The Canadian Author's Association, Vancouver Branch held their monthly meeting, chaired tonight by poet, Jean Kay. I've expressed my suspicions about what shifty characters authors are. Well, the proof of this was evident tonight. The RCMP finally sent a spy to keep an eye on the lot of them, especially Bernice. Bernice Lever is an editor. She's kind of a talent scout for publishers and we all know how shady those characters are. Jane Hall was the RCMP woman. Amazing what this world famous force will do to infiltrate an organization. The RCMP clearly figured they needed an authentic author. Jane must have been a volunteer. She admitted tonight that she spent 8 years writing her book, The Red Wall, a woman in the RCMP. She had to spend another year re writing it. It's the first book by an RCMP woman about her time in the force. Creative Non Fiction, she called it. "Like Farley Mowat but I didn't have to chase wolves naked." She was told she said, "If anything I protected people who didn't deserve to be protected" Truth without love is cruelty, said Ben Nuttall-Smith. Married 26 years and mother of 2 boys and 2 girls, her husband, "a classic", was there tonight filming her presentation. She compared the major traditional publishing house offer she'd received where she'd have been a 'small fish in a big pond', to the General Store Publishing House http://www.gsph.com/ offer in which she co published her book getting the same 10% royalties while sharing 50% cost. In the end she got 50 % profit and kept the right to direct sell which she does at http://www.theredwall.ca/ . "I need a new motorcycle," her husband said. They'd both had ridden motorcyles together when they met. "There are 6 themes in the book, but it's really about a social revolution. " "There's murder, arson, rape and the Depot but there's a lot more than that." Short listed for a prestigious writing award, reference read now in universities ,it's already going on to the recommended read list. That's the kind of dedication that goes with the RCMP. 9 years of effort just to get someone into the Canadian Author's Association to keep an eye on things. No doubt, that famous medical writer and CAA member, Patrick Taylor, skipped back to Ireland on a tip the RCMP were following him. With the Red Wall into second printing, Jane Hall is working on a follow up book. My grandmother friend had commissioned me to buy the Red Wall in which Jane's dedication reads. "if we all work together we can 'maintain the right'". The meeting ended with Jane reading an hilarious passage from her book. Sure she's a great author, a great speaker too, but no one's fooling me. The RCMP spared no expense in getting the best to keep an eye on the CAA. Probably she's tasked personally by the Prime Minister to make sure the guts of Canadian culture don't get spilled to the Americans or worse.
