Freelance
December 2014 / January 2015 Vol. 45 Number 1
In this issue: SWG Welcomes New Board Members Digital Publishing Caroline Heath Lecture Notions Of Love
Contents
Vol. 45 No. 1/Freelance Dec 2014/Jan 2015 ISSN 0705-1379
Executive Director’s Report. .............................................................................1 President’s Report ..............................................................................................2 SWG Welcomes New Staff ................................................................................3 SWG Welcomes New Board Members ............................................................4 Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture ..................................................................6 SWG Conference Photos ................................................................................13 2014 High Plains Book Awards .....................................................................14 Trends in Digital Publishing: Books ..............................................................16 Kay Parley: I’m in Love With Alexander McCall .........................................18 Make This Your Greatest Writing Year Ever .................................................20 A Call to Create: 2014 Manifesto Workshop ................................................21 Notions of Love ................................................................................................22 NaNoWriMo Regina Recap ............................................................................24 Space Time Continuum ..................................................................................26 Books By Members .........................................................................................28 Calls of Interest ................................................................................................30 Professional Development .............................................................................32 Member News ..................................................................................................33 SWG Highlights ...............................................................................................35
Freelance is published six times per year for members of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild.
Contributors to this Issue: Linda Aksomitis Ryshia Kennie Alison Lohans Kay Parley Diane Schoemperlen Darcy Summers Toby Welch Edward Willett
On the Cover: First Snow, by Judy Swallows Although essentially self-taught, Swallows received formal education and training at the Minnesota School of Art, Brandon University and the University of Regina. Judy currently resides in the town of Alameda, Saskatchewan. W: swallowsartnest.com
© Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, 2014
Submissions to Freelance are welcome for editorial review. If accepted, articles will be edited for clarity. The basic criteria to meet in submitting materials are readership interest, timeliness, and quality and following the standard submission format (see SWG website). Viewpoints expressed in contributed articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the SWG. We do not accept poetry or prose at this time. Copyright for articles, reports, photographs, and other visual materials or text remains with the creator and cannot be used or reprinted without permission. SWG pays for one time rights/use only. Payment for articles and reports is 10 cents a word. Photographs and other visuals are paid at a rate of $25 each. Cover art payment is $75. Deadline for the next issue of Freelance: Jan 15, 2014. SWG BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jeanne Alexander (President), Regina Cindy Clarke, Saskatoon Brian Cobbledick (Vice President), Regina Heather Getz, Regina Miriam Körner, La Ronge Brenda Niskala, Regina Paula Jane Remlinger (Treasurer), Beaver Creek Marianna Topos (Secretary), Regina Design & Layout : Corey Wilkinson Editor: Kelsey Gottfried
Contact Us SWG Regina Office Contact P: 306.757.6310 Toll Free: 1.800.667.6788 F: 306.565.8554 E: info@skwriter.com or swgmedia@skwriter.com W: skwriter.com Mailing Address Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild Box 3986, Regina, SK S4P 3R9 Regina Courier or Drop-Off Address 1150 8th Avenue, Suite 100 Regina, SK, S4R 1C9 SWG Saskatoon Office Contact P: 306.955.5513 F: 306.244.0255 E: saskatoon@skwriter.com
The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild gratefully acknowledges the support of SaskCulture, Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund and the Saskatchewan Arts Board
Mailing Address Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild Bessborough Hotel Suite 719- 601 Spadina Cresent Saskatoon, SK, S7K 3G8
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Executive Director’s Report
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he big deep freeze is again upon us, but let’s not make this a winter of discontent — participate in the SWG’s blizzard of activities throughout this frosty season. We’re now able to offer live streaming of our professional development workshops right to the cozy warmth of your own home (and of course the free Write After Lunch sessions will continue). Or, if you’re suffering from cabin fever, join us in person at the Regina Guild office. Enjoy Writing North in Saskatoon in January, Aboriginal Storytelling month in various locations in February, and in March we present Talking Fresh in Regina. We also have numerous readings and other activities geared to inspire your creativity and help you bolster and advance your writing abilities. If you choose to hibernate, keep your fingers nimble writing for our upcoming writing contests, use our manuscript evaluation services, submit to our publications, and an avalanche of opportunities offered by others through Ebriefs and Freelance to stimulate and eliminate any brain freezes. As many of you may have heard by now the SWG’s combination Saskatoon and Grain office endured a major water pipe rupture above the ceiling in its location on the 7th floor of the Bessborough Hotel on November 28. And yes, the ceiling fell in and water deluged everything, destroying desks, computers and other equipment, etc. Luckily some paper materials in filing cabinets and cupboards along the walls escaped total ruin and the computers were linked to our main server in Regina, so we are able to salvage some documents and records. Yes, past issues of Grain have been saved; we have double copies in the Regina office as well. We always try to have backups of as much as possible, but this was certainly an unexpected disaster. As a result of the extensive damage to the office, it will take quite some time to restore, renovate and refurbish. Time will tell how this and the future of Grain evolves. Anyone who attended the AGM at the end of October knows the future of Grain is still up for discussion. Although some motions were made, and the board is taking them under advisement and exploring all the financial and legal implications, the final results may not be decided until next year’s AGM, or perhaps even a special members’ meeting will be called in the spring. We’ll keep you posted right here in Freelance as this year’s status progresses and have information to assist you in making a decision.
We are sad to say the flooding disaster on November 28 was also coupled with being Wes Funk’s last day as the Guild’s Saskatoon Programmer. Wes says, “I am leaving to try to resolve some relentless ongoing health issues – I still have deep adoration for SWG.” We’re sorry to see Wes go, but curing his health issues is the most important thing right now. We wish him a speedy recovery! For now, the Saskatoon-Grain office is closed until we see how things progress in the New Year. I hope you are all able to dispel those winter blues and create flurries of writing. May holiday cheer be yours throughout the coming year. Respectfully submitted,
Judith Silverthorne
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
President’s Report
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e members of the Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild have good reason to be proud of our organization. We have programming designed to help meet the needs of a broad spectrum of writers in this large province, which are well attended. Our finances are in good order. Our membership is growing. The staff are dedicated, energetic, and enthusiastic. The SWG Board is committed to maintaining a viable literary organization which promotes the literary arts and artists. Given all of the above and more, we are looking forward to a great year in 2015. We welcome the new members to the Board. The SWG Board is a policy governance board. We are in the process of learning more about working effectively with this model and we will also be receiving training in other areas of governance as well.
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The SWG prides itself in demonstrating professional behaviour at all times, including from its members. We attempt to ensure that respectful discussions take place at meetings and we expect the same from our members and participants at our events. We regret that this code was not adhered to at all times at our AGM, held at the end of October in Saskatoon. We, the board, apologize for any disrespectful statements or disruptive behavior which occurred at the AGM. The SWG Board of Directors thanks our Executive Director, Judith Silverthorne, for a job well done in which she often exceeds expectations. She has our full confidence and support. Thanks also to our staff for their good work. We look forward to working with staff and members in the coming year, and hope you all achieve success in your writing endeavours for 2015. Season’s Greetings, with best wishes.
Jeanne D.G Alexander President of the Board of SWG
Step Out of the Shadows and Into the Spotlight! Calling All Members to Register on the SWG Website We know you’re out there and we want you to add your profile to make it easier for reading hosts and other folks to find you. Update Find Saskatchewan Writers It’s quick and easy to do: simply click on the Members Area button on the left hand sidebar, login with your password, and using the dropdown menu at the top go through and enter your information in each section to register your page. Make sure tosave your updates after each section. If you do not have login and password information, please contact: info@skwriter.com. Thank you for helping us help you! We want to help you shine!
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
SWG Welcomes New Staff By SWG Staff
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he SWG is pleased to welcome Dominga Robinson as the new Aboriginal Program Coordinator. Dominga Robinson is a Nakota woman who comes from Pheasant Rump First Nations and has been involved in the arts since the age of 6 when she began her acting career with a speaking role in a local production of Cinderella. Since that time, Robinson has continued to engage in theatrical and literary arts with various acting roles, a role as director of the Vagina Monologues and her own play Two Spirits, which was produced by the University of Regina in 2012. Her love of both community and artistic expression have motivated her to, not only volunteer for community organizations like Commonweal Community Arts, SaskCulture Inc. and the Regina Aboriginal Professionals Association, but to also pursue a career in the field of fund development and corporate sponsorship. Robinson has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English with a minor in Theatre Management and Studies from the First Nations University of Canada. She was the Culture and Ceremonies Manager for the 2014 North American Indigenous Games held in Regina.
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Charitable Donations For 2014 Thank You For Your Donations In 2014 We are so grateful for every donation. As we know you are all looking forward to preparing your 2014 tax returns. The SWG would like to remind our donors that SWG & SWG Foundation will send out all tax deductible charitable donation receipts for 2014 in January of 2015. All receipts will be mailed to the addresses we have on file, so if you have moved during the year please send us your updated address. All donations must be received in the office by or be postmarked prior to December 31, 2014 to qualify for a 2014 tax receipt. Don’t forget that the SWG office is closed from December 24 at noon until January 2, 2015.
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
SWG Welcomes New Board Members
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he Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild elected new members to the Board during the Annual General Meeting held on October 25, 2014 at the Park Town Hotel in Saskatoon. The SWG welcomes the new members to the board and would like to extend thanks to those members who were on it for the previous year. Jeanne Alexander Jeanne Alexander hosts and produces Writing in Saskatchewan on Access 7 TV. Recently she invited the SWG to partner with her on Words on Air on CJTR 91.3 FM to promote literary events in Saskatchewan. She is the President of the Canadian Club of Regina and she is on the Editorial Committee of the Saskatchewan Senior Citizens Mechanisms’ Grey Matters. She is currently the past president of the Regina Senior Citizens Centre as well as past president of Wascana Writers. She progressed through the offices of Toastmasters to become Public Relations Office for Alberta and Saskatchewan. She has been published in anthologies and newspapers. Jeanne hosts and produces other radio and TV programs and has a background in administration. She continues to be involved in many community organizations. Cindy Clarke
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Cindy (Cynthia) Clarke is the President of the Prairie Spirit Teachers’ Association and a PhD candidate at the Department of Curriculum Studies, University of Saskatchewan. She received her Bachelor of Arts with High Honours from the University of Saskatchewan (1992), her Master of Arts (1995) from the University of Saskatchewan, and her Bachelor of Education (2002). In addition to her work in education, Cindy Clarke is an active, published poet and scholar whose work focuses on identity and community. Cindy has been a member of the SWG for several years and has participated in many Guild programs including the Mentorship Program where she studied as an apprentice with poet Gillian Harding-Russell. Cindy has served on a number of professional and community committees including the Board of the Saskatoon Writers Coop and the STF Strategic Advisory Committee on Social and Political Advocacy. Cindy lives in Saskatoon with her partner and their two dogs. Brian Cobbledick Born and raised in Regina, Brian was the third child of six (two brothers and three sisters). Technically inclined, he was the entrepreneur of the family. He married and also acquired his black belt in Judo the same year he graduated as an electronics technologist. Brian is a PMP, Senior Project Management consultant with relationship management skills. His expertise is in recovering failed or failing projects. As a photographer he goes by the philosophy that there is beauty in everything around us – “the world around you will give up its secrets if you are ready, observant and patient. There’s beauty all around. You just have to open your eyes to it.” He has self-published a book of poems and short stories with accompanying photos to augment the feelings expressed. In his technical role, Brian has presented multiple whitepapers to his peers at the Project Management - Professional Development Conferences. Heather Getz Heather has worked in Public Relations and Communications in Saskatchewan for over twenty years for non-profit and private companies. Getz believes the perspective she has from working from home as a Saskatchewan freelance writer combined with her work experience in marketing and communications brings an important perspective to the SWG Board. She has been a member of the Guild for about ten years and on the SWG Board for two years. Getz appreciates the opportunity to serve Saskatchewan writers through the Board.
