa, who added some really great elements to the work. Making comics is one of her dreams as well, so this whole project has been an awesome learning experience for all of us. 

In honour of this special 120th anniversary, we will be releasing more cool things that we’ve created through the month of November as well as some behind-the-scenes pictures and blogs on our production company website (www.spiritandintent.com), Twitter & Facebook page.

Please visit us to make sure you don’t miss these super awesome posts :). And here's a PDF of the story as well!

Nya:węh and we hope you like it! 

S.

THE VAMPIRE SKELETON

Home Sweet Home

I sometimes lose track of how many activities I like to do. Reading. Writing. Painting. Running. Playing video games. Taking long walks in the forest. But over the last few weeks I’ve remembered just how important they all are to me. They make me feel truly alive and happy and healthy—which helps me to feel more creative and imaginative.

We’ve just finished moving into our new house (yay!) and are in the process of getting settled. After so many months of being in transition—packing up one house, living with my very kind sister and her family for two months until finally coming here—I can honestly say that I feel like the luckiest person in the world. 

The process of building a house is complicated. There are these milestones, things that have to be done so the house can be built, and while they look straightforward on paper—none of them speak to the emotional and spiritual toll that building a new house can have. We've been working through this process for the last year. In many ways it’s just like writing a book—so much harder and involved than it looks like from the outside. It’s such a relief to be through the majority of it. Now I feel like it's time to replenish my spirit, fuel my imagination and create ALL THE THINGS.

I started my attempt to create ALL THE THINGS by playing my piano (probably because it had been put away in storage for two and half months), and I was blown away by how happy it made me. Like real and true joy happy. It was like a piece of me had been missing and was slowly being restored with every note I played. I also missed running. The track I like to run at is just down the road and as I write this, I’ve just returned from my first proper run in months. Years actually, since I wasn’t running a whole lot over the times that I was pregnant. I also went for a walk and played a video game with my niece. All of it was amazing. Awesome. Fantastic.

I suppose my point is, I am just very happy and grateful to be back to having time and making things again (including blog posts!). Last week felt like my first substantial opportunity to get back into the swing of things with my writing and it felt good to settle into a rhythm, working on a new book first thing in the morning, editing another book just after that and spending my afternoons getting back on track with all the projects I had to put aside. Plus it's just nice to be here at long last, creating our new space, here in the forest, surrounded by trees.

Right before I moved, I wrote this blog about how happy I could be with so little. And that’s still true. Moving taught me that more than ever, that home is where my family is, my husband and my children. But having space to actually create all the things I most dreamed of—movies, poems, paintings, comics—I am so very excited about that. Especially because I hope for many of them to be in the language, as another way of helping me to learn.

I’ll be sharing a lot more of those creations here and other places in the coming months. It’s going to be awesome. It already feels that way!

Happy creating,

S.