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2 SPRING 2019 bcwriters.ca

ENTRY DEADLINE: JUNE 1, 20 19

Table of Contents Spring 2019

4 Members’ Corner 5 The President’s Pen 6 Patrick Lane On Beauty 7 Isabella Wang Lunar Feast 8 Warren Sheffer Copyright and Contracts 10 Lorraine Toor Writers Unblocked: Taking Control of Your Publishing Goals 11 Douglas Aalseth Dammit Jim, I’m a Writer Not a Salesman 12 Kacie Berghoef What I Learned from Getting Published 13 Carol Matthews Sometimes a Long Journey 14 FBCW Faces

16 Lesley-Anne Evans What You Carry* 17 Fran Bourassa The Other* 18 Patricia Skidmore Reflections on a Terrace Book Tour 20 Lesley Cameron Tips on Getting the Most out of Working with an Editor 21 Caitlin Hicks Host me/Host You 22 Lesley Taylor Interview with David Korinetz 24 Kim Clark Getting Personal: Losing Your Bearings

26 Shirley Martin Author Visits Leave Me Smiling 28 Contributors 30 Launched

Cover Design by Chris Hancock Donaldson Cover Image: Not Quite a Murder by Carol Anne Shaw **”What You Carry” and “The Other” were the winning poems in the 2019 Literary Writes Contest

bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 3

Members’ Corner Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Literary Writes Contest!

The winners are North Vancouver poet Fran Bourassa, for her poem “The Other” and Kelowna poet Lesley-Anne Evans, for her poem “What You Carry.”

Fran and Lesley-Anne’s poems were selected from a shortlist of five poems that included Port Alberni poet Derek Hanebury’s “By Any Other Name,” New Westminster poet Chelsea Comeau’s “The Other,” and Heriot Bay poet Carol Gall’s “Mt. Samurai Regional Park.”

In the young writers category, judged

by Renee Saklikar, Poet Laureate of the City of Surrey, four poets received Honourable Mentions, led by Ulricke Bucksteg-Neuhoff, a Grade 10 student from Nanaimo, for her poem “Who Is ‘The Other’?”

Other Honourable Mentions went to Danica Custance, a Grade 9 student from Maple Ridge for her poem “Another’s Other”; Ayesha Pervez, a Grade 12 student from Delta for her poem “Men Of My Heritage” and Harley McFarlane of Maple Ridge for her poem “Whole.”

Where is the Fed? Our address has changed. The North Vancouver address is a post box and soon the person who picks up the mail there will be moving, with no one to replace her. The Fed does not have an office. It is everywhere, with our sixteen volunteer board members scattered across the province. We don’t spend our money on bricks and mortar, we spend it on programs and services.

We hold our meetings online.

Our newly registered mailing address is 3383 Rockhampton Rd, Nanoose Bay, BC V9P 9H4 . That does not mean we’ve moved, or that anything has changed.

Some of us are on Vancouver Island, some of us are on the mainland. It just means one of us is in Nanoose Bay diligently looking after the mail.

We recently welcomed Ellen Niemer as the new Executive Director of the 4 SPRING 2019 bcwriters.ca

FBCW. Born in Ontario, she escaped to BC thirty years ago. Despite a lifelong love of writing, her career path followed an endless paper trail of typing and filing. In 2006 Ellen returned to college as a mature student to study writing.

After spending almost ten years at alive magazine as senior editor and managing editor of sage, she became a freelancer.

Ellen is thrilled to be working with the FBCW where the organizational skills she gleaned over the years come in handy. She looks forward to serving the members of the FBCW from her home in Surrey where she’s part of the Blue Dot team fighting for the right to a healthy environment.

The Federation of BC Writers 3383 Rockhampton Rd, Nanoose Bay BC V9P 9H4 www.bcwriters.ca | membership@bcwriters.ca © The Federation of British Columbia Writers 2019 All Rights Reserved ISSN: 0843-1329 Photo of Patrick Lane by Chris Hancock Donaldson WORDWORKS IS PROVIDED FREE, three times a year, to members of the Federation of BC Writers. It is available on our website and in BC libraries, schools, and historical societies. Join us at www.bcwriters.ca FBCW Annual Membership Rates Regular: $80 | Senior: $45 | Youth: $25 FBCW BOARD OF DIRECTORS President: Ann Graham Walker Co-Vice Presidents: Doni Eve & Keith Liggett Treasurer: Brialyn Roberts Secretary: Sheilagh Simpson DIRECTORS AT LARGE: Janice Meeks, Adriane Giberson, Emily Olsen, Jacqueline Carmichael, Cynthia Sharp, Luanne Armstrong, Carine De Kock, Barbara Drozdowich, Chris Hancock Donaldson, Ruth Lloyd, Wawmeesh Hamilton ADVISORY COMMITTEE J.J. Lee, Steven Price, Esi Edugyan, Alan Twigg, Gail Anderson Dargatz, Ann Tenning, Betsy Warland WORDWORKS STAFF Guest Editor: Ursula Vaira Executive Director: Ellen Niemer Business Manager: Sherry Conly Visuals Editor: Chris Hancock Donaldson Cover Design: Chris Hancock Donaldson FBCW Board Advisor: Ann Graham Walker Typesetting and Graphic Design: Ursula Vaira EDITORS : Doni Eve, Copy Editor and Non-Fiction; Chelsea Comeau, Poetry; Barbara Pelman, Fiction; Jacqueline Carmichael, Moira Gardner, Christine Lowther, Isabella Wang, Caitlin Hicks, proofreading

Ellen Niemer with Bronson

Faces: Send hi-res named photos of Fed members in the field to editor@ bcwriters.ca. Please list location of sighting. Subject line: Faces.

Newsletters: Not receiving Write On or Islands News? Write to membership@ bcwriters.ca.

Not Quite a Murder. The spring issue’s cover artist is Carol Anne Shaw of Cobble Hill, herself an award-winning author of books for young readers. The crows: perfect stand-ins for publishers spreading the word far and wide. The berry: well, that is our work.

UPCOMING THEMES Summer/Fall 2019: Reconciliation Winter 2020: Writing and Activism Pitch article ideas and cover art to editor@ bcwriters.ca.

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS We are looking for fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from BC writers CONTESTS: We run three contests every year Upcoming: The BC Short ADVERTISING: WordWorks is pleased to advertise services and products that are of genuine interest to writers. For information about advertising policies and rates, see bcwriters.ca/WordWorks/ advertisers or email Sherry Conly at business@ bcwriters.ca We gratefully acknowledge support of the Province of BC, the BC Arts Council, and the Magazine Association of BC

The President’s Pen Ann Graham Walker

Dear Writers,

I am excited tonight because our Southwest Regional Rep Barb Drozdowich just emailed me a draft of our entire Eventbrite Spring Writes Festival schedule.

We have been working on this huge event for months and now, after a couple of little tweaks and edits, Barb is about to do something technical that will make it go live on our website, so you can finally begin to register for workshops. Barb is a wonder, she puts in so many hours on behalf of the FBCW, untangling the snarls that develop on a web page and create trouble. She gifts us her skills.

Of course, by the time you read this we will be past celebrating the launch of our schedule. The Festival itself will be happening! I want to thank our Festival Coordinators Susan Pederson and Lily Quan for their hard work keeping things organized, and Ellen Niemer, our new Executive Director, for hitting the ground running. I also want to thank all the festival volunteers who turned out to help us. You are so absolutely vital to the event.

This is the third year we have turned our AGM into an opportunity to serve the community by creating a writing festival with some grant funding. The funding this year came from the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Nanaimo’s Culture and Heritage Department. It is also the end of my third year as your president, which means this will be my last AGM. The FBCW has a two-term limit for its presidents, which is very wise policy I think.

I just want to say, as I begin my final year, that it has been a huge honour to serve you. People look at what we’re doing and say, Wow, Ann. So much work. Why do you do this? And just so you know, I do it because it is really rewarding to be able to do stuff—like helping to create this writing festival—that matters to writers.

We are a community, eight-hundred-and-forty of us as I write. I think building and serving our community of writers is meaningful work, and I am holding this place for the next person who comes, who will discover how much they can learn from shouldering this job, this role, and taking it in.

If anyone wants to volunteer to be on the Board, or be an area rep in your community, please don’t be shy to come forward. You can write to us at membership@bcwriters.ca.

Thanks for your support, and my very best wishes for your writing. Let us know what we can do to help.

Ann Ann Graham Walker President@bcwriters.ca

bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 5

Patrick Lane In March 2019 we said farewell to Patrick, celebrated writer, beloved teacher. We thank Lorna Crozier for allowing us to publish these words delivered at the UBC convocation at Kelowna, BC, in June 2013. Words that stand as a beautiful parting gift to writers.

B

ack in early December of 1958, I was nineteen years old, living with my wife and baby boy in a two-room apple picker's shack a few miles down the road from here. I had a job driving dump truck for a two-bit outfit that was working on a short stretch of highway just down the hill from where this university was built so many years later. I remember leaving the shack and walking out to stand by the highway in the wind and snow. I stood there shivering in my canvas coat as I waited to be picked up by the grader operator in his rusted pickup truck. The sky was hard and grey.

Its only gift that winter day was ice disguised as a fragile, bitter snow.

As I stood there in the false dawn, I looked up for a moment and as I did an iridescent blue butterfly the size of my palm fluttered down and rested on the sleeve of my coat just above my wrist.

It was winter, it was cold and I knew the Okanagan Valley where I had lived most of my young life did not harbour huge, shiny blue butterflies, not even in summer. I remember stripping off my gloves and cupping the insect in my hands, lifting that exquisite creature to the warmth of my mouth in the hope I could save it from the cold. I breathed upon the butterfly with the helplessness we all have when we are faced with an impossible and inevitable death, be it a quail or crow, gopher, hawk, child or dog. I cupped that delicate butterfly in the hollow of my hands and ran back to the picker's shack in the hope that somehow the warmth from the morning fire in the woodstove might save it, but when I reached the door and opened my hands, the butterfly died.