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Miriam Körner Miriam Körner is a freelance writer, visual artist, and wilderness guide. She lives at Potato Lake, near La Ronge, where she is one of NORTEP’s sessional instructors. She has benefited from SWG programs such as the mentorship program, the writers retreats, and the rural author’s program. She is currently a member/friend of CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers), SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), The Wild Rice Writers and the La Ronge Arts Council. She brings with her extensive experience in developing and coordinating arts programming as well as a good understanding of the needs of rural writers to the Board. Brenda Niskala Brenda Niskala first served on the SWG Board as secretary in 1976 and has been a member of the SWG ever since, managing to volunteer for some aspect of the Guild`s activities each year for almost forty years. She was also on the founding boards of Sage Hill, the Saskatchewan Book Awards, and Access Copyright (then known as Can Copy). Brenda has served on the boards of the League of Canadian Poets, Coteau Books, and most recently, on the Cathedral Village Festival Literary Arts Committee. She has worked in the cultural industries for over twenty years. She is a writer.
Paula Jane Remlinger Paula Jane can be found writing and editing from her home in Beaver Creek, SK. She has both an MA in English (U of S) and an MFA (UBC). She is the author of two teacher guides (Thistledown Press) and several poems that have been published in journals and anthologies. She is currently working on a poetry manuscript, several picture book ideas, and a detective novel. She served on the SWG Board from 2008-2010 and is happy to have the opportunity to do so again.
Marianna Topos Marianna was born and raised in Hungary and moved to Saskatoon in 1985. She has a teacher’s degree, with a major in Physical Education and the Russian language. She works at various fitness and sport clubs as a coach, fitness instructor, and personal trainer. Marianna is an avid volunteer. In the last thirty years she has worked at many schools: sports related activities, field trips, library, outreach programs, after school programs etc. She has also started two non-profit organizations with friends. One focuses on after school activities for high school students – “Healin Tru Artz”. The other is for marginalized individuals – “Switch Focus”. She believes in the power of writers’ groups and has been a member and coordinator of one for many years (Survivors). Two years ago she started an open group to give a welcoming place for all writers. This is her second time as a board member for the SWG (2006, 2013-14). She has lived in Regina for the last twenty-one years. Marianna is the mother of five children, four adults and one young one.
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
The Caroline Heath Lecture
Break Every Rule (But Not Before You Know What They Are) By Diane Schoemperlen
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o successful piece of writing happens entirely by accident, not even—or especially—those that venture farthest from the traditional literary forms. Known for her adventurous fictional experiments that challenge the conventional confines of the rules of form and function, Diane Schoemperlen will explore the theories and techniques behind writing that not only pushes the literary envelope but that reinvents it altogether. If risking it all in writing is like jumping off a cliff, you’ll get better traction and velocity if you understand the foundation of that cliff. Look before you leap and then make up your own rules to shape the story you want to tell. ***
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I am honoured to have been invited to give the Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture this year. I’m sorry to say that I never actually met Caroline Heath but I’m happy to say that in the very early stages of my writing life, she did publish two pieces of my work. The first was a short poem called “Words For A Clear Night in August” that she included in the February 1977 issue of Grain. Yes, I did write and publish some poetry once upon a time, back when I was just a wee young thing. A few years later Caroline Heath chose my story “Life Sentences” to be included in Double Bond: An Anthology of Prairie Women’s Fiction, published by her Fifth House Press in 1984. I’d been living in Canmore, Alberta for some time then so that I qualified as a “prairie writer.” The story had been written a year or two before that, when I was still in my twenties. It tells the rather grim tale of a man and woman who’ve known each other since they were small children, dated in high school. She thought they would be together forever but he went off to college and then married someone else, a gypsy. The young woman was heartbroken but then she too married someone else, a doctor. They are all very wealthy people and end up living in two matching mansions on the same street. They all become best friends. Then the doctor falls in love with the gypsy and they all get divorced. The man and the woman start living together. Although this is what she has wanted all her life, she is miserable and begins thinking of all the different ways she could kill him. All this in six pages! What made this story unusual and experimental was the form. When writing the first draft of a story—both back then and now—if I find myself unsure of what word I want
to use at any given point, I tend to just put a blank space in parentheses in that spot so I can go back to it later and figure it out. I decided to play with this habit of mine and so this became a kind of “fill-in-the-blanks” interactive story. Sometimes what should go in the blank is obvious, other times the possibilities remain open. So here is how the story begins: They’ve known each other, this woman, this man, ever since they were kids, healthy, wealthy, and ( ). For all their young lives, they lived in identical ranch-style homes side by side on West ( ) Avenue. Both their fathers were important energetic men in the ( ) Company downtown and their mothers were ( ) housewives, lazy and slim. They were both only children, growing up smoothly with a strong sense of their own power. Everywhere they looked there was money or signs of it. Money was not something they ever had to ( ) about. They lived comfortable lucky lives. They knew nothing of pain or suffering, danger or ( ). Such things did not seem ( ) or possible. And here is how it ends: She goes through all the ways she could do it, one by one. The possibilities are ( ). She thinks that ( ) would be best—bloodless, tidy and ( ). No one will ever know. She’s sure she’ll get away with it—she’s led a charmed life. No one will even ( ) her. She is above suspicion, though not above ( ). The clouds are ( ), the ill wind is ( ), and it looks like it’s going to rain. Life, it seems from this vantage point, tends, intends, to go on for a very long time. There is no one to blame, no one to thank, no one but ( ). Thirty years on and I’m still quite fond of this strange little story. But the question that comes to mind now is what made me think I could do this? What made me think I could break the rules and get away with it? Even before this one, I was writing all kinds of strange stories. I was writing traditional stories too but the ones I loved doing the most were the experimental ones. Where did I get the confidence to do this kind of writing? I’ve recently come to the conclusion that it was never confidence at all. It was stubbornness. Whereas confidence is an ephemeral qual-
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 Neither of my parents finished high school. My father worked at the grain elevators—in fact, he worked for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool—and my mother ran a post office outlet in the back of a drugstore in the Westfort business district. The only books we had in our house when I was growing up were an old edition of the Webster’s New World Dictionary that my father used when doing crossword puzzles and a set of the Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia that you could buy at Safeway, one volume per week for 99 cents each. And yet from a very early age I was always interested in books and art. I was always reading and I was writing too—stories inspired by the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books I was collecting. Like most kids I got a weekly allowance and I always spent it on books. There was a very small book department in the back of the Westfort hardware store. My mother found this habit of mine quite disturbing. She often asked why I didn’t ever buy a blouse or a skirt or earrings or something … “like a normal girl.” My parents didn’t understand me any better than I understood them. I often wondered if I was adopted. In fact, I look very much like both of them, so I guess not.
Diane Schoemperlen presents her lecture during the Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff ity that will always wax and wane, a fly-by-night feeling about as substantial as smoke, stubbornness is a good solid thing, not always wise but certainly reliable, steadfast, and dependable. I’ve just published my twelfth book and I still find that my confidence tends to be fleeting and fluctuating, likely to desert me just when I need it the most. But ah, my stubbornness is a splendid thing that will never let me down. Whereas confidence is just as likely to up and leave you flat at any given moment, it is your stubbornness that will always see you through. Let’s go back to the beginning. I was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, a city that proudly called itself “a lunch-bucket town,” where the main industries were the grain elevators and the paper mill. An only child, I come from the heart of the working class in Thunder Bay. Our little war-time bungalow was in a neighbourhood called Westfort, so close to the paper mill that the smoke spewing from its red-and-white stack twenty-four hours a day left a fine white residue on the car, the back step, the clean clothes hanging on the line to dry. Not to mention the smell!
Not surprisingly, I spent a lot of time at the library where the librarians let me borrow books from the adult section even though I was just a kid. Week after week, I remember bringing home as many books as I could carry, often large heavy art books. One of these was about Pablo Picasso. I happened to leave it on the kitchen table and later found my mother flipping through the pages. “Look at this,” she said, pointing to a page in the chapter on his earliest work. As I recall now it was a pencil drawing of a pretty little girl with curly hair, chubby cheeks, and serious dark eyes, a fine portrait so detailed and realistic it looked as if she might speak. (After all, Picasso was a classically trained art student from the age of seven, his very first word, I’ve since learned, said to have been the Spanish for “pencil.”) Shaking her head, my mother flipped ahead in the book. “Why on earth,” she said, “would someone who could make a picture as pretty as that want to do something like THIS instead?” Stabbing her finger at a later page, she cried, “What was wrong with him?” On that page was his iconic 1937 painting, “The Weeping Woman.” Why indeed? In addition to the art books at the library, I had also discovered an entire section of books about writing. It was 1968, I had just started high school, I was fourteen years old and in grade nine. (I note here that Alice Munro published her first book, Dance of the Happy Shades, that same year.) In elementary school I’d been lucky to have two or three teachers who thought I had talent and who’d encouraged my interest in writing. I was already dreaming of becoming a published writer someday. I brought these books about writing home from the library three and four at a time, often borrowing the same book several times and taking notes. I still have that old notebook, a spiral-bound Hilroy stenographer pad with the price printed on the cov-
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 er: 29 cents. The notes inside are dated from October 1968 to April 1972. In the forty-plus years since then, I’ve never lost my fondness for and fascination with books about writing. I’ve accumulated dozens since then, books both inspirational and instructional, ranging from the seriously brilliant, such as Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway, and The Art of Fiction by John Gardner, to the possibly ridiculous, such as The Writer’s Block: 786 Ideas to Jump-Start Your Imagination by Jason Rekulak and What Would Your Character Do? Personality Quizzes for Analyzing Your Characters by Eric and Ann Maisel. And of course I have Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott—my original copies of both of these read so many times and so marked up that I’ve had to buy second copies.
