Doesn’t stay in Moose Jaw. At least, not now that I’m back from the Saskatchewan Festival of Words, which was truly one of the best literary fests I’ve been to. Here’s why:
1) The town. First of all, it’s called Moose Jaw. But secondly, it is a surprisingly cool place. It’s home to Deja Vu, a diner which has been featured on “You Gotta Eat Here” because of its delicious fried chicken and massive list of milkshakes. I ate there, twice. Both times I could not resist getting a damned milkshake. This is a photo of Kevin Sylvester, Arthur Slade and I after a massive, coma-inducing lunch of fried chicken, chicken wings, poutine, and, in my case, a banana cream pie milkshake (Arthur had tiger tiger). What were we thinking?? I could barely string together a sentence at my afternoon session.
With Kevin and Arthur in a coma at Deja Vu
There are other cool cafes and restaurants there, too. I did not do the tunnel tour, for which Moose Jaw is renowned, because the weather was too nice to be indoors and also, not to be a heart breaker here, there is really no evidence that Al Capone was ever in Moose Jaw. Well, except for his car.
The town also has more than its fair share of murals. I wish I’d taken more photos, but here’s one of many.
I love that the building has a denture clinic along with Planet of the Vapes
I’d love to know the story behind one depicting Jewish shopkeepers, selling religious artifacts.
Then there are the outdoor activities. Kevin Sylvester did some good research, and one day we went for a two hour hike with Nelson poet Jane Byers.
With Jane Byers and Kevin Sylvester
Alright, it was more of a walk, because it’s very flat, but still. It was beautiful. We saw goldfinches and were happy. Except when it started to crazy-rain a block from our hotel – it was like a mini-tornado and felt like hail was hitting us sideways when in fact it seemed to be the raindrops hitting the ground, picking up pebbles and bouncing back up on us.
The next day Kevin took mystery novelist Deryn Collier (also from Nelson) and I kayaking down the Wakamow River. This time we saw more goldfinches, goslings, ducklings and a rather large turtle. Also three teenagers on a bridge who we were convinced were going to spit on us, but they didn’t.
2) The hotel. Grant Hall is a lovely, newly renovated hotel in the heart of Moose Jaw. Not only were the rooms spacious, quiet and comfortable, it had the most incredible bar, a bar no one knew about. I guess this is because they just opened recently, and they are doing a “soft opening.” We called it the Tiki Bar (I don’t know if that’s the real name). It is a rooftop bar with astroturf on the ground, bamboo fences and Christmas lights. It offers big sky views and we all fell in love with it. We did NOT fall in love, however, with Saskatchewan’s own dill pickle vodka. No, I am not making that up.
3) The people. Really, the people should go first, but I’m building up to the best stuff, okay? This includes the townsfolk, the organizers, the volunteers, and especially the audiences. (I’ll get to the authors soon). It’s a very intimate festival, with three or four panels going on at once, two authors per panel. Most of the audience is 60 plus. Not exactly my target audience. And yet every event I did – one with the sharp witted poet Greg Simison, one with the lovely, gregarious Terry Fallis and one with hilarious and too smart for his own good Kevin Sylvester – were very well attended. The audiences were enthusiastic and warm and best of all, they bought books.
With Terry Fallis and Andrew Pyper
I also met Alexis, a book blogger who is a very enthusiastic reader and a fan of “Molecules.” So much so that she had her own t-shirt made! She also brought props from the book, like the rose, and she gave me a box of “molecules” (they tasted deliciously like Smarties).
My uber-fan Alexis, who gave me permission to post this photo
4) My fellow authors. I love meeting other authors! This time I got to reunite with people I’d met before like Kevin Sylvester, Arthur Slade and Deryn Collier, and meet new people like Jane Byers, Terry Fallis, Sean Michaels, Chris Turner, Mark Medley, Steven Heighton, Kim McCullough and Andrew Pyper.
What can I say – authors tend to spend a lot of time at home, alone. When we are let out of our cages, things get a little crazy. On Friday night the organizers put on a Trivia Night to raise funds for the festival. They auction off pairs of authors onto different teams of festival goers. I was paired with Andrew Pyper and we raised over $200. Our team was awesome – a bunch of young, enthusiastic readers, including a guy from Flin Flon, a librarian named Hannah who is also a huge Degrassi fan, AND the young federal NDP candidate for the area, Dustan Hlady! I will be following his career and his prospects – I will state for the record that I hope he kicks the incumbent Conservative candidate’s butt right out of office. There, I have made my politics known.
Anyway, the night got crazy. Andrew and I managed to get our team tied for fourth (ahem). And a group of us stayed on. I had the bright idea to try the breathalyzer test that was mounted on the wall near the washrooms. Kevin took these photos.
In case you can’t make it out, I blew “danger.”
It was a memorable few days. I will leave you with one last photo, taken after I did my final gig, a moderated (by Mark Medley) panel on humor with me, Kevin Sylvester, Terry Fallis and Greg Simison, which was a great success. I left without signing audience member Diane’s book, but she tracked me down, and Terry Fallis took this awesome selfie.
Terry, Jane, Diane, me, Kevin
So great to hang out with you, Susin. I really hope our paths cross again. What a wonderful festival!
I feel the same way Terry! Tickets aren’t on sale yet for your Vancouver premiere but I will get them when they do.
Susin, this was an absolutely fabulous write up on Moose Jaw and the festival. I enjoyed volunteering, listening to all of you, buying books, and yes, even the minor panic of a missing author. I cannot wait to delve into your novel, “We Are All Made of Molecules.” Take care.
Thanks for all your hard work, Melanie! Loved the festival. Wasn’t sure whether or not I should blog about the missing author. 🙂
Wonderful post! I do work at the Tunnels and wanted to let you know that there actually IS evidence that Al Capone had once been in Moose Jaw and we have a book here at the Tunnels that talks about it! Deidre Capone, Al Capone’s grandniece, wrote a book and also came to Moose Jaw to speak and confirmed that Al had on more than one occasion mentioned going to Saskatchewan and specifically Moose Jaw! It’s not much, but evidence does exist!
Nevertheless, this was a great post and I very much enjoy your writing and we loved having you in Moose Jaw!
Thank you for writing, and my bad!! I will write a little post with the correction, okay?
Hey I just posted your comment (anonymously)!
Susin, do you remember where that mural was that had the Jewish shopkeepers? I’ve lived here my entire life AND I worked for Tourism Moose Jaw, but I don’t think I’ve seen that one before!
Yes, it’s a beautiful one, and it was on the same street as the grain elevator one (sort of across the street). Don’t remember the name of the street. Tell me if you find it. It is really cool and I wondered about the history of it.
What a great blog post! I’ve been once to the festival and it was fantastic! Looks like it hasn’t lost a thing! My sister, Diane (she’s the one in the middle in the last photo, which is upside down–perhaps that last glass of wine at the end of your post had to leave its mark somehow?) is one of the greatest proponents of the festival, and I know why. Is there anything more FUN? Thanks so much for your thoughts on the festival and Moose Jaw–entertaining they were!
Ha-ha-ha! Sylvia, I actually tried to rotate the photo, but for some reason it is still upside down. I blame Terry Fallis, he clearly didn’t know how to use his iPhone. 🙂 Diane was amazing, please say hi to her. She came running down the street as we were leaving the stadium; she’d bought a copy of my book and wanted it signed. What a sweetheart.