Betty's Run

Tomorrow, Sunday, June 12th is the date of Betty's Walk and Run for ALS here in Calgary, and I'm all registered for it. Should have gone to pick up my shirt and all that stuff today. And I meant to solicit donations and promote the event. But I haven't done any of that because my mom, Marilyn, passed away last Tuesday at age 68, after living with this damned disease the last 18 months. And let me say right now that the recent passing of Dr. Kervorkian didn't go unnoticed in my household. I read Licia Corbella's ridiculous editorial about him in The Calgary Herald today and it made my blood boil.

Ms. Corbella, you should thank the God you seem to be so fervent about that neither you or nor any of your loved ones have ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  Because if you did, you would pray for the same mercy that decent people extend toward their pets. Would you watch your dog or cat slowly become paralyzed and finally die of CO2 poisoning because they were not able, in the end, to exhale? No, I didn't think so. But because euthanasia is illegal in Canada, that's exactly what my mother had to go through. You call Dr. Kervorkian a murderer because he spared people from this kind of suffering?  Um. So who pronounced you Judge of All Things because you write editorials?

I just can't face participating in Betty's Walk and Run for ALS tomorrow, although I did last year and I intend to do it  next. But I would encourage anyone who's interested to donate to the fight against ALS here:

http://www.alsab.ca/contactus.aspx

My mom and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Writing in the Works 4

Here's the whole Writing in the Works gang after our fourth fabulous annual show. From left to right, this year's readers Susan Calder, Inge Trueman, Naomi K. Lewis, myself and Leslie Gavel; our MC and chief helmsperson Rona Altrows; and, down in front, this year's provider of refreshments and general support, Elaine Morin. We had an excellent afternoon of readings, book sales and hanging out, and had more fun later at the Rose and Crown. Many thanks to Leanna McLennan and Elaine's hubby Scott for their help with the refreshments, to Shelf Life Books for book sales and to Calgary Public Library for once again providing us with a home. Thanks to Jan Markley for again acting as official event photographer. And thanks to everyone who came out to hear us!

We're already talking about Writing in the Works 5...

Guest Post: Betty Jane Hegerat on The Boy

It's my great pleasure to announce a guest posting here at TFBCH by my friend and colleague, Betty Jane Hegerat. I asked her a couple of questions about her amazing new book, The Boy (Oolichan Books), which she has graciously responded to below. Enjoy!

BJH:  Lori, thanks for inviting me to your blog. I know you’ve been hard at work on a novel for many years, so I’ve been looking forward to talking with you about that experience of living with a book-in-progress.  I believe your novel has involved research as well, but I suspect that you enjoy that part of the process more than I did in exploring this murder story.

LH:  It seems to me that this would be a difficult book to write. What was most difficult about writing it?

BJH: The real story is a horrible one, and finding the shape of the book was more of a challenge than I was looking for, but I think the most difficult part was the wrestling with my right to tell the story.  Yes, I am a writer, a storyteller, and this is what we do, but I have never drawn so obviously from the lives of real people. When I write fiction, I borrow and steal, disclose secrets and tell lies—all without apology. If I do the job well, the art that comes out of the chicanery is unrecognizable as real life.  But I knew as soon as I began to sift through the information about the Cook family that I would never be comfortable playing fast and loose with the details of their story. And yet, I was drawn to the family and their fate more than I was to the legal details and Robert Cook’s fate. I wanted to make sense of how something so dreadful could befall an ordinary working class family in small town Alberta.  And of course, to suggest that there was even a fragment of sense to the events in that small white house on June 25, 1959, seemed an affront to the memory of these seven people.  If I’d been able to walk away from the story I would have done so, but whatever it was that alternately compelled me and repulsed me, was the strongest obsession I’ve ever experienced in my writing life.

LH: How did writing The Boy differ from writing a novel?

