Honours for Laura Secord

Dundurn publisher Kirk Howard, Vice President Beth Bruder, me,
& the Honourable Dave Levac, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

It was one of those nice surprises to learn last August that my book, Laura Secord, Heroine of the War of 1812, was one of seven titles Dundurn Press sent to be considered for the 2013 Speaker's Book Award. I put it out of my mind, and I was pleasantly shocked to hear from the publisher himself in November that the book had been nominated. You can read about that on my blog post of November 9, 2013.

The Speaker's Book Award is an annual award "that recognizes works by Ontario authors reflecting the diverse culture and rich history of the province and its people."

This year the awards ceremony was held March 5th in the Legislative Building at Queen's Park, amid much pomp and ceremony. There was a briefing first, while the audience arrived, where the authors of the eleven shortlisted titles got to meet each other and the selection committee, and then we were introduced to the Speaker, the Honourable Dave Levac, a most personable man. 

Then we were led by uniformed guards past the seated audience to the chairs reserved at the front of the dais. The selection committee members introduced each author to the audience and each one in turn, accompanied by one of the guards, mounted the stairs to the dais where the Speaker presented us with our medals. Finally, the winner, Charlie Angus, was announced.

To have come this far, even to have our books chosen in the first place meant we were all winners. Afterwards, we were feted at a reception in the Speaker's apartment, a suite of rooms on the third floor set aside for such occasions.

It's hard to wind down after such an evening. Long after we'd taken the taxi back to our hotel and I'd unpinned my orchid corsage and hung up my medal, I basked in the fleeting fame. A lasting memory.

Writing In Winter

Pathway to reach the birdfeeders.

No one in this part of Ontario will argue when I say it's been a long, cold winter. Even today, nearing the middle of March, we're digging out from another sixteen centimeters of fresh snow.

Unless you're into winter sports there hasn't been much that's been good about the weather this year. Except it's been perfect for staying indoors and getting some writing done. Consequently, my book is now finished. There wasn't much else I could do with my time.

The deadline for delivery to the publisher is March 31st, and while the snow fell and the wind whipped it into enormous drifts, I finished the manuscript by the end of February. Since then, I've written the acknowledgements, compiled the bibliography, and as I read the story through (aloud, for all the nuances, and slowly, to catch the typos) I'm checking that I've included all the important events in Molly Brant's life for the chronology.

The chronology, which is an added feature in all Dundurn's Quest Biographies, appears in two columns, with events in the life of the subject on one side, and events in Canada and the World that took place at the same time, in the other. Readers tell me it helps put the story in context for them.

The chronology and bibliography go at the end of the book, just ahead of the index. I've been jotting down index subjects all through the writing of the book. Next week, I'll assemble the list of illustrations I am proposing and prepare the table of contents.

It feels good not to be rushed at the end. Once I've emailed everything to the publisher I'll be ready for Spring. Bring it on!!

A Post-Holiday Event

                                       The Movie Years, Trenton (1917–1934)

It's farewell and back to the trenches for our brave sergeant.
A Scene from  "Carry On Sergeant."  Marthe (Louise Cardi) & Sgt. Jim Mckay (Hugh Buckler) after their tryst. 

If you are interested in the history of early movies in Canada, this after-Christmas event might be just what you're looking for.

I will be at the Regent Theatre in Picton, ON on Monday, January 6, 2014 at 7 p.m.to give a talk about the fascinating years when the small city where I live —Trenton, Ontario — was briefly home to "Hollywood North". This was a heady time when American film stars and famous directors came to town to make some of Canada's first motion pictures. And some of the local citizens also found themselves part of the action, with minor roles or as a part of a crowd scene.

It was those personal stories that formed the background for my book, The Movie Years, upon which my talk will be based. There is no other book written from the point of view of the citizens of Trenton whose lives were affected by the film-making industry in their midst.

Tickets for the event are $15, or $5 for students. Door open at 6:30 p.m. For more information:

http://www.theregenttheatre.org/event/history-night-jan-6th-7pm/

Standing in History's Footprints

Have you ever felt the thrill of standing in the footprints of history? Knowing that some famous person stood in the exact same spot? I'm sure world travellers get that feeling all the time as they visit historic sites around the globe.

Since I began writing biography I've found it helpful to visit some of the settings that my subject frequented during her lifetime. It's as if by breathing the same air I come closer to the spirit of my subject. I can imagine being with her in that place.

When I was writing Laura Secord I visited Port Oswego, the place where a young Laura Ingersoll embarked for Canada with her parents and siblings. I saw her home in Queenston and the town of Chippawa where she spent her later years, the forts of Niagara, and the battlefields of the War of 1812, a war that was so much a part of her story.

And now for Molly Brant I've twice visited the Mohawk Valley, toured Canajoharie named for the village where she was born, and the city of Johnstown, built by her influential, white husband Sir William Johnson, initially as a place where the staff at his manor house would live, and I saw two of Johnson's stately homes. My first glimpse of the Mohawk River brought tears to my eyes.

