Historic Village of Bourlamaque, Quebec. 2014. Looks almost the same as when miners were hired at $2.75/Hour.

I grew up in Bourlamaque, Quebec. At Sigma Mine. Down the road from here. This doesn't look like much snow, but it sure is more beautiful than in the city where, as of today, we have none!

Life of a Writer. 2015 Readings

I am delighted that I will be reading from my new novel in Montreal in mid April at Paragrahe Bookstore (April 15) and at the Yellow Door Reading Series (April 16th). 

Also in Winnipeg at McNally Robinson Booksellers on June 2d. 
In Chatham in the spring, date yet to be determined.
In Hamilton in the LitLive Series on October 4th.

In Toronto/Oshawa a book club has invited me to a meeting on March 10th. 

A signing is upcoming at the Manulife Centre, date yet to be pinned down.

Other possibilities will arise and I will circulate them in the New Year. Just wanted to give a heads up to everyone now!

WHY DID I BAKE AN APPLE PIE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? Comments on Process!

A RANT (of sorts):

What is your process? Someone always asks this question of authors says the host, Antanas Sileika, informing the audience that the question someone has just asked is also on his list. If he had had time to get to it before turning the floor over to questions, he undoubtedly would have. As it was, there was a varied array of responses from the panelists. This led me to ponder about my own process that has varied so much at different times in my life.            

            Why did I bake an apple pie in the middle of the night recently? Maybe because in doing so I would realize the children’s story I had felt compelled to write of late would hinge on such a pie. Somehow any story I conjure up about a mining town with a gold mine in it has a cookery where the underground miners eat stews and pies and whatever else Sam cooks for them. Yes, the real Sam all those years ago when I was a child in a northern mining community baked pies that melt in my mouth at the thought of them even now, decades later.

            My process? At the moment, I am writing on the back of an envelope on the subway going from Union Station north on the University line. I will type from this onto my computer when I arrive home, after I have eaten something and looked at an odd email from a woman I scarcely know. I rode first on a street car that took me from IFOA (International Festival of Authors) at Harbourfront and the session hosted by Antanas Sileika in the Studio Theatre to Union Station.

I could have answered the questions. I went to hear others, but also wonder why I don’t get invited to forums to answer some of what was posed to these authors. What is the tipping point that recognizes I, too, belong in such a context? Of course, I did get to answer some of them at the recent launch of my third book, but at IFOA I am still invisible. One of the writers talks about being influenced by an author who had her first book published at 62. The implication is that this is amazing. I didn’t really expect anyone to jump up and down when my first book, a collection of short stories, was published when I was 70. And no one did.  It could have been regarded by some as a ‘flash in the pan.’ It did receive a good review in the ‘Globe and Mail’ and on this basis was purchased by the Toronto library system. Some good things did happen. Now here I am at book #3, published in the year I turned 77. I am not sure what I expect, but it almost seems the ‘tipping point’ is still just out there beyond my grasp. One man said, “So you’re a serial writer now.” Yes, I am. I no longer feel like a fraud, but it seems in the wider world of writers, I am still invisible. All the same, if I manage to live longer in reasonable health, there will be more books and that is what I set out to accomplish!

In the session I attended today at IFOA, one question posed to the writers asked for a comment on what they would say now to a young writer, to their younger selves, someone beginning at whatever age, to help them. Karen Connelly, Nino Ricci, Wayson Choy, Kevin Barry and Valerie Martin. What a variety of responses.

What would I say? Why did I make an apple pie in the middle of the night? Two of the five spoke of starting their writing day without waking up entirely to the outside world in an attempt to stay close to the dream state “where the best writing happens.”

What is there to say about someone as old as I am who may even miss the dream state when I wake up so often at two or three in the morning and grasp at a story floating by, trying in the attempt to quell the anxiety of the night. A time when there are no answers to the pressing questions of mortality, to how quickly the remaining time, however long that is, is shrinking.

