ArticlesIan Goodwillie
Ian Goodwillie is a freelance writer based in Saskatoon who covers a variety of topics, including literature, film, television, and video games, for different publications, both online and in print.
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FeaturesSagas with environmental undertones leave room for readers to fill in the blanks
Stories are a staple of all world cultures. They convey new ideas and older history. And such stories are at the core of Harold R. Johnson’s new novel, The Björkan Sagas. -
Young Adult/ChildrenNovel blends middle-school trials with time travel, alien attack
Award-winning writer, illustrator, and cartoonist Dave Whamond found a way to sort through the good times and the bad in his new graphic novel, Muddle School. It’s loosely based on his own experiences of going to a new school at that age. -
FictionWhat is a life well lived? Anthology seeks the answer
From the moment you are born, you never stop aging. But what does it mean to grow older? That conversation is at the core of the new anthology Seasons Between Us: Tales of Identities and Memories. Edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law, the collection attempts to answer the only question that really matters: What is a life well lived? -
Young Adult/ChildrenNelson stretches into two genres new to her with pair of releases
The best writers are always stretching themselves, looking for challenges. Some do this by trying different genres. After nine books of realistic fiction (and two of futuristic sci-fi) for middle years and YA readers, Winnipeg-based Colleen Nelson has, within a year, published books in two genres new to her – a picture book, Teaching Mrs. Muddle, and a YA fantasy novel, The Life and Deaths of Frankie D. -
FictionOut-running – or out-driving – responsibilities and the past for a sense of freedom
Audrey Cole loves to drive. Where she’s going and what she’s driving never really seem to matter to her, why she’s driving even less so. That exploration of freedom is at the core of Alberta author Andrew Wedderburn’s novel The Crash Palace. -
FictionCrime novel explores ‘how style and bombast trumps substance and truth’
Trying to build a fictitious story out of something horrible that happens all too often in real life can be challenging at best. Similar to Douglas Coupland’s 2003 novel, Hey Nostradamus!, the inciting incident in Brad Smith’s The Goliath Run is a fictional school shooting. But when Coupland wrote his book, school shootings were a much less frequent occurrence than they are these days. -
FictionHang out with Hendershot as he builds a life after hockey
A Canadian hockey player. A mysterious artist. An 83-year-old man chasing the IRA. These are the three characters brought together by Don Dickinson in Rag & Bone Man. Set in London, England, circa 1974, Rag & Bone Man follows Hendershot, a Saskatchewan athlete who travelled across the Atlantic Ocean to play hockey. -
FictionGripping crime tale features a love of cars and blue-collar protagonist
The car: In so many stories, in print, on TV, and in the theatres, it’s all about the car. -
FictionBuilding a novel through “unguarded conversation”
Eavesdropping. Polite society frowns upon it. Parents raise their kids to not listen in on other people’s conversations. What if a researcher challenged these accepted norms and used the power of eavesdropping in a project to collect these bits of other people’s lives to generate new data on public opinion?
