Real Indian

Something happened today, something cool First some background.

Many, many years ago, when a Canadian aboriginal woman married someone outside of her band, whether this man was European or Metis, she would lose her status as an aboriginal. She would, officially, no longer be considered an Indian. And neither would any of her descendants. Conversely, if an aboriginal man married a woman who wasn't native, he never lost any of his status. And neither would his descendants. This denial of rights was only applied to women.

My grandmother was one of those women. She married a man who wasn't part of her band, who didn't have treaty status, although the amount of native blood in him was pretty high. But she lost her status, she lost any benefits she might have gained from that status. So her children were never considered status natives and neither were their children. Although many of my relatives suffered discrimination and racism because of their outward appearance.

However, only many years ago, a suit was launched to reverse this discrimination. And the women won. They were given their status back and so were some of their descendants. Only one generation aftewards. So my grandmother got her status back. Officially, she was a real Indian. And my father, once he decided to apply, got his. He was now a real Indian too.

In late Fall 2011, the Canadian government passed Bill C-3, which further improved the situation. Another generation was added to the mix. Even though my father married a French Canadian, it was possible that I might get treaty status. In truth, I didn't really need status because in my heart, I was an aboriginal person. My story as a native Canadian was as valid as any others. But I applied anyway. Just to see if I could. I thought I wouldn't because of my mother but if it was my grandfather who married a European woman instead of my grandmother, I would already have status, regardless of who my father married. So I had a chance.

And it turned out, I did qualify. A letter arrived in the mail today telling me that I had official treaty status; that according the Canadian government, I was a real Indian. Like I said, I've never needed official proof to accept myself as an aboriginal person, but it was real nice to get the letter. And soon, a treaty card. I still have to apply to my father's band, The Norway House Cree Nation, to be accepted as a member of the band. And I will because that is where my people come from.

In the end nothing will change, if Norway House accepts me. Except my bio. Instead of saying I'm just an aboriginal writer, it will be more specific, saying I'm a member of the Norway House Cree Nation. Which is really neat considering all the crap my grandmother had to go through.

ARC Award video interview

As part of being shortlisted for the Alberta Readers Choice Award, I was interviewed by Jocelyn Brown. I thought this interview was going to be cut down to about three minutes but they put the whole thing online. So here it is, me talking about Fall From Grace and my character Leo. Please note the Edmonton Public Library shirt I'm wearing. It was my attempt to pay homage to the sponsor of the ARC Award.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od6VmOAaQrQ&feature=player_embedded

 If you want to vote for Fall From Grace to win, then just go here. Won't take any time at all.

http://www.epl.ca/alberta-readers-choice

A Killing Winter reviews, plus vote for me.

Hey, it's been almost a month since A Killing Winter has come out and many of the reviews are in. The concensus, don't just take it from me but see the links below, is that it's really, really good. And you should read it. Here are the links:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/wayne-arthurson/killing-winter/#review
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7653-2418-4
http://www.thespec.com/whatson/article/712965--strong-stories-in-debut-novels-old-friends

Also, the previous novel in the Leo Desroches series, Fall From Grace, is shortlisted for the Alberta Readers' Choice Award. It's the biggest literary award in Alberta. And you can vote for the book. Go to
http://www.epl.ca/alberta-readers-choice

I'll also be in Calgary on May 25 at Pages Kensington at 7:30.

A Killing Winter is Coming. Or has it arrived already

Yes folks, I'm finally back because the second novel in my Leo Desroches series, A Killing Winter, came out April 10. On that day I was in Phoenix at the Poisoned Pen, talking to folks about the book, my life and why my new band is named Beerbelly. The next day I was in San Diego at Mysterious Galaxy doing the same thing. It was nice to head to some great stores that support crime writers, especially relatively unknowns such as myself.

As for A Killing Winter, reviews have been great. Three of the major review publications in the US have said great things about the book. Below are links to these reviews, except the one from the Library Journal, which isn't online yet. But they still said nice things calling it a "fast-paced, action-packed sequel to Arthurson's notable debut, Fall from Grace". They even ran a pull quote from the book in the magazine, which is cool.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/wayne-arthurson/killing-winter/#review

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7653-2418-4

And when I was on my US trip, something really exciting happened. Fall From Grace, the first book in the series, was shortlisted for the $10,000 Alberta Readers Choice Award. I've got some major competition but they are all great writers who have written some great books, so it's fantastic to be included in this group. Here's more info on the shortlist announcement.

http://www.epl.ca/alberta-readers-choice

Okay, I'll work hard to update this more often but I have a major writing project due at the end of April plus the local launch for A Killing Winter to work on. Gotta pay the bills you know.