BJH: In some ways writing The Boy was quite similar to writing my previous two novels. I have a tendency to call every new idea a “story” and pray that it will be short, because short fiction really is my first love.  Even before I was blindsided by the Cook story, I had begun to fear that Louise’s problem was not going to be resolved in anything close to 3000 words.  Then the fiction began to get entangled with the 50 year old murder story and I had a mess on my hands that was unlike anything I’d dealt with before. I’m used to having messy first drafts, and doing major revision through many more drafts, but normally there is some cohesion, and some order to the experimenting.  Whose story is it?  Who’s narrating?  From what vantage point?  Is the voice consistent? Where is the energy coming from to drive the story?  I didn’t even attempt to ask those questions of the reams of material I ended up gathering around the Cook story.  When I finally accepted that the work was going to have to include both the fiction and the non-fiction, the challenge was to find a way to fit it together.  I was definitely not a quick study on this project, and it took me a couple of years to realize that I had the structure all along. Louise’s story had turned into a novella, and if I could stitch the non-fiction to it like Peter Pan’s shadow, I might just be able to pull it off.  The Boy is being marketed as fiction for a number of reasons, even though it doesn’t fit any definition of the novel that I’ve ever seen.  But neither does it fit into non-fiction because of the embedded fiction. It’s a strange book, but it is what it is.

LH: Thank you, Betty, for the insights into the writing of this interesting, amazing, and yes, kind of strange book. I'm almost done reading it, and my sense is more that The Boy is unique than strange. I have never read a book quite like this. The approach reminds me a little of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. I think you may have written the first book in a new genre! Whatever pigeonhole it does or doesn't fit into, though, I can say that it is mesmerizing. Congratulations again on its publication! And thanks for dropping by and talking about it.

And another special treat, folks: an audio clip of Betty reading from The Boy over at her blog. Click on "other people's lives" And enjoy!

Suite 101 Review; Writing in the Works 4; Happy Mother's Day

Thanks to Robin van Eck for this great review of Nothing Sacred at Suite 101. It's so nice to get exposure and it's always interesting to me that different reviwers focus on different aspects of a book. Very nice.

Less than a week to go until this year's edition of Writing in the Works. That's Susan Calder, Leslie Gavel, Naomi K. Lewis, Inge Trueman and me doing readings, and hosted by MC Rona Altrows. That's next Saturday, May 14, at 1:30 at Memorial Park Library, 1221 - 2 St. SW. Readings, refreshments and book sales by Shelf Life Books -- sounds great!

And happy Mother's Day to my Mom and all my mom friends out there! I'm enjoying my Mother's Day and I hope you are, too!

New novel out the door; The Boy; Writing in the Works 4; MRU

So last week I finally finished my second novel. I started writing it in 2003 and have done a series of rewrites over the years. There was a while between 2007 and 2009 where I didn't touch it at all because of the other two books being published and all the nuttiness that entails, but it's finally done. Well, done, you know, until someone publishes it and it goes through the editorial process, or until I stack up enough rejections that I figure I need to fix it. Yeah, that kind of done. Anyway, I sent my first batch of queries out this week and am hopeful that I'll get some interest soon.


Can't wait for the launch of Betty Jane Hegerat's new book The Boy, at Memorial Park Library, 7 PM, next Thursday, May 5th. And I'm certain the weather will be lovely on that day, unlike today.

Gearing up for Saturday, May 14th and Writing in the Works 4, also at Memorial Park Library, at 1:30 PM. Readings by myself, Susan Calder, Leslie Gavel, Naomi K. Lewis and Inge Trueman, hosted by our own Rona Altrows. Refreshments! Book sales by our friends at Shelf Life Books! Drinks afterward! Yay!


Finally, I've started work on the syllabi for the creative writing courses (Levels 1 & 2) that I'm teaching through Continuing Education at Mount Royal University this fall. The timing on this was all really good; just as I was wrapping up this novel at last, this opportunity came up. I'm very pleased to have the chance to teach at MRU. 


Over and out for now. Hope to see you on May 14th!

Salon; The Boy; Writing in the Works 4

Had a fantastic time reading yesterday afternoon as part of a salon at Barb Howard's lovely home in Bragg Creek. Also reading were poet and novelist Anne Sorbie and poet T.B. Perry. We also had jazz piano by Andy Tong. Really fun afternoon. Thanks again to everyone who participated and everyone who came out for the event.

Next up is the launch of Betty Jane Hegerat's new book The Boy, at Memorial Park Library, 7 PM, Thursday, May 5th. Looking forward to the launch and to reading the book.

And shortly after that is Writing in the Works 4, also at Memorial Park Library, Saturday, May 14th at 1:30 PM. Readings by myself, Susan Calder, Leslie Gavel, Naomi K. Lewis and Inge Trueman, and hosted by our own Rona Altrows. Looking forward to it!

Nothing Sacred Trailer

I had so much fun doing the trailer for Love Minus Zero, I thought I might as well do one for Nothing Sacred, too. Hope you enjoy it.