Getting it in print

It’s a zoo out there for most writers trying to gain any public notice, success or even legitimacy. The publishing world is overrun with titles, making it a daunting prospect to any budding writer – or collective of writers – to get out there and produce a book.

For one group of local writers, that daunting prospect is being laughed at in the face, now that Welcome to the Zoo is in print. The Saint City Writers are: Patricia Trudeau, Iris McNiven, Carrie Mattern, Alice Sears, Anne Stewart, Christine Babiak, Janet Rolfson, Troy Sherdahl, Ann N. Amos and John Dolman. The chapbook just came out but is getting its big launch in just a few days. The Saint City Writers can’t wait till the big day.

“It’s very exciting!” exclaimed Carrie Mattern, one of the group’s members. “It feels a little bit validating, I suppose. It was really good to be a part of a group doing that because then it’s also not so solitary. We’re all in it together.”

The publication is an anthology – the first in a series, hopefully – containing poems and stories, both fiction and non-fiction, of the writers themselves. The group just celebrated its first anniversary and figured it was time to prove to the world that it’s legit. At the same time, it gives the dozen or so women and men from all walks of life around this community a chance to stand proud and reveal their secret identities.

Group co-founder John Betton explained, “When you become public, you’ve got to say to people, ‘I’m a writer.’ It would be easy for me to continue to say ‘I’m a retired psychologist’ but I don’t do that any more. The anthology has put that front and centre.”

He said that he’s had lots of practice working his writing hand but patient notes don’t count or cut it in this world. He did, however, develop one important skill during his counseling days, cultivating “an interest in people’s lives,” adding that, while writing is often described as having psychological benefits, Betton denied that he gets the same benefits out of it that others do.

“It’s therapeutic without being therapy. When you put something good together, you get an idea and you get it clearly laid out, it feels right and it sounds right and people approve of it. That in itself is what you could call therapeutic. It’s just an exhilarating experience.”

Regardless, his new occupation has served him well. He only got into writing creative stories over the last four or five years after an experience with a writing group at the MacEwan Senior Studies Institute where he won the Laurie Allen Award – named after the noted Edmonton writer and writing instructor – for an outstanding story under 1,000 words.

The result is a simple story from his past that has a very fine ending.

“The story that’s been waiting to be written for 40 years!” Betton laughed, before quickly turning sombre as he related some background of his days teaching adult education classes in the 1970s.

“I had dealings with new Canadians and immigrants and adult upgraders coming back to school to get on with their life. The analogy, the metaphor for screenings, struck me way back then.”

Screenings then is a touching short story about a man named Tomas taking an adult math review class. Despite his thick accent and the fact that he falls asleep during one class, he has an important lesson to teach the rest of us.

There are lessons all around this grassroots do-it-yourself project. The chapbook is also a sweet collaboration that utilized some of the contributors’ other skills. Patricia Trudeau, as known for her writing as her paintings, gets the credit for the cover artwork. Mattern’s day job is a graphic designer so she took over the production.

There’s a saying about how many hands make for light work. Mattern praises her colleagues for helping her to achieve this long-held goal.

“I don’t think I would have done it on my own. It was fun to get a taste of what it’s all about and not have to commit hours and hours and hours to putting together an entire novel and publishing it yourself.”

The evening will include readings and refreshments. Copies of the book will be available for purchase for $5 at the event.