Archives
An interview with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall
I'm in the throes of finishing up the Winter issue of Fine Lifestyles Regina, so it seems like as good a time as any to post my cover story from the September issue: an interview with Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan. Enjoy! *** Premier Brad Wall: “The luckiest guy in the country in terms of a job!” By Edward Willett (Originally published in Fine Lifestyles Regina, Fall, 2009.) Brad Wall fully realizes that as premier, he has to represent the entire province—but he still hopes people will understand, if they see him at a Western Hockey League game between the Swift Current Broncos ...First issue of Fine Lifestyles Regina edited by me!
I know, I know, I've got a million things to blog about and I will get to them (Banff, PureSpec, the state of Magebane, First Sentences I Wrote Today, etc.). But for now, this will have to do: it's the cover for the first issue of Fine Lifestyles Regina that I edited. I just saw it in print today. I also wrote the cover story, an interview with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall that I'll probably post on here after the magazine has been out for a while. Already working toward the next one...and still looking for writers. ...The washboard effect
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/07/The-Washboard-Effect.mp3[/podcast] Saskatchewan, as has oft been noted, has a lot of roads: more than 190,000 kilometres in all, in fact, giving it one of the most extensive road systems in Canada. Not all of those roads are paved, however. In fact, most aren’t. And as anyone who has had occasion to drive extensively on the rural road system can tell you, while gravel roads are better than mud roads, they have their own...interesting...characteristics, of which one of the most annoying is the “washboard effect.” Washboards are fine if you’re a 19th century pioneer woman trying to clean the clothes or the abs of a 21st century male bodybuilder, but washboard-like ridges on a road are downright dangerous, reducing traction, causing extreme wear and ...Photos of the Day that were Actually Taken Sunday: The Robins
More photos here.Photo of the Day that was Actually Taken Sunday: There Goes the Sun
More photos here.I haven’t posted about the Great Saskatchewan Meteorite…
...because I didn't see it, darn it.I still have vivid memories of seeing a fireball streak cross the skies over Texas when I was about seven. I would have loved to have seen this one.Oh, well. Looks like they've found some pieces of it, at least.I've never seen a total solar eclipse, either. There was a near-total one in southern Saskatchewan on February 26, 1979...and I missed it because I was away at university in Arkansas.(Stamps feet.) It's not fair!I make the news in Meadow Lake!
The Meadow Lake Progress has posted an article about my visit to that community the weekend before last for a library reading. It's a good article, although I wouldn't take the quotation marks around what I supposedly said very literally...You can read the whole thing here, but here's how it starts:Regina-based science fiction author Edward Willett isn’t your average writer. Actually he’s not average at all.The literary dynamo and actor stopped by the Meadow Lake Library during the evening of November 15. He did a reading from one of his books, but also interacted with the crowd and answered questions.Willett has ...Live from Meadow Lake!
I know intellectually Saskatchewan is a big province (it's only slightly smaller than Texas, and you know the old rhyme about that: "The sun done riz, the sun done set, and we ain't outta Texas yet!") (OK, maybe you didn't know that old rhyme, but now you do.) Still, you get a really good feel for it driving north, because the province is much taller than it is wise. So, I drove roughly northwest from Regina about 580 kilometres today to get to Meadow Lake, and I know darn well that about half the province ...Things I Found in my Mother-in-Law’s House: The Medicine Cabinet
Notes for today's CBC radio spot...***It’s a bit of a cliché: the guest who can’t resist poking through his host’s medicine cabinet, just to see what’s in there.Well, Ed Willett isn’t a guest in his own home but he sometimes feels like it, because it’s full of odds and ends that have collected over the 70 years it’s been in his wife’s family.Ed has been exploring the nooks and crannies of his mother-in-law’s house for the past few week, and this week he did, indeed, dig into the medicine cabinet. I joined him earlier today to see what he’s found.That’s quite the collection of bottles, tins and boxes you’ve got ...Canadian Chamber Choir tour is getting close!
From October 18 to 25, I probably won't be blogging much, if at all, because I'll be touring Saskatchewan with the Canadian Chamber Choir.Here's the information about the tour from the official press release. If you're in the neighborhood of one of our concerts, please come out! It's a great group. We sing really purty-like.***The acclaimed Canadian Chamber Choir/Choeur de Chambre du Canada makes a long-anticipated return to Saskatchewan this month, bringing concerts and educational workshops to the west, centre and south of the province. The CCC is a unique group uniting professional singers from across the country which has garnered critical rave reviews and won fans across the country with its “extraordinary ...
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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.
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…
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.
