LOOKING BACK: Returning to the grassroots: confessions of a busy curling writer

I'm waking up this blog! 

I left my job at Curling Canada in 2019, just after my first Young Adult book was published. Since then, my writing life has been all about writing fiction for teens, and my curling life has been about playing at the club, leading Learn To Curls, and watching all those curlers on TV that I used to write about - everything from club bonspiels to national and international events. (Well, and then there was that time spent staying home because there was a global pandemic, of course...) 

In other words, I'm a working author and a curling fan with a bit of inside knowledge. 

But there's some good stuff on this blog from days gone by, so I'll pick and choose a little bit of content to share and, I hope, write some new stuff, too. Lots going on in the curling world these days, and hey, I could talk (and write) curling all day. So, here we go, a look back to April 2013, as my curling season wrapped up. (Note: The links are a little clunky, but they still work!)

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April 2013

Because my day job is editing and writing stories for the CCA website, this blog – which I always intended to be my place to write about All Things Curling – has been neglected.

The view from the media bench during
the final of the 2013 Scotties in Kingston.

But the season has pretty well come to an end for me. The events are done, the regular columns I write and edit are done, and I am subsiding into maintenance mode.

It was a terrific season, full of great stories on and off the ice. Here's a sample of the more grassroots-type stories I worked on during the 2012-2013 curling season:

The 13-year-old blogger in Kingston who has become curling’s biggest fan

Some savvy curling club managers who keep things hopping at their clubs – Scott Comfort, in Wadena, Sask. And Bobby Ray in North Bay, Ont.

The growth of wheelchair curling at the first-ever national summit on the sport, and Andy Jones, a curling coach from Alberta who has lots to say about the coaching side of wheelchair curling.

Coach Helen Radford talked about working with four young curlers as they prepared to compete at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games last year, and coach Gerry Richard shared the ups and downs of coaching his daughter at the highest levels of curling competition.

The Minister of State (Sport), the Honourable Bal Gosal took to the ice at the Ottawa Curling Club last Fall with Rachel Homan, Craig Savill and coach Earle Morris to see what curling was all about (and he did great, apparently!).

There were anniversaries at Annandale, and Chatham, and Vancouver.

But even though the ice is out, that doesn’t mean the sport sleeps during the summer. There are summer spiels coming up, and clubs doing renovations, and changes to some of the high-performance teams (here’s a great piece by Bob Weeks on the recent departure of John Morris from the Kevin Martin team.)

Lots of news still coming down the pipe from all over the country and the world. So the focus is now on sharing more stories over the summer. Stories about curling - especially the grassroots!

Apparently the etiquette of curling never gets old

Seventeen years ago, I wrote an essay that was published in The Globe & Mail. It was titled "Curling etiquette offers rules for life", and it got lots of love. Recently, I've been getting tagged on social media by clubs and curlers who have re-discovered (or maybe discovered for the first time?) my little commentary on the way the on-ice culture of curling could make our larger off-ice world a better place.

So, if you're interested in taking a walk down Memory Lane with me, here you go. Please cut me some slack on the how dated it sounds in places: the curling world was a lot different in 2002. We were still getting used to an Olympic presence, we didn't have a thriving Grand Slam, World Curling Tour or "professional" curling circuit. For me,  at that time, my own curling world consisted of my club and the Brier and Scotties broadcasts. Yeah, it was different then.

But I still believe this: curling etiquette really does offer rules for life.

Yellowed with age, and a weird illustration: my essay from 2002

Curling etiquette offers rules for life

I am a curler. Ok, you can stop laughing now.

Yes, I’ve heard all the jokes about fat, out-of-shape old guys. I’ve explained to my fashion-conscious friends that we don’t wear those handknit sweaters anymore (although CBC radio host Bill Richardson recently caused a near-riot on his show when he refused to return one of those classic sweaters, bought in a thrift shop in Saskatchewan, to its original owner). I’ve patiently outlined the strategy of the game, which has more to do with chess than shuffleboard. I’ve tried to convince the cross-training, weight-lifting, aerobics set that 10 ends of sweeping draw shots into the eight-foot around a centre guard most certainly provides a more than adequate workout for the cardiovascular and muscular systems. I’ve dared detractors of the roaring game to get down in the hack and throw a perfect draw to the button – to which most reply, “Why would I want to?”

Yes, I’ve heard it all. But you will never convince me that curling isn’t one of the greatest games on earth, and it’s all because of etiquette.

I took up curling at the old age of 35. My childhood had been spent in curling clubs watching my parents indulge their passion for the sport. Toronto’s CFB Downsview was their home club, and it was a drab, boring place for a little girl to spend countless Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Sometimes I stayed home with my older brothers while my parents went off to bonspiels and competitions. One of my older brothers once wrote a school essay entitled “I Am A Curling Orphan.”