I do not know what strange Santa Anna, Squamish or Sirocco jet-stream wind blew that sapphire butterfly from far off Mexico, Congo or the Philippines to this valley. I only know the butterfly found its last moments in my hands. I have never forgotten it and know the encounter changed me.

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There are mornings in our lives when beauty falls into our hands and when that happens, we must do what we can to nurture and protect it. That we sometimes fail must never preclude our striving. The day the beautiful creature died in my hands, I looked up into the dome of the hard, cold sky and I swore to whatever great spirit resided there in the dark clouds that I would live my life to the full and, above all, I would treasure beauty. I swore, too, that I'd believe in honesty, faithfulness, love and truth. The words I spoke were the huge abstractions the young sometimes use, but I promised them to myself and, now, more than half a century later, I stand here in front of your young minds, your creative spirits, your beautiful lives, and I can tell you that I have tried.

I told myself that year and in the subsequent years in the sawmill crews and construction gangs I worked with that I would become a writer, a poet, a man who would create an imagined world out of the world I lived in, that I would witness my life and the lives of others with words.

The years went by filled with the tragedies and losses that all our lives are filled with. My brother's early death, my father's murder, my divorce and the loss of my children did not change the promises I made. There were times I lived a dissolute, irresponsible and destructive life. There were times, too, when I was depressed and wretched, but I continued to believe in spite of my weaknesses and fears. I wandered the world and as I did I wrote of the lives that shared my times.

And I wrote of this Okanagan Valley, its lakes and hills, its stones, cacti, cutthroat trout, magpies, rattlesnakes and, yes, its butterflies.

What I have told you is a story. It arose from my life for where else but from a life can a story come? What I promise each of you is that there will come a day or night, a morning or evening when something as rare and fine as a blue sapphire butterfly will fall into your hands from a cold sky, a fearful child will climb into your bed and cleave to you, a woman or man will weep, will laugh, will sleep with you in the sure belief that the one they abide with is governed by a good and honest love. No matter the degrees you have earned and the knowledge you have accumulated, remember to believe in yourselves, to believe in each other. In a world as fearful as our present one, I ask that you not be afraid. Today is merely an hour.

Remember in the time ahead of you to hold out your hands so that beauty may fall safely into them and find a place— however briefly—to rest.

Isabella Wang

Lunar Feast 1. A tanka As other families sit to feast at this year’s table, I over-indulge on the spring rolls and nian gao wafting out of their windows.

2. Year of the dog My mother made dumplings for the dog today.

Flour and water embraced to dough,

a handful of dog pellets ground in a mortar and pestle, carrots and celery chopped to a fine pulp.

Dad and I waited in the other room to the sound of rolling pin against cutting board, floured dough scraping

hardwood as she kneaded.

Filling nursed between the tips of two silver chopsticks,

stack of paper-thin disks rolled—she cupped them in her hand the way you cup a red lotus

at the Lunar parade each year to make a wish.

Two fingers dipped into water, edges sealed with neat folds.

With dogs, she says, you just need to feed them and they remain grateful forever.

Dad and I went for a stroll in the neighbourhood.

Around us, upside-down banners and red lanterns.

Fruit for luck. Tang yuan, dusted in flour, filled with sweetened sesame, peanut, or red bean paste—

served from bamboo baskets with each glutinous rice ball nudged tightly beside the other in a circle, like family members gathered by the roundtable.

In the year to come, they are to bring harmony and unity.

Noodles with mustard greens for longevity, tossed with spring onions and chilli in peanut sauce.

Spring rolls for wealth. Steamed fish in ginger and soy sauce for abundance. Sticky nian gao for progress.

We considered waiting out the evening, ringing the doorbells and asking for leftover tang yuan

and maybe spring rolls. Instead, we gorged on these smells that will satiate us for another year.

bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 7

Copyright and Contracts

Warren Sheffer answers our questions

1

How do I establish copyright?

Copyright is automatically established through the creation of an original work. The Supreme Court of Canada states that one creates an original work by expressing an idea through the exercise of “skill and judgment.” The originality threshold is fairly low. However, the Supreme Court adds that the “exercise of skill and judgement required to produce the work must not be so trivial that it could be characterized as a purely mechanical exercise.” For example, any skill and judgment that might be involved in simply changing the font of a work to produce “another” work would be too trivial to merit copyright protection as an “original” work. There is no need to register copyright in a work. However, an author wishing to do so can learn about the registration process and benefits here: http://www.ic.gc. ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00003.html.

What happens to a contract when a book goes out of print and the publisher will not reprint?

2

This depends upon the wording of the contract. Typically, publication agreements provide that rights revert to the author once the work is out of print and the publisher has indicated that it has no intention to reprint. Authors should pay attention to how “out of print” is defined in his or her publication agreement. It is usually in the interest of the author to have the definition, in part, tied to a minimum amount of royalties received by the author during a certain number of consecutive royalty periods. In other words, if the author is not paid a minimum amount of royalties over the course of a prescribed number of consecutive royalty periods, the work may be deemed out of print.

What percentages should I negotiate for each of these subsidiary rights: serialization, anthology, dramatic, foreign publishing in English, translation, electronic?

3

This tends to be a function of the author’s experience.

For first-time authors, some publishers may only offer a fifty-fifty share. However, there is room to negotiate here.

Authors may wish to consult Marian Hebb’s work, Help

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Yourself to a Better Contract for specific suggested percentages on specific subsidiary rights. This publication is available through The Writers’ Union of Canada.

4

Do I have to sign away my subsidiary rights if I suspect the publisher will never pursue them?

No. Some authors choose to reserve certain of their rights completely and/or license some of their subsidiary rights to the publisher for a defined period of time. For example, the author may, commencing on the date of publication, give the publisher three years within which to conclude a film deal, failing which those rights automatically revert to the author.

5

Who owns copyright to my magazine article, and how soon can I publish it elsewhere?

The author is the original owner of copyright in the magazine article. If the author wishes to reserve the right to publish it elsewhere, he or she will want to make it clear in a written agreement, specifying, for example, the scope of the publisher’s first print rights in terms of duration, language of publication, and possibly jurisdiction (e.g. N. America only).

6

Once the contract is signed, can the publisher make editing changes without my permission?

It is usual for publication agreements to provide that once the publisher has accepted the final edited work, no other material change may be made without the author’s prior approval. It is also usual for the publisher to copy-edit the work prior to publication in accordance with its standards of punctuation and spelling.

7

What is the range of advances in Canada for fiction and non-fiction?

Advances vary widely for fiction and non-fiction works. They range from zero to tens of thousands of dollars, and in relatively rare circumstances, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Authors should always try to negotiate an advance no matter how modest.

There is no need to register copyright in a work.

8

What is “fair use”? Is personal correspondence— letters, texts and emails—exempt from fair-use rules?

May these be quoted at length or even in their entirety?

“Fair use” is an American term which connotes circumstances in which a user may use a copyrightprotected work without payment or permission. “Fair dealing” is fair use’s Canadian cousin. There are important differences between the two copyright exceptions.

Generally speaking, the fair use umbrella is bigger than the fair dealing one, which is to say fewer uses are permissible under fair dealing. Whether fair dealing or fair use is applicable is always a contextual question that has both quantitative and qualitative considerations. It is not correct to assume, for example, that it is automatically fair use or fair dealing if the user only uses 10 percent or less of a work. Letters, texts and emails are not necessarily exempt for fair dealing or fair use, and dealing with these types of materials may also be subject to privacy law.

9

Is it risky for an author or a publisher to send electronic advance review copies to reviewers, friends, colleagues?

Not necessarily. However, it would be prudent for the sender to be judicious in who the sender decides to send copies. Also, the sender could let the recipient know that the advance copy is for the recipient’s review only and that the recipient may not reproduce or distribute the copy to any other person. It is also a good idea for the author or publisher to diarize recipient names and delivery dates when sending advance review copies.

What recourse does an author have in the case of plagiarism?

10

Plagiarism involves passing off ideas as one’s own. Generally, copyright infringement exists where the plagiarizer uses the same form of expression of the passed off idea (i.e. copies verbatim). In a case of copyright infringement, there are remedies prescribed by the Copyright Act, which include, for example, the copyright owner being able to claim damages (actual or statutory), injunctive relief, and/ or a “delivery up” of infringing copies so that they may be destroyed.

Warren Sheffer is a specialist in Intellectual Property Law; he advises authors and performers as well as professional organizations that represent them.

$1000 in prize money

Constance Rooke

Creative Nonfiction Prize

Tell it like it is

Enter by: August 1, 2019

Entry fee: $35 bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 9

Writers Unblocked: Taking control of your publishing goals Lorraine Toor

T

he publishing industry is in the midst of widespread change, with shifting consumer trends and technological innovations, and it all translates into one thing—opportunity.

For nearly two decades, I dedicated my professional life to the world of publishing—music publishing. Nothing could prepare me better for the current climate of the literary publishing world than being immersed in an industry that continues to undergo rapid change for artists [authors], record labels [literary agents], and affiliate publishing partners [book publishers].

Commentary on the changing landscape of the book publishing sector is easy to find. Simply search “book publishing” online and you will find archived articles, blog posts, and endless forums on the topic. Many are positive and, as is typical with an evolving industry, many are cynical. For the more positive, change can be synonymous with choice. The choice to progress. The choice to embrace new opportunity.

The choice to learn, grow, and acquire the necessary resources to support your publishing goals.

A true reflection of the evolving publishing industry is the steady growth of non-traditional publishing services. Whether you are targeting brick and mortar, exploring print-on-demand services, completely digitizing your works, or lining up small print runs for bulk sales, there is a growing industry of services and agencies to help. In an “author-centric” model, author expertise and branding are aligned with customized publishing strategies, marketing initiatives and sales targets.

