Local Legends Blues: Thursday, October 23rd!

Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel prize in literature (1872-1970)

Hi Pat and Corinne, Hey, nice picture!! We look smart, too bad that didn't translate into a Big Win. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Thanks for inviting us and thanks for the wine. Dermot did his part for the fundraising with beer purchases!! We'll make a date for some time in November for a dinner get-together chez nous. Sara

Author William Gibson at the Last Bookstore in LA!

Hi Sara and Beer Drinking Fund Raiser Dermot! Thanks again for coming along. Dinner in November sounds delovely! With any luck I'll have some some California hootch to bring along! Have really been enjoying the VWF. [Dermot you can skip right to Ellroy entry at the bottom!] Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: I'm obviously a better photographer than subject!

I will suggest the 16 or 23 of November for the next gathering. Venue TBC. Let me know asap which date works best for you. The book we will discuss is: The Island of Crimea (Ostrov Krym)', by Vasili Aksenov (Misha). Moe and then Pat are next up to recommend more un-reading for us.

Mariko Tamaki

Up again at 6:00 am to listen to the Early Edition to see if my VWF clip would air. No such luck but no never mind. Beavered away at email until 9:30 am to leave for the session, Local Legends, with William Gibson and Sebastien de Castell. Unfortunately, event was cancelled. I later learned that due to the teachers' strike last June and then in early September, many of the ticket sales for schools were not able to be placed. At any rate, I immediately headed down to Performance Works to take in Secrets and Lies: "We all have secrets, we’ve all told lies, and we all come to know their consequences. Join three authors who uncover the reasons why we keep some things to ourselves, why we distort details and why we sometimes just don’t see the truth. Marthe Jocelyn’s What We Hide features a cast of boarding school students who offer a provocative, often funny, look at secrets. In Mariko Tamaki’s evocative graphic novel This One Summer, two girls come to realize that teenagers are keeping just as many secrets as the adults they’re watching. And in Robert Paul Weston’s Blues for Zoey, Kaz’s obsessive love blinds him to the truth. What can we take from these stories? One of life’s greatest lessons: stay true to yourself."

Robert Paul Weston

Enjoyed session as it was very interesting to get to know, at least for me, some of the new voices in Young Adult Literature but, I must admit, the group of students sitting close to me were not particularly attentive. I had to speak to them to keep quiet. They did so for a bit but soon returned to their disruptive behaviour. As well, felt that the moderator "forced" the panel discussion into an almost semantic debate about the difference between a "secret" and a "lie". To their credit, the authors tried to resist this Procrustean framework and were most articulate in using telling situations from both their own lives and from their works as examples of the "grey area" these terms inhabit in both life and art. In Weston's case he confessed that he always carried a book even though he never read. It was a perfect cover to keep him out of trouble as he soon twigged to the fact that the adults around him never suspected that a "bookworm" would ever do anything wrong. This backfired when he was chosen to represent his class in a charity readathon. Caught out in his lie he had, he felt, no choice but to go to the library and "pad" his list with titles, from picture books, which he could read very quickly, which sounded close to or like YA titles. End result was that he was the winner of the contest and he always felt guilty as he knew he had beaten out a host of other, real readers who read more in a week than he had ever read to that point in his life! Ironically, his prize was an audio book and listening to his ill-gotten gains, he was "hooked" and never looked back, as a reader, at least!

Marthe Jocelyn

Hello Lads: November 23rd, or even later, is best for me. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Patrice this is a voice to email so it will probably be one giant run on sentence
and no punctuation anyway I talked to Paul regarding the Scotch tasting and he says its that one of those army airforce veterans clubs like a legion there is a cash bar available so there should be Winans beers at cetera that's as much information as he seems to be able to give me if you'd like to go let me know as soon as you can with numbers and I will get the tickets okay thanks will talk to you soon

Back home for a bite to eat and then I headed back to Performance Works to take in Serial Success: "A former video game art designer, Marie Lu has completed one blockbuster trilogy with her Legend novels and now she’s embarking on a new series, The Young Elites. In this Renaissance-like world, Lu promises “superheroes, supervillains, royalty, bad boys with hearts of gold, good boys who drink their tea with a spoonful of cunning, good girls who make mistakes. Oh, and magic.” A.M. Dellamonica joins Lu with the first in a new fantasy series, the Hidden Sea Tales. One minute Sophie is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the aunt she’s never known. The next, she’s in the magical world of Stormwrack, thrust into a middle of a political firestorm. This afternoon, step into two utterly novel worlds—and savour the fact that there’s more to come."