We all hated the game that our parents loved so much. None of us took it up.

But of course things change. My husband and I moved, with our daughter, to a small town in eastern Ontario where my mother was living and where I had some other family connections. Vankleek Hill boasts a population of 1800 and sits on top of a hill surrounded by farmland in all directions. Ottawa is an hour away in one direction, and Montreal is an hour in the other direction. There isn’t much to do in the winter, apart from shoveling vast amounts of snow, and we wanted to find a way to meet and socialize with our new neighbours, so on the advice of my still curling-mad mom (now a spectator rather than a player), we joined the local curling club. It changed my life.

For one thing, I found out I was good at it. After the first awkward games, I started to get the feel for the ice, for throwing a rock with the right weight and the right turn. I discovered that I was a pretty good sweeper too. My mom would come to watch my games and I would see her there, beer and cigarette in hand, behind the glass. She never said it, but the “I told you so” was glowing in an invisible speech bubble right over her head.

Right from the start, my curling colleagues started teaching me about perhaps the most important part of the game: curling etiquette. Shake hands before - and after - the game.

Stand still when the other team is throwing. Admit it if you touch a rock with your broom, even though that rock must be removed from play (often to your own team’s disadvantage). Don’t jump in the air and celebrate when the other team misses a shot. Compliment good shots, no matter which team makes them. Respect your opponent.

Curling in a small town, in a two-sheet club, brings you into contact with all sorts of people. My first skip was a farmer (who missed the first game of the season because he was in Toronto showing cows at the Royal Winter Fair). The highschool principal was a teammate, as were, at various times throughout my years in Vankleek Hill, a nurse, lots of teachers, a labour relations negotiator, the town lawyer, the bank manager, the lady who ran the dress shop on Main Street, various high school students, stay-at-home moms, retired seniors and many farmers, who often arrived late for the first game of the evening because they had to finish milking. Out on the ice, it didn’t matter who you were outside the walls of the club: young or old, male or female, employed or not, English or French. It didn’t even matter if you were a good curler. We played our games, shook hands, and sat down in the lounge while the winners bought the losers a drink – another example of curling etiquette.

Yes, it may look like a funny game, but the lessons learned from curling can take a person a long
way.

Or not. I was helping out for the first time in a Sunday afternoon junior program recently. A young curler was breaking some basic rules and I stopped to correct him, at which point he became rude and aggressive. He was surly to his teammates and to me. I asked one of the organizers how much curling etiquette they had been teaching, and the man shrugged and said not much, since the kids have so much to think about while trying to get that rock down the ice.

I looked at that young boy, maybe 10 or 11 years old, and thought to myself, “Young man, you’re not going to get too far in this game.”

And he won’t get too far in life either, with attitude like that.

Imagine if everyone respected their teammates and opponents in life, shook hands after every confrontation and bought each other a drink. Imagine if we all stood still while others were concentrating on their life’s work, offering encouragement not distraction. Imagine if we celebrated our opponents’, as well as our own, accomplishments.

No, it’s not a perfect world, but it could be. And it is – on a sheet of curling ice.

*******

Curling treasures

A few curling treasures discovered recently on the bookshelf in the parlour of my cousin's old farmhouse in Nova Scotia:

Looking for instruction, anyone?

I want one of those sweaters. Just saying.

It's all about the draw, says Mr. Weyman. 
And inwicks, outwicks, chaps and chips, of course.

I love this so much, I don't even know what to say about it!!

CurlingGeek is for curling geeks - I mean, fans - anywhere

So, there I am at the Capital One Road to the Roar - the Canadian Olympic Pre-Trials - in Kitchener this past week, watching Draws 1-18 until I think even I have the tricky ice on Sheet E figured out...

I'm writing a game summary to go on the CCA website (yes, this is my day job) and get distracted by a question/phone call/great shot on another sheet. When I look back, there's Gushue's teaming kicking the last rocks to the backboards and walking away to huddle with the skip before the next end starts. What? The end finished and I have no idea where that steal of two came from! I look down at the ice.....

My view of the ice. So much action to keep track of!!

.....and think to myself: How can I find out what just happened?

Aha! I turn to my secret weapon called CurlingGeek. My heroes, providing shot-by-shot game animation - it looks like one of those magnetic strategy boards - with replay capability, as well as offering commentary on the action (sometimes the commentary is way more entertaining than the action. Just saying, Geeks...) AND a place to chat with other curling fans watching the game. Fans in the arena. Fans at home. Fans in other countries.

CurlingGeek on the job in the rafters
of the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium

Awesome.

Strange as it may seem in this wired age, we don't always have access to video replay. This week in Kitchener, there was no TV coverage until TSN showed up on the weekend. So what's a distracted sports writer to do? For that matter, what's a fan at home or in some distant location to do?

