John: Browse The Strips

Wednesday December 11, 2019

Lynn's Comments: This series of strips resulted in more letters from men than most others I’ve written. Apparently, even when it’s running like a charm, the snowblower is one of the least favourite tools in the work shed!

Saturday December 21, 2019

Lynn's Comments: For many years I went on book tours, which took me to major cities all over the US and Canada. When I was invited to go to New York by "People Magazine," I asked my mother-in-law, Ruth, if she'd like to come. My husband and "Grandpa" took care of the kids for the 3 days we were away. It was the first time Ruth and I had travelled together, and I wanted her trip to be the best it could be. The one Broadway show I wanted her to see was "A Chorus Line." I had seen it twice before and had enjoyed it so much I wanted to see it again. All through the show Ruth kept looking at her watch. When the show ended and the curtain fell, I was annoyed with her. Thinking she had disliked the show, I asked why she kept checking her watch. With eyes full of tears, she looked at me and said, "I didn't want it to end!"

Sunday December 22, 2019

Lynn's Comments: This actually happened. We were about to go to a house party when we realized we'd left the kids with a sitter too many times. We had just started the car when we decided to go back into the house and be a family. It turned out to be a great evening.

Monday January 6, 2020

Lynn's Comments: At the time I was formulating this story, there was some debate regarding midwifery and the decision to have your baby at home. My own obstetrician, Dr. Murray Enkin, advocated for home birth and I wanted to champion his ideals.

Tuesday January 7, 2020

Lynn's Comments: Dr. Enkin was the author of several obstetrics text books and his opinion was: "Childbirth isn't a disease and shouldn't necessarily happen in a hospital." This was something I believed, too.

Friday January 10, 2020

Lynn's Comments: I engineered this "birth" to happen on April Fool’s Day because it was a fantasy situation—I wasn't really pregnant. But at this stage of the story, I hadn't decided on a name or a gender. (You have a lot of control over people when you make them up!)

Wednesday January 22, 2020

Lynn's Comments: Whenever one of the kids was feeling left out or otherwise marginalized, we declared a special day just for them. We’d go to a favourite restaurant, maybe supply a small gift. We just made a special day out of an ordinary one. Worked like a charm.

Sunday February 2, 2020

Lynn's Comments: My husband had an amazing model railway set up in our home. When it became too much for the basement, he built another outside—one you could ride on! The idea for this came when we went to visit Ollie Johnston, one of the "9 old men" of Disney fame. Ollie’s ride-on railway was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s train obsession leading to his creation of the Disneyland theme park. It was also the catalyst for our outdoor railway–something our friends' and neighbours' kids will remember for the rest of their lives.

Saturday February 15, 2020

Lynn's Comments: There never was a "Martha" in my son's life even though readers were sure there was. I gave this character the name "Martha" for a friend whose life was in shambles at the time. It was a way of giving her a gift and she enjoyed it very much.