Elaine Cougler is the award-winning author of historical novels about the lives of settlers in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution. She uses the backdrop of the conflict for page-turning fictional tales where the main characters face torn loyalties, danger, and personal conflicts. Her Loyalist trilogy comprises The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck and The Loyalist Legacy, all available on Amazon, Kobo, and Audible. Her latest book is The Loyalist’s Daughter, the prequel to her Loyalist trilogy.
Elaine also wrote the Amazon #1 Bestseller The Man Behind the Marathons: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity. Byron native, Ronald G. Calhoun, was the chair of the Canadian Cancer Society team who managed the Marathon of Hope, Terry Fox’s run in 1980. Ron also managed the Jesse’s Journey walk across Ontario and later across Canada, as well as Steve Fonyo’s Journey for Lives and the blind Ken McColm’s Incredible Journey across Canada. Ron’s honours are many and well deserved. Elaine is delighted and humbled to be the author of this important book, a different kind of Canadian history.
Elaine leads writing workshops and speaks about her books to many groups. Through her website she blogs about the writing and reading world and more. She lives in Ontario with her husband. They have two grown children.
Links:
Elaine can be found on YouTube and LinkedIn and through the following links: @ElaineCougler www.elainecougler.com http://www.facebook.com/ElaineCouglerAuthor
One of my favourite things to do is to sit down at my computer, put my fingers on the home row and see what they write about. Usually they lead me to find some nugget of truth deep within myself, maybe that I didn’t even fully know was there. That’s a beautiful thing about writing–you never know where it will take you.
This is a screenshot of the lower right corner of my Mac screen. I have a few favourite things here that help me be joyful. They lift me up and let me know what is possible.
I have a blog post about me written years ago by my clever daughter, another sweet poke in my overflowing heart.
I have my own poem about My Angels, four of my siblings who died long before they should have.
And I have a video of my husband and I and our two grown kids singing a quartet in our church a few years ago. There is no music so sweet for this mother.
I could have many other mementos on my desktop–I certainly have a huge rubber tub full in my basement–but these suffice. They remind me of what’s important. They remind me of my heart.
I firmly believe that we human beings need and want to connect to what is good and pure within us and that connection holds in our writing. I love to see a story resolved in a satisfying way with just retribution for the characters and the suggestion of good things to come in their future.
That old plot graph my English teacher drew on the blackboard–when, yes, they were still black and not green!–with its ascending line from one crisis to another until the final climax and denouement, that graph takes the writer and the reader to a great story. And my personal preference is to have a heroine or hero the reader can admire as a decent person.
When writing my nonfiction book about Ron Calhoun, The Man Behind the Marathons, I saw again and again the character of the man who was behind so many who stepped up to raise money for charity. Terry Fox and the father-son team of John and Jesse Davidson were especially rewarding to write about. Learning of the inner workings of those cross-country runs was doubly rewarding because I could admire all of those involved.
Ron Calhoun and John Davidson of Jesse’s Journey (click)
The Loyalist books, including the latest, The Loyalist’s Daughter, allowed me to learn about the real people who stayed loyal to the crown in 1776 but also to create fictional characters and have them interact with those who lived through the time. Doubly rewarding was finding out about my own Loyalist ancestors. I loved imagining what those ancestors’ lives may have been like. And when my research revealed events that were not so positive, I enjoyed finding ways that my characters might react. It was a heady experience, the most rewarding of my working life.
Today I have five books to my credit and another on the way. I think of them as vehicles to put my thoughts out in the world, not so much for others but because they are a way that I can express myself for myself. That others enjoy my work is the absolutely most delicious frosting on my banana cake.
It is really time. Time to stop hiding the history of our past–no matter what country we live in–and tell the truth.
I always call myself a flag-waving Canadian because of my pride in this country. I think we live in a fantastic country where most people support the idea of working together to build lives here for everyone.
Every so often, though, some big fat ugly snake pokes its head up out of the sand of our smushed down secret past and I despair.
