Bill Engleson's Blog, page 10

My first book launch…and upcoming book faire

On a recent stormy Saturday, I had my first book launch at Abraxas Books.  The wind and the rain were a prelude to a more substantial storm the next day, Sunday, September 29th. This next storm knocked out power on Denman and elsewhere for a number of hours.  Timing is everything, I suppose.

I so enjoyed the book launch. At least 30+ people came by and many stopped to buy a copy of Like a Child to Home.  K____ had already bought a copy, had read it and was planning to re-read it soon.  She said she had skipped over a couple of sections because of the emotions (my word) they evoked for her.

I will have my first Lower Mainland exposure on November 9 at the Raindance Book Festival for Self-Published Authors.  Among the sponsors for this exciting event are Black Bond Books and Frontier College.

MCFD- asleep at the wheel again

Katie Hyslop, writing in the September 17 edition of Tyee Solutions, The Hook, has captured the truly inept and sluggish rate of change that festers  in MCFD regarding the inter-provincial placement of kids in care (not that lots of other issues aren`t festering there as well.) The Children’s Commissioners just released report, Out Of Sight: How One Aboriginal Child`s Best Interest Were Lost Between Two Provinces, tells a damning tale of bureaucratic paralysis.

In a same day radio interview on the Simi Sara show, she strongly suggested that an unwillingness for MCFD to spend money to send BC Social Workers out of province to assess prospective homes was also a factor.

Child Welfare can be a costly venture.  We need to adequately fund children’s services. Governments of all stripes seem to want to shortchange kids at risk. This includes, though the Commissioner doesn’t mention it in this report, adequate back-filling of temporarily or permanently vacant social work positions.

Social work is a labour-intensive activity. It requires sufficient personnel to give each case enough time. You would think they would know that by now.

A very commendable step by VIU

Post secondary education is often an unreachable dream for youth in care.   In the US of A, only 3 out of 100 kids who were in state care access a post-secondary institution.

Whatever the statistics are in BC, one University, VIU,  has taken a bold exploratory step  to increase access to their university by former kids in some form of state care.

Political will…or won’t

Without lamenting the results of the recent BC provincial election (and there has been much melancholia about it expressed in some circles) a non-factor in the election was the issue of child welfare. It barely entered the public discourse list of issues important enough to mention by anyone seeking office.

In a May 9 2013 pre-election article in the Tyee, Kate Hodgson, the Executive Director of Vancouver’s Network of Inner City Support Services told Pieta Woolley that she thought that “…child protection has not been addressed in this election because of how completely broken this system really is. “

The non-event nature of child welfare as an issue of import is reasonably evident from a retrospective view of the policy statements of the two major contenders. The Liberal Party’s Strong Economy Secure Tomorrow says nothing about the needs of our child welfare system. The NDP’s Change for the Better Practical Steps does promise to increase the number of front line child welfare staff which was a hopeful sign; easy to say, and certainly welcome, but not really a compelling indication that the NDP believes the “system” needs scrutiny. The NDP also promised to continue the devolution of children and family services to First Nations. While this trend may still be an appropriate course, neither party seems to have articulated the wisdom to more closely, and critically, examine this public policy initiative.

What do we mean when we say our system of child protection is broken?   Perhaps that should be the question posed for debate. As with many issues, everyone can be an “expert” when it comes to child protection; at least, everyone who cares to be. It really is much more comfortable to abstain from commentary. It’s really someone elses problem, anyway.

For those who think otherwise, Pieta Woolley’s series serves to prime the pump of needed discourse on our almost invisible world of child welfare.

Pieta Woolley’s articles on the BC Child Welfare “system”

Some months ago, I began reading a series of excellent articles about the B.C. Child Welfare system written by journalist Pieta Woolley for Tyee Solutions.

Collectively, these articles are a damning indictment of a system (system erroneously suggests that something is working- some things in the B C Child Welfare system may be bumping along nicely, but much isn’t.)

Beyond the indictment, the articles, some brief, others fuller, also draw to the attention of anyone who is paying heed (and there are never enough of us doing so) that the children who are part of the BC Child Welfare system continue to need our involvement, political, emotional and, ultimately, practical.

