Lesley Choyce

Cold Clear Morning (Revised) Digital Edition

2011-11-02T11:04:00.000-04:00

Cold Clear Morning, a novel by Lesley Choyce, is now revised and available for your digital reader at the following locations:

Kindle | Smashwords

More Lesley Choyce Books for your digital reader

2011-06-27T08:18:00.000-04:00

Three Lesley Choyce books were recently converted to ebooks with Pottersfield Press on Smashwords, an ebook publishing and distribution platform. That means if your digital reader is a Kobo, Kindle, Sony, Stanza, iBooks or ePub you can now read the following books on those platforms:

Corey Redekop's review of The Republic of Nothing

2010-09-25T06:32:00.004-04:00

Ever loved a book? I mean, really loved a book? Loved it so much that your passion overwhelms your common sense, and you'd punch another human being rather than hear a negative word said about it?

Click here to read Cory Redekop's full review.

Random, a new young adult novel by Lesley Choyce (EXCERPT: Chapter 1)

2010-09-24T06:02:00.010-04:00

Click here to read an excerpt from Random, a new novel by Lesley Choyce.

Skate Freaks readers in Kenya

2010-09-23T07:11:00.002-04:00

Children in Kenya reading my book, Skate Freak.

Photos courtesy of Eric Walters.

Raising Orion, a new novel by Lesley Choyce (EXCERPT: Chapter 1)

2010-09-22T06:25:00.003-04:00

Click here to read an excerpt from Raising Orion, a new novel by Lesley Choyce.

Bookbuzzr.com and Freado.com bring you an excerpt from Random and Raising Orion

2010-09-21T15:33:00.002-04:00

Reminder: two new novels September 2010 by Lesley Choyce

2010-09-21T07:09:00.020-04:00

Two new novels are being released this month. You can read the first chapter from Random (Red Deer Press) by clicking here and later this week an excerpt from Raising Orion (Thistledown Press) will be available.

This is a busy month for updates so please feel free to follow me on Twitter and Facebook for news.

Word On The Street Sunday, September 26, 2010

2010-09-20T07:52:00.030-04:00

Just to let you know that next Sunday is Word on the Street from 11 am to 5 pm.

I'll be at Victoria Park in Halifax across from the Public Gardens reading from Raising Orion, my new novel at 12:30 and from Random, the new YA novel at 4 pm. Should be fun.

Click here to read excerpts as they become available.

New novels this fall

2010-09-19T13:56:00.003-04:00

This September, Nova Scotian author Lesley Choyce is releasing his first novel for adults in more than seven years called Raising Orion, published by Thistledown Press. He's also celebrating the publication of Random, a young adult novel coming out from Red Deer Press. Choyce is also one of three featured surfers in the documentary Winter Wave Riders (Hemmings House Productions) which is being screened at the Halifax Film Festival this month. In addition, he is also part of a unique poetry-music collaboration with Toronto singer-songwriter Jason McGroarty and soon to release an album blending spoken word and pop music. His previous two CDs were with the band The SurfPoets.

Lesley Choyce is a novelist and poet living at Lawrencetown Beach in Nova Scotia. He surfs in the North Atlantic year-round. He also runs a literary publishing house and teaches English at Dalhousie University. He is the host of a regular nationally-broadcast program on BookTelevision called Off the Page with Lesley Choyce. Choyce is the author of more than seventy books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction for adults, teens and children. His writing has earned him several awards, including two Dartmouth Book Awards and the Ann Connor Brimer Award for the young adult novel Good Idea Gone Bad. His work has been translated into Spanish, French, Danish and German.

Choyce will be available for interviews this fall in Halifax and Toronto. He will be reading from his two new books at Word on the Street in Halifax on September 28.

Random. If you think life makes sense, do not read this book. A novel by Lesley Choyce

2010-06-19T18:56:00.000-04:00

What triggered this story for you?

I had heard so many people using the word “random” in recent years although the very meaning of it had become, well, random. And I was, yet again, trying to sort out whether my own life made sense, whether there was a true purpose that we all have or if the events of our lives are haphazard and hence random.
So I came up with Joey and his own personal dilemma. His was, I admit, a bit deeper and darker than my own. I wanted a different kind of narrative, one that was fragmented and yet compelling which is the way most of us think. That’s why I used the digital diary idea. Once Joey got going with his DD, of course, he took over and all I had to do was hang on and follow his random thoughts and struggles to prove there is no meaning or purpose to life while being gobsmacked over and over with indications that it does all add up to something. Something of great significance.

The young men in your young adult novels are intelligent, sensitive, well-read. It's refreshing to find books which set aside some of the common misconceptions about teenaged boys. Can you comment on that?

Everyone I have ever known is unique and eccentric in their own way. I wanted Joey and my other male teen characters to exemplify teenagers boys who have very complex emotional and intellectual lives. I was certainly not ever normal in my teen years. No one is. Most teenage guys are actually quite sensitive, intelligent and fragile. The young macho stuff is just a facade in almost all cases. The massive force of social conditioning that comes today mostly from commercialism and pop culture deprives many teens from exploring their own unique identity. So it is my hope that my quirky characters resonate for both guys and girls and encourages them to be who they want to be. I’ve received enough emails from readers of my books to know that, for some, these novels do connect and help liberate the spirit of those struggling to figure out who they are, those suffering from “being different,” those who feel alienated and isolated.

When you first named your protagonist Joe Campbell, did you know you were going to reveal to him the book by the other Joseph Campbell?

That was a fluke. All I knew was that his name was Joe, then Joey. At first, I wanted to usher in some Scottish history of all things. I had been reading about the feuds and warfare between the Campbells and the MacDonalds. And then it occurred to me that Joey’s formal name was Joseph Campbell, whose books I had read in university. I had an aha moment or two over that and when I did a bit more research into the life and work of Joseph Campbell, I realized there were some extremely interesting connections to my character and his dilemma. It was then that I was reminded of the fact that there were some rather significant forces of creative energy outside of me that were helping to shape this book.

Joe begins as a boy who is profoundly confused about the purpose of life - because of what has happened to him. But would you agree that this is a condition that applies to most teens at some point in their lives? And is it a handicap for them?

