Bill Stenson . . . means well - Blogging thoughts of Bill Stenson

March 21st, 2024

3/21/2024

After being away on holidays for six weeks I came back to B.C. to find that the provincial government has made an apology and some compensation to the Doukhobor members of our community. Kudos to the current government for doing so, as many previous regimes balked at the notion This is more than twenty years in the making and too late for many who suffered.

A Nourishing Halloween

11/1/2023

Yum!

For the second year in a row we gave out more than 100 treats on Halloween, but also more than 100 books. Some kids actually took a book and didn't bother with the treats. My wife, Susan's version of a nourishing Halloween.

Where It All Begins

4/26/2022

Now this is a peaceful scene! I've noticed a strong correlation between readers and critical thinkers. Grandson Lennox is off to a good start. It will be a few years before he knows to thank his mom, so I will. Thanks, Mom.

Gabriola Presentation

3/11/2022

Bill Stenson will present a workshop on Building Character in fiction on April 8th on Gabriola Island's festival: Isle of the Arts. Bill Gaston will be presenting a workshop there too! Should be fun.

https://artsfest.artsgabriola.ca/workshops/artsfest.artsgabriola.ca/workshops/

A Guest On Gail's Site

9/27/2021

Recently, Gail Anderson Dargatz suggested I write a short article on story structure for her site. I felt honoured.

Gail has thrilled readers and been an inspiration to so many writers in Canada and beyond that her accomplishments are rarely a secret these days. If, by chance, you haven't been "Dargatzed" then you are lucky in that you have a pleasant and enchanting journey ahead of you. Until you have read A Cure For Death By Lightning and experienced Filthy Billy, you haven't lived. Live a little.

VISIT GAIL'S SITE HERE: www.gailanderson-dargatz.ca/cms/index.php/resources-for-writers/on-developing-conflict-and-structure

Wishful Thinking

9/11/2021

The following is wishful thinking. Only wishful thinking!

Character Study: Half Brothers September 8, 2021

The Literary Press Group teamed up with author Bill Stenson to dream up a film adaptation of his new novella Half Brothers (Mother Tongue Publishing)—contained in his new book of stories—about the lives of two brothers left unchanneled by parental review. Read on for more about the book and our casting choices, including none other than the brilliant Frances McDormand.

See more details below Tagged: half brothers, character study, mother tongue publishing, bill stenson

Our Character Study column takes the CanLit books you love and re-imagines them as Hollywood movies
DIRECTED by Lasse Hallstrom of Chocolat and What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

CAST
ENNIS FERGUSON is played by COLM MEANEY (The Commitments, There's Always Hope) Colm fits the Irish heritage, the potential for meanness and solipsistic behaviour. No one is better suited.

DORA FERGUSON is played by FRANCES MCDORMAND (Nomadland, Three Billboards) Frances McDormand can play vulnerable, but knows when to call the shots.

DERMOT FERGUSON is played by DANIEL RADCLIFFE (Harry Potter, Beast of Burden) Daniel does well with playing Dermot, a young man who has been raised to think of himself first. Tough with a transparent shell.

WILL SPOONER is played by FREDDIE HIGHMORE (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Good Doctor). Freddie brings his maturing innocence to the screen. Will's character is mostly that of a vulnerable young half brother who through his own devices matures into a self-sufficient, mostly objective soul.

TONY HEDGEWATER is played by CHRISTOPHER GUEST (Best in Show) No actor can rattle on in his own world with little consideration for those around him like Christopher Guest. He makes you stand back and watch.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Half Brothers is a masterly and unsentimental novella about the lives of two brothers left unchanneled by parental review. One brother is tough and likes to fight, the other does not. One is the father’s favourite and the other hides when he can. But in an extraordinary reversal of roles, and as the years pass, readers ultimately learn which one has the true grit.

Half Brothers Arrives

8/10/2021

The novella and short story collection, Half Brothers, has arrived. Initially this book was to be published in April, then put off until October but has surfaced and now making its way to bookstores. The best bookstores, anyway. Local bookstores, along with libraries, are the pipeline for Canadian literature and deserve our support whenever possible.

A deserving alternative is Mother Tongue's website, where books can be ordered and shipped with no extra cost in North America. Thank you Mother Tongue.

http://www.mothertonguepublishing.com/shop/?store-page=Half-Brothers-and-Other-Stories-a-novella-and-four-fictions-p297588028

My wish for all writers is that once, even just one time, they are fortunate enough to work with Mother Tongue Publishing. Delightful.

