Idioms that irk me (and I’m not easily irked)
There are two idioms that have been bothering me for weeks, months even. But let’s talk about something more pleasant—cookies.
writing
Words are a writer’s tool box
People who write a lot have different perspectives and relationships with words than those who simply read or say them. If the pen is truly mightier than the sword, (as said English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839), a writer’s tools could be favourably compared to the mightiest of weapons if he or she was out …
As Granny said, mind your ascenders and descenders
“Kehheth” had some problems with his ascenders when learning to write as a child, leaving evidence on the wall. Anyone who has ever worked in a printing shop, or who has helped teach a youngster learn how to print the alphabet, knows the importance of minding your Ps and Qs. And your Bs and Ds, …
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Consumed by craft
Heather O’Neill is pleased to be returning to the Yukon this year for another engagement during the Yukon Writers’ Festival and Young Author’s Conference. She was last here In 2016. “I love the sunlight in the Yukon,” she said. “Everything seems surreal to me. I hope to meet more of the people in this strange …
Like porcupine courtship, timing is everything
Every now and then, a fella happens to hit the sweet spot, even if it is more by good luck than good management. I rest my case on a recent example. Early in the week, I casually mentioned to “Herself” that it was time to consider remounting the winter tires on her modest chariot, and …
The Northern Seduction
Sebastian Fricke and Rose Seguin share their journey, their “inner compasses” with us as they travel and write on their way through Alaska and the Yukon Having completed our undergraduate degrees, Rose and I were very eager to break free of the bureaucracy and daily grind of city life. We followed our inner compasses north, …
An Old-fashioned public reading at Jack London Square
Of the five writers who have attracted folks to come and visit buildings and gravesites in the Klondike, that are attached to their names, Jack London was the first.
Zsuzsi Gartner: Aspiring to the darkly tragi-comic
Zsuzsi Gartner built her early career as a writer in journalism, working as a newspaper reporter, then a TV current affairs producer and then a magazine writer and editor, but has been interested in creative writing from an early age.
Owen Laukkanen: “Keep writing and edit your own work ruthlessly”
Owen Laukkanen is unabashedly a writer of commercial fiction, also known as “genre” fiction, having produced a novel every year since The Professionals came out (and was nominated for four major genre awards) in 2012.
Tyrell Johnson: ‘Write the story you would want to read’
Lots of writers can point to a specific event or person that sent them in the direction of a career in writing; Tyrell Johnson isn’t one of those people.
Michael Winter: Keeping track of things in the world
Newfoundland and Labrador writer Michael Winter will be a mentor at the 2018 Yukon Young Authors’ Conference at F.H. Collins Secondary School May 3, 4 Michael Winter, one of the four mentor writers at this year’s edition of the Young Authors’ Conference, said he was first inspired to become a writer by watching his sister …
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Jamella Hagen: Part of Writing is Being Ready to Write
The local writer selected to be a mentor at this year’s Young Authors Conference is Jamella Hagen, who teaches creative writing at Yukon College.
Gearing up to explore ideas and the written word
PHOTO: Dan Davidson The Yukon Writers’ Festival takes place May 2 through 5, with events throughout the Yukon In 1990, a number of organizations joined together to meld the Young Authors’ Conference and the National Book Festival into a farther reaching Yukon Writers’ Festival to highlight the Canadian literary arts in the Yukon. The …
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An afternoon of coffee and fresh ideas
On Sunday, December 10, you are invited to come out to the roastery at Bean North Café and listen to readings by several poets and writers.
Hunting in the Yukon – Part 1
An excerpt of Manfred Hoefs’ recently released book Yukon’s Hunting History. Yukon’s history, time scale & events are unique.
