It’s June 1^st – finally, it’s time for summer to begin! As cottage season approaches, there’s no better time to immerse yourself in all that Canada’s wilderness has to offer. Just ask Dundurn author Carol Bennett McCuaig. Her recently released book Encountering the Wild contains several exciting stories and up-close observations on wildlife and nature from a personal perspective. Carol, who lives on a 250 acre property in Renfrew, Ontario, is a naturalist, a former columnist for birdwatchers, and the author of several fiction and non-fiction titles. Indeed, Encountering the Wild is Carol’s 50^th book! Read on to find out more about her work, her inspirations and what she’s planning next…

Tell us about your book.

Encountering the Wild describes my adventures with wildlife on my country property in the Upper Ottawa Valley. I’ve had a bear on the roof, an ermine in the bedroom and a cougar on the lawn. I’ve been privileged to observe the courtship rituals of turkey vultures, red foxes and ruffed grouse. This is a book for country folk, and for those who wish they were.

This is a special year for me because Encountering the Wild will be my fiftieth published book!

What was your first publication?

An historical novel called Woman of Ireland. It was published in Canada under the name Jane Barrett.

What inspired you to write your first book?

It’s a true story based on the life of my children’s ancestor, a woman who married a sergeant in the 100th Regiment of Foot, when he was serving in the 1812 War. They settled at Richmond, near Ottawa. In1819 they had the distinction of entertaining the Duke of Richmond, just days before he died of rabies.

Describe the most memorable response you’ve received from a reader.

A woman who received one of my non-fiction books for Christmas told me she’d been so engrossed in it that she forgot to turn on the oven to cook the turkey. Their Christmas dinner was late that year!

 What is your next project?

I write fiction, published in Britain under the name Catriona McCuaig. I’m about to start work on a third mystery novel about my series character, Nesta Davies, who is a midwife in Tudor England. Her story began in Snares and Nets, which was published in November, 2009.

This was around the time that the movie version of Apollo 13 was hitting theatres. I didn’t get to see it on the big screen, but I did rent the movie. And I was hooked. Floating around with the stars, touching (what seemed like) the outer most edges of the galaxy? Sign. Me. Up.

I even went so far as to research what space camp actually entailed (a month in Florida? Score.), and while I was disappointed to learn that no, you don’t actually get to go into space at space camp (excuse me, false advertising), you got to go in the zero-gravity chamber and flight simulator. Awesome.

Now, what my 10-year-old brain had not yet realized is that my aptitude for the sciences was probably not at the level needed for space camp. After all, space camp is a pretty elite, baby-genius-hang-out kind of place, no? You have to demonstrate a strong ability in all fields of science… even at the elementary level. And while  yes, I was one of those “over-achievers” and identified as “gifted,” I wasn’t by any means a science whiz. Add this to the very limited amount of places in space camp, the high price of camp tuition, and my parents’ reluctance to invest that much money in what they were sure was a “passing fancy” of mine (fact: they were right), and space camp never came to be.

(Side note: Years later I realized that it wasn’t the actual space travel involved in the cinematics of Apollo 13 that incited my fixation on space camp. It was the drama and turmoil and whatnot created in the movie. I cite this as a later example of why I studied drama in university and had aspirations of becoming an actor.)

Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten to re-live my childhood space camp fantasies as the newest title from John Melady, Maple Leaf in Space, has arrived back from the printers. The book looks at all of the Canadian astronauts that have ventured to the realms of the universe and the fun facts associated with the various missions. Included in our YA non-fiction catalogue, it’s really not just a YA book. I’ve been flipping through the chapters all week and pulling out great little tidbits. Example: A coke machine in space? Maybe intergalatic travel would have been as cool as I thought.

Maple Leaf in Space is making its way to bookstores everywhere. If you’d like to relive your childhood astronaut fantasies by doing something more (and less creepy) than dressing up as an adult-sized Buzz Lightyear, check it out.

BookCrossing is an online community of booklovers and book-sharers. Members release books into the wild and give other members clues about where to find them — a bit like a booklover’s treasure hunt! Once a member finds a book, he or she visits the site, records the find, and enjoys the book. When done, he or she releases it into a new location and waits for another member to pick it up and take it some place new.

Self Condemned against some stately ivy

This year, we wanted to release Self Condemned, a satirical look at wartime Canada by Wyndham Lewis, set in a fictionalized Toronto at a fictionalized UofT. So, I took a trip to the hallowed, ivy-strewn campus of the University of Toronto (or, to Wyndham Lewis, the University of “Momaco”) and found the perfect release spot for this book.

