Bill Arnott’s Beat A History in Paint

Weather’s turned again, changing like double jumps across a maritime checkerboard, determining the season. Clackclack. Winter. Clack-clack. Summer. Two days after nearhyperthermia, we’re heading out to hike in shorts, tee-shirts, and extra sunscreen.

This is the southwest corner of England, the Penwith Peninsula. Rail lines end at Penzance (yes, where pirates come from). Roads end a smidge beyond that. And everything else (apart from water) truncates at Land’s End, a seaside cliff facing a dreamy expanse of North Atlantic. History says what lies beyond must be Avalon, the mythic birthplace of the Lady of the Lake, the Queen who passed King Arthur his sword.

But since the nineteenth century, this stretch of the country with its tourmaline water and intense northern light has been a magnet for artisans – painters, potters, sculptors – all coming here to find, hone and share their craft. It’s home to the Newlyn School, one-hundred-forty years of painters capturing outdoors en plein air. Emily Carr was here, as a novice, painting beech trees and yews, before finding her place in the evergreen forests of British Columbia, Vancouver Island, and Haida Gwaii, de facto eighth member to Canada’s Group of Seven. With packs cinched snug on our backs, we trek coastal path from Lamorna to Mousehole, following clifftops over the sea, where it crashes onto ragged granite. We climb through Monterey pines, cypress, vine-wrapped maples, and wind-blown gorse under high canopies of ferns. Fat, black bumblebees buzz in fuchsia foxgloves and orange butterflies flutter along the trail. In the distance, St Michael’s Mount cuts a sharp image in clean air and bright sun. The trail meanders toward the pristine fishing village of Mousehole: an inn and pub at the quay, white-washed stone cottages and Cornish flags flying with pride – a white X on black background. Two artists work in oil on canvas at easels on the beach. Tide’s out and brightly coloured boats – skiffs and dories – are beached in the harbour, leaning rakishly, as though posing for the painters.

The thread of land we’re traversing has attracted voyagers for millennia – Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Romans – following the Stone Age they came for Cornish tin and copper, the makings of sculptures in bronze. Then came the Iron Age and Vikings, until Spain assumed the role of marauders-du-jour in the late Middle Ages.

At Penzance, we follow the shoreline to Newlyn, the painters’ mecca. The smell of wood fires seeps from homes, making everything feel cozy and welcoming. We cross a swing bridge and pass the Art Deco Jubilee pool, built to commemorate King George V. The triangular concrete structure’s on a point of the headland, built to cut crashing waves like a ship’s bow. Further on the promenade sit the Battery Rocks where Henry VIII built a barbican, fortified with bronze cannon to deter Spanish raiders. Ironically the Spaniards stole the cannon, possibly to the sound of yoink!

We pass through Penzance’s wherry town – ferries from days of olde. I imagine the smell of pine tar and old port sounds – groaning sheets and billowing sailcloth, the roll of barrels on gangplanks, and shouts of pidgin – a soundtrack to adventure. There’s a petrified forest just offshore, visible at low spring tide. The Fishermen’s Mission sits near the pier, overlooking the lighthouse and Newlyn docks, one of England’s busiest fishing ports. It’s famous for crab, but northerly light and endless shoreline are what draw painters like a muezzin’s call to prayer.

St Michael’s Mount greets us, sitting like a chess piece in the bay. And from where I’m standing it aligns with Newlyn Lighthouse – a postcard view through salt air. A local guidebook describes the Mount as “one of those rare and singular objects which impresses the mind with sensations of veneration, pleasure, and astonishment the instant it is seen.”

St Michael’s, like Normandy’s Mont SaintMichel, reflects pagan-Christian transition, power, and propaganda the binding agents. St Michael was a dragon-slayer, same as Saint George. Whether there are different versions or multiple dragons, I can’t say. Point being these places – artist destinations – resonate with spirituality. From Newlyn we carry on through shallow sea – soft sand and warm ocean water – bare feet with pants rolled up, our very own pilgrimage, aptly enough, as this is St Michael’s Way, tributary to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, what travelling artisans and pilgrim’s call The Way. Bill Arnott is the award-winning author of Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, Gone Viking II: Beyond Boundaries, and the #1 bestseller, Bill Arnott’s Beat: Road Stories & Writers’ Tips. For his expeditions Bill’s been granted a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society. When not trekking the globe with a small pack, journal, and laughably outdated camera phone, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, making music and friends. @billarnott_aps

Elaine Dach

INTVW by Sarah Eroy

Losing someone you love is truly one of the most heartbreaking things a person could experience. As a way of mourning her son’s passing, author Elaine Dach turns to writing. Based on true events, Dach recounts one of the fond memories with her late son, Uriah.

