Who Would Play My Characters in the Movie by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

http://bookswelove.net/authors/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

Total Speculation and dreaming--but wouldn't it be wonderful if a production company decided they wanted to make my historical novel, Romancing the Klondike, into a movie. When I thought about who would play my characters I went with all Canadian actors and actresses.

Here is the list:

Ellen Page as Pearl Owens

Rachael McAdams as Emma Owens

Ryan Reynolds as Sam Owens

Ryan Gosling as Donald Miller

Seth Rogen as Gordon Baker

Keanu Reeves as Joe Ladue

Jane Eastwood as Mrs. Wills

I think that the lesser characters should also be Canadian actors and actresses. After all, this is a Canadian story.

What do you think of my selections?

When Words Collide

For more information about Susan Calder's books, or to purchase please visit her Books We Love Author Page.

This is a big weekend for book lovers in Calgary -- When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers. I am currently dashing from panel to presentation, trying to pack in as much as I can. 

Is that me on a WWC panel -- third person from the left?

I've attended WWC every August since it began six years ago; the brainchild of our local imaginative fiction authors who felt their annual convention wasn't offering enough for writers interested in craft and promotion. I didn't expect much from this new event and mainly attended as a fan of science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, one of that year's five special guest authors.

WWC poster 2011

Since I had a new book to promote, I volunteered to conduct a workshop on Writing Dialogue. I was astonished to see the people pour in; they had to turn away some at the door. In the Merchants' Room, I did a shift at the shared author table and sold all the copies of my novel I'd brought. Other highlights for me were the keynote addresses, where each guest author spoke for 20 minutes on whatever subject he wanted, and a coffee klatch with Robert Sawyer and a dozen other fans seated around a table. This opportunity for a personal contact between writers and readers is one appeal of the festival.    

Overall, I was surprised by how much I learned at the panels and presentations, even though imaginative fiction isn't my genre. Fortunately, I'm a fan of the original Star Trek series and was able to catch the numerous references to Spock and the gang.

Most of all, I was impressed by the festival's energy. Science Fiction and Fantasy types know how to host a fun event. Showing up in costume is acceptable, if not encouraged.        

Since that first year, WWC has grown to 750 attendees and typically sells out two months ahead.  Most who come are local Calgarians, although many travel from other Canadian and US locations. They find the festival price of $45-60 (depending on when you register) a steal for three full days of programming, with 12 choices of panels, presentations, blue pencil cafes, pitch sessions and more per hour.

WWC brings in some literary stars in their genre. A couple of years ago, Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, lit up every room she entered.  

 

At the same time, anyone can be a presenter. All you have to do is suggest a topic or put your name in for a panel. No one is paid -- the stars are reimbursed their expenses -- but always more people than they need offer to present for the promotion and experience.

Me on a WWC panel

With another new book out, I'm focused on panelling this year. Somehow, I've wound up on six panels, four in the mystery genre and two others titled Fragility & Mental Illness Within Story and Beyond Traditional and Self-Publishing. I'm also doing a shift at the Books We Love table in the Merchants' Room and attending the Saturday evening banquet and Mass Autograph session. This year's banquet theme is the roaring twenties.      

Me in flapper costume

Last year, I only presented at two WWC panels to keep my time free for attending other sessions and activities. In the Merchants' Room, at the Steampunk party and at a panel on Mature Sleuths, I heard good things about Books We Love, a local publisher of genre fiction. After the festival, I sent BWL a query. Less than two weeks later I signed a contract.

Are writers' festivals, and especially When Words Collide, worth attending? You bet!

Nancy Drew's Parents by Karla Stover

     To me, one of the worst things about becoming an adult was outgrowing Nancy Drew. I went from Dick and Jane to Nancy Drew when I was about seven, and the highlight  of Christmas was getting two more of her books. Our library didn't carry the series so I borrowed wherever I could. One girl in my grade school was a couple years older and I didn't really know her, but, somehow, I learned she had The Mystery of the Tolling Bell and I borrowed the book at least three times.

 

      Nancy has changed over the years, but my Nancy was an attractive, sixteen-ear-old blonde who drove and repaired her own Blue Roadster car, and didn't go to school. She ran the family home because her mother passed away; She was "spunky, plucky, and daring." She could tap dance, and in one book had to tap a message in Morse code, something I always wanted to be able to do--tap dance not learn Morse code. And apparently, money was no object when it came to her adventures.

     Nancy's mother was Margaret Wirt Benson, who wrote under her own name, Carolyn Keene, and several others. Just like Nancy,  Benson loved adventure, and visited Central American jungles, and archeological digs, and canoed down rivers. Benson created Nancy in the series' first book, The Secret of the Old Clock, when she was 25. Twenty-two Nancy Drew mysteries followed.

     Edward Stratemeyer was Nancy's father. While Benson wrote 130 books, Stratemeyer is credited with "producing in excess of 1,300." Note the words, "wrote," and "producing." What Stratemeyer did was write "a three-page plot for each book, describing locale, characters, time frame, and giving a basic story outline. He mailed this to a writer who, for a fee ranging from fifty dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars, would write a book and send it back within a month.

     After Stratemeyer died, Nancy got a new publisher and a new look and a new persona. "Some, mostly fans, vociferously lament the changes, (which included first-person  narrative) seeing Nancy as a silly, air-headed girl whose trivial adventures (discovering who squished the zucchini in Without a Trace (2003)) "hold a shallow mirror to a pre-teen's world," one woman wrote, as Nancy was also featured in The Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew Girl Detective, and Nancy Drew on Campus.
 
    Her friends, The Hardy Boys were also having growing pains. The books from their "Weird Period" are "full of inconsistencies, and their adventures involve futuristic gadgetry and exotic locations." The series I grew up with ended in 2005 and was replaced with The Hardy Boys - Undercover Brothers. They often undertake liberal causes.

     An old proverb says, "change is the only constant" which is no doubt  true, but I think I prefer to think of it as inevitable--except from a vending machine, of course.
    
    

Books We Love Prime - New Subscriber Option for Serious Readers

Books We Love is in the process of setting up a subscription option for serious readers.  Tentatively planned to roll out in September Books We Love Prime will allow readers to subscribe for a month or a year - no renewal required - and give them the option of choosing 12 books every month from Books We Love's extensive inventory of over 700 titles. 

For more information and to be one of the first subscribers visit Books We Love Prime, here:  http://bookswelove.net/books-we-love-prime/

Books We Love is a Canadian genre fiction publisher with authors from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.  Our authors write popular fiction in all genres from Romance in every subgenre, Mystery in every sub-genre, Thrillers and Suspense, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Westerns (traditional and contemporary), Historical Fiction and Young Adult fiction in every genre.

Books We Love authors are seasoned professionals who have been writing and publishing their work for decades and who have weathered the changes from writing hard covers and paperbacks for the mid-lists to early ventures into the eBook marketplace and experimenting with the explosion of Indie publishing. 

Books We love authors have chosen to publish with BWL Publishing Inc. because of the Company's requirement that all authors have both experience in the industry and the necessary skill level to be considered professional writers.  Authors writing under the Books We Love label are master story tellers.  They have proven themselves through decades of studying, practicing and perfecting the craft of writing.  At BWL Publishing you will be choosing books written by experts in their chosen genres who have earned their positions in the literary community.  SOME OF OUR TITLES ARE PICTURED BELOW.  ALL OF THEM ARE HERE:  bookswelove.com