Spend a day with Lauren and Christina

NEWS RELEASE

STORIES IN THE NORTH

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THESSALON - Stories in the North is proud to announce its upcoming event, September 26, featuring author Lauren Carter and local musical duo The Crossroads Magdalenes.

Carter grew up in Blind River and has traced her ancestry to find her great-great-grandfather was a lighthouse keeper on Manitoulin Island.

Her first novel Swarm, was voted one of the Top 40 novels that could change Canada during the run-up to Canada Reads 2014.

Her poetry was shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize and she’s won first prizes in Room’s poetry competition and Prairie Fire’s fiction competition.

Carter will teach a day-long workshop on creating deep characters, where participants will expand their understanding of their existing or new characters and explore how these characters reveal a story or novel’s plot.

Carter, who is a seasoned workshop leader, says this topic is her favourite to teach as she enjoys seeing people have the ‘aha!’ moments that come from getting to know their characters more deeply.

“The workshop helps people look at a character from many different angles so they really understand how a person’s choices, realities, and actions lead to a story’s plot,” she says. “There will be a lot of writing exercises and a lot of support to help participants ‘get out of their own way’ - all the things we need to do the hard work of writing.”

In the evening, Carter will share poems about some of her ancestors who lived in the Thessalon area and selections from her novel Swarm.

Carter now lives in The Pas, Manitoba, but she keeps her ties to Algoma.

She has recently finished a new book of poems, Migration, about the 19th century migration of her great-great grandparents from Southern Ontario to Manitoulin Island.

One poem in this collection entitled Island Clearances won the international 2014 poetry contest put on by Room literary journal.

Carter is also at work on two new novels, one set in a fictionalized Blind River and the other in a city based on Sudbury, circa 1994.

Swarm, her first novel, is set on an island, reminiscent of Manitoulin, where a small community is struggling to survive after the planet’s oil supply no longer supports our civilization.

The book is one-part cautionary tale, one-part homesteading journey, and one part personal story about how a young couple, forced to stay together to survive, come to terms with one another.

Crossroads Magdalenes’ singer Christina Foster, who is an English teacher at CASS, said she enjoyed the book very much and has put together a playlist to complement its themes.

Her musical partner, Greg Maclachlan, teaches music at White Pines.

The duo will share some original songs with their unique acoustic-only sound blending female and male vocals.

For Foster, who grew up in the Sault musical theatre community, this return to the stage is not one she takes for granted.

This year marks her five-year ‘lungiversary’ - five years ago on August 10 she underwent a successful double-lung transplant.

She was born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease affecting the lungs and digestive system.

While there is no cure, lung transplants have been shown to dramatically boost people’s quality of life and life expectancy rates.

“Five years ago, I stopped being a person who couldn't breathe!” says Foster. “I’m very grateful for my donor and happy to have a body that works and lets me do so many fun things everyday with the people I love.”

Her experience with CF informed Foster’s reading of Carter’s book, Swarm.

“I’ve often thought about how I could survive in a post-apocalyptic world, in particular, I wonder what I would do about all my anti-rejection meds,” she says. “Swarm was the first book I read that addressed this difficulty.”

Stories in the North presents Lauren Carter on Saturday September 26.

Workshop:
Coffee and registration at 9:30 a.m.
Workshop 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Zion United Church, 224 Main St. Thessalon.
$50 includes lunch.

To reserve a spot, contact Pauline Clark at clark.pauline@sympatico.ca or 705-842-3132.

Show:
Doors open at 7 p.m. at the IOOF Hall, 146 Main St., Thessalon.
$10 includes snack buffet.
Cash bar.

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