Grandpa’s Baseball Book – Part 4 of 4
It occurred to me while watching the 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians with my grandchildren – their first World Series – that I wasn’t doing a very good job of explaining the game to them because we were all too busy watching the historical action while eating bad food and …
Grandpa’s Baseball Book – Part 3 of 4
The kids needed “Baseball 101” It was my duty, as a retired sportswriter, to author it, a kiddie book about baseball(work in progress)
High Adventure
At the age of 82, Peter Steele says he has very little memory of his own parents. That’s partly why he decided a few years ago to write his autobiography. “I didn’t want my own kids to able to say the same,” he explains. “I thought I had enough interesting stories that I’d like them …
Grandpa’s Baseball Book – Part 2 of 4
These kids needed “Baseball 101” before their 2nd World Series. It was my duty, as a 70-year-old retired sportswriter, to author it for them.
Fellow retirees: How engaged do you feel?
I’m sitting in my skivvies, contemplating what pearls of wisdom to cram into a 400-word space. As I advise my writing students, when you feel stuck, start with a word. Any word. Today, that word is “engagement”. In my days as a working journalist, I was supposed to remain officially objective, unengaged, a step removed …
North Words
“Exploring the Frontiers of Language” will be the theme of this year’s edition of the North Words Writers Symposium, which will be held in Skagway from May 31 to June 3. This is the eighth annual symposium since the event’s inception. It was originally inspired during a series of walking conversations between Daniel Henry and …
Shake Out Those Memories and Shine ’em Up
Until fairly recently, I had no interest whatever in the idea of writing a book of memoirs. Like most people, I assumed nobody would care to read about the life journey of a nobody-in-particular. After all, autobiography is the purview of politicians, movie stars, generals and other colourful scoundrels. If I ever had the hubris …
Grandpa’s Baseball Book – Part 1 of 4
2016 World Series (Chicago Cubs / Cleveland Indians) – I wasn’t doing a good job of explaining baseball to my grandchildren
Good Advice
Jamie Bastedo is not new to the Yukon. He first came to the territory 35 years ago as a biology graduate student. “Think Never Cry Wolf,” he says. “My head full of book knowledge about northern landscapes and cultures.” The Yukon still means a lot to him and he is excited to be coming back. …
Class of 2009: Katie Pope
As I was trying on new glasses a few weeks ago at Northern Lights Optometry, fashion specialist Katie Pope helped me. I liked her instantly and I complimented her on her extraordinary sense of style. On my next visit (according to Katie many people take choosing a new pair of glasses very seriously, and come …
Using Stories to Make People Think
This is the second of a five part series by Dan Davidson about the professional authors participating in the Yukon Writers’ Festival and the Young Authors Conference during the first week of May. Whitehorse based writer and filmmaker Kelly Milner grew up in the Yukon. She cut her writing teeth doing feature articles for a local …
A Mentor for Yukon Young Writers
Born in England, but transplanted to Newfoundland when she was very young, Kathleen Winter credits libraries with kick starting her interest in writing. “We moved around a bit and in one village the only library was ‘the bookmobile,’ a van filled with books that came to town once a week – I loved that van,” …
History Offers Timeless Perspectives
Stories are invaluable teachers, says B.C. author Caroline Woodward, they have the ability to “give us whole worlds.” Old stories, too, are relevant artefacts that help us gain perspective on how much, or how little, progress we have made. Fictional stories, the writer continues, are able to relate emotive experiences in a way that nonfiction …
Looking for the Next Margaret Atwood
Krystal McKenna, a Grade 1 teacher at Jack Hulland Elementary School, sets young authors off on a great writing adventure. At the beginning of the year, students draw pictures in their journals. McKenna talks to the student about the drawing and scribes a description. Soon, however, students are encouraged to begin their own journey with …
Experiencing creative writing in Namibia
I am sitting in the Lemon Tree Restaurant in Windhoek, Namibia, waiting for my fellow writers to show up. It is raining, and everybody is happy about that. We write in 10 minute sections to a prompt and then we share what we have written. We only give positive feedback to encourage each other; this …
Cedric Wants You
Whoooo the heck is Cedric, anyway? We’ll come back to that later. About a year after Beth Hawkes moved to Salt Spring Island with her husband, she saw a small ad in the Gulf Islands Driftwood about a literary competition for unpublished B.C. writers over the age of 50. “I just looked at the ad, …