A.M. Dellamonica

Session was moderated by Robert Wiersema and he did a simply masterful job of allowing both authors to address important questions about both their work and their writing processes. I had never heard of either author or their various series, "portal" in Dellamonica's work, but it was a pleasure to listen to them discuss, so fluently, so expressively, in particular, how they write, draft, rewrite and attack character creation and development. A very powerful session much appreciated by the student audience. The adults present were certainly not shortchanged either!

Hi Cabin Kids!! With respect to Malt Tasting, Coriandre is interested if Marilyn will be attending. Sarge and Flamin' will be in Hawaii with The Milionaires so they are out. Don't really know any others who might wish to attend, so two tickets will be fine, unless Colleen is out. Fondestos, Patrizzio!

Hi Patrick, I have your signed Karl Ove Knausgaard book. If you are around for the rest of Festival week, you can stop by the office to pick it up, or we can
arrange a time and place (somewhere on the Island) and I can deliver it. Let me know what works for you.Thanks, Tavia 

Marie Lu

Hi Tavia! Thanks so much! What a deal! I'll pop by the office, either later this afternoon or else tomorrow, during the day. Trust your introduction to the Tim Winton event went well. I'm sure it did. Thanks again. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Pat, Good weather for indoor activities like the Writers' Festival which I'm sure you're enjoying. Almost finished 'Perfidia'. I'm still wondering how Ellroy is able to get away with some of the character assassination of the movie stars. Must ask people I know in the legal profession.
 
Sounds like a good trip to California and very enjoyable for George with the tournament as well. Pleased to hear that Wayne is coming along. He seems to have lost a lot of weight looking at the photo of him and Michelle. Not a bad thing with that type of condition. He'll probably have to wait until the new year to resume duties I would imagine.

Picked up a litre of beer from 33 Acres, a craft brewery on 8th Avenue near Main this Saturday as Ken and Liese were coming over for dinner that evening. Excellent quality and quite a nice looking restaurant inside the pub. Have a great time with the lads in California. Ray

Back to the Islay Inn to find Coriandre back from all her various meetings and appointments. We both spent a couple of hours trying to catch up on all the things that have fallen by the wayside since Festival began. Our evening shift started at 4:30 pm so we walked over to Festival House to begin bar set-up. While Cora Lee took inventory I collected ice from Cat's Social House and we soon had the bar ready to go. 
 

Ian Hamilton

Once this was done I went downstairs to put our name on the Volunteer List for Odd Jobs: "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor...but what about wrestler, cartoonist, costume mender? Through fiction, we get a chance to meet people who wouldn’t normally cross our paths, and weare richer for that encounter. Musharraf Ali Farooqui’s Pahalwan, a wrestler in the Indian tradition, transcends mere sport and embraces a lifelong art. But that art is part of a culture in decline. Lee Henderson’s cartoonist lives in the brash optimism of the 1980s, whose underbelly hides the spectre of AIDS, junk bonds and ruthless amoralism. Anne Kennedy’s seamstress repairs torn garments, but she is more interested in the (usually illicit) truth and lies behind each rip. Meet three fictional characters whose work not only defines them, but gives us insight into the intricacies of their culture."

As things turned out: "Programming details have changed since the Festival Program was printed: We regret to announce that Musharraf Ali Farooqi will no longer be appearing at Odd Jobs. We are pleased to announce that Ian Hamilton will now be appearing at Odd Jobs." [Apparently Musharraf Ali Farooqui was denied entry to Canada but I need to follow this up. If it is true, one wonders if it had anything to do with shooting on Parliament Hill! Discovered he had to cancel since his father was ill! Suppose it is a "better" reason than the Big Brother scenario!] 