A number of years ago that snake with a forked tongue was the uproar about the residential schools that were set up when our country was much younger in order to teach our native people’s children. Sounds good, right?
In essence those schools stripped all of the students of their native language and of their own indigenous history, and the stories of abuse of children ripped from their parents and their homes and forced to live among strangers, many of whom abused them horribly, have sickened me and millions like me. The repercussions will be felt for generations.
Recently news outlets in North America hissed out reports of police brutality towards Blacks. Yes, I know. This is a terribly painful subject. And I do need to escape the pain sometimes. One thing I’ve noticed, however, in the aftermath of these brutal stories is the number of people of colour finding a prominent place on my television screen as intelligent, worthy, insightful, moral and likeable human beings. Hurrah!
Coiled up with that fight against systemic racism is the fight of women around the world to end violence and unfair treatment against them simply because they are women. I have had my own share of those fights about unfair treatment over my lifetime, although, thankfully, not in any way showing itself in violent acts against my person.
I fought to be recognized in the church bulletin by my own name, not by my husband’s name (Mrs. R. Cougler) when I was our church choir leader. I spoke out loudly about my drug store taking my regular personal prescription and giving me the bill in the following manner: Mr. R. Cougler For Elaine. As though I was somehow my husband’s ward. I have stood up for my rights as a woman and as a person in my teaching career on many occasions, the details of which I will not mention in order to protect the guilty.
In my Loyalist novels my sentiments about the plight of the “Indians” and the slaves are clear. Particularly in The Loyalist Legacy, I address both of those systemic wrongs, I hope, in a compassionate and intelligent manner, showing the humanity of those involved. It is who I am.
Just this month, however, I read some horrifying accounts of free Blacks coming to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to escape the slave culture in the Thirteen Colonies which became the United States of America.
My Loyalist Background
Because of my own Loyalist background and several of the books I’ve written I have been the guest speaker at many UELAC branch meetings. That has led me to sign up for their weekly newsletter and learn more from the amazing historians who every week contribute knowledgeable and well-researched articles about various Loyalist histories.
One of those most interesting writers is Stephen Davidson UE. I have referenced his work before in my blog posts or newsletters. He is very generous with his well-documented research.
In a recent issue of the Loyalist Trails, Stephen’s article mentioned Black Loyalists who came to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and how they were forced to live. Blacks were not given the same treatment as white Loyalists. Stephen’s stories of them living in 5 foot by 5 foot holes dug into a hillside and topped with small peaked roofs one side of which had a trap door for entry got my attention.
The second book has not arrived yet but I have started the first one and it is full of historical information that the author has had to dig long and hard to find. This is partly because of fire and other disasters and also because of the will of historians to preserve facts as perceived through their own looking glass.
I look forward to finishing both of these books so that I can add to my knowledge of how Black Loyalists were treated as opposed to other Loyalists. I will definitely share what I find.
With the flood of authors and would-be authors rushing to get their works published these days, I hope this interview I did will help each and every one of you. Beth Cougler Blom has recently published her how-to book Design to Engage using Friesen Press. Here she and I talk about her writing journey with particular emphasis on working with Friesen.
You will need about 40 minutes to view this so pour your favourite libation, get comfortable in your chair and click to learn and be entertained. By the way Beth is my daughter so you will get an intimate view of one of our wonderful talks.
Lake Huron at Goderich. March 7, 2021. Lake ice hides the water but in the distance is the wonderful blue-green ribbon of the lake. The unknown couple were two of many people out enjoying the weather.
Last weekend showed our Ontario winter to tremendous advantage, and my husband and I took a (safe) drive to St. Jacob’s on the Saturday and another to soak up the sun along Lake Huron at Goderich on the Sunday. The brilliant blue sky with a few wispy white clouds showed off the snow at its best. My favourite time–snow on all the fields and bare roads. I didn’t even wear my boots!
Life is often like that. You have to search out the best parts. My father used to say he never turned down a wrong road without finding something amazing at the end of it. Of course, the glint in his eye usually led his adult children to wonder just what he had done on those isolated roads!