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But it was a book that I discovered at the library when I was fourteen that was to remain my favourite for many years: Techniques of Fiction Writing by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, first published in 1959. I have my own copy now, ordered online a few years ago, and I still find much of its advice useful and inspiring. And when I teach writing now I still use much of what I learned from this book. It has chapters with titles like “Plotting Without Pain,” “Man or Mannikin,” “The Secrets of Good Pacing,” “Descriptions They Won’t Skip,” “It’s All in Your Point of View,” “Good Writing is Rewriting,” and “Write What You Don’t Know.” The first chapter, “Craft and Creativity,” begins with this: Speaking in the broadest general terms, we may say that fiction is made up of two elements…Fiction is composed of form and content as a human being is composed of bone and flesh, and neither element is more nor less important than the other. Both must be present; you want neither a skeleton nor a jellyfish… In other words, the skeleton must shape the flesh. Let’s think about this idea of the skeleton. The human body is said to contain 206 bones—that’s a lot to work with! We’re talking here about breaking every rule, not breaking every bone! Most of my experiments are about refashioning the skeleton, about rearranging some of those essential bones to create a new structure within which I can best tell the story I want to tell. Here’s a simplified example to explain what I mean. We know the standard story structure as Beginning, Middle, End. What if we turned that basic structure upside down? What if we wrote a backwards kind of story for which the structure was End, Middle, Beginning? Now for me that’s a skeleton that presents more exciting and interesting possibilities. Or what if we multiplied the parts of the basic structure? What if we set up a story that had more than one beginning, middle, and end? What if we wrote a story
that was structured as Beginning, Beginning, Beginning, Middle, Middle, Middle, End. Or more than one End. This is how my mind works and so to me these kinds of experiments feel more natural than trying to force a story into the more standard forms. By the time I was in high school I’d realized that I could learn as much about writing from reading other people’s books as I could from the books about how to write. I was reading and rereading Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, John Cheever, Flannery O’Connor, and Donald Barthelme. After I finished high school, I stayed in Thunder Bay and attended Lakehead University, graduating in 1976 with a B.A. in English and a minor in Philosophy. At that time, the big faculties at Lakehead were forestry, engineering, and nursing. The arts faculty was nigh unto invisible, but in the end, I felt this made for a very good educational experience. By the time I was in my second year, there weren’t usually more than ten or twelve people in a class. The professors had all the time in the world for keeners like me. This was long ago, back in the dark ages, back in a time when my son who was three or four years old asked me if the world, like television, was still in black and white. Certainly it was long before there was any such thing as a Creative Writing Department or an MFA Program. There were, however, two creative writing courses I could take at Lakehead, one in second year and one in third. They were both taught by the same man. He was tough and his criticism of my work was often very harsh. I still remember his comment on one short piece I wrote. The exercise was to write a descriptive paragraph about autumn. I wrote what I thought was a lovely and lyrical description of a single maple leaf falling from a tree. His comment was “Peanuts could say more in a three-frame comic strip than you’ve said here.” Much later he told me that his tough criticism in the class was intended to weed out the weak—the writing life not being for the faint of heart. True, it’s not. But I was only nineteen years old and I often went home from those classes and cried. I’ve done a lot of teaching myself since then and I’ve never done it his way. But much as he often made me cry, I always went back and I didn’t give up. Stubborn. This professor was also very fond of rules. Most of which, thankfully, I have long since forgotten. I do remember one though. He said—and he said it often—that a story must never be written in the first person present tense. What? Why? I don’t remember his reasoning behind this rule, but I do know that even at the time this seemed questionable to me and that every time since then that I’ve written a story in the first person present tense, I’ve done it with a sense of glee. If only because I’ve turned out to be a lot more famous than he has.
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 But what I did get out of this class was a great textbook that has informed my writing ever since. It was called The Process of Fiction by Barbara McKenzie. We used the Second Edition, published in 1974, which, as was noted in the “Preface,” had been updated to include “recent developments in experimental writing…and stories by Joyce Carol Oates, Donald Barthelme, and John Barth.” And so it included two sections: the first called “The Process of Fiction” and the second called “The Process of Fiction as Fiction.” In the first section the elements of a traditional story are examined: words as the base metal of fiction, the story as narration, point of view, different kinds of narrators, flat and round characters, plot, setting, style, imagery and symbolism, dialogue, tone, theme, and so on. In the second section these elements are revisited and examined as to how they are used or dispensed within experimental writing. Having things laid out clearly in this side-by-side manner was illuminating for me and it helped me place what I was doing in a broader context. It also helped me see that the traditional conventions of fiction are the foundation from which all experimentation springs, that without the conventional we could not find our way to the unconventional, that how you tell the story is as much a part of the story as anything else. As I wrote in the description for this talk, if risking it all in writing is like jumping off a cliff, you’ll get better traction and velocity if you understand the foundation of that cliff. Perhaps knowing the traditional and conventional rules of
how to write a story is like the bungee cord that will keep you from crashing to the rocks below or maybe like the parachute that will keep you from sailing off into the great beyond never to be seen or heard from again. Let’s try another metaphor. We can all drive our cars without actually understanding how the internal combustion engine works. But when that little red Check Engine light comes on on the dashboard, we would do well to take the car to see someone who does. Much as I love the mechanics at the garage I take my car to, I’m pretty sure they can’t help me figure out what’s wrong with my story. Knowing the basic rules of how a traditional story works is like knowing how the internal combustion engine works: once you’ve got the basics you’ll be better able to be your own story mechanic. You will be able to diagnose what’s working, what isn’t, and why. Then, with any luck, you’ll be able to fix it yourself. I began publishing my stories while I was still in university, in the school newspaper and our own literary magazine, The Muskeg Review. Immediately after graduation, in the summer of 1976, I went to the Banff Centre to take their six-week writing program. Although it is a cliché, it is indeed true that this experience changed my life. Not only because Alice Munro was my teacher for part of the time I was there but also because for the first time in my life I no longer felt quite so strange. I was surrounded by people who were just like me, who were interested in the same things as I was, who didn’t think I was crazy for wanting to be a writer. Certainly back home in Thunder Bay, this dream of
Members of the SWG listen intently to Diane Schoemperlen during the Caroline Heath Lecture. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 mine was, shall we say, suspect. So immediately after that six weeks I moved to Banff, then lived in Canmore for the next ten years. I began submitting my work in earnest to Canadian literary magazines. Some of those early stories were rejected ten or twelve times but I persisted. Stubborn. Most of them were eventually published in such places as the Canadian Fiction Magazine, Descant, The University of Windsor Review, The Malahat Review, Room of One’s Own, Event, and of course Grain. And almost all of those stories, including the ones that were rejected a dozen times in the first place, were eventually published in my books too. I published my first book in 1984 when I was thirty years old. It was called Double Exposures and it was a fictional novella illustrated with old family photographs, published by Coach House Press. In fact, I lost my job over that book. Not because of anything that was in the book but because I’d called in sick so I could go out and celebrate its publication. I was working as a clerk at a convenience store in Canmore to support my writing habit. The husband of the store manager saw me in the bar celebrating with my friends that night when I’d said I was sick. I got fired the next day.
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A great many things happened in the next few years. My son was born, I published a collection called Frogs and Other Stories which won the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Howard O’Hagan Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. My son and I moved to Kingston and I published three more collections of my short stories including The Man of My Dreams that was short-listed for both the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium. As it happened Alice Munro had a new book out that year too, Friend of My Youth. I certainly didn’t mind losing to her and was astonished that when I saw her at the Trillium Award ceremony in Toronto she actually remembered me from fifteen years before at the Banff Centre. All of this was heady stuff and I’d quickly become known for my unusual story forms. I was especially fond of writing stories in short sections, either numbered or titled, stories featuring lists of various kinds, stories that were themselves lists. I’d written a story as if it were a “true or false” test and another as a multiple-choice quiz. These were the skeletons I’d used, the forms I’d chosen in which to arrange the content, the flesh, of each story I wanted to tell. I’d written a story in the second person about my clothes called “Red Plaid Shirt” that featured not only titled sections, but a chorus after each, a story that, almost thirty years later, is still my most anthologized story. All of this attention brought with it many reviews. A lot of things were being said about me and my work. The reviewers frequently used words like “exciting, adventurous, entertaining, lively, unconventional, and innovative.” I especially like the word “innovative” as a descriptor of my
work. I’ve found that the word “experimental” tends to put people off. They think it means the work is going to be hard to understand. And certainly there is some experimental writing that is so obscure, so cryptic, so inscrutable, that it remains inaccessible and incomprehensible to most readers. Perhaps these writers are breaking so many bones of the skeleton that it is no longer recognizable or perhaps they have not seen the need to rebuild a new skeleton on which to hang the flesh of the story. Perhaps they’ve just left everything scattered about, unanchored and flapping in the wind so the reader can’t get a grip on any of it. I hope that none of my writing ever falls into that category. To my way of thinking, all writing is an act of communication. The writer is trying to tell something to the reader. If that something is written in such a way that the reader cannot understand it, then it is not accomplishing that goal. The reader says, “Tell me a story.” I say, “I’d love to tell you a story and I’m going to tell it to you in a new and different way.” Sometimes the things reviewers say about your work stick in your head for years. Of one of my early story collections, a reviewer said I had a vision as grim and bleak as Samuel Beckett himself. What? I do not. Another reviewer said I was constantly “challenging the short story form.” Is that what I’m doing? This makes me sound like quite the renegade! But I certainly don’t sit down at my computer each morning thinking, “Now what can I do to challenge the short story form today?” I’m actually a very rule-abiding person in my daily life. I don’t jaywalk or cross the street on a red light even if it’s pouring rain or forty below. I drive like a little old lady. I never park my car where I shouldn’t, especially not in a wheelchair spot. I obey the watering restrictions imposed by the city in the summer and I don’t shovel my snow onto the street in the winter. I clean up after my dog. I am a very orderly person and I have no problem with rules. Except when it comes to writing. I guess I’m just uninspired by the rules. I like to make my own rules in my writing. Conventional fictional structures often feel inadequate to me. For instance, it is generally held that two important aspects of a traditional story are the narrative arc and the creation of verisimilitude. But if the goal is to create the appearance of reality, how many people do you know whose lives have actually followed a tidy narrative arc? Nobody I know. This is why I’m drawn to fictional forms involving short sections. This chopped up structure better suits and reflects my take on the way we really live. Many of the forms that appeal to me grow naturally and organically out of my own inclinations. Lists, for instance. When I first started using lists in my fiction, I didn’t think anything of
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 it. I am a list-maker, always have been, always will be, I can’t get through a day without my lists. So yes, maybe I am challenging the short story form. But mostly I’m challenging myself and I’m not advocating anarchy in the process. My work has also been described as “highly controlled” and “tightly constructed.” True, very true. While the first twinge of an idea for a story may be something of a surprise, a random thought, an accident, what I then choose to do with it is not. None of it happens willy-nilly. As I set about refashioning the skeleton, I put my own rules in place and then work carefully within them. Sometimes I have the idea for the content of the story first and then devise a structure that I think will highlight it. Other times I have the idea for the structure first and then come up with the idea for the content that will best work within it. Not all experiments work. But certainly I do learn something from every attempt, so nothing is wasted even if it does not result in a successful story. Although I have used some unusual structures in my three novels, in truth my heart lies with the short story. I have found it to be the perfect vessel for playing with the rules. A great many experiments that work wonderfully well in the short story would not be sustainable through the longer novel form. I should also mention that I know very little about literary theory per se. I don’t understand deconstructionism, Derrida, hermeneutics, or any of that stuff. I’m not even sure what exactly “postmodernism” means, other than that it is the work of the writers who came after the moderns. I believe it is better to leave this kind of theorizing to the academics. I’m just trying to tell you a story. When my collection of illustrated stories Forms of Devotion won the Governor-General’s Award for English Fiction in 1998, I was not the only one who was surprised. It was about as far from mainstream as I’d ever been in my writing, these strange pieces illustrated with black-and-white collages. Many of the stories are not much like what we think of as “stories” at all. They are more like meditations or ruminations. Immediately after the press conference announcing the winners, there was a deluge of interviews to be given. Most of the interviewers stuck to the simple questions like “How does it feel to win?” and “What are you working on now?” I quickly ran out of original ways to describe how absolutely marvelous it felt to win and I was somewhat reluctant to announce to the whole world that I was in fact now working on a novel about the Virgin Mary. One reporter, I think he was with Maclean’s, asked me a different question though. “What is your definition of a short story?” Clearly he was a little bewildered by the book. If I’d had my wits about me, I might have quoted Flannery O’Connor who, back in 1959, after describing this question as being “inspired by the devil who tempts textbook publishers” then said:
The best I can do is tell you what a story is not. 1. It is not a joke. 2. It is not an anecdote. 3. It is not a lyric rhapsody in prose. 4. It is not a case history. 5. It is not a reported incident. It is none of these things because it has an extra dimension and I think this extra dimension comes about when the writer puts us in the middle of some human action and shows it as it is illuminated and outlined by mystery. But I did not have my wits about me so I said I didn’t know, I said I didn’t have a definition of the short story. In retrospect I thought this made me sound rather dumb. In retrospect I wish I’d told him about when my son was little and he’d be telling me the story of his day at school, one thing after another: “And then. And then. And then.” That is about as far as my definition of a story goes. And then. And then. And then. My most recent book is something of a sequel to Forms of Devotion, another collection of illustrated stories called By the Book. In this case I’ve gone even further in breaking the old rules and making up new ones. In this case, I didn’t actually write the stories, I borrowed them. These stories are drawn from old textbooks that were originally published in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Books like a 1500-page complete history of the world published in 1900, an Italian—English handbook for Italian citizens emigrating to North America also published in 1900, a high school botany textbook called The Commonly Occurring Wild Plants of Canada: A Flora for Beginners, and a 1920 book called The Ontario Public School Hygiene. I played with the actual sentences from these sourcebooks, picking and choosing them and then rearranging them in a process that was something like doing a jigsaw puzzle and ending up with a picture entirely different than the one of the front of the box. In the creation of each of these stories I set one basic rule for myself: I must use each sentence exactly as it appeared in the original. Building these stories was a very time-consuming process, one that I found always exciting and surprising. I then illustrated each story with coloured collages that also involved following a number of rules I set for myself. The title story is the most narrative of the seven stories in the book. Based on the 1900 Italian—English handbook that I mentioned, in this case I wrote a long story in which I could embed dialogues and letters from the old book. The other six stories are composed only of lines from the old books, each line appearing in these new stories exactly as they appeared in the original publications, rearranged to suit my own purposes.