Hey, not just teens. I am still profoundly befuddled and confused about many things. And yet the confusion and uncertainty, I’ve found, is really the wellspring of my curiosity and creativity. I don’t know if I have a purpose in life and if I was certain of it, I would be a very different person. I live by my hunches and I think Joey is doing that too. When he discovers a hunch of his is wrong, he gets a bit more confused but then absorbs the new information and moves on or at least tries to. And thus he grows, matures. But there is no final absolute solution to his problem or an ultimate answer.
If you were to ask me what my own hunches are about what I’m doing on this planet, why I am here, I’d say this. I’m supposed to be creative and to write. I need to be kind and compassionate to everyone around me (including my enemies if I have any) as often as I can. I must absolutely give back more than I take. I must try my best to be honest with myself and with everyone around me even when it is difficult. I need to be daring and take chances (but not all the time). And I need to remain passionate about what I do and how I live. And I need to have some degree of fun while doing all the above.

Joe, Gloria and Dean are outsiders in their world. You seem to write a lot about outsiders in your young adult novels. What special qualities do such people have that make them interesting characters to build a story around?

When we are totally comfortable in our lives, our families, our jobs and our communities, we feel safe and secure. We are comfortable insiders – inside such a nice, cozy (but almost always temporary) womb. It’s a wonderful place to be; it’s just that it doesn’t work out that way all of the time. So then we become outsiders.
When you are young, you feel like an outsider because you are not fully fledged as an adult. You are simply too young. Then you become an adult and realize that you are still an outsider on a lot of levels. Outsiders are edgy, nervous, problematic and interesting. They often don’t know who they are but they know who they are not. Outsiders are still searching for identity and meaning and that makes them more interesting to write about.

As you develop a story for teenagers, setting doesn't seem to be of prime significance for you; the stories - and Random is an example - could take place anywhere in North America. Is this a deliberate approach?

I’ve written a number of novels that are very precisely set in Halifax and on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia where I live. Other novels, like Random, could be a random suburban community just about anywhere in North America. I think this makes it easy for many readers to simply imagine that the story is set in the town where they live. But then within that framework, the world of the narrator, Joey in this case, is fairly precise. Yet it’s primarily the landscape of his interior geography that is most important and that’s where the reader should be. Travelling around inside Joey’s head with him and living his life vicariously.

Random is a novel that focuses largely on the main character's thinking through his situation, rather than working out his problem with lively action. This demonstrates your respect for the reader, I think. Could you comment on this?

I think that most of us live our primary lives inside our heads. We work out most of our problems and make our discoveries internally although they may be triggered by external factors. The wonderful illusion of good first-person fiction is that you, the reader, become the character while you are reading. That is intended to be my “gift” to the reader. You pick up my book about a character who has never existed and events that have never happened. You accept the psychological game that I’ve created – the contract between reader and writer which is the agreement that the fiction is real, at least while you are reading the book. I can’t waste the reader’s time... or mine. So I owe the reader the best possible world I can give him or her. Sometimes that is a daunting task. Fortunately for me, I let Joey take over the novel quite early on and all I had to do was follow his lead.

Republic of Nothing nominated for best book

2010-06-17T19:12:00.002-04:00

Lesley Choyce's novel, The Republic of Nothing is nominated for best book in the "Atlantic Canada Reads" Competition.

As of June 18 – Friday, readers can vote for their favourite of the six. Click here if you’d like to vote for any of the six, or check out the link below:

http://saltyink.com/atlantic-canada-reads-competition/

Seven Ravens: Two summers in a life by the sea BOOK LAUNCH PARTY

2009-10-25T19:45:00.000-04:00

You are invited to the book launch party of

Seven Ravens: Two summers in a life by the sea
by Lesley Choyce

November 6, 2009 at 6 - 8pm. The Company House, 2202 Gottingen St., Halifax.

If Eat, Pray, Love had been written by a 50-year-old male surfer from Nova Scotia, it would be Lesley Choyce's Seven Ravens: Two summers in a life by the sea. While Choyce doesn't journey to Italy, India and Bali in search of emotional healing and spiritual growth (though he would probably be happy to do so), his book is also a journey of self-discovery. But instead of leaving everything behind and visiting exotic locales, Choyce takes his pen, his writer's ability to observe and some unexpected literary companions into the wilderness that surrounds his Lawrencetown Beach home to find healing.

Seven Ravens is filled with luminous descriptions of the natural beauties of Nova Scotia, humorous stories of saving orphaned animals with his daughter and moving accounts of Choyce's struggle with depression. There is no self-pity in this book, only honesty, love of nature and a willingness to work through problems in the most human way possible.

Seven Ravens: Two summers in a life by the sea is a book that readers will enjoy, and turn to again and again whenever they are bewildered by life
LESLEY CHOYCE is the author of 70 books for adults, teens and children. He has taught at Dalhousie University for the past 25 years and is the publisher of Pottersfield Press. Lesley surfs year-round in the North Atlantic and is considered the father of transcendental wood-splitting. He lives in a 200-year-old farmhouse at Lawrencetown Beach overlooking the ocean. He also hosts a nationally syndicated TV talk show on BookTelevision. His novel The Republic of Nothing is currently being developed as a feature-length movie.

"Choyce's writing reveals an engagement with both the physical world and the literary one. It is a privilege to be invited on a journey with such an inquisitive and sensitive mind." -Candace Fertile, Quill and Quire

WOLSAK AND WYNN PUBLISHERS LTD. Contact: Noelle Allen noelle.allen@wolsakandwynn.ca Tel: 905-972-9885

Media inquiries: Peggy Walt, pwalt@eastlink.ca, (902) 422-5403

I'm Alive, I Believe in Everything

2009-09-18T10:52:00.000-04:00

Writing Down the Wind

2009-09-18T10:51:00.000-04:00

Nova Scotia: Visions of the Future

2009-07-25T09:19:00.001-04:00

Edited by Lesley Choyce

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia, Energy, Politics, the Future

192 pages, $19.95, 6" x 9" Paperback

ISBN-13: 978-1-897426-07-4

Available in May 2009

Pottersfield Press || Chapters || Amazon

In the spring of 2009, Pottersfield will launch this most insightful book that may set in motion some serious action that can help Nova Scotia live up to its full future potential. The writing is personal, reflective, proactive and thoroughly captivating by more than 30 contributors from many diverse fields of expertise.

In the summer of 2008, Pottersfield publisher Lesley Choyce sent a letter to a select and varied list of Nova Scotians asking them to contribute to a book about this province's future. He invited some of the best minds (and hearts) around the province to present their vision of this possible province of the future. Absolutely anything goes.

