Before I was a writer, I was a reader ,
I grew up on a prairie farm in the days before internet or television. Books naturally became my gateway to other worlds. My parents were booklovers, and in those far-off pre-television days, evenings were often spent reading or being read to. Christmases and birthdays always brought at least one new book. A Tale of Two Cities. Jane Eyre. Call of the Wild. I will never forget the thrill of experiencing, through fictional characters, life in another time, another place.
But the prairie itself was also a major player in my life. Any child growing up on a 1940s-1950s Saskatchewan farm lived most of her life outside, keenly aware of the changing seasons and the wild creatures that shared her world. Curiosity about the unknown history of the land my grandparents homesteaded followed me around like a hungry dog.
A few years at university awoke a taste for research that, combined with my love of books, led inevitably to work in libraries. After I met and married my first (and only) husband, I continued to work in libraries, in between time devoted to our farm and raising four children. Writing time dwindled but curiosity about the land and its history grew. Whenever possible I scoured library archives or second-hand bookstores for books by or about early visitors to western Canada. My first published writings were short stories gleaned from that neglected history.
Because of my consuming interest in the natural and human history of the prairies, my writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, is grounded in the land. My genre is eco-historical, if there is such a thing.
Mistaseni: Buffalo Rock of the The Elbow, is nonfiction told as a mythical tale. Next came Looking for Aiktow, a regional history based on 19th and 20th century accounts.
Prairie Grass is my first historical novel. In a way, I have come full circle. By placing my characters in a landscape that I know and love but in a time I can only imagine, I have tried to write the book I wanted all my life to read.
Prairie Grass was published by BWL Publishing in January 2020. Most of the characters and some of the places are fictitious. All the history is true.
Follow this link to my author page on Books We Love http://bookswelove.net/fb/soggie-joan/
You can find me on my Facebook page Looking for Aiktow. Prairie Grass is available from Amazon, Kobo, Indigo and several Saskatchewan bookstores. https://books2read.com/Prairie-Grass
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