When I first moved to Calgary, it seemed that no one I met was born here. They’d all migrated from Saskatchewan, eastern Canada, BC and beyond. Evidently, Calgary natives exist. Here are some wise words from Calgary’s first poet laureate on being a Calgary lifer.

This week’s Writing the City post by Shaun Hunter features a novel I really enjoyed: Love Minus Zero, by Lori Hahnel. Sadly, perhaps, I identified with the novel’s naive protagonist and her hopeless, too-long obsessive love for a creep. I also appreciated the novel’s abundant Calgary setting and glimpse of the city’s 1980s punk rock scene by an author who was there the thick of it.

Shaun Hunter’s blog post on Writing the City shows how author, Will Ferguson, used the Calgary Stampede to reveal character in his novel 419. The incident he describes in the book reminded me of a grocery shopping trip with my father when I was a child.  Perhaps to keep me quiet through the asiles, my dad let me buy a box of animal cookies, which I munched on through the cash. After we left the store, he realized he’d neglected to pay for the cookies. Rather than take off, pleased with a freebee, he went back to pay for them.  That kind of action imparts values to kids in ways parents are scarcely aware of.

At this year’s Stampede, my sister-in-law found a dime on the cement. Someone else I know found a loonie. There was no one to return them to and who would do that for such small amounts? I’m sure a lot of change gets dropped at the Stampede grounds. An enterprising person with sharp eyes could probably collect enough to buy a bag of warm mini-donuts. Mmmm.

As summer wound to a close, I got back into the writing mode. I’m now half way through draft # 4 of my novel-in-progress. With luck and hard work, I might finish the draft by Christmas — while still enjoying the distractions of fall.

My friend, Mahrie G. Reid, has picked up the writers blog tag baton. Here is her post.

A big thank you to Lori Hanhel for inviting me to join this virtual tour of writers. I enjoy blog tags because they give me material to blog about. This tour features  four intriguing questions.

What am I working on? I am on the fourth draft of a novel that is separate from my murder mystery series. The story is set in Calgary and California and involves a cult-like holiday retreat. I’ve been mulling one-liners to describe the story and have come up with: A woman must find her mother at the risk of losing her child.

How does my work differ from others in its genre? I move between mystery and literary or mainstream genres. My published novel is a whodunnit murder mystery.  I’ve completed a sequel that is awaiting word from publishers. But the first novel (unpublished) I wrote wasn’t a mystery and I call my current novel-in-progress a literary novel with apects of suspense. Of my ten published short stories, only two would qualify as mysteries, and not traditional ones.  I’ve also published a handful of poems that have nothing to do with mystery. As a result, I don’t feel I quite fit into either the mystery or literary/mainstream genre.

Why do I write what I do? Typically, we write what we like to read.  Since childhood, most of my reading has been mystery and literary/mainstream fiction. I’ve enjoyed doses of speculative and science fiction too.  In my early twenties I went through a phase of reading Kurt Vonegut Jr. and other far-out writers. One of my favourite childhood books was The Thirteenth is Magic, about a mystical thirteenth floor in a building. Admittedly, I was drawn to this book because my birthday is December 13th, but it makes me wonder if I’ll some day write a novel that is less earthbound than my other writing.

How does my writing process work? I usually start with a main character, maybe a couple of secondary characters, a setting and a situation or problem. The story evolves from there with no more than a general sense of where it’s going. In my first novels, this created a lot of work during the revision stage as I got rid of tangents and filled gaps. While writing Deadly Fall, I learned a lot about novel structure. Since then, I’ve had a structure in place before I start a book. For instance, I know that around the novel’s quarter-mark my protagonist will commit to her story quest. I might or might not know what this will entail. In my current novel-in-progress I knew my protagonist would board a plane to Los Angeles. In my mystery novel sequel, all I knew was that the crime would in some way become personal for my protagonist. In both cases, I didn’t know how she would reach these points, but while writing I was conscious that she must get there after x number of words, not many more or less.

This approach helps with my pacing and makes for fewer structural changes down the road. It does require a idea of how long the whole novel will be, which isn’t difficult. My novels tend to be a little longer than the average of 80,000-90,000 words and my first drafts usually skimp on detail, so if I hit 20,000 words around the first quarter turning point I figure I’m on target.  If I feel the opening might reach this number too soon, I slow the pace; if the committment point looks chapters and chapters away I speed things up by cutting, trimming or postponing scenes I had intended.  Once I postponed a wedding to the novel’s second quarter, then third quarter and finally scrapped it.