That's the exact void that the CurlingGeek team is trying to fill. They pick a few games (at the Road to the Roar it was two games at a time when two Geeks were on duty) and they provide an alternative on their CurlingGeek.com website for fans who want to experience the game remotely.  OK, the Geeks might not be following the game you want to see, but the Scorekeeper's Notes always include reports from other sheets in action at the same time.

And if you ARE at the game, or watching on TV, the Geeks give you a forum to chat online with other fans, comment on the game, and be part of a one-game-at-a-time curling community. In other words, you too can be a curling geek.

So here's to CurlingGeek. Check out their website during the next big curling event. Follow them on Facebook or Twitter @CurlingGeek.

Hardworking (hey, it's cold up there in the rafters of an arena!), efficient and, may I say, thinking outside the box. I'm their newest fan.

What makes a good Thanksgiving Weekend for a curler?

What makes a good Thanksgiving Weekend for curler? Here's my list:

1. It starts on Friday night by helping at a six-sheet Learn-to-Curl at the Guelph Curling Club for a group of non-curlers in town for a wedding, and realizing I'm still feeling the effects of the Team Howard Fantasy Curling Camp a week ago...

On the ice with Team Howard at the Guelph Curling Club

2. There's beautiful weather for a walk in the woods (to stretch out those sore muscles) and no shortage of Thanksgiving turkey, turkey, turkey (no explanation required....)

Minutes from home, beautiful trails and Fall at its most stunning

3. There's tons of results coming through on Curling Zone,

Always something to read on CurlingZone

 AND...

4. There's a curling clue in The Globe's Saturday cryptic crossword!

Curling lingo: Anyone ready to weagle?

Anyone seen a weagle out there?

During the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, a friend of mine said she was watching curling and couldn’t understand a bloody thing.

“Oh, I can explain the rules to you,” I offered.

“No,” she said. “It’s the LINGO. What the hell are they talking about? In-off, slash double, turned it in, heater, board weight…WTF??”

True. We curlers do have a language all our own, and after her comments, I started listening more clearly to what Vic, Linda and Russ (as well as other curling commentators on other networks) were saying.

Of course it made perfect sense to me, but I’ve been speaking the language for years. I’m reminded of the looks on the faces of the high-school curlers I coached this year as I explained why trying to “steal one without, take two with” were some of the options they could try. Wha?

Curling lingo has developed over the years. The curlers who joined my parents on the ice at CFB Downsview back in the sixties probably wouldn’t understand much of the commentary either, although they knew the game well enough and would probably figure it out. But for a newcomer to the sport? Watching it on TV must be quite a challenge – as my friend suggested.

It’s not just that the sport has its own terms – every sport has that. But curling language is evolving. “Hurry hard” is the familiar skip’s call for sweeping, but you can thank Russ Howard for that one. I’m not certain, but I seem to recall it was the late Sandra Schmirler who introduced that wonderful description of what a good take-out should do: “Make it go away.” (Open to correction here. Anyone?)

And of course the 2012-2013 season saw the introduction of a new curling term: the Weagle. Or “to weagle” – as in, tick a guard out of the way, but not out of play, a tactic that works wonders to combat the aggressive four-rock free-guard-zone rule.

As a writer, language is my passion. As a curler, the words that describe and drive my game are tools. I love that the toolbox is full of lively, meaningful, creative and innovative language, and I love that the sport is growing and changing.

Howie's Curling Trophies

Howie's curling trophies, 1950s to 1970s, Liverpool CC (Photo Jean Mills)

Two random curling moments recently clarified something for me: curling in Canada starts at the grassroots and grows from there. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Moment #1:

I'm at our cottage in Nova Scotia, chatting with a lovely elderly Chinese woman who is visiting her daughter and Canadian husband (our cousin). She is interested in my job. 

Me: I write about curling for the Canadian Curling Association website.

Her: Curling?

Me: (with actions) The sport on ice. You slide a large stone down the ice. Other players sweep it. (Okay, not a great description, but her English was limited.)

Her: Ah. I don't know it.

Me: The Chinese team is good. They've won medals at international competitions.

Her: (after thinking for a moment). No one plays it. Just the professionals.

Moment #2:

A few days later, I'm visiting another cousin. He and his wife have been cleaning out his elderly mother's house before selling it. He's brought his late father's curling trophy collection to the cottage and has set it up along the deck railing so I can have a look.

I'm fascinated. Howie's trophies are a grassroots curling life captured in miniature, each award commemorating a season or bonspiel or game that required effort and skill and thought. Years of throwing rocks for fun or in competition. Hours on the ice, with friends and rivals. Hours off the ice, too - watching, talking about, and celebrating the sport and the people who play it.

In Canada, our world-class "professional" curlers have lots of trophies and medals. But I bet they also have a truckload of bonspiel prizes and tiny cups and shiny metal curlers captured mid-delivery on a wooden base with a plaque reading something along the lines of "Club Champion 1999."