Two things prompted this grandiose plan. First, Choyce became a grandfather in May. His daughter Pamela had a boy - Aidan, whose arrival made Choyce think about the world he will inherit and what he will see and experience in his lifetime. Second, while Choyce was away in Yellowknife in June, a forest fire nearly took his house. The flames were not exactly licking the door, but it was headed its way with a strong north wind and a lot of fuel in the form of forests ravaged by Hurricane Juan and clear-cutting. When he got home, he went hiking up into the charred land several times. Once the sadness wore off, he started thinking about renewal... and about the future.

That's when he decided to pull this book together. He invited many Nova Scotians to write anything they wanted to, hoping contriutors would cover environment, technology, immigration, social aspects, urban life, rural life, energy, politics, government, family, economics, forests, the ocean and much more. The bolder the vision, the better. Stories and personal aspects were okay. Controversial ideas were fine. Which future? Anything beyond ten years and up to a thousand.

Some of the contributing writers include Marq deVilliers, Peggy Hope-Simpson, Richard Zurawski, Premier Rodney MacDonald, Budge Wilson, Alan Wilson, Dr. Richard Goldbloom, Carol Bruneau, Tom Gallant, Geoff Regan, Sunyata Choyce, Neal Livingston, Barb Stegemann, Bill Carr, Bob Howse, Ralph Martin, and Stephen Clare among others.

Peggy's Cove: The Amazing History of a Coastal Village

2008-09-03T10:05:00.000-04:00

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia History, The Maritimes

146 pages, $15.95, 6"x9" Paperback (Includes photographs)

ISBN-13: 978-1-897426-00-5

ISBN-10: 1-897426-00-3

Available in July 2008

Amazon || Chapters

Here is the complete history of the famous cove and the unique village that hosts thousands of visitors each year. The story begins with the formation of the rocks along these shores and the impact of the glaciers. The Mi'kmaq were the first to live here in the summers, harvesting the
riches of the sea. A land grant in 1811 brought the first hardy settlers, who built homes and wharves and discovered that the sea could provide bounty but was also a source of great danger.

The story includes the origin of the name, Peggy's Cove, and details about the everyday life of nineteenth-century families living here. A history of the famous lighthouse is included and there are excerpts from many of the famous and not-so-famous visitors who have written
about the Cove through two centuries.

The author explores the most damaging storms, the shipwrecks, the reports of sea monsters and other strange phenomena. Fishing was always a source of income, but it changed over the years. At times the fish prices were so low it was not worth the effort and, in recent years, dramatic changes to the ocean have seen the collapse of several important species of fish.

In the twentieth century, Peggy's Cove attracted artists, writers and ultimately thousands of tourists. Sculptor William de Garthe made his home here and created his monument to the coastal fishermen out of the sheer granite outcropping in his backyard. In 1998, Swissair Flight
111 crashed off the shores of Peggy's Cove and the community opened its doors to the world in an effort to provide support for the rescue workers and the families of the victims. From the earliest days to the present, the story of Peggy's Cove has been a tale of natural wonder and
human endurance.

Lesley Choyce lives at Lawrencetown Beach and is the author of 65 books including
Nova Scotia: Shaped By The Sea and The Coasts of Canada, a history of the country's shorelines. He has also edited Nova Scotia: A Traveller's Companion.

The Book of Michael

2008-09-03T10:04:00.001-04:00

Red Deer Press
Juvenile Fiction/Social Issues/Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance
Ages 16+ • 224 pages • 5 1/4 x 7 1/4"
ISBN 0–88995–417–8 paper • CDN 12.95 • USA 12.95

Michael Grove was sixteen years old when he was convicted for the murder of Lisa Conroy, the girlfriend he loved very much. The circumstances surrounding her final hours attract considerable media attention, especially because Michael and Lisa had sex just prior to her death. A public outcry against light penalties for young offenders ensures Michael is tried as an adult; he receives a harsh and severe penalty. Six months into his imprisonment, the true murderer confesses. Michael is released but quickly finds that the stigma of imprisonment and the (wrongful) rap for murder is not an easy thing to escape out on the streets.

White Pine Award Nomination for The End Of The World As We Know It

2007-12-05T08:54:00.000-04:00

Lesley's Young Adult novel "The End of the World As We Know It" has been nominated for a 2008 White Pine Award.

Click here for more information about this prestigious award.

"Author Lesley Choyce has filled his latest book with quirky yet complex characters, and his adept portrayal of one teen's inner struggles - struggles that are not fuelled by extreme poverty, abuse, or neglect or any other external provocations - is at once profound and utterly realistic. Carson's story of subtle growth and quiet transformation will resonate with a wide range off readers. It is a beautifully honest book tinged with sadness, but ultimately filled with optimism and hope."
-- Atlantic Books Today (Halifax)

Book Description

"I hate the world and everything in it. And that includes me."

Asked to write something for English class that expresses who he really is, 16-year-old Carson takes pleasure in blistering the page with hate for everything in his life. Stuck in a private school for kids who have repeatedly flunked out elsewhere, Carson knows he's got nowhere lower to sink to. "Flunk Out Academy" is the last resort for Carson and his classmates, in a small town where its deeply troubled students are decidedly unwelcome.

Then Carson meets someone who is even less optimistic than he. Christine struggles to get by, living in a trailer by herself, abandoned by her mother and father, so desperate that she has become almost immune to the pain and loneliness.

Confronted by her deep sadness, Carson starts to care for her and she for him. Once focused on someone other than himself, he begins to notice the world around him and realize that there is beauty as well as hopelessness, love as well as hate. Together the two teenagers struggle to work out how they are going to live in an imperfect world. There are no easy happy endings, but somehow the journey eventually makes the pain worthwhile.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Red Deer Press; 1 edition (May 31, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0889953791
ISBN-13: 978-0889953796

If you like, you can order your copy from many online and bricks & mortar book sellers. Here are a few links for your convenience:
Chapters.ca || Amazon.com

New Facebook.com Fan site for Lesley Choyce

2007-11-16T16:27:00.000-04:00

Lesley Choyce on Blip

2007-11-11T13:13:00.000-04:00

Click To Play

Lesley Choyce books on eBay SPECIAL OFFER -- AUTOGRAPHED

2007-10-30T06:39:00.000-04:00

SPECIAL: Autographed by author copy of NS Shaped by the Sea (2007)

2007-10-29T18:11:00.001-04:00

Available here.

Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea -- a Living History (New Revised 2007 Edition)

2007-10-23T21:23:00.000-04:00

Nova Scotia: Shaped By The Sea

A Living History - New Revised Edition

Pottersfield is pleased to announce
the release of

Nova Scotia: Shaped By The Sea
A Living History - New Revised Edition

By Lesley Choyce

The history of Nova Scotia is an amazing story of a land and people shaped by the waves, the tides, the wind and the wonder of the North Atlantic. Lesley Choyce weaves the legacy of this unique coastal province, piecing together the stories written in the rocks, the wrecks and the record books of human glory and error. In this true- life adventure, he provides a down-to-earth journey through history that is both refreshing and revealing.

The story begins after the retreat of the glaciers when the first people arrived and, over thousands of years, evolved the highly civilized Mi'kmaq culture. The arrival of the Europeans disrupted their life, unleashing tumultuous conflicts that would last centuries.
Then came the power struggle between France and England, which was fought at sea as well as on land. As England emerged the victor, the Acadians were driven from the land they loved. Once the wars subsided, the pirates and privateers still plundered the seas, but the honest sailors and shipbuilders of Nova Scotia led the province into a flourishing world trade. During the First World War, Nova Scotia was again thrust into military action, resulting in one of the most devastating explosions ever to rip through a city. Decades later, Halifax was torn apart again, this time by military riots.

Here in the new century, it is clear that the way of life along this coast is changing. But while the wealth of the sea has been diminished by human greed, the dreams of life in harmony with the fierce yet beautiful North Atlantic live on, even as the coastline continues to be carved away by the restless surge of the waves.

The first edition of this book was published by Penguin Books in 1996. Lesley Choyce lives at Lawrencetown Beach and is the author of 65 books including The Coasts of Canada, a history of the country's shorelines. He has also edited a companion volume to Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea titled Nova Scotia: A Traveller's Companion.

"It is a good tale, well told, which opens the door to the wanderings of the imagination."
The Globe and Mail

324 pages $24.95 6" x 9" Paperback ISBN 978-1- 895900-94-1 -----------

Books available for sale from Nimbus Publishing: 1-800-Nimbus9

Surfers For Peace

2007-10-23T17:22:00.001-04:00

Surfers for Peace is intended to be a worldwide community of surfers and surf-friendly people who believe there is a true connection between surfing and making the world a more peaceful place to live.

Click here for more ...

2007 Tall Grass Festival, Seaforth Nova Scotia

2007-10-23T17:06:00.000-04:00

Photo courtesy Maya Swan

LibraryThing.com

2007-09-05T21:33:00.000-04:00

Nova Scotia: Shaped By The Sea A Living History (New, Revised Edition)

2007-09-02T08:29:00.000-04:00

By Lesley Choyce

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia History
324 pages
$24.95
ISBN 978-1-895900-94-1
(Available September 2007)

Click on a link below to order this book:
Pottersfield Press
Amazon
Chapters

The history of Nova Scotia is an amazing story of a land and people shaped by the waves, the tides, the wind and the wonder of the North Atlantic. Lesley Choyce weaves the legacy of this unique coastal province, piecing together the stories written in the rocks, the wrecks and the record books of human glory and error. In this true-life adventure, he provides a down-to-earth journey through the natural and man-made history that is both refreshing and revealing.

The story begins after the retreat of the glaciers when the first people arrived, and over thousands of years evolved the highly civilized Mi'kmaq culture. The arrival of the Europeans disrupted their life, unleashing tumultuous conflicts that would last centuries. Then came the power struggle between France and England, fought at sea and on land. As England emerged the victor, the Acadians were driven from the land they loved. Once the wars subsided, the pirates and privateers still plundered the seas, but the honest sailors and shipbuilders of Nova Scotia led the province into a flourishing world trade. During the First World War, Nova Scotia was again thrust into military action, resulting in one of the most devastating explosions ever to rip through a city. Decades later, Halifax was torn apart again, this time by military riots.

Here in the new century, it is clear that the way of life along this coast is changing. But while the wealth of the sea has been plundered by human greed, the dreams of life in harmony with the fierce, yet beautiful, North Atlantic live on, even as the restless surge of the waves continues to carve away the coastline.

Penguin Books published the first edition in 1996. Lesley Choyce lives at Lawrencetown Beach and is the author of 65 books including The Coasts of Canada, a history of the country's shorelines. He has edited a companion volume to Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea titled Nova Scotia: A Traveller's Companion, 300 Years of Travel Writing (also from Pottersfield Press).

BookExpo trade show floor

2007-06-15T06:04:00.001-04:00

BookExpo trade show floor
Originally uploaded by Quill & Quire.

New song released June 2007 -- Words on Rocks

2007-06-14T06:57:00.000-04:00

Lesley Choyce and the Surf Poets have released a new song called Words on Rocks.

Click here to visit Lesley Choyce & the Surf Poet's MySpace site to listen.

BookExpo trade show floor

2007-06-14T06:53:00.001-04:00

BookExpo trade show floor
Originally uploaded by Quill & Quire.

Lesley at BookExpo in Toronto, June 2007 signing The Republic of Nothing.

More photos from BookExpo are available at Quill & Quire's flickr account

Wave Warrior review by Carole Marion for CM Magazine

2007-06-14T06:34:00.001-04:00

Wave Warrior. (Orca Soundings).

By Lesley Choyce
Victoria, BC: Orca, 2007.
105 pp., pbk. & cl., $9.95 (pbk.), $16.95 (cl.).
ISBN 978-1-55143-647-0 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-55143-649-4 (cl.).

Subject Heading:
Surfing-Juvenile fiction.

Grades 6-9 / Ages 11-14.

Review by Carole Marion.

Click here to read Carole Marion's review of Wave Warrior.

The Republic of Nothing -- Photos from recent author reading and book launch

2007-05-31T05:24:00.000-04:00

Free Author Reading - Thursday, May 24, 2007

2007-05-20T18:36:00.000-04:00

Lesley Choyce will launch and read from his novel, The Republic of Nothing, the third new edition issued by Goose Lane Editions. The launch will take place at Just Us! Cafe on Barrington Street, Halifax, 7-8:30 p.m.

Free citizenship is available to anyone who wants to immigrate to the republic.

The third edition of the The Republic of Nothing has an afterward by Rush drummer, Neil Peart as well as a book club section for thought and discussion.

The Republic of Nothing opens in the early 1950s on Whalebone Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, when Everett MacQuade marks the birth of his son by declaring the island's independence. From then on, mysterious happenings take place and refugees from the outside world find a place there. By the mid-1960s, the Republic of Nothing begins to succumb to the influences of the outside world. This is a story about resilience, independence, and anarchy.

