Tuesday 11 February 2014

Speak Proper English Like What I Do

My dad, Geoff, is pretty darn funny, and he says that line as often as he can.  He has also had the opportunity to use this other gem a few times in his life and he is always pleased with himself: Of course the Queen's English, she was bloody born there, wasn't she?  Zing!

My dad is from Yorkshire, England, and he emigrated here to Canada, roughly 40 years ago.  Hence, the Queen reference.

He's a giant kid who happens to be in his sixties.  He is a Harry Potter expert (for those of you who have seen an HP movie with him, you can attest to this, as he spends an hour telling you what was "wrong" with the movie afterwards), he can tell you what the outcome of an episode of Reboot (a shout-out to all my Canadian friends here) will be from the first few seconds he sees, and he owns every Pixar movie.
*Not my actual Dad*
A while ago a friend of his asked when he was going to grow up.  To which he replied "Never.  I will never grow old."  And I believe it.  He even refers to people younger than him as "old".

My dad has been a major influence on my life:  good and bad.  I have unfortunately picked up a few of his bad habits including finding irritants everywhere.  I'm not talking about itchy wool pants, either.  I'm talking about small things.  Like while watching the Creationist/Evolution debate, Ken Ham frequently made dry mouth smacking sounds during the pauses in his speech.  "What I propose here *smack* is that *smack* secularists have *smack* hijacked the term ..."  TAKE A DRINK OF WATER!  Once I notice something like that, I can't turn it off.

Fortunately, the good habits outweigh the bad.  Like an eternally youthful outlook on life, finding comedy in every situation, randomly making weird noises for a laugh, and following your passion.

My dad wanted to be a cabinet maker but his parents forced him to becoming a pattern maker.  What's a pattern maker, you ask?  Google it.  But I can tell you that there are hardly any of them left and it is a trade that will die out.  Literally.

He's done some pretty amazing things as a pattern maker:  such as working on the Canadian Space Arm.  But he still regrets not being a cabinet maker.  Can you imagine?  In your sixties and still being regretful on a decision that was made for you over 45 years ago?

I don't want to be 60 years old and think "I wonder if my book would've been published.  I wonder what that would've been like.  I shoulda, woulda, coulda ..."

My dad has been very supportive of my brother, Liam and I, following our dreams and our passions.  He says that he doesn't want us to blindly allow others to make decisions for us for our future.

If you read my last post, and see how long ago it was, you would be correct in assuming that I fell into a slight "funk" when I hit a roadblock in my WIP.

But I needed time to fall back and regroup.  While I was working on my book, I kept coming up with a ton of crazy ideas for a character and I thought "Hey!  This would make an amazing second book!".  So I kept jotting these ideas down and putting them to the side.  But that character kept demanding attention.  Poking me in the side while I was at work, smacking my forehead during the middle of the night to tell me about her trip across town, why her partner is driving her nuts etc.

So I thought ... why not give her centre stage?  Why not write that story?  I can always come back to Frankie to see what she is doing, but for right now, let's go along with H.

Let me explain the "H".  I thought of her as a heroine and during my sketches to save time I simply wrote "H" for Heroine.  She, unfortunately, still doesn't have a name.

I have enough for an entire book just for H, and I'm going to go ahead with that.  I've decided that my first step is to research names as this will make her a full person, to whom I can tell to leave me alone if I'm busy, using her full name.

I'm on the G's, and so far, I have written down a few options but only one is standing out:  Bevin.  Bevin means fair lady or singer in Celtic.  But still, it's not quite right.

I will keep at it, and will follow my passion, as my dad says I should do.

2 comments:

  1. It's funny how our parents pass down their wonderful and annoying habits. When I spend time with mine I can see exactly where I picked up many of my peculiarities. It is wonderful that your dad is supportive; I think it is one of the most important things when following your dream - having a strong cheering section!

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    1. It's one of those "Soooo THAT'S where I got that!"

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