Quill & Quire review raves about Song of the Sword
I was pleasantly–very pleasantly, as you’ll see–surprised to discover a review, the first I’ve seen, of Shards of Excalibur: Song of the Sword in the September issue of Quill & Quire, Canada’s magazine of book news and reviews.
The review, by author Robert J. Wiersema, almost gave me a heart attack with the first sentence, though. It begins:
Authors who incorporate, interpret, or subvert Arthurian legends in works of contemporary fantasy take a huge risk: the failure rate of such books is staggeringly high.
Gulp. Fortunately, he continues with:
Every so often, though, a writer is skilled enough to utilize the stories of King Arthur and Camelot to significant effect. Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry trilogy is definitely on the list. So, too, is Song of the Sword, the impressive new YA novel from Regina writer Edward Willett.
Whew! That’s all right, then. (Me, compared with Guy Kay? It is to blush. Although we both have a connection to Weyburn…he was born there, I lived there many years…so, who knows? Maybe it’s something in the water.)
Wiersema goes on to summarize the story (very well), and then adds:
It’s an audacious conceit and a daring subversion of the Arthurian mythos, and Willett backs it up with a taut, compelling narrative, well-drawn characters, and a keen sense of genuine peril and true wonder. It’s a powerful, fun, engaging read, and it’s the first of a series, so readers have much to look forward to.
His only caveat: he wonders if young readers may not be familiar enough with the Arthurian legend for my reworking to resonate as fully with them as I’d like, and worries that if this is the first time they run into the Arthurian cast of characters, my book could “skew” their initial reading of their legends.
I hate to sound heartless, but…I think I can live with that!
My bios of Johnny Cash and Andy Warhol are out!
Both are listed as “In Stock” on Amazon and I have my author’s copies, so it must be true!
Here are the covers (and the back-cover copy) for each:
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Johnny Cash’s career spanned almost fifty years, with thousands of songs, hundreds of albums, and even a telvision show to his name. Even after his death in 2003, new albums continue to be released, and the 200t bipic Walk the Line brought “the man in black” to life for a new generation. From spiritual hymns to rock ballads, his influence transcended all genres and “the voice of America” lives on.
Buy Johnny Cash: The Man in Black from Amazon.com.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will be Famous for 15 Minutes
In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Buy Andy Warhol: Everyone Will be Famous for 15 Minutes from Amazon.com.
Download a free bookmark for Song of the Sword!
Lobster Press has created a great bookmark for Shards of Excalibur: Song of the Sword, which I’m pleased to offer for free downloading. There’s a JPG version at left, or you can download the full PDF version. Be the first on your block to have one! Get it now!
Latest issues of Fine Lifestyles Regina and Fine Lifestyles Saskatoon now online
The summer issues of Fine Lifestyles Regina and Fine Lifestyles Saskatoon, both of which I edit, are now online. Fine Lifestyles Regina features five prominent women on the cover; Fine Lifestyles Saskatoon has Vaughn Wyant and Lori Leach. We’re already hard at work on the fall issue, due out in early October. Clicking on the covers below will take you directly to each respective issue.
I’ll be teaching a speculative fiction writing workshop this fall…
…through the University of Regina’s Centre for Continuing Education, and you can sign up for it now! Here’s how it’s described:
Speculative Fiction Workshop
Aurora Award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Edward Willett leads a six-week workshop for writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Students bring new or revised work to each session and prepare to read it aloud for critiquing by the instructor and other class members. Each student will receive a one-on-one session with the instructor to discuss his or her work in detail.Instructor: Edward Willett
Mon, Sep 13-Oct 25, 6:30-8:30pm
$145 + GST
You can find the entire fall catalogue for the U of R’s Continuing Education program here.
Hope to see you there!
In the author spotlight at Lobster Press: me!
With the release date of Song of the Sword, book one in The Shards of Excalibur series barreling down on us, Lobster Press is beginning its marketing in earnest. Today they ran an interview with me on their blog. It begins:
With our Fall books soon on the way, we want to start introducing you to some of our new authors! This week, we have a behind-the-scenes Q&A with Edward Willett, author of the upcoming novel, Song of the Sword, the first book in the Shards of Excalibur series.
Why did you choose to re-envision the story of the Lady of the Lake and Merlin?
I’ve been fascinated by the legends of King Arthur for as long as I can remember. There are so many of them, and yet there always seems to be room for one more. So… this is mine.
Audiobook of Jimi Hendrix: Kiss the Sky now available
I had a nice surprise in the mail today: the audiobook version of my children’s biography of Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix: Kiss the Sky. The book was published by Enslow Publishers; the audibook was created by Recorded Books.
Narrator Ezra Knight
Narrator Ezra Knight does an absolutely fabulous job, not surprising considering what an accomplished actor he is. In fact, as I started listening to the book, I had to get out my print copy because it sounded so good I actually thought they must have rewritten the introduction–but no, those were my words!