On the Quest For A Good Story
Parents and teachers, do you have a budding Jack London in your midst? Kids in Grades 1-7 are invited to enter the Yukon Quest Short Story Competition. The contest is divided into two categories with children in Grades 1-3 and Grades 4-7 will be judged separately, and one winner chosen from each category. The winners …
Writing Down the Soul
Anyone who has ever put pen to paper knows it can be a daunting experience. To stare at a blank page waiting for the strike of inspiration. When something is finally put down on paper, is it something others might want to read? What works? What can be done differently? Brave New Words is a …
Life Lines
Faye Ferguson understands the value of documenting one’s life stories, for both the writer and the eventual reader. Ferguson is a personal historian based in Victoria, B.C. who helps people fashion their life stories into print or digital forms, either as full-length memoirs or as scrapbook-type snippets that highlight specific remembered moments or stages of …
How to Write a Memorable Christmas Letter
The Christmas and New Year’s letter was a tradition in England that predated the first Christmas card in 1843, according to www.Smithsonian.com. With the expansion of the British postal system, Sir Henry Cole, who had many friends and acquaintances and not enough time to write a letter to each of them, commissioned the printing of …
NaNoWriMo Memoirs
It was one of my former writing students who managed to shame me into signing up for NaNoWriMo this year. If you’re not familiar with that acronym, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. The deal is, each participant undertakes to knock off a 50,000-word novel during the month. No big deal. That’s only 1,667 …
Write through the winter
While others hunker down against winter’s wrath, the local literary scene is hotter than ever. The winter Writers’ Roundtable organized by the Friends of the Whitehorse Library (FOWL) provides a thorough overview of events for the coming season. Ongoing events include: Every Wednesday writers work from noon to 3 p.m. at Bean North Cafe, kilometre …
The Magical Fall Wind
Boreas always tires of summer on the same day each year, the same day a very special baby girl was born. After a bite off a glacier and a purse of his lips, Boreas draws a deep cold breath and exhales, closing out summer. Like a child blowing a dandelion, his breath sends the trees, …
You Are What You Wrote When You Were a Child
Ten years ago husband and wife Dan and Jenna Misener were at Jenna’s parents’ house for Christmas. The couple was in Jenna’s room, going through a box of childhood memorabilia. They found her diary. They spent the day reading entries aloud to each other. It inspired them. Back in Toronto, the Miseners booked a bar. …
Chasing Stories in Skagway
My shakedown cruise for our trailer has come to be my annual pilgrimage to the town of Skagway to attend the North Words Writers’ Symposium, held this year from May 25-28 in the windy town. This was the seventh annual event, of which I have attended all but one since the first in 2010. The …
The Last Word in Wordsmithing
Most writers would be delighted if something they wrote could survive 10 minutes after they shuffle off this mortal coil. But 400 years? To use just a smattering of the literary inventions credited to William Shakespeare, such a “madcap” thought would be “laughable”, something to “arouse” either “excitement” or sheer “amazement”. According to various reckonings …
It’s About You’re Grammar: Messages from a Dessert Island
Grammar jokes are all over the internet: How do you console a grammarphile? Pat them gently on the back, saying “there, their, they’re” Let’s eat, Grandma! Let’s eat Grandma! Commas save lives. The Oxford comma debate: We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin. vs. We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin. It’s not just the …
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Nurturing Good Writing
Unlike many a published author, Saskatoon writer Sandy Bonny didn’t study to become one. It just happened. “I haven’t got an English degree,” she says, “and didn’t train or apprentice purposefully with literary mentors before my first publications, but I did always enjoy writing and continued writing recreationally long after it was required for school. …
Didee & Didoo: DIDOO NEVER HAD THESE THINGS
DIDOO COULDN’T WRITE OR READ SO THESE THINGS SHE DIDN’T NEED. DIDOO NEVER HAD A MEASURING CUP. DIDOO NEVER HAD MEASURING SPOONS. DIDOO NEVER HAD A RULER. DIDOO NEVER HAD A SCALE. DIDOO NEVER HAD A WATCH. DIDOO NEVER HAD A THERMOMETER. DIDOO NEVER HAD A COMBINATION LOCK. DIDOO NEVER HAD A CALCULATOR. DIDOO NEVER …
How’s Retirement Working Out for You?
