Category — Seeking Eve

It is my intention, with this series of ‘Book Writing’ posts, to give readers a view into the torturous, lovely, confusing and exhilarating experience of book writing - as I experience it as a first time author.

I’m Back! Sorry for the delay with these posts — I have been trying to stay hard at work. This is actually April 15.

• Rode the ferry in with Matthew last night. There was a slight hiccup getting home (shhh: Matthew left the lights on on the car so his dad had the rescue us…)

• Accompanied Matt to dinner at L’abri last (Sunday) night.

• Had a great talk with Mark (one of the L’abri staff) about writing and faith. He lent me “Finding God at Harvard” which is an example of crossing the secular/faith line through telling people’s individual stories. We also talked about Edith Schaeffer’s vision of a TAPESTRY. We see on one side: the knots and strings and mess and dead-ends and mistakes. But God sees the other side: the beautiful tapestry that He is weaving. The big or small messes on one side look very different to Him, in fact they may very well be the masterpieces. “The Tapestry” is the title of a book Edith wrote about the life and times of her and her husband Francis - co-founders of L’abri.

• Read my Nouwen calendar this morning – soo good. Journaled about the permanency of God’s love.
• Spent the morning e-mailing people
• Got a couple of encouraging e-mails/messages from some of the women in my life – Amani and Steph. I printed them off and put them in my journal to go back and read them again for encouragement on this project.
• Went for a long walk/hike (8 km) around the lake. Marisa called me on my cell half-way through my hike - it was such a treat to catch up with her.
• Got home and wrote a long ‘to-do’ list which will have to wait until tomorrow
• Picked up a movie (The Darjeeling Limited) and pint of Ben and Jerry’s with Matthew in the cove
• Good night

Anna Vandas

• Interviewed the lovely Anna Vandas at Wendell’s in Fort Langley. She is a singer, painter and dancer - making her living as full-time artist. What a beautiful woman inside and out. I first met Anna through her husband Dave a couple of summers ago. Her and I have never hung out before, but after one 2-hour talk over java (french vanilla latte for me and caramel frappuccino for her) she felt like such a kindred spirit. Afterwards, I dropped her off at the Dance Barn studio, which I had always wanted to see in person.

See Anna and the Dance Barn troupe in action at their performance:

Freiheit {Freedom} May 2, 3 & 4 at the Chief Sepass Theatre (9096 Trattle Road, Langley.) Go here for tickets.

• Visited with my dear friend Keela Keeping and dreamed together about what God wants to do with “In the company of beautiful people…” We are talking about doing a documentary and other media elements for the project; talked about getting funding for the project, etc. Keela always encouraged me to dream big because God is BIG.
• Stopped by the Christian Info Society office in Langley to see how the layout of Options turned out. After working with Darian Kovacs from canadafire on the first issue of salt. magazine, Christian Info approached us to partner with them to rebrand their magazine, Options. So salt. is no longer, but we are working hard to be all that we dreamed of for salt. (young, savvy, thoughtful, challenging, Canadian) and more. My role is as Associate Editor with the mag for at least the next year.

[Weekend @ home]:

• Had an amazing weekend mostly spent at a Vision Retreat for our local church: Every Nation. It was the most honest, transparent, transformative meeting I have ever been a part of with our community in seven years. Michael and I feel rejuvenated, inspired and full of hope for our church community and a healthy weight of responsibility for the part God is calling us to play there.
• Saturday night we hung out with Avital, Chris and Jeff at Spanish Banks. What a gorgeous evening.
• We completed the day by watching the web-release Cult of Sincerity. I fell asleep before it was over.
• Sunday morning Michael cooked eggs, sausages and pancakes for breakfast. Yum. I had a great hang out with Megan in English Bay before heading back to Bowen in the afternoon.

Avital, Corwyn and I on the adorable bridge to the Cowper house

• This is April 9
• Checked e-mails in the morning. Most of the women I e-mailed have responded. Most of them don’t understand why their story is ‘worthy’ of being told. It is amazing to me how humble these women are. We are so ‘programmed’ to think about certain people as being ‘something’ and others not depending on our type of position, work and/or level of ‘success.’ We have lost the belief that we have intrinsic value, and that life and the world does too. We work for value, but it is false. Because the truth is: we have value, period.