According to a letter the publisher sent along with the two copies of the audiobook I received, this is the first Enslow Publishers title to be recorded as a full audio book. I feel honoured!
Also, I’m really enjoying listening to my own book. I usually read my own stuff out loud. Nice to hear someone else for a change!
The Willetts on Wine: How do I rate thee? Let me count the ways…
One last bit of writing from the spring issues of Fine Lifestyles Regina and Fine Lifestyles Saskatoon, as the release of the summer issues approaches. Here’s “The Willetts on Wine,” the wine column I write with my wife, Margaret Anne…
***
When you go into the liquor store, you’re faced with a bewildering selection of wines. So many bottles, so many possibilities. How do you choose a good one?
You could judge the wine by its label, of course, and many do. Which is why wineries try so hard (sometimes a little too hard, if you ask us: Fat Bastard, anyone?) to come up with unique names for their wines, and labels that will stand out on the shelf.
Still, you can put any old plonk in a fancy bottle with a beautiful label, and the wine will still be bad. So how do you get beyond appearances and figure out what to drink when you yourself haven’t tasted a wine?
If you’re knowledgeable enough, you probably already have some idea of what to expect from a given bottle based on its country of origin, the varietal, and the reputation of the winery. But even that can be a moving target as, vintage to vintage, grape-growing conditions vary.
What you really need is advice. And that’s where wine-rating systems come in…
…but guess what? There’s more than one of those, too. Whose ratings do you trust?
Putting the systems to the test
The best way to find out is to take a wine that you already know well, and love, and compare your tasting of it to the reviewers’ take. (Or, alternatively, you could use a wine that you loathe, but it seems a bit masochistic to drink a wine you really hate just to find out if the wine reviewers hate it, too!).
With that in mind, we thought it would be interesting to look at various systems with respect to one of our go-to family dinner wines, Wyndham Shiraz Bin 555.
One rating system you’ll see everywhere is the 100-point system made popular by guru Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate. Similar systems are used by other publications, such Wine Spectator. Scores in this point system are frequently displayed in liquor stores to help you make an informed decision…or at least to encourage you to buy certain wines!
Introduced by Parker in 1978, the strength of these 100-point systems lies in the universal understanding of what a high percentage means. (Although, ironically, Robert Parker never rates a wine below 50 points, so is it really a 100-point system, or…?)
Our Wyndham Shiraz Bin 555 (at least the 2005 vintage) was rated 88/100 by Wine Spectator and, by way of comparison, 91/100 by Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine (um, who?).
But when was the last time you saw a wine rated 23, or even 61? In fact, you never seem to see wines rated below 80…which makes the 100-point system more like a 20-point system.
That being the case, why not use a 20-point system?
The U.C. Davis system
That’s what we usually use when we rate wines ourselves. The one we like was developed by the University of California Davis, the hot-bed of viticultural study and research. It’s been around for a long time: it was established in 1959 to give the university a way to rate the large number of experimental wines produced there.
The simple and straightforward U.C. Davis system allows you to rate the wine based on 10 basic characteristics: appearance, colour, aroma and bouquet, volatile acidity, total acidity, sweetness/sugar, body, flavour, astringency and general quality. A rating of 17 to 20 indicates a wine of outstanding characteristics having no defects; 13 to 16 indicates a standard wine with neither outstanding character or defect; nine to 12 indicates a wine of commercial acceptability with noticeable defects, five to eight indicates a wine below commercial acceptability, and one to five would mean a completely spoiled wine.
Putting our standby wine to the U.C. Davis test gives us a score of 16—right at the top of “a standard wine with neither outstanding character or defect,” which sounds just about right.
There are other rating systems out there as well, all of which can help you choose a good bottle of wine—especially if you put them to the test and find the ones where the assigned ratings match up to your personal taste.
Ultimately, though, all you really need is a two-point system: either you will buy the wine again, or you won’t.
When it comes to the Wyndham Shiraz Bin 555, that one’s easy: yes, we will!
Our readers recommend…
Neil McClughan
Pirramimma Petit Verdot
A favourite wine? What if I don’t have one? Life is too short to limit your wine experience to a handful of wines. For reds, I tend to gravitate to bigger, bolder wines, especially those that are unique in some way or from smaller boutique producers. One example is Pirramimma from the McLaren Vale region of Australia, made from 100-percent Petit Verdot. Petit Verdot is one of the five Bordeaux classic red grapes, though it is seldom used in Bordeaux anymore since it is extremely late-ripening and often subject to frost. However, in Australia it thrives. The Pirramimma Petit Verdot is a huge wine and can be quite overpowering when opened. Give it a few minutes in the glass to breathe, and it will change immensely. It’s great with stronger cheeses or with rich-flavoured braised meats.
