biography

A Cabin by the Lake

I can think of nothing better than to enjoy the summer by the side of a remote lake, as Gerard Kenney is fortunate to do. Here he tells about his recent book, Lake of the Old Uncles, and his life-long trip to that cabin.

Tell us about your book.
My book is about a one-kilometre trip that began over three-quarters of a century ago when I was born in my grandfather’s country inn in French-speaking rural Quebec. The trip will end one day in the village cemetery, one kilometre away from the inn. A short trip, but there were more than a few detours along the way and I fill in with details.

How did you come up with the idea for this work?
I got to thinking that there had been many wonderful and interesting things that happened to me in life and that it would be fun just to write a story around them. And besides, it would be good for my two daughters and one grand daughter to learn a more about their backgrounds, things that only I could tell them.

How did you come up with the title?
In the early ‘70s, I was lucky to acquire, for a ridiculous sum, a good-sized piece of forested land with a small lake in the middle of it. This lake has become a central part of my life and my book is built around it. Its name is Lac des Vieux Mon-Oncles in French, which translates as Lake of the Old Uncles in English.

What was the creative process like for you?
The creative process was, and has always been a great pleasure for me. Twice in my writing career I have written commissioned articles, but I quickly found out that if I wrote something someone else wanted me to write, there was no passion, there was no love in it. It was not fun. So I’ll keep on writing for myself, and then seeing if I can interest someone to publish it. My successful writing has always been on spec as far as publishing goes.

Describe your ideal writing environment.
There are two parts to my preferred writing environment. The thinking, the creation of ideas, the mulling over of things is best done in the log cabin that I built on Lake of the Old Uncles. I have never brought a computer to the cabin. It would seem like a contradiction of philosophies to do so. I handwrite my notes. The next step of writing is done in my quiet office at home in the City of Ottawa inputting what I have done at the cabin into the computer, where I hammer out the X number of re-writes that eventually end up becoming the final product.

What was your first publication?
My first publication was a magazine article I wrote in 1970, Arctic Shangri-la, after working in the Inuit village of Port Burwell in Arctic Quebec, a village that no longer exists. The Arctic so impressed me that that I just felt I had to write up my experience. I was thrilled when it was accepted. It was the very first submission of my writing career.

What inspired you to write your first book?
I was inspired to write my first book, Arctic Smoke & Mirrors, in 1994 because of the misunderstanding that existed in Canada at the time about the Inuit relocations. I wanted to set the record straight.

Who did you read as a young adult?
Ernest Thompson Seton, Jack London, Henry David Thoreau. One has to put a lot of time and repeated readings to get the most out of Walden. I almost always travel with a copy of Walden because I know I can open it up at any time, at any page, and gain some new insight into passages I have read before.

What are you reading right now?
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. One also has to put a lot of effort into reading Tolle, although he is a completely different type of writer than Thoreau was. I have learned a lot from both authors.

What is your next project?
I am tossing around the idea of gathering together material that I have written in the past but have never published, along with articles that I have published in the past, and seeing if I can make a book out of it all.

© 2008 Defining Canada.