Now, in our writing we have to help our readers get hooked right from the beginning. How do we mimic the appeal of the photo above in our first lines?
Dickens was a master with his opening to A Tale of Two Cities. So much so that almost everyone remembers the first words of his first line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”
I love a great opening to a book and have worked hard on the openings to all of my books, even my creative non-fiction book, The Man Behind the Marathons. I hone the words until readers will be hooked with the first words and fully engaged by the bottom of the first page. I worked so hard on The Loyalist’s Wife, first in the Loyalist series, that I still have the opening on the edge of my tongue. “John watched his smiling Lucinda carry the pail of water into the cabin and thought how lucky he was to have fallen for her.”
What did I achieve in that sentence?
I gave her an old-fashioned name to suit the period.
I set the scene. They live in a cabin and she is carrying water.
I touched on character. Lucinda is a happy person. John appreciates her.
I set the tone as positive and upbeat.
I allowed the reader to wonder. Why does John think he is lucky to have found Lucinda?
After I described Lucy in the second paragraph I ended that paragraph with “He longed to stretch out the happy moment.” The suggestion is that something unhappy is coming.
These are some of the ways that writers use to grab our interest and to hang on to it. I am currently almost finished rereading Sharon Kay Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour which novel I wrote about some weeks ago. Here is Sharon’s first line: “Richard did not become frightened until darkness began to settle over the woods.“This is our introduction to the child who became the Yorkist king, Richard III, and who has been so maligned because of Shakespeare’s imaginative but not factual rendering of him.
Penman uses the word ‘frightened’ and immediately we know something is up. Then ‘darkness’ appears. Next ‘woods’. She builds the emotion in us bit by bit. “In the fading light, the trees began to take on unfamiliar and menacing shapes.”
Like bricklayers piling up one row after another to create a finished wall, good authors use their words to elicit emotion and interest. It’s how we humans are wired and ties directly to our innate sense of danger. Should we take flight? Should the main character run? What is happening?
So the next time you are wearing your author hat, think of what one of my beta readers said about her reading habits: “I’m an impatient reader. If my interest isn’t piqued right from the get-go, I simply don’t continue reading the book…” Elaine B You’ll be glad you did.
Design to Engage: How to Create and Facilitate a Great Learning Experience for Any Group
“I’ve written you the book I wanted for myself earlier in my career.”
Beth Cougler Blom
This sentence in the opening paragraphs of Design to Engage tells the reader right away that this is a how-to book for people designing learning experiences. Not only is it a how-to book, the book has been written with knowledge and the desire to share that knowledge with the larger world in such a way that learning happens meaningfully and joyfully for those lucky enough to have either a spot in one of Beth’s sessions or a copy of Design to Engage on their bookshelf.
Writing in first person, Beth puts her whole self into telling her facilitator story, both the good and the not so good parts. All of it helps the reader see the possible progression from beginner to sought after facilitator who is constantly looking to improve herself and her sessions. Beth suggests that mistakes are simply learning opportunities.
Notice the use of colour for the interior.
The very setup of the book lends itself to quick dips into the subject matter. The chapters progress logically through steps from Facilitators of Learning (1) all the way to Grow Your Facilitation Practice (8) and the author encourages readers to read whatever topics they need at a given moment. Not often does an author say this, but Beth does. Her passion for learning and helping to learn leaps off the pages.
Notice the chapter colours.
The overall look also encourages readers to pick the book off the shelf, virtual or actual, and peruse the pages. The colour scheme of the cover is emphasized in the book itself with various sections found throughout in coloured frames or titles. My favourite use of the pastel colours is that each chapter has its own coloured page borders about ¾” thick making reading or searching for a particular chapter very easy. This also helps the reader know how many more pages remain in a given chapter, and the artistic effect is absolutely stunning.
Now you may have noticed that Beth and I share a name. Yes, she is my daughter and that has made me think long and hard about even writing this review. Still, as a former educator, I am familiar with the subject matter that is so close to Beth’s heart. I also think that this book would be useful for any writers who are called upon to do readings or workshops for their public. For those reasons, I decided to go ahead and give you my thoughts.