Lee Henderson

Jen Sookfong Lee moderated and did a lively job. I was particularly taken by Ian Hamilton, the "replacement author" and how he came to write. He described how he had always wanted to write but a busy international business and diplomatic career kept him from writing until he suffered a "a serious health issue". Once he'd recovered he divested himself of his business interests and began to write. Apparently he wrote the first four books in his Ava Lee series in eight months. He was first published in 2011 and his contract calls for ten, (seven to date), books altogether. 

I liked all of the passages each author read but Lee Henderson's was rather thrilling, from a dramatic point of view. He is also an artist and so I found hat his prose was more of a screenplay, evoking powerful, vivid cinematographic images. Ian's writing was much more straightforward but nonetheless compelling, but in a more traditional, hard-boiled style.  Anne Kennedy's approach was perhaps, for me, at least, the most traditional of the three. Interior, psychological, the protagonist a bit too self-absorbed and self-analytical it seemed, both from the reading and her comments. Yet she raised the very interesting concept of "downward mobility", something Ian was not at all in favour of, at least for himself!
 

Anne Kennedy

Hi Raymond and Sylvia! Glad to hear that you are picking up litres of beer, Robo Man! Sarge has lost a fair bit of weight but he seems fine in spite of everything. Not sure what he has decided to do about returning to work. With weather, as you mention Raymond, have really been enjoying the VWF.  Still hope we can arrange something with Whirlygig and his new "amore", Jane, once back in November. With any luck I'll have some hootch from California to share, with Sylvia, at least! Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!

Next session was sold out so we were unsure we'd be able to attend An Intimate Evening with Sjón: “Every now and then,” wrote A.S. Byatt, “a writer changes the whole map of literature inside my head.” The work of Icelandic writer Sjón, Byatt continues, “is unlike anything I had read.” When Vancouver Writers Fest Artistic Director Hal Wake came across his name during his perusal of The New York Review of Books and read glowing endorsements by such eminent authors as David Mitchell and Junot Díaz, he knew that Sjón should be at the Festival. Sjón has published eight novels, as well as poetry. He writes lyrics for the singer Björk, with whom he has collaborated since they were both teens. Three of his novels are now available in English, and they reveal a potent combination of myth, magic, religion and science that will keep you thinking well into the night."

Sjón, Photo Credit: 

Kristinn Ingvarsson

Sjón is the first Icelandic author at VWF. It is not an understatement to say that his address, (for it was more of a lecture, not a reading at all), was unbelievably riveting, entertaining, informative and wonderfully humourous! Essentially he retold the story of his life, starting from when he first learned to read, at four, through his discovery of the Icelandic Sagas, at eight, to his becoming a self-published poet, at sixteen, to his immersion in the Avante Garde, Surrealism, in particular, to his rejection of the of traditional Icelandic literature and his enthrallment with David Bowie and his embracing of Modernist Icelandic poets, in his late teens, to his political activities, involving a rejection of both the Left and the Right which had defined the spectrum since independence from Denmark in 1944, in his early twenties, to his abandonment of poetry in favour of the novel and then his subsequent rediscovery of the Sagas and how he could learn from them and use them to make them his own and thereby allow him to continue to tell their stories in his voice. 

