Welcome to Joan Soggie, a fellow BWL Author! Joan writes some fabulous stories of the Canadian Prairies where she lives. I look forward to learning more about her!
I live and write
in a small Saskatchewan town, set beside a lake that was a river, surrounded by
fields of canola that once were a buffalo plain. My lifelong curiosity has led
me to explore the natural history of the land as well as the centuries-long
relationship between the land and the First Nations, and my own family’s
settler history. The multifaceted beauty of the prairie and its convoluted
history is a continual source of inspiration.
My first
full-length book was Looking for Aiktow, a non-fiction regional history
focusing on pre-settlement times. The restrictions of footnotes and citations
drove me to seek another way of telling the land’s story. Historical fiction was the natural choice.
The resulting
novels, Prairie Grass and Rikka, are firmly rooted in time and
place.
http://bwlpublishing.ca/soggie-joan/#content-content-inner
http://www.facebook.com/lookingforaiktow
http://saskjoan.wixsite.com/looking-for-aiktow
How many hours a day do you write?
I would love to
say I write every day, and maybe I do, but often it is just emails or notes or
a haiku. Life gets in the way. When I work on a project, I tend to lose track
of time. My workspace is a studio in the
garage and sometimes my husband will phone me from his recliner in the house, a
dozen yards away, to remind me that we must eat. Thankfully we are both retired
and have few urgent commitments.
How do you choose
which stories you will write?
It often feels as
though the stories choose me. An idea might come from a strange circumstance or
something I have just read coinciding with a glimpsed photograph, or an anecdote
told by an acquaintance. An idea grabs me and will not let go. Sometimes the
point of the story does not become clear to me until I have worked my way into the
narrative. I have several partly finished pieces that are still waiting for
that “Aha!” moment, which may or may not ever come!
What is the most
difficult part of your artistic process?
Waiting for that
“Aha!” is no doubt the most difficult part of the process for me. It seems to
me that the subconscious must do a lot of the creative work, and I am not sure
how much good it does to keep slogging away at something until that part has
caught up. Sometimes it seems best to just wait, and go to work on something
else, something that requires attention and careful research but does not
demand much imagination. Or just go for a long walk.
Five years from
now, where do you see yourself as a writer?
Five years from
now I will be 86, and my husband will be well into his 90s. That is just fact. Age
does not define us. And yet, I recognise that age imposes limitations. If I am
able, I will still be writing short stories and poems, as they seem more manageable
than full-length novel. I plan to continue doing what I am doing as long as
possible. There are so many stories to tell, so many ideas to explore, so many
readers to meet!
How many
unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Right now, I have
one partly finished book that may or may not find its way to a conclusion. I
have a plethora of unpublished stories, some of which I plan to eventually
compile into a book as many of them seem to fall under one recurring theme.
Was there a person
who encouraged you to write?
Doesn’t everyone
need someone to believe in her, make her feel it is possible to do what she
dreams of doing? I have been fortunate to have had several wonderful encouragers.
The first were, naturally, my parents, who instilled in me a love of good
stories and a deep respect for the truth embodied in them. A few good teachers gave
me help. There were decades (!) however when I showed no writing to anyone and
therefore got no encouragement. That was a big mistake. When I finally
submitted something to a magazine, it was a huge boost to have it published.
Nowadays, my dear husband lets me read aloud to him anything I want to analyze,
and some precious friends still read whatever I send them and comment on it. And
my own children and grandchildren give me feedback! What a lucky old duck I am!
Merry Christmas to
all and special blessings on the encouragers!
Prairie Grass takes the reader on an adventure that spans two centuries of Western history and travels the length of the Great Plains.
Gabby Mackenzie knows little and cares less about prairie people or their history. She sees her assignment to interview a hundred-year-old settler as nothing more than a bump in her hazy career path. But as she gets to know old Mr. Tollerud, she finds herself drawn into the interwoven stories of the settlers, the Metis, the First Nations who came before them, and the land that binds them all together. And her own life changes.
https://books2read.com/Prairie-Grass
Rikka is based on the true story of one of Western Canada’s female immigrant pioneers.
“Rikka remembered her teacher’s words. Spirit needs muscle.
Not only muscle of flesh and bone, she thought, but the muscle of a spirit inured to hardship and suffering. Surely, we have had enough of that to make us strong!”
Rikka’s journey takes her across an ocean, a continent, and a lifetime. She plumbs the depths of her own heart and discovers the beauty of life beyond grit and endurance.
