Letter from Joy
August 3, 2026
Hi, everyone,
Sorry that this letter is a little late. I was away last week, meeting my daughter Annie and her husband and my two gorgeous grandchildren in Cape Cod. They’re living in Miami now and waiting for their green cards, so they can’t leave the country to come visit us in Toronto, and rather than contend with the blistering temperatures of a Miami summer - although Toronto has also been very hot - we decided to meet in Cape Cod for five days. Actually, they’d already planned the trip, and my husband and I suggested we join them. Unfortunately, my husband was unable to make the trip. He’s done something to his knee and has been having trouble walking, so he decided to stay home. I was disappointed, but in the end, it was the right decision because we did a lot of walking on not-always-easy terrain.
It was a lovely visit. Always nice to spend time with my daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids, and the scenery is gorgeous. The inn we stayed in was located in Eastham, and we made daily forays into nearby towns, including Orleans, Hyannis, Chatam, and Provincetown, all quite different and charming. We also ate a lot of lobster, went on a relaxing boat tour, and paid a visit to a salt cave where we lay back on lounge chairs with our feet in the salt and listened to the sound of ocean waves and nature. After five days, we parted ways at the Boston airport and I flew home. Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet up again soon. My grandchildren start school again around the middle of August, my grandson entering his last year of high school, my granddaughter entering her first. I still can’t wrap my head around any of us being this old! (Especially me!)
The week before I went to Cape Cod, I taught my course on How To Write A Bestseller at the University of Toronto, part of its continuing education program. It involved nice days of classes. This year, I only had eight students, down from my usual 12, and they ranged in age from 18 to 71, seven women and one man. They were a good group and I hope they learned some helpful hints, although I told them - as I caution my students every year - that no one really knows what will produce a bestseller. While I can give them pointers on such things as structure and character development, there is no magic formula, and sadly, you can’t force people to buy books. As they say, if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. In the end, you pick a genre, decide what story you want to tell and whose story it is, and sit down every day for a minimum of 2-3 hours and write. Then you hope for the best. Luck is as big a factor as anything, and you don’t have to necessarily be a good writer to write a bestseller. You just have to start with a good idea that makes the reader wanting to keep turning the pages. The rests is out of your control.
I continue going for walks most days and yesterday, I took a private Pilates class, which I loved, so I’m hoping to keep that up once a week. And I’m golfing, although not as frequently, due to my husband’s knee issues.
As for books, I read Strangers, which I liked, and am almost finished Whistler by Ann Patchett. The story is very slight, but she writes well. I bought Matt Dinimen’s book, DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL, because I wanted to see what made him so popular, and the beginning was great. But this is a book that appeals more to a younger audience very much into video games, etc. and after about 100 pages, I decided I wasn’t engaged enough to continue. He’s a good writer and I understand his appeal to a younger crowd, but in the end, it just wasn’t for me. After I finish WHISTLER, I have a stack of other novels to get to, including YESTERYEAR and THE CALAMITY CLUB, among others. I’ll keep you posted as to my progress.
The only movie I’ve seen lately was The Invite, which was very good but more than a little squirm-inducing, a Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf for present day. Occasionally very funny but more often a little too close to home, and the performances are uniformly great. The other movies I want to see are The Odyssey and something about a celebrity hall pass. (Can’t recall the names of the people involved). I also bought tickets for Something Rotten in Stratford. I’ve already seen it twice - the first time on Broadway - but the production at Stratford is by far and away one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, and I wanted my daughter Shannon and her husband to see it as well.
I finished watching all three seasons of Euphoria, a show I often didn’t enjoy but admired anyway. The third season was very different than the first two, set in the world of drug cartels and For Fans Only, and while it was often very exciting, I felt it betrayed some of its characters. One of the main characters wasn’t seen at all, and the others didn’t always stay true to their earlier selves. I’m thinking mostly of the character portrayed by Jacob Elordi, who went from being a cocky big man on campus, despite his obvious hang-ups, to being a weakling who, while not the most sympathetic character, definitely didn’t deserve what happened to him. And Zedaya’s character, Roo, was really short-changed in the end. After being the pivotal character for three years, the ending didn’t do her justice - she deserved more - and the switch in perspectives just didn’t work, to my satisfaction anyway.
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I’ll write again next month. In the meantime, stay healthy, keep safe, and be kind of each other.
Warmly,
Joy