Two moments, two kinds of curling life. Maybe with the success of the Chinese curling teams on the world stage, the sport in that country will work backwards - building a grassroots curling movement from the top down so that more Chinese curlers have a chance to enjoy the sport for fun and recreation, not just for high-level competition...

...and along the way, build up their own precious collection of trophies, like Howie's.

Remembrances of (curling) things past...

Jacket and broom, tucked in the corner since
 the season ended in April...

Ah, summer. Love it.

But as I was doing some tidying up today, I found myself in the back door hallway picking through jackets and fleeces that needed to be put away, and what did I find, but my son's curling jacket and broom.

Talk about flashback!

Despite the heat, and the slower pace, and the brighter sunshine, and all that goes with late June and the approach of the true, short Canadian summer, I was suddenly overcome by a Proustian moment: transported to those wintry Tuesday and Thursday after-school sessions at our local curling club, coaching my son's school team.

Well, "coaching" might be too strong a word. I directed, supported, advised and encouraged.

The  kids were actually led by two experienced young skips who, with the support of their parents and our school's Director of Varsity Sports, had got the whole thing rolling on their own. They made up their teams, followed their skips' advice, watched and learned by example, and allowed me - heck, they even asked me - to play with them during practice when we were short a body.

It was curling at its purest: a bunch of kids playing for fun - and learning while they were doing. Could they all slide, throw and sweep with perfect technique by the end of the season? Nope. But they were well on their way, having modelled themselves on their two well-trained skips.

And, thanks to my obsession with curling etiquette, they knew where to stand, when (and when not) to move, how to respond to good shots and bad, and what a role sportsmanship plays in the sport. They even learned how to manage that wacky scoreboard and picked up some with-hammer/without-hammer strategy as well.

By the end of the season, they were hooked. And every one of them was signed up for next season.

A sudden glimpse of a curling jacket and broom tucked in the corner...

The sights and sounds and feelings resurface - happy memories of a season past.

Name that team! That curling team, I mean...

The curling season is over, summer is creeping in, and - let's face it - I'm bored.

One of many little pieces of paper I collect - this one with
cool curling team names I noticed at the club.

So I'm going through the stack of papers piled on my desk. I'm a writer, which means everything I read is a possible prompt for a story, interview or article. My collection of scrawled notes and ripped-out articles and yellow stickies grows over the months, until eventually I have to sit down and bring order to the chaos.

Which is what I was doing today when I found this: a list of team names I copied down at my curling club in February. It was a Wednesday night, and I had just come off the ice with my Ladies' team. The club manager took the microphone to rally the teams for the next draw - a mostly-beginners business league.

A league with great names!

As she read them out, I listened with growing interest. Anyone who loves words and works with language as much as I do can't resist the sound of people playing around with puns and adjectives and allusions etc. Once the teams hit the ice, I scurried over to the glass where the draw was posted, and I scribbled down some of the names. For posterity. For fun. For this blog.

So here goes: fun with curling team names. Some more creative than others...

Legion of Broom
Rock Stars (okay, not so original)
Hogliners
Hammer
New World Curlers
Stocks & Stones
Hack Ups
Don't Hit The Hack
Nick's Bitter End
Drunken Hacks
On the Rocks...

And my personal favourite...

The Sheet Disturbers.

Enough with the Team (insert skip's name here) already! Give me a creative curling team name, any day. Any day soon would be nice. (Only another couple of months until the ice goes back in...)

(Any cool team names out there?)

Thoughts from The Tim Hortons Brier 2012

The view from Section A, Row 12, Seat 7

I've just come home from Saskatoon, where I spent the weekend enjoying the big party that is The Brier. And what a party - not just in the Patch, but in the hotel, at the rink, and around town as well. Saskatoon put on an amazing show.

Some thoughts:

1. Volunteers make the world go round. That is never more true than at an event like this. Those bright green (we were in Saskatchewan, after all) jackets were everywhere, worn by friendly, helpful, busy, smiling and ever-present volunteers who could not do enough to make us feel welcome and looked after.

2. Saskatoon is a beauty. The river, the bridges, the architecture, the trails, the trees forming a canopy over Spadina Crescent... what a gorgeous city.

3. Glenn Howard deserved this win. Watching Glenn lose over the past few years has been, well, painful. This is an incredibly talented and skilled team, but too many times they have come up short. Howard was not to be denied this year, especially with MVP Wayne Middaugh setting him up. Maybe it wasn't a strongly pro-Ontario crowd, but Glenn earned that win, and I think the fans knew that.