New Reader Magazine had the chance to talk with Elaine as she shares about how she became a writer, the writers that influenced her, and how Uriah’s Big Day came to be.

NRM: When did you fall in love with writing? And who or what influenced your style in writing? ELAINE DACH: I first fell in love with the writing of Poems back in the 1990s. I went into brainstorming mode for years writing many poems on life, love, and loss. I have assembled a manuscript of 150 poems or more which is titled “ My Poetry, My Therapy”

The works of a great Christian poet Helen Steiner Rice and her book “Poems of faith” influenced me a lot in the writing of poems about the Lord. For children’s stories, I was motivated by writing stories from their point of view & experiences. So interviewing kids I know through lively chats is a way to get at those ideas & concerns in their hearts.

NRM: What was your creative process in writing Uriah’s Big Day ELAINE DACH: This true story is based on a day in my son Uriah’s life when he was revved up about going to his dad’s company picnic/bar-b-cue. I interviewed him about how he became so lost back in 1989 when it happened. When Uriah passed away in 2008 at age 26, I picked up the )story and began writing as a positive way of going through my grief & mourning of losing him for good. I decided to use his interview and write it in his person so the reader could experience his initial joy, then oncoming fears, frustrations, fatigue, pain, and then full circle to relief.

NRM: What message would you like to relay to your readers? ELAINE DACH: I would like to relay a two-fold message to my readers. First, to hold onto the lessons & advice they receive from those older & wiser, so they may draw from these in a time of emergency. Second, would be to encourage them at any young age to start writing about their own experiences and keep writing, build up a collection of work, let other writers or teachers in their life read their work & advise. My wish for them is that one fine day they will get published and be blessed to have their work turned into a film or another type of success story.

NRM: What do you think is the role of a writer in society? ELAINE DACH: I think we have a tremendous responsibility as writers to keep readers informed. To dedicate ourselves to writing the truth in matters. In these trying times, it’s helpful to write about things that can entertain, encourage, and uplift the minds and spirits of our readers.

NRM: Are you working on something else right now? ELAINE DACH: Yes, since I have been writing for years, so I have 4 other children’s stories in a holding pattern. They deal with bullying, fears, accountability for children, and sports. I have lyrics (from my poetry) for songs that I sent to a recording company to develop music for it to become a potential hit song. I have my Poetry Manuscript, I spoke of earlier with 150 plus poems on different themes & topics for future publication.

Mahmood Shairi

INTVW by Keith Ayuman

Is it possible to live and dream?

Struggling through the fast-paced lifestyle and struggles after stepping foot in America, Mahmood Shairi has lived his everyday life chin up and focused on his goals ever since. Fueled by encouragement from his pastor and friends at a bible study group, he chronicles his experiences in his book, An Iranian and His American Dream.

In this issue, we talked to Mahmood Shairi as he shares the memories from his past and the present he worked hard for his whole life, faith, and the unbreakable hope.

NRM: What inspired you to write An Iranian Boy and His American Dream? MAHMOOD SHAIRI: Over the last few years, many people have told me that I have had a colorful life and that I need to put my story on paper and write a book. Especially the pastor of the church I was going to, his name was Ron Johnson. At every bible study, everyone sat around and talked about their life and what was happening with their life. Every time I started talking about my life and the stories, they heard the pastor telling everyone to let me put my stories in a book.

NRM: During your writing phase, as you progress further, what surprised you the most? MAHMOOD SHAIRI: What surprised me the most was all of the things I put in the back of my mind or forgotten about. Once I started writing everything just came alive like it just happened yesterday. Things that I have not thought about in years.