Ideally, writers find that their literary works not only reflect their words (verbal and print) but also connect to their personal brand identity which might include supporting products, services, packaging, and more. In traditional publishing, many of these forward-facing details fall under the control of the publisher. In an author-centric model, everything interconnects and author engagement is

expected and required in all steps of the publishing journey.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my role is being on the receiving end of an immense shared effort between authors, publishing strategists, creative designers, editorial, production and marketing teams. By the time a project lands in my portfolio, a tremendous amount of time and heart have already been invested in the book. And the driving force behind all this effort is the author, their book and the author’s intentions for that book.

Regardless of the road travelled—traditional, self-publishing or a hybrid model of the two—critical pathways involving design, marketing, and distribution strategies are integrated with the author’s goals and objectives and, in most cases, the author’s personal brand. Can you judge a book by its cover?

Maybe not. But you can judge an author by their book’s cover. And their social media presence. And their public persona. And their historical sales data. And buyers will judge it all.

Print books, like music, hold a certain element of nostalgia. This is likely one of the reasons I felt so at home stepping into a new office where the walls are lined with books and each desk serves as a resting place for newly published works or familiar favourites. I find comfort turning the pages of a well-loved book and it is both a feeling and an experience that technology has not yet been able to replicate. Still, it is impossible to deny the rapidly growing digital demand in the consumer market. And perhaps of greater significance, the new opportunities for authors and publishers alike through the diversification of revenue streams. The explosion of resources and publishing platforms available to authors today presents a level of creative freedom and entrepreneurial opportunity not previously available for many niche or mainstream writers.

The evolving industry will continue to create new pathways in publishing for those driven to pursue them. It’s an exciting era to be an author, unblocked and empowered with choice and opportunity.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Maybe not. But you can judge an author by their book’s cover.

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Dammit Jim, I’m a writer not a salesman Douglas Aalseth

I

am a writer. I’d like to say I was always a writer, but no.

Oh, I wanted to be a writer, but my handwriting prevented that. Typewriters made my ideas legible, but every typo and misspelled word meant retyping the page from scratch. (I’m sorry, but Wite-Out is really ugly.) Then computers appeared, bringing the ability to edit a page a hundred times before printing. THAT was when I became a writer. At first I was doing short stories and poetry. Then I decided to embark on my first novel. Inspiration comes from odd places. For me it was a terrible book that made me realize I could do better than that in my sleep.

Several years later I had finished my first book. This led me into a wonderful world of trying to get published. I naively assumed you just sent your book to a publisher and they’d send fat royalty cheques to my home every month. I was astonished to find that it didn’t work that way. In reality getting in the door proved to be the biggest obstacle. I sent the book off to several houses. What followed was a series of polite rejections. “We aren’t accepting any unsolicited material.” “It is not the type of work we publish.” My second favourite excuse though was, “We have reviewed your manuscript and it does not fit with our criteria.” I’ve got a little hint for publishers. If you are going to say you’ve reviewed the manuscript, you might want to break the seal on the folder containing the manuscript. You know, to make it appear like you’ve actually looked at it.

But my favourite rejection was, “We do not accept works from unpublished authors.” All right, but how are you supposed to get published if you can’t get any publishers to look at your stuff?

A few years went by and Amazon added a publishing service. With it you could bypass the publishing houses and get actual physical paperback books into the hands of readers. This sounded great. I set up an account and sent them my book. I made a cover and checked the layout, and in just a few days my book was available on Amazon. I now have a second novel and two books of short stories out on Amazon as well. I feel like a real published author.

Mostly, I mean. If you search for my name online you will see my books. Anyone in the world can buy them. In the last several years the combined sales of all four of my books, that is if you include strangers, friends, relatives, the New York Times Best Seller Review Committee, the Giller Prize committee, Canada Reads and such, my sales would total, oh about zero. The trouble is not that they aren’t good, it’s that nobody knows they are there. I needed to, as they say, “grow my brand.”

To that end I got on Tumblr, and Twitter, and Facebook, and Instagram, and other sites to get my name out there.

I figured once people knew my name they might search for it and find my books. Soon I would be a famous writer sitting in my study in a tweed jacket with royalty cheques coming in daily. After a couple of years of posting comments, and links, and artwork, and photography, I discovered something. Nobody cares. I was just one of a billion other people all trying to be seen, and everyone else was better at it than I was.

Remember the show Let’s Make A Deal? Remember how people would be screaming and yelling for Monty Hall to pick them? Remember the polite guy at the far end of the row in the grey suit who just put his hand up? No? Well, that’s me. I am not a salesman. I never have been. I would go broke running a lemonade stand in Death Valley. You have to have the chutzpah to put yourself out there. To get people’s attention. To scream louder than the next person, and that’s not me. Oh, I can do many things: sing, act, write, teach, but sales is not one of those things.

I realize that I need help. I need an agent. Someone whose job it is to sell my work. A professional who is really really good at that one task. Someone who knows the publishers, and the movie directors, and the critics. Who knows what doors to knock on. Who could introduce the world to my work.

Of course to get an agent I need to sell myself to them.

This could be a problem.

I discovered something.

Nobody cares.

bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 11

What I Learned from Getting Published Kacie Berghoef

I

can hardly believe it, but it’s been over two years since The Modern Enneagram’s publication. February is my book’s anniversary, or bookversary, month. Like many new authors, getting published was a dream that got started with blogging, ghostwriting, and some bylined articles.

None of that compared to the thrill of seeing my name headlining a book.

The process also didn’t compare to the smaller-scale writing I’d done. Writing a book is a different beast compared to publishing shorter pieces, and I learned so much along the way. In honour of my second bookversary, I’m thrilled to share some secrets I learned dipping my toe into the world of publishing.

Read your contract. Seriously, read it. Have somebody qualified give it a second read. And don’t sign it until you fully understand it. I had a great publisher with a very fair contract, but I’m still glad I had a lawyer (in my case, my mom) check it over before I made things official. A few things to look out for in your contract: • What’s the timeline for writing the book (if applic-

able), editing, and publication? Does it work with your schedule?

• If your book goes out of print, do the rights revert

to you?

• Are you signing over the rights to future books and

movie options? Some publishers require you to use them again for any sequels or your next book, or give them right of first refusal for future books or movie deals. Do you retain your intellectual property copyright on the book’s content?

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• What are the terms and dates of payment, including

advance payment and royalties? Traditional publishers won’t ask you to pay any money to publish your book, while hybrid publication model fees will vary.

Plan on a marathon. Getting that contract is exhilarating but you’re in for a marathon of hard work before the book is in your hands. If you haven’t written most of it yet, there’s writing the book, and after that, much more to come.

Expect several rounds of edits, and plan time for approving cover art, going over sample copies, meeting with the marketing department, and much more. The good news is that the wait makes it feel that much sweeter when you’re finally holding your book.

Fall in love with being edited. My book went through three rounds of edits: developmental editing, copy editing, and finally the proofread. Each editor had different suggestions for how to improve the book. Quickly, I got used to accepting that lines I loved would get rewritten, and examples I’d enjoyed creating would get completely deleted. It wasn’t always easy, but in the end, I was happy with how everything turned out.

Get ready to publicize. Unless your day job is in advertising, you might think of yourself as more a writer than a marketer. That’s probably about to change. Most publishers expect, or even require in your contract, that you do publicity. Once my book was pre-orderable, I did a significant amount of social media marketing and participated in an author talk. Your contract might include this and more.

Budget adequate time to promote your book, and make it fun!

Expect the unexpected. In late January 2017 I came back from a long-planned trip abroad, expecting I could decompress before my book’s spring release. It was a shock when I found out a couple days later that my publisher had moved the publication date up to late February! I had to get moving and start publicizing my book immediately. Since then, I’ve heard of books that were released years later than expected, so I consider myself lucky. Getting published is a ride; be ready to embrace it.

Don’t quit your day job—but stay open to opportunities. Book deals can launch your career. They can lead to additional books, paid speaking engagements, workshop facilitation, and more. But a book by itself usually doesn’t lead to a huge financial windfall. Most authors, particularly for their debut book, earn a modest amount of money considering the number of hours that go into perfecting their masterpiece. Although that might sound disappointing, it doesn’t mean a book won’t open new doors. Keep your eyes and ears out for openings that might come from being published. You never know what places your book will lead.

Best of luck with getting your first book published. May you soon have a bookversary to celebrate, too!

Sometimes a Long Journey Carol Matthews

R

elationships between writers and publishers are delicate. Writing is a laborious process, lengthy and periodically painful. It’s often experienced as a labour of love, but getting a book out can, like childbirth, be a slow process, with its offspring being stillborn or failing to thrive. “They had my manuscript for five years,” one writer reports, “two years for them to accept it, three more to get it into print.”

There are, of course, happy stories. “My publisher was supportive all the way through,” says one writer of her first novel. At first she’d hoped to sign up with a large publisher, but her agent said she shouldn’t be disappointed as “large publishers don’t necessarily serve their writers better and don’t necessarily offer more money for promotion.”

However, most of us go, cap in hand, unable to find an agent and spending years searching for a publisher who might accept our manuscripts. It’s a humbling experience and often a frustrating one, even when the book is accepted for publication.

Many writers complain about limited editing, limited distribution, lack of sales reports and generally poor communication. Royalties may be slow to arrive, if they arrive at all.

“Every time I visit a local bookstore I’m told that my book continues to sell regularly, yet I haven’t received any reports or royalties for almost ten years,” says one writer. “I’ve written to the publisher several times but get no reply.”

It’s bad enough that the work is almost always paid poorly, but sometimes writers feel they are being treated with condescension. We’re deeply attached to the work we create and to have it disregarded or dismissed feels hurtful, even abusive. “They behave as though my work is just a little hobby!” complains one writer who has a long history of publishing successful books.

A best-selling writer notes that writers who have “a brief moment in the sun” with a big book can be dropped suddenly because “we’ve had your book in stores for two weeks and nothing’s happening.”

Some two centuries ago, Goethe wrote, “Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.” And hellish is the word for the

experiences some writers report. A woman whose collection of short stories was well reviewed, despite a lack of promotion, complains that she has received no reports on sales. What especially dismayed her was hearing from a popular literary journal that they’d written to her publisher for permission to publish a story from her book but that they hadn’t responded. When she followed up with her publisher requesting his confirmation that she could give permission there was no response.

