The freedom to chart your own course comes with surprising pitfalls

In December, I uttered the greatest phrase a writer can ever say: “I’m done”. The first draft of my next novel (book three in my “Spellbound Railway” series) was finished. A sense of fatigued elation came over me, and the joy of being able to step away from the desk and emerge from my basement office victorious was immense.

Shortly thereafter, a second phrase bubbled up into my mind. It came in small, nested itself into the back corner of my thoughts, and started to ache. “What’s next?” it asked. My completion elation turned into smoke and blew away in the face of this yawning void of an unanswered question.

In a regular job, you don’t have to ask that question. You show up, pull your assigned levers, grumble about the boring work and your smelly coworker, and go home at the end of the day. A parcel of cash shows up regularly to justify dragging yourself into the dank cubicle farm. When you finish one task, another is put in front of your nose.It may not be spiritually rewarding, but it is predictable.

But in my line of work, there’s no assembly line. There’s a giant unsorted pile of possible tasks in the corner. I finish one step, and then look at the pile and wonder what should happen now. Most of the pieces in that pile are unlikely to produce anything other than more tasks to throw back on the pile.

So I found myself, metaphorically speaking, sitting on the floor and staring in dread at that massive pile. For a week I scrambled around between all of the possibilities: Do I edit this new draft right away? Do I focus on trying to find freelance non-fiction work? Do I pack it in and get a job painting miniature houses? And so on, and so on.

Eventually, I came to a few realizations. I need to write every day. Taking “time off” from writing only makes me more irritable and anxious. And I need to take the small business aspect of independent publishing much more seriously than I have before.

I’m not fully prepared for every “what’s next?” eventuality, but I think I have a better handle on the basics. In this upcoming year, I’ll see if a kickstarter campaign would be a good fit to pay for the first print run of the next book (and for professional editing, if the campaign went very well). I’m also looking at Patreon as a way to release the next story I’m working on as a serial. Of course, if a publisher or agent wanted to swoop down and take care of all of the parts I don’t like so that I can focus on storytelling, I wouldn’t complain a bit.

Here we are at the end of 2014. I’ve been away from this blog for the last six months, and I’ve missed it (and you, dear audience).  There was no sinister reason for the lack of blogging, just a need to keep my public online presence focused on other things than my personal ramblings. Also, life was a little busy. Busy with what, you ask? Well, here’s a brief list in loose chronological order:

• Went to Montreal for the first time
• took a 6 month break from being president of the riding association
• thought about running in the federal election, decided against it
• mourned the loss of my dear wife’s grandfather Bud.
• took a whirlwind family trip to Thunder Bay for Easter
• worked as a campaign manager in the provincial election
• put up signs for a successful municipal Councillor campaign
• ran my own campaign for school board trustee (didn’t win, but that’s how it goes)
• worked on a massive and immensely rewarding media project with a great local company
• lost a friend to cancer
• went to Markham for the first time
• went to Hamilton for the first and second time
• finished the first draft of my next novel
• played Santa for school kids
• rediscovered how poorly suited I am for skating (WEAK ANKLES! HATRED OF FALLING!)
• maintained sobriety for 16th consecutive year

And that’s just what I can remember off the top of my head. As I get back into the swing of things, I’ll blog about many of these experiences in more detail. But for now, I want to appreciate the scope of what I achieved this year. More importantly, I want to thank everyone for their support, encouragement and faith. My lovely wife Kristen is the foundation of all that support and I am a better man because of her strength, compassion and love. My friend Todd who kept asking me throughout the busy year “how’s the writing going?” with just the right tone of excitement and anticipation in his voice. My friend Emily who might have been more thrilled about the next book being finished than I was. My friend Nick who gave me the biggest challenge that I have faced in a long time. And dozens of other people who have come into my life and been a part of this amazing journey. Thank you everyone.

What’s ahead in 2015? If recent history is any kind of indicator, 2015 will be all over the map. My goal is to keep moving the ball a little further down field with every adventure, and get a little bit better with each step. As for formal New Year’s resolutions, I’m going to stick with one: I will not wear light coloured slacks with black suit jackets in 2015.

Happy New Year!

It is an exciting time for London. We’re building the plan that will steer our city’s development for the next 20 years: how we embrace and celebrate our diversity, grow our economy, strengthen our neighbourhoods.

The draft version of the London Plan ( available at http://thelondonplan.ca/) includes a focus on placemaking, places like Wortley Village and Richmond Row among others. It talks about the idea of these main street as “cherished historical business areas”, and that they are important in defining our identity as a city. I agree with the idea, but I think they’ve come up short in its application. 

One of London’s best kept secret is the wonderful and vibrant community of South London. If you take a walk Down Jalna boulevard, you’ll find healthy and friendly neighbourhoods that are all connected to a beautiful pedestrian highway, the White Oaks Optimist Park. Beside the park is the South London Community centre, the Jalna Library, the South London Neighbourhood Resource Centre and the South London pool. It’s one of the best places in the city. But to the London Plan so far, it’s nothing but a retail area. It doesn’t have a main street, but it needs one.

The area directly around White Oaks Mall is designated as a “Transit village”, and that’s definitely needed. What’s also needed is a space that is designed to become a main street, a plan that allows for the creation of a public commercial space for small businesses that creates the same atmosphere that SoHo or downtown or Lambeth have.

The challenge is that there currently isn’t a suitable area for a main street, but that’s a challenge that our city planners can find a creative answer to. Instead of focusing on a straight thoroughfare as a main street, why not take an underutilized commercial area and create a commons? As an example, look at the southern side of the intersection of Ernest and Bradley. The rundown, nondescript commercial plazas on both sides of Ernest that constantly struggle to find and keep tenants could be replaced with a distinctive community building design with a public square in the middle. There are several locations like this in South London that could blossom into a truly spectacular main street, but it won’t happen by accident.

When we recognize the vibrant, mutlicultural nature of the community of South London, it becomes clear that it deserves to have it’s own distinct identity. It needs a place to grow it’s history as the city grows over the next 20 years. And the residents of South London need their city councillor to speak up and champion their great neighbourhood to ensure that the London Plan will work for them, to help their community reach it’s full potential.