The other day, I overheard a couple of guys in a coffee shop talking about their impending retirement. One is about to pack it in at the end of this month, the other hits the magic R-day later this year. Perhaps it was excessive politeness that kept me from offering my thoughts on the subject. …
Say it with Snail Mail
When I was a teenager I had a lot of pen pals. I kept all the letters I received, bundled together with a ribbon. Some of the letters were written on fine linen paper, others were written with different pens using different colours. The envelopes often were decorated with stickers or drawings. Some of the …
Write from the Soul
What’s an English teacher to do once she retires: take a trip through the Northwest Passage? Ruth Armson did that, and wrote about it. Compile an autobiography, perhaps? She did that, too. “I’d been away from home since I was 15, and I thought, ‘What’s a better way of letting my family know what my …
Wild Cards
The 4th Dawson Daily News Print & Publishing Symposium, part of the annual Yukon Riverside Arts Festival, is taking a walk on the wild side.
Off to Skagway to Explore Language
By the time you read this I’ll be “Exploring the Frontiers of Language” in Skagway, attending this year’s edition of the North Words Writers Symposium. I’ve been at most of these gatherings since the first one in 2010 and have found the trip a pleasant way to begin summer travels with our trailer. North Words …
Grief Writing in Dawson
Jacob Scheier wrote his first collection of poems about the loss of his mother; he was 20. She had gotten sick when he was in high school. It was part of his shift from writing as a hobby to writing because it felt very necessary. And, ultimately, writing about his loss was an important part …
Brave Old Words
Compared to what I did last time (playing my banjo and singing in front of a rowdy bar crowd) the prospect of reading poetry to a calm, literary audience does not feel very scary. And yet, though I’ve been writing poetry for most of my life and attending occasional reading events for years, I have …
Mind Stretching Poetry
What does knitting have in common with writing poetry? Both must be done carefully. One mistake can ruin the whole image. Jamie Sharpe knitted a one meter wide and two storey long scarf and wrote a poem about it. Sharpe’s second book of poetry is entitled Cut-up Apologetic (ECW Press). His work has appeared in …
The Play’s the Thing
Any parent knows that watching offspring leave the nest unleashes a jumble of emotions: pride, relief, disbelief, grief, envy, nostalgia, apprehension. Sometimes abject terror. You give them a hug, or a slap on the back, and remind them to keep in touch, eat properly, use condoms, call if they need anything. You try not to …
Turning Her Life Into Stories
As a former English teacher, long time library patron, book reviewer, informal Berton House liaison, and editor of The Klondike Sun, it often falls to me to make the introductions when an author comes to do a public reading at the Dawson Community Library.
