Drop by to learn more about author Joan Soggie and her books Prairie Grass and Rikka.
Welcome to Joan Soggie, a fellow BWL Author! Joan writes some fabulous stories of the Canadian Prairies where she lives. I look forward to learning more about her!
I live and writein a small Saskatchewan town, set beside a lake that was a river, surrounded byfields of canola that once were a buffalo plain. My lifelong curiosity has ledme to explore the natural history of the land as well as the centuries-longrelationship between the land and the First Nations, and my own family’ssettler history. The multifaceted beauty of the prairie and its convolutedhistory is a continual source of inspiration.
My firstfull-length book was Looking for Aiktow, a non-fiction regional historyfocusing on pre-settlement times. The restrictions of footnotes and citationsdrove me to seek another way of telling the land’s story. Historical fiction was the natural choice.
The resultingnovels, Prairie Grass and Rikka, are firmly rooted in time andplace.
http://bwlpublishing.ca/soggie-joan/#content-content-inner
http://www.facebook.com/lookingforaiktow
http://saskjoan.wixsite.com/looking-for-aiktow
How many hours aday do you write?
I would love tosay I write every day, and maybe I do, but often it is just emails or notes ora haiku. Life gets in the way. When I work on a project, I tend to lose trackof time. My workspace is a studio in thegarage and sometimes my husband will phone me from his recliner in the house, adozen yards away, to remind me that we must eat. Thankfully we are both retiredand have few urgent commitments.
How do you choosewhich stories you will write?
It often feels asthough the stories choose me. An idea might come from a strange circumstance orsomething I have just read coinciding with a glimpsed photograph, or an anecdotetold by an acquaintance. An idea grabs me and will not let go. Sometimes thepoint of the story does not become clear to me until I have worked my way into thenarrative. I have several partly finished pieces that are still waiting forthat “Aha!” moment, which may or may not ever come!
What is the mostdifficult part of your artistic process?
Waiting for that“Aha!” is no doubt the most difficult part of the process for me. It seems tome that the subconscious must do a lot of the creative work, and I am not surehow much good it does to keep slogging away at something until that part hascaught up. Sometimes it seems best to just wait, and go to work on somethingelse, something that requires attention and careful research but does notdemand much imagination. Or just go for a long walk.
Five years fromnow, where do you see yourself as a writer?
Five years fromnow I will be 86, and my husband will be well into his 90s. That is just fact. Agedoes not define us. And yet, I recognise that age imposes limitations. If I amable, I will still be writing short stories and poems, as they seem more manageablethan full-length novel. I plan to continue doing what I am doing as long aspossible. There are so many stories to tell, so many ideas to explore, so manyreaders to meet!
How manyunpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Right now, I haveone partly finished book that may or may not find its way to a conclusion. Ihave a plethora of unpublished stories, some of which I plan to eventuallycompile into a book as many of them seem to fall under one recurring theme.
Was there a personwho encouraged you to write?
Doesn’t everyoneneed someone to believe in her, make her feel it is possible to do what shedreams of doing? I have been fortunate to have had several wonderful encouragers.The first were, naturally, my parents, who instilled in me a love of goodstories and a deep respect for the truth embodied in them. A few good teachers gaveme help. There were decades (!) however when I showed no writing to anyone andtherefore got no encouragement. That was a big mistake. When I finallysubmitted something to a magazine, it was a huge boost to have it published.Nowadays, my dear husband lets me read aloud to him anything I want to analyze,and some precious friends still read whatever I send them and comment on it. Andmy own children and grandchildren give me feedback! What a lucky old duck I am!
Merry Christmas toall and special blessings on the encouragers!
Prairie Grass takes the reader on an adventure that spans two centuries of Western history and travels the length of the Great Plains.
Gabby Mackenzie knows little and cares less about prairie people or their history. She sees her assignment to interview a hundred-year-old settler as nothing more than a bump in her hazy career path. But as she gets to know old Mr. Tollerud, she finds herself drawn into the interwoven stories of the settlers, the Metis, the First Nations who came before them, and the land that binds them all together. And her own life changes.
https://books2read.com/Prairie-Grass
Rikka is based on the true story of one of Western Canada’s female immigrant pioneers.
“Rikka remembered her teacher’s words. Spirit needs muscle.
Not only muscle of flesh and bone, she thought, but the muscle of a spirit inured to hardship and suffering. Surely, we have had enough of that to make us strong!”
Rikka’s journey takes her across an ocean, a continent, and a lifetime. She plumbs the depths of her own heart and discovers the beauty of life beyond grit and endurance.