One writer was asked to find well-known writers to contribute blurbs for her book cover, but the publisher didn’t send review copies when requested. Another reports that two months after the book was published it hadn’t been listed on Amazon or in the catalogue and that the publisher hadn’t responded to bookstores and individuals who wanted to purchase books.

If there’s a single complaint most writers have it’s about poor communication. We can put up with delays and disappointments but it helps to feel we’re in touch with the process. A man who has published three books of non-fiction that have been positively reviewed in newspapers and journals says he’s not happy with having very little input into editorial choices, but mostly he’s frustrated by the lack of communication. “Lately I don’t get any response to my emails,” he says.

What can we writers do in the face of all this? Well, to some extent we must accept such trials as part of the territory. As Margaret Atwood has said, “Writing is work. It’s also gambling … Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.”

Short of whining there may be a few things to do. We can share information with each other, informally and through our provincial and national organizations. We can improve our social media skills to promote our work directly. We can advise Quill and Quire on their anonymous tip line that there are things going on they should know about.

We can review our contracts and ask questions about them.

We can keep detailed notes of our experiences in case we need to attempt redress.

Finally, we must remind ourselves that, despite all the above, our writing has its own rewards. That’s why we do it.

Some two centuries ago Goethe wrote: “Publishers are all cohorts of the devil”

bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 13

FBCW Faces

Lisa Maas at at North Island College for the CVWS festival.

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Rachel Rose reads “A Poppy Every Day,” which she wrote for her grandpa Russell Sandy Sanderson.

Ian Cognitō at Windowseat Books.

Janet Miller, Leslie Cox, Joline Martin in January at the NIC Campus, Courtenay.

Wawmeesh Hamilton speaks on reconciliation at the January Words on Fire in Port Alberni.

Ten Reasons to Join CMG Freelance: 1. Help with payments if you’re having a dispute with an employer.

2. Help to understand and negotiate contracts.

3. Gigs via our ‘Lancer e-mail network.

4. A media card for qualified journalists.

5. Access to custom Liability and Errors & Omissions insurance.

6. Free webinars and access to Lynda.com and KelbyOne.com online training.

7. An affordable extended health care plan.

8. Our social media accounts connect you, as do our in-person workshops and mixers.

9. Branded gear like notebooks, calendars and pens.

10. Advocacy: Together we’re better.

Info: cmgfreelance.ca or freelance@cmg.ca

bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 15

What You Carry Lesley-Anne Evans You can take what you can carry on your back.

I wasn’t there, but he heard the cop say You can take what you can carry on your back.

He repeats this to me on several occasions.

Sure, he may suffer from an active imagination.

Sure, he lives on the street and his voice is silenced so he overtells. He tells me again. He tells me again what the cop said: You can take what you can carry on your back.

You can take what you can carry on your back.

He hears curfews, interrogations what’s yours is mine now, relocation to Tashme, Slocan, Hastings Park all things not equal gates shut, signs up “no japs here” posted on the outskirts of town.

Go up to Memorial Gardens find rows of black stones calligraphed with symbols numbers 1939 1939

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1939 1940 1940 1940 1940 1941 1941.

A village.

His people.

See him now?

I know nothing. I know nothing.

You can take what you can carry on your back.

You can take what you can carry on your back.

Can you see him his encampment his overloaded cart him bent with the burden of carrying?

“It is the government’s plan to get these people out of BC as fast as possible. It is my personal intention, as long as I remain in public life, to see they never come back here. Let our slogan be for British Columbia: ‘No Japs from the Rockies to the seas.’” Ian Mackenzie, MP, Vancouver From a CBC initiative called From Canada: A People’s History https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP14CH3PA3LE.html

The Other Fran Bourassa When the Buick slows, you should run but you don’t run.

The door opens wide as his smile, keys dangle from the ignition, hypnotizing you He knows you’re the one—you and your deer eyes, blue tunic, white blouse When the Buick slows, you run but your body gets in.

You do what you are told, he’s a magnet pulling you You hear your stepmother saying don’t talk to strangers But you are not talking—it’s as if you have forgotten you own any words Your bookbag on your lap still smells of new leather It’s all you can smell, new is everywhere New town, new school, learning English words for each one of your French ones He’s talking it as you go over the bridge, past your school, out of town on the country road, he’s talking to you the way you talk to a baby or a dog or something wild you want to come to you His teeth are showing as if he’s smiling, but he’s not, breath hisses from the spaces in-between He shows it to you on his lap on the grey suit pants like the ones your dad wore to the funeral And you don’t know what you’ve seen, and you don’t recognize anything out the window There are only bare trees and the stubble of shorn fields He wipes it when he has finished with the smartly folded linen handkerchief You cry and put your hand on the door handle, maybe to jump out But you don’t have to, he turns the car around and drops you off at your school You tell no one. By you I mean me. I tell no one.

It’s better that way when I make you the other. When I’m me I can’t stand that little helpless girl.

There’s something pitiful about her.

When the Buick slows next time, you don’t run. By now, you’re a runaway.

You get in with the guy who plies you with vodka, leans you face first over the back of the couch and gives it to you from behind, because you’re too drunk to stand up and you don’t remember how you got home, but you remember, hot with shame, the outraged voice of a woman screaming in a foreign language down the basement stairs at the two of you.

You tell no one. By you I mean me. I tell no one.

It’s better that way when I make you the other. I can say that was rape. You’re not pathetic.

You don’t hide here, put margins around yourself like a truth wall You can spill out all the words to the world, as if it matters, as if it fixes the thing

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Reflections on a Terrace Book Tour Patricia Skidmore My name is Patricia Skidmore. I am the daughter of a British Child Migrant. Before researching for and writing my two books, I would not admit to being a daughter of a child migrant.

My mother was in her seventies before I understood that she was not keeping a deep dark family secret from me, but that she had lost her past. Marjorie told me that when the Duchess of Atholl pulled away from the CPR dock on the River Mersey, Liverpool, at 6:00 p.m. on September 9, 1937, the only way to face her frightening future was to black out her past. She pulled a heavy cloak of protection over her and didn’t dare look back because it was too distressing.

I

did not understand our family’s involvement in the British and Canadian government child migration scheme. My mother Marjorie would not talk about her childhood, or why she was sent to Canada as a ten-year-girl, or why her family: mother, father, and eight siblings, were in England while she and her younger brother and sister were sent to Canada as children.

Pat at lava beds, 2018

Marjorie and Pat with manuscript, 2015

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I started the search for my mother Marjorie’s missing past over twenty years ago. It was a slow process. I found bits and pieces in various archives across England: Whitley Bay, Birmingham, Liverpool, and in Canada: Ottawa, Ontario, and Victoria, Duncan, Vancouver and Vernon in British Columbia. I shared the documents that I gathered with my mother. Slowly her memories began to surface.

My mother seemed pleased with what I was finding, and she said, “Well they [Britain] didn’t just throw me away, they kept records of me.”

I didn’t just find my mother’s past; much to my surprise I found that British child migration had a long and very unpleasant 350-year history. Worldwide it went on from 1619 to the 1970s. Canada accepted British children for

their labour as early as the 1830s, with the majority of the children being sent between 1869 and 1948. Over 120,000 children were sent to Canada.

My mother and a younger brother were placed at the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School south of Duncan on Vancouver Island in September 1937. The boys and girls were housed separately. Their younger sister arrived the following year, in August 1938. The sisters were placed in the same cottage. Once at the farm school, the children’s day revolved around school and chores. Their schooling was geared towards domestic duties for the girls and skills the boys needed for their future as farm hands. At fifteen, the children worked full-time on the farm. At sixteen, they were placed out to work—the girls in private homes as domestic servants and the boys on farms and ranches. They were under the Fairbridge Society’s guardianship until they were twenty-one.

It was by chance that I met the northern rep, Norma Kerby, at the AGM of the Federation of BC Writers in April 2018. Norma organized a wonderful and memorable book tour for me in the Terrace area. I brought my Memoir Writing workshop and my slide show on British Child Migration to Hazelton, Kitimat, Prince Rupert and Terrace, stopping at Coast Mountain College in Hazelton, the Kitimat Senior Citizens Association, and at libraries in Terrace, Prince Rupert, and Hazelton. I arrived in October, a beautiful time of year for the region. All four communities gave me such a warm welcome.

Marjorie with her story, 2012 For my Memoir Writing workshops I put together a PowerPoint presentation highlighting areas of importance which helped me build my mother Marjorie’s story. I included information on how I found a publisher. For the self-publishing option, I brought in three very different samples of self-published books.

My slide show on British Child Migration to Canada briefly gave the history, but concentrated on Marjorie’s 1937 journey.

At many of my talks, the audience brought up the parallels with the First Nations’ Residential Schools and we discussed the damaging practice of removing children from their parents and their culture.

I would like to thank the Coast Mountain College in Hazelton, Brian Butler at the Hazelton Library, Duncan Calder and Kathleen Larkin at the Prince Rupert Library, Amelia Pozsgay and the Kitimat Senior Citizen’s Association, Jess Dafoe at the Terrace Library for welcoming me, and Misty River Books in Terrace for supporting me.

And last but not least I would like to give special thanks to Norma Kerby and the FBCW for their support.

I recommend arranging a book tour in these areas to any author, as it was a very rewarding experience.

Gitwinksihlkw Bridge Totems

Kalum Lake reflections

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Tips for Getting the Most Out of Working with an Editor Lesley Cameron

T

he key word in the title is “with.” Whether you’ve been assigned an editor by a publishing house or your employer, or you’ve hired an editor independently, you share the same goal: producing a piece of writing that communicates your message well and speaks to your intended audience. In other words, you’re working in partnership.

So, how do you get the most from this partnership?

Here are a few tips to help.

Be realistic. If you’re expecting someone to tell you there is absolutely nothing they can suggest that would improve your work, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re hiring an editor yourself, find out about the various levels of editing and work out what you need. You can find a helpful guide to editing levels at editors.ca/hire-editor-0.

