Just a quick post with a photo of how the Morinville Community Library 50th anniversary 50-Hour Read-A-Thon turned out during my stay from 3:30 to 8:15 p.m. of the Saturday, June 3 portion.

Morinville 50-Hour Read-A-Thon, Saturday, June 3, 2017.

Library supervisor Ashley Cain coordinated the event.

Special thanks to Ashley and the Morinville Community Library staff who set up the event and have kept readers reading continuously since Friday at 12:00 noon. The event ends at 2:00 p.m. Sunday. Then Ashley, who has been working through most of the 50 hours, can finally get some sleep.

I regret I missed Scott Hayes of the St. Albert Gazette reading “The Cremation of Sam McGee” between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. However, I caught the readings of Sandi Tough of Legacy Library Services and Bellerose High School (St. Albert), and author Barb Galler-Smith reading from the latest On Spec: Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic.

Details about my readings can be found in May and June Update and Events.

What I learned today

The big takeaway from events like this where you read more than a few minutes’ worth of your work to people is that they truly get into the stories and articles and get to know your writing. There are people who want my books now.

A country drive

I stepped out of the library into the soft air of summer, fragrant with lilac flowers and barbecue smoke. At 8:15 p.m., sunset wasn’t for another hour and 35 minutes, yet the vehicle sounds on the main street were subdued, perhaps because the thin clouds, in their broad brush strokes, gave a near-dusk feel to the evening as they shut out the sun.

I drove out of Morinville, a town with less than 10,000 people, past fields of lush grass, and soon saw deer. The calls of a red-winged blackbird floated in through the open window, originating somewhere in the cattails by the roadside. As I drove south, the sun dropped out from the clouds and shone low behind me, since it now sets in the northwest at an angle of 311º (314º by summer solstice).

Ahh, summer in Alberta. Long evenings, wildlife, and highway drives.