The author of Fierce, a collection of smart and passionate short stories, is anything but. Hannah Holborn is a petite, gentle and well-spoken mother who launched her début book of nine short stories and one novella at the Wild Bistro in Gibsons last month. Her background is tangled: it involves Russian roots, foster parents and a First Nations sensibility. Though she draws on her life experiences for the book, her imagination also runs riot with vivid and eccentric characters.
The writing is impeccable but many of the characters are grotesque and unsympathetic - for example, the high school kid with the mute brother she calls The Grub and a father who makes leper jokes; the not quite punk chick who dreams of flying and visits her institutionalized grandmother who warbles like a bird; the old prospector, a woman carving her place in a man's environment, who becomes bushed in the effort and will remain forever a virgin. Others have blemishes: disfiguring birthmarks or innate anxieties. They drink heavily, see six-toed cats or have strange sex. The scenarios vary from Monty Python to Russian tragedy. Nothing is normal in Holborn's world. The author's best effort is in her novella, River Rising, where she can take the time to follow the fortunes of young River whose mother died in a fire while tied to a sofa by her illicit lover. River's father has even declared a day in his wife's memory in which the townspeople of Everlasting, Yukon, gather at the local pub then accompany the grieving husband to the riverbank where they watch him jump among the ice floes.
Carolyn Swayze, Hol-born's literary agent, told the Gibsons book launch that the stories in Fierce were "about dysfunctional everything." Yet Swayze was struck by Holborn's personality and her talent, so much so that she headed to a top publisher, McClelland and Stewart, who were wowed. Within 36 hours Holborn had her contract - a rare occurrence among first time authors.
Holborn thanked the community of Gibsons where she lives part time and feels part of the arts scene. Her other home is in White Rock where she is at work on a new book. Jim Christy is not a scalawag, at least not by his own definition given in the intro of his latest book, Scalawags. According to him, a scalawag is one who is nuts or at least outrageous.
"Search for the source of the Nile, you're an adventurer," he writes. "Convince the locals thereabouts to worship you as a king you're a scalawag."
This book is full of them, as the subtitle describes: Rogues, Roustabouts, Wags and Scamps - Brazen Ne'er-Do-Wells Through the Ages. The author, who now lives in Toronto, once resided in Gibsons. He is remembered for his colourful personality, his penchant for boxing and art cars, his travel adventures and a mouthful of sparkling gold teeth from a discount dentist in Asia. But residents of Gibsons can confidently report that no one worshiped him as king.
The 36 short stories in this book published by Anvil Press are collected from columns written for the stylish Vancouver magazine Nuvo. They cover the outrageous details of many of the world's rogues from the well known, such as movie star Tallulah Bankhead (1902 to 1968), a seductress, wit and party gal, to the lesser known, Morris (Two Gun) Cohen (1881 to 1970). Cohen was a Polish born Jew who became a powerful liaison between Canada's Chinese community and the white media. Later, he travelled to China to advise the nationalist revolutionary Sun Yat-sen on his business deals. Cohen's qualifications for this position were learned from a Chinese inmate while he languished in a Saskatchewan prison for picking pockets.
That's just a sample of the stories in Christy's book. And if you think it was only men over the centuries who could get away with illicit love affairs or the sale of snake oil, then read on. The pages reveal a great many infamous women with attitude: Lady Jane Digby gathered titles, prime ministers and a Bedouin sheik to her bosom, while the rough and ready "Pancho" Barnes, an aviator, ran a bar and revelled in the roaring '20s.
Are the stories 100 per cent true? There are no promises, but if not, they certainly have the ring of authenticity, none more so than Christy's own encounter with Count Navratillini, an inquisitive gentleman who spent his days walking through New York State with 12-year-old Christy as his companion. (He was running away from home at the time.) The Count encouraged Christy to read more - probably the reason the boy became a writer. This is Christy's 24th book and he always entertains. Scalawags is a good read available at local bookstores for $20.
