Some of us in our pre-Berwick days have published papers for or through work or published cookbooks as fundraisers. Yours truly, Chris Neeter, produced two such cookbooks and wrote artist articles for three magazines. She said, “I can only respect and admire those who have published their books.”
All three authors stressed that although sometimes the writing just flowed, the overall process from start to finish took years. Resident Denni Belanger, who runs the library, was approached by Active Living to feature the three resident authors’ books and proceeded to add them to our library shelves.
Linda Diver
Linda Diver is the author of The Irish Affair. She has written short stories and poetry and is the holder of the Pacific Region Arts Council 1st place award 2006. Before she started writing poetry and fiction, her public relations work morphed into managing special events in Europe and Asia. She is a member of the Federation of BC Writers. She said she was always intrigued by her father’s history of being in Naval Intelligence in Scotland. He saw the war coming and bought a hotel in Ireland, moved his wife and kids there while he stayed. Linda’s mother, a French speaking concert pianist had to learn to run the hotel on her own. She said, “It took three years from start to finish to complete the book and I found the research quite engrossing.” She said there are no more books planned.
Ulla Hakanson
Ulla grew up in Umeå, Sweden. She worked as a draftsperson in Stockholm, creating special drawings for the Royal Institute of Technology. After moving to Toronto, Canada, she studied Commercial Art at George Brown College and opened her graphic design business. She said that her move toward writing was gradual. A trip to Northern BC inspired her to write, but she realized she needed more than just a travelogue, which led to the creation of suspense stories. It took her five years to write and edit each of the two books.
David Lord
David was born in England and grew up in bombed-out London, studied at Durham University and became an educator. From an early age, David was fascinated by the world’s unsolved mysteries. In his self-published Gathering Green novels, David’s imagination explores hidden influences as they might play out in everyday lives. His work is influenced by interests in mythology, archaeology, religions, folklore and popular science. He said he started with the idea of two books, related to the seven stages of Man. The two became five in the series. He said he is currently working on two stand-alone books, that are similar in genre but the scenes are different.