Landscape and Solitude
In 1938, when Anik See’s maternal grandparents wanted to get married, they had to satisfy the authorities in their German homeland that neither side had any Jewish blood for at least three generations back. Her grandmother undertook to compile the necessary documentation. “She hated the reason for having to do it, but she did what …
Sasquatch Love
Looking for a book that fits into a backpack for a camping trip? Rachel and Ursula Westfall`s first self-published novella, Estella of Halftree Village, is such a book. At 89 pages, it’s an ideal summer read. It’s the story of Saska the Sasquatch and Estella, a girl born and raised in the Halftree Village, a …
Turning fact into non-fiction
At the age of 30, Jerome Stueart met his mother for the first time. It’s an unusual story, but not unique. So here’s the twist: Stueart knew he was adopted but hadn’t even been looking for his mother; she tracked him down. “I never had any inclination to find her,” he says. But Stueart, a …
Metaphorically speaking, it’s like this …
In the days of LPs, when groovy was used to describe a wonderful feeling, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were also singing about a rare kind of comfort in “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Similes and metaphors are powerhouses in writing: similes use the helpers like or as to create word pictures. Metaphors dispense with the …
Turbulence
She unscrewed the cap on her Coke and it “fff’ed” as air escaped. Inflight turbulence, she reckoned. The captain had warned them at takeoff. People were unusually silent; each, no doubt, finding their own way to relax. They had descended early to fly under the turbulence. The relief was almost tangible, as tangible as the …
Simon says, Put your writing first
If you asked your spouse if you could take five years off work in order to devote your time to writing, what would they say? Jessica Simon’s husband not only said yes, he threw in another two years and gave her seven. His faith in her has paid off. It’s only Year 5 and she’s …
Thine Art
Sonnet 1 The grace of she who moves like silken water, her feet the slaves to wild demanding beats. The master of motion and most pleasant to watch, her dance to leap to fly with sky she meets. A twist, a flick, a painter is painting quick, with red, with black, with orange a colour …
Coyote Teaches Us About Love in the Time of Collaring
Close to Spider Man: stories, Ivan E. Coyote, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005 (second printing) 93 pages. What I enjoy about Ivan Coyote’s stories is their unwrapped honesty. The book says these are fictional stories, but they seem so much like memoir that you might feel truth hovering around the floor of every story. Most of …
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Easy as 1, 2, 3!
At What’s Up Yukon, it’s as easy as one, two, three. That’s right, this one’s about numbers. And … it gets complicated. Again, this is where your publication’s House Style trumps everything else. Most Canadian newspapers and magazines follow The Canadian Press Stylebook (CP Style), and that includes What’s Up Yukon. Numbers one to nine …
Believing in the dog
First Prize PSAC Whitehorse Regional Pride Committee Short Story Contest It’s night. A man walks his black lab in the forest — and when the dog runs in between the pines, he’s almost invisible. The only sound is the man’s footsteps on the snow, the rustle of his jacket, his dog’s breathing. Normally, he enjoys …
Nebula of novelists take the NaNoWriMo challenge
What do you call a group of novelists? A narrative of novelists? A nonsense? A nuance? A nebula? A collective name would come in handy, seeing as there will be at least 23 people in the Whitehorse area simultaneously writing a novel during November. The writers are all taking part in National Novel Writing Month, …
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A Journey That Began With Press and Politics
Flo Whyard was born in 1917, in London, Ontario, and grew up in a family of newspapermen and political junkies. Her father sat in the Press Gallery, inside the House of Commons, and wrote his articles at night while Whyard fell asleep. “I was still small enough to fit in a crib, and banging away …
‘Forward, onward, says the wind.’
For our children: Tashina, Alysia, Aprile and Joshua My eyes are closed, but I can feel the gentle wind blow my hair lightly into my face. Forward, onward, it says. The fragrance of moist earth, decaying leaves and living things, envelope my senses. Branches creak and leaves flutter, letting me know what I’m leaving behind. …
Taking Medicine to New Heights
Cambridge medical students are expected to be well-schooled in the art of social climbing, but Peter Steele, who studied medicine at the University of Cambridge, in England, chose mountain climbing instead. “There were some really excellent climbers [at Cambridge], and I got bit by the ‘climbing bug’,” Steele says in a British accent that seems …
Unspoken universal language