4. The Koe story. This was one of the highlights of the week - the brothers facing each other in the Page 3-4 game. It was fraught with emotion (which isn't exactly something you think of when you see those boys on the ice). Clearly, it wasn't fun for either of them. But what was fun, was watching Jamie and his YT/NWT team work their way up, hold on to that playoff spot, prove that they are able to play with the big kids. The team from the north had a lot of supporters - and most of them from south of 60. Both Koes came out on the short side of their playoff games, but what a couple of classy curlers - and what a great story.

5. Annoying fans. I mean, really, people. Heckling Glenn Howard when he got into the hack to throw? Really?

Nice trophy....

7. Relegation and the Team Canada issue. I heard lots of conversation about whether there should be changes to the Brier eligibility format. Relegation games. Ditching Northern Ontario. Bringing in a Team Canada model as they do at the Scotties. Some fans from Alberta, who we spoke to while hanging out the Patch between games, were vehemently opposed to the Team Canada idea. Their view: all curlers should have the chance to represent their province or territory at a national championship, and no one should be given a free ticket. The consensus? There's no right answer.

8. Curlers are awesome. Travelling back and forth to the arena in the vans arranged for VIPs (yes! I was a VIP, thanks to my writing/editing work with the CCA), I had the chance for conversations with all sorts of people - Peter Waugh, the CCA Volunteer of the Year; Michael Burns, the photographer who captures all those CCA photos you see on the website; Brian Mudryk, the TSN broadcaster; and curlers from the teams competing on the ice. Easy conversation, lots of laughs, inside info (which stays inside!) and a fascinating glimpse into the experience of being a high-performance athlete at a national championship. Awesome.

Can't wait for Edmonton in 2013...!

Grassroots Curling: 2012 Predictions and Resolutions

New Year's is the time to look ahead, so here goes with a few resolutions and predictions for the new year.

1. Prediction: Curling will grow at the grassroots level.

Yes, the 2010 Olympics had a great influence on the sport, and Learn-to-Curl sessions all over North America went crazy after viewers had a chance to see the madness that was Olympic curling (thank you, fans!). But the appeal of curling will not slow down, particularly as parents look for a winter sport that's affordable and doesn't involve the risk of concussions.

2. Prediction: McEwen, Jacobs and the new boys will move in on Martin, Stoughton, Howard and the old boys.

It's not really a grassroots issue, but change is coming at the top. Some would say it's already here: a shift of the old guard.

On the women's side, the movement is a bit slower, as demonstrated by last year's Scotties. Yes, Rachel Homan is as fearless and skilled as those old-timers - Jones, Kleibrink, Bernard - but the kids still have a bit to learn about patience and execution under pressure. Nobody beats Jennifer Jones for clutch curling. (And can we just lay the Jones vs. Overton-Clapham thing to rest? It's over. This isn't high school.)

3. Prediction. There will be more cowbells

The CCA got a bad rap when fans and media jumped up in furious indignation at the removal of Amber Holland's cowbell choir at the Canada Cup in December. In fact, the removal was entirely due to an over-zealous security official at the venue - nothing to do with CCA policy or orders. More cowbells, people!

4. Resolution: Get fit

My son has taken up the sport. His school joined a local high school curling league for the first time ever. With no teachers on staff who know the sport, I was recruited to coach. No, I'm not a coach. I'm a curler. But at least I know the rules, the strategy and the names of things, which is more than any of the kids did (well, except for our two young skips, brothers, who were the driving force behind getting this initiative going).

Watching these kids out on the ice - especially seeing how quickly they adapt to the demands of flexibility, balance and strength required by the sport - brings home to me how unfit I am when I step on the ice. Yes, I work out regularly, I do some stretching, I lift a few weights. But I feel the effort settling in on my muscles and joints after a game.

For Christmas, I gave my son John Morris's "Fit To Curl". Actually, I kind of got it for myself.

5. Resolution: Enjoy

If the coaching gig (see above) has taught me anything, it's this: I love this game. Watching newbies experience curling for the first time, watching their skills grow along with their enthusiasm, I'm reminded of my first few years in the sport and how, for a few seasons, I basically curled my brains out. Leagues, bonspiels, playdowns, club involvement, coaching kids, running events - the whole package. It was just awesome.

Over the years since then, family, job, no free time, financial constraints - all these things conspired  to keep me from the game I love. I'm back, and I'm going to enjoy it.

Oh, and I'm going to get myself a cowbell too.

Happy New Year from Grassroots Curling!

Grassroots Curling: Busy off and on the ice this season

The 2011-2012 curling season is going to the busiest one ever - for me, anyway.

Am I a competitive curler with my sights set on zones and regionals? Am I signed up for multi-leagues, major leagues, three or more nights a week of rec curling at the local club?

Nope. But here's what I am doing:

1. Writing

I'm writing about curling. Writing a lot. Last year it was The Curling News; this year, it's the Canadian Curling Association's website. Here's a peek at what's on my To Do List:

Editing Featured Athlete profiles, some written by Al Cameron of the Calgary Herald; some (profiles of junior, wheelchair and blind curlers) written by me.