Ellen McClughan
Prosecco Di Conegliano
I was introduced to Prosecco 18 years ago and loved it! It is great to see North America picking up on the European trend of this refreshing light sparkling (frizzante) wine with biscuit-like notes. As sparkling wines go, Italian Proseccos range from very dry to slightly sweet, usually with small persistent bubbles. The cheaper ones can be a bit harsher. It is a great aperitif and is wonderful for any occasion, with any food. Prosecco is also great for making Bellini cocktails. The name is derived from the Veneto-region Italian village where the grape is believed to have originated. One great example available at SLGA stores is Prosecco Di Conegliano by Canella. A regular staple in our cellar as is Villa di Maser Prosecco, available through the Saskatchewan Opimian Wine Society.
Ellen and Neil McClughan (Level 2 Certificate from the International Sommelier Guild) are past Opimian Society representatives for South Saskatchewan. Ellen is a Systems Administrator and Neil is a co-owner of Tice Consulting Inc., a Business and Strategic IT Management Consulting firm. They love gourmet food, meeting fellow wine lovers, and practicing wine sampling as often as possible.
Sharon Scott
Divinus 2005
Aglianico del Vulture DOC
Recently, my partner Brad chose Divinus for me for a blind tasting at home—what a choice! I was intrigued by the lush, deep garnet colour and aromas of chocolate, leather and tobacco. Smooth and dense, the taste was equally intriguing, with flavours of dark fruit, sour cherry, cocoa, vanilla and spice. I was almost certain this was a blend. But in fact, Divinus is a varietal, produced from Italian aglianico (ah-LEE-AH-nee-koe) grapes. I enjoyed it on its own, but I wouldn’t hesitate to serve Divinus with red-meat dishes, cheeses and more. You can find this divine wine at Saskatoon’s new private wine shop, Cava Wines & Spirits (at River Landing near the Farmer’s Market).
Sharon is an enthusiast and student of wine and a communications professional at the University of Saskatchewan.
Up close and personal with Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison and wife Mardele
Yesterday I posted my cover story from the spring issue of Fine Lifestyles Regina, an interview with Regina businessman Paul J. Hill. Today, I’m posting my cover story from the spring (and premiere!) issue of Fine Lifestyles Saskatoon, an interview and Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison. Enjoy! The summer issues of both magazines are just around the corner…
***
Saskatoon Mayor Donald Atchison likes to say anyone who doesn’t like the way things are going in this city should call his wife, Mardele, “because she was the one who encouraged me to run.”
It’s a joke, of course, and yet there’s an element of truth to it. She was the one who encouraged him to run, first for city council and then for mayor, and Atchison makes it clear that if it weren’t for her support, he wouldn’t be able to continue to serve as mayor today.
In fact, if there’s one thing that shines through a conversation with the mayor more than anything else, it’s his love and appreciation for his wife.
Don met Mardele Assaly in high school, at Walter Murray Collegiate. “My brother (Doug) was a real charmer,” he recalls. “She was more interested in my brother than me. But he moved away afterward. Mardele and I met again one day, one thing led to the next, and we ended up getting married. It’s been wonderful.”
Mardele, Don says, basically raised their five children, Jason, Carrie, Don Jr., Brielle and Aria. They’re all grown now—the youngest is 25, four are married (and have given Don and Mardele five grandchildren) and Aria is getting married in August. “Mardele is a wonderful parent,” Don says. “She is very good. She’s the one who was really the guiding principle with the kids.”
It seems clear she’s also been a guiding principle for the mayor. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Mardele, I know that. She is just a wonderful person, a great wife, and a great friend.”
But Don also pays tribute to his parents, Frank and Martha. When Don was born, Frank was working with CN as an engineer, and his Martha was in real estate. But Frank had been in menswear just after the war, and in the early ’70s he returned to it. Today, in their mid-80s, Frank and Martha continue to run Atch & Co. at 214 21st St. E. (a store Don was very involved with up until he was elected mayor), and continue to campaign for their son when election time rolls around.
“A great childhood”
Born and raised in Saskatoon, Don says he had “a great childhood.” Not only did he have “a really good family life,” along with his brother Doug and sister Debbie, “I got to play most of the sports in our city. I had a wonderful experience.”
“When I was in Grade 8 I got to play in the East Side/West Side All-Star Hockey Game, the last one ever held in Saskatoon. The rink was full.”
He played pee wee hockey, midget hockey, juvenile hockey, and eventually played for the Blades. “I also played for the Saskatoon Macs, which became the Saskatoon Quakers, and played in the first-ever Canada Winter Games, held right here in Saskatoon.”
And, he adds proudly, “Either my Mom or my Dad were at every hockey game I ever played in Saskatoon. They always came to watch, one or the other.”
He also played golf and football. At Walter Murray, in four years on the team, he was rookie of the year one year in senior football and captain as well. “I think that was another great learning experience,” he says. “I was really fortunate in all my sports to have wonderful coaches.”
From the Blades, Don was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League, who put him into their farm teams. “I played in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I played in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and I played in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on the team the movie Slapshot was about.” (And in case you’re wondering, Don says “a lot of that movie was very factual.”)