So, I make an apple pie. The first one isn’t perfect, not like the ones Sam baked in the cookery at the mine. It seems important to get it right because Sam has turned up in a children’s story I have been writing recently about a family who live in a mining town in contemporary time. And among them are some of the characteristics of the family of my childhood. In this story, called “Big and Little,” where the miners go underground, there are two sisters so named by their father. In this tale, Little can hear the men in the tunnels under the earth talking every night as she drifts off to sleep. It is the only time she hears them and it is possible she thinks she is already asleep and dreaming.

I like these thoughts. It clears my mind of everything else, including all thoughts of mortality.

Since the first pie is not perfect, I decide a few days later to bake another. After riffling through a looseleaf binder of collected recipes, I find my grandmother’s for pastry. She was the food editor for the Toronto Telegram for twenty years and her pies were as good as Sam’s. No one else I knew could claim that, except Mina who worked for the manager at the mine. Yes, both my grandmother’s and Mina’s apple pies were excellent.

The second pie is better. The pastry is flaky. The filling is spiced perfectly with ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It is a lot easier to outline the process for making pie than that of writing, although I do know what mine is. It is erratic and requires me to write only an hour a day (often it turns into a much longer period of time) at any time during that day. It may turn out to be a lot longer, but it does not have to be. I have followed this regime ever since I retired over ten years ago from working at the Assaulted Women’s Helpline. I may not be asked to talk about writing fiction, but I was recently asked to speak along with two colleagues about violence against women.  I can still do that, though by now I know a lot more about writing fiction than I do about responding to crisis calls. Maybe that is not true, maybe that kind of ability one never loses. But aside from isolated presentations, my days as a counsellor are over. I write fiction and in this hour every day, done consistently day after day, sentences and passages begin to cumulate and stories and books actually emerge. But I can’t tell anyone how to write, only offer some comments here and there and wish them all the best. And tell them most of all to follow their hearts. Encourage them to get going after they have their fill of IFOA. That’s what it takes in the end, to face the screen or page on my own and overcome the isolation and create my own world of stories. As it turns out, I can’t tell anyone much about how to write, but if you want the recipe for apple pie, just ask me!

Downtown Toronto Colour. Oct. 19, 2014

 

 

Book Launch. Would I Lie To You. October 9, 2014

 LAUNCH OF MY THIRD BOOK, WOULD I LIE TO YOU?, A NOVEL. 

The launch took place at The Supermarket in Kensington Market in Toronto, Ontario. It was a most exciting evening with a stellar turnout. The books of two Inanna authors were launched, Mary Lou Dickinson (moi) and Loren Edizel.

 

Preparing for the launch. Daughter took photo and you can see her in the mirror.

Mary Lou Dickinson at the microphone reading from her new novel

The Audience.

Mary Lou Dickinson & Loren Edizel. Q&A

f

Two Inanna Authors. Dickinson and Edizel. Q&A

Signing

Sigma Mine, Bourlamaque, Quebec. 1940s or 1950s.

This is the mine where my father worked from 1935 to 1962. It no longer exists in this configuration. It all disappeared when the mine became an open pit operation many years later. Even the highway from Val d'Or to Montreal was moved. Gold motivates decisions, not town planning! That head frame was designed by my father as was the hoist. Memories!

I have posted this because the most popular post on my blog has been one on Sigma. Perhaps those people will find a photo of the actual buildings on surface in the early days of interest!

Tagged on FB by prolific, exciting author Lisa Nikolits to write about my writing process:

I've been tagged by the exciting and prolific author Lisa Nikolits to write about  my writing process:

• What am I working on?         

At the moment, I am editing my third book with the wonderful editor of Inanna Publications, Luciana Ricciutelli. A novel, Would I Lie To You?, it will be launched on October 9^th in Toronto. I have also recently completed a mystery novel. When I have time in the midst of editing, sending out invites for the launch, figuring out how to use my website and the Mailchimp program, I am working on a memoir called ‘Restless.’

