And, by the way, I didn't win. Nothing unusual.
SNOWMEN by MARK SEDORE
Charles Perth intends to be the first person to walk alone across the North Pole, bisecting the Arctic Circle between Canada and Russia. He leaves behind the woman he loves—knowing he can never see her again even if he makes it to the other side. During his journey, Charles is confronted by the extreme climate, dangerous predators and constant blinding summer sun of the Arctic, now permanently frozen due to a drastic global climate shift. Charles is also subject to the intentional malevolence of his unstable and resentful brother who, from thousands of kilometres away, has the resources and knowledge to make the solo expedition difficult, or even deadly. If Charles is to succeed—or survive—he must overcome exhaustion, starvation, sabotage and despair, and find in himself the strength and will to beat his brother at his own game.
Snowmen will be released by 3-Day Books in August 2010, and will be distributed by Arsenal Pulp Press (via Consortium in the U.S. and Jaguar in Canada). ISBN 978-1-55152-366-8, $14.95 CAD/USD, 5×7.25″ quality paperback, 176 pp.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Sedore, winner of the 32nd Annual International 3-Day Novel Contest, is a professional writer and graduate student living in Toronto. His previous entries to the 3-Day Novel Contest have won honourable mention and second place. Snowmen will be his first published novel.
Mark came up with the idea for Snowmen while visiting Whitehorse over the 2008 winter holiday. As with his previous contest entries, he approached the event without a formal outline—as an experienced graduate student he has produced many, many outlines and essays, and he prefers to approach the contest in a different way. (”I think it’s important to keep surprising yourself,” he says.) But unlike his previous attempts, in which he tackled the 3-Day Novel Contest alone, this time he teamed up with a small group of friends and fellow entrants to write and suffer together. He left his wife behind to travel with them to Perth, Ontario, where they holed up in a friend’s house to write without distractions over the Labour Day long weekend.
Mark has an MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto and is finishing a second in Communication and Culture from York and Ryerson universities. He has worked as a writer for the City of Toronto, has produced a zine on Scouting, and ran for Toronto City Council at the age of 22 (and was “flatteringly defeated by eight other candidates”). Mark currently works full-time at the University of Toronto as a writer in the President’s Office and part-time as a supervisor at Massey Hall.
For more information contact: Melissa Edwards, Managing Editor at info@3daynovel.com
The other day, I had an interesting conversation with my son. He was working on a history project about Quebec, and he made – what to me was a startling statement.
He said, “The shops in Montreal have signage in French to preserve Quebec's unique culture and heritage.”
I asked him what he felt about the controversy in Mumbai that all the cabbies should know Marathi.
“That’s wrong,” he replied.
I said I didn’t see any difference in Quebecers’ insistence on French and the chauvinist elements in Mumbai insisting on the blanket usage of Marathi.
I asked him if one is right, how can the other be wrong?
He said that in Quebec it’s the law.
I asked, whether a wrong act become right if it becomes a law?
“I don’t know,” he shrugged.
He lost interest in the conversation because he wanted to play Farmville on facebook.
Che’s 12. A typical response to something that he doesn’t want to get involved with is, “Whatever,” followed by a shrug.
As I read John Ralston Saul’s A Fair Country I was reminded of this conversation I had with Che.
In the final chapter of the book A Circle of Fairness, Saul explains Quebec’s concept of interculturalisme. He says, “I am more comfortable using the term interculturalisme than multiculturalism to describe how Canada works. It isn’t quite right, but it comes close.”
He quotes from a report by Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor about the ethos of Quebec. “The wisest and most effective method of dealing with cultural differences is not to hide them but to show them.”
“A particular responsibility falls upon the ethno-cultural majority to build relationships with immigrants.”
“And how are immigrants to be dealt with? On the basis of ‘four civic virtues.’ Equite – equity or fairness; welcome, getting to know the other, moderation and wisdom; patience. After all, such great changes of life require time in order to be digested by all sides.”
The book raises several questions that are at the core of Canada’s identity and nationhood. Of course, many of the issues raised would be contentious to most Canadians and don’t have the same resonance to a newcomer.
At one level, I found Saul’s interpretation of the Canadian way an attempt at romanticising the non-Western forms of civilisation and society formation.
Yet his interpretation explains so many present dilemmas of the western world that are (surprisingly) absent in Canada – issues of identity, the existence of the ‘other’ in a society of multiple minorities.
Canadians believe in fairness and inclusion; even if on occasions, Canada seemingly doesn’t.
Check Maher Arar's new venture Prism.
Image: Maher Arar: http://thewe.cc/thewei/images2/aljazeerah_inf_nov2003_images/a30.jpg
