Two Powell River-area authors have books nominated for Whistler Independent Book Awards.
Finalist in the fiction category is CV (Cindy) Gauthier, who splits her time between Richmond and Okeover Inlet; she wrote Charlee LeBeau and the Gambler’s Promise. Finalist in the non-fiction category is Anna Byrne for Seven Year Summer. Winners will be announced during the Whistler Writers Festival, October 15 to 18.
Gauthier said her young adult historical novel appeals to all ages, age 10 and up.
“It’s a book I wrote based on something I would have loved to have read when I was about 13,” said Gauthier. “It features a strong female protagonist – a gutsy girl with grit. I really wanted to have a strong female lead character because that was something that was missing out of so many books that I read when I was younger. Often, the girls were stereotypical, and second to the boys. I wanted to create a character who was strong and independent and smart.”
She also wanted an historical setting, which creates a story line that deals with timeless themes without getting caught up with technology and modern day issues.
“The story, in a nutshell, is about a girl that lived with her dad, a ranch hand in California, and through a bunch of life incidents, she ends up having to go to San Francisco to live with her uncle,” said Gauthier. “He’s not exactly how he’s represented himself so she ends up having to fend for herself. This would have been about 1858, 1859. The story is about her survival and her determination to be independent and make her own way.”
Being an historical novel, Gauthier said she had to conduct research. She said she really wanted it to be true to the time, so any factor or location that would enter into it, the research would play into that.
The characters, however, are not based on anyone specific, so that’s where “you get to have some fun.”
Charlee LeBeau and the Gambler’s Promise is book one of a trilogy. Gauthier said when she set out to write the story, she had the story in mind, and it began in what is now the middle of the second book.
“I wrote the story from there and it got big on the one end and big on the other end and I thought this isn’t one book, it’s two books,” said Gauthier. “I finished the story and realized it’s not two books, it’s three.
“Book one starts in California, and book two starts there but comes to British Columbia. Most of the book is in BC, or on a schooner sailing to BC. The third book is between the two places.”
Gauthier started drafting the books in 2015. The book nominated for the Whistler award was published in November 2019. The final edit on the second book has been completed and Gauthier expects it to be published in November of this year. The third book is in draft form and she’s aiming to get it out in 2021.
Charlee LeBeau and the Gambler’s Promise is a self-published novel and is Gauthier’s first. She said she is a published writer, having written about education, which was her previous career. She worked for the Vancouver school system for 30 years.
“This is like a second career,” said Gauthier. “I’ve been writing as long as I can remember and I remember that I wrote a novella in grade 10.”
None of that gets published but it’s always been something she’s loved to do.
Gauthier’s book is available at the Powell River Public Library and sold locally at Pollen Sweaters in Lund. Her book is available electronically through Amazon, Indigo and other distribution services.
Byrne’s self-published book is a side-by-side story of her seven-year cancer journey, and the other half tells the story of the first hospice client she had as a hospice volunteer in Powell River.
“It goes back and forth between the two stories,” said Byrne.
She said it was a difficult book to write because it’s so personal.
“There were lots of moments where I took pause as to what I was writing, but you have to tell the truth when you are writing a memoir,” she added. “I did that.”
She started writing the book in the summer of 2016, when her client was dying, and it took her a full three years between that and independently publishing. Seven Year Summer was published in 2019.
While Byrne has always done a lot of writing, this is the first book she has written.
“For me, part of the process was doing it for my own reflection and my own integrating of such prolonged and intense experiences,” said Byrne, “and writing has been my go-to for that.”
Byrne said she tried to be disciplined in her writing, although there were times, as coordinator of the hospice society, that she had to attend to those responsibilities. During the editing process, it required her to stick with it to get it done. She participated in the editing process, and also sent the story to a couple of key people who had gone through the cancer journey with her to make sure the facts were straight. She also had local editor Sandra Tonn finalize the edit.
Byrne said she is proud of her book because it is “very personal work.”
“One of my goals with the book was to make my personal experience touch on some universal themes, and so I think that’s what people have really connected with,” said Byrne. “They are themes we can all identify with: illness, suffering, death, hope and joy.”
Byrne has been selling her book through her website, as well as on Amazon. She has conducted some readings at Powell River Public Library, including a book launch last December and she just did a webinar this past month.
Reaction to Seven Year Summer has been fulfilling. Byrne said she has received some very positive reviews on Amazon and a lot of it is the resonance people have with some aspect of the story.
“People have asked me if I wrote this as a guidebook for others and my answer was no,” said Byrne. “When I started, I felt compelled just to work through so many experiences that happened over that seven year period.
“When it was done, and I launched it, and began to get feedback, I started to realize that everyone has someone in their life who has gone through this and it has touched that part of people’s lives,” she added.
Byrne continues to write. Her next project is a book of short stories, which will be creative non-fiction, all around the theme of illness.
Byrne’s website can be found at annabyrne2.wixsite.com/mysite.