I released the cold brass doorknob and walked up a half-step into an invisible wall of ammonia, iodine, freezer-burned meat and brown-sauce stench so thick and acrid that my nose burned. The floor was shiny – impeccable – the kind that looks like tiny chips of coloured pebbles with flecks of dichroic gold. The clacking …
Journalists should examine themselves
Guest Column by Tammy Beese I agree with some of the points made by Darrell Hookey in his column last week, “It’s worth the paper it’s written on,” on the troubling state of journalism today. Media business owners and the public do need to take some responsibility. But wouldn’t you say the journalist must also …
It’s worth the paper it’s written on
I remember back in the day when you could buy a great hamburger … a great hamburger as defined as a handful of meat, infused with Tabasco sauce — or a variety of secret family recipes — slapped into the shape of a patty and cooked over a flame. No two hamburgers were ever the …
Blocked But Not Beaten
Right now, a blinking cursor is doing its very best to drive me insane. This cursor, constantly sitting at the very end of my thoughts, echoes inside my skull like the flashing “12:00” on my microwave, its only purpose to nag at me that I still have a good 450 words to write. I’ve got …
World of Words: Helping children explore the past in the present
“Yukoners are definitely hitting above their weight,” polar scientist David Hik told Claire Eamer after the Canadian Science Writers’ Association (CSWA) presented her with the Science in Society Youth Book Award, in May. Locals may be familiar with Eamer’s contributions to the Northern Research Institute’s column Your Yukon or may have read her near-future fiction …
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World of Words: Poetry in a Slant Room
Yukon poet Michael Eden Reynolds’ first book, Slant Room, released today by The Porcupine’s Quill, shows us a stark natural world, and us in it. The first half, titled “Migrations”, “is very spare imagery with little human contact,” Reynolds says. “In the second half of the book, the tension between humanity and the natural world …
Launch into winter with local writers
“We’re a productive bunch!” said Claire Eamer when she was asked to attend the Yukon Authors book-signing bash at Mac’s Fireweed Books this Saturday, Dec. 5, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eamer, who had Super Crocs & Monster Wings and Spiked Scorpions & Walking Whales released by Annick Press, this year, was the featured …
World of Words: Adventures in YA territory
Young Adult (YA) readers love adventure, and a look at work by Northern authors Joanne Bell, Keith Halliday and Anita Daher shows why. YA stories can teach life skills and bush skills, as Dawson writer Joanne Bell demonstrates. Her first book, Breaking Trail (Groundwood Press), is the story of a young girl mushing her own …
World of Words: Graphic novels – no longer restricted reading
When graphic novelist and Grade 7 teacher Rebecca Hicks was in school, reading “comics” under the desk would have earned her a trip to the principal’s office. Now, in her classroom, they’re required reading. “I’ve had great success using graphic novels to enhance reading instruction,” says Hicks. She guides more advanced readers to classical mythology …
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World of Words: Crime writing in a small town
Justine Davidson has been the Whitehorse Star court reporter for three years. Recently I moderated her presentation at the Yukon Mystery Lounge. Below are highlights of the lively discussion. Jessica Simon (JS): How did you get into court reporting? Justine Davidson (JD): It’s the beat that’s often given to the most junior reporter because most …
World of Words: Ynklude writes books for all abilities
Writing is a challenge. Raw, chaotic emotions demand to be shaped into a coherent story. It’s even more challenging when the writer has to overcome physical or mental barriers to get the work done. Fortunately, the Yukon has the Ynklude Writing Group to support writers of varying abilities to produce plays, songs and musicals, and …
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Yukon Yearbook
Yukon writers are a prolific bunch, offering a new book every month or so. For the second year in a row, Lise Schonewille, bookbuyer at Mac’s Fireweed Books, has put together a mini book fair to showcase writers who had a book come out in 2010. “Last year I just realized how many wonderful authors …
A Celebration of Northern Words
I’m sitting in my trailer in Whitehorse as I type these words, but I can almost hear Buckwheat Donahue hoowwlliingg with delight all the way from Skagway, where I spent the last several days, attending the very first North Words Writers Symposium. Buckwheat likes to begin and end every event he’s involved in with a …
Writing Circumpolar Space
Temperature and light extremes are similar across circumpolar countries, but comparing the waterfronts of Whitehorse and Reykjavák might reveal interesting contrasts in what “North” means. Writing Space is a writing competition hosted by Arctica Magazine, an emerging online arts and literature publication. Writers of poetry, short fiction or creative non-fiction are invited to submit work …
Start a blog