Beth Cougler Blom began her career as a training coordinator and then facilitator herself, both as an employee with other organizations and through her own learning design and facilitation business, which she began in 2011. Beth has helped clients, large and small, in all sectors design and facilitate great learning experiences, face-to-face and online.
Beth has been an instructional designer for the teaching and learning centre at Royal Roads University and in the non-profit sector. She teaches learning design and facilitation in publicly-accessible courses through her own business and for select post-secondary and community environments as well as for private clients. In her work for community organizations and higher education institutions as well as for corporations, government, and healthcare, she has discovered how facilitation of learning could be and should be enhanced. Beth lives outside of Victoria, British Columbia with her husband and daughter. Her website is bethcouglerblom.com and other links are below.
The Loyalist’s Daughter (Prequel to the Loyalist trilogy): Young Lucinda Harper and her father William are taking a late-night walk on Boston’s Long Wharf when disguised men run past their hiding place, jump into small boats, and rush out to the Dartmouth anchored in the harbor. As the Harpers watch, the masked men scramble up its sides and begin throwing chests of tea into the water, a warlike act that escalates the conflict. The British forces occupying Boston and the new Continental Army harrying the British come to blows. All the while William struggles to solve his business problems and ensure his daughter’s future happiness. Tea becomes the least of their problems.
Overnight snowflakes sparkle in the cold morning sun outside my window and I smile to feel how they brighten my world. Blue, blue, my world is blue but it’s that happy blue where everything seems possible.
Wintering shrubs wear a mantle of white, dressing up their frozen brown branches, now stripped of summer’s green.
A few years ago I heard Andrew Borkowski speak about setting at a conference and this morning I was reminded of the link between setting and story. I was changed this morning by the scene outside my window. In the same way your story setting can and should enhance your words. There must be a deep connection.
Here I’ve summarized the notes I took at that event as they are still meaningful for writers everywhere. As a bonus, above I’ve linked Andrew’s bio on his website. It is hilarious.
My Andrew Borkowski Notes on Setting Etc.
Character, plot and setting. You can’t have one without the others.
Authenticity transports the reader who needs to know what you’re talking about.
Put setting throughout the novel, not all at once. Use all of the senses.
Research is ongoing, keep a journal.
Author needs to know 10 times more detail than she/he actually uses. 10-1 rule.
Do supplementary research as needed.
If detail is important, use library. Otherwise use wikis.
Setting can vary as to its substance. For Richler setting is the people.
Visit your setting on site, if possible.
Setting can sometimes be an idea or a person.
For an author the most important question to answer is what is his/her book about?
Don’t forget that setting can change. Remember last fall?
As I hurried into the library for my assigned period at Glendale High School, my friend, fellow reader and the librarian where I taught English hailed me. Well, perhaps ‘hailed’ is not the right word for a library setting, but Lynne rushed over to tell me about a new book she thought I’d enjoy.
She had it in her hand just waiting for my arrival and passed it over. With my briefcase and extra textbooks, I had no extra hands, but dropped my load on the table and reached for the thick tome.
“The Sunne in Splendour. Wow! It’s heavy. And the title has ‘interesting’ spelling.”
“Never mind that. You will love this book.” Lynne nodded her head and I could see she was serious.
A couple of weeks later I caught Lynne again. As she had every day for the past week, she looked at me as though I had something of hers and she wanted it back. Sure enough, I opened my briefcase and handed her the book. I tried to keep a straight face but I couldn’t hold in my excitement.
“Yes! It’s fabulous!”
From then on, Lynne and I shared our love for this author’s work. I had enjoyed Penman’s first book so much, I promptly bought the hard cover to add to my burgeoning book collection at home and she kept me current on when Penman’s next book might be coming out.
A few of my SKP books on my ‘favorites’ shelf.
Fast forward to my leaving my teaching career, trying out pottery, quilt making, painting and other such creative joys until the day my son asked me, “Mom, is there anything you wish you had done in your life?”
