I was at a friend’s house and we were talking about death and the statistical probability of heaven, all that deep stuff you talk about over tea on a cold winter’s day. I was thinking about all those viewings I had been to in my lifetime, how the faces of people in their coffins never quite look like they are just asleep. I couldn’t for the life of me fathom what it would be like to not exist.
Don Sedgwick has worked in the Canadian book and magazine industries for 35 years as a writer, editor, publisher, literary agent and educator. He is the Executive Director of the new MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of King’s College and also teaches in the university’s Master of Journalism program.
I met up with St. Hilaire to talk about the relationship between writers and their readers. We spoke broadly on the subject: authors in relation to the general public, to friends, to publishers, and even to reviewers. We also discussed the relationship specific to her own situation as a writer of erotic fiction.
This year I didn’t buy myself a Christmas tree. Instead I bought one for a friend who had a hard year and two kids and not a lot of time to get her own. She appreciated the thought, but time and circumstances conspired against her and the tree stayed wrapped up on the front porch until it was almost time for the trek to her family’s home out of town.
Michael Winter tells the story of an unorthodox wood cabin, an accidental forest fire, and sharing a moment with a girl in a bikini. He told his story live at This Really Happened at WordFest in Calgary on October 16, 2013.
