News and Updates

Hi, folks! Welcome to 2023, perhaps not yet post-pandemic, but certainly post-vaccine. 

I have news! Since I last posted, two great things have happened. 

Recently, the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop presented me with the Kouhi Award. I was surprised and of course gratified. In my decades in the classroom, I had the honour of teaching at Churchill High School for a year or so while Elizabeth "Betty" Kouhi was there, and her dedication to students greatly impressed me. After she retired, she wrote some outstanding poetry rooted in both Finland and Northwestern Ontario. It's an honour to have my writing associated with her.  

Here are some more photos. It was a really nice event--and although we're still cautious from the pandemic, it was also good to be in the company of writers.

The plaque has a place of honour on the wall of my den, just above my computer screen.

My second piece of good news is that THE ITERATIONS OF CAROLINE was released (very quietly) during the pandemic. If all the talk about the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once has made you hungry for more multiverse stories, give this story of David and Caroline a shot. 

I've been curious about the nature of reality for some time, and I wanted to write a book that conveyed how I think a couple of reasonably intelligent people would respond to sudden shifts in place. It's available locally at Entershine Bookshop (and Chapters should have some shelved), and online. 

And of course, it's available as an e-book, should that be your preference. When you've read it, leave a review somewhere! (My publisher asked me to say that. But I'm curious, so let me know what you think of it.)

Interview with Thunder Bay Public Library

The kind folks at the Thunder Bay Public Library interviewed me for their Off the Shelf column. Shauna Kosoris asked really great questions and allowed me to rattle on at length. 

I even had the chance to mention Mrs. Cupples, who set me reading aloud to the class as a young kid. I wonder if she knew what she set in motion.

Go here to read the full interview. 

Support your local libraries--and perhaps request that they procure copies of THE ITERATIONS OF CAROLINE as well as SILENCES: A NOVEL OF THE 1918 FINNISH CIVIL WAR. 
 

Speaking Soon

The members of The Writer's Circle, a Thunder Bay writing group, have invited me to talk with them at their November meeting--it's the 27th at 7 PM at the Waverley Branch of the Thunder Bay Public Library.

I'll of course answer any questions they might have, but I'm planning to speak about some of the following questions: why write about this war (and how did I do it), and why set half of the book in the summer of 1955 in Port Arthur. 

Of course, the underlying, unanswerable question that I will, nonetheless, attempt to answer: How do you DO it? How do you write a historical novel?

Here's what I'll say. 

Start with an event in history that you are, yourself, interested in. Read a lot about it. This is why you need to be interested in it--you'll be spending a lot of time with it.

Develop a central character who will be changed by this thing, this event, this time period. Who is this character? Where does s/he start, and where does s/he end up?

Then, more fun: more in-depth and focused research on the time period and places.

At some point, you have to start the actual writing part. My way is to organize it in your head, and just start writing it. 

Once you have a chronology of the character moving through the event, you can play with the order of events--add a prologue or tweak the order in which the reader learns about events. 

It's that easy, and that complicated.

So that's what I'll say to those writers, who are so kind as to invite me. Meanwhile, my publisher and I are working on a new novel, one NOT about the Finnish Civil War. More about that later. 

Ask an Author Panel

Thunder Bay has lots of interesting writers and a thriving community. I'm honoured to be appearing as part of a panel on April 4, 2019.

Sponsored by the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop (NOWW), the Ask an Author panel gives readers and writers an informal setting to get some burning questions answered. (Or at least discussed.) Jean Pendziwol, Heather Dickson, Jeannette Lynes, and I will all read briefly from a recent work and then be open to pontificating about our experiences in response to your questions.

More information about the format and panelists is at this link: https://www.nowwwriters.ca/workshops.html

Other relevant details: April 4, 2019; 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Mary J L Black Library at 901 S. Edward Street in Thunder Bay.

See you there!

More Good News and a Signing!

Previously, I mentioned that SILENCES appeared on the longlist for the Northern Lit Award. We recently learned that it was shortlisted!

Again, thank you to Ontario Library Service-North for this honour.

Also, I'll be signing copies of SILENCES: A NOVEL OF THE 1918 FINNISH CIVIL WAR at the Coles at the Thunder Bay Intercity Mall on Saturday, July 7, 2018, from noon until 4 p.m. Stop by to say hi!

Literary Events in Thunder Bay This Weekend

The Write NOWW LitFest is being held this weekend, May 4 and 5.



Friday night includes a FREE reading and conversation between Sandi Boucher and Angie Abdou, which is open to the public and for which registration is not required.

I'll be at the Saturday evening Gala Dinner and Awards--if you're there, look for me or check out the Celebration Table and flip through a copy of SILENCES: A NOVEL OF THE 1918 FINNISH CIVIL WAR.

More information about NOWW and the LitFest is here.