“Write a novel,” I said. I surprised even myself and have told that story in its entirety many times from the podium since then. A week after that scene with my son, I was on a holiday in Hilton Head, SC and went into the local Borders store. I bought How to Write and Sell Your First Novel” and devoured it. During the weeks following I found my topic, got into a writing schedule, and The Loyalist’s Wife was born.
It took me six years. I had so much to learn. I decided the Loyalists deserved a trilogy and had started the second book before the first one was out. Somewhere along the way, I found the Historical Novel Society. Can you imagine? Here was a magazine that gathered together all of the historical novels coming out??? Of course, I joined.
When I decided to attend the HNS conference in Denver a major part of the reason was that Sharon Kay Penman would be there. I had to go! Many workshops caught my eye but the one I simply had to attend was given by Sharon. I can’t remember now just what her topic was but it didn’t matter. If she was speaking I was going to be there.
In fact, I was so anxious to get a good seat I was there at least 20 minutes ahead of time. All by myself. Yes, I was outside the right room. Almost alone except for the facilitator who also was waiting in the hall until the room might be open.
Oh my gosh. Is that? Could it be? Yes, it was. Sharon Kay Penman came to stand beside me and lean against the table, waiting as I was. Well, we had 15 minutes alone, talking about writing, about related topics–she told me she, too, had looked at the American Revolutionary War but there wasn’t enough material for her to write her kind of book. (Hers are about 900 pages and FULL of interesting historic detail. Mine are about 330 pages and lean a little more heavily on the fiction part of historical fiction.)
After the workshop I waited my turn to talk to Sharon again. She agreed to a photo together and in her own way made me feel as though it was the highlight of her day. I’ve treasured that picture and used it in other ways before this post, not because I look particularly good but because Sharon was and is Sharon and I got to have that special time with her. I hope some of her rubbed off as she put her arm around me and I clasped her tiny person.
This past weekend one of my heroes left us. We are all bereft. Certainly those who, like me, had the chance to share in her glow, no matter for a long or short time, or those who missed out entirely. Whether we know it or not, Sharon Kay Penman was a writing icon for her time and for all times to come.
Check out her website. You will feel you’ve made contact with her kind and gentle personality and you will want to know more. Read her books. You will see her search for deep and hidden history and her love/hate relationship with her characters. You will see a shining star.
Because of Sharon, thousands and thousands have followed her path and have read more happily, have written more knowledgeably, and–dare I say it?–have lived more kindly.
Usually I keep my newsletters in a certain tone as I want my readers to get a specific product from me, one that they can count on. In that way I build my list and give people what they want; indeed, what they expect.
Yesterday, I varied my plan.
It was my last newsletter before this huge season of celebration. I thought my readers might like to hear from my heart rather than from my business, albeit a business I love.
I hardly mentioned my writing. Instead I talked about this past year’s highs and lows. Especially about a personal goal reached, one that no one really knew about. No, it’s not that my 5th book was published!
And people reacted!
People who had never responded to my newsletter wrote sweet notes full of warmth. I thought, just this one time, I would share parts of that newsletter with the wider world of my writing blog audience. (If you want to receive my newsletter twice a month, sign up in the left column box.)
Winter Wonderland and Singing Siblings
It’s the time of all sorts of celebrations and I wish each and every one of you great joy as you celebrate in your own special way. My husband and I decorated early this year to help keep our spirits from sinking into COVID crappy thoughts and it has worked very well. We’ve been turning the lights on all day every day to create our own bit of joy. A couple of weeks ago we had a Sunday where lovely snow fell all day and at night we took a walk in our neighbourhood. The houses above and below were just gorgeous!
I’ve tried to sing and play the piano much more these days and I find those pleasures remind me of happier times when we got together with my huge family–I grew up with 9 brothers and 3 sisters–and ours was a home filled with music. Singsongs were wonderful, especially as my brothers grew older and took all those male parts. One year in our singalong, my sister playing piano, we sang Hallelujah Chorus. Most of us knew it by heart. I remember the deep bass of my brother, Roger, the stirring soprano of my sister, Linda, (I joined her) and my sister Donna’s rich alto, along with the sweetest tenor voice I ever heard coming from my brother, Keith. By that time my mother had passed but I know she would have revelled in that performance.