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 So although I did not actually write the lines in these stories, I discovered them (like a continent), mined them (like gold or coal or potash), unearthed them (like bones), excavated them (like archaeological artifacts), solved them (like a crossword puzzle), deciphered them (like a secret code), erected them (like a building or a flag), and choreographed them (like a ballet or maybe a barn dance). Like all my other experiments with form, this one grew out of my own inclinations, the things that fascinate me: the intersection of the written word and visual images, in this case, fragments and collage. In the introduction to the book I begin with two quotes that would form the basis of my literary manifesto if I had one. The first is from Octavio Paz who, in his 1973 volume of essays, Alternating Current, said: The most perfect and vivid expression of our time, in philosophy as well as in literature and art, is the fragment. The great works of our time are not compact blocks, but rather totalities of fragments, constructions always in motion by the same law of complementary opposition that rules the particles in physics.
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Rules again! As Paz sees it, the fragment is the form that best reflects the ever-changing realities of our modern lives, each fragment being like “a stray atom that can be defined only by situating it relative to other atoms.” It is all a matter of relationship and interaction. The second quote in the introduction is from Charles Simic’s 1992 book Dime-Store Alchemy on the life and work of the maverick surrealist Joseph Cornell: The collage technique, that art of reassembling fragments of pre-existing images in such a way as to form a new image, was the most important innovation in the art of the twentieth century. Innovation again! That’s what breaking the rules is all about and that’s why it fills me with delight and inspiration every time. One innovation invariably leads to another. In my opinion, there is no end in sight for all the new and original work that lies ahead of us. It has been said of this book that I have now created an entirely new genre. Who knows? Maybe I have. I don’t know. What I do know is that working on this book took me into a whole new kind of creative process that filled me with delight and desire: the sheer delight of discovery and the growing desire to break even more rules and see what happens next. As often happens, when I first started thinking about writing this lecture, I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough to say. But, as almost always happens, once I got down to the actual writing of it, I found I had much more to say than time would permit.
So I want to finish up here by going back to my fascination with books about writing. I believe that learning about writing is a lifelong process. Each new writing project presents its own particular challenges. It doesn’t matter how many books you’ve already read or written: there is always more to learn. For that reason I’m still reading books about writing and making notes just like I did almost fifty years ago when I was fourteen. In fact, I borrowed part of the title of this lecture from one of them: Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, and Moments of Desire by the American writer Carole Maso who is regarded as a pioneer in combining fiction and poetry with criticism, journalism, and the visual arts. As it says on the book jacket, “Writing in bold and unpredictable prose, Maso strives, in both subject and form, to recapture the value of the written word which she believes has been diluted and constrained by conventional literary devices.” So tonight I want to leave you with a handful of quotes from Carole Maso: New definitions of story and character may be required. To imagine story as a blooming flower or a series of blossomings. To change the narrative drive to better mimic one’s own realities. To find a form both compressed, distilled, and expansive enough to accommodate the most difficult and the most subtle states of being. A free and large enough notion of story so that it does not coerce or constrict. This kind of work requires a strange combination of both utter control and complete recklessness. There’s a kind of glittering out there—a dark aching, a longing that can only be adequately felt through form. What is a book and how might it be reimagined, opened up, transformed to accommodate all we’ve seen, all we’ve been hurt by, all that’s been given, and all that’s been taken away. Diane Schoemperlen has published several books of short fiction and three novels. Her collection, Forms of Devotion: Stories and Pictures won the 1998 Governor-General’s Award for English Fiction. Her latest project is By the Book, a collection of stories illustrated with her own full-colour collages, published by Biblioasis in September 2014. Born and raised in Thunder Bay, ON, Schoemperlen now calls Kingston, ON home.
Conference Photos
Garry Thomas Morse, Cathy Fenwick, Diane Schoemperlen, and Warren Carriou speak about the ups and downs of writing during the SWG Fall Conference. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Winners of the John V. Hicks Award for Non-fiction, Robert Calder, dee Hobsbawn-Smith, and Lloyd Ratzlaff. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff
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Vijay Kachru and other members of the SWG listen to Diane Schoemperlen give the annual Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff
Fran Eldridge and JoAnn McCaig listen intently during David Seymour’s poetry workshop. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff
Alice Kuipers hosted a fiction workshop on creating story arcs during the SWG Conference. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff
Gina Rozon presents the findings of the Grain Ad Hoc Committee during the SWG AGM. Photo courtesy: SWG Staff
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
The 2014 High Plains Book Awards By Alison Lohans
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t started on a grumpy morning. The phone rang once again. Upon seeing Montana’s 406 area code, I hesitantly picked up, suspecting yet another telemarketer. Instead, a real person spoke to me, Susan Lubbers of the High Plains Book Awards. “You’re a finalist!” she said. My day promptly flipped to sunny. My picture book Leaving Mr. Humphries (which I’d self-published with Your Nickel’s Worth after ten years of “rave rejections”) had once again made the cut, after having first been shortlisted for the 2014 Saskatchewan Book Awards. “You have to come!” Susan enthused, and having heard wonderful reports about the High Plains Book Awards and BookFest from friends who’d been finalists in prior years, I knew without question that I’d be there. I sent an excited email to my artist, cousin Gretchen Ehrsam of Seattle, who did the illustrations for our book, and she promptly said she wanted to come as well.
The High Plains Book Awards “recognize[s] authors and/ or literary works which examine and reflect life on the High Plains.” This region spans a huge geographic area including the U.S. states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, as well as our three Canadian prairie provinces. (This year’s finalists came from an even greater range — as far south as Texas and east to New York.) This was the twelfth High Plains BookFest and eighth annual Book Awards, sponsored by Billings Public Library, The Writer’s Voice, Billings Cultural Partners and, with this year’s theme of “Border Crossings”, some additional help from the SWG and the writers’ guilds of Alberta and Manitoba for the Friday evening Finalists’ Reception. BookFest events ran from Wednesday, October 22 through Sunday the 26. The organizing committees pursued the “Border Crossings” themes with open-minded generosity. The
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From Left: Gretchen Ehrsam of Seattle, WA; Susan Lubbers of Billings, MN; Alison Lohans of Regina; Jacqueline Guest of Alberta; Gary D. Robson of Red Lodge, MN; and Marion Mutala of Saskatoon during the 2014 High Plains Book Awards held in Billings, Montana. Photo Courtesy: Alison Lohans.
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 panels included such topics as “A Colorful Old West – US & Canadian History” and “Canadian Literature Today!” featuring our own Allan Safarik and other Canadian guests such as Kim McCullough, Sarah Klassen, and Jacqueline Guest. The generosity didn’t stop there. With a third of the finalists living in Canada, BookFest organizer Corby Skinner applied for a National Endowment for the Arts grant, 65% of which was used to cover our travel costs. Ten book categories were honoured, with a total of thirtyone finalists. These included Best First Book; Best Woman Writer; Best Poetry; Best Art & Photography; Best Short Stories; Best Young Adult; Best Nonfiction; Best Fiction – and new this year, Best Children’s, and Best Medicine & Science Book. Canadian writers such as Beth Goobie, Marty Chan, and Winnipeg poet Sarah Klassen were among these finalists. Calgary’s Kim McCullough brought home the Best Woman Writer Award for Clearwater (Coteau Books); and Marion Mutala of Saskatoon won Best Children’s Book for Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Wedding (Your Nickel’s Worth). The entire weekend was superb. Our friendly hosts had a palpable excitement and genuine interest in all of us and our books, making each of us feel like a winner. Several hosts, including Susan and Robert Lubbers, were generous individual sponsors of the awards. Though only a few of us
came home with a $500 prize, everyone received a lovely engraved plaque mounted on wood native to the Billings area. It was a treat to connect with writers, publishers, librarians, booksellers, and teachers from south of our border – as well as those from our neighbouring provinces. This experience was a first for my cousin Gretchen, who drove all the way from Seattle with her husband to be part of the festivities. She was thrilled to be included as a creator in every respect, including our panel on Children’s Literature, and received a plaque along with all the rest of us. “Everyone is so nice!” she told me several times. “I wish we could all win!” My own personal win happened when an Alberta writer who’d juried a different award told me that her eighteen-year-old son actually cried when he read Leaving Mr. Humphries. And a final note: We stayed in the historic Dude Rancher Lodge. There was no sign of “Arabella” haunting the room four doors away; nor did I hear ghostly children running around. However, entering my room that last night, I was greeted by the distinctive scent of a stable… Alison Lohans is a writer from Regina. Lohans has published numerous books for children and young adults. Including Waiting for the Sun, The Raspberry Room, This Land We Call Home and Foghorn Passage. Lohans was nominated for a High Plains Book Award in 2014.
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Trends In Digital Publishing: Books By Linda Aksomitis
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t one point in time, books were painstakingly copied by hand, and then in 1450 Gutenberg invented the printing press and revolutionized the publishing industry. Those first books were superbly crafted hardcovers, so it’s no wonder when dime store paperbacks appeared in the 1800s and 1900s that they were considered the trashy cousins of real books. History, we know, tends to repeat itself, so it’s no surprise that ebooks had a similar reception when digital books began to appear on the scene. When was that exactly? Well, in the U.S. (statistics aren’t readily available for the Canadian marketplace) ebooks had a 0.05% share in 2002. Fast forward a decade to 2012 and add in the Kindle, the Nook, and the Kobo e-reading devices, plus of course, the iPad, and those numbers shoot way up to 20%! According to the percentage calculator that’s a phenomenal increase of 39,900%.