The Republic of Nothing has been optioned by IMX Communications. Stay tuned for more details about when it will be filmed and where.

The Republic of Nothing is published by Goose Lane Books.

Chapters.Indigo.ca
Amazon.com

New book launch, May 22, 2007 at J.L. Ilsley in Halifax

2007-05-14T13:26:00.001-04:00

The End of the World As We Know It will officially launch at J.L. Ilsley High School in Halifax on May 22.

About The End of the World as We Know It
Asked to write an English class assignment that expresses who he really is, 16-year-old Carson takes pleasure in filling the pages with hate for everything in his life. Stuck in a private school for kids who have repeatedly flunked out elsewhere, he knows there's nowhere lower to sink. "Flunk Out Academy" is the last resort for Carson and his classmates in a small town where the deeply troubled students are decidedly unwelcome.

Then Carson meets Christine. She struggles to get by, living in a trailer by herself, abandoned by her mother and father. Confronted by her deep sadness, Carson starts to care for her -- and she for him and realizes there is enough beauty to fight against hopelessness, love to battle all hate. Together, Carson and Christine struggle to work out how to live in an imperfect world.

The End of the World As We Know It is published by Red Deer Press.

Chapters.ca
Amazon.com

Congratulations to Brenda Jones, illustrator

2007-05-14T12:30:00.000-04:00

Brenda Jones, recently won the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Illustration for her work in Skunks for Breakfast(Lesley Choyce, author; Nimbus Publishing).

Everything about Pamela’s family and life is normal until the skunks arrive, and arrive. Then suddenly everything about her life, and her family, stinks. But Pamela takes heart, then action with her father, trying their darndest to get rid of the smelly pests, one after the other after the other.

Brenda Jones depicts the change in Pamela’s character, her reluctant warming to the unexpectedly cute creatures and her father’s helplessness in the face of such an odorous onslaught. Born and raised in PEI, she now works as an illustrator, commercial designer and film animator in Montreal. She has illustrated a dozen books, including Lobster in My Pocket and Mr. Sweetums Wears Pink.

Skunks For Breakfast is available through Nimbus Publishing call 1-800-nimbus9 to order direct.

Chapters.ca
Amazon.com

Book Talk wraps up -- archive available

2007-05-14T09:58:00.000-04:00

The Halifax Daily News wraps up its first session of BookTalk with Stephen Clare featuring Lesley Choyce's novel, The Republic of Nothing.
To view the archives of the author question and answer and other discussion, please click here.

The third edition of Choyce's award winning novel, The Republic of Nothing was released spring of 2007 by Goose Lane.

If you enjoyed The Republic of Nothing, you may also enjoy The Sea of Tranquility by Lesley Choyce.

Republic of Nothing wins online readers' poll

2007-04-22T05:25:00.000-04:00

Online reader discussion of Republic of Nothing begins

Lesley Choyce's bestselling novel, The Republic of Nothing, won the first reader's poll at The Daily News to kick off the paper's new online reading group.

Click here to take part with this group that is reading the first 125 pages (17 chapters) this week (April 21 - 29, 2007).

The Republic of Nothing (reader’s guide edition) with an afterword by Rush’s Neil Peart is available through your library or for purchase at Amazon.com, Chapters.ca and many other online book sellers, including the publisher: Goose Lane.

Please click here to join us.

The Republic of Nothing
By Lesley Choyce
Paperback: 382 pages
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions (Third edition March 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0864924933
ISBN-13: 978-0864924933

The Republic of Nothing is a novel set on a small Canadian island that declares its independence to the world and anarchy reigns. A god-like ocean deposits many a thing, yet it also takes away. The 1960s blaze off shore and draw the island's inhabitants into politics, the Vietnam War, and the peace movement. Sound impossible? Not on Whalebone Island, AKA the Republic of Nothing. Where else can a dead circus elephant, a long-dead Viking, the discovery of uranium, a raven-haired castaway who may be psychic, an anarchist turned politician, and refugees fleeing from the United States all be part of everyday life? Where else is eccentricity embraced with such open arms? In this new readers' guide edition, complete with an afterword by Neil Peart, Lesley Choyce's novel about resilience, independence, and anarchy comes alive, leading readers to discover once again that everything is nothing and nothing is everything.

More places to discuss Lesley's books online are available at Shelfari.com and LibraryThing.com

The Republic of Nothing by Lesley Choyce

2007-03-13T15:32:00.000-04:00

MEDIA RELEASE

The Republic of Nothing
Lesley Choyce
Reader’s Guide Edition, with an afterword by Rush’s Neil Peart

“ A triple-decker of a yarn . . . “
— The Globe and Mail

In The Republic of Nothing, prolific Canadian writer Lesley Choyce mines the deep vein of 1960s political and philosophical turmoil to create his best-loved work. A novel about rebellion, resilience, and independence, this Reader’s Guide edition, perfect for book clubs, also celebrates the 10th anniversary of the book’s original publication.

“My father declared the independence of Whalebone Island on March 21, 1951, the day I was born. It was a heady political time even on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. New, pint-size nations were emerging all over forgotten corners of the globe and my old man decided that the flowering of independence should not pass us by.”

And so begins a quirky, quintessentially Choycian, work. In this idiosyncratic world anything can happen. A treasure trove of objects wash up on shore — including a circus elephant, a ship’s cargo of exotic furniture, and a mysterious raven-haired woman adrift in a lifeboat — and refugees from the outside world find a place where they can live in peace. At its heart, it is the story of one young man’s journey into adulthood while the anarchy of the adult world rages on around him.

This particular novel was a watershed in the author’s career. Choyce says it engendered a somewhat cult following. He even received letters from strangers who wanted to move to the island he had created.

“Kids in alternative rock bands wrote songs about it. Favourable reviewers wondered who I was and why I was ‘in hiding’. I knew I had tapped into something very important. Ultimately, it made me happy to be a writer who was so blessed to live at least part of my daily life IN the Republic of Nothing in all its shining exuberence.”

Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush, is one of many people deeply affected by this book. In his afterword, Peart reveals how he struck up a friendship with Choyce after reading the novel in the mid 1990s. He articulates why The Republic of Nothing remains one of his favourites to this day.

“Like all great fiction, it speaks for all time. And like all great dramatists, Lesley Choyce can build a stage on Whalebone Island, Nova Scotia, and bring the whole world to it.”

Discover why everyone from teenagers to rock stars adores this Canadian classic. Sail away to The Republic of Nothing, where ‘everything is nothing and nothing is everything.’

