Today I attended LitFest (Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop writing competition’s party) via Zoom. While online, I learned that two of my submissions placed. ‘Lost Innocence’ placed first in the creative nonfiction category. ‘The Roach Family’ placed third in the fiction competition.
These are the first few lines of ‘Lost Innocence’
Lost Innocence
“Children think sex is funny.”
~ Joe Brainard, author of the memoir I Remember
I remember the milkman parking his truck in the alley between our hotel and the liquor store. Three times a week he replaced the empty milk bottles with new ones.
I remember moving to the hotel one November, the crumbling tan brick next to the entrance sprinkling the sidewalk like flakes of oatmeal.
I remember leaving my friend Susan behind.
I remember at my new school instead of notebooks we used sheets of paper the size of a paperback. Fastened everything together with metal rings from the stationery store next to our hotel.
I remember my dad hated the other hotel in town and more than once I heard him mutter if only it would burn down.
I remember the year I turned eleven. That was the summer my father ruined my life.
Earlier in May, I learned that ‘Wildflower Party,’ my 3 foot x 4 foot acrylic floral painting that sold in December 2020, will be made into a banner to hang in the Owen Sound harbour. Great news. I can barely wait for the lockdown to end so I can head up to Owen Sound to view it.