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And while any trend showing that kind of growth is destined to slow, from 2012 to 2013 the U.S. ebook industry grew another 55% (statistics all from the American Booksellers Association) to 31% of overall book sales based on ISBNs issued by Bowkers. Sounds pretty amazing, right? However, that percentage is still incredibly under-reported because none of the hundreds of thousands of independently published ebooks sold on Amazon with an Amazon ASBN are included in that count.
Linda Aksomitis. Photo courtesy: Linda Aksomitis
Okay, suffice it to say that ebooks are here to stay and they’re doing well.
just 18% from the Big Five in the U.S. (for more details on calculations see the authorearnings.com site).
The other very interesting trend, particularly for authors, is that independently or indie published books have come full circle, from being scoffed at as vanity publishing to being the majority of what readers buy in some genres.
The Big Five, who publish many of the big names in the mystery/thriller/suspense genres, such as Stephen King and Dan Brown, pulled ahead of indie authors. That was, of course, to be expected, as if there’s one trend that’s as true in digital publishing as in traditional publishing, it’s that readers are loyal.
Surprised? On the opposite page you’ll find a graph created by Hugh Howey, based on his painstakingly collected data from Amazon bestseller lists, showing this changing trend in book buying. Romance, as most of us know, is one of the top-selling genres, taking, according to Nielsons, 13% of all adult fiction sales in 2013. What’s new, which you can see from the chart based on Amazon bestsellers, is that indie authors captured 66% of all the romance novels sold, compared to
Nonfiction didn’t present a lot of spread between the Big Five and indie authors, with percentages of 35% and 26%. It stands to reason, though, that readers may rely on traditional publishers to ensure the accuracy of factual information before committing their dollars to a sale. Science fiction and fantasy (often lumped together as speculative fiction) novels, like romance, are dominated
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 • Using free giveaways of prequels, the first book of a series, or short stories with the same characters • Developing a strong online writer’s platform or brand with such things as social media and blogging • Prolific authors earn more, although the law of diminishing returns applies (after 60 books it’s not going to make a lot of difference) • The $2.99 to $4.99 price point works best for most authors (if they also use free giveaways) Credit: Chart created and shared by a Creative Commons License from: www.authorearnings.com/july-2014-authorearnings-report/ by the independents. For each Big Five sale, indie authors make around two sales, that gives ebook self-publishers a nice edge in this genre. But while numbers are always interesting in establishing trends, it’s often what’s behind the numbers that tells the whole story. Here, the trend to romance and speculative fiction crossing a number of genres in the same book, such as paranormal romance, has given fans something new to savor in their ebook reading. There are, as you might expect, some trends appearing in who’s making the sales too. As always, a professionally edited, well-designed book will pull ahead of the competition just as the chaff blows away leaving the wheat’s gold nuggets behind at harvest. The truth is that hybrid authors, or authors with both traditionally published books and self-published ebooks, are pulling ahead in income. Why? Well, that’s hard to pin down as the reasons may vary from author to author. Some include: experience in self-marketing, support already received through the “establishment,” the ability to recognize what they need to get help with, like editing, and what they can do themselves, such as the format conversions. Or, it could just plain be that hybrid authors are typically more business minded, or they have stuck to sending their books off to their traditional publishers. Additional trends that have emerged from studying indie fiction authors making a living include: • Releasing at least three related books (same series or genre) in a short time span (several months)
While statistics show that genre fiction is the big winner in indie ebook trends, there’s also a place for literary fiction. Darcie Chan’s literary debut novel, The Mill River Recluse, stayed on the New York Times bestseller ebook list for 28 weeks (topping at #2) USA Today ebook bestseller list for 30 weeks. Linda Aksomitis, of Qu’Appelle, teaches the courses, Publish and Sell Your E-Books, Introduction to Internet Writing Markets, and Write Effective Web Content, through 4000 community colleges and libraries worldwide. Her next installment in the three part “Trends in Digital Publishing” series will be on children’s literature.
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
I’m in Love with Alexander McCall Smith By Kay Parley
T
here are dozens of reasons for loving Alexander McCall Smith and certainly I am not the only reader to profess fondness for the man. His wit alone gives him pride of place, not to mention his marvelous grasp of cultural idiosyncrasies and of character. There’s his originality. His writing is effervescent and I can’t image saying that about any other author I have ever read.
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But I have a specific reason for making such a claim today. I had just finished reading a very second-rate mystery by a very second-rate author. Someone had obviously convinced that writer that it is crucial to appeal to the reader’s senses. We get involved, get into the scene, if we can what is to be seen, feel what’s tangible, smell the odors, and hear the bells. True enough, but let’s not take it too far. After reading half a dozen pages of the above-mentioned mystery, I was yet to know anything about a character, but I was thoroughly acquainted with the setting. I knew about the paneling on the walls, the colours scheme, the rugs, the age and style of furnishings, the paintings, the artifacts on the mantelshelf. Oh, and the windows were important, and the view from those. Not content with detailed descriptions of setting, the writer went on to dress the characters for me. I knew the style and condition of clothing, the colours… I was expecting to meet the designer labels. By the third chapter, I was so weighed down by all this sensory input I pitched the book. This is when I decided to re-read one of Smith’s Botswana books, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies. I learned that the wind blowing through the eucalyptus trees near the café made the sound of the sea. Good! I’ve got it. Don’t waste time telling me any more about the café, because that sound is what Mma Ramotswe has noticed, so I’ve got her. She’s in the setting and it’s real, with just one sentence. My senses are satisfied and I am not bored to death. A few pages later, Mma Ramotswe is in the Anglican cathedral for a service. Smith doesn’t bother to tell us the size of the cathedral or what images are depicted in the stained glass. He doesn’t even mention candles. Heck, a church is a church and most of us have been in one. Once she was seated and busy thinking, as she always is, “Mma Ramotswe looked up to the ceiling of the cathedral, watching the blades of the great white fans as they cut slowly at the air.” And that’s that. In the very next sentence I’m back in Mma’s head, thinking of the mystery she is
Kay Parley. Photo courtesy Kay Parley. trying to solve. And that is exactly where the reader should be. Is it any wonder I’m in love with such as writer? One brief sentence and I’m there. I see it all, sense it all. I’m poised to get on with the plot and the characters, and it hasn’t taken tedious stage setting to get me there. Now comes a scene when Mma gets a bit careless and runs her “small white van” (no endless description there, either) into a man on a bicycle. She drives him home and, just at the exact moment when I was beginning to get curious about him, “She looked sideways at the man. He looked as if he was in his late forties. He had a good face, she thought, an intelligent face, the face of a teacher, perhaps, or of a senior clerk. And he spoke well too, enunciating each word clearly, as if he meant it.” The man was probably black. So many in his Botswana books are, but Smith doesn’t bore me with a detail like that. Unless a reader has some room for imagination on his own, reading will never be worthwhile. I find nothing about the shape of the man’s cheekbones, the circumference of his waistline, or the length or condition of his hair. I don’t even know what he’s wearing. After reading descriptions in which the width of the cuffs has to be detailed, along with the age and colour of fabric and style of shoes, I really don’t feel in the least deprived. As Mma Ramotswe glances at the man, I take in what she sees. I see that intelligent face and hear those well-spoken
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 words and I get the feeling the man can be trusted. His role in the story is likely to be a positive one and suddenly I want to know. That is the important thing. Does the reader want to know? Is she “into” the story? Will she regret having to put the book down to answer the phone or eat lunch? Hearing that the man looked as if he might be a schoolteacher or a senior clerk was enough to tickle my curiosity.
Kay Parley is an author and newspaper columnist. Her books include, They Cast a Long Shadow, Lady with a Lantern and The Sixth Age. Kay Parley is now living in Regina, SK.
It is true that the senses must be involved if we are to bring a reader into a story, but they don’t have to pick up on every detail. Minute particulars about a home certainly place the owners on the economic continuum, but the important thing is to get the reader involved with the characters in the story. What would they observe? For example, a lady might notice the china on the coffee table, but a 22-yearold male would be more likely to notice the hockey stick in the entry porch. Detailed descriptions of the view don’t necessarily do it for me. White ceiling fans cutting the air did. They brought a story to life and life is where we want a story to be. Alexander McCall Smith lets me live a story and enjoy it. He is like fresh air and sunshine. And I love him.
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Poetry Writing Class with Bruce Rice January 17 to February 7, 2015
The SWG is pleased to offer an extended poetry class for beginning to emerging writers. This workshop will be held in a four week session on Saturday afternoons. Registration is required and class size is limited to 12.
When: Saturdays 1 pm - 4 pm Where: SWG Board Room in Regina Fees: $49.00 + tax To register please fill out the registration form online and email registrations to: swgevents@skwriter.com or mail to PO Box 3986, Regina, SK S4P 3R9. Cheques can be sent by mail or phone the SWG office to pay via credit card.
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Make This Your Greatest Writing Year Ever By Toby Welch
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hy not make this the best writing year you’ve ever had? Don’t let anything stop you!
A handful of writers share how they will have their most accomplished year to date. Hopefully they will inspire you: Fred Elford, author of Sometimes, I Fly - “One thing I am going to do is create a period of time in which I do nothing but things I can clearly and legitimately attach to either getting writing done or becoming a better writer. Since I have never been a disciplined writer, I need to create a disciplined approach to my writing. I have hated discipline from childhood and now find myself needing it! Irony.”
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Writer Marni Fullerton –“Write more every single day and not be overtaken by the To Do List. To remain brave and passionately committed to my ideas and not second guess them. Remain focused. Embrace editing with joy rather than dread for more often than not what seemed brilliant the night before is NOT. To slow down and fight back the never ending push to be faster and faster in crafting.”
Naz Sohni Uppal, author, screenwriter, and film producer - “I will go to more networking events. Meet more new and interesting people. Make some new friends. Help others out.” Cathy Ostlere, author of Lost and Karma - “I’ve been toying with the idea of writing the middle of my next novel first. Then the end. Followed by the beginning. I love beginnings so much they sometimes get so long they become the beginnings for five novels instead of one. A better year might just be more acceptance of the vagaries of the craft. And more wine at the end of the day.” Kathy Fitzgerald, a writer with many hats including blogs, articles, and book contributions - “I will read more instead of wasting time goofing around on the computer.” Sheree Zielke, author of Martha’s Vine - “I’ll write another book, or two. Keep plugging away, putting one foot in front of the other, and never giving up. Never. I’ll still do the jobs that pay the bills, while finding the time to indulge in my surreal worlds. It’s like having a mistress really. And, oh boy, can she nag.”
Poet Sharon Ingraham - “I will prioritize better and find a better balance. I’ve started doing this already but I need to get even more organized and focused. The major thing that I will be doing is submitting, submitting, submitting.”
Fil Fraser, columnist and author of three books - “I will try to achieve what I think is the ideal balance: to write in the morning, run around and do business in the afternoon, and read in the evening.”
Lois Donovan, author of young adult and historical fiction - “If I want each novel to be better than the last, I need to be a diligent, intentional word collector. I absolutely must continue reading voraciously, but what about my craft as a wordsmith? I’m not overly adventurous so I am going to start with one new word each day. I will copy the word into my notebook, study its meaning, practice using it in my day, and find a way to incorporate it into my personal journal that night.”
Fran Kimmel, writer for the corporate sector, short fiction, and radio drama - “Pay more attention, quit moseying along on autopilot. Remember to gape at your world and be knocked out by it. It’s hard to write if you’re not awestruck. Become a better listener: stop nodding your head while your brain’s on spin-cycle. Listening makes you better and that makes you write better. Sit. Stay. Write.”