When I am asked how long it took to write the three books that will have been published by October, I wince. All were underway before I retired in 2002, when my goal in my retirement was to see that I actually finally got my books published. (Collection of short stories, One Day It Happens 2007; Novel, Ile d’Or 2010).

 

I also occasionally work on another collection of short stories.


• How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I do not write one specific genre, although I began with short story and novel writing. Mysteries were not in my future, nor was a memoir. But when given an idea for a mystery, I set out to learn how to do that by reading endless mysteries recommended by avid aficionados of the form and review recommendations. The memoir began to unfold when at Banff many years ago I found a manuscript written by a maternal ancestor, who had discovered the Banff Springs, about discoveries in the west during the construction of the CPR railroad. Again I have read endless other memoirs. How does my work differ from others in these genres? I find it difficult to say, but I suspect that my focus to some extent on social justice and that I am a feminist infuse my work. Not that this is not also true of the work of others, just that it always underlies my concerns. I am told that my voice is straightforward and gentle, authentic and honest. I would like to believe that.

 Why do I write what I do?
What choice does a writer or an artist have? Some theme or character or situation takes up residence in my psyche and demands that I deal with it. Once I have a story or book finished, I have new members in my family in the form of characters who have become so familiar that they are friends for the duration. And if I disagree with them, they exhort me with the fact that I have created them so I had better pay attention.

I write because it is apparently a call, or so a nun on a bus traveling along the St. Lawrence River many years ago told me. A gentle voice, hopefully, that conveys stories, but also appears to listen and validate the experience of readers. I used to think I wrote to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable, but I don’t think that any more. I just write what I write because the words are what come to me and the circumstances are those that demand to be told. I used also to think that writing is a crazy way to stay sane and that may be what it is for me… my handle on sanity. Creativity as the saving grace in a troubled world. Or something! And hopefully the writing also conveys some level of healing to others.

I also write to understand the world, to figure out what I am thinking, to create a record, to have fun. . It is satisfying to write a good sentence. I hope to be remembered for at least one memorable sentence!


• How does my writing process work?

I have been writing since I was 7 and my first book was published when I was 70. This might suggest a very slow process! What can I say! It took a long time and the explanation would be a book in itself. Maybe the memoir I am working on will explain it for me.

Rarely am I facing the blank page (screen) any more, but rather starting with material that needs revision. If you consider that revision might be as much as 90 % of the writers’ work, this seems realistic rather than pathetic. If something simply won’t work, I switch to something else. This is a far cry from the early days when each piece was new and the blank page was an unending terror. Persistence has it’s benefits, I guess, because I often have more material now than I can deal with.

Sometimes the material I am working on is new. Then I am apt to become a dinosaur and find myself writing in longhand in the middle of the night. Once I have entered this into Word, I work with the computer. I recall the days when I had to retype hundreds of pages when I shifted material around. I remember the days of white out. And am eternally grateful for my computer.

I have, for the last ten years, worked with a writing group (Moosemeat) and the critique that has led to has been very beneficial.  I often wonder why I waited so long to see the value of such an environment.  In the last year, I started working with another, smaller, group as well.  I am submitting my memoir to this group, chapter by chapter. The other writers have books published and as well as being good writers who submit segments of their work, they offer very helpful critique.

I don’t have a consistent schedule for work. I have worked in various ways at different times, depending on the circumstances. When my children were in their teens and I took a sabbatical from a job to write, I wrote five days a week during their hours at school. When they left home and I went back to the employment world, I wrote on Mondays (and weekends). Now that I am retired from all of that, I try to enjoy being retired (whatever that is) as well as put in a modest amount of writing a day (it becomes cumulative after a while) and don’t worry about how much that is unless I find that I am procrastinating rather than enjoying the rest of my life.