My Highlight of 2020
This has been such a year for ups and downs. It’s the toughest one I can ever remember for so many reasons but it has also had many highs for us. We are so fortunate to be at a time in our lives when we are not worrying about losing our own livelihood, but watching friends and family, indeed, the world struggle to live in these new times has been tough. I found I had to get a short bit of news in the morning, maybe a story or two at noon and virtually go incommunicado for the rest of the day. It was and is the only way I could and can survive.
And I had to find new ways to still my creative mind. I wrote a new book, I tried to sort out my email woes (ongoing, still), I pulled out my songbooks and starting playing and singing again, I planned back porch safely distanced visits, I thought about flying to visit my daughter and her family at Christmas (it never happened), I wrote a short essay for inclusion in a London author’s anthology (it’s launching soon), I walked with my husband and walked and walked, we laughed and we cried as friends’ life events came along, and I joined my sister, Donna Garner’s alley jam (YouTube video) one Friday night in August. No, I’m not in the video as they did that after I had been.
Many people know that I have been a lifelong singer, member of many choirs, sometime choir director, music director and lover of singing forever. What people don’t know is that I have written many songs over the years, about 20 or so, and they have helped me sing out my life’s paths, good and bad. Music has been my shelter in almost every storm.
So this summer my husband and I already had a short errand in Guelph and decided we could safely go on to one of Donna’s alley jams. She did allow us to use her Covid-sanitized bathroom–thank goodness–and we bought takeout supper on the way to her house in Toronto. It was a lovely evening and as the sun sank the musicians began to gather. Ron and I took a seat at the back to watch and listen. We sat in our lawn chairs for the show, me clutching my music and getting a sense of the group around us.
Donna’s contacts are many and multi-faceted. (Donna’s website) Guitars, keyboards, violins, cellos, a bass viol, and a few other instruments took part. To hear them was thrilling. After about an hour Donna introduced me and I stepped up to the front. Unlike all of those other people, I don’t play any instruments except some pretty crappy piano. Donna was on keyboard. I had copies enough of the music for everyone. We started.
“I Can Hear My Mom Singin'” is my own composition and the song I chose to sing and I felt Mom was there watching two of her daughters perform the way she taught us to all our lives. I don’t sing as well as I used to but it didn’t matter. I did my best. The musicians seemed to love my song and a lovely round of applause accompanied me back to my seat.
I had always yearned to sing on a professional stage, wondered what it would be like, but never got beyond my amateur status. This night, at 74 years of age, I sang with pros. What was it like? It was fabulous!
So that picture above with the sunny cloud shows you what I felt like. It was the highlight of the year for me.
Donna’s Alley Jam behind her garage in Toronto. She is on accordion, one of about 9 instruments she plays.
Find Elaine’s books on Amazon and in other fine stores in print, ebook and audiobook formats.
The Loyalist’s Wife
The Loyalist’s Luck
The Loyalist Legacy
The Loyalist’s Daughter
The Man Behind the Marathons: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity
So there I was, all prettied up and wearing my best smile, and starting my book launch on the Facebook platform. I welcomed everyone. I told them how the 45 minutes would go. I was excited.
Whoa! Little messages started popping up in the other Facebook window I had open. Fast and furious. Why was everyone bothering me?
I took a look.
People couldn’t get in with the link Facebook had given me to send to them. Grrr. I started searching for the problem. No luck. Texted my techie daughter. She had no ideas. Wonderful screen shots came in to me with the message people were getting. Double grrr for the mess I was in.
I had to shut it all down and answer the messages to let people know there was a problem. I felt so frustrated because I am the person who always tests out the equipment before the event. I make sure everything is working.
This morning I worked out a different way to reach my people. I did my short presentation on my Flip Camera. Checked it and saw that the whole file (14 min) had my head cut off. I did another version. Uploaded it to my computer. Found out that the Flip camera I have is old tech now and my desktop Mac won’t support the 32-bit old technology. I decided to do the video a third time.
