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I never cared for much of the Prairie Lit we read in high school in Saskatoon, but there is one writer I have found myself coming back to: Sinclair Ross. His story "The Lamp at Noon" is prairie dustbowl and it's stuck with me all these years. blogs.ubc.ca/lled4492015/files/2015/03/TheLampAtNoon.pdfPermalink On twitter.com
Mood -2 🙁
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This story must have made more of a dent in my mind than I thought, and not just because I've come back to it several times over the years: I found myself calling back to it in something of my own I've been revising to send out.Permalink On twitter.com
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For those who know it, yes, it's "Winter Wheat," a story that, deep down, I've never really given up on. My Saskatchewan story, written kind of at the time when I was coming to terms with Saskatchewan being "home" for me, even as it was becoming unrecognizable so far away.Permalink On twitter.com
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I've stubbornly returned to it over and over, because a Famous Writer I admire once quipped, "You can't write science fiction about farming!"... I thought, "Okay, challenge accepted." Gene hacking, a menacing biotech corp, industrialized farming, Open Source farmbot OS hackers...Permalink On twitter.com
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... and, at the suggestion of @IanRMacLeod1, yes, automated farm equipment on fire at that huge protest in Saskatoon.Permalink On twitter.com
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Ironically, all those years ago I set it in Biggar, which was last year the site of the shooting of Colten Boushie, which kind of shook Canada: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Colten_Boushie I left it set there, and let the characters remember it at a remove.Permalink On twitter.com
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It's also a father son story, which is funny now: I wrote it as a son grieving his recently-passed dad. Now I revise it as a father with a little child of my own. Those parts mostly still ring true, though.On twitter.com
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Anyway, I can say, confidently, "Yes, you can write science fiction about farming." But it remains to be seen whether you can *sell* science fiction about farming. Well, *my* science fiction about farming. Then it's back to my novel, and freelance stuff, and editing, & so on.Permalink On twitter.com