On Writing #37 : M.A.C. Farrant

Eternity Delayed

M.A.C. Farrant

It’s a different story this year.  You don’t run away from it.  You arrive on time for your annual deviation from the norm.  You are ready. 

           You have trained in the uses of the dream-catcher, as did Joseph Cornell.  But it’s taking a lot out of you.  It’s like being boxed with a stuffed canary, an hourglass, a piece of string, and a blue egg.  The air’s so rare.  Outside chatter has ceased to exist.      

          Even so, you are still basically an awkward kid.  Your visits to the desk are often noxious though, now and then, weak good-will flows your way.  Clichés and money arrive unbidden.  This is health!

            Your only worry is whether or not your characters will show up for duty.  They seldom do.  You’ll be their stand-in again.

           Your only hope is that the word police will keep mountains from falling on your vigilance.  That people will think of champagne and Liza Minnelli when they read you.

M.A.C. Farrant is the author of over a dozen works of fiction, non-fiction, and memoir, including The Strange Truth About Us – A Novel of Absence, which was selected as a Globe & Mail Best Book for 2012, and the just released, The World Afloat- Miniatures, both from Talonbooks.  Her play, My Turquoise Years premiered with the Arts Club Theatre of Vancouver in 2013.  She writes reviews for the Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail.

She has taught writing at the University of Victoria, the Victoria School of Writing, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and was Writer-In-Residence at Macquarie University, Sydney Australia.