WRITING IN WHITE ROCK, BC

A writer's daily struggle for focus, authenticity, and joy

Jeanne Ainslie

Sense of Place

Hemingway had Paris, and the Beats had San Francisco. I have White Rock, BC, a small town of almost 19,000 on Semiahmoo Bay, two miles from the International border. My place for writing is on the beach in White Rock, sitting on a log, one of many that has drifted miles from Vancouver island across the Georgia Strait to Boundary Bay. When I’m sitting on my small hand crafted wooden chair at low tide, I move my chair backwards or forwards, depending on whether the tide is coming in or going out. Blaine, Birch Point, the Cascades, the San Juan Islands, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island are misty in the distance. I feel like I’m on vacation. Always I feel like the beachcombing author of First You Learn to Row a Boat. Content and happy, free to dream, I am totally committed to making my dream a reality. I feel like I’m a kid again, with the warm sun and fresh breeze on my face, and the luxury to be distracted by two kayakers coming ashore.

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Jeanne Ainslie (BSc Hons, MSc) is a published author (novels and articles) and a freelance editor (www.westcoastediting.com). A Country Girl, Jeanne's bestselling erotic novel will soon be back in print (www.acountrygirl.com).