If you live in Edmonton and wish to attend the launch, here's the link for that. Please note that while Audrey's Books is the bookseller, the event takes place at the Artery.

http://www.audreys.ca/Arthurson%20and%20MacDonald%20email.pdf

Beerbelly Live March 2

As the regular followers of my blog know, I'm a drummer. I've been playing regularly in rock bands in Edmonton since 1993. I recall five bands in total. For the past six months, I'm back with some of the members of the band I played with for the longest time: The Ways. I backstopped The Ways for about 10 years. But the busy parts of life put us on hiatus for about a year and then we just decided to quit. The bass player and I formed another band with another guitarist, but that lasted only a few months, no gigs at all.

But then one of the guitarist from The Ways changed jobs and he had more time on his hand. He wanted to play. We formed up again, a three piece this time. We practiced for about three months, rehashing and rearranging old songs, writing new ones. Because of my connections in the local music industry, I got us a gig. We had no name but a gig.

We spent weeks coming up with ideas. I went for some literary themes, The John Updikes, The Gore Vidals, The Salmon Rushdies (yes spelled like the fish). All were rejected. Other names included the Wastrels, the Winsomes, the list went on. All rejected.

Finally, over beers after a solid band practice, we started throwing out names related to what we were doing and who we were. We're all in our 40s, we all don't have the same physique we had when we were younger. But we still liked to rock.

And thus Beerbelly was formed. We had to think about it for a few days but it grew on us (yes that's kind of a pun). We passed the name around to friends although our wives weren't that impressed but they understand it's our band, not theirs. Other folks like it. We confirmed it and told the promoter. He liked it. The poster designed to promote the show, clinched it. Beerbelly is an awesome band name; the visual potential is endless, although familiar at the same time.

So all you followers of this blog and of the Torforge authors twitter feed, check out the poster. Tell me what you think. Watch the name in the future. And if you're in Edmonton on March 2, come on down. Show us your Beerbelly.

http://www.starliteroom.ca/show.php?id=2384

The Big Bad, Part 2: Reviews That Suck

Something happened yesterday which reminds me that the way I deal with bad reviews kind of works. I'm loathe to mention any bad reviews about my work but there was one written about my novel, Fall From Grace. I read the first line and based on that, I didn't continue. Some of my friends read the rest of it and said I was smart to stop. It was mean, they said. Almost personal. Those comments almost enticed me to read the rest of this review, but I held back. I let out my annoyance in private, took a deep breath and then figured out on my response.

I had the e-mail address of the editor of the publication in which this bad review appeared. I had fed him a tip on a story and he had also quoted me a couple times for other pieces. I wanted him to know that I was aware of the bad review but I didn't want to create a scene and burn a bridge. So I sent him an e-mail with the subject line: Angry Writer responds to review. I knew when he saw that he would shake his head and think "Fuck". He didn't write the review but he did put it in his publication. But I also knew he wouldn't erase the e-mail; he's the kind of editor who would read it no matter how angry and mean the response would be.

It really helped that the bad review appeared on April 1, so when actually read the text of the e-mail the first two words were: "April Fools." The rest of the e-mail was short, only asking if he was still interested in doing some kind of profile on me, but also saying that I wasn't angry about the review because bad reviews happen. I've written them myself. And that was it. No admonishments, no complaints that the reviewer didn't understand my book, no anger.

The editor's responded in two ways: first, he tweeted to his thousands of followers that my reaction to the review was one of the classiest things he'd seen in a long time. And second, when I contacted him this week and asked to be the Guest Editor for his books section around the time my next book, A Killing Winter, comes out, he immediately said yes. The Guest Editor gig is for one week. I write four stories about me, my books, etc. for a major national publication. Every day they run my piece, they run an image of the cover of my book and a short description of it, and of me. That's some great free, wide-reaching publicity that will sell a bunch of books.

And the best part is that I might even get paid for it.

Getting to Know Me

Okay, if you really want to know me, this post from the Vancouver International Writers Festival, explains it all. I hope this satisfy you.

http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/blog/tavia/getting-know-wayne-arthurson