About Writing Forestry A-Z
Writing is a lonely business, especially
if you live in a small town, as I do. I met Kathleen Cook -Waldron
through the Writers’ Union of Canada and we became friends. We thought
that if we wrote a book together we would have an excuse to see each
other more often (Kathleen and I both live in small towns, but not the
same small town. Our homes are about 130 km apart.)
The idea of an alphabet book about
forestry appealed to us. It is one of Canada’s largest industries, and
both Kathleen and I live in forestry towns, We both had friends who
worked in the industry, and the ‘letter by letter’ format of an ABC book
was something we felt we could work on individually, then meet once a
week to compare our results.
We began meeting at a restaurant half
way between our homes, on the shores of Lac La Hache. The staff at
Clancy’s were very good to us, allowing us to linger over our French
waffles in a quiet back corner and work. We tried not to interrupt the
other diners, but occasionally we did produce shouts of “I’ve got K” or
“Yes! That’s perfect for Z.” We didn’t always meet once a week; real
life interferes with writing and sometimes it was months before we got
back to the book. But we never gave up.
Many people helped us, from giving
initial input to proof reading the final drafts. We had horse loggers,
water loggers, saw operators, tree planters, ecologists and many more
who gave of their time to help this book become a reality.
We hope you enjoy it. It took years and
many French waffles to complete the text, and then many more years to
find a publisher who felt it was a worthwhile project. Luckily Orca
shared our vision; Forestry A-Z became a reality in the Spring of 2008. |