Will you go on the hunt for it? I can’t wait to see who finds it and where they take it — I’ll let you know once we learn where it goes. For our beloved blog readers, though, I’ll offer one more pictoral hint:

Good luck, blog buddies!

Why not kick-off the murderous festivities by sharing an awesome piece written about one of our recently released true crime titles? Unsolved by Robert J. Hoshowsky explores twelve Canadian crimes that continue to haunt police to this day. From the 1968 disappearance of an aspiring musician, to the 2006 slaying of a Canadian couple on vacation in Mexico,  some of the most disturbing cold cases are documented with the hope that perhaps one day, the person responsible will be found.

See what Maclean’s senior editor Brian Bethune had to say about Robert Hoshowsky’s latest contribution to the Dundurn catalogue below.

Tell us: what Canadian cold cases resonate with you?

Well, Alligator Tugs actually — a paddle-wheeled tugboat designed specially to help move log booms over long, flat stretches of water using a strong cable and winch, AND capable of going overland at portages.

Intrigued?

Check out the recently released Alligators of the North, by Harry B. Barrett and Clarence C. Coons.  It’s full of interesting photos and uniquely Canadian history.  And the cover features Tom Thomson paintings of alligator tugs.

You can also visit a replica alligator at the Logging Museum in Algonquin Park, a working one in Simcoe, Ontario, and, I think, a shell of one near Chapleau, Ontario.

And it is. Not only am I revisiting an old manuscript (working title: Up Where We Go), but I am revisiting the person I was 25 years ago. The experience is not unlike looking at an old photo album, or rummaging through a chest of toys you had as a child. The writing is youthful and lyrical and, admittedly, derivative (of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck). And the characters — naive and idealistic compared to the grizzled and world-weary characters I use today — are refreshing, even though I know that life will beat them down, even during the progress of this story.

But I shouldn’t project too far into the book. I haven’t reread it in all these years, and although I have a rough idea of how the plot unfolds, I am constantly being surprised by what happens next. I have no recollection of writing certain scenes; odd, because sometimes I’ll remember precisely the next six or eight words that complete a sentence I haven’t seen in a quarter of a century.

I’ve also noticed that I use “free indirect style” (a species of third person narration in which the narrator possesses some, but not too much, of the attitude of the character over whose shoulder he is looking). I was just reading about this technique several weeks ago in James Wood’s edifying How Fiction Works, and didn’t think I’d ever heard of it before. Well, in fact, I hadn’t. I just used it in ignorance back when I was beginning to write, before I settled down with more conventional forms of narration.

I’ve just completed Chapter 1. I’ve changed a few things here and there, but I haven’t tampered with the spirit of the story. That would be a mistake. So far, I’m having fun. And I’m very excited to see how it ends.

When I’m not working on a book — as is the case right now — I still have to keep my tools sharp.

READING – One way to keep my tools sharp is by reading; I read the New Yorker Magazine religiously and recently picked up James Wood’s How Fiction Works, Drew Gilpin Faust’s The Republic of Suffering, and John Updike’s The Centaur and In the Beauty of the Lilies.

WRITING – Another method is to write other things — diary entries, a log, letters, or, as I did for a number of years, book reviews. Although I don’t do it anymore, I used to write reviews for Books in Canada and the Kingston Whig-Standard Magazine. The advantage of writing reviews is that it forces you not only to analyze another writer’s work, but to articulate that analysis. Writing about writing can be very instructive.

EDITING – A third way is to edit other people’s writing: at the moment, I am reading my son’s novel in manuscript; he hopes, as all writers should, that an objective eye will help him improve his book. A long-time friend of mine, Roderick Jamer, who was for many years a staff writer with TV Guide, has asked me to take a look at his murder mystery-in-progress; and I am also participating in the evolution of a film script by another friend, Peter Blendell; the script involves a Stanley Cup victory by the Toronto Maple Leafs (some of you will suggest that this project be categorized as fantasy), and Peter hopes that I will be able to help with the scenes that deal with hockey itself. (I have a long history in the game, first as a player — my career peaked when I was 13; it’s been all down hill since then — and as a fan — the Leafs are what I have instead of religion, or more correctly, they are my religion; sitting down to watch a game is, for me, what going to church is for other people. And although I may bleed blue, at least I can say that the only violence associated with my religion is restricted to the arena.)

TEACHING – Although not all writers have the opportunity to teach, those who do know that teaching another writer’s work is an edifying experience. I taught Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises at least thirty times over my 25-year career as a high school English teacher. I know the book like the back of my hand — its strengths, its flaws — and may even have become more familiar with it than Hemingway himself, who wrote it in nine weeks. Hemingway said that studying a still life by Cezanne taught him as much about how to write as anything he read, and, similarly, I have learned as much about how to write from teaching The Sun Also Rises as I have from anything else.