He was eventually called up to the Penguins as a backup goaltender, but he never actually played in an NHL game. Still, he says, “I was really lucky to have experienced all of that.”
Farewell to hockey
After a while, though, he had to choose between continuing to play hockey, and potentially spending his entire career in the minors, or hanging up his skates. “I didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the minor leagues, so I left hockey and came back to work in the store.”
Not that “leaving hockey” meant leaving it entirely. He soon became involved with the junior Quakers, coaching the team and eventually owning it. He took the team to Europe twice, and even coached it in the Canada Winter Games, a nice bit of symmetry since he had played in the first-ever Canada Winter Games with the same team. Later on, he coached goaltenders for the Blades.
Everything, though he didn’t think of it that way at the time, was preparing him for being in politics. “In a lot of ways sports and retail experience gives you a good mix,” he says. “Harry Truman was a clothier as well, and there have been other leaders that have also come from the clothing industry. It’s all about the customer service. It bodes well for getting into public life.”
And having been at various times a goaltender, a coach and a referee, he says with a laugh, he’d gotten used to something else that goes with political life, “people always second-guessing what you should have done.”
Don’s first taste of politics actually came in high school, when he ran for the SRC at Walter Murray Collegiate. “I never thought I’d ever be in politics. I did that because I wanted to be involved in the school. It was quite interesting.”
“You should run for city council”
The fateful decision to actually run for elected office as an adult came up almost out of the blue. “We were sitting at home one night watching television, I think it was on a Monday night, and they were saying that nominations closed on the Wednesday. Mardele said, ‘I think you should run for city council. I think you could do a really good job.’” They talked it over, and the next day he went and got the nomination papers and found 25 people to sign them.
“We always hear about the business community talking about how things should be done, but never getting involved in the political end of it,” Don says. “I just wanted to bring a business point of view to council. That’s why I ran, and I said I would work hard.”
He was elected, and continued to be elected for the next nine years. “The first term you had to learn how things function in a municipal government as opposed to the private sector,” Don says. If you own a business, he points out, you can simply show up one morning and say, “This is how it’s going to be. “In government it works more on the basis of consensus-building,” he says. “I had to learn to understand all of that.”
In the years he served on city council, he used to say to himself, “If I was the mayor, I would do it this way or that way…and then one day after nine years I decided that it was time to run for mayor.”
The result? “The citizens of Saskatoon were really kind, and they’ve given me the opportunity to be the mayor for several years.”
He’s proud of the way the city has developed over the past few years. “We had 19 years of consecutive GDP growth,” he points out. “2009 was the first year we were either at zero or slightly below, but this year looks like it will be a very positive year. We’ve had the best overall GDP growth in Canada.”
But don’t call it a boom. “I don’t like to use the word booming,” Don says pointedly, “because people think there will be a bust,” and he doesn’t believe that will happen, in part because Saskatoon has such a balanced economy.
He recalls the Conference Board of Canada investigating Saskatoon because it couldn’t understand how the city could keep growing during a time when the farming sector was in the doldrums. The reason, he says, is that although Saskatoon is a prairie city and certainly services the surrounding farmland, it’s got a lot more going for it. “We’re mining, transportation, education, manufacturing, processing,” he says. “People don’t realize we’re the largest steel manufacturing centre west of Toronto. The largest piece of mining equipment in the world is manufactured in Saskatoon.”
Mining, research, education and more
He lists other assets of the city, starting with the mining industry, “billions of dollars are going to be invested into potash alone in upgrades and new mines.” Saskatoon also serves the nascent Saskatchewan diamond industry, plus the north’s gold and uranium mines and, of course, the oil industry.
The university is a big part of the Saskatoon economic picture as well, Don says. “We do 30 percent of all the agricultural biotech research in Canada in Saskatoon at Innovation Place,” he points out, and there are many other developments at the university that contribute to the city’s success, from the Canadian Light Source to the new International Vaccine Centre. “The university is a big, big part of our community as well. We have worked very hard to make sure the city and the university have a good relationship with each other.”
He’s proud of the fact that the city of Saskatoon, unique among all the cities of the world, gave $2.4 million toward the construction of a facility intended strictly for primary research, the Canadian Light Source.
Saskatoon has done other unique things. “Our Land Branch is unique for selling residential property,” he points out. “We run it as a business. We need to get a return on our investment.”
And yet, Don notes, even while he strives to apply a lot more business practices to the way the municipal government does things, it’s important to be mindful that there is a social side that has to be cared for as well. “It’s a combination of putting both together. Coming from the private sector, I think I have a good understanding of both sides of the story.”
“When I was first growing up almost everyone knew everyone in the city,” he adds. “We’ve tried to keep a community-type flavour, but as you get larger it’s harder to get to know everyone in your community, especially now when we have around 225,000 people.”
