This is #ProjectNomad

One of the highlights of my stay on the family farm was getting to spend time with my grandmother. "Mummi" is my dad's mother. She's ninety years old and for the last I can't remember how long has been living at an old age facility about a ten-minute drive from the farmhouse. (We call her Mummi because it's the name my cousin Seija gave her when Seija was really young. I think it's a toddler's interpretation of the Finnish word for grandmother, but I'm not entirely sure.) For

I'm intending for #GetOutside to be a recurring series of posts about my ventures into the wilderness. This is the second, and the second in my trip report from Vancouver Island's tallest peak, the Golden Hinde. Read the previous entry in the series here. I woke up at dawn to the sound of my cell phone alarm, and quickly shut it off and stumbled, groggy, out of the tent I'd pitched on the shore of Carter Lake last night. There was no movement from the two tents further inland

Read the previous entry in this series here. January 4, 2018: Lucy and I woke up in Cranbrook, BC, in our first-floor room at the Lazy Bear Lodge. We'd driven 850kms the day before, and the dog wanted no part in another day in the truck. I took her out into the parking lot behind the motel for a jog and a pee, and I tried to convince her to eat some breakfast, or at the very least take the anti-anxiety medication I'd brought along to help her with the car ride. It was bitterl

I don't expect to actually review books here, but I thought I would write a little bit periodically about books that I've read and what I've taken from them. Paul Kalanithi's WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR is the second. I put out a call for motivational/inspirational nonfiction books on Twitter a little while back, and a few people suggested this book. I picked it up at the bookstore the next time I went to town, and I'm glad I did. A man I know died recently. Kim was the victim of

I made a commitment to healthy living after my birthday in February. If you read yesterday's post, you've heard the whole Sweat Everyday And Don't Put Crap In Your Body spiel. I had improved my diet considerably and bumped up my exercise regimen. I was losing weight, building a little muscle, and physically I could already see results. Mentally, it was clear that still had plenty of work to do. I was being really mean to myself. No matter how hard I worked, I could always do

I'm going to talk about some body image/weight loss stuff, so if that's a trigger for you, I won't be hurt if you skip this one. I'm sorry you have to look at my half-naked selfie, but sometimes a visual aid is the best way to illustrate a point. The picture on the left is me last summer. The picture on the right is me this morning. I've dropped a good thirty pounds. I know that weight is just a number, and often a harmful one to fixate on, so this is less about dropping poun

Two weeks from today, my ninth novel, GALE FORCE, hits stores. To celebrate, I'll be hitting the road, and thus will begin Phase 2 of #ProjectNomad. Phase 2 actually begins on April 28th, when I fly out to Vancouver for a couple of days before heading north, way north, to the Yukon Territory for the Yukon Writer's Fest! I am so looking forward to this event. It's basically five days touring libraries and meeting writers and readers in Canada's far north. After the Yukon I hea

Before I get into this I want to preface by saying that everyone's experiences are different and this blog should in no way be construed as containing any medical advice. Talk to your doctor. I just feel like we need to be having these conversations in public. Also, there's some talk about suicidal ideation in here so if that's a trigger for you, maybe skip this one. I've been on Prozac for three years now. I'm writing about this publicly because I think it's important, and b

I'm intending for #GetOutside to be a recurring series of posts about my ventures into the wilderness. This is the first. Last September I set out on a hike that would turn out to be the most challenging thing I've ever done, both physically and mentally. The Golden Hinde is the tallest peak on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It's 2200m above sea level, though reportedly the altitude gained and lost over the 27km approach is equal to that between base camp and

January 3, 2018: Lucy is not a dog who enjoys Great Adventures. This is a shame, because her dad surely does. It's funny; when I adopted Lucy, she had no problem with car rides, but as we've grown together, she's become very scared of them. I think it's because so many of our road trips involve bumpy logging roads, which unsettle her, or camping, which she hates, or chasing trains, which any dog would agree are loud and obnoxious and scary. Needless to say, we were both a lit