Sir William built Fort William Henry in 1755 after the Battle of Lake George that took place near the southern end of the lake. There is an interesting marker on the pier there with the pictures of many famous people who have stood in that place. They would have looked out over the lake, north toward Lake Champlain and the surrounding mountains. I was seeing the same lake, the same Adirondack Mountains, the same sun setting in the west and painting the clouds with fire.

Several people who appear in Molly Brant's story are among those pictured on the marker.

Centre, coloured picture of Sir William Johnson

They include the Mohawk sachem King Hendrick and leader of the French forces, Baron Dieskau. as well as many others.

Some Good News!!

There's nothing like a bit of good news to lift a writer's spirit. And to arrive in November, the dreariest month of all! I couldn't be happier.

Last week I had an email from my publisher, letting me know that Laura Secord, Heroine of the War of 1812 had been nominated for a Speaker's Book Award. 

'Way back in August I'd been informed that the book had been submitted for consideration, but I put it out of my mind. It was just one on the list that my publisher, Dundurn Press, had sent in. Other publishers would be doing the same.

But now, Laura is among the group that made it to the award's 2013 short list. How long that is I have no idea; last year there were sixteen book short-listed. She's in illustrious company, but we're both thrilled that she's being recognized.

Now, back to the work-in-progress, with renewed vigour!!

Discovering Connections, or A Ghost Story for Halloween

Robert Louis Stevenson told the story of Major Duncan Campbell in a long ballad he called Ticonderoga, a Legend of the West Highlands. Written while he was being treated for tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, New York, Stevenson's poem was published in Scribner's Magazine in 1887.

Fort Ticonderoga, New York.

We've stayed several times over the years in the Adirondack resort town of Saranac Lake and often enjoyed walking its hilly streets. Early on, we discovered that the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and many other acclaimed stories and poems, had spent a year in the town as a tuberculosis patient in 1887.

We've seen the "cure cottage" where he and his wife lived and which is today a museum filled with the man's memorabilia. Here Stevenson wrote twelve essays for Scribner's Magazine.
The treatment for TB at the time was a change of climate, and many victims of the disease took rest cures in the clean, cold mountain air, spending eight hours a day sitting in glassed-in porches.
During one long cold winter Stevenson wrote some of his best essays.

We recently took another road trip, this time to Lake George, New York. En route we stayed our first night again in Saranac Lake. We went on to explore some of the historic forts in the Champlain Valley. One of these forts was Ticonderoga, built by the French in 1755 during the French and Indian War. The French called it Fort Carillon.

On a plaque in the parkland that surrounds the fort we read for the first time of a Scottish legend about Major Duncan Campbell, one of the Highlanders who died as a result of wounds he received at Ticonderoga while the British attacked the French fort.

Legend has it that Campbell's death had been foretold sixteen years earlier by the apparition of a murdered man. A stranger had come to Campbell's door in Inverawe, Scotland, begging to be hidden from his pursuers. Campbell gave the stranger his word that he would not reveal the man's hiding place. When the men giving chase came to Duncan's door they told him that his cousin had been murdered. Duncan realized that the man he'd hidden had been the killer.

For three nights afterward he was visited by the ghost of his murdered cousin. On the third night the ghost said, "Farewell, Inverawe, till we meet again at Ticonderoga." It was only years later, when Campbell learned the Highlanders were to attack the French at a place called Ticonderoga, that he knew the meaning of those prophetic words.
The legend also says the battle where Campbell's Black Watch Regiment sustained heavy casualties was replicated in the clouds over Inverary Castle in Scotland on the afternoon of the attack.

Odd how these connections sudden appear to us. I call it serendipity.  

Word Northumberland, 2013

Word Northumberland 2013 has come and gone. This was the first year for the event that celebrated writers and readers. It was a good start, in spite of a few glitches. Now that it's behind us we can look at what worked, and what didn't, and move forward with plans for next year.

At last, a book sale and a signing!

Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not kind to us — nor to any of the other outdoor festivals in this part of the province on September 7th. In Cobourg, as well as Word Northumberland, the rain affected the turnout for the Coal Train Music & Blues Festival and for all the food vendors along King Street, which had been turned into a pedestrian mall.

Come on in, out of the rain!

Author Linda Hutsell-Manning finds a nook for her books inside the front entrance.

We, at least, were able to squeeze into the Firehall Theatre, although the weather prevented us from setting up tables out on the sidewalk as we'd hoped. Writers, librarians, book sellers, and publishers set up cheek-by-jowl inside, further restrained within the walls of a set for an upcoming theatrical production.

Display by Port Hope Public Library

But the public came out, some of them anyway, and the smiles on the faces of the participants in some of these photos show we're an adaptable group. Books were sold and the audience for the readings grew throughout the day. One reader, Brad Smith, Simon & Schuster author, was the special guest of The Avid Reader Bookstore.

Author Eric E. Wright and I share a table. The Avid Reader Book Store was close by, on my left.

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Coach House Books, one of four small publishers participating, sets up.

Many people who came by to check us out told us the event was a terrific idea. We hope they will watch for us next year when we'll be back, bigger and even better. Now that the word is out, we're sure to attract more individuals and groups from the literary community.

My thanks to James Manning for the use of his photographs here.