Village author Robin Livingston found the family stories she was blogging about had universal themes appealing to more than just her children and siblings.
That led her to polish and publish a collection of 65 short stories covering four generations as Eyes Wide Open …When life happens you want to see it coming.
Growing up with three brothers in a trailer in Northern Ontario is part of the childhood that had Livingston say, “When I look back and read those stories, it makes me feel that my life has been a feast.”
Adversity faced with humour and “an attitude towards life that embraces it as an adventure” provided grist for the story-telling mill.
She has a French-Canadian father and a mother who as a child sailed to Canada from Croatia – immigrants and pioneers, eking out a living in the Northern Ontario woods and mines. The family triumphed against bears, blizzards, and back breaking work with a dogged determination to see humour in everything and weave it into an entertaining story.
Livingston wrote the stories as a legacy for her children and grandchildren, but when she saw complete strangers were reading and enjoying them, she realized, “In a broader sense there’s a lot about the way I grew up that resonates with people of all ages. There are values there that are worth passing on.”
Eyes Wide Open is available in local bookstores, from http://robinlivingstonasliceoflife.blogspot.com/ or come to the book party for Eyes Wide Open and meet the author on Dec. 4 at the Evergreen Senior Centre at 683 Woolwich St. Guelph, from 2 to 4pm.