I used my lovely late model iPhone. Surely it would work. Uploaded the file to my computer and started the upload to YouTube. Of course they have changed the platform so I had to figure out how to upload again. Grrr. As I write now, it has been ‘uploading’ for about 20 minutes and has about 3% done. At this rate, I’ll have it for Christmas. Maybe.
Here’s the Whole Cover
Pricing
You can order your print copy from Amazon at a reduced price up to and including Tuesday, Dec. 8. You can also pre-order an ebook copy there and it will be sent out Dec. 15. OR You can order your print copy from me for porch pickup on Dec. 15 from 1-4 pm EST. Use the contact form to reach me for my address if you don’t know it.
If you buy it from me the price is $18 Canadian. And I will autograph it for you. Your choice.
I hope I’ve made all of this clear and that you get your copies. It does make a great Christmas gift. Thank you to all of my wonderful supporters through all of this.
Here is my existing trilogy with its matching covers.
This morning I opened my iPad to check my email and my FB messages and a couple of significant things popped out.
First I saw a notice about a rally being held Sunday in my small city to protest the COVID “hoax”. I shook my head, read a few words, and wondered how a pandemic (Pan is Greek for world; that means this is happening ALL OVER THE WORLD.) could actually be a hoax. That would be some stupendous organizing, wouldn’t it?
I went on to check my FB news and views from people I like, love, respect, and want to keep in my list of friends.
One of my lovely sisters, Joyce, passed along an email that I’ve reprinted below.
REMEMBRANCE DAY NOVEMBER 11TH
Port Rowan, Ontario was put on the map by this extraordinary teacher from Valley Heights High School back in 2005
On September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a History teacher at Valley Heights High School in Port Rowan, Ontario , did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks in her classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks. ‘Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?’
She replied, ‘You can’t have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.’
They thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s our grades.’ ‘No,’ she said.
‘Maybe it’s our behaviour.’ She told them, ‘No, it’s not even your behaviour.’
And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom. Kids called their parents to tell them what was happening and by early afternoon television news crews had started gathering at the school to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.
The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the desk-less classroom. Martha Cothren said, ‘Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he or she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.’
At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) Veterans, all in uniform, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.
Martha said, ‘You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. They went halfway around the world, giving up their education and interrupting their careers and families so you could have the freedom you have. Now, it’s up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.’
By the way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded Veterans of Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year in 2006. She is the daughter of a WWII POW.
Year after wonderful year, the Remembrance Day theme prompts words and music that all show we do still remember. Since November 11, 1919, the first Remembrance Day, people the world over have celebrated the coming of that peace. That hasn’t always meant that peace perseveres but it does show the underlying wishes of ordinary people. We don’t want war. We don’t want our sons and daughters, wives and husbands facing the bullets of hate in a hail of gunfire.
We, the people, want to live in harmony with our neighbours, secure in the preservation of our peaceful world. I hope that all of those who think of fomenting hatred and of acting with hate in their hearts will stop. And be the golden rays of shining sun that can cover our world so that Remembrance Days will finally fade out because no one remembers a world without peace, harmony and happiness for all.
I have a new book coming out soon, The Loyalist’s Daughter, the prequel to my Loyalist trilogy. More on that soon. For now, here is the lovely cover.
Beth Cougler Blom began her career as a training coordinator and then facilitator herself, both as an employee with other organizations and through her own learning design and facilitation business, which she began in 2011. Beth has helped clients, large and small, in all sectors design and facilitate great learning experiences, face-to-face and online.
As I hurried into the library for my assigned period at Glendale High School, my friend, fellow reader and the librarian where I taught English hailed me. Well, perhaps ‘hailed’ is not the right word for a library setting, but Lynne rushed over to tell me about a new book she thought I’d enjoy.
Usually I keep my newsletters in a certain tone as I want my readers to get a specific product from me, one that they can count on. In that way I build my list and give people what they want; indeed, what they expect.