Editing and posting short newsy reports about the upcoming Season of Champions events - and there are hundreds of them! Multiples almost every day of the week.

Editing columns that appear on the website: Making Great Ice, House Call, Pebbles to Boulders, and my personal fave, Youth Olympic Dreams (I love the voice of Emily Gray, the young curler who writes about her journey towards competing in the 2012 Youth Olympic Games. What a sweetheart!)

Writing Around The House, a bi-monthly visit to curling clubs around the country - telling their stories.


Writing feature stories about the sport. My first big story will show up on the CCA website this week. No previews - sorry!


Lots of writing, lots of deadlines, lots of great curling content for fans and curlers alike. I'm thrilled to be part of it.


2. Curling


One night a week (Sigh. Wish it were more...) skipping a team in the Business Women's league at my local club. Haven't won a game yet. Don't care. Having fun!


3. Coaching


My son's high school is dipping its toes for the first time in the local high school curling league. No other parents have curling experience. None of the teachers are familiar enough with the game to coach. I'm it. Yikes! 


So a busy season ahead in my own curling life, and of course, a busy season ahead in the curlingspere too. Can't wait to share it here on Grassroots Curling.


******


....Oh, and did I mention that I'll be attending the Brier championship weekend in Saskatoon...?

And I hope Glenn Howard is there.... (Photo J. Mills)

The Life of a Curling Writer: Not always easy to convince editors that curling is a story worth telling

Action at the Fergus Curling Club (Photo Jean Mills)

I'm a curler, yes, but I'm also a writer, and writing about something you love has got to be the best way to spend your time. (Getting paid for it is nice, too, which happens sometimes...)

One story I really want to write about is curling families - you know, all those grassroots and elite curlers who are out there on the ice with various combinations of family members. I pitched this story to Reader's Digest a year ago and after some initial excitement (why wouldn't they be excited; it's a great story!) they turned it down. I had Russ Howard on board to talk about his own family's experiences, and Joan McCusker was lined up, too. The story died. Sometimes I hate freelancing.

But, where there's a will...

As the editor of my local freelance writer's blog (the Guelph Chapter of the Professional Writers Association of Canada), I'm in charge of posting content. So when Around the House, the blog I write for the Canadian Curling Association, went live today, I quickly posted a blurb (which I've included below for anyone interested in the perils of the writing life) about my rejected-story experience. My writing friends got to read about the writing side of the story, and at the CCA website, my curling community gets to read about why curling really is an "all in the family" sport.

Win, win.

Curling and writing: I could do this for a living....

********

Some of my Guelph PWAC colleagues heard my sad story last year of a pitch to Reader's Digest that started out full of promise and went suddenly to the "Sorry, not interested" file - after I had put two increasingly detailed proposals together, at RD's request. That's a lot of work - unpaid, of course.

My story about curling being a family affair originally caught the attention of RD editors, especially when I secured the support of Olympic gold medallists Russ Howard and Joan McCusker. Both Russ and Joan have great stories which exemplify curling's unique qualities as a family-oriented sport. RD was interested. "Very" interested, in fact. Emails were flying between me and my sources, me and the RD editors. Proposals, interviews, encouragement and excitement from all parties.

And then, out of the blue, the phrase that freelance writers never want to hear: "No thanks." Darn. 

Glenn Howard in action (Photo Jean Mills)

But all was not lost. A recent interview with a curler who is going to a national championship with his dad on the team got me thinking. I resurrected the "all in the family" idea and blogged about it for my weekly gig with the Canadian Curling Association. It's not quite the story I set out to write for RD, but it sure captures the essence of it. Curling really is a family affair.  You can read it (and see a photo of two generations of smiling Howards) here:

Around the House: All in the family at the curling club

Piss-cutter and Make It Go Away: Curling words to live by

As a curling writer, I'm fascinated by the language of the game. Friends of mine told me that when they tried to watch the Olympic curling event, they were in stitches over the indecipherable language - "code" they called it - used by the announcers. Try it: turn your curling antenna off and just listen to the lingo used to describe our game. It's pretty darn strange.

But there's always room for word evolution in curling.

At the recent Scotties, Saskatchewan (now Team Canada) skip Amber Holland drew lots of attention for her unusual lingo during a few games.

Referring to one of her rocks as a "piss-cutter" got people talking. Is that a bad word? What does it mean? How did that one get by the censors?

Truth is, the term is not as inappropriate as you might think.  Although I haven't concluded my research, it appears that the term is in common usage in the U.S. Marine corps, as the name of a certain type of folded cap worn with a uniform. But it's also been found as far afield as New Brunswick, as a term for something outstanding or good. "A real piss-cutter of a job", says Bill Casselman, collector of unusual Canadian terms, means to do a really good job of something. (You can read Bill's blog, here).