At the Aquarium. Toronto. August, 2014

Visited the new Aquarium today with my grandson. The prices were for Adults, Youth (up to 13) Seniors, Children. How to figure out what to ask for was a dilemma. My grandson figures he is a middle aged teenager. Certainly not an adult. So when I got to the ticket seller I asked for one senior ticket and one ticket for a grandson. The young woman looked us over and saved us $10 by selling us a senior ticket and a youth ticket. And as m grandson said, "No one told any lies." Anyway, it is a splendid aquarium with so much to enjoy and learn. Both of us enjoyed it!

A New Novel... Coming Soon to a bookstore or library near you!!

   
You are invited to the launch of my new novel, Would I Lie To You? at The Supermarket,   268 Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market, Toronto on  Thursday, Oct. 9th  at 6 p.m. Mark the date on your calendar.

If you don't live in Toronto, but know people would like to have me read in your town/city, that can be arranged. There is also Skype, of course!

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Would I Lie to You? is a novel about secrets, secrets that even loving couples have been known to keep from each other. After ten years of marriage, Sue and Jerry each harbours a significant secret. In this novel, the son our protagonist didn’t know her husband had and the daughter she had when she was sixteen and never saw. 

When Jerry becomes ill and it’s apparent he’s dying, Sue visits a psychic, Hans, who tells her there is someone like a son in her life... and...

 

The novel confronts what happened when pregnancies were kept secret many years ago, what happens when mother and birth child look for and either find, or do not find, each other. It also explores the reality of family secrets, huge issues that are kept quiet under the veneer of polite society and that affect the individuals and families involved for lifetimes, even generations. The novel also raises the question of who is family and how do we create one.

                                             **********************************

Whether you can make it out to the launch or not, I invite you to read my new book! You are also invited to comment in the comments section of this site. Or you can email me at marylou.dickinson@gmail.com or add a comment to my website at www.maryloudickinson.com  

Please pass the word along. Word of mouth is a powerful way to garner attention for a book!

My upcoming novel.

 

Looking for your next good read? 

My new novel will be published in October, 2014

The Writer's Journey. Follow Your Dreams

When people follow their dreams, their passion often leads ultimately to the fulfillment of those dreams. Sometimes it takes a long time. At others, the dreams may change and open up other avenues. I always wanted to be a writer and while it took almost a lifetime to get to the published book stage, I do not regret the journey. And here I am to tell you that you never know where you will find the encouragement to continue.

There were many spots on my journey when something happened that suggested it was possible that I would one day publish a book. Then more books. An early such moment was when I opened an envelope to discover that a recommendation had been made on my behalf, unknown to me, by James Polk, then an editor at the House of Anansi Press,  for an Ontario Arts Council grant. I did not know who Polk was except that he had turned down my manuscript. Yet only a month or so later, he was recommending me for a grant.

Another significant event was when a story that was accepted by the University of Windsor Review was accepted for broadcast on the CBC's Anthology. And then not long after came a small Canada Council grant. I corresponded in those days with the Editor, not knowing until many years later who the Fiction Editor, who had actually accepted my work, was (Keep reading!).

When I met Adele Wiseman during her stint as writer in residence at the University of Toronto, I met not only a mentor but a friend who remained both until she died many years later. Bill Kilbourn was another mentor and friend. Sometimes my work wasn't entirely ready to submit and yet these two wonderful writers could see something in it.

And then there was the Humber School for Writers. After years of deciding I would not take this  program because it was where I live, Toronto, so wouldn't provide an opportunity to go somewhere else (as I had done by going to the Banff Centre of the Arts in 1992 and to a summer writing program at the University of New Brunswick in 1997), finally I read their course information.. My express purpose was to move on in my career as a writer. So I applied and was accepted, too nervous to ask for Alistair MacLeod as mentor, thinking that was presumptuous on my part. Lo and behold, Humber decided his small group was the right one for me.            