For example, proofreading, which many people ask for, is the final stage of editing before a document goes to print.

It’s not what you need for an early draft.

Think carefully about what you want from an edit. If you can, make a list of things you’d like the editor to cover.

Do you want the editor to do any fact-checking or to check any foreign language expressions? Do you need guidance on using quoted material? Are you open to having sentences restructured? If you have any pet language peeves, let the editor know before they start work. I’ve been asked at various times to avoid using em dashes, semicolons, and the word “thus.”

Decide how much explanation you want from the editor. If you want them to explain every single change so that you can learn from the edit, that will significantly increase the time required. And that will increase the cost of the edit. If you’re working with a publisher, the editor’s budget won’t allow them to go into that level of explanation for you.

Be honest about your budget. If you’re on a tight budget, be open about it from the beginning. Tell the editor how much you have to spend and work backwards to see what you can get for that. Ask if there are any changes you could make to the text yourself to save some time and money. For example, maybe you could change all American spellings to Canadian spellings, or you could take responsibility for your bibliography.

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If you’re not comfortable using Track Changes, tell the editor right at the beginning of your partnership. It will save everyone time and anxiety if you do this. Your editor can talk you through using Track Changes or suggest where you can find out more about it.

Stick to your deadlines and your word count. If your editor is expecting 30,000 words by noon on Thursday, that’s what you should send and that’s when you should send them. If your schedule changes, alert your editor as soon as possible so they can adjust their schedule. Most editors are working on multiple projects at any given time, so it’s helpful to be kept up to date. (And your editor should let you know if they’re running behind, of course.)

Use minimal formatting. Keep the formatting of your document as simple as possible. The editing process will disrupt complicated formatting—and the editor will have to strip out all the formatting before they submit the Word document for design. Make clear your different levels of headings and longer quotes, and add notes about inserting photos or other visuals. That’s all you need for now.

If you’re quoting at length, or using photographs, for example, make sure you have your permissions in place.

Permissions can take weeks to secure. For short quotes, simply include full details of their source.

When your editor sends you the revised file, read any cover notes first. The editor’s notes explain in general terms what they’ve done, why they’ve done it, and how they’d like you to proceed with your review of their edit.

If you find typos or grammar mistakes at this point, don’t panic. They’ll be reading your text closely again. Answer all their questions, even the ones that look a little odd. There’s always a reason for asking. You don’t have to accept every change the editor suggests. They should be trying their best to keep your voice and your intentions intact, but if they’re systematically misinterpreting you, you might have to reassess what you’re saying and how you’re saying it.

Use a contract or letter of agreement. This protects both you and your editor. Editors Canada has a free template you can use at editors.ca/hire/ agreement-template-editing-services.

Keep a sense of humour. Your editor should too. We’re all human.

Host Me/Host You Caitlin Hicks

H

ow do I get my work “out there”? It’s one of the vignettes could translate easily to the stage. She sent me her most important—and aggravating—questions of book and I got busy reading and choosing monologues for Act I of a show I would call Next of Kin, Descendants of War. my creative life.

I’m a member of the Writer’s Union of Canada and an At the first rehearsal, I sensed the excitement as four active local rep for the Federation of BC Writers. As a per- actors read their monologues from Tweets. I chose two former who writes her own work, as an author, I know that excerpts in the voices of aboriginal soldiers and asked the touring other communities is an essential step in exposing former chief of the Sechelt Nation to bring those characters my work to a wider audience. to life. He accepted! And brought his drum! My partner had Catch 22: In order to tour, you always need a host in the recently begun singing songs of the era with his ukulele, and “far” community who chooses a venue, puts the word out he provided music between the readings. and gathers an audience for your moment in the spotlight.

For Act II, I chose from the many stories I’d gathered Why not trade that host responsibility with another writer? from old-timers on the Sunshine Coast who’d lived through I’ll host you in my community, you host me in yours.

World War II, plus two pieces about my own mother and When BC Fed board member and writer Jacqueline the childhood sweetheart she’d lost in a battle in France.

Carmichael heard that I wanted to tour, and that I was eliAlmost every day, I received tweets that Jacqueline was gible for TWUC Reading Tours funding, she offered to host sending out in social media. I carried flyers in my pockets me in Port Alberni. and created a Facebook Event Page and numerous digital Using the National Reading Tours Program subsidy, the posters of Next of Kin plus the cover image of Jacqueline’s host pays $79.10 (for a full reading) and provides accommo- book to media, friends, my own Facebook page. dation; the writer is reimbursed for travel costs and paid a By this time, I was inside the journey Jacqueline had been fee for a reading that is free to the public. on as she gathered the stories and I felt close to her as a writer.

Jacqueline invited me to be a guest speaker at the Open I decided to stage the show as a radio show; each cast Mic at Alberni Valley Words on Fire. She also asked me to member wore black and we chose long scarves for drama, conduct a writing workshop and gave me $15 a person for colour and simplicity. a two-hour gathering.

The Local and The Coast Reporter each covered the I was thrilled to share my debut novel A Theory of show with full-length articles a day before the event. AudiExpanded Love and to try out new writing from my new ence members arrived wearing red and white poppies. A novel Kennedy Girl. Afterwards, flush with gratitude, I said friend handled admissions (discounts for union members, “Ok, your turn. Let’s arrange your visit to the Sunshine Coast.” freebies for low income); one actor’s mother brought I have produced a lot of theatre, so I knew I could gen- cookies; coffee was donated by Gibsons Coffee, Tea & Herbs.

Proceeds: $600, $200 for expenses to mount the show. erate curiosity, excitement and audience for Jacqueline. I had another event in the planning: a show called Next of I was able to pay four creative participants from proceeds.

Although it was a mere honorarium, I was proud to write Kin for Remembrance Day. Jacqueline’s new book was called Tweets from the the cheques.

Over the next few days, actors and audience comTrenches. “I wrote it for the hundredth anniversary of Armistice,” she said. “I was inspired by my grandfather, who mented enthusiastically on Facebook and email, telling how survived the trenches of World War I.” I realized I could the show stayed with them and continued in discussions. invite her to showcase her book and we could share the If we put the word out about Host Me/Host You—if stage. Next of Kin was all about World War II. we put ourselves in connection with other writers across I chose the Saturday before Remembrance Day. But the country and host one another in our communities, we Jacqueline already had Remembrance Day bookings in other will be more connected than ever before. And we will have cities. Why not host her book? The short monologues and enriched and strengthened our community of writers. bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 21

An Interview with David Korinetz Lesley Taylor

David Korinetz was the founder and owner of Red Toque Books, offering book distribution to Canadian self-published authors for the first time.

LT: David, prior to starting Red Tuque Books (RTB) in 2009, you had a successful career first in the Aerospace industry and later as a computer programmer. What motivated you to start a book distribution company in BC? It was a series of events. My first book was self-published and I couldn’t find a distributor. At the time I couldn’t even get my book listed on Amazon.ca. Then in 2009 I got laid off from my computer job as a result of the 2008 downturn. I had this idea at the back of my mind that there was a need for book distribution for self-published authors in Canada.

I chose the name Red Tuque Books because it was Canadian. I decided that this company was only going to take Canadian authors and I was going to try to provide what I could not find for myself. I ended up with sixteen authors and in February 2010 I rented an office/warehouse space in Penticton. Everything that I did was to try to promote Canadian authors.

In 2011 I started listing books on Amazon.ca. Close to 25 percent of the business was selling online and mostly through Amazon.ca. And I had got a 100 percent approval rating because I had focused on customer support and making sure people’s books were shipped within forty-eight hours.

LT: By retiring from Red Tuque Books you’ve left a big gap. Over the years you have been extremely generous with your time and have provided mentoring and advice to many Canadian writers. Is there anyone supporting Canadian authors now?

There are a few. I don’t think any of them are Canadian only. There are almost no viable distribution options for self-publishers and micropresses that produce fewer than four titles a year.

I could not find anyone to take over Red Tuque Books as it was, where it was, so I had to shut it down. But in the meantime I divided it up. I had an agreement with Indigo, and Books We Love Publishing in Alberta took that over in September 2018. The agreement was unusual in that Indigo paid for the shipping.

Greg Salisbury, who owns Influence Publishing with Julie Salisbury, wanted the contract with Amazon and the Red Tuque brand. He (Salisbury) has now taken over the incorporated company and the Amazon account and is rebooting it in Victoria.

LT: Alan Hustad reviewed your first book, FireDrakes: Chronicles of the Daemon Knights, for the Kelowna Courier. He called it “a refreshing new entry to the fantasy genre and great reading entertainment.” It seems you have a lot of fans.

Yes, I like to “hand sell” books. I get a kick out of talking to people, so I sell at local markets and do book signings. Now 50 percent of the people who stop by are asking me when is the next book coming out. They have been doing that for the last four years.

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LT: You are turning your attention more to writing now.

Yes, one of the reasons that I wanted to retire was that I wanted to get back to my writing.

LT: What future do you see for book distribution in Canada over the next ten years?

It’s a hard call. Everybody was concerned that e-books were going to take over, and they did to a certain extent. E-books now account for 27 percent of the market, but I don’t think print books are ever going to go away. There is more profit in them as libraries are slowly switching to e-books. They are a still small portion of the library. But they are the growing portion.

The major change over the past ten years was the increase in online direct sales. They went from 5 percent to 25 percent of my business. Over the next ten to fifteen years I think we will hit more fifty-fifty. It all depends, as technology changes every year.

LT: David tell me about one of your fondest memories from your RTB experiences.

I was always pleased when people were happy. Usually when I sent the catalogues out, I would get a whole pile of authors coming back to say that they loved the cover or that their ad looked great and so on. Ninety percent of my authors/publishers were very happy with what I was doing for them. That was a good feeling.

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Getting Personal: Losing Your Kim Clark

I

f you’ve read my latest fiction, A One-Handed Novel, you might be anticipating this article to be funny. It isn’t. After publication, the confidence I’d had in my writing took a serious downturn. I expect, as a writer, you’ve experienced this too. If you haven’t, you will (unless you’re a bot or a unicorn).