An article in the National Post in which Amber got "cornered" by reporter Cory Wolfe, suggests that the term is actually from Old English. I checked in with Professor Elizabeth Greene at Queen's University, a Old English specialist, and she says the term doesn't ring any bells with her. (We both went running for our copies of Beowulf and found nothing).

So the truth is out there, readers.  If anyone can help nail this one down, I'd love to know.

******

How often have we heard the announcers (and occasionally, curlers) preface a hit with the phrase: "We just want to make it go away."

Now, my question is, have curlers always been using this phrase - make it go away - or is it the invention of the late Sandra Schmirler (my theory)?

I can remember Sandra discussing shots with Jan Betker, her third, in the house and announcing that the plan was to "make it go away", at which point TSN announcers Vic, Linda and Ray would laugh in approval.

My question: did Sandra invent this term? Does anyone remember "Make it go away" being used in curling parlance before the late 1990s?

The language of curling: another reason to love the Roaring Game. (And of course we know where that term came from....right?)

Jennifer Jones v Cathy Overton-Clapham: Chill, People!

Okay, I know many curling fans are wondering what's going to happen when Team Canada meets Team Manitoba on February 23 in the evening draw at the Scotties.  We all know the story - which I blogged about, here, and which curling writers, including The Globe's Bob Weeks, have covered with enthusiasm. After all, it's fun to watch real-life drama unfold before your eyes, isn't it?

But I think it's time to step away from the drama and let the curlers curl.

The curling world in Canada is its own small (but growing) community. Everyone knows everything about everybody. When teams break up (remember the Gushue-Korab thing? Remember Kevin Martin after the Salt Lake Olympics? What about Jeff Stoughton and the revolving door at third? And then there's Colleen Jones' winning team splintering into Colleen Jones - and her winning team going elsewhere) it's news on Twitter and the blogosphere, in the forums and around the rinks.  It happens. It happened to Jennifer and Cathy. It was ugly, especially for Cathy - and no one blames her for the hurt feelings. She lost a lot in the deal, and there's never a good time to tell somewhere "You're out. We don't want you. Good-bye."

But these elite curlers are, for all intents and purposes, pros. Stuff happens. My prediction is that Team Canada and Team Manitoba will be so focused on their game - and beating each other - that like true pros, they will filter the crappy past out.  They will shake hands before and after, they will curl their brains out, and someone will lose.

And they will move on to the next game...

That is, unless the media and fans go nuts and try to turn this into a degrading celebrity cat fight.

Chill, people.  They're both great teams who deserve to be there. Let the curlers do what they do best.  Curl.

What does a school library in Los Angeles have in common with a curling writer in Canada?

Good question! Here is the answer to this six-degrees-of-separation question:

A writing colleague of mine was visiting Ralph Bunche school in the Compton Unified School District of Los Angeles, and there she found a woefully underfunded and underequipped school library.  Helaine Becker is not one to walk away from a challenge.  She rallied her Canadian colleagues (including moi) to send in copies of our books so that she could deliver them to this very needy school - a goodwill exercise of mammoth project management proportions.

Well, Helaine has done it.  On October 2, five Canadian authors and a pile - a huge pile including thousands of donated books - will be arriving at the school for a shelving celebration.  And among those books is my novel, Abby and the Curling Chicks.

Yes, little kids in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (population ??? million) will be reading about a girl in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada (population 1800), a girl who curls.  Now that is cool.

If you want to know more about Air Lift to L.A., you can read the complete press release with details galore on my writing blog, Writer's Life.

Abby and the Curling Chicks: Curling fiction on the way

All the attention that women’s curling garnered at the Olympics lit a flame (ha ha) under me to get working on some projects that have been lying around untended for a while.

A number of years ago I published a novel for teens called Abby and the Curling Chicks, a story aimed at a group of curling girls in a small town in Ontario. Using my experiences running a junior program at the Vankleek Hill Curling Club, I told the tale of Abby Chisholm who agrees, reluctantly, to join a junior program at the local club in exchange for attending a summer writing program. (Hmm, a girl who curls and writes – sounds somewhat autobiographical…) Of course, Abby and her friends turn very quickly from being ho-hum to being gung-ho, with thrills and spills along the way. The book sold very well through Goldline Curling Supplies, as well as through the Canadian Curling Association online store. A niche story for a niche market.

Readers have asked me when there’s going to be a sequel, and my response has always been “I’m working on it.” But now I can say yes, really, I am. With the recent post-Olympics rise in attention to curling – in particular women’s curling – I think it’s time I really got down to work. I’ve got six chapters written on the next installment of Abby’s story, tentatively titled Abby and the Curling Chicks: Trouble in the House.

Not only that, but my story about a Little Rocker named PT McReady, who “shoots the lights out” is underway as well.

