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    Bill Arnott's Beat: Road Stories & Writers' Tips
    Bill Arnott's Beat: Road Stories & Writers' Tips
    Bill Arnott's Beat: Road Stories & Writers' Tips
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    Bill Arnott's Beat: Road Stories & Writers' Tips

    By Bill Arnott

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    About this ebook

    Welcome to Bill Arnott’s Beat, a selection of personal stories and writers’ tips from international magazines and literary journals. These stories and articles focus on the craft of creativity, peppered with opinion, insights and humour, the result of Bill's travels as an author, poet, songwriter, and the accompanying tours, readings, live performances, and a life spent more or less on the road.

    Treat this as pleasure reading, a comfy escape, or a concise writer’s reference book. Whether you spend your time reading and writing, want to do more of it, or simply want a handful of reminders to ensure you’re on track with your craft, consider this a handy touchstone. The book is organized into two parts: Road Stories and Writers’ Tips. A swath of overlap exemplifies the very nature of travel and of making art.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBill Arnott
    Release dateMar 25, 2021
    ISBN9781926459103
    Bill Arnott's Beat: Road Stories & Writers' Tips
    Author

    Bill Arnott

    Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of the suspense/thriller series The Gamble Novellas, Allan's Wishes: Illustrated Edition, Bill Arnott's Beat: Road Stories & Writers' Tips, WIBA and ABF Book Awards Finalist Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, and the travelogue sequel Gone Viking II: Beyond Boundaries. For his Gone Viking expeditions, Bill's been granted a Fellowship at London's Royal Geographical Society. When not trekking the globe with a small pack, weatherproof journal and laughably outdated camera phone, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, making friends and misbehaving. @billarnott_aps

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      Book preview

      Bill Arnott's Beat - Bill Arnott

      Bill Arnott’s Beat

      Road Stories & Writers’ Tips

      Bill Arnott

      Copyright © 2021 Bill Arnott

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the author and publisher, except in the case of quotations used in articles and reviews.

      Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

      Arnott, Bill

      ISBN: 978-1-926459-10-3 eBook

      978-1-926459-11-0 paperback

      Published by

      Wonderful Magical Publications

      Welcome to Bill Arnott’s Beat. This is a selection of personal stories and writers’ tips that have appeared in magazines and literary journals. These stories and articles focus on the craft of creativity, peppered with opinion, insights and humour, the result of my travels as an author, poet, songwriter, accompanying tours, readings, live performances, and a life spent more or less on the road.

      Treat this as pleasure reading, a comfy escape, or a concise writer’s reference book. Whether you spend your time reading and writing or perhaps want to do more of it, or if you, like me, simply want a handful of reminders to ensure you’re on track with your craft, I think you’ll find this to be a handy touchstone. I’ve organized the book into two parts: Road Stories and Writers’ Tips. There’s overlap, which I feel suitably depicts the very nature of travel and of making art.

      ***

      Part I: Road Stories

      Book Signing and Saying Yes

      I was doing a book signing—a suburban retail outlet, trying to avoid getting lost in the sprawling square footage—standing at a compact table near the front, wedged between a promotional booth and a Starbucks. There were glossy signs promoting the event—my name, remarkably, spelled correctly. Things looked promising. Buyers were even queued before my opening, friendly people keen to visit, requesting signed copies of my Viking-themed travel memoir. We clicked selfies in horned headwear. It was all rather awesome.

      The afternoon wore on and enthusiasm waned, along with my breath mints. My throat was velvety smooth. My breath, evergreen fresh. But the queued book buyers? Well, they’d gone the way of my dodo-like Tic Tacs. So I did my best to look busy behind my table, desperate for someone, anyone, to talk to.

      Then something wondrous occurred. One of those instances when things fall karmically into place. Fact is, I’d almost given up. Despite best efforts, I tend to sell the same number of books per unit of time, anywhere, anytime. I feel privileged. At times, delighted. Other times, exasperated. But it never changes. Simple math eclipses aspiration, every time. I ought to remember that. But I won’t.

      It was then the remarkable ensued—a Frank Capra moment, surging instrumental that lets everyone know, even if you’re not paying attention, that something special is happening. As I mentioned, I’d thrown in the metaphorical towel (for the moment), deciding a break was in order—a coffee to muddy my air-freshener breath.

      So I bumbled into a quasi-lineup. There was no discernible queue. Those of us mingling about in a kind of lump looked at each other, shrugged, and did our best to form a schoolyard line, which wasn’t easy. A lone woman in our clump smiled, nodding in my direction. I returned the salutation. Then a server made eye contact with me. I indicated the smiling woman should be served next. The server complied. But smiley was certain I had been next in line. So she ordered her coffee and insisted on buying whatever I was having, one of those pay-it-forward moments we love and first witnessed in that movie with the child actor with three names. What I felt in that moment was optimism in humanity.

      My immediate inclination was to decline, with thanks. An obligatory, "I couldn’t possibly …" But something I remembered from years prior—the teachings of bodhisattvas and possibly Ann Landers, went ping. When offered a gift from a stranger—a stranger with good intent—always accept with a simple thank you. My dad never read Landers (he may’ve touched on Buddhism in one of our Time Warner collector sets) but being Scottish he knew damn well to simply say thanks to free coffee. And so I did, knowing in my heart Siddhārtha, dad, and Ann would approve.

      Back at the table of books, sipping deliciously free Sumatra (another nod to dad, as singer Frank Sumatra was his favourite crooner), I had more genuine visits, kind people with stories to share. And then another remarkable encounter ensued. A middle-aged guy with the energy of a sugared-up tween came at me with an onslaught of enthusiasm and smiles. He knew everyone. Anyone he didn’t know intimately, he’d worked with. He told me of his time travelling the world as a forestry firefighter. And he told me of his manuscript, the literary praise he’d received, and his pride in the craft. As he spoke, it was simply a matter of time before our Venn diagrams of people and places we were familiar with intersected. Which they did. His editorial consultant and mentor was the same guy who made up half the judging panel who scrutinized my very work stacked on the table—the award that earned a sticker on the cover and got me a year’s worth of speaking gigs. Small world? Maybe. But I suspect given enough time, this affable guy would find the thing or things he has in common with anyone, and everyone.

      Wait here! he said, like a kid on Christmas morning, I got a book for you! And he was off, speed-walking at an Olympic pace.

      I figured I’d be getting a copy of his book, and maybe we’d do the author swap thing. But no, there was simply a title he wanted me to read. So as well as buying my book, he found the other title on the shelves, went back to the till, paid for everything, then brought me this additional book as a gift. He wrote a fun inscription, listing the people we both knew, along with his nickname, so

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