NorthWords Writers Festival: The Fabulous Fourth

Let’s get in the Wayback Machine so I can blog about the NorthWords Writers Festival like it just ended yesterday. (When, in fact, it ended three weeks ago.)

This is the fourth year the festival has run, and it just keeps getting better – the board of directors (Doris McCann, Annelies Pool, Jill Vaydik, Larry Adamson, Richard Van Camp, David Malcolm, and John Mutford) deserve a big round of applause. Many thanks also go to Judith Drinnan of the Yellowknife Book Cellar, who hauled stacks of books to each of the public events so eager readers had easy access to the authors' wares.

In addition to the established public events, there were more writing workshops and panels than ever before. Guest authors included Giller Prize winner Joseph Boyden; science writer and broadcaster Jay Ingram; poet/writer/publisher Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm; and YA author Anita Daher (who used to live in Yellowknife and continues to be a good friend to many northern writers – like me!).

The public events were packed – I was late getting to the family barbecue and had to search for a parking spot. I was (again) a few minutes late to a lunch-time talk with Jay Ingram and local science author Jamie Bastedo, and only got a seat because the organizers were setting out extra chairs. I was definitely NOT late for the two open mikes at Javaroma (with dessert provided by DeBeers Canada) because I know from years gone by that those events very popular. The organizers had originally capped the attendance for Joseph Boyden’s workshop, but responded to popular demand and opened the floodgates. The other panels and workshops also garnered good crowds.

My book was hot off the presses and my publisher, Borealis Press, very kindly arranged to have a couple of boxes airlifted to Yellowknife. Richard Van Camp took every opportunity to make sure the assembled masses knew about it (thanks, Richard!), so my book sales got a kick-start. I attended as many events as possible and was exhausted by Saturday afternoon. A quick nap, and I was ready for the Fourth Annual De Beers Canada Gala Readings. Glad I made time to practice the passages I read – I think it went well!

If you live in Yellowknife, please consider volunteering for next year’s NorthWords. It’s great fun. For more info on the festival, just visit the website.

(Photo above: Cathy reading at the DeBeers Canada Gala. Photo below: signing a book for fellow northern author Mindy Willett.)

Book launched!

We had a great turnout here in Yellowknife last night for the launch of my book, The Ugly Truck and Dog Contest, and Other Tales of Northern Life. About 60 to 70 people attended, including Mike Kalnay, inventor and long-time organizer of Yellowknife's actual Ugly Truck and Dog Contest. I read from the book; Moira Cameron and Steve Goff played some lovely music; we had a projector set up showing some of my photos from Yellowknife's Old Town. There was coffee, tea and desserts themed to the stories in the book (Prospector's Trail Brownies, Northern Lights Cheesecake, Ménage a Trois Cake, Cranberry Crumble Cake). Much fun!

(Love the photo above. The event was held at the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, and the title "Three Billion Years in the Making" refers to a geological event. But I must say, it sometimes felt like my book was also three billion years in the making!)

Book launch!

The book launch for The Ugly Truck and Dog Contest and Other Tales of Northern Life will take place:

- Thursday, June 25, 2009
- 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
- Northern Frontier Visitors Centre
- 4807-49th Street, Yellowknife, NWT

Readings from the book
Music by Moira Cameron and Steve Goff
Photos of the Old Town, coffee, dessert . . . see you there!

Listed on Chapters.Indigo.ca!

Was just cruising the internet, and discovered that The Ugly Truck and Dog Contest and Other Tales of Northern Life is now listed on the Chapters.Indigo.ca website here.

I spoke with my publisher on Friday, and we are going to try to have copies in Yellowknife in time for my reading at the NorthWords gala on June 13.

In the meantime, I am working on promo materials, website updates and so on. Stay tuned for info on the official launch!

Ugly Truck and Dog Contest on the presses!

Great news! My publisher got in touch with me last week to let me know that my short story collection, The Ugly Truck and Dog Contest and Other Tales of Northern Life, is on the presses.

Here's a sneak peek of the cover, designed by David Tierney of Borealis Press.

Not sure of the release date right now, but we are going to try to get some early copies up to Yellowknife in time for the NorthWords Writers Festival. I am reading at the closing gala, so would be great to have some copies on hand!

He's back . . .

The little fox made a re-appearance today. Snoozed for an hour or more in the backyard.

Life imitates art . . . or one of my stories, at least

Just had one of those quintessential Yellowknife experiences.

In early April, Pierre and I were vacationing in Calgary and Pierre bought a new vehicle. His plan was to fly back to Yellowknife as planned, get insurance and plates, fly back to Calgary and drive the vehicle home. He had to work out of town for a couple of days before heading back south, but no problemo, we’d had a long cold winter. And then we got several days of surprisingly warm weather.

Oops.

Here’s the thing. Yellowknife is not on an all-weather road. The highway that connects us to the outside world crosses the Mackenzie River close to the town of Fort Providence. There is no bridge (although one is being built). In the spring/summer, a ferry takes vehicles across; in the winter there is an ice bridge. During the spring melt and the fall freeze, when there is neither an ice road nor an operating ferry, there’s no way to get across.

“Leaving Yellowknife,” the last story in my soon-to-be-published collection of short stories The Ugly Truck and Dog Contest and Other Tales of Northern Life, deals with this very phenomenon. My protagonist, the not-so-angelic Angela, has been offered a prime job in southern Canada. She races south in her beloved car before the ice bridge closes and she is stranded in the NWT for another month before the ferry starts running.

I’m not going to tell you what happens to Angela, but Pierre didn’t make it. It became clear he could not get to Calgary and then make it back up to the NWT in time to get across the quickly disintegrating ice road. So he re-booked his ticket. I think he gave himself about three weeks, which should have been enough time. But then the weather turned cold, and the dates for the ferry kept getting pushed back.

I was predicting that he’d end up in Alberta for days longer than he wanted to, but it all worked out. The ferry started running a couple of days before he got to the crossing, and he’s home safe and sound with a carload of bedding plants. (Yahoo!) Now I just have to keep them alive until it’s warm enough to plant them.