Author Bill Gaston makes two appearances at the 30th annual Vancouver Writers Fest, Oct. 16-22 on Granville Island. Visit writersfest.bc.ca for tickets and full schedule of events.
Finishing a good novel can feel a bit like losing a friend.
We develop an intimate relationship with the main character, become emotionally invested in their struggles and successes, and when the last page is turned, we may not be quite ready to say goodbye.
Award-winning author Bill Gaston is a veteran character creator who has published seven novels featuring colourful, charismatic and engaging protagonists. But the former North Shore resident doesn’t always want to write about likeable folks. Sometimes he dreams up people who are downright nasty, individuals not suited to star in a full-length novel, but who feel right at home in a concisely packaged short story.
“I like delving into all sorts of people’s worlds, and some of these people aren’t all that savoury,” Gaston says. “Fringe people attract me, people that I probably wouldn’t want to hang out with for very long, and I don’t think readers do either.”
His seventh collection of short stories, A Mariner’s Guide to Self Sabotage (Douglas & McIntyre, 2017), features 10 original tales which all follow a character facing some sort of obstacle.
“What most of the stories do have in common is we get to see people sabotaging themselves in ways that we can all hopefully relate to,” he says. “I think some of the dilemmas wouldn’t be unfamiliar to people.”
One story tells of an eco-terrorist with destructive intentions who gains access to a fish farm up the B.C. coast. Another investigates the mystery of why someone would want to drill a hole in their own boat. While the stories are linked by the common denominator of self-sabotage, as the book title suggests, Gaston says the similarities end there.
“What I’m most proud of is that they are all quite extraordinarily different from each other, so it’s kind of a cast of characters all undergoing heartbreaking circumstances in different ways,” he says.
Gaston will introduce book-lovers to his new collection at two events taking place as part of the 30th annual Vancouver Writers Fest, which runs Oct. 16-22 on Granville Island. He is scheduled to speak at How This Story Began on Oct. 19 at the Revue Stage, and The Afternoon Tea on Oct. 22 at Performance Works. If anyone in the audience is curious about his creative process, Gaston is happy to share how he comes up with ideas.
“What triggers a novel or a story is I’ll happen upon a character who is in a dilemma and the character and the dilemma fascinate me, it sticks with me, I’m curious to see how they might work it out,” he explains. “I have these antennae that are out, always on the lookout for stories.”
Inspiration is liable to strike anywhere, any time.
“It’s everywhere. It might be a newspaper headline, it might be something in my own life, or something I overhear at a bar.”
Gaston currently lives on Vancouver Island and teaches writing at the University of Victoria, though he spent his high school years in North Vancouver and was both “a Deep Cove rat” and “a Lynn Valley monkey,” he recalls. In fact, his very first book, Deep Cove Stories (1989), is a collection of short fiction set in the titular community. Over the years, Gaston supported his writing habit by working as a logger, salmon fishing guide, group home worker and even played hockey in the south of France (read about the latter career in his 2006 memoir Midnight Hockey: All About Beer, the Boys and the Real Canadian Game).
“I kind of settled into a pattern of teaching for a living and writing as a pastime and suddenly I’ve got 15 or 16 books under my belt,” he says. “I love writing, so I keep doing it.”
