| Wayne Arthurson traveled a long and winding road to get his first book published, but says the process picked up speed once he had actually written a good story. The musician/writer looks back at his failures with brutal honesty and a liberal dose of humour.
"Like some other writers, I’ve written loads of other novels thinking they were great, but as I got older and wiser (he laughs) – actually, mostly older – I found that the reason people didn’t think those novels were great… is that they were crap," he says.
"They got better as time went on, but Final Season is the first one I actually thought was really good."
Luckily, so did his publisher, Thistledown Press. Arthurson worked on the novel for four years – he describes himself as more of a binge writer than a Stephen King, who writes every day – and after a six-week rush to complete it, ended up with offers from two publishers.
"I sent out queries – you know, the usual, first three chapters, synopsis, blah blah blah – to three publishers, pretty much before I even finished the novel, and all three wanted to see the whole manuscript. So that explains the final six-week writing binge. Then two publishers offered contracts. I negotiated and got, I hope, the best deal," he says.
"I may be a first-time author. but I’m not an inexperienced writer and know the business aspect of things, which is something a lot of first-timers may be missing. It’s tough to say because it’s an artistic endeavour, but you’ve got to know how to or be able to sell your writing…. A book doesn’t sell on its own.
Final Season contains a couple of sly mentions of the name "Arthurson" as one of the families in the community where it’s set. The story came out of a trip Arthurson took with his dad to his old hometown of Norway House in northern Manitoba, where he met up with some relatives he hadn’t seen in years who started telling him stories.
"Some were probably true and most were probably lies or stretches of the truth. After I got back, I started thinking that these stories would make a good novel. So I created some characters loosely based on various relatives and others and started writing."
Arthurson’s own name wasn’t the only reference he slipped into the story – being a musician, he says he included at least three musical names in the book as well.
"It comes from me listening to music as I write and if I need a name for a character, sometimes I grab the CD liner notes and steal someone’s name. It can be a game for the readers – see how many musician names you can find in the book. Nobody, not even my music geek friends, has been able to find all three names."
The story is about fishing, but being from the lower half of the Prairies, I couldn’t help but think of the parallels to farming – how these experienced old guys who've spent their life on the land and know it in a very "natural" way are slowly being replaced by corporate employees and values, larger machinery and improved technology. Even the title, Final Season, refers to something that many workers, be they farmers or fishermen, are experiencing as they are forced to give up their livelihoods.
Arthurson says every reader brings their own baggage, for lack of a better term, to what they read. Although he jokes that he would be happy to take credit for the statement – he has worked in the agriculture industry first-hand – it’s all part of the complexity of the novel.
"To be honest, it’s not something I set out to do, but I’ll accept it because small town life is small town life. People are different, but there always seems to be a sense of community in a small town – and I’m including Edmonton, where I live now, in that, because it may be a big city, but there is still that sense of community, especially in the arts and music community."
Arthurson says the characters also reflect the values of a small town. Albert, the main character, faces the possibility that this may be his final season fishing on the lake, but he will find another way to make a living.
"One key element of Final Season is the work ethic of Albert and everyone else in the community. That came from my visit up and meeting these relatives and seeing how hard they work. And then it got me thinking about my parents and how they always worked. Always….
"So in a sense, Final Season is a homage to them and their work ethic, some of which has rubbed off on me – only some, because I’m inherently a lazy person, but when I need to work, I know what needs to be done."
Wayne Arthurson reads at Pages Books in Kensington on Wednesday, February 26 at 7:30 p.m. |
