Writing During Challenging Times

Writing during challenging times is not easy. We likely share a frustration and sadness with what’s happening in the Middle East. The ongoing bombing has resulted in the tragic loss of lives and so much destruction. It’s overwhelming! I’m thankful our prime minister, Mark Carney, backpedalled on his initial support of the US and Israel strikes.

Add to the above, there’s my ongoing concern with what’s happening in Ukraine. I won’t go into detail as most of you, being readers, are well informed.

Though we may grieve over what’s happening globally, there’s not much we can do, as it’s out of our control.

I try to follow my own advice, as suggested in my book Along Came A Gardener. We can only control ourselves. We can pray and hope for an end to both wars. We can write the politicians who represent us. We can vote when the time comes. And we can take care of our own mental health when we’re overwhelmed by so much madness. Robert and I like to stay informed, but we plan to limit how much news we take in, and from where.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed like me, I suggest going outdoors. Spring is around the corner. My hellebore have been blooming for a while. Nature soothes our troubled minds.

Meanwhile, I’m preparing for the book launch of my 7th book, A House Full of Strangers, a short story collection, which will be available May 9th in paperback or ebook on major bookseller websites everywhere. You can also order it from your favourite bookstore.

Right now, the ebook is available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon, Barnes andNoble, Kobo, and Indigo booksites. The advantage of pre-ordering is that you only pay when the book is launched. If you’re like me, I find books I like and then forget to get them.

A House Full of Strangers contans two novellas and eleven short stories about people who live in rooming houses run by Ukrainian immigrant landladies in the 1940s and 1950s.

Just the other day, it dawned on me that I had lived in a rooming house my entire growing-up years. I was born in one, and lived in two others. The photo on the cover shows the house I lived in from the time I was eight until I got married. Growing up with strangers over my head was a wonderful experience, and now I’m about to publish stories based on true tales from that time. I took some of what I remembered, and what I heard, then let my imagination take me further.

I’m happy to send a free pdf or epub copy of A House Full of Strangers to one of my newsletter subscribers here in exchange for an honest review on Amazon and Goodreads. I know readers dislike writing reviews, but authors don’t expect much. Even a couple of lines help. Unfortunately, we are living at a time when reviews count a lot. :)

Here’s a taste of what you would get:

A House Full of Strangers consists of fifteen heartfelt stories of Ukrainian immigrant landladies, their families, and their roomers living in Winnipeg in the 1940s and 1950s. The collection begins with “Bad Blood”, a novella. “With the boys finally asleep, Irene sat down at the gray arborite kitchen table to write the letter she didn’t want to write.” She’s about to open a window she thought was forever closed. She’d left her family home in disgrace and now she has nowhere else to turn. The letter is to her mother, a woman she’s ashamed of. Going back to a boarding house that reeks of alcohol is not the future Irene dreamed of, but her husband is deathly ill and she has two children. The story’s about faith in oneself and also in a higher power.

Other stories cover a range of hopes and dreams. “Ihor’s Escape” is about a newly arrived immigrant from Ukraine just after WWII who is escaping further danger in his homeland. “Soaring” shows the trauma the daughter of a landlady faced when her family moved from one rooming house to another. “Gloria” is a tale of infidelity and domestic abuse; and “Giselle”, a story of the other woman in a long-distance trucker’s life.

In the novella “The Blue Nightgown”, a revealing blue nightgown left behind by a roomer has a surprising effect on her landlady and family who live downstairs. This sexy slice-of-life tale set in the 1950s highlights the social changes taking place back then.

The stories in my book, A House Full of Strangers, have a common thread, that of living in a rooming house. Together, they make an upstairs, downstairs kind of story; they show the everyday struggle of the ordinary folk who rent out their rooms to those who need them.

If you’re interested in geting an early FREE copy of my book to read and review, please email me at dianastevan@gmail.com and I’ll send you a copy of A House Full of Strangers.

Robert and I watched a delightful film, Stan and Ollie, about the duo comedic team that was a big draw at the movies when we were children. The movie portrays them near the end of their career. The film garnered great reviews.

And worth watching is a Youtube interview with graphic artist and author, Michael Cherkas, about his Kobzar Award nominated book Red Harvest. The novel tells the story of one family during the Holodomor, the manmade famine during Stalin’s time that resulted in millions of deaths, now determined as a genocide by Ukraine and 33 other UN member states. In the interview, Uliana Hlynchak, Kontakt TV producer, whose own grandmother survived Holodomor, asks him what he researched and how he produced the novel.

In the interview, Cherkas mentions that he found few photographs from that time. I was surprised at that, because my parents had a book called The Black Deeds of the Kremlin, White Book,Volume 1 which showed quite a few photographs of the emaciated and dead bodies of Ukrainians during the 1931-1933 manmade famine. That book is no longer available for sale. I found a used copy available for close to $400 on Amazon.com. Knowing how the truth is supressed in Russia, the former Soviet Union, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

I’m currently reading a wonderful Canadian novel, Elizabeth and After, by Matt Cohen. This one sat on my bookshelf for years, and now I’m finally getting around to reading it. It won the 1999 Governor General’s Award for Fiction. It’s about a small-town Ontario family, with the head, a failed farmer, whose wife Elizabeth is now gone, and his son, with scars of his own, who returns after three years in jail.

I had to hit pause because of my book launch of A House Full of Strangers. But I hope to return soon, once I have “all my ducks in a row.”

Meanwhile, if any of you aren’t acquainted with my works, have a look at my website to see what I’ve written. I’m not a writer who writes by formula, nor a writer who sticks to one genre. Though, ever since my granddaughter Chloe encouraged me to write my baba’s story, I’ve written four books of fiction that have featured Ukrainians or Ukrainian Canadians, including the one coming out this May.

I started this newsletter by commenting on our turbulent times. I hope you take care of yourselves by taking breaks from the news. If you can make the time, nurture your creative spirit through venturing into nature, cooking a meal you haven’t made before, trying out new crafts, or exploring the arts. The rewards can be significant. I’ll leave you with this image of two trees hugging one another. We need to spread LOVE through the world, and not hate.

Thank you for subscribing. ‘Till next time.