Boldly prevailing. Yeah, like that, what fellow poet Allan Briesmaster said  about my work, see below.

Deep in the throes of video production now, pre-production, a critical phase. It must have seemed to others as though nothing was happening but I’ve spent months working on the shot list then storyboard (despite losing my ability to draw) finding my costume (could find no one on the island to sew a Daisy Buchanan inspired dress so gave up on the idea of a period costume and ordered a dress online from the fabulous Peach Berserk in Toronto), a horse (islanders seemed afraid of liability, fortunately I found one along with an equestrian the lovely and talented singer-songwriter Laura Doyle through Tina’s friend David), crew (despite advertising locally for an assistant so have hired my niece Sanjezz to help out but George Zawadzki of Bowen TV has volunteered as cameraman), lighting which I managed to get donated thanks to my good friend film producer Fitch Cady. Locations are our back yard and Laura’s place in Pitt Meadows. Lots of pulling together disparate elements but it’s all finally coming together. Still a million things to do before first day of shooting next Wednesday but persistence appears to be paying off. I have my fingers crossed, hoping the weather cooperates and everyone can work together. I’m directing and *acting* in the thing so once again, I’ve painted myself into a corner with challenges, the least of which, getting on a horse for the first time in my life. I was talking to Teresa who was a wild child riding her pony in Topanga Canyon all day and said that I don’t think I’m afraid of them as much awed to the point of stupor. I am overwhelmed by their visceral beauty and power. She advised bringing carrots or apples. She is a clever woman and has always dispensed good advice. I’m pretty clear on what I want though I need to spend a bit more time working out camera angles. Or not, perhaps I should leave most of that up to our DOP. I’m excited, and a little scared, which is not necessarily a bad thing. To be expected I suppose.

Back to school, or alternative school for Junior. Lots of big changes. The school is moving so we helped out yesterday and were given the task of nuking silverfish. It seems the nasty little buggers have infested all the books. Apparently, the only way to kill them is to place the books in the freezer or microwave oven for 20 seconds. They had an assembly line going with people cleaning bins with bleach, nuking bugs then placing the treated books in the bleached bins and placing them on the To Go pile. We managed to do the bulk of the task in two and half hours, Junior whining quite a lot until I gave him some money to go have lunch.

Several poet friends have kindly written blurbs for my forthcoming book though I feel like I’m in limbo, the publisher falling silent the past few weeks. I don’t know, maybe he’s on vacation. I will remain optimistic that it will come out this fall.

Three Blocks West Of Wonderland Blurbs:

“Rambunctious, relentlessly witty, visceral, and vital, these poems move like a tilt-a-whirl and rollercoaster combined. Haley’s gallery of warts-and-all character-studies and her portfolio of no-holds-barred travelogues bustle and bristle with forceful gestures, jolting details, and electric perceptions. Through them all, an indomitable spirit emerges: one that has taken its share of knocks and shocks, and boldly prevails.”– Allan Briesmaster, author of Interstellar and Confluences

There is much more I could add, regarding the sense of global awareness that permeates the book, the sheer jauntiness of its style (how the poems strut, and never fret, their way down the page), a certain courageousness it has about it, and sense of anger mixed with bemusement, and all the trenchant yet playful language – but I know a blurb mustn’t be long.

“Fierce, racy, full of stiletto irony, verve — yet rife with sensitivity — Heather Haley‚’s Three Blocks West of Wonderland is a highly fuelled poetic ride. Her LA, southern BC coast, energy haunted world draws you electrically in and does not let you go. Like the subject of one of the elegies in this collection, Haley stirs you, “provoke[s] the atmosphere.”-Russell Thornton

“If you are a Rambling girl who wants to shirk and shake her motherland, read this jitters and jive guide to the other side of Canada and the world. Fads and fears take Air Canada wing (or Westjet’s). Sights seen turn into fables and metaphors, quirks of speech and character galore. As to the body of the language, the Canadian straightjacket lies like an old pair of stays on the stage in this diction strippers act. But there is a serious restlessness to Heather Haley’s serial observations – in the tradition of that great Canadian traveler in poetry, Ralph Gustafson’s: adagio notations, like his, on everything she sees and feels and musically reveals.”-George McWhirter

“Haley’s poems throb with the energy and colour of life, unexpected images and offbeat points of view. She takes the reader on dazzling word journeys that touch many bases but

always wind up in the right place. She draws from a deep vision and a wide experience of life both quotidian and exotic. My late friend Al Purdy, would have loved her work. She is Heather Haley and she is definitely a poet to reckon with.”-Peter Trower