Signing at McNally Robinson Booksellers. Winnipeg. Oct. 14, 2010

Signing at McNally Robinson Booksellers. Winnipeg. Oct. 14, 2010

McNally Robinson Booksellers
and
Inanna Publications
present
Mary Lou Dickinson
signing
Ile D'Or



Thursday October 14, 2:00 pm
Grant Park by the Cash Desk

Shortly after the first referendum on Quebec separation, four people who knew each other as children encounter one another in the town where they grew up. Bourlamaque began as a frontier gold mining camp in the northern Quebec bush. It is attached to Ile d’Or, the commercial centre, which by 1982 is still a bustling place despite concerns about the gold running out. The four protagonists - Michelle, Libby, Nick and Lucien - are some thirty years out of high school when they meet again. The four of them either converge on Ile d’Or, or still live there, and play out in a few days a drama that none could have foreseen.

Mary Lou Dickinson grew up in northern Quebec and has lived for many years in Toronto, where she worked as a crisis counsellor. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University and a Master in Library Science from the University of Toronto. Her fiction has been published in the University of Windsor Review, Descant, Waves, Grain, Northern Journey, Impulse, Writ and broadcast on CBC Radio. Her writing was also included in the anthology, We Who Can Fly: Poems, Essays and Memories in Honour of Adele Wiseman. Mary Lou’s first book of short stories, One Day it Happens, was published by Inanna Publications in May 2007.

Unintended Consequences of Writing a Novel

As a result of my novel, Ile d'Or, published this spring (May, 2010), I have heard from people across Canada and the U.S. who either grew up in the north or are familiar with it.

One man wrote that when his family moved into the log bungalow that had belonged to the local policeman, there was a jail in the back yard. It was a shed with bars. I asked what his family had used it for and he told me it was used as a shed. Why not? The fact that it was once a jail simply adds to the legends that surround the frontier town that Bourlamaque (Val d'Or) then was.

A woman wrote to ask why I'd used the name Serge Bikadoroff. In this case, I had used the name of a real person I knew to be deceased. And as the fictional character of a fictional character, it seemed innocuous. Ultimately it was, but I worried until the woman, who turned out to be Serge's sister, wrote to say she'd been delighted with my response to her query.

People appropriate the characters and their stories and tell me what really happened. Or what they would like to have happen. That's their prerogative. Once a book is published, it no longer belongs entirely to the author.

As a result of the novel, I am now in communication with people I had almost forgotten. With one man I exchange photographs and recipes. Another sent the class photographs in an earlier post. There have also been some uncomfortable moments when someone or other thinks the fiction is fact. I explain that it's a novel, that characters are often composites, that a lot of the background of the town is real but that the story is not. The story of four characters who come together in the town in their forties and have to face themselves and their pasts. It could have happened, but it didn't. And at this point, I can scarcely recall what is fact and what is fiction. That's the way it goes for a writer!!

Then & Now

Class photographs were taken in the 1940s and 1950s. They were sent to me by someone who also grew up in Bourlamaque, Quebec at that time.

Breakfast Recipe

Apple Oatmeal Bake

Next weekend visitors will stay over again. Everyone likes this breakfast dish and it's so easy so I decided to share the recipe. This is a huge amount. I halve it and have plenty for four people. If you have any left, it's great cold or you can reheat it in the microwave.

4 c. milk ( I use water)

2 c. old fashioned oatmeal

¼ c. maple syrup

2 c. chopped apples

2 tbsp. canola oil

1 c. chopped nuts (I use walnuts, recipe says walnuts or sunflower seeds)

1 c. raisins (or cranberries, I use raisins)

1 tbsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. salt (I don’t use)

Bring water, maple syrup, oil, salt and cinnamon to simmer

Stir these items into the remaining dry ingredients in a heavy baking dish

Bake uncovered 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

I prepare the dry ingredients the night before and put them in the baking dish. Then I add the rest in the morning and shove it in the oven.

I imagine most people would want milk on this. I use plain yoghurt only. I think when you see and taste it, you’ll figure out what you and/or your guests will prefer. Perhaps a bit of maple syrup?

'Famous Author'

What a weekend! A wedding outside of Rochester, N.Y. that involved a dinner on Friday at Artworks, wedding and reception dinner on Saturday at a country club, brunch on Sunday morning at the hotel where almost everyone stayed. The Punjabi suit I'm wearing was given to me in Calcutta in 2005. My friend, who had invited me to the wedding, introduced me to friends and relatives of hers as 'a famous author.' I was hardly going to tell her 'famous' might be an exaggeration. Who knows, if the novel starts to get some reviews, I still might be!!!

Summer Trip to Ottawa.

Imagine winning four return Via tickets from Toronto to Ottawa. So I went in late July along with three family members. What a blast! Grandson is 12 and it was a lesson in civics, in history, in architecture. All of us loved the Library of Parliament. What an exquisite library. How many librarians does it require to run this library? I didn't find out. Maybe you know!