Archives
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 ...Surveying Saskatchewan
As a kid, I could never figure out what quarter-sections were. Eventually I learned it was equivalent to 160 acres, but why was it a quarter-section? A quarter-section of what? And where did that long string of numbers and letters used to describe it come from?Well, better late than never, they say, and now that I’m working on a history of surveyors in Saskatchewan, I think I’m beginning to figure it out.The earliest European settlements in North America naturally tended to occupy blocks of land about six miles square, with public buildings (a school, a church, a meeting house) at its center and farms around that. Within a block that size, every place is within reasonable ...Tibor Feheregyhazi, R.I.P.
Sad news from Saskatoon: Tibor Feheregyhazi, artistic director of Persephone Theatre, has died.I worked with Tibor twice, in the summer of 2000 on Tent Meeting at the Station Arts Centre in Rosthern, then later that same year at Persephone, when he cast me in Who Has Seen the Wind? He was a wonderful director and someone I enjoyed just sitting and talking with, too. Lord knows I learned more about Hungary than I'd ever known before...It's a great pity he didn't live long enough to see Persephone's new theatre completed later this year: it was something he campaigned for a long time.Rest in peace, Tibor.My condolences to all his friends and ...Photo of the Day: Thundercloud
More photos here.Return of the Photo of the Day: Regina Sunset
More photos here.Signing in Saskatoon
So here I am at the Saskatoon Inn, due to go down in a couple of hours and take part in an Author Signing Coffee House as part of the Saskatchewan School Library Association Conference getting underway here, along with lots of other Saskatchewan writers: Rebecca Grambo, Byrna Barclay, Dave Glaze, Linda Aksomitis, Rod MacIntyre, Glenda Goertzen, Dianne Young, Larry Warwaruk, Carla Braidek, Ruth Millar, Deana Driver, Glen Sorestad, Berniece and Bernie Christenson, Bill Waiser, Lloyd Ratzlaff, Doug Johnson and Lynda Monahan, to be preciese.McNally Robinson is providing the books to be signed, which presumably means I'll be signing A Safe and Prosperous Future and Lost in Translation, since I don't think they have anything else ...A review of the filmed-in-Saskatchewan Tideland
Here's the first review I've seen of Terry Gillam's Tideland, shot in Saskatchewan (as you can see in the photo that accompanies the article, which was clearly taken in the Qu'Appelle Valley). In fact, a great deal of it was shot across the street from the condo we lived in until last October, at the Canada-Saskatchewan Production Studios.Here's the opening paragraph of the review. I'm not entirely sure the reviewer cared for the movie:The newest Terry Gilliam movie is best described as nightmarish. With no particular point, the end of the film evokes relief and embarrassment, as if you have just finished witnessing Gilliam pass an enormous kidney stone. One feels the urge to ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
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
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel 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….
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).
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.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” 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.
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.
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