Wilma Rubens, author of Entangled Enchantments - “It is time to turn down the volume on my inner critic who has already usurped too much of my life energy. Time to turn up the volume of inner encourager. I will endeavour at the end of each writing session to pat myself on the back for having the persistence, courage, and dedication to keep on writing and rewriting one word, one sentence, and one paragraph at a time.”
Let the musings of our fellow writers inspire you to make this your best writing year ever! Toby Welch is a full-time freelance writer who strives to make each writing year better than the last. That goal usually involves copious amounts of Toblerone and steeped tea. You can find Toby at tobywelch.ca
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
A Call to Create: The Manifesto Workshop By Jessica Riess
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or the 2014 Culture Days, the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance partnered with the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and Paved Arts to present two Culture Days Manifesto workshops. These workshops gathered a group of individuals in both Regina and Saskatoon to explore examples from history, discuss the concepts of advocacy and intentionality, and to create and share their own manifestos. A manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual or group. Manifestos consist of a number of statements that are declarative in nature, written in numbered or bulleted points that do not necessarily follow logically from one thought to the next. These Culture Days Manifestos were artistic in nature; participants used markers, paints, and their own words to declare their intent. Categories of Manifestos include political: e.g. Communist Manifesto, Occupy Wall Street; cultural: e.g. 1909 Futurists, Dadaists, Surrealists; personal manifestos which contain discussion of value to such an exercise; and corporate manifestos: e.g. Lululemon. The manifesto workshops were writing, graphic, performance, and more. Writing instructions: (1) Make it unique to you, valuable to you (2) Make the argument, be clear (3) NOT cryptic verbiage for an in-group. Writers were encouraged to: (1) Have a call to action (2) State their intention (3) Use short declarations, bullets (4) Strong vigorous language (5) Use of Capita letters Facilitated by Madeleine Blais-Dahlem in Saskatoon and Brenda Niskala in Regina, participants shared their writing and their thoughts on a myriad of topics. The afternoon of September 27, 2014 was met with a wellspring of passionate people, great minds, and good food. If you weren’t there, it’s too bad you missed it.
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Notions Of Love By Ryshia Kenniei
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here was an amused edge to the voice as I sifted through the box of vintage romances in the foyer after exiting the church garage sale. The man picked up the box and tried to hand it to me, clearly wanting to have done with the messy little group of books while others of more worthwhile status were priced and inside. My eyes met his and then dropped to his rather condescending but seemingly well-meaning smile and I regret now that I didn’t address the censure behind that smile. It would have proven an interesting conversation. “I don’t read those books. They’re all the same,” said the volunteer in a second-hand bookshop, a month or two later. “…you just fill in the blanks,” said an indie writer who, in an online comment, helpfully married up self-help books with romance and got a two for one shot.
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“Romance is rather formulaic isn’t it?” asks a poet as if that ended the conversation. Hmmm… there is truth in those words in any genre, including poetry. Romance novels focus on love and the dance that leads to love, and with that they deliver a good dose of hope. They’re also stories of empowerment for women, once written solely for women but in recent years romance novels have broadened to include gay as well as straight romance and numerous other sub-genres. But the truth is still that most romances are targeting mainstream women. Romances promise an equal and fair relationship and they promise an adventure, a peek, like every book, into another world. Everyone with me so far – no one running for the exits screaming tawdry, predictable, formulaic? Most genre fiction has been maligned at one time or another. I like to think that even Shakespeare might have had his back row hecklers, and in fact there’s evidence that in the beginning he may well have. But romance naysayers have the longest staying power and in a genre written largely by women, it seems the biggest criticizers are women. Two out of the three examples I opened this article with were comments delivered by women. But that’s a fact that touches on something much larger than the scope of this article. Love and romance, it makes the world go round and it definitely helps perpetuate the species. But seriously, drop the happy ever after ending or the promise of the same,
Ryshia Kennie Photo courtesy: Ryshia Kennie and you get a love story not a romance. Examples are Romeo and Juliet and Gone with the Wind. So what is it about the happy ever after of the romance novel that incurs our disdain, not everyone’s of course, but enough that it has my concern, that it has me writing this article? I suspect it’s not love that is the issue. I suspect that we might all be okay with love. Modern culture is awash in notions of love, if it weren’t we might find holidays like Valentine’s Day cancelled for lack of interest. And we certainly might stop listening to music, from the classics to the crooners of the fifties to the contemporary someone is offering music about love. We’ve listened to Led Zeppelin again and again belting out “Whole Lotta of Love”- yes, a little more sex than love but how about the Beatles who wanted… “to hold your hand” or have you watched Leonard Cohen in concert on his knees so many times for love – a tortured kind of love, but love no less. So we’re okay with love – maybe it’s the happy ever after ending of the romance novels that we have issues with,
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015 happy ever after or at least a hint that in the end the hero and heroine will be on the path to togetherness. What is strewn in the path, how close they are in the end, all of that is open to the writer’s imagination. Should it be a romantic suspense we know that they may be going through hell to get to that happy ever after with a trail of bodies on the way, if it’s historical romance the given is that it’s not set in current day but could be in any century prior to that. What about the formulaic? It’s true that there’s an expectation in genre stories. A mystery must have a mystery to solve, suspense must have a villain that threatens the lives of the characters, and a fantasy includes something not of this world. We’ve been telling stories for thousands of years and we all have expectations that writers try to meet whether consciously or unconsciously. But there are only 26 letters in the English language and we can only twist them so many ways. What is unique, what is special is what we bring to the table; our personality, our way of perceiving things and in a well-written book that’s what makes the writing, no matter the genre memorable. According to the Romance Writers of America 84% of romance readers are women and in 2013 sales of romance novels were $1.08 billion. Obviously people, especially women, enjoy reading romance. I can’t speak for other women but I open a romance and I expect to view the world from a different angle, to hopefully learn something, and to be entertained. That’s a big expectation but that’s what the best novels deliver. I’m reading Brenda Novak’s A Matter of Grave Concern, there’s nothing predictable about the opening as the heroine barters with body snatchers for a dead body for a medical college. It’s a first-hand look into the dark side of British history and, yes, it is a romance. Romance writers know that it is all about telling a good story, one that is unique to them. It’s about bringing one more tale of love to a successful close. After all, in this world of bad news, wars and terror upon others a wellcrafted love story, one that has us thinking of some aspect of the world in a new way, throw in a happy ending or two, should be and is, in high demand. Now, let’s give it some respect. Ryshia Kennie is the author of From the Dust, Ring of Desire, Fatal Intent, and Intent to Kill, her latest romantic suspense is called Legacy of Fear. For more information visit: ryshiakennie.com
Advertising Rates We accept classified and display ads at the following rates:
Display ads: Full page: $150 1/2 Page: $100 1/4 page: $50 business card: $35 (SWG members pay 75% of above rates)
Classified ads: 20 cents per word (plus GST). Ads run in three consecutive issues unless cancelled SWG members may place one 25-word ad free of charge each year.
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NaNoWriMo Regina Recap By Darcy Summers
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ational Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a month-long event that has been held annually since 1999. During the month of November, participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel. People from all walks of life participate in NaNoWriMo, all with different goals. Some people go in with the goal of becoming published. Some are already published and just want the community to help them finish the next one. Some just want to write. I fit into the last group. In 2008, I was in my first year of university. A few of the YouTubers I followed began talking about NaNoWriMo. I spent that October toying with an idea, looking up writing playlists and spreadsheets to keep track of my word count. I downloaded dozens of motivational wallpapers. When midnight struck on November 1st, my fingers flew over my keyboard. This was great! I wrote well over the 1,667 daily minimum.
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On November 2nd, I abandoned that story. I switched to a prequel of sorts for a short story I had finished a couple of years earlier. The keyword there is ‘short’. I hadn’t written anything longer than 1,000 words in my life. I couldn’t keep my mind on the same project for more than a week, and when the writing mood had struck me, it only lasted a few weeks at most before I was back to not writing. This was going to be more challenging than I had thought. When November 30th approached, my plot became whatever popped into my head that could get me a few more words. Not stopping to think about quality, plausibility, or anything at all. Just writing as much as I possibly could as fast as I possibly could. I got to 50,134 words just before midnight. I haven’t opened that document since. Not everything I’ve written has been terrible, however. Three out of six years contain stories I still want to work with. The reason I keep coming back, year after year, terrible draft after terrible draft, is because of the community. Online and off, NaNoWriMo brings together a massive group of people enthusiastic about writing. There are so many people that during the first week of November the website is about two refreshes away from breaking completely. No matter what time it is, there are people online to help you with any little plot tangle you’ve found yourself in. If you have to leave town for a week, odds are wherever you go there’s a region set up and you can drop in at their write-ins for in-person support. I have either met most of my friends during or have forced into participating in NaNoWriMo with me. I have friends who I never see throughout the rest of the year, but see weekly in November.
As time went by, though, my enthusiasm for NaNoWriMo faded. I didn’t want to lose my enthusiasm, so I chose to do more than just participate. In 2013, I volunteered to become the Municipal Liaison for Regina. The position had been vacant for the previous two years, and I attributed the lack of ML (and the organized write-ins that came with them) to my waning interest. If no one was going to fill that role, I was confident that I could do a passable job. Last year, my first as ML, was not the best year for NaNoWriMo in Regina. A lot of regulars only made a few write-ins, or didn’t participate at all. There was a core group who came to every write-in, but rather than enthusiastic chatter broken up by enough writing time to get the words for the day, it was three hours of silent writing. Sure, everyone got their words down, but I doubt any lasting friendships were forged. I was expecting a huge boost purely because an ML existed. Instead nothing. After that lackluster participation, I drastically lowered my expectations for 2014. I still put in a lot of work and partnered with the SWG and Regina Public Library, but I didn’t have much hope that things would be any different. The first write-in had twelve people. It was on the high end, sure, but people always dropped out as the month went by. That was surely the peak. People would definitely stop and - the next write-in had seventeen. Oh. CBC Radio’s Morning Show wanted to do a story on us. An article was written for the Journalism School. Nineteen people came to the next write-in. By the Midway Party, two people had already passed 50,000. People were getting words in and having fun! I still don’t know how to handle this rise in popularity. These things come in waves, and I could spend write-ins next year typing alone in an empty room. But there will be a next year, at least for me. I’m probably going to spend every November for the rest of my life attempting to write novels of varying quality. Maybe, one day, I’ll get something to the editing stage. Maybe I’ll even get something published. Maybe I’ll have years of never-finished novels taking up space on my hard drive. Probably that last one. Darcy Summers has participated in six National Novel Writing Months, and is in her second year as the municipal liaison for Regina. She spent the month working on a parody of 50 Shades of Grey..
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The Space-Time Continuum: The World Fantasy Convention By Edward Willett
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attended my first science fiction convention when I was a university student in Searcy, Arkansas: RockCon, held in Little Rock. The guests of honour were author Gordon R. Dickson (somewhere I have a paperback of Soldier, Ask Not with his autograph in it) and artist Frank Kelly Freas (ditto an art print). I already knew that I wanted to write science fiction and fantasy. In fact, I already had written science fiction and fantasy—three novels in high school—and I remember my friends volunteering that fact to Dickson (I wasn’t about to tell him myself) when I got him to autograph my book.