About The Author

Renaissance man Lesley Choyce has taught at Dalhousie University for the past 25 years. He runs Pottersfield Press and has published over sixty books for adults and kids. Lesley surfs year round in the North Atlantic and is considered the father of transcendental wood-splitting. He’s worked as a rehab counsellor, a freight hauler, a corn farmer, a janitor, a journalist, a lead guitarist, a newspaper boy, and a well-digger. He lives in a 200-year-old farmhouse at Lawrencetown Beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. He also hosts a nationally syndicated TV talk show on Vision TV called Off the Page with Lesley Choyce. His recent novel Cold Clear Morning is being developed as a feature-length movie. In 2002, Goose Lane Editions published Choyce’s best-selling circumferential history book, The Coasts of Canada. That same year, his animal epic film, The Skunk Whisperer, was broadcast across Canada and heralded at the Maine International Film Festival. Along with the Surf Poets, he has released two poetry/music albums, Long Lost Planet and Sea Level.

Accolades for Lesley Choyce and The Republic of Nothing

“ A national treasure.” — The Ottawa Citizen

“Reminiscent, both in wit and sensibility, of Stephen Leacock.” — Quill and Quire

“This book has to be the most unlikely success story!! If you go to school, you know that the books the teachers give you to read are generally either really old or really boring. I am surprised to say that this book is neither.

”The book is a very vivid depiction of what it is like to seek independence from your family, and even your country. This books about a family that live on a secluded island off Nova Scotia, they call this island "The Republic of Nothing." They don't want to be a nation of anyone elses, they want to be on their own with no government. This book starts off as a book about an Utopian island, and that it becomes about one family, mainly the main character, trying to find their way. It has family struggles, committment, romance, comedy, politics, etc etc. This is definitely a book for everyone from a dreamer to a succeeder.” — Kelly, on Amazon.com

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Books by Lesley Choyce on LibraryThing.com

2007-03-10T09:14:00.000-04:00

LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.

Surf Poet Slide Show

2007-03-07T07:59:00.000-04:00

Reader-based book discussion group

2007-03-06T07:44:00.000-04:00

There is a new reader-based book discussion group available on Shelfari.com.

Thank you

2007-03-02T17:43:00.001-04:00

thanks1
Originally uploaded by lesleychoyce.

This is a little thank you note for my friends on MySpace.com

Flickr

2007-03-02T17:40:00.001-04:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

All three parts of The Skunk Whisperer are live

2007-02-21T19:24:00.000-04:00

Third edition of The Republic of Nothing by Lesley Choyce

2007-02-17T08:43:00.000-04:00

The third edition of Lesley Choyce's classic novel The Republic of Nothing is on its way to press. The third edition includes an afterword by Rush drummer Neil Peart as well as a reader's guide to this enchanting story. More details to follow soon.

The Republic of Nothing is published by Goose Lane.

Part I of the Skunk Whisperer is now being shown on YouTube.com/LesleyChoyce

2007-02-01T09:41:00.000-04:00

The first of three segments of The Skunk Whisperer, a Canadian documentary by Lulu Keating and Lesley Choyce is now being aired on YouTube.com

Click here to watch the first part and tune in on February 15th for part two.

Twelve more miles to Runaway Bay by Lesley Choyce & the Surf Poets (from the CD Sea Level)

2007-01-30T06:28:00.000-04:00

Lyrics by Lesley Choyce

I'm probably not to blame
If I lost all track of you
And someone else arrived
to take away all your pain and make the sacrifice.

Who made all the rules?
Who changed the scenery?
Found reason in the night
To bring the Milky Way so close to being right.

Does anyone know where innocence goes?
Does anyone have a clue?
I thought I had an answer
But I asked myself, "Do you?"

It's probably just the rain
I'm just a tourist here
Can't find a place to say
I've been here once before
And it was safe and warm.

I can't believe it's been
So long since summer showed me how to catch the wind
And see the colour in my saddest day of the year.

Beautiful Sadness & the origin of the Surf Poets - Driving Minnie's Piano

2007-01-25T07:04:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from Driving Minnie's Piano
By Lesley Choyce

So we had one song in our canon and no where to go but up. But we were not out of the basement yet. In my own head, I was formulating a “SurfPoet philosophy” in hopes that we might eventually become bigger than the Beach Boys or their arch-rival the Beatles and I’d actually have some profound ideas to share with the world. I was formulating surfing, poetry, music ideology and had configured love into it as well. Unlike the Beatles who proffered, “All you need is love,” I was offering a more complex recipe, something like, “All you need is love, poetry, music, and surfing.”

It was around that time that local radio was getting rid of DJs who were not at all cost effective and replacing them with walls of CD machines programmed to play music punctuated at plentiful intervals with commercials. DJs were being fired left, right and centre and that included a friend of Doug’s named Stan Carew, a.k.a. A.J. Stanley. Stan became a local legend on his last shift of live radio at rock station Q104. Just as he was about to be replaced by twenty-five CD players, Stan gave a distinguished sermon on air about how pissed-off he was that automation was taking over and then he left the building, leaving the radio audience to sample ten minutes of dead air.

With loads of free time on his hands, Stan was lured into the SurfPoet conspiracy still hatching in the recording studio basement of the same building where a young alternative group called Sloan had cut their first recordings. Sloan was already huge in a Canadian alternative sort of way and we knew that soon we’d go upstairs and cut similar hits.

Now, Doug surfed a longboard he had brought down from Toronto, which is only a semi-surfing town, if you count surfing on Lake Ontario. Surfer kids who come to Nova Scotia from Ontario say they like to surf near the nuclear power plant back home “because it’s warmer there.” Nova Scotia surfing, as you know, is very cold. And it’s the cold surfing experience that is primal to SurfPoet music. Stan Carew, however, has never surfed. But he was a lead singer in a country band. He also played acoustic guitar and ushered in two new innovative concepts to the SurfPoets. The first was the idea of adding a second chord to our songs.

I was opposed to using a second chord at first. I thought A minor was fine. But not Stan. I wanted to kick him out of the band but Doug, usually a sombre, quiet keyboardist, was militant that Stan was “in.” I was afraid that shifting chords on my guitar while trying to recite my poetry would throw me and the audience off. The compromise was that one of the chords be A minor and the second one also a minor chord – an easy one: E minor.

