Links to posts about the Yukon
“The Song of Sasquatch,”my poem/story of bigfoot romance in the style of Song of Solomon, is up at Joyland: a hub for short fiction. Joyland is unique as an online fiction magazine. It has editors associated with a certain geographical place and all the stories come from writers associated with that place. Occasionally, editor Kevin Chong says, they like to pull a few writers from outside. Thanks, Kevin, for pulling me in! Enjoy!
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I’m really proud to have been asked to sing the national anthems of the US and Canada at the Yukon Quest Banquet held in Whitehorse, this past February, 2010. As an immigrant to Canada, it meant the world to sing both anthems–they have a special meaning for me.
It was a race from the US to Canada that we were there to celebrate this year. So I could relate.
I also like how much the Canadians like to sing along when we start “O Canada”.
My story, “Et Tu Bruté,” was just chosen to be on the longlist of finalists for the GEIST magazine Postcard Story Contest. Out of over 500 entries across Canada, they choose 15 stories for readers to read through and make comments about and vote on. And then they choose winners. Thank you, GEIST, for the exposure! It’s a prize in itself to be on their website and to have my work being read.
So, go by the site, give the story a read. Keep Brutus company.
UPDATE: The site for “Et Tu Bruté” was retired, so I brought him home to my site. So, while you can’t read it at Geist, you can read it at the new link above.
For more postcard stories, Geist is a wonderful spot.
I’ll be at Mac’s Fireweed, Friday April 23rd from 4-6pm signing copies of EVOLVE: Vampire stories of the new undead–an anthology edited by Nancy Kilpatrick, where I have a story, “How Magnificent is the Universal Donor.” It’s all-Canadian (or in my case, landed immigrant), all vampire and the theme is the evolution of vampires. As far as I know, this has never been done. Shaking up the old rules. These are new kinds of vampires.Come and find out how vampires have evolved and what they’ve become. Or just come and say hi. I’ll be behind a lonely desk, and will want company.
This is the YUKON launch of the book–and we’re planning a reading in Tagish–sometime soon. It’s been launched now in Brighton, UK at the World Horror Convention in front of other horror writers; it’s been launched in Toronto in front of fantasy, science fiction and horror enthusiasts; and it’s being launched in Winnipeg, Montreal and Vancouver as well.
YUKON launch: Mac’s Fireweed, 4-6pm, Friday, April 23rd.
Wouldn’t you know that 11-18 year olds have plenty of reasonable, thoughtful ideas about the evolution of vampires? Because of the anthology I’m a part of that comes out next week (Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead) I threw out the question —where do you think Vampires are going–or should go?— to my writing students. They are all voluntary writers who stay after school to work on their own writing (which usually has a horror-tinge to it) and they were freakin’ brilliant. I LOVE these guys.
Imagine them sitting around a grouping of four tables shoved together, in the French library of FH Collins.[Just gonna use their first names–they’re cooler that way] I didn’t do any editing to this dialogue. I have some pretty smart high school kids.
Here are their thoughts:
Santana: I’m looking for more variety in vampires. I think vampires have to move away from being either completely evil or sparkly good.
Franz: They used to be the icon of horror. I think people forget that vampires used to turn into bats.
Erin: They’re vampires. They have to eat. They’re not going to drag the carcass of a deer into the forest so they can revive it. They aren’t going to be helpful.
Zeb: They need to go back to the basics. They’ve moved from Dracula to whiny good guys, and I think they need to swing back to Dracula. I’ve seen quite a few vampires in between good and evil: Dresden Files has multiple “courts” of vampires. Some of them bad and some of them really bad.
Franz: Yes, I’m tired of angsty vampires. I read about this one vampire who was all angsty and then he was bloodthirsty and killed people, but he was a lot more interesting when he got older and more complex. He wasn’t as angsty and he wasn’t as bloodthirsty. He was light hearted and pretty hilarious.
Santana: Authors shouldn’t be afraid to expand the genre–to have vampires that are neither good nor evil, but neutral. I want them as complex as real people. I want them in modern day settings dealing with our own vampire crazy culture.
