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Projects

Updated 23.01.07

This is an incomplete list of ideas I've mulled over - perhaps started. I'm actually working on a project that does not appear on this list. I don't normally talk about what I'm working on. It ruins something to talk about what you're writing, or about what you're going to write. (See: Ernest Hemingway on Writing) It takes vital energy away. I've run into too many "supposed" writers who've trapped me in corners at parties and gone on at great length about the great novel they're going to write.

There is a story credited to Margaret Laurence about a brain surgeon who told her he was going to write a novel when he retired. Apparently, she replied (with glee no doubt) that she was going to be a brain surgeon when she stopped writing!!!

I can imagine this particular brain surgeon would have been a bit angry that this writer could think for one second that he hadn’t studied for years, that it didn't take a great deal of practice, commitment, dedication, sacrifice, intelligence, and discipline to become a surgeon. And now, Margaret Laurence had the audacity to suggest it's something she could pick up after she retired. Of course, her point was that writing great novels was not something you picked up after you retired – like taking a watercolour course at the university. (*I do not know if this brain surgeon was a male or a female but for the purposes of this story, I made him male—next time I have a choice, I’ll pick female)

But writers write. That’s what I should be doing instead of thinking about Margaret Laurence’s belief that the good writers work at their craft with the same dedication, determination and passion as brain surgeons—an opinion I happen to share.

Here are some ideas I'm toying with:

Novels

• Sometimes a cigar…(under construction)
  In which a man named Wallace meets a prostitute named Dolly Varden on a weekly basis to smoke cigars and talk. After a year of discussion and a lot of cigars, Wallace misses several appointments with Dolly, and in fact, she never sees him again. What happened to Wallace? How is Dolly affected when Wallace's wife shows up for a little chat?
• Zahra at Rest (under construction)
  A narrative about fathers, defined by their absence. A journey through the lush landscape of Zahra’s family. Fathers and sons. Mothers and sons. Brothers and sisters. (Don't know where this one's going)
• Grey man down (under construction)
  In which a man is embroiled in a mid-life journey of discovery.

Poetry and short fictions

• A collection of short fictions (ready for edit)
• Collected Poems (in edit)

Film Treatments

• The 52nd Poem (under construction)

Ongoing Other

• The Roar Spoken Word Festival
• The Raving Poets adventure

Recent Journal Entries

• Playing fetch in LA
• The real business of writing is "writing"
• The visit
• COLUMBUS at 4AM is on its way
• This niece turns thirty

The Sorbets

Thomas send a poem to his mailing list every Friday. They're sorbets between the workweek and the weekend. More.

The Support Team

Trofimuk does have a solid home support team that consists of his wife, Cindy-Lou, daughter Mackenzie and cat named Prada. The team inspires and listens to first drafts and sometimes sends the writer off to the mountains to re-write novels in small cabins. Good things happen when the writer is sent off by himself with a computer, a selection of foreign beer, and whisky….the last time(for three days of re-structuring Doubting Yourself to the Bone at Miette Hot Springs in cabin #35), he phoned and proposed marriage – a proposal that was accepted and acted upon in short order. Cindy-Lou is a brilliant first-reader. She has a profound sense of narrative truth, and story logic. She is usually right. She will take on outside manuscripts for a negotiated consulting fee. She can be contacted through the Contact page of this website.