Spoiler alert! I survived.

The novel took several years to write. It was incredibly hard, not only because it was the biggest literary project I’d ever taken on, but because, like the title, I’d typed more than eighty-thousand words one-handed. Progressive multiple sclerosis (NOT a confidence builder) has almost obliterated function in my left side—fingers to toes—so this felt like a double-decker of a big deal. Having my fantastic publisher, Caitlin Press, eager to publish the work was a whopper of a pat on the back. And an invitation to participate on several panels at Room magazine’s 2018 Growing Room Festival topped off a fantastic writerly spring.

The festival was well planned and welcoming, the panels invigorating, and the other authors inspiring and thought-provoking. It was such a pleasure to share new work and even more to hear other panelists. So much heart,

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hard work and talent!

Riding home on the ferry with a bag of new books, still high from the experience though exhaustion was setting in, I thought back over the readings and had the first niggle of self-doubt.

My writing was missing something. Place. That grounding point. Or geographical heart. Or landscape, made familiar.

Some of those writers had it—that deep relationship with place.

Samantha Nock, a Cree/ Métis writer, grew up in Northern BC “where frost explodes trees.” In her poem “kiwetinohk ohci” she says, “if you listened to me you would hear/that this place is where the world begins.”

Chelene Knight’s Dear Current Occupant, a mixed-genre memoir about home and belonging in the eighties and nineties of Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, took us with her to actual addresses with her words. And Amber Dawn read from Sodom Road Exit, a queer paranormal thriller, bringing her small 1990s home town to life. Obviously, these writers and books are about so much more than place, but they ground you by putting you right there. A particular somewhere. This is what I felt was missing in my own writing.

The feeling kept growing.

Bearings

What to do about it?

I had to take a step back from my work to examine what felt like a failure of my relationship to place and how it was affecting my writing. This problem wasn’t that I’d moved frequently. I have clear memories of each home, street, and locale—whether rural or urban. It wasn’t that I don’t experience a love and deep respect for nature.

I spent a lot of time simultaneously brooding and poking around on the internet—anything to avoid writing— and that’s where I found my answer. While reading books, blogs or Facebook posts about Theresa Kishkan’s long-time home on the Sunshine Coast, Linda Crosfield’s and Luanne Armstrong’s “blazing gold and blue” Kootenays, Christine Lowther’s intimate west coast or Kim Goldberg’s urban marsh ramblings, I get a hit of dopamine. These writers are not only writing and sharing their photos; they’re joyfully out and about. I am not.

It’s not just that I like being comfortable at home.

Disability—full-time wheelchair user here—eats up time and energy. It demands constant attention for Every … Single … Movement. It has shrunk my world, disconnected me from place. I miss the outdoors. More to the point, I miss the ease of accessing nature, of travelling, of moving freely in the landscape and in the world. But don’t get me wrong; I’m not looking for sympathy here. It’s okay to miss something.

I’ve experienced years of both mobility and disability and travelled and lived in a variety of interesting places.

I’m lucky. I have a lovely life in Nanaimo: a cozy home, an amazing partner (who paints landscapes, lol), a big window by my desk and an accessible deck, hummingbirds and juncos, strawberries and a smoke tree, still brilliant red.

We have a tiny urban garden (where I can get my good hand a bit dirty) and a mobility scooter that gives me some freedom. My discovery of what exactly was lacking in my writing was that it’s not lacking at all.

I didn’t share my revelation until I said it aloud at a reading

I thought back over the readings and had the first niggle of self-doubt.

My writing was missing something.

months later. It was a cool venue OUTSIDE with the friendly folks at PIP (Poetry in the Park) in New Westminster. I said that I just write body like others write place.

It’s true. And maybe for me it’s obsessive, because I’m fascinated by the way bodies move. The way they adapt. The way they sprout, bloom and fade. The way they’re affected by weather or by stress or by caring attention. The variety of ways that bodies are spectacular. Not unlike places.

So, I write body. I write it into fiction, poetry and plays. I write the disabled body (most often my own) because its idiosyncrasies are compelling and challenging and, yes, even funny. Because the body mapping in my brain gets confused.

Because my body and I are intimate. How could I not write about it all? How could I not imagine that my character has a misbehaving body part that takes on a life of its own? Or that my disabled female protagonist has a sex life? Or that she deserves a sequel? It’s not negotiable. I must.

Bum in the chair (not a problem for me), hand on the keys!

Ready, set, go!

Illustration titled Self Portrait: Recent one-handed photo by Kim Clark of the last 3-D art that she created with two hands

bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 25

Author Visits Leave Me

Shirley Martin

H

aving underestimated city traffic, I slide breathless into my seat at the front of the classroom with scant minutes to spare. Then the students file in. Groupings of Kindergartens, Ones and Twos sit in neat rows on the carpet, looking up at me expectantly. I am pleased to see that all the teachers and EAs remain. Despite their mountainous piles of marking and curriculum planning, none have used my visit as a chance for some desperately needed prep time.

The tall, stately school librarian/music teacher graciously welcomes me to her portable classroom. Her lovely English accent and Mary Poppins garb suit her to a T. My visit comes at the tail end of Literacy Week and many staff and students are dressed as their favourite book characters.

Some familiar individuals sit before me, including a smattering of Harry Potters. I throw a quick smile to my daughter, a school staff member who today personifies Pippi Longstocking, with horizontal braids sticking out from under her jaunty pirate hat.

I live in Ucluelet and am visiting an urban school. I should have dressed up as the Country Mouse!

Much of my writing is inspired by my west-coast surroundings; I share this information with the students. I show them the binoculars that inspired the picture book I will be reading. They listen attentively … such a well-behaved group … as I talk about how my book came to be.

“First,” I say, “I came up with the idea. Then I wrote the story. Then I typed it.” The students nod knowingly, well versed in the use of computers and keyboards. “Next, I made a practice book to help me figure out how the real book will look.” I show them how I folded paper into a little book, cut and pasted sentence strips onto the pages, and marked where the pictures would go. “I don’t draw very well so I hired a lady to do the artwork. But I bet many of you can do your own drawings!” Next, I talk about the layout process and the printing process. “And finally,” I say, “a big

truck came to my house and unloaded boxes and boxes of books, and my husband said, ‘Oh my! That’s a lot of books!’”

Having hopefully demystified the process of creating a book, I begin reading. Eager hands wave frantically, and I stop to explain that there will be time for questions later.

I’d love to hear their input, but I have been down that slippery slope before. If I stop for questions now, we will never finish the story. Happy with this compromise, they settle in to look and listen.

My book is about Ucluelet harbour and the things my grandchildren see through our binoculars. Once the story is done, I open discussion. Keen participants tell anecdotes about deer, seagulls, and an orca sighting. My eagle puppet, Barkley, is a hit and inspires one boy to share his knowledge about eagles. My book features an iconic west-coast object, something familiar to Ucluelet kids, but not so common in the city. When I hold up the glass ball and ask if anyone knows what it is, a little girl says hesitantly: “A ball … made of glass?”

“Good answer,” I reply. “It is a ball and it is made of glass.

Does anyone else have an idea?”

As the green sphere is passed reverently from hand to hand another girl asks, “Is it a pearl?”

“That’s a good guess,” I say. “In a way it is like a pearl, because they are both treasures from the sea.”

After discussing glass fishing floats and their long journey across the Pacific from Japan to the west coast, there is time to talk briefly about writing. I tell the kids about one little boy who told me he was scared to write because he couldn’t spell. I tell them exactly what I’d told him. “It’s okay to make mistakes. Just write. Get your ideas down on paper. You can fix your story later. But to start, just write!” (This is a message I also tell myself repeatedly.)

“Can you come back tomorrow?”

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Smiling I emphasize that later there will be time to polish their story until it shines. And I see in the shining faces before me that the message is getting through. Some of these kids, and not just the little Harry Potters, see that they too can be writers.

The half-hour morning sessions pass quickly. As the last class lines up to leave, a teacher thanks me and says she hopes I will come back to visit. One little girl’s arm shoots up as she asks, “Can you come back tomorrow?” I regretfully decline, explaining that the school staff are ready for their well-deserved weekend. The students file by, high-fiving Barkley on their way out. I smile, reflecting that as an author I have been well received, but Barkley is truly the rock star of this duo!

Later, my daughter tells me that one of the classes is planning a collaborative story inspired by my book. They will make binoculars from toilet paper rolls, go on a nature walk, and write about what they see. I love this!

Author visit goals include making a connection, encouraging a dream and lighting a passion. Thanks to a dedicated school staff, supportive parents and engaged students, this school does a great job of promoting literacy. On my visit to share my love of reading and writing, I was heartened to learn I was singing to the choir.

I am new at author visits. My conclusion thus far is that they are well worth the effort. I treasure a little booklet I

received from one class. Many kids mentioned “the pearl”; frequent references to Barkley show he has gained a veritable fan club. One little girl gave my book this delightful review: “Dear Ms. Martin, Thank you for reading to us, it was a very good book and it made me smile. It made me happy all day.” Now that makes me smile!

Augus 15-18 t 2019

Rockwood Centre | Sechelt

Celebrating Canadian Voices tel: 604.885.9631|toll free:1.800.565.9631

www.writersfestival.ca

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Contributors Doug Aalseth grew up in the Pacific Northwest but left to travel the world. Twelve years ago his travels led him back home. He now lives on central Vancouver Island where he keeps busy writing, acting, doing art, and supporting the Oxford comma. Occasionally though, he does slip away to chase solar eclipses and dig up fossils.

style guides, plain language texts, translation revisions, and non-fiction books. Originally from Scotland, she came to Canada in 2000. She works in British, Canadian, and American English. When she’s not working, she enjoys reading, walking, yoga, curling, and partner dancing.

