1000 Posts on Pembroke87

I just received a notification that this week’s inauspicious post about repairing the turntable was the 1000th post to this blog. Knowing they’re just trying to gamify their platform, I usually ignore such notifications, but 1000 seems like a good moment to reflect back on the embarrassingly long time I’ve been writing about the challenges […]

Book design

For 18 years, I’ve timed our family photo book to coincide not only with the kids’ birthdays but also with Black Friday sale pricing at Blurb. As the years have passed, the tools have improved, and the laptop has gained power. It’s possible that as the kids become less cute the photo volume may be […]

MFK Fisher: How to write how to

A few weeks ago, I resolved to add MFK Fisher to my reading list. Perhaps by studying some of her work, I might be able to kick my own instructional writing up a notch in the literary sense. I found a thick collection at the local library, and heaved it home one Sunday afternoon. To […]

The Art of X-Ray Reading

I picked up Roy Peter Clark’s The Art of X-Ray Reading at Mosaic Books in Kelowna last weekend. While the book seems tailored more to writers of fiction, I read it mainly to improve my railroad writing. There are so many suggestions in the book that even if I ignore the ones about naming characters […]

Construction Articles

While my mum’s here, and the railroad room is temporarily given over to its guest room function, I’m working on a few articles for Model Railroad Hobbyist. My recent rant about the tedium of North American model railroad magazines is still fresh in my mind, and it’s making me wonder if I can steer clear […]

Why are North American Train Magazines so Tedious?

Railroad Model Craftsman arrived on Friday. I haven’t even finished reading the last one, and to be honest, I don’t know if I ever will. It’s been drowning in the pile of books beside my bed for weeks now, occasionally thrusting out a feeble page when I resurrect the book atop, but sinking ever lower. By […]