Social and cultural achievements
On the social/culture side of things, Don is particularly proud of the Shaw Centre, “the number-one aquatic centre in North America, if not the world.” The city partnered with the public school board, the separate school board, the provincial and federal governments and private donors to build the Centre, located between two new schools in Blairmore.
Another “truly remarkable story” is Persephone Theatre’s new facility, “the first actual business” on River Landing. “The theatre opened up with no mortgage, and it’s focused on culture. It’s not a private-sector business and it’s not a government institution. I think that’s exceedingly important.”
Don attributes part of his appreciation for the importance of culture to his upbringing. “My first introduction was taking piano lessons when I was younger,” he says. He eventually reached the Grade 8 level.
“I took lessons because I had to (as a condition for playing hockey), not because I wanted to. But when I look back on it, I think it helped shape my outlook on life.
“In government, they always talk about sports and culture as one department. I think they really do belong together. I have a better understanding of both today because of my parents insisting that I participate in a variety of cultural activities.”
As mayor, Atchison keeps a busy schedule, and once again he pays tribute to Mardele for making it possible for him to do so. “I don’t take much time off work, off the role as the mayor,” he says, and as a result, he and Mardele agreed that they would only go on a holiday every second year while he’s mayor.
“We’ve been going to Europe, since being mayor. We’ve travelled most of Europe now on different tours. We’ll go to Palm Springs now as well for a few days.” But basically, he says, “I spend most of my time in and around the city and just travelling on city business.
“Mardele is just wonderful,” he says again. “She’s very understanding, very, very understanding about the number of hours I put in. I travelled to the Olympics, saw a bit of figure skating, and worked at the pavilion. There are a lot of trips to places I’m sure Mardele would love to go as well, but it just doesn’t make any sense because it’s business. She doesn’t say anything about that, just ‘Get home as soon as you can.’”
Family, friends and fun
Within the city, they like to spend time with their family (four of their children remain in Saskatoon; one, Jason, is in Calgary). As well, “We enjoy going golfing together, certainly enjoy fine dining, going to a movie, going to plays.”
They like to dine out, but diplomatically, Atchison refuses to name a favourite restaurant. “They’re all my favourites,” he says. “Saskatoon really and truly has great restaurants. As our community continues to diversify, we continue to have more and more different ethnic restaurants in our community, which is reflective of the community as a whole.”
As for plans for the inevitable day when he is no longer mayor of Saskatoon, Atchison says he doesn’t have any at all.
“I’m the type of person that stays very focused on what I’m doing at the time,” he says. “When I left professional sports, I just left it behind. There’s no point in having regrets, what’s over is over.”
“I coached hockey. When I was finished, people wanted to know if I had regrets. No, that was just another part of my life. The same is true of retail. One stays focused on what they’re doing today.”
Which is not to say he doesn’t look to the future. He does; but for Atchison, thoughts of the future are focused on what he’d still like to achieve as mayor. There’s the ongoing development of River Landing. There’s work to be done on the city yards. “We need to look at moving our buses out of Caswell Hill. A North Bridge needs to be accomplished as well. We still need to stay focused on affordable housing and good-paying jobs. The list goes on and on.”
“Can I do a better job? Of course! You can always do better.”
Striving for perfection
Atchison recounts a time when he was coaching future NHL star Tim Chevelday during his time with the Saskatoon Blades. “One day he had a shutout. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you can’t say anything to me today, I had a shutout.’
“And I said, ‘Well, what about this pass? What about that play?’ He said, ‘You’ll never be satisfied.’ I said, ‘No, when you play a perfect game I’ll be satisfied.’
“We always strive for perfection, and strive to do better all the time. You reflect back and see how you could have done a better job.”
Ultimately, Don Atchison’s philosophy is the same one that he and Mardele have tried to instil in their children: “Work hard, and be kind and understanding to other people.”
Up close and personal with Paul J. Hill
With the summer issue of Fine Lifestyles Regina just around the corner, I thought I’d post my cover story from the spring issue, an interview with Regina businessman Paul J. Hill. Enjoy!
***
Paul Hill says he’s most known in Regina for three things: his blue 1976 Mercury Marquis, his habit of consuming eight Diet Cokes a day, and his addiction to non-fat frozen yogurt.
Of course, that list leaves out one other minor thing of note: Paul is president and CEO of The Hill Companies and Harvard Developments Inc., companies intimately intertwined with the history of Regina, owning and/or managing more than two million square feet in Regina and five million square feet in Western Canada.
The Hill Companies were born in 1903 as McCallum Hill & Company, formed by Walter H.A. Hill (Paul’s grandfather) and a partner. Walter Hill later sold the land on which the Saskatchewan Legislative Building now stands to the provincial government, and went on to develop the Lakeview residential area. Paul’s father, the late Frederick W. Hill, after completing an MBA at the Harvard Business School, joined the company to work with his father in 1947.
Born in the U.S.A.
Although he’s definitely a Regina boy, growing up in the city and attending Campion College, Paul was born in Cambridge, Mass.
