Chinook to Reach Nova Scotia Easter Weekend

One of the most powerful Chinooks in Canadian history is poised to hit Nova Scotia this coming Easter weekend, carrying with it summer-like temperatures and bringing relief to snow-weary Bluenosers.

Chinook Arch over Calgary

Chinook Arch over Calgary (CalgaryWikifan, Wikipedia)

Chinooks consist of a dry, warming wind from the Pacific Ocean that occasionally reaches as far as Alberta or Montana, but in rare cases a Chinook can get caught in the jet stream and be delivered to eastern parts of North America. This “east-reacher Chinook”, so dubbed by meteorologist B. Uried-Deep of the Environment Canada Weather Office, will be the first to reach Nova Scotia in over 75 years.

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Writer’s Guide: Know Your Audience

A basic piece of advice for all writers is to know their audience. In order to reach someone, you need to have a conception of their interests, their motivations, their knowledge, and their prejudices. Whether it’s writing a note to your friend, or writing for a workshop class, or writing a text message that your mobile carrier will copy into a law enforcement database, the same principles apply.

Starbucks Coffee

Starbucks Coffee (Rudolf Schuba, Flickr)

It’s good to have a routine for writing. Sit somewhere where all you do is write, buy your favourite cup of coffee, and turn the wi-fi off on your laptop so that the hidden keyloggers don’t transmit all those aborted sentences to government keyword-monitoring servers. If there’s one thing worse than a publisher not understanding your vision, it’s a counter-terrorism unit paying you a visit at 3am! Ha-ha!

Once you get in the habit of writing for a particular audience, it becomes effortless. When you write a heartfelt message to your loved ones, you’ll automatically consider the effect your word and phrase choices will have on you, your spouse, your children, and the RCMP officers assigned to your file.

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