• Avital and Jenn (and Corwyn – Avital and Chris’ new baby boy) came to visit today. I went and picked them up from the ferry

Waiting for the ferry to arrive, Photos care of Avital

• It was lovely having them on the island. They are wonderful, trustworthy friends and the best company. We shared a meal of grilled cheese (with aged white cheddar and rosemary) and salad. We sat and talked with Matthew’s mom, Karen, when she returned home. I think she enjoyed the girly company. :)

Here are some pix from our visiting day:

bah bah black sheep, at the farm down the lane

preparing lunch in the kitchen

dishes in the kitchen

books, books and more books

Go to Avital’s blog to see more photos from their visit.

• Came home to the mainland and drove the girls home
• Went out for sushi with Michael
• Ran through my power point notes for teaching tomorrow’s class (Business Communication at Langara) with Michael, tweaked it
• Went to bed too late for the 6am wake up call

The view from my bedroom on Bowen

• Stayed up (too) late last night watching One Fine Day on my laptop
• Woke up early (7am) to beat Matthew to the office (internet)
• Sent e-mails to about 12 women to be interviewed: some in person, some remote
• Went to Sabrina Ward Harrison (who is my creative inspiration! for this book project)’s newly redesigned website. It is amazing! Sabrina is now in New York, after a 2 year hiatus living in an abandoned school house. I want her to write the foreword for my book. I am seriously praying for this. I am convinced Sabrina has a deep faith – it is written all through the pages of her books - plus she is Canadian!
• Went for a bike ride (I brought my mom’s cruiser bike over to the island) after reading a chapter on Running in Joyce Carol Oakes’ book: The Faith of a Writer. She says: “When I run the mind flies with the body…”
• Set a goal of writing two profiles today: and completed them! (Jocelyn Durston and Angelica Novoa)
• Matthew make latkis (?) – potato pancakes for dinner
• I watched The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio tonight (movie watching is how I spend my nights here) and loved it! A true story about a mother who provides for her family of 10 by entering jingle-writing contests. Great stuff.

The kitchen window, that’s Demi - the family dog - outside

• slept well last night (wore flannel – much warmer! It is so much colder in this house than my own.)
• made a bodum of coffee
• this morning: created lesson plan for teaching Business Communication at Langara’s Self-Employment program on Thursday
• Matthew took me out for lunch for a belated birthday celebration (thanks Matthew!)

• Started collaging Sarah W’s pages (the red and orange ones on the right, above)
• Collaged opening page
• Sorted through more paper
• Made dinner – burritos
• The L’abri crew came over to watch the college basketball finals – met Julia who is friends with Joyce Rees of Jacob’s Well — awesome connection because I want to interview Joyce! (Julia is amazing as well – a nurse who used to work on the Downtown East Side. Now she and her husband are full-time residents at L’abri in Bowen.)

It has been wonderful not to be on the computer as much in the last couple of weeks. I have been spending most of the weeks on Bowen in an un-‘wired’ house and at home on the weekends connecting with my husband, family and friends.

I am going to try and catch up on posts today. Day Three was my birthday and I just had to come back and see Michael. The next morning…

Day Four

• I woke up and went through the regular routine: got up to make Mike a lunch while he showered, saw him off, brewed a pot of coffee, read.
• But instead of getting to work around 9am I started to clean and sort the house. THIS is why I can’t write the book from home: distraction! I am so blessed to have a place where I can work without things cluttering my mind. I especially love that my office at the Cowper’s has no internet. The rest of the day was spent doing web updates. I don’t think this is the best use of my time so I am only going to update my blog every few days or once a week depending on how things go.

[Weekend @ home:]

• good talks with mom and Michael about the book.
• I am feeling strongly that I need to stay true to the original inspiration I had for the book, which was a response to the statistic that 31% of Canadians are made uneasy by born-again Christians (Macleans, August 2006.)
• I am also going to focus more on the stories than the visuals at this point, and I’m not going to stress about the timing. There’s lots of time for editing but the goal now is to get as much down on paper as possible.
• Participated in a Natural Family Planning teacher training workshop all weekend with Michael
• Went out to dinner at Joey Tomato’s to celebrate my b-day. Michael gave me a gorgeous stained-glass window and earrings. They’re both such beautiful gifts!
• I had a lovely visit with my grandma on Saturday. Her mind is so sharp, it never ceases to amaze me. She gave me a book entitled: For such a time as this, a profile of 26 women of ‘vision and faith’ by Lillian V. Grissen, published by the Christian Reformed Church. She urged me to read this before I write. I began reading it on the ferry home to Bowen on Sunday. God bless grandma.