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Since then, I’ve attended numerous conventions, including MisCon in Missoula, Montana, the no-longer running ConVersion in Calgary, KeyCon in Winnipeg, various World Science Fiction conventions (my first was in Winnipeg in 1994; this year’s will be in Spokane, Washington), VCon in Vancouver, and others. But for my money—and yours, too, if, as someone interested in writing speculative fiction, you decide you want to visit a convention and can only choose one—the best of the lot is always, year after year, the World Fantasy Convention (worldfantasy.org). At most conventions, the fans interested primarily in books mingle with (and of course often overlap) the fans interested in cosplay (dressing up in costumes), gaming, movies, TV shows, and comics. Some conventions have hardly any book-based content at all—think ComicCon in San Diego, which, while it does feature authors among its guests, doesn’t exactly focus on them.
Edward Willett. Photo courtesy Edward Willett. Fantasy Fiction Changed by World War I,” “Myths and Legends of World War I,” “The Great Game in History and Fiction,” and “World War I Alternate Histories.” But there was still plenty of room for more generic fantasyrelated panels, such as the one I was part of, “Adoption and Fostering in Fantasy,” along with “Blurring the Genre Lines,” “Beyond Rebellion in Young Adult Fantasy,” “The Literary Uses of Fantasy,” “Libraries and Librarians in Fantasy,” and many more.
But at the other end of the spectrum is World Fantasy. Every year, wherever it’s held, it draws more published authors and professional editors than any other. There’s rarely a costume to be seen and the panels inevitably focus more on the literary than any other form of the fantastical genre.
The panels are a treasure trove of inspiration and enlightenment for writers at any level of development, from the brand-new wannabe to the seasoned (or even grizzled) pro. Despite that, it’s fair to say there are plenty of people that attend who miss all the panels, because much of what makes World Fantasy so valuable actually happens behind the scenes and at the periphery.
Each World Fantasy Convention has a theme. This year’s convention coincided with the centennial of the start of the First World War, and so many panels focused on that pivotal period in world history, including “How World War I Changed Fantasy Literature,” “Women’s Roles in
There are dozens of readings by new and old authors. One writer who read at this year’s convention reported that a magazine editor rushed up to the podium after he was finished and has since bought a story from him. There are any number of business meetings going on—I overheard
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an agent talking to a publisher in the lobby, I met with my own editor and publisher, Sheila Gilbert of DAW Books, and a friend of mine from Winnipeg had the most exciting convention of all: Sheila informed him while he was at the convention that she’d decided to buy his novel. The World Fantasy Awards (that take the form of a stylized bust of the great horror fantasist of the early 20th century, H.P. Lovecraft) are presented at the convention. Unlike the better-known Hugo Awards, which are awarded at the World Science Fiction Convention based on popular vote, the World Fantasy Awards are a judged award, more like the Saskatchewan Book Awards.
I always return from a convention feeling inspired, rejuvenated, and anxious to write both more and better. They’re great places to congregate with fellow writers and readers, meet editors, agents and publishers, spark new thoughts and fire the imagination, and come away with renewed passion for and commitment to, this unique art form. Next year’s World Fantasy Convention is in Saratoga Springs, New York. See you there? Edward Willett is a freelance writer and performer in Regina. He is the author of over 50 books.
Like most science fiction and fantasy conventions, there are also guests of honour. This year’s literary Guest of Honour even gave the convention a Saskatchewan flavour: Guy Gavriel Kay was born in Weyburn. But the real value of World Fantasy (and other conventions) isn’t so much in the specifics as in the overall pleasure of surrounding yourself with others who share your love of fantastical literature—people who think it perfectly natural that there should be panel discussions on “The Myriad Faces of Dragons” or “The De-Horrification of Horror Characters.”
Find Saskatchewan Writers and Services Is a valuable online promotional tool for SWG members and the work you do. Consider adding yourself. If you are already listed, please make sure your information is current so people can learn more about you.
For more information contact the SWG office at: 306.791.7740 or info@skwriter.com
2015 SWG Winter Retreat Do you need time to focus on your writing? The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild Winter Writers/Artists Retreat for 2015 is being held February 6 to 27, 2015 at St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster. The deadline for applications is January 7, 2015 Rising costs for our facilities means we must adjust fees accordingly. The fees for this year are as follows: SWG and CARFAC members: $350 + GST Out-of-province members: $560 + GST Out-of-province non-members: $650 + GST For more info visit:
skwriter.com
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Books by Members
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Legacy of Fear By Ryshia Kennie Beyond the Page Publishing ISBN: 9781940846361
Proudflesh By P. J. Worrell Thistledown Press ISBN: 9781927068953
113 Boathouse Hill By: Joyce Olesen Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing ISBN: 9781927756263
Andra Vandersan is an expert code breaker, as fiercely independent and beautiful as she is brilliant, working at the highest levels of deciphering. When her next-door neighbor is brutally murdered in a way that suggests the work of the Chinese triads, two things become clear: Andra was the intended target of the hit, and the assassin is going to return.
In P. J. Worrell’s debut story collection, readers will find women and men of intense substance and spirit. Her characters (albeit needful) are portrayed with respect and affection. They may not be heroic, but they stare death in the face without flinching.
What begins as a casual collection of notes about growing up on a farm more than 60 years ago grew to be a bigger project that become this book. Inspired by her family to record her stories and memories Joyce Olesen reflects on the “good old days,” not to glorify them as a time better than the present, but to offer a glimpse into the life of one family who grew up on the Saskatchewan prairie and to celebrate those long ago days.
Max True is a world-class linguist, a colleague of Andra’s who once helped her break a code that would destroy a terrorist cell. When he shows up at Andra’s door with a mysterious message, they realize they may have stumbled on to a long-lost women’s language that holds the secret to incredible power— and one that the most vicious men in Hong Kong will stop at nothing to get their hands on. As Andra and Max work to solve the puzzle of the language, they find themselves in a desperate race against time to escape the mysterious forces who all want the secret of the message— even as they surrender to the forces of an undeniable passion that brings them inexorably and irrevocably together.
Connie Gault: “Feisty, gritty, funny, harrowing, these stories shine with a bright and honest light. Worrell examines the eccentricities, frailties and courage of an impressive range of characters to show us a few things we might have forgotten about ourselves.” Readers will find rare glimpses of beauty, even touches of whimsy sprinkled throughout this collection of short fiction. P. J. Worrell’s stories could never happen again. Proudflesh is a strong prairie manuscript. Worrell does not shy away from the moist curlicues around men’s nipples, Auschwitz, tumours, aloneness, postmenopausal bellies, cat piss, or suicide. Through her social work lens, she understands what it is like to be dependent or mentally ill. pjworrell.com
Joyce Olesen was born in southwest Saskatchewan, grew up there, and a little more than 40 years ago returned after 15 years in other parts of Canada. She was married to a clergyman, who, sadly, passed away several years ago. She has three grown children and four grandchildren, all of whom love to hear stories about “the olden days” of her childhood and youth. Writing began rather late in her life. Some of her pieces have been published in church periodicals and Saskatchewan’s Folklore magazine.
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A Rain of Dragonflies By Regine Haensel McNally Robinson P.O.D ISBN 9780993903205 In her first collection of short stories, Regine Haensel chronicles the lives of German immigrants in Saskatchewan in the 1950s. Now she has returned with a second collection of short stories that “take us on journeys that examine the world from unique points of view. Daughters, sons, lovers, parents, friends, and strangers can act in ways that make us question our perceptions of what is and what could be real.” The 14 stories in the book include several with a winter theme – how we cope with it or invite it into our lives. A young woman contemplates her failing marriage while staying in a northern cabin. Another woman examines her life while giving a ride to an unusual winter hitchhiker. The stories range in time from the 1950s to the present. Haensel was born in Germany and came to Canada in the 1950s. Her first collection of short stories, The Other Place, was published in 2012, and her fantasy novel Queen of Fire, Book One in The Leather Book Tales, was published in February of 2014. Haensel currently lives in Saskatoon.
Serpents Rising By David A. Poulsen Dundurn Books ISBN 9781459721722 (pbk) ISBA 9781459721746 (epub) In 2005, journalist Adam Cullen’s wife, Donna, is killed by an arsonist. When police, fire and insurance investigators are all unable to track the culprit, Cullen hires, private detective Mike Cobb who is also unsuccessful. Seven years later, Cobb re-enters Cullen’s life. A search for a crack-addicted teenage runaway is tangled up with Calgary’s most ruthless criminal organization—and a possible lead on Donna’s killer. The parallel investigations take the two onto Calgary’s meanest streets, populated by a vicious biker gang and a silky-smooth pedophile… as they come face-to-face with a cruel killer about to strike again. David A. Poulsen has been a broadcaster, teacher, football coach, rodeo cowboy, stage and film actor and, most of all, writer. His story The Welcomin’ won the 1984 Alberta Culture Short Story Competition. Now the author of more than 20 books, David recently completed his Masters degree in Creative Writing at UBC. Serpents Rising is David’s first adult mystery/thriller, and is the first of the Cullen and Cobb series.
Grateful By Marion Mutala Copies Xpress ISBN:978-0-9936295-2-5 This Marion Mutala’s fourth book. Be grateful for all your blessing. A poignant conversation between parent and child across the years. Mutala’s Ukrainian matya, Sophie Marie Mutala (Dubyk), always told her ten children, “Be grateful you have feet!” when we complained about our shoe size, and my friend’s baba often said, “Be grateful you have hands!” when she complained about having to wear two different coloured mittens to school. “What are you grateful for?” Asks Mutala. “I’m grateful to live in the great city of Saskatoon, the wonderful province of Saskatchewan and the marvelous country of Canada. I’m also grateful to have three special treasures: Symret, Natasha and JacobJoshua; and strong, faith-filled parents and grandparents with beautiful Ukrainian and Slovak traditions.” Mutala’s books include the National Bestselling Award Winning trilogy: Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Christmas, Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Easter and Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Wedding.
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Calls of Interest Looking for a Writers’ Group to Belong to in Regina? The Prairie Phoenix group meeting is free and open to any and all ages, genders, genres, ideas and input. Our plan is simple: • Bring your work, share it, and get feedback. When you choose to share your writing, please bring a few copies. • If you are looking for likeminded people, inspiration, new ideas, a little nudge to pick up the pen again, check us out. When: The last Thursday of every month, unless there are location conflicts.Where: SWG Office, #100, 1150 8th Avenue, Regina
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If you have any questions, you can call Marianna at 306.924.4030 or send her an email at: Marianna_11@ hotmail.com.
Transition 2014 Continuous Submission Guidelines Transition is a truly unique publication, which is published twice annually by the Saskatchewan Division of Canadian Mental Health Association. Transition publishes two kinds of works: those directly about mental health issues; and those about the individual’s personal experience of those same issues. Transition is seeking original, unpublished articles, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art on current mental health issues and their impact on individuals. Maximum manuscript lengths: articles – 15 pgs; all other prose – 10 pgs; poetry – 10 poems or 10 pgs, whichever is less; visual art – 10 pieces.
Payment: $50/printed page, $25/ half-page, $40/ published visual art work; and $200 for cover art. Electronic submissions with full contact information and a brief bio in Word or WordPerfect (12-point TNR, double-spaced, 2.5 cm margins) to: Editor at tdyck@ sasktel.net or contactus@cmhask. com.