NRM: How do you picture your book being adapted to the big screen and who will be your target audience? MAHMOOD SHAIRI: People of all ages. People who are starting a new life and going through tough times. Those that do not lose hope for a better tomorrow. Tomorrow will always be better than today if you have faith in God and in yourself. Middle-aged people who have been divorced 2 or 3 times until they give up on marriage cause’ it’s just not working for them. It took me 7 divorces. Finally, I met my soulmate and the love of my life, and now, I am the happiest man in the world. NRM: Any advice/s to aspiring writers? MAHMOOD SHAIRI: Never assume your writing is not good, not important, or no one is going to be interested in your story. Have confidence. Do your best. I have had a few people bringing me down when I began writing this book including some of my family and friends, but I never gave up. It took me 2 years to finish writing this book.

NRM: Lastly, why should readers read An Iranian and His American Dream? MAHMOOD SHAIRI: Maybe I can inspire them to think if a 15 years old boy from a third-world country can achieve prosperity in America then I can too. Maybe learn something from my mistakes from reading this book so they won’t do the same.

Yank Shi

INTVW by Christine Ade

The concept of time-space travel is indubitably fascinating despite its “impossibility” at present, given the limitations of technology. In this debut novel, World’s End and the Sea Angle, author Yank Shi brings the bibliophile universe into a journey of seeing beyond the world we’re introduced to—the normal forms, environments and the phantom in us.

Read on as Yank Shi shares with NRM the message and creative process behind the World’s End and the Sea Angle and its connection with the realities of our time.

NRM: Your book World’s End and the Sea Angle touches on a unique theme of time-space travel. What was the inspiration behind this brilliant concept? YANK SHI: I have had the idea to explore a path in literature to broaden the current time and space span in the universe with imagination beyond our normal scope of view. Time-space travel is fascinating for me, as well as for a lot of people I suppose, although no actual travel like that has been realized so far at present. I think literature should be a field for our imagination to hover about freely.

NRM: Your book was released just this March 30, 2021 hence, we could assume that the pandemic has been part of the journey in writing and publishing it. How did the lockdown and feelings spurred by the health situation help, negatively or positively, in the process? YANK SHI: The story in Chapter 23 Pandora’s Box of the book touches the reality of the current pandemic that is spreading throughout the world. The 3 chapters in the sequel of the book are all related to human’s blasphemy against God’s will and the serious consequences brought about by it. The lockdown during the pandemic actually provides me ample time in conceiving and completing stories in the book. I have been in a quiet mood in facing this terrible situation.

NRM: The romance and concept of time-space travel in your book may just be what book-to-screen fans are looking for the next time they drop by the cinemas. What do you think about your book having a movie adaptation? YANK SHI: It is a good idea to adapt the book to a movie. The characters and scenes in the far future and remote past might be fascinating for the present audience who are thirsty for some new form of art creation. Of course some plots in the book need to be revised and some new plots might be added to make it more characteristic and dramatic for a movie.

NRM: What is the message that you want to relay in this work and how do you want your readers to interpret it? YANK SHI: In this literary work I intend to relay to the readers the following messages:

About human beings, whether they are in the East or the West, in ancient and modern times, aliens and the earth people, despite their distinctive lifestyles, they all have similar “human nature”. The difference in space-time coordinates does not make them into different and incompatible aliens or extremes. This understanding runs throughout the story from beginning to end.

In philosophy I have presented my new and original theories such as “matter and spirit unity” and “created by heaven and earth” in a literary approach. They reveal the inseparable relationship of spirit and matter, and synchronized creation and evolution. These ideas are the core of ideology and main theme in this book which should be expressed in some way in a movie adapted from the book.

I hope the readers of the book and the audience of the movie adapted from it could cherish their valuable lives, their love between sexes, their love of all mankind and the world.

NRM: Before you published World’s End and the Sea Angle, have you had other works published? Are you working on new projects at the moment? YANK SHI: This book is my virgin novel, my first work of literature. Before that I published some articles in linguistics in some language magazines in China. At present I am working at another novel that describes a person’s three consecutive lives by reincarnation in three different eras.