“My father was in the Canadian Air Force,” he explains. “He was discharged because he had a rheumatic fever history, and decided to get an MBA at Harvard.
“During his first term, Pearl Harbor was bombed, and the Americans were ramping up their armed services. He went over to the recruiter and said he wanted to get inducted. So when everyone else was trying to get deferments, he ended up in the U.S. Army Air Force.”
Fred flew as a captain of B-17 and B-24 bombers and received the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak-leaf clusters. During training exercises, he met Paul’s mother in Washington, D.C. while she was working at the British Embassy. They fell in love right away and after five dates got married.
Fred went on to serve in the U.S. Army Air Force overseas, and was discharged in 1945. He returned to Harvard University, and Paul was born in October of 1945.
The family returned to Regina in 1947, but Paul went back to the U.S. for university, thanks to one of his father’s war-time connections: his co-pilot, Paul’s godfather, was from Washington. “He was a Georgetown guy, and so I ended up going to Georgetown University.”
Paul says he was interested in business from a very early age. (Although he admits that one time in Grade 1 or 2 he expressed an interest in being a fireman).
“My father would always bring his associates back to the house at the end of the day,” he recalls. “I would always have a high level of curiosity, and sit and listen to their conversations.”
When Paul met Carol
Young Paul was interested in more than just business, of course. He was also interested in girls. He met his future wife, Carol Erb, daughter of former provincial cabinet minister Walter Erb, when he was actually dating her best friend.
“I took her best friend home and Carol was there, and that’s how we met,” he recalls.
Paul was at Campion College and Carol was in Grade 12 at Sacred Heart at the time, but their paths hadn’t crossed because until that year she and her best friend had been attending Luther College.
“We got married the same year, December 28, 1963,” Paul says. He already knew he was going to Georgetown University, and “we decided that since I was going away the next four years that we wanted to commit to each other for the rest of our life, and we wouldn’t be able to do that if we lived apart for the next four years.”
Carol joined Paul at Georgetown, and also studied there. From Georgetown they moved to London, Ont., where Paul attended the Richard Ivey School of Business, “the Harvard of Canada,” obtaining his MBA.
Like Harvard, the Ivey School of Business teaches business via “case method,” Paul explains.
“It’s a program that involves hundreds of cases that are written about real-life circumstances in various companies and business,” he says. “The cases are focused on various aspects of the business decision-making process. The goal is to learn how to make a better decisions through a disciplined thought process.
“You can’t study for it. It’s a very intense program that goes right up until the last day of class. The next day you go into two sets of four-hour exams. There’s nothing you could ever study for. It was all learning how to make decisions, recognize opportunities, and anticipate problems, learning how to solve them before they occur.”
From school, Paul went into the investment banking business in Toronto with the predecessor of what is now Nesbitt Burns, working as an analyst. From Toronto he went to Winnipeg, where he managed the company’s retail and institutional operation.
Back in Regina
Then, in 1976, he returned home to work with his father. (That was when he bought the Mercury Marquis.) In 1978 he was appointed president of The Hill Companies, the position he’s held ever since.
Paul believes he put his stamp on the companies early, not through any grand strategic planning, but simply by being “entrepreneurial and opportunistic.” One of the first things he oversaw was the acquisition of the local CTV television station, followed by the growth of Harvard Broadcasting Inc. radio stations 620 CKRM and Lite 92 FM and 104.9 The WOLF. “We are a strong regional radio broadcaster today,” Paul notes, the company having extended its media holdings to Yorkton, Saskatoon, Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton and Fort McMurray.
“The second thing that happened was putting together a team of experienced real estate professionals to fulfill the redevelopment plan for downtown Regina,” Paul continues. “This included the demolition of the old McCallum-Hill building, built by my grandfather in 1912. It was replaced with the Hill Centre Towers I & II.”
(An interesting side note: the Hill Centre Towers I & II were designed by the Chicago architectural firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill, which was just in the news again as the architects of the world’s new tallest building, the Burj Dubai. “You can go to any international city in the world, and you will find a Skidmore Owings building which will stand out as unique to that total environment,” Paul notes. “We went to Skidmore to give us a unique design that will only be in Regina and nowhere else in the world. That’s the difference they make. Our design will never be duplicated. It’s served the city well, and we have that connection on the world stage.”)
The company followed that up with several more distinctive downtown buildings, including the Bank of Montreal Building, the Crown Life (now Canada Life) Building, and the FCC Tower/Agriculture Place Building, and spearheaded the linkage of all those buildings via climate-controlled pedestrian walkways.
The Hill Companies started out focused on real estate and insurance, and that’s still the core business, Paul says. “Today, that includes Harvard Western Insurance, the general insurance company, Western Surety Company, the contract-bonding company, and Harvard Developments Inc., a full service real estate company.”
Diversification into the U.S.