Zeb: Terry Pratchett had some really cheerful vampires called Magpires who wore bright clothing but they were really evil people!
We all started citing some places that vampires still haven’t gone yet….
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And then …. they started to come up with ideas about what THEY would write about these vampires. And they were such fantastic ideas, I can’t write them here… I have to let these kids tell them. But they are brilliant.
I’m hoping that they read Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead and give us a review of the book–to see if authors were able to “expand the genre” as Santana mentioned. I’d like to see how this meets their expectations of where Vampires should be going…
Coming up, Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead will be launched in Toronto at Ad Astra, the science fiction convention there. It happens April 9-10 in two separate events: one is a the Canadian Launch on Friday night, 7pm at the World’s Biggest Bookstore. And the other is a reading on Saturday at Toronto Don Valley Hotel and Suites which is hosting Ad Astra. 
My article on Ufology in the Yukon appears now in Yukon, North of Ordinary. The magazine is the inflight mag of Air North, one of the finest airlines. I love Air North for its service, the fact that I know all the flight attendants, and for the Midnight Sun coffee and the cheesecake. I’m proud that Air North ran the article. They were both skeptical and worried that an article about UFOs in a magazine you read on an airplane might get people to thinking they were pushing the idea that UFOs exist. But they ran the article, and I’m very happy to see it there. The article focusses on the people who see UFOs, that they are normal everyday people. Ronald Reagan saw a UFO, and the Pope just okayed the existence of extraterrestrials, so things are changing for aliens—we’re getting okay with them. This article just lets you know that folks do see them, that they are normal people, and that in any other condition 32 eyewitness accounts that matched would be enough to prove something of this magnitude. But, as of yet, no spaceship has dropped enough hard evidence to make us all believe. That doesn’t stop these brave men and women who sometimes speak out, sometimes against ridicule. Many keep it to themselves. It’s good to listen to their stories and make up your mind later….
The article doesn’t itself endorse UFOs, but, like every issue, it does seek to promote the good folks of the Yukon, those who have seen UFOs and those who want to believe. God bless Yukon, North of Ordinary.
For the article follow this link to What’s Going On Up There? (there is a place there to download the whole issue as a PDF)
If you have seen something unidentified in the day or night sky and want to report it, there is a website for that as well. Martin Jasek and friends keep the UFO*BC website open for sharing experiences and for reporting sightings. If you’ve seen something, fill out this online form.
This is my review from What’s Up Yukon.
5 out of 5 Stars
I gave Justine Davidson, the theatre reviewer for the Whitehorse Star, a long hug at the end of The Laramie Project, the Guild Society/GALA play.
Both of us were near tears.
She said over my shoulder, “Does this mean it’s good when the journalists are crying?”
We weren’t the only ones moved.
But don’t let this make you think the play is a downer. It isn’t.
It’s mostly a fascinating study of 80 people learning to cope with sudden and abrupt change. The tragedy of Matthew Shepard’s murder happens before the play begins — so this is, in effect, the aftermath.
This is a community coming to terms with what they think about it — and finding themselves at the centre of a media tornado. You find yourself rooting for them as they try to make it through. …
(For the rest of the review, click here to go to What’s Up Yukon)
Some stunning work by Morgan Whibley, a Whitehorse based photographer. The Alley Series. (Yes, it was stunning and fun even before I was a subject.) His rules are simple:
One alley from sidewalk to sidewalk.
Ambient light only.
A different person everyday.
Seven days a week.
He’d been doing this for 43 days in a row when he ran into me. Follow the link, get stunned by his work. All Yukoners, all beautiful pictures, wonderful, fun people. They are our stories.
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But my story got me to thinking about being a writer of genre.
Morgan tells me to come into his shop, Photovision, and when I get there he cuts a piece of cardboard from a box, slaps down two markers and says, Draw. What do I draw? He’s made a speech bubble. “Whatever you want to.” I have NO idea what to put there. He wants the first things I think of. I hem and haw a bit. Suddenly, I just sketch out a design and draw Mr. Spock with a latte from Baked Cafe there. We shoot the photo in the alley.
