{"id":430,"date":"2010-08-24T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2010-08-24T21:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=430"},"modified":"2016-02-25T17:10:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T01:10:47","slug":"430-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/keynote-speaker\/live-readings\/430-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Think globally. Read locally!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in my \u00a0life, I think, I was first. We had to pick numbers out of a hat before the show, to see who would read in what order. There were only 3 left in the basket and I reached for the one in the middle. I&#8217;m Number 6 from a family of fourteen children, waaay back in my childhood, and ever since then, the middle has been my comfort zone. Let somebody else warm up the crowd, make mistakes. Usually I like to perform right before the intermission. But Saturday night I unfolded the paper I had snatched and read a simple word: &#8220;one&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>So I was first up. I read &#8220;<em>George Goes for a Walk&#8221;<\/em>, which I&#8217;ve posted here under Fiction. The Gumboot Garden was packed to the gills and I had their full attention. You know how it is, in the first moments of a film, you&#8217;re eager to get into the story and you pay really close attention &#8211;that&#8217;s how it was, being first. Everyone was listening. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s something in my life that has been very important to me. When someone listens to me, they have my full attention.<\/p>\n<p>Jane Covernton organized the event &#8211;<em>Think globally. Read locally!<\/em>, local writers reading from their work:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Joanne Bennison<\/strong>: journalist, read from <em>&#8220;Jinx&#8221; <\/em>her young adult novel &#8211; in -progress.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.heatherconn.com\/writing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Heather Conn<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cwho likes to write true stuff best and is working on a scandalous family story\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.janecovernton.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jane Covernton<\/a><\/strong>: self-published fiction writer\u00a0who launched her third novel,\u00a0<em>The Modern Age<\/em>, that evening<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rebecca Hendry<\/strong>: author of the novel\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/januarymagazine.com\/2009\/12\/fiction-grace-river-by-rebecca-hendry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grace River<\/a>,<\/em> who has published short fiction in numerous Canadian literary magazines<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gillian Kydd<\/strong>: author of\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluewaters.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Secrets of the Creek<\/a><\/em>, a mystery set in Roberts Creek<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.writersfest.bc.ca\/2003festival\/author.php?author=53\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">George Payerle<\/a><\/strong>: author of two novels and two books of poetry<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidroche.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">David Roche<\/a><\/strong>: international performer and author of\u00a0<em>The Church of 80% Sincerity<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Robin Wheeler:<\/strong> wrote\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsociety.com\/bookid\/4004\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gardening for the Faint of Heart<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-145\" title=\"Roses desktop\" src=\"http:\/\/www.caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Roses-desktop6-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Roses-desktop6-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Roses-desktop6-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Roses-desktop6.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The summer is the biggest thing in my life right now. The brilliant light, the abundant greens and myriad creatures busy with their own eating and nesting and squirreling dramas.<\/p>\n<p>I am listening with everything I have, and the days come up so softly and slip soundlessly dark quickly and then we have to put our heads down and do that odd thing, sleep. And I realize the brilliance of it, and how it&#8217;s going by, not an infinite thing.<\/p>\n<p>The soft warmth of the sun, or in the afternoon, the baking heat of it reflecting off wood steps on the front porch. The clear, halcyon blue skies; birds dropping on a breeze or darting from\u00a0branch to branch. Summer tastes of fresh onion, cucumber and cilantro mixed with tomato and pepper.<\/p>\n<p>My cat meows, wanting to get in. We walk together to the other door. As soon as I open it he wants to get out.<\/p>\n<p>He goes in a circle &#8212; from inside, to out, thinking he wants something, when he&#8217;s already got the life of Riley here.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Desk-bouquet.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-141\" title=\"Desk bouquet\" src=\"http:\/\/www.caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Desk-bouquet-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Desk-bouquet-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Desk-bouquet.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in my \u00a0life, I think, I was first. We had to pick numbers out of a hat before the show, to see who would read in what order. There were only 3 left in the basket and I reached for the one in the middle. I&#8217;m Number 6 from a family [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":20,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3103,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/430\/revisions\/3103"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caitlinhicks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}