Blogging is “a dangerous medium for personal exposure.” So says Andrew Robulack, a Whitehorse technophile, columnist and long-time blogger. He’s nailed the definition. Broadcasting your opinions, memories, successes, and frustrations, in the most public forum yet devised, is everything Andrew asserts. So you wouldn’t expect many people to write a “web log,” the name once …
Creativity and Commitment
The common thread that links the stories and columns in What’s Up Yukon each week boils down to two words – creativity and commitment. From the outset, this magazine has had a strong focus on arts and entertainment, where creativity is a given. Musicians, dancers, actors, visual artists, writers, photographers, filmmakers, et cetera have always …
World of Words: From Auction to Awesome
Whatever happened to that English guy in Australia who sold his life on eBay? He moved to the Yukon and wrote a book about it. In November, A Life Sold by Ian Usher went on sale via Amazon, and is now available on Kindle. It recounts Usher’s adventures to sell his life and achieve 100 …
World of Words: Home truths About eBooks
The publishing industry is in some kind of spring flurry. In February this year, Amazon announced that, for the first month ever, their eBook sales outstripped paper sales. Then, in an article syndicated by the New York Times in March, HarperCollins announced lending limits for e-library books in an article called “Now at the library: …
A Literary Study
When Bob Hayes was in grade school, he was nearly accused of plagiarism for his story “The Flickering Flame.” The author Hayes emulated? Jack London. Readers of Hayes’ first book, Wolves of the Yukon, will spot the influence of Jack London, Robert Service and Pierre Berton. And like Alaska author James Michener, Wolves starts at …
A Little Off the Top: A Call to Arms
Backpackers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your shame. I’ve been a regular backpack wearer for only a year, since forsaking daily vehicle use in favour of shank’s mare and public transit. Back in the day, sure, I sometimes wore what we called a rucksack, or a knapsack – occasionally even …
CanCon in CanLit
Much attention has been paid recently to the topic of Canadian content and national pride in literature. It seems we’re writing about everywhere except Canada. Granted, 2011 marked the first time crime fiction was considered by Scotiabank Giller Prize jurors, which may have contributed to the phenomenon. But, as local writer Tina Brobby says, “It …
Hate to say I told you so
In September of 2008, I was working construction in Edmonton when the bottom fell out of the economy. There were a few workers on my crew that were good enough to find work in a recession, but I wasn’t one. After spinning my wheels for a week or two, I bought a bus ticket and …
A debut Yukon novel
Enthusiasts of outdoor stories, adventure and romance will find all three at the preview of Roy Ness’s first novel, Rutting Season, at the Parking Lot Reading on Friday, July 27. The self-published book is a stand-alone adventure with a liberal dose of romance. In a September storm in the Selwyn Mountains grizzly bear eco-warrior Hannah …
World of Words: Guerrilla editing: Get what you want
If you sat down to write the Great Canadian Novel, would it come out in a gush of first draft? Or are you one of the large number of “re-writers” who find the real story only comes to life after the editing process? “Whether writing or rewriting, at some point the word will be subjected …
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Sunshine sketches of a northern town
Ask David Thompson what he’s read, and you’ll get a varied list: George Orwell, J.D. Salinger and the adventures of Antarctic explorers. Doesn’t sound like the stuff of a storyteller whose short story collection, Talking at the Woodpile, reads with the quick humour of Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. In this case …
World of Words: Readings in parking lot country
With the simple tools of a canopy, lectern and public announcement system, six authors have banded together to create a Friday night reading program where none exists – in two parking slots outside the Whitehorse Coles on Chilkoot Way. The eight-week series is aimed at giving campers in the surrounding big box parking lot a …
Speed bumps 101
Our neighbourhood has speed bumps (and more than a few potholes) that make slow driving an easy choice. As annoying as they may be, at times, they are important to keep us all safe. The comma is not vital to our survival, but it is vital to our success as writers. Commas can have a …
‘Irreplaceable’ does not mean ‘good’
It was a requirement of administration that required a lot more soul-searching than I thought possible. Our administrator, Monica Garcia, proposed a question to me: “If you die, what would happen?” “Well,” I thought to myself. “All the businesses in the Yukon would close until after my funeral and grief counsellors would be brought into …
; (No, I’m not winking at you.)
The semicolon has three major functions: to link thematically related thoughts, to introduce conjunctions or transitional phrases and to avoid confusion in lists.
