Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Plan to Garden and Garden to Plan


"Can I get under the fence?"


When my family and I settled into our new house in Delta, I happily noticed the raspberry bushes in the rectangular garden by the house and dreamed of the berries I could eat with my breakfast cereal. Those bushes that promised bounty soon delivered more frustration than I’d anticipated. The lawn was a little too narrow for my mower to make a single pass between the garden and the fence. And my coveted berries were also coveted by my always ravenous Labrador Retriever, who always beat me to the ripe ones. I hated getting mad at my sweet Labrador for doing what came naturally to her: forage and eat. The whole garden thing was turning into a challenging case of anger management.

I decided to fix the breakfast issue and treat my anger management in one full sweep by transplanting the bushes to the other side of the fence, where the dog couldn’t reach. I recycled some sod from a new garden I created to fill in the  large rectangular plot of dirt left by the raspberry bushes.  It was a cool and seamless move of mutual benefit.

I was no longer mad at my Labrador, I could mow the lawn easily and I enjoyed my breakfasts of raspberries on my cereal. Even the raspberry bushes were happier in their new location.  I am not sure the dog was so happy as she looked at me with forlorn eyes through the fence as I picked the berries.

When I became a Director with Pixl Press Canada not too long ago, I happily noticed this small press’s potential and dreamed of achieving literary excellence in publishing. We had published Nina Munteanu’s writing guidebook The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! in May 2009.  We felt it was time to update our look to match the new brand so August 2013 finds us planning a new cover for this very popular writing guide. We will be using award-winning artist Anne Moody and Aurora finalist cover designer Costi Gurgu for our brand on this excellent writing series (see the covers for The Journal Writer and Natural Selection, both by Nina Munteanu).

We’ll keep you posted once the new cover is ready.