New Book Coming Soon

2/17/2021

Coming to a quality bookstore near you, as they say, will be Half Brothers, a novella and short story collection, all set in the Cowichan Valley. Originally planned for April, now delayed for Covid reasons, until October. Everybody hopes by then a traditional launch might be possible. I'm so excited. Stay safe.

Details HERE

Book Exchange

9/18/2020

It's been a year since we launched our Book Exchange outside our house. "We" includes my wife Susan who inspired the idea and maintains the exchange weekly. It's been a great success and very much welcomed into the community.

Shortly after the birth of our book exchange, I experienced a true Norman Rockwell moment. I was looking out at the book exchange from the front window of our house and the area at the bottom I could see through to the street. On the other side stood a young patron. I had no idea of male or female at first, but it turned out to be a boy. He had the door open and was busy picking through the books and all I could see were his running shoes below, untied, and a yellow rope tethered to the small dog he was walking down the street. The yellow rope with the dog tied to the end was eager to continue down the street, but the patron needed more time. This went on for several minutes and the yellow rope was tight the whole time. There are times you wish you were a painter!

Prairie Fire Review

12/31/2019

Ordinary Strangers by Bill StensonDECEMBER 19, 2019

‘Ordinary’ and ‘strangers’ are two words that seem contradictory. Yet they fit in this fine book by Bill Stenson, author of Svoboda and Hanne and Her Brothers among others.
Sage and Della Howard are a couple on their way to Fernie, BC. After a brief stop in Hope where they lose their dog, they pick up a little girl in the woods who is alone and crying. They take her with them, placing her in the back seat of the car. This is no ordinary act but both accept the find and continue their journey. Settling in Fernie, they name the girl Stacey. Sage goes to the coal mine he’d applied to work for and Della stays home to care for the young one.
In time they meet their neighbours, Molly and Hart Ferguson, who later become friends, sympathetic and kind. This all seems idyllic. Even the book cover displays an inviting image of a place, calm and peaceful looking, where people could live in relative harmony. But it is not long before we discover that Sage has a temper, that he is deceitful and unfaithful. Even he admits that “he had holes in his moral fiber” (55). What he does when frustrated also gives us pause and begs the question what would we do in such a situation?
As time passes, Della sets up a daycare in her home, wanting to earn extra to supplement the household income and also to give Stacey a chance to make friends. But Stacey does not find a true friend she can confide in until she meets Amber when she is in school and they become lifelong friends. Later, there is also a strong attachment to her Aunt Sadie, Della’s sister, different from her relationship with her mother.
For now, Stacey is a little stranger in Della and Sage’s midst. They’re not too sure what to make of her, or sometimes what to do. Eventually things work out by trial and error. During this time and a long time after, Della worries that someone will discover what she and Sage did. She keeps a journal, writing down every thought and event to ease her conscience regarding the taking of the girl whom she now sees as her own.
Humour adds balance to the story in which could have been an otherwise heavy read. Sage gives Molly a nickname—Molly the Nose—because she wants to know everything. When the family takes Sadie on a drive to the mountains, the conversation turns to politics and Sadie mentions that “people always buy staples and scandal” (135). Then Della asks why would people need to buy staples, mistaking the meaning. And Hart brings lightheartedness with his interest in the Old West and his dreams for his own version of Fort Whoop. It is these and other gems that provide chuckles and we come to recognize the ordinariness of the characters as our own.
There are disturbing scenes in the book as times goes on; they upset the household and change the course the family is on. Yet the strangers who make up this family are able to forgive; they remain loyal. In one instance Stacey wants to avoid “the temptation to pick away at the scab of regret” as she ponders what to do regarding her bond with Sage (268).
Stenson’s story flows and his observations of the ordinariness of people are keen and revelatory. The story raises the question whether we really know one another and what it takes—sacrifice, loving, looking, listening and patience—to discover that the ordinary can become the extraordinary with the acceptance of our flaws, and that we are not strangers after all.
Ordinary Strangers
by Bill Stenson
Mother Tongue Publishing
Salt Spring Island BC, c.2018, 274 pp., #23.95
ISBN 978-1-806949-70-3 (softcover)

Mary Barnes is a writer living in Wasaga Beach, Ontario.

Photo from r.nial.bradshaw