Regina Reviews: Call for Submissions Regina Reviews (reginareviews. ca) is a new all-volunteer website dedicated to reviewing everything the Queen City and environs has to offer, from theatre to concerts to dance to art to food to books. Wellwritten, thoughtful reviews of any of the aforementioned are welcome. In particular, editor Edward Willett would like to see good reviews of books by Saskatchewan authors. Email: editor@reginareviews.ca
Saskatchewan Arts Alliance Seeks Writers The Saskatchewan Arts Alliance is looking for writers and artists to contribute to their Op-Ed/Living the Arts blog. The articles are a maximum of 1,000 words. This is a great opportunity to examine issues facing the arts in Saskatchewan. Articles will elaborate and comment on arts policies, initiatives and milieu or will feature personal accounts of the distinct challenges facing artists. Writers are paid 15 cents per word to a maximum of 1,000 words. If interested, please contact: 306.780.9820 or email: info@ artsalliance.sk.ca
18th Annual Danuta Gleed Literary Award The Writers’ Union of Canada and the Gleed family are pleased to announce the jury for the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Canada’s pre-eminent award for the best first Canadian collection of short fiction in the English language, now celebrating its 18th year. The winner and two finalists will be named in May 2015, in conjunction with The Writers’ Union of Canada’s Annual General Meeting. The winner receives $10,000 and each of the two finalists is awarded $500. To be eligible, books must be first collections of short fiction written by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and published in Canada in the English language in the 2014 calendar year. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2015. Eligible titles may be submitted by publishers according to submission guidelines. For additional information contact Siobhan O’Connor, Associate Director, The Writers’ Union of Canada: 416.703.8982 ext 222 or soconnor@writersunion.ca
Attention Saskatchewan Writers and Artists The Saskatchewan Arts Board and Creative Saskatchewan are pleased to announce that the Culture on the Go program has been renewed in an $800,000 agreement. This is a great opportunity for Writer’s to receive funding for travel in order to share their craft. Culture on the Go promotes activities for Saskatchewan artists that are related to touring, audience development
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and market development, which may take place provincially, nationally or internationally. Application packages and related information is available by Sept. 2014 at artsboard.sk.ca/cogo and at creativesask.ca Deadline: January 31, 2015
Rebelight Publishing Inc. Now Accepting Submissions Rebelight Publishing Inc. is a worldwide English language publisher based in Canada, devoted to outstanding fiction for middle grade, young adult, and new adult readers. We’re looking for fresh voices and amazing stories in any genre. Experienced Canadian authors and new writers welcome. Check out rebelight.com for more information and submission guidelines.
Submissions Wanted Brilliant Flash Fiction, a new writers’ magazine in Ireland, is seeking submissions of stories 300 words or less. On the theme “Life is Good” For details visit: brilliantflashfictionmag.wordpress. com. We welcome emerging writers and hope to receive more stories from other countries. Free entry. Deadline: Jan. 15, 2015
CDWP Seeks 2016-2017 Canadian Writer-inResidence The Calgary Distinguished Writers Program (CDWP) encourages submissions from promising Canadian writers for the position of Canadian Writer-in-Residence,
a ten-month residency at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Arts from September 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. Applications for the position are encouraged from writers from diverse genres—including literary fiction or non-fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, and playwriting. The residency is a full-time term position, with half of the Canadian Writer-in-Residence’s time reserved for their own writing projects, and half comprising public outreach involving manuscript consultations, public presentations, and other related duties. To apply for this position, please visit ucalgary.ca/cdwp/apply and fill out the form on the bottom of the page by Monday, January 26, 2015. For more information contact Caitlynn Cummings, Creative Writing Program Specialist, Calgary Distinguished Writers Program 403.220.8177 or cdwp@ucalgary.ca
The RSPB and The Rialto Nature Poetry Competition RSPB works for birds and nature on an international scale. As well as offering poets the chance to win considerable cash prizes and publication of their poems, the competition will raise money for conservation and poetry. We are working in partnership with leading independent UK poetry magazine, The Rialto, as we feel the magazine will be the perfect place to showcase the winning entries. Full details on how to enter online can be found on The Rialto website: therialto.co.uk. Deadline March 1, 2015
A Home For Your Voice • Writers’ of all abilities welcome • Exclusive members benefits • Writing seminars and workshops • Networking opportunities
skwriter.com
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Professional Development Free Open-Mic at Frances Morrison Library Join in on Open-Mic night held at the Frances Morrison Library in Saskatoon at 7 pm on the second Thursday of every month Free to attend, join in and bring your latest work or sit back and be inspired by fellow writers and poets.
Digital Narratives Residency Now Accepting Applications!
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The Banff Centre’s Digital Narratives residency is perfect for writers wishing to use interactive technologies and associated digital concepts to explore, push the boundaries of, and create new forms of innovative narrative across multiple platforms. Develop your own narrative-driven project under
the creative supervision of Eli Horowitz and Russell Quinn, the co-creators of The Silent History, described by the New York Times as “one of the most talked about new experiments [in publishing].” This unique three-week residency is open to writers of all literary genres, including fiction, nonfiction, screenwriters, documentary makers, animators and graphic novelists working within the digital landscape. The application deadline is December 10. For more information and to apply, please visit our website: banffcentre. ca. Or contact Sasha Lavoie, Marketing Coordinator, The Banff Centre, at: 403.762.7136
Call For Nominations: Claude Aubry Award The Canadian National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY Canada) is now inviting nominations for the 2014 Claude Aubry Award. IBBY Canada presents two Aubry Awards biennially: one for distinguished service within the field of Canadian children’s literature in English, and one for French. Eligible nominees include any individuals who have made a significant contribution to Canadian children’s literature. Deadline is December 20, 2014. Send nominations to: Susanne Duchesne at aubry@ibby-canada. com.
Freelance Seeking Cover Artists Artists of all disciplines and styles are welcome to submit work. Freelance cover art is open to both members and non-members.
To Submit:
Send Hi-Rez (4MB+) images of the work in JPG, TIFF, or PDF form to swgmedia@skwriter. com. Include Freelance Cover Art in the email subject line Cover artists are paid $75 if their work is chosen.
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Member News Marion Mutala Wins At 2014 High Plains Book Awards Winners were announced Saturday, October 25, 2014 in Billings, Montana at a banquet held at the Yellowstone Art Museum. Best Children’s Book honors were won by Marion Mutala for her book Baba’s Babushka: A Magical Ukrainian Wedding in the brand new children’s book category added this year.
Alexandra Popoff Launches New Book Saskatoon author Alexandra Popoff has launched her new book Tolstoy’s False Disciple: The Untold Story of Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Chertkov. Chertkov represented the very things Tolstoy had renounced class privilege, unlimited power, and wealth. Yet, Chertkov fascinated and attracted Tolstoy. He became the writer’s closest confidant, even reading his daily diary, and by the end of Tolstoy’s life, Chertkov had established complete control over the writer and his legacy. Popoff is the author of the awardwinning biography Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography. She has written for Russian national newspapers and magazines. She has published articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer The Huffington Post and The Boston Globe.
Stay Connected With Saskatchewan’s Writers and enjoy member discounts! Renew your Guild membership online
skwriter.com
New Members The SWG would like to welcome: Bailey Edelman Emilie-Jeanne Bercier Amy Qu Heather Antonini Liz James Miriam Clavir Shrey Chamoli Barbara Colvin Tanya Reimer Shirley Hamilton Meaghan Hackinen Mike Broda
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
City of Regina Writing Award 2015 The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild is seeking applications for the 2015 City of Regina Writing Award, funded by the City of Regina. This competition is an award for literary merit in creative writing; it is open to writers in all genres. The $4,500 award is designed to enable one local writer to work on a specific solo writing project for a three-month period. The award competition is juried by professional writers from outside Saskatchewan. You are eligible to apply for this award if you are 19 years and older and if you were a Regina resident as of January 1, 2014. 34
Applicants may submit one entry to this competition per year. The recipient of the award must complete the three-month grant period by the end of February 2016. The decision of the jury will be final. Jurors may choose to not award the prize if they believe no submission merits it. For a full list of eligibility requirements and submission guidelines visit:
skwriter.com Applications can be emailed to submissions@skwriter.com (subject: City of Regina Writing Award) by midnight Friday, January 30, 2015. If sent by regular mail, they must be postmarked by Friday, January 30, 2015 Mailing Address: City of Regina Writing Award Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild Box 3986 Regina, SK, S4P 3R9
Courier or Drop-Off Address: City of Regina Writing Award Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Suite 100, 1150 - 8th Avenue Regina, SK, S4R 1C9
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
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1. Karon Shmon, hosts the Indigenous Orality and Contemporary Writing of Indigenous Peoples workshop during the SWG Fall Conference held in Saskatoon on Oct. 24, 2014. Photo credit: SWG Staff. 2. Dave Glaze is presented with the Hyland Volunteer Award by Jeanne Alexander, SWG President of the Board during the SWG Fall Conference held in Saskatoon. Photo credit: SWG Staff. 3. SWG Staff Sam Workman and Corey Wilkinson review registrations during the SWG Conference. Photo credit: SWG Staff. 4. Members of the SWG participate in a poetry workshop with David Seymour during the Conference. Photo credit: SWG Staff. 5. Dave Margoshes speaks with Bob Armstrong, the TWUC Manitoba-Saskatchewan representative during the SWG Conference held in Saskatoon. Photo credit: SWG Staff. 6. Jeanne Alexander hosts the John V. Hicks Dinner during the SWG Conference Photo credit: SWG Staff. 7. Tara Reibin participates with Fran Eldridge during Alice Kuipers workshop at the SWG Conference. Photo credit: SWG Staff.
SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
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SWG Freelance Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Backbone The SWG Thanks Our Donors Andrew Suknaski Writers Assistance Fund Sandra Birdsell Judith Krause Glen Sorestad
Grain
Adam Abbas Cheryl Kloppenburg Preston Pentony Rea Tarvydas
Benefactors ($200-$499) Cathy Fenwick Lyn Goldman Louise Halfe Donald Kerr JoAnn McCaig Dianne Young
Supporters ($100-$199)
Patricia Armstrong Fund Retreats
Sandra Campbell David Carpenter Lewis Horne Honor Kever Anne Lazurko Wynne Nicholson Reg Silvester
Betty Hegerat Miriam Kรถrner Katherine Lawrence Melanie McFarlane Terry Toews Larry Warwaruk
Friends ($50-$99)
Kloppenburg Award
Cheryl & Henry Kloppenburg
Patron (over $500) Felicia Daunt
Gail Bowen Margaret Durant Joanne Epp David Glaze Sheena Koops Bonnie Logan Alison Lohans Joan Olson Red Hawk Communications Inc David Richards Cassie Stocks Alma Wagner Roberts Jayne Whyte
Contributors (up to $50) Linda Biasotto Tillen Bruce Jeanette Dean Todd Devonshire Lilian Donahue Fran Eldridge Joan Eyolfson Cadham Jean Fahlman Wes Funk Lisa Guenther Ted Haas Susan Harris Allison Kydd Robert Leech Dianne Miller Ken Mitchell Tony Peter Lloyd Ratzlaff Dorene Redshaw Edda Ryan Anne Slade Sunday Afternoon Co-op
The SWG Foundation Thanks These Donors Facilitated Retreat Susan Hogarth
Judy McCrosky Bursary Fund Judy McCrosky James Romanow
SWG Foundation Dr. Nola Buhr George Jeerakathil Glen Sorestad
SWGF Legacy Project Gloria Boerma Rodney Dickinson George Jeerakathil
Caroline Heath Memorial Fund Lloyd Ratzlaff
SWG Operations George Jeerakathil James Romanow
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Freelance
December 2014 / January 2015 Vol. 45 Number 1
Publication Mail Agreement #40063014
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The SWG gratefully acknowledge the support of SaskCulture, Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund and the Saskatchewan Arts Board