I had decided that it would be a cliché if all the SurfPoet songs were about surfing – not that we’d done any songs yet about surfing, just the one about cars – so I decided to use a poem I had written called “Beautiful Sadness.” It was a bittersweet, melancholy love poem about the concept of beauty and sadness. Sad things can be beautiful, it seemed to say. It was, I argued, a very Celtic idea inspired by sad Cape Breton fiddle airs. So Doug found a sampled slow hip-hop loop, I found my two chords, Stan would strum acoustic and sing backup. Doug also had sampled recordings of women in a church singing the Lord’s Prayer, which Doug added – only those recorded elements were played backwards, just like on the old Black Sabbath records.

And so emerged a kind of spoken word hip-hop love song that made you feel really sad – but good. During coffee break, Stan introduced one more concept that would revolutionize the SurfPoets forever. He took me aside and told me a song should have a chorus – if it was going to be a hit. It really should.

I told him in no uncertain terms that we were not in it for the money and if all he wanted was commercial success, he should get the hell out of the basement and out of the band. I actually camouflaged my anger and said this politely. But it was still a SurfPoet chastisement of monumental proportions. I saw the look on Stan’s face and then I remembered that Stan had recently been fired after his public on-air stand against automated radio and, suddenly realizing I had hurt his feelings, I relented. Okay, we could try a chorus. “You mean like ‘Help me Rhonda, Help, Help me Rhonda?’” I asked.

“Yeah,” Stan said. “Or ‘Round, round get around, I get around.’”

We were talking sacred texts here.

I mulled and mired over it. I did not want us to be “like every other band” using a flashy elaborate number of chords, harmonies, and choruses up the ying yang. But I had a fairly small pool of talent and realized I needed my band members more than they needed me. Okay, I said again.

I went out onto the street then to breathe in the diesel fumes from a couple of buses going by and watch kids spray-painting their names on empty store fronts. In my poem, I had already configured beauty as a character: the abstract represented by an ideal. She was a shadowy, beautiful woman who herself was the embodiment of beauty and sadness at once. She was a kind of fatal attraction as well. The narrator in the poem was me-but-not-really-me: also a sad, but not beautiful, character. Deep down I envisioned myself as a very sad, lonely person even though I really wasn’t. It was a pose like that of the public persona of so many other poets before me. Poets must really like to feel sorry for themselves even though they have nothing to feel sorry about.

The streets were slushy that day. Slush was good for musical melancholia. I would later enshrine that slush as well as my old car, an insanely unreliable Skoda, in the poem/song:

I was always afraid of Beautiful Sadness
Because I believed she was friends with despair and misery
But now, driving on the slushy Halifax street
I realize I want to know Beautiful Sadness.
I’m only driving a small Czechoslovakian car
But I want to stop and open all the doors to the beautifully lost
I want to drive them anywhere they want to go because someday
I know I’ll be one of them and I want to know what it’s like.

And so it was time to introduce a chorus. Something basic, Stan had said, something regular people could relate to. (I didn’t know what he meant by regular – people who were not SurfPoets, I figured.) I’m in love with Beautiful Sadness? I’m a fool for Beautiful Sadness?

Back inside, Stan suggested, “A date with Beautiful Sadness . . . Got a date with Beautiful Sadness.”

I didn’t know if people even still used the word “date.” I figured it came from the country music world Stan had been escaping to since he had stormed off the radio. Oh, what the hell. I gave in altogether. A chorus was born:

Got a date with Beautiful Sadness
Down by the corner of possible madness
Turn right at fear
In a desperate year.

Here's the video for Beautiful Sadness:

Miscellaneous - ringtones for your cell phone

2007-01-24T08:04:00.000-04:00

If you can browse the Internet on your mobile phone, you may be able to download spoken word music by the Surf Poets from LesleyChoyce.com as a ringtone for your phone -- or as an MP3 for your portable digital music player.

Traction - Spoken Word Music Video by Lesley Choyce & the Surf Poets

2007-01-20T16:26:00.000-04:00

Hands on the rim of all possibility, I’m haunted home
barricaded on four sides by darkness
while up above the universe, unhinged,
dazzles me like a rowdy all-night service station
with check-the-oil slingshot eyes
and how’s-the-air-in-the-tire politeness.
I know this feeling, this comfortable bucket seat of longing
’cause I’ve been harnessed here before, heading home,
pistons lighting up underneath the hood like nova stars
burning tips off spark plugs down
inside the throat of my ambition.

The Skunk Whisperer on YouTube.com

2007-01-18T10:08:00.000-04:00

The Skunk Whisperer will air beginning February 1, 2007 as a three part documentary. It previously aired on three national television networks in Canada.

Driving Minnie's Piano
If you're interested in reading more about the skunks from the Skunk Whisperer documentary, there is a chapter about them in Driving Minnie's Piano, Memoirs of a Surfing Life in Nova Scotia.

*Autographed copies of Driving Minnie's Piano are available by clicking here.

Skunks for Breakfast

And there is a children's story: Skunks for Breakfast.

Both books are available through Nimbus or call them toll free at 1-800-nimbus9 to order direct.

e-News

2007-01-16T14:10:00.001-04:00

Click on the link below if you would like to subscribe to the Lesley Choyce e-newsletter.

February is Skunk season ...

2007-01-15T07:25:00.001-04:00

Tokyo: excerpt from Driving Minnie's Piano

2007-01-14T21:01:00.000-04:00

Recently on a trip to Tokyo, I attended an extremely formal lunch with the mayor of one of the city boroughs of Tokyo, Itabashi. In the lacquered box before me was an assortment of what Sunyata would have called Klingon food – seaweed, tentacled things, mushrooms of extremely odd colours and a black fungal-looking delicacy that turned out to be pickled, well, tree fungus. Where I come from, people only pickle fish parts or garden crops. The black fungus, however, was delicious and I devoured it with chop sticks like I’d been hanging out in Japanese noodle parlours all my life. If my Japanese had been better, I would have told the mayor about lichen. Instead, we talked at length about singing Enya songs Karaoke style.

One of the “assignments” I had given to myself for my trip to Japan was to have several satori experiences. Awareness. Discovery, eye-openers for the mind and soul. There was no genuine satori at the lacquered box lunch where I had to bring “official greetings from my people.” I had not expected that. The mayor had done a formal greeting to me and I was expected to return the favour. I was a little taken aback. Who were my people? Lawrencetowners, Nova Scotians, Maritimers? Canadians? I had no time to consider who my people were so I said, “I bring you the warmest greetings from my people to everyone here in Itabashi and I know that we have so much in common.” My translator must have elaborated on this because her translation was a long eloquent event that pleased the mayor immensely.