I find that breaking the novel into sections has the added benefit of making  the task less daunting. In my mind, I’m only dealing with a quarter of a book at a time, not a whole novel. But, I can’t say this more structured method speeds up my writing process. I still seem to need about five drafts per book; the main difference is that the first draft takes longer.                 

Now I tag author Mahrie G. Reid for her take on these questions.

For more perspectives, visit these other authors on the Tour de Blogs. I found their posts informative and articulate and why wouldn’t they be? They’re writers.

Rea Tarveydas Shaun Hunter Samantha Warwick Cassie Stocks Ali Bryan Leanne Shirtliffe Bradley Somer Janie Chang Theodora Armstrong Kathy Page Lorna Suzuki Barbara Lambert Matilda Magtree Alice Zorn Anita Lahey Pearl Pirie Julie Paul Sarah Mian Steve McOrmond Susan Gillis Jason Herou“

Like my last five photos, this week’s selection also shows me with dolls, real (my baby sister Moira) and play ones. Dolls in all forms were a huge part of my childhood. Baby dolls. Stuffed toys. Paper Dolls. When Moira got older, she and I spent hours making up stories for our various dolls, who assumed all kinds of characters. Sometimes we were the dolls, as we talked out storylines, especially at night before falling asleep. I’m convinced this type of play is the root of my adult storytelling and the main reason that what I like writing most is dialogue. 

Many thanks to author Mahrie G. Reid, who tagged me with a Very Inspiring Blog Award. I discovered this tag three weeks after the fact when I was checking out Mahrie’s website in connection with a guest blog post she has asked me to write for our baby boomer panel at Calgary’s When Words Collide writing conference this August. I look forward to getting to know Mahrie on this panel as we discuss Baby Boomer Lit – An Overlooked Market – Romance, Mystery and more.

By accepting this prestigious blog award, I am required to:

Link back to the person who nominated me for the award

Display the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Reveal 7 things about myself

Nominate others to receive the award and continue the fun!

Here goes:

Seven Random Facts about Me

1. My fondest, childhood memories were summer holidays spent in the fishing village where my father grew up, on Deer Island, New Brunswick.

2. As a child, I took ballet and piano lessons and I still enjoy singing and Zumba.

3. I was in three high school musicals, with a solo part in Oliver!

4. During my foolish youth, I hitchiked through all ten Canadian provinces.

5. My food weaknesses are fudge and barbecue chips.

6. My ten years working as an insurance claims examiner inspired my mystery novel protagonist, insurance adjuster Paula Savard.

7. Paula’s name came from my first best friend, Paula Keyfitz, who moved away to Pittsburg after grade one. Where are you now, Paula? To confirm that I had spelled spelled her surname right, I Googled Paula K. and might have found her!

Lastly, I nominate the following writers to join in the fun:

Shaun Hunter , essay and memoir writer; expert Tweeter.

Pamela McDowell, prolific author of Ospreys in Danger and numerous non-fiction children’s books

Lori Hahnel , author of three fiction books including the upcoming After You’ve Gone, musician and Facebook maven

Rona Altrows , author, editor and Star Trek fan.

Kevin Glew, writer, blogger and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame guide.

I hope you choose to participate. What do we not know about you?

My next five photos include three of me with dolls. One was my 2nd birthday gift; two are of the real life doll that entered our home shortly before that birthday — my baby sister, Moira. One picture shows me touching her gingerly.

I wonder what I thought of this doll that moved, sqwacked and cried on her own. Another picture shows her looking like a present under the tree. She was likely more intriguing that whatever was in that box I’m unwrapping and Moira — not those other gifts – was with me for the longer haul.

The next five childhood pictures selected randomly from the box included two of toddler me with a book. I expect my parents thought it was cute to photograph me ‘reading’ before I could actually read.

I’m sure I didn’t have the numbers and variety of picture books that children today enjoy. In fact, for bedtime stories I only remember one – a book of poems my sister and I recited with my father. It seems to me we read this one book over and over. The poems were classics that included: “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Turtle Soup” from Alice in Wonderland — Beautiful soup so rich and green — “Who Killed Cock Robin?” and “The Keeper.” That latter we sang in two voices:
“Jackie boy?”
“Master?”
“Sing you well?”
“Very well.”
At some point in my childhood, one of us five siblings coined the phrase “All gone the book” when we got to the end of a story. This became one of our family catch-phrases when a book was finished.

But, of course, a book is never over. The story or poem stays with us forever.
“Hey down.”
“Hoe down.”
“Derry derry down.”
“Among the leaves so green-o.”