Another big change during Paul’s stewardship has been diversification into the United States. “We made a decision to diversify into the United States, and opportunistically had acquired the Canadian assets of Tenneco Oil of Canada Ltd., with an American partner. It’s now called Harvard Energy.
“That was a big change that was motivated by what was happening in Ottawa. In 1979 to 1981, when Pierre Elliot Trudeau was prime minister, it became clear that Canada might be in for some long-term problems as a result of fiscal irresponsibility and massive government intrusion into the economy, such as the National Energy Program. It really stemmed from my background in the investment banking industry. I was aware of the penalty Canada was going to have to pay over the next 20 years, which is exactly the same set of circumstances that is now occurring in the United States under the Obama administration.”
Another major diversification move was the acquisition, with partners, of a bankrupt company, UFR Urban Forest Recyclers Inc. of Swift Current. The company developed a manufacturing business making molded fiber products, and now has more than 40 percent of the North American egg tray market.
In 1990, The Hill Companies made national news by acquiring the controlling interest in Crown Life and moving it to Regina from Toronto. “That brought 1,200 jobs to Regina and expanded the GDP of the province by two percent and of the city by 10 percent,” Paul notes. “I became Chairman and it prospered for a number of years. It’s now owned by Canada Life and remains a significant presence in the City.”
“Our western Canadian real estate company continues to grow,” he adds. “Under the leadership of our talented senior management team, we have under development a major retail urban center in Regina called ‘Grasslands’ at Harbour Landing, as well as ‘Preston Crossing,’ located on the University of Saskatchewan lands in Saskatoon, the ‘Eau Claire’ redevelopment in Calgary and ‘The Currents of Windermere‘ in Edmonton. These are major multi-year developments which include large national retailers. The projects are in the 20- to 100-acre size and range from $50 million to $800 million. This is the next 10 years of our company. It will literally change these cities.”
Green technology is another focus. “We owned a U.S. software company which developed programs for health and safety and environmental management,” Paul says. “The customer base included many Fortune 500 companies and many foreign companies operating out of Asia, the Middle East and Europe. We’re very focused on reducing the costs associated with the production of energy and eliminating, as much as possible, the excessive consumption of products that produce emissions.”
Harvard Developments is the first organization in Saskatchewan operating under private-public partnership to obtain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Accreditation, on the redeveloped Century Plaza building located in downtown Regina.
Though Regina has always been, and continues to be, home base, “Saskatchewan has had a history of not having continuous growth, which has encouraged us to diversify into other geographic areas, and also to be entrepreneurial and opportunistic with regard to other industries,” Paul says.
“My grandfather struggled and survived through the two world wars and the 1930s. The company Walter Hill founded is the only real estate business in Canada that has survived a full 100 years: it celebrated its centennial in 2003.”
Now, says Paul, “Saskatchewan is again growing. The Hill Companies have developed an excellent, experienced team with capabilities second-to-none in Saskatchewan. They are dedicated to assisting and helping to bring the province’s growth opportunities into reality.” The cities of Saskatchewan, Paul says, deserve to enjoy the finest facilities and services of any jurisdiction in the country.
Inspired by Mother Teresa
Making Regina and Saskatchewan better places to live is very important to both Paul and Carol. Paul notes that he and his wife had the opportunity to visit Mother Theresa in India with other CEOs and their spouses in the 1980s.
“She really mesmerized the group we were with,” Paul remembers. “Many wanted to help her initiatives around the world. But her response to us was, ‘Go back to your own community, identify the needs, and give both of yourself and your resources to help those people.’”
Paul and Carol have always been interested in helping students become leaders in society. They support Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, attended by students from all over Western Canada and other parts of the world.
A major new initiative emanating from Mother Teresa’s message is now at the feasibility stage, as Paul works to establish a Nativity Miguel School in Regina.
“What this network of schools in the United States have done is entered into the inner cities, taken kids from Grade 6, 7 and 8, from diversified backgrounds, and developed their educational and motivational skills to the point where they have been able to change a 90-percent drop-out rate for these students in high school to a 90-percent pass rate.
“The school takes 15 to 20 kids per class at a time, and works with them for extended hours and days for three years, giving them the foundation for success in high school and beyond. We’ve been working on it for two years. We hope to be up and running next year.”
Alongside that initiative, the Hills have set up a foundation called “One Life Makes a Difference” to select one student at a time to be given an opportunity to get out of the environment they are in and attend a school such as Notre Dame to obtain a complete educational experience that can take them on to university.
Other education initiatives have included the evolution of the University of Regina’s Faculty of Business Administration into the Paul J. Hill School of Business. The business school has always been reputable, Paul says, but “there was an opportunity to take it to the next level in terms of quality and recognition.”
The Paul J. Hill School of Business is now partnered with the Richard Ivey School of Business, where Paul received his MBA, “recognized as one of the top schools in the world.” The school is implementing the full case-method program used at Ivey and Harvard, and also includes a student exchange program and Ph.D. development. As well, business cases from Western Canada are now being written and distributed on a worldwide basis under the Hill-Ivey brand name. The program includes a specific emphasis on business ethics.