And don’t get me started talking about the mystery I’m writing, set in a small town curling club where everyone knows everyone, and secrets abound…but be warned: I don’t do blood very well, so it will be a “cozy” mystery rather than a hard-boiled, gritty police drama.

The possibilities are endless for curling fiction, and I’m on the job. Stay tuned to Grassroots Curling for updates. If you’re interested in reading Abby and the Curling Chicks, you can order it through Pugwash Publishers.

TV Scribe praises the attractions of women curlers at the Olympics, and I’m ok with that

Curling takes a lot of abuse. Boring, watching paint dry/grass grow, not an Olympic sport – these are some of the comments thrown our way by the uninitiated.

But Globe and Mail TV columnist John Doyle has an open mind. Readers know that soccer is his game, but he’s not above giving a few plugs for curling. Now, John is approaching the game as a TV critic, remember, so his take on curling has much to do with the visual rather than the sporting aspects of our sport. And he finds lots to comment on about curling as a TV sport: in particular, the attractions of women curlers. Remember the whole Colleen Jones thing a few years ago?

He’s moved on, and today’s article in the Globe and Mail is worth a look.

OK, so he has to make the “hard, harder” joke. Yes, yes, very funny. But he also refers to our “dead cool” Canadian team, led by Cheryl Bernard, and makes an indignant reference to the deadbeat who stole Miriam Ott’s uniform and curling shoes from the team van in Winnipeg. In other words, it’s not all “poke fun at the curlers” in today’s article.

In fact, he gets it absolutely right: “Tuesday’s Canada-Switzerland matchup was thrilling. A tense, tricky 5-4 victory for Canada,” Doyle writes.

Now, I wonder if he noticed that wonderful moment when Bernard accidently stopped a Swiss rock after a take-out, and Ott – in the spirit of curling that is unmatched by any other sport – simply moved the stopped rock to where she thought it might have rolled to: the back of the 12-foot. Ott could have chosen to leave her rock in the 4-foot, where it might have counted in the score. That’s her right as the non-offending skip in a burned rock situation. But of course, she didn’t. And she lost the game by 1 point.

Women curlers are great to watch, John; you’re absolutely right.

And if you want to check out some great photos of men and women curlers at the Olympics, check out the VANOC curling site, here.

Rhythm and Flow

There are those – the Uninitiated – who say that watching curling is like watching paint dry. Of course, curlers know how true that isn’t. The game has its own rhythm and flow depending on the strategy, the conditions of the ice and the players themselves.

Watching the first eight (unbroadcasted) draws at The Swiss Chalet National Grand Slam event in Guelph was an exercise in constant motion, action, energy and sound. Five sheets of ice, forty players – there was always something to see and hear, something happening. The eight-end games took two hours or less to play (unless there were extra ends) and some draws felt as if they were over much too soon.

Enter the CBC (who we love, don’t get me wrong!) and the demands of bringing the excitement of curling to the fans watching at home. That means camera crews trailing lines of cable, bright lights illuminating the ice, an on-air crew, and the importance of putting on “a show.” But camera crews often stand in the best spot possible to see the action – great for the fans at home; not so great for the three rows who now can’t see the house. Lights produce glare. Announcers need time to talk, whether providing a pre-game commentary, or interviewing a player on the ice between ends. The result: a loss of rhythm, flow and energy – at least for the fans who had become used to the game au naturel (i.e. seen only in the arena, not on the airwaves).

The players obviously appreciate the attention that curling now receives on television; in fact, it’s a crucial part of the game’s current high profile. National championships, international events like the Continental Cup, Grand Slams – all good. All fantastic, actually. So when the commercials are rolling and the broadcaster asks the players to chill between ends instead of getting right down to it, what do the curlers think? From the looks of it (above, Team Howard and Team Appleman wait for the ok to resume) they don’t mind a bit.

The game is growing, and television is an important and welcome reason for that growth. Now if broadcasters could just find a way to keep the flow of the game intact for the fans in attendance, that paint-drying image would be put to rest forever.

Hilda Holds the Broom

With the National coming to Guelph this week, my friends at The Curling News asked for a quick preview of how the Guelph Curling Club (members of which make up the local organizing commitee) is getting ready. No sweat. After my regular Monday night game, I talked to a few of the more involved members of the club and heard about the fantastic response from volunteers, right from Day One.

But the best conversation was with one of my Monday night colleagues, Hilda Peterson. She's a long-time curler, originally from Manitoba, but celebrating 47 years with the Guelph Curling Club. Yes, that's what I said: 47 years.

Hilda's big moment is coming during the opening ceremonies of the National tomorrow night when she'll hold the broom for the ceremonial first rock (thrown by another veteran Guelph curler, Bernie Austin).

"Be sure to get a picture of my broom!" she told me, and I did.

After all, when you're 94 years old, who's going to say no to you?

Certainly not me! Go, Hilda!