And then, it’s over, so I think. And I’m halfway back to my truck and I think–“You fool! You could have said something important about the value of words. That words can be healing, or words can be explosive and destructive. And what did you do? You did something frivolous. And stupid–and highly derivative. Are you just a Trekkie? Is that all you are?” These were the voices in my head.
So I ran back to Morgan, grabbed him by the shirt collar. “We have to do it again!” I said. Okay, maybe I didn’t grab his shirt collar, but I was insistent that we do it again because I’ve thought of something more important to “say.” So he patiently carves out another speech bubble for me, and I draw out the symbol for Medicine (you know, the two snakes wrapped around the staff with wings–started by Moses, so long ago)–cause I’m going for “Healing Words”….
Yeah.
So, we go out into the alley so I can get shot again. And we’re both thinking the same thing, and we’re talking…maybe we’re overanalyzing, we both say.
And we take the shots. And they are highly thought out… and they say the “right thing.” But they seem orchestrated, forced.
I think, later, that THIS is the argument that every writer has with him/herself. Especially writers of any genre: humor, science fiction, romance, fantasy, western, children’s, young adult, gay, hairy monster, etc.
We think that we must say something IMPORTANT with what we write. That we have to use our considerable talent, and all writers have “considerable talent” with words, and say something like “WORLD PEACE, IDIOTS!” or “Stop oppressing us!!” or “Global Warming is REAL!” or “Whales don’t deserve to be SHOT!” And who can argue with these messages? Certainly they are important. We all know that. And certainly other people will consider you a much weightier writer, a writer with HEFT, if you can tackle Global Warming, or Teen Pregnancy, or something important, in your writing. They often give awards in that direction (and they do it in film too….).
But who’s to say that the person who laughs at my first photograph won’t be healed? Who’s to say that you can’t heal someone with words without broadcasting that you are HEALING them? Who wants to be hit over the head with a message? And why can’t REALLY good genre do everything that you need it to do–be a damn good story, with a subtle message and a lot of entertainment?
I think, as writers, we all balance between these two photos: the need to say something important, and the need to say something fun and frivolous. And we see them as two different categories. That we can’t be fun and important. We see this in many other areas too (religion, politics, leadership), but for me it resonates as the battle I fight every day: What value, I think, is Fantasy writing? How does it help the world? Shouldn’t I turn my skills to Environmental Literature?
No. You should only do that if you are called to do that. If you try to write Environmental Literature and you were born to write Children’s Books about Rockets and Squid–then you will be a very frustrated Environmental Literary Writer. Where is your passion? If you find your passion, I think you get the package deal. You will affect people in important ways by being yourself.
There is no real dichotomy between writings—there is only being true and not being true to yourself. The truth is–we need comedy, romance, westerns, mysteries, radio dramas, children’s picture books with gorillas in them–we need to laugh to fight the absurdity, we need to feel hope in the face of injustice, and we need to fantasize about escape. We need it All.
Write your part of the All.
My story, “One Nation Under Gods,” was selected to be part of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology, Tesseracts 14, edited by Brett Savory and John Robert Colombo, due out in September 2010. The Tesseracts series is devoted to Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy and Horror, and has had, as you might have guessed, 14 other volumes (a Tesseracts Q was for Quebec, and the requisite 1-13 which came before).
You might have caught me reading a portion of this at the Yukon Writers Festival a couple of years back. It involves two kids and a history test, and a complete restructuring of the United States based on values Americans, like me, hold sacred: patriotism, freedom, the just war, independence, religion. I just personified them a bit. I’m very pleased it found a home. I’m now going to start work on the novel version of this story.
The picture on the left is the construction of the Statue of Liberty, a figure which looms large on the landscape at the beginning of my story. And as I was now an immigrant to Canada, the Statue of Liberty loomed large on my new immigrant’s mind…what a dramatic beginning to a new life for those coming to America. For me, I saw her on my way out. On my drive from Texas to the Yukon, I parked my red truck in Calgary for one month, flew to Vermont to be part of a writer’s colony, and in that time, snuck down to see her. Like some mistress I was breaking up with.
How do you explain to her that you are leaving?
I put her in my story, though, and so in this way, she haunts me.
Bear Witness 