Kim Clark is an author, poet, playwright and gimp. Her Kacie Berghoef is the coauthor of a non-fiction book, newest work, A One-Handed Novel (Caitlin Press), takes an

The Modern Enneagram. Her fiction and poetry appear in Illumen and the Transcendent and Realm of Magic anthologies. Her byline is on websites such as ThoughtCo, The Billfold, and xoJane. When she isn’t writing, Kacie loves to travel and geek out on psychology. Stay in touch at kacieberghoef.com.

Fran Bourassa is a contributing writer to anthologies,

edgy dive into disability, sex, money, tiny houses and laughs.

She lives in Nanaimo.

Lesley-Anne Evans is a poet, photographer, libret-

tist, and arts facilitator. She was born in Belfast, raised in Toronto, and resides in Kelowna, BC, where she is crafting her second collection of poetry with editor and mentor Harold Rhenisch. Her poetry appears in The Antigonish Review, Contemporary Verse 2, Cascadia Review, Lake Journal, Quills, Barren, and Porch Magazines, among others

including Breaking the Surface, and most recently, Alive at the Centre, the Pacific Poetry Anthology and the acclaimed Force Field — 77 Women Poets of British Columbia. She has won numerous contests, including at the Vancouver Inter- Caitlin Hicks is an author, international playwright, and national Writers Festival, North Shore Writers and Shuswap acclaimed performer in British Columbia. Her debut novel Writers Festival. She has been published in literary maga- A Theory of Expanded Love, published in the US, won numzines including subTerrain. erous awards including iBooks Best New Fiction, Bronze Book of the Year in Literary Fiction (Indiefab Award), and Lesley Cameron is an editorial consultant based in JDC Top Must Read Books of 2015. Her second novel Maple Ridge, BC. She works primarily on reports, manuals, Kennedy Girl awaits discovery.

International Literary Representation Specialists in Canadian writing

The Agency draws on 40 years of publishing experience to obtain profitable and fair contracts with North America’s most respected publishers.

Accepting Fiction and Non-Fiction

Professional expertise in foreign rights sales.

Join our distinguished list of writers from Canada and abroad

www.leckeragency.com

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Shirley Martin writes harbourside in Ucluelet BC. Kay- Patricia Jane Skidmore was born in Vancouver, British aking, hiking, and beachcombing nurture her muse. A is for Amphitrite, her alphabet book for all ages, showcases the Wild Pacific Trail. Her picture book Through Grandma and Granddad’s Binoculars focuses on the magic of harbours. Shirley writes a local history column, and is currently working on a middle-grade chapter book. shirleymartinwrites.com

Columbia. She has spent the past twenty years researching British Child Migration. Britain began deporting young children to their colonies as early as 1619 and it did not stop until the 1970s. Canada accepted 120,000 British children between 1869 and 1948. Today Patricia lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

community services, university teaching and administration. She has published a collection of short stories and four books of non-fiction. Her short stories and reviews have appeared in Room, The New Quarterly, Grain, Prism, Malahat and Event. Her recent memoir, Minerva’s Owl: The Bereavement Phase of My Marriage was published by Oolichan Books in December, 2017.

her writing seriously, but it wasn’t until she retired from full-time work that she found the time to put pen to paper.

Lesley self-published The Dynamic Introvert: Leading Quietly with Passion and Purpose before becoming a freelance writer.

Lesley Taylor is a Richmond-based writer. In high Carol Matthews’ background includes social work, school she was encouraged by her English teacher to take

Carol Anne Shaw is the author of several award-win-

ning books for young readers (Ronsdale Press). She is also a YA book reviewer for BC BookWorld’s The Ormsby Review, and teaches creative writing part-time at a local private school in the Cowichan Valley. When she isn’t writing, she can be found painting at her easel. She and her husband live in Cobble Hill, on Vancouver Island.

Warren Sheffer is engaged in a broad intellectual property and business law practice. He regularly advises authors and performers as well as professional organizations that represent them. Warren began his legal career at the law firm Fasken Martineau LLP (1999-2004) and has since been in private practice with Marian Hebb for over a decade.

Lorraine Toor is Director of Sales & Distribution at Page Two. She works with the company’s global client roster to implement and execute distribution strategies, and oversees the Trade distribution program, print-on-demand initiatives, and digital (e-book and audio) sales channels.

Lorraine is also a five-time JUNO Award nominated singer-songwriter with Canadian children’s music duo, Bobs & LoLo and co-author of the critically acclaimed children’s book, Run Salmon Run. www.pagetwostrategies.com | www. pagetwobooks.com Isabella Wang At eighteen, Isabella Wang is the author

of On Forgetting a Language (Baseline Press 2019). She is a two-time finalist and the youngest writer shortlisted for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Essay Contest. Her poetry and prose have appeared in over twenty literary journals.

She is an assistant editor with Room magazine.

L U M I N O U S Edits Claire Mulligan

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Launched!

New titles by FBCW members flora, fauna & h. sapiens

Pat Smekal and Ian Cognitō | WordScan Press | March 2019 | ISBN: 9781775133919 Poetic soul mates, Pat Smekal and Ian Cognitō have re-issued flora, fauna, & h. sapiens in a “Deluxe Edition” with eight new poems. This collection first came together as a series of performance sets, in which the authors sought to encapsulate their observations of nature vs. human nature. The poems are presented in their original dueling-poet format. “A romp, a ramble and a jog down the many paths where poetry leads us … The confluence of these two voices produces remarkable and startling results.” (A. Brown) These poems tickle and poke. They catch on familiar feelings and shift in unexpected ways to reflect on humanity and our relationship to the natural world. (A.M. Carson). Contact: cyberian@telus.net or https://www.facebook.com/yancognito.

The Way of Haiku

Naomi Beth Wakan | Shanti Arts | January 2019 | Print 9781947067677 Digital 9781947067684

The Way of Haiku is the completion of the trilogy (World of Tanka, Poetry That Heals). It is a guide for learning to write haiku. But true to the inviting and personal style of its author, Naomi Beth

Wakan, it is also a comprehensive examination of the form and an eye-opening view into the way that reading and writing haiku can change the way one looks at life. Wakan discusses the history of haiku’s development, its important literary elements, and the differences between haiku written in Japanese and those written in English. The author inspires readers to write their own haiku while remaining open to the possibilities it provides for personal growth. Write to mail@ pagesresort.com $20 each book. $50 for the complete trilogy.

Mariposa Intersections

Bruno Huber | Granville Island Publishing | 2018 | ISBN: 9781926991924

Two young lovers are forced apart by their different social strata and find themselves years later on opposite sides of a proposed Nuke plant amongst the volcanoes in central Mexico. He forms an activist group while she reports for a right-wing newspaper. It’s a fight for a way of life and the environment against the government’s lust for power and money. Available in multiple formats, Amazon and bookstores.

A Secret Garden: The Story of Darts Hill Garden Park

Margaret Cadwaladr | DHGCTS | May 2019 | ISBN: 976-1-9995465-0-2

Ed and Francisca Darts transformed their rough stump-covered acreage into an internationally acclaimed garden containing many rare and unusual plants. Beloved for her enthusiasm and generosity, Francisca was associated with the most respected garden groups and individuals of her time. The story parallels the transformation of Surrey from a rural community to one of the fastest growing cities in Canada. The Darts donated their garden to the City of Surrey, and it is open to the public on a limited basis.

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Rainforest in Russet

Cynthia Sharp | Silver Bow Publishing | July 2018 | ISBN: 1927616808

This is Cynthia Sharp’s debut book of poetry. It is filled with brilliant imagery and tender moments etched against the mystic backdrop of nature and universal spirituality. The poems move with an intrinsic motion of their own as waves over a parched desert. There is a masterful eloquence at work here that relaxes the reader while at the same time urges the turning of the pages. Sharp has honed her creative senses into a fine feathered brush to paint the beautiful word pictures that come alive on the pages of this debut book. Sharp leaves us sated… yet wanting more. ~ Candice James, Poet Laureate Emerita, New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Fragments of a Shattered Soul Made Whole—A memoir Lyn E. Ayre | Friesens | November 2018 | 9781525534416; 9781525534423; 9781525534409 This memoir is about a New Westminster woman on spiritual recovery from incest, absent father, rape, foster care, addictions, multiple miscarriages and marriages who goes on to have a loving relationship with a husband for over twenty-nine years. She learns to develop nurturing relationships, a purpose-filled niche, and beautiful hobbies, which eventually turn into her final career as a mentor and teacher for others. Lyn Ayre is a word-wizard who can shape-shift even the most horrific life-incidents into palatable paragraphs. She then blends them into a story of an unbeatable spirit who strives to pull the pieces of her life into a coherent whole. She hopes to help many with this book. www.lynayre.com.

Meg Tyson — Screen Lass

Don Hunter | Austin Macauley | November 2018 | 9781788481243 (Hardback) 9781788481236 (paperback) 9781788481250 (e-book) It is 1862 and Meg Tyson under duress is forced to leave her family and life in a coal-mining village in northwest England. In London she searches out the organization that is helping young women emigrate to the colonies—in this case the colony of Vancouver's Island, where she is to begin a new life. In the city of Victoria she finds love, danger, and heartbreak—which sets her on a challenging path to realize a goal bequeathed to her and which takes her to Nanaimo and confrontation with a powerful man in a burgeoning industry: coal mining.

Digital Legacy Plan: A Guide to the … Elements of Your Digital Life Before You Die Angela Crocker and Vicki McLeod | Self Counsel Press | March 2019 | 978-1770403109 One hundred years from now, there will be one billion dead people on Facebook. That’s a sobering thought as we consider our own mortality. And while it can be uncomfortable to talk about death, it’s important to prepare the personal and practical elements of your digital life before death. In this guide, co-authors Angela Crocker and Vicki McLeod offer practical solutions for the social, emotional, and technical aspects of your digital legacy. They include best practices for online memorials, social media and mourning, and digital etiquette in death. Tools and resources are included throughout the book to help your digital estate planning and to empower your estate’s executor. When you die, what will your digital legacy be? It’s time for a digital legacy plan.