Paul and Carol have also helped initiate a Catholic studies program at Campion College.
Five children
Their own children have all attended Jesuit-run universities in the United States. “We wanted them to experience American culture, and to go to schools that require a minimum amount of philosophy and theology,” Paul says.
Eldest daughter Rosanne Hill Blaisdell, who like her father obtained an MBA, is working with Harvard Developments and is responsible for the company’s office portfolio in Regina and in Calgary.
Their second daughter, Shannon, got a law degree and now at age 42 has gone back to school, after having three children, for a medical degree.
Their only son, Matthew, married a girl from Michigan and has founded a technology-related company is Los Angeles. Their second-youngest daughter, January, is in early childhood education in Calgary, and their youngest, Kathryn, is a practicing psychologist in Calgary.
Paul and Carol continue to call Regina home, although, Paul notes, “When it gets cold, we go south. I commute back and forth and the rest is done by phone, fax and email.”
In the summer, they enjoy a cottage at the Lake of the Woods in northwestern Ontario (the Winnipeg connection) but still keep the family cottage in the Qu’Appelle Valley. “I grew up going to Katepwa Lake in the summertime and worked at a local beach and boat club,” Paul says.
They play a little bit of golf and enjoy the social amenities at the Wascana Country Club. Both keep physically active. “We were joggers,” Paul says. “Well, Carol still is. My knees have gone.”
Culturally, they enjoy shows at Globe Theatre and the Conexus Arts Centre, and going to the movies. “Mostly, we just like being with family,” Paul says.
Oh, and football. “We as a family have had a lifelong commitment to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Carol was Miss Saskatchewan Roughrider in 1963! We’ve attended every Grey Cup since then together, along with most of our children.
“Harvard’s 620 CKRM has the broadcasting rights for the Roughrider games,” Paul continues. “I am currently honoured to be on the board of the club. Also, several employees and business associates have and continue to be actively involved in supporting the club.”
Favorite restaurants include Earl’s, the Lakeshore Steak House, Golf’s and Memories (and TCBY, of course, thanks to Paul’s addiction to frozen yogurt).
A love of travel
The Hills love Regina, but they also like to travel. They founded the Canadian Chapter of The Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museum, a select group dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of the collection of art contained in the Vatican Museums. Money raised by the organization is used for restoration projects, such as the four-year restoration of the Raphael tapestry, St. Paul in Prison.
“Now we are restoring a necropolis under the Vatican parking lot that has perfectly preserved tombs going back to the period from 200 BC to 400 AD,” Paul says. “There are stories about persons, one of whom ran the chariot races for Emperor Nero. Other stories include a description of the daily lives of ordinary people of their times. It’s fascinating. Every two years we take the Canadian chapter to Rome for a full agenda at the Vatican.
“We like Hawaii, of course, everybody does,” Paul continues. “The last three or four years we’ve gone to southern Spain. We’ve learned very little Spanish, but we’ve taken in the history and culture of Spain as well as spending some time with its former president. We developed an interest in Spain and its history and culture.
“We’ve been most places in the world, but there’s one place that we’ve not been to that we will be going to this year, and that’s Russia. We’ll be in St. Petersburg and Moscow for the first time.”
Saskatchewan: A land of opportunity
The Hill Companies were created by entrepreneurs taking advantage of an opportunity that presented itself. Does Paul feel there are still opportunities in Saskatchewan?
“Absolutely,” he says. In fact, he thinks the opportunities are greater now than they have ever been in his lifetime, because at various times in Saskatchewan’s history, “it was very difficult for a company to start and survive during various points in its history,” he notes.
“The wars and the ’30s were very difficult economic times. After the war, in the 1950s, business faced the challenge of the Tommy Douglas government and the CCF manifesto, which called for the total eradication of capitalism. Many companies either left the province or were taken over by the government. One of those companies was ours, Saskatchewan Guaranty and Fidelity, the predecessor to Western Surety Company, which was managed by the predecessor to Harvard Western Insurance. In spite of this we stayed and remained committed.”
But, he says, “The negative aspects of the socialist environment have slowly been removed over time. Successive governments of the province have moved toward encouraging the private sector to grow and develop as well as encouraging the expansion and exploration of the resource sector toward its full potential. It is also becoming a more competitive jurisdiction to attract business and jobs.
“The province is moving in the right direction. The Hill Companies hope to continue contributing to the growth of this great province and at the same time focus on improving the lives of the people who live here. We will maintain our entrepreneurial philosophy, while practicing our principles and values within the context of lessons learned from the past.
“I am optimistic and have great faith in the future of The Hill Companies and our province. I believe our enterprise will continue to enjoy the success brought about by dedicated employees and partners.”
Edward Willett is a The Shards of Excalibur, Book 1: Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel, coming in October from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
