One former St. Albert resident is taking his literary talents to the market. The Edmonton Petroleum Club’s Browse and Brunch Outdoor Market, that is.
“It’s mostly a food market. It’s fairly new,” Leif Gregersen emphasized. “They said that they’d make an exception because they thought it was kind of a worthy cause.”
The author has two books under his name with a third newly available. Dealing with his bipolar disorder led him to pen his memoir Through the Withering Storm. The experience was so satisfying that he turned out a fiction work called Green Mountain Road about two young lovers.
Both will be available for purchase tomorrow.
He said that his interest in becoming a writer started when he was still a high school student at Paul Kane. A presentation by Alvin Law, a renowned motivational speaker, changed his life. Law was one of this country’s thalidomide victims and had major birth defects.
“He had no arms. He had shown us all this stuff that he could do and that he had done. I was very inspired by that. At that point, I almost thought that I didn’t have a disability to overcome. Then I found later that I did have a disability: manic depression.”
He wrote Withering Storm with the intention of putting a spotlight on “the plight of mentally ill people and the difficulties of treating it for families and caregivers. In doing that, I developed a great love of writing.”
He used his writing as therapy to manage his illness. Things have worked out pretty well for him since then.
Poems from Inside Me is now available on Amazon.ca. The Kindle version is listed at $4.99 with the paperback priced at $14.95.
People can learn more about Gregersen and his books on his website at www.valhallabooks.com. He’s also posted readings from his books on his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/viking3082000.
The Outdoor Market takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on select Sundays throughout the summer. Along with shopping for fresh produce and other market fare, visitors can get into the club for a unique brunch offered by the Head of Culinary Development, chef Doreen Prei. The brunch costs $30 for members and $35 for non-members. Kids under 12 are $15 and $17 respectively.
The Edmonton Petroleum Club is located at 11110 108 Street in downtown Edmonton.
For more information, call the club at or visit www.edpetroleumclub.com.