Shards of Crystal

Fern G.Z. Carr | Silver Bow Publishing | November 2018 | ISBN: 978-1-927616-96-3

Shards of Crystal is a poetic metamorphosis of darkness to light. Dealing with issues such as suicide, trauma, dementia, addiction, animal cruelty and the death of a child, the book then begins its transformative move towards beauty with poems about musicality, spiritual liberation and the philosophy of existence. It culminates in a philosophical examination of mankind's place in the universe with Fern G. Z. Carr's multiple-award-winning poem, "I Am." Carr writes and translates poetry in six languages including Mandarin. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she’s been published from Finland to Mauritius. One of her poems is currently orbiting the planet Mars aboard NASA’S MAVEN spacecraft. Shards of Crystal is available for purchase on Amazon. www.ferngzcarr.com. bcwriters.ca SPRING 2019 31

Yoga for Writers: Quick and Easy Fitness at Your Computer Taylore Daniel | January 2019 | ISBN 9781988904207

Yoga for Writers introduces a remarkable way to improve your health with innovative yoga moves that can be done sitting at your computer or standing behind your desk. No mats, floor work, or special clothing required.

Still Here on Friday: From Fear to Freedom

B.J.F. Hamilton | December 2018 | ISBN: 978-1-9994537-0-1 B.J.F. Hamilton, at the age of twenty-eight, was a young wife and mother of three. She was thrown into an abyss of hopelessness when she broke down unexpectedly. Her breakdown revealed a mental illness of compulsive neurotic-psychosis. As a child and teen she felt invisible; she turned to perfections for proof she was okay. Perfection did not feel real although she was able to function well in society. The illness overtook her, and she faced a long hard battle on the road to recovery. It was through this journey of self-learning that she was able to identify what had happened and then learn how to continue to live, love and enjoy her life. $15.00 Contact: memoirbjfink40@gmail.com.

Ticking: A Tale of Two Time Travellers

Craig Vann | October 2018 | ISBN: 978-1-5255-2351-9

When Skypilot Sewell‘s brilliant inventress aunt Beatrice provides him with the opportunity to time travel, he is immediately on board. His best friend Zac needs a little more convincing. So begins the young men’s journey through time, space, and eighteenth-century England—where, separated from each other, they meet a host of fascinating characters. Among them are the roguish highwayman Jacques DuTemps, the beautiful Lady Rachel, Brummbär the famous bear, as well as history’s own Henry Cavendish, scientist and natural philosopher, and John Fielding, the “Blind Beak” of London and founder of Britain’s first police force. The pair has thirty-nine days to find each other and enjoy what history has to offer without being found out … or hanged for witchcraft.

French Toast

Colin MacArthur | January 2019 | ISBN: 9781775366010

If by speaking out you could quiet the demons from deep within your mind, would you find the courage? For every #MeToo whose life has been damaged by a perpetrator there are often several other people, #UsToo not directly affected, but who suffer collateral damage unwittingly at the hands of the victim. This is my memoir, but more importantly, it is Christine's story. The story of a young girl growing up in an abusive family relationship, and now trying to cope with adult life.

This is not your usual love story. Available from bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books.

Throw Mama from the Boat and Other Ferry Tales P.J. Reece | November 2018 | ISBN: 978-0-9953235-3-7

SPOILER ALERT! No one’s beloved mama gets chucked overboard in these thirteen short stories about our West Coast ferries. Events much stranger happen, however. Says one reviewer: “Reece uses the trope of our familiar ferries to explore a world just beyond our usual daily lives. In this alternate cosmos, creatures out of classical mythology and fairy tales are half seen out of the corner of at least one eye, and people are more (and less) than what they seem. There’s whimsy in these pages and also a deeply serious understanding of humanity, its wishes, disappointments, and its possibilities.” Says Leacock Award winner Arthur Black: “It’s funny, it’s weird, it’s vintage PJ Reece.”

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No Ordinary Seaman

Gary Karlsen | April 2018 | ISBN: 978-1-7752669-0-7

It is the mid-1960s, a time of cultural change and an awakening consciousness of worlds beyond our shores. A brazen young man, fresh out of high school in Vancouver, crews on a deep-sea freighter in the hopes that it will take him to Norway, the land of his ancestors. The voyages, recounted with wit and humour, begin on the southwest coast of BC, and continue along the sea of life to unexpected destinations. In his memoir, Gary Karlsen unravels some of the unfathomable mysteries of deep-sea shipping and the idiosyncratic lives of sailors.

Between voyages he discovers his roots in Norway, and becomes immersed in a family larger than he has ever known. But he is soon called back to the sea—his chosen road home.

Silence Craves a Voice

Neil Garvie | Poplar Publishing | February 2019 | ISBN: 978-1-7751352-0-3

Days of empire-building, while ignoring the needs of Mother Nature are gone. This poetry anthology pulls no punches, offering real images of nature which touch on the disturbing. But the book is also mindful of those whose hearts are heavy from the constant pounding by messages about human-caused destruction and irreversible damage to our natural environment. It is a must-read with an important message to hold strong and not lose hope. While best known for his educational research papers and social-environmental articles, Neil Garvie is still the boy of his childhood wandering into the bush at every opportunity to discover gooseberry patches, garter snakes and dragon flies. Join him in a quest to hear the Silence. $14. Available at www.neilgarvie.com.

Fishing for Birds

Linda Quennec | Ianna Publications | May 2019 | ISBN: 978-1-77133-613-0

Kate, a somewhat clumsy widow of thirty-two, flees her stifling hometown on Vancouver Island to live alone on an even smaller island in the Salish Sea. There she meets Ivy, a woman who through their conversations transports her to the intoxicating world of 1926 Cuba. Within the context of their friendship, Ivy’s past begins to unravel from a long-held silence, just as Kate finds herself confronting her relationship with the colourful community she’s known all her life, along with an unexpected visitor who threatens to remove all peace from her chosen refuge. Set against the tropical beauty of 1920s Cuba and the Northwest Coast of contemporary time, both the landscape and unique character of island life underscore the experiences of three very different women.

On the Run

Marilyn Anne Holman | James Lorimer | 2019 | 9781459413993 (pb) 9781459414006 (EPUB)

Seventeen-year-old Ryan is running out of chances—in and out of Juvie since he was thirteen, he always seems to end up back in custody. Ryan promises himself he will stay out of trouble. But he is kicked out by his abusive father and runs into his old crowd committing a B&E. Scared of being sent to adult prison when he turns eighteen, Ryan makes a choice and goes on the run. When a trucker named Pete offers him a ride, Ryan's decision to hop aboard alters his life forever. On the Run is a high-interest/low vocabulary teen novel. It explores the struggles teens face in and out of custody and the courage it takes to resolve them.

Tall Tales in Short Stories

Loreena M. Lee | Cordillera North Publications | December 2018 | ISBN: 970-0-9869469-1-2

Tall Tales in Short Stories is a haphazard collection of short stories and essays. Illustrated. Something for everyone: talking crows, magic cats, vampires, karma, wonky wizards, fickle fashions and many other subjects for a few-minutes break from the everyday. Loreena writes novels and poetry, and she illustrates children's books. See www.dragonlee.ca to order. Shipping charges apply.

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Dreamers Needed

Lozan Yamolky | 2018 | ISBN: 9781772802214

Lozan Yamolky humbly began, in 2013, to share her poetry with her family, her community, and then the world. Lozan was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1972. She is of Kurdish descent.

After the Desert Storm War of 1991 and the subsequent uprising of the Kurds, her family became refugees stranded at the borders of Iran. She is the fifth of eleven children and the mother of two boys. She works as freelance interpreter and is the author of two other poetry books I’m No Hero and Counting Waves (Silver Bow Publishing). She lives in Vancouver BC, in the unceded territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish & Musqueam Nations.

The Crest

Jerena Tobiasen | December 2018 | ISBN: 978-1-77374-033-1

The Crest is the first of a three-book historical fiction series called The Prophecy. The Crest follows the lives of a German family through two world wars. Upon completion of the manuscript, Jerena Tobiasen travelled to Europe to follow in the footsteps of her characters. Her extensive research and travel ensure that the three stories are rich in detail. The Crest is available on Amazon (print and e-book). Print copies can be ordered through most bookstores. Visit her website: www.jerenatobiasen.ca.

Where Lovers Die

Gerrit Verstraete | KDP Publishing | 2018 | ISBN: 9781791601539

Where Lovers Die is a story about love and seeking. The lives of Christopher Scott and Carolyn Dawson are immersed in deep feelings and struggling faith, set in the village of Franklin and drenched in the rich atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest coast of British Columbia. The story looks inward to the heart, emergent as an understanding of dying to self, unconditional love, and seeking truth in places such as a prison, in a diner, and in the face of cancer. Worth the trip to Franklin. 374 pages. $26.52.

The Joining

Frank Talaber |BWL Publishing Ltd. | December 2018 | ISBN: 9780228602378

Police detective Carol Ainsworth has gone undercover to a Mafia family wedding at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. Authorities know they are there to start a new drug cartel. A Mafioso is found hanged in his room and the FBI arrive to stick their noses in it. A crazy physic bearing a crystal skull also shows up, claiming Carol asked her to be there. The mob try to enlist Satan’s aid in their venture. Victoria is the most haunted city in Canada, and this is stirring up the ghosts. Spirits trapped in the sewers begin to merge with the drugged essences of the addicts and something new is being born.

A Boy From Acadie: Roméo LeBlanc’s Journey to Rideau Hall

Beryl Young | Bouton d’or Acadie | December 2018 | ISBN English: 978-2-89750-125-9 French ISBN: 978-2-89750-122-8

Published in both French and English, this non-fiction biography for readers from ages ten to adult tells the story of a poor Acadian boy whose sister works as a maid to make it possible for her brother to attend high school. Education opens the door into the world for Roméo. After a distinguished career as a politician in Ottawa, he is appointed to represent the Queen in Canada when he becomes the first Acadian governor general. The book has photographs, sidebars, a reading list and a timeline to supplement the story.

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