Obviously a fascinating literary journey, a saga or quest in itself. One of the most remarkable events he related was of being invited to Whitehorse to a literary festival, or so the he and the organization sponsoring him believed. It turned out that it was a storytelling festival and he had expected it to be more like the VWF. At any rate since he knew many of the stories from the Sagas by heart he managed to cope. As event unfolded each storyteller was assigned a small tent and other story tellers could drop by and share stories. Given situation Sjón revealed he was "praying" that nobody would visit his tent but, alas, two First Nations people did. The older of the two told a story and then Sjón reciprocated. After which he asked the other, younger man to tell a story. He demurred, repeatedly, finally explaining that the only knew one story. Sjón retorted that that was unfortunate, for a story teller at least! Audience cracked up, as you can well imagine! Anyway, he pressed the man, Louis Bird, it transpired, saying that it was his, (Sjón's), tent and these were the rules. Louis relented but not before qualifying that his story had two parts and that those two parts had four parts and that those four parts had eight parts, etc. Sjón finished by saying that at that moment he had an epiphany, realizing that, as an author, it didn't really matter how small or great your individual artistic effort or contribution happened to be, your efforts, such as they were, were simply part of a infinitely larger, broader human story continuum, wherever inserted or added, that one could never exhaust or complete.

At the risk of being naively trite, for me, at least, this characterizes the "soul" of the VWF, the bringing together all of these authors, that is storytellers, from the four corners of the world, to just around the corner from you, wherever that particular "corner" might be, whoever that particular "you" might be, to share the different "takes" on what defines us, moves us, shakes us, to suggest, perhaps, maybe, just possibly that in fact we are not really any different from one another, no matter the almost arbitrary, external trappings and labels of race, religion, gender or ideology. This being the case, that Presto!, we are now equal, next year I plan to replace Hal as Festival Director and Cora Lee will assume Kathryn's duties. This way we can ensure that the authors we like most will be invited and we can schedule our volunteer shifts to be at all the venues where they will appear.

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  Patrick James Dunn Hi Simi Valley People! Any chance we can expect a visit?
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  Rae Tanner Yes Patrick James Dunn! You guys coming down at Xmas? Or is santa coming to Chez P&C this year? Joey and Chandy miss you.

Of course, I'm being more than silly, but worse than that, if such an implausable scenario unfolded, it would actually undo the very strength of the Festival. Rigidly limiting one's exposure to authors one already reads or knows about shrinks one's universe, runs against The Serendipity Factor which, I assert, is absolutely quintessential, not only in reading but in life, itself, if I might be so bold. And so I relinquish my democratic right to be the Big Cheese, and bow down before The Three Princes of Serendip, reincarnated in the Festival staff and volunteers who have, together, made this festival the wondrous, shining, mesmerizing, enchanting, radiant, up-lifting event it was. The Story continues. Onward! 

• Ayn P I think Poppa was hoping you'd visit over your Mom's birthday trip to Vancouver xo. We're all flying to Vancouver this Xmas ...but we'll be missing our Cali family too!

  Karin and I wanted to extend our thanks to you for helping us on our most SUCCESSFUL Trivia night thus far!!!! Our numbers show that we made $10,260.00 in PROFIT!!!! Not to mention all the folks who left with a smile on their face and many an auction item under their arm!!! From set up, to during the event, to clean up at the nights end we are so grateful we had such fabulous volunteers at our ready!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Till next year, or Tree Lot J Karin and Chloë Dunn Volunteer and Events Coordinator
  
  

  

  Hello Patricio, My dear husband has not mentioned anything regarding this to me. I am not really a scotch drinker so I think that it would not really be worthwhile for me to attend this function. But I would be delighted to spend an evening with Corinne regardless...I will get more information from him and perhaps contact Corinne directly if this interests her.
   

  You MUST promise me that once my husband bets inebriated and and loosens up his wallet that you will NOT allow him to make such purchases as helicopter rides and things of that nature that we can not afford and undoubtedly never actually use...he has a tendancy to go over the top at Silent Auctions and it has caused more than one disagreement between us...I will not even begin to tell you of the many outlandish things he has purchased in the spirit of charity but he has been forbidden to continue to do this in fact I will be sure to take his credit card and check book before he goes out that night.LOL

  
  

  

  
  I understand Ayn is coming for Christmas...would absolutely LOVE to have you all to the cabin for a night or two when she is here if time permits. I know it seems early to plan this but you know how I like to be super organized so if we can determine a date beforehand it would be great. Otherwise I hope you are both well...I miss you it has been ages since we got together so let's try and plan something soon. Much love,
  Marilyn xoxo Coo Coo ki chu