Pieta Woolley’s series on the BC Child Welfare “system”

Some months ago, I began reading a series of excellent articles about the B.C. Child Welfare system written by journalist Pieta Woolley for Tyee Solutions.

Collectively, these articles are a damning indictment of a system (system erroneously suggests that something is working- some things in the B C Child Welfare system may be bumping along nicely, but much isn’t.)

Beyond the indictment, the articles, some brief, others fuller, also draw to the attention of anyone who is paying heed (and there are never enough of us doing so) that the children who are part of the BC Child Welfare system continue to need our involvement, political, emotional and, ultimately, practical.

I will be highlighting these articles in the next while as time permits.  

It’s the smaller moments, I’m finding.

As a first-time novelist, one, I should not hesitate to add, who has published a first book a few decades later than I had originally thought I might, I am finding it is the smaller moments  that are the most heart-warming.

Part of my activity since Like a Child to Home arrived in the mail two weeks ago has been to promote it here and there, hither and yon, pretty much everywhere I can, without going to far. Living on a small Island and mostly content to stay here, much of my promotional action has been in the cyber world. Even then, I am slow to use a number of the e-tools which are available, yet somewhat remote to me. Still, I have made contact with many old friends and acquaintances and spreading the news of the novel.

Today, two pleasant things happened. A cousin e-mailed me and said of my novel, “ It held my interest and I was keen each time to get back to it. I had to keep telling myself that this is not Bill but the voice sounded like yours.”

That she could read my novel and clearly know that my voice and the main character were meant to be one, that I had honestly tried to do that, was rewarding.

The other pleasant thing to happen was to wander into our General Store and to be asked to autograph a copy of my book, bought as a gift to be given to a loved one. It was a delightful moment for me. It was also evident that I needed to improve my approach to book signing. I am much too casual and careless.

 

 

Some books can wear on you….

Jori Phillips was a delight to behold at the recent Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival. Her dress of many pages was inspired. Apparently she has received some criticism for recycling the old thesaurus. She does not deserve that at all. Most books, and especially paperbacks, have a limited shelf life. She sensitively and artistically chose a book that had seen much use and was in fact a reference book whose time had come. She was able to offer it service in a marvelous new means of expression. Could a pocket book ask for a better, more respectful transition? I think not.

Here is a recent link featuring Jori and her “bookworm” dress :

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=975244&binId=1.1184694&playlistPageNum=1

Reprehensible story of starvation and experimentation…

The emerging story of the starvation of first nations children years ago is abhorrent. The story in the Times Colonist deserves , at the least, comment of outrage from as many sources as possible.

In the Sunday July 21st edition of the paper, my disgust was registered.

My first reading of Like a Child to Home…and other 3rd day events

It was a busy day. My personal highlight was the local writers reading, late in the afternoon, in the cool, breeze-wafted venue of the Seniors gym, a comfortable space draped in an honour guard of hanging quilts, cushioned by silk  sky-covers and a very receptive audience. There were 5 local writers reading this day: The lead-off writer, Lucy Dabbs, young, creative and fearless; Jane Masutani, amazingly funny and self-effacing, Lindsay Langdale Graf, new to me but a strong and original voice and Jennifer Lee, a beautifully precise and poignant poet.

After a complimentary introduction by Juan Barker from Abraxas Books, I come to the podium and delay my reading from Like a Child to Home  a moment or so to read a small poem, Three Sheep Walking, to lighten the mood. I then read a selected passage from the first part of Chapter 4 of the book. It is a description of an office visit between social worker Wally Rose, one of his teenage wards and a friend of the ward. The reading lasts about 12 minutes, the prescribed time, and seems over almost before I begin. The piece go well; it ends at a provocative point with some in the audience, I am told, seeking more, I am told.

As I read from a printout of the chapter, I am painfully amused that my boxes of novel are in the Purolator  depot in Nanaimo, my home town, 80 kilometers away. So close…

The day was also full of wonderful music, a workshop and a few moments of quiet, here and there.