The slightly off-kilter, counterpoint conversation that followed through my harried interpreter moved on to a discussion of Karaoke and food, especially seaweed. I boasted of the fact that I could collect seaweed from the waters where I surfed. I could eat it fresh from the sea while surfing or take it home and dry in the sun. “Most of my countrymen,” I said, because I kept reminding myself that I should speak for my people, not just me, “scoff at seaweed but I myself am a huge fan of dulse, Irish moss, certain chewy forms of kelp and rockweed.”

I think my long-winded remark lost something in the translation, for the mayor looked puzzled and consulted with his several deputy mayors sitting on his side of the table. I tried to restore the comradery with the innocuous remark, “The sea is such a wonderful provider,” and a quick translation brought smiles all around. I decided to become less loquacious and nibbled heartily at my fungus, making satisfactory noises that needed no translation.

*Autographed copies of Driving Minnie's Piano are available by clicking here.

Long Lost Planet

2007-01-10T20:57:00.001-04:00

Original music and lyrics by Lesley Choyce & the Surf Poets

Winter Surfing Excerpt from Driving Minnie’s Piano: Memoirs of a Surfing Life in Nova Scotia

2007-01-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

By Lesley Choyce

The headlands are covered with white, the spruce trees on top of the hills are green and the icy rocks I have to slip and slide over to get myself into the sea are glistening like jewels.

The water is cold (who would have guessed?) – just hovering below freezing. February and March have the coldest water of the year. The air temperature is a semi-tropical minus ten. (I’ll surf down to minus twenty but after that I find that my face muscles freeze and I start talking funny.)

I push off into the blue sea, knee-paddling while above gulls swoop and artic ducks fluff up their wings as they float on the surface.

I take long, deep strokes into the sea and pull clean winter salt air into my lungs. Soon, a couple of friends will join me, but right now, I’m alone in the sea, with a big smile on my face. Even though my journey to the place where the waves are breaking takes eight minutes of paddling, I feel like I’m a million miles from the claustrophobia of mainland North America. The high cliffs of Chebucto Head, far to the west, shimmer on the horizon, bolstered to near triple their height by the mirage effects of the winter sea. A container ship leaving Halifax Harbour also appears magnified like some huge extraterrestrial vessel. I myself am a tiny speck on this immense ocean, overwhelmed by how perfect it feels to be here, now, ready to tap the immaculate energy and grace of the sea.

These waves have travelled hundreds of kilometres from a brutal North Atlantic storm now wreaking havoc on fishermen unlucky enough to be working the tail of the Grand Banks. But here each wave is a work of perfection. I’ve paddled to my take-off point and sit for a minute, watching my breath make small clouds in the clear air.

The waves are about two metres high – “head high,” as we’d say. They roll towards me, then arch up into perfect peaks as the offshore wind pushes up the face of the waves, making them steep and smooth until they cascade forward, top to bottom, some creating hollow sections big enough to tuck a surfer into.

I wait, dwelling upon the euphoria of it all. I’ve abandoned the warm inside-world of work and life tied to the continent. Now I am drawn into this other plane of existence. I see my own version of the perfect wave headed my way. Three deep strokes and I’m off, dropping down the smooth, angled hill of water, an easy take-off at first but then the wind pumps hard against me as the wave goes vertical and I pull myself up onto my feet. I’m jamming a bottom turn just as the tip of the overhead wave blocks out the morning sun.

I go left and pull up higher onto the wave as it begins to feather. Then I do the usual: tuck down as the lip of the wave starts to spill forward, a pure two-metre waterfall. I’m shrewd, cunning and all-powerful, a small sea god in my endorphin-charged brain as I speed across the face of this blue-green wall of water.

But for some reason, I discover I’m not as clever as I believed. Sure, I’ve escaped from my office, left the troubled and vexing world of publishing behind me for now, but the sea would like to remind me that I am only a vulnerable guest in this winter domain. I am a player in the game but t have no real control over the rules that can change at any time.

I discover that my speed does not match the speed of the wave collapsing behind me from the peak. I tuck lower, adjust my position on the face of the wave for maximum warp only to discover that I’m too high up and fading too far back into the hollow bowl of the wave.

I realize this just as the lip of the wave connects with the left side of my face. It’s cold, numbing and as powerful as a Mike Tyson punch to the jaw. I’m sure I release a colourful syllable but nothing more as I lose my footing and pitch forward into a thundering mass of whitewater as the collapsing wave throws its salty weight from on high down upon me.

I hit the surface spread-eagled and then get slammed by the impact of a ton of winter water. Just for the record, water is more dense in the winter. When it hits you, it carries more tonnage. If it could get more dense than this, it would be frozen and then it would hurt worse.

Winter wipeouts are not pleasant but they are temporary. The trick to minimizing damage when working your karma through a winter wipeout is to dive deep and then come up quick. The idea is to let the wave go past you while you sink beneath the vector of energy.

The only problem with this is that you have a sudden craving for oxygen and the cold water on your face is causing your brain to seek asylum elsewhere. When you come up gasping for air, your lungs hurt and you feel the first sign of the brain-wrenching ice cream headache that is exploding inside your skull. Evolution has not prepared the unprotected human face for even seconds of immersion in water below the freezing point.

I gulp air, tough out the minute or so of the brain implosion and then get back up on my board and paddle back out towards the sea. I go through the checklist: I’m alive, I’m surfing, I will be a little more cautious on the next wave.

Right about then, a great army of grey clouds advances from the north and I see the squall advancing from the land. The sun is swallowed and it begins to snow. Because of the strength of the wind, the snow does not really fall to earth. This is horizontal snow, blowing straight into the waves, straight into my face.

I can no longer see the headland and can barely discern the next set of waves approaching. I let two slide under me and then paddle for the third. Paddle, stand, drop, bottom turn and then slide up into the pocket again, only this time, going right instead of left. All I can see is snow pelting me in the face. It’s cold, wet and creates a crazy visual kaleidoscope since I can only see about three feet in front. It makes the whole event that much more interesting. I have to feel the wave and use intuition to decide what it will do next. Luke Skywalker on a surfboard. In winter.

Lesley Choyce is a writer, poet, musician and playwright in Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the author of more than 65 books.

Visit www.LesleyChoyce.com for more.

Driving Minnie’s Piano is published by Pottersfield Press, distributed by Nimbus Publishing. To order with VISA, phone toll free 1-800-NIMBUS9 (1-800-646-2879)

*Autographed copies are available by clicking here.