It was while at Humber that I learned that, ten years apart,  MacLeod had accepted two of my short stories that were subsequently published in The University of Windsor Review. Somehow this drew the strands of my writing life together and gave it all some coherence. And the courage to move on. Not long after, my short story collection was accepted by Inanna. Later, my first novel in 2010. And now in 2014, I look forward to the publication of my second novel in the fall!

The dreams continue as one after another my books emerge.A long, arduous, but satisfying, journey.

Alistair MacLeod. 1936 - 2014. RIP

Farewell to one of Canada's best loved writers.  MacLeod wrote beautifully and he treated people kindly and with good humour. He will be missed. And I, for one, will take out his short stories and his novel and read them again, marvelling at the skill and compassion with which they are written.

Some people leave us far too soon. Although MacLeod was 77, it feels that way, as if the world has lost a gentle soul who made the lives of the rest of us better. Fortunately he leaves behind the books that we can still hold and read, a legacy of value.

Reviews, Brief.

Ron Schafrick's first book, a collection of short stories, The Interpreters, is masterfully written and with many of the stories set in Korea, of interest to those who find other cultures fascinating as well as those who appreciate good literature. Well done characterization as well as revealing dialogue.

Now reading Olivia Laing's The Trip to Echo Spring; On Writers and Drinking. At first, I was curious about the writers she chose...Cheever, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Carver among a couple of others, all writers whose work I admire. I did not know about the drinking history of either Cheever or Carver, but what is more fascinating is how well written this book is. When people want to know what I'm reading, I imagine when they see the title they might think I have a drinking problem!

Life of a Writer. #31. The Art of Revision.

Oh yes, a title to obscure the drudgery of revision. It is art, is it not? Or will produce art. As writers what we know is that it is necessary. Inspiration may be what first drove what we are working on, but once those halcyon days of flashing lights and long hours capturing those images have disappeared into the past, what we are left with is shaping, cutting, adding, redoing. Whatever words fit the 90 percent of the work of creation. It requires persistence, dedication, joy and sorrow. Probably much else as well. Patience. Quiet surroundings usually. An understanding family if one is lucky enough to have one. A supportive spouse/partner, also if one is lucky enough to... These supportive people may help us financially as well as emotionally. Or we may have to do this for ourselves. But one way and another, we find our own way through the morass of figuring out how to find those long hours to put in on writing and revision.

In my case, I have the readers' comments from the publisher about my upcoming novel, Would I Lie To You?, and am working on incorporating the ones I agree with prior to editing further with the actual editor of the small press that will publish my book in the fall. One wonders at times if it never ends and then is grateful that when the time comes, the book that emerges will be a better one!

Cuba. March 2014

Street Scene in Old Havana

Old Havana

Old Havana

Old Havana

Old Havana

Cuban flag

Ernest Hemingway's House near Havana

Restaurant on Water. Most magnificent seafood.

Santa Clara

Che Guavera Memorial

The size!!!

A trip to Cuba that included the interaction with a feminist, activist lawyer and a biologist/environmentalist, lectures from a doctor, a lawyer and an economist. Lots of questions and answers in all contexts. An opportunity to meet people who live in Cuba and for us to benefit from their experience. A visit to an organic farm, to the psycho ballet, to dance demonstrations, to a sculptor and doctor's home. To hear music and tour community and women's centres. To meet the children. To see the happy children in school yards and parks. And on it went. Even enjoying the beach! But primarily learning about the people, their struggles, their courage and creativity. About a system that has health care for everyone and where however poor, a roof over everyone's head. Through all the hardships of the embargo and the collapse of the Berlin wall, later the financial embroglio at the beginning of this century in North America, these people have survived and thrived. When the subject of the U.S. comes up, it is clear they do not want to change anyone else, only to be left alone to continue carrying out with the philosophical insights of their national hero, Jose Marti, which place community at the core of everything. So decisions and policies are made by the community for the community with that care for everyone in mind.