The Cowper kitchen

(april 3)

• it’s my birthday
• my phone battery died last night so i had to try determine the time this morning by how much light was pouring in my room. turns out is was 8:15. i meant to get up at 7:30. could hear karen shuffling downstairs.
• dressed, went downstairs and made a bodum of coffee - I love bodum coffee!!
• phoned michael. it was so good to hear his voice.

writing/interviews:

• today is less simple than yesterday. yesterday was set-up. today is moving FORWARD.
• i need to send e-mails our for recommendations and to the women to complete interviews remotely. i feel like this may be simpler in terms of people’s answers: giving them time to formulate their answers. the face-to-face interviews have been more messy (of course!) because we go down rabbit trails and no one’s life story is linear… i love interviewing in person but i can’t do it with everyone: canada is kind of big.
• discovered after compiling my lists that i already have 50 women — great news.
• i am strating to figure out pages (profiles can be laid out on one sheet!) and it is SO much fun!
• realized i’m going to have a problem with copyright, re: using mag pictures

___

currently reading: joyce carol oakes’ “The Faith of a Writer” and Brennan Manning’s daily “Reflections for Ragamuffins”

currently listening to: nothing. i am enjoying the silence. craving it, actually.

___

• couldn’t take it. caught the 5:30 ferry home and spent the night with my hubby. :) (was planning on spending the weekend with him at a conference; came back to bowen on monday)

Update coming tonight. Too busy living.

It is my intention, with this series of ‘Book Writing’ posts, to give readers a view into the torturous, lovely, confusing and exhilarating experience of book writing - as I experience it as a first time author.

• Kissed michael goodbye
• left for an early coffee with jenn. she prayed for me. it gave me peace and joy.
• stopped by mom’s house to say goodbye. found an SFU Publishing course booklet at her place — thinking about taking a summer course
• butterflies in my stomach on the ferry over to Bowen
• arrived at Cowper home - helped bring in groceries
• Lunch out on the picnic table with Matthew and Karen — a gorgeous sunny day
• Unpacked
• Set-up my office
• Had a productive day sorting and compiling all of my ‘working documents’ and created an excel list of all the the women to still interview
• Shared a lovely dinner and watched “The Natural” with Robert Redford — such a great film

Reflections: I am grateful for the company here. I don’t think I could do this of there weren’t people around. It is such an immense gift to be here, I am in awe of the beauty of the island. Thanks be to God!

Currently feeling: Excited

Currently reading: “The Faith of a Writer” by Joyce Carol Oakes

Hello friend. I have some exciting news. I am writing a book.

photo: Christina Crook, 2006

I got the idea back in the fall of ‘06. I was sitting in a cafe just off Rideau in Ottawa journaling when it came to me.

Here’s the crux of it: I am profiling 50 young women from across Canada who are living out their faith in dynamic and innovative ways - and telling their stories visually (collage/quotes/polaroids) to a secular audience. Big undertaking. Very exciting.

I began interviewing women last spring and completed another interview on Saturday.

The idea is this: We are all inspired by people. People living their dreams, no matter how big or small. And these people are all around us: beautiful people who are daring to live the life they’ve dreamed of. Moms who make clothes as their babies nap. Painters who have tossed out their commercial brushes to create on canvas. Emmy-award winning journalists who got their start in Tsawwassen. We are in their company. If we only had eyes to see.

So at the start of April I will pack my bags (my paint brushes, magazines, journals and laptop) and move to Bowen Island for a month to write.

Please pray for me as I start. For the inspiration. The connections I need. For the right stories to share…

And most of all I would like to ask you to please send me your recommendations.

Who are the women you know, in Canada, who inspire you? They could be known my thousands or tucked away in a northern hut. Please tell me their stories - I want to know about them! E-mail me at christina.m.crook{at}gmail.com and please spread the word far and wide.

In the next few months I will begin a blog dedicated to these stories… called: “In the Company of Beautiful People.”

You are one of those beautiful and amazing people! Thanks for reading and for sharing. I can’t wait to hear from you.