BLOGS – Writing this blog also helps me keep my tools sharp, because I can write about whatever interests me, and I can do it whenever I feel the urge — every writer’s dream. Now if I could only make it pay …

Next Installment – Salvaging a Novel I Wrote in 1983

For the novel I’m writing, Black Tupelo, my two main characters, Campbell Young and Priam Harvey, pursue a miscreant named Wendell Honey through the American midwest and southern states. Although my imagination was up to the task of creating the scenes I needed, I wanted — for the sake of authenticity — to see the actual places I had my characters visit. And so it was that in the summer of 2007 I undertook a journey which followed the itinerary my characters followed, a journey that would eventually consume five weeks, take me to 20 states, and cover more than 12,000 kilometres.

FROM CHAPTER 13 OF BLACK TUPELO:

It was noon by the time Leonard picked Harvey up in front of the library. Harvey insisted the cab driver have lunch with him, and they went to Leonard’s favourite restaurant, an unassuming diner just outside the Quarter.
“This is the best sausage I’ve ever eaten,” Harvey said, midway through the meal. “And red beans and rice go really well together.”
“They was made to go together. Benny!” Leonard called out to the waiter. “More beer!”
“More beer?” Harvey said. “Don’t you have to drive this afternoon?”
“I’m takin’ it off, gonna show you ’round my town.”
Several hours later – after standing in line at the Toulouse Street wharf with a bunch of old people carrying deck chairs; after taking a two-hour cruise, featuring a calliope concert, of the lower Mississippi River aboard the steamboat Natchez; after a leisurely drive up St. Charles Avenue through the Garden District to Tulane University; after several cold Coors at the Famous Door on Bourbon Street; and after a visit to Leonard’s favourite tourist attraction, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum (“It’s goin’ out o’ business,” Leonard told Harvey. “I gots to see it one last time.”) – Leonard dropped Harvey at the Best Western. They shook hands and said goodbye. “Y’all got my number if ya need me,” Leonard said.
“I will. Thanks for everything.”

A follow-up conversation between Campbell Young and Priam Harvey expands the visit to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum:

“What did you see there?”
“Well, let’s see, I saw a wax reproduction of Robert Wadlow, the tallest man who ever lived, and a model of the London Tower Bridge made out of two hundred and sixty-four thousand matchsticks, and the car Lee Harvey Oswald drove the day he shot Kennedy. Oh, and the world’s largest tire. Thirteen thousand pounds.”

There’s a fine line between using such details to make scenes richer and simply showing off. The writer must be careful not to overdo it: within the context of Chapter 13, these details should occupy a very small space.

Next installment: How I keep my tools sharp

But I did, and a couple of  years later, I began my second novel, Men in Groups, which was about teachers and teaching. When it was finished, however, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t like it and never submitted it.

Recently I reread both manuscripts and have decided to see if I can’t resurrect them. As soon as I’ve completed one more revision of my Campbell Young mystery,  Black Tupelo — which should happen within the next week or two — I’m going to start with the teacher novel.

The prospect of retyping these manuscripts (I only have hard copies of them, nothing on disc or floppy or memory stick, let alone hard drive) was daunting, so I was mightily relieved when the proprietor of the local printshop agreed to try to scan them onto disc for me. I gave him the 500 pages of Men in Groups, and a week later he gave me –  for the very reasonable price of $85 — a disc with the novel on it in both Microsoft Word and Word Perfect. There are some glitches (the scanner read “home” as “horne”) but they will just make the process of rewriting the novel more challenging.

Because the novel is set in 1983, one of my first decisions will be whether to keep that setting and, if so, how to make the novel into a period piece. I’ve never written a period piece, but the idea of the research involved appeals to me. I could, I suppose, move the setting to the present day, but I haven’t been in a high school classroom in almost ten years and have no idea what teaching is like today. However, I do know what it was like back in the good old days, when I could not only choose what literature I wanted to teach (The Sun Also Rises, The Sound and the Fury, the poetry of Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath, for example) but the students actually read it.

Next installment: Finishing Black Tupelo

Here’s what the Canada Council said:  “Liedewy Hawke’s translation of The Postman’s Round, by Denis Theriault, provides a seamless, empathic version of a tragicomic love story set in daily life as well as in a reality driven by imagination and dreams.  She has adroitly captured these nuances and dealt consistently well with the subtle, precise haiku that structure the novel’s imaginary landscape.”

Simply said, i encourage you to read The Postman’s Round.  It is a haunting love story and lyrical one that will stay with you forever.  I loved it!

Ali