Osoyoos short story writer Eileen Hopkins is one of several South Okanagan writers who has contributed to the anthology Voices from the Valleys. (Richard McGuire photo)
Osoyoos and Oliver are settings for numerous short stories in an anthology of short stories and poems about life in B.C.’s Interior being published this month.
Eileen Hopkins, an Osoyoos writer, wrote a short story called Snowbird Melting for the anthology, Voices from the Valleys, compiled and edited by Penticton writer Jodie Renner.
Another story, Cornered in the Orchard, by Lester Patrick takes place around Oliver and One Hundred and Sixty Acres by Virginia Laveau takes place around Okanagan Falls.
Other stories and poems cover Penticton, Naramata and various locations in the Okanagan and Similkameen, while other sections of the book cover other regions of the B.C. Interior.
Hopkins, who moved to Osoyoos in 2014 after retiring from a job at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary, said she was lured to Osoyoos after seeing a brochure about snowbirds coming here.
“The term ‘snowbirds’ has always been quite prevalent here,” said Hopkins. “In my first winter here, I was pretty impressed at the numbers. Most of the people I got to know are people that were snowbirds from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.”
So when Hopkins saw Renner’s request for submissions for the anthology, she decided on snowbirds in Osoyoos as her protagonists.
Hopkins’ story tells of a Calgary couple, Merle and Joy, who split up in a bitter divorce, but again cross paths in Osoyoos.
Renner has long been a writer, editor, teacher and librarian who presents writing workshops and judges short story contests.
She grew up in B.C., but left for Ontario in her early 30s, living there for three decades. Only a year and a half ago did she move back to B.C., rediscovering her roots.
“I was thrilled to be back,” she said. “I was just kind of in wonder. I thought why did I leave and why was I gone so long.”
As she judged another short story contest, the idea struck her of putting together an anthology of stories and poems about B.C.
Though Voices from the Valleys was Renner’s first anthology, the idea kept growing.
“I was thinking it would be maybe 15 or 20 contributors,” she said. “It’s up to 50 now, which I’m stopping. It’s big enough.”
Stories kept pouring in as news of the anthology spread over social media. Some were rejected outright as they didn’t meet Renner’s vision for the project. Others needed back and forth work with the authors, or “interactive editing,” as Renner puts it.
“Some of them were fabulous stories, but kind of rough,” she said. “The writing needed polishing and tightening up, but I knew there was a great story.”
Hopkins said she was asked to cut 500 words from her story, but otherwise few revisions were needed.
Some of the stories in the anthology don’t follow strict rules of grammar, but the style fits the storyteller.
“If you try to clean up all the grammar and try to make it grammatically correct like an essay, you lose the voice,” said Renner. “If you’ve got a teenage boy, the whole narrative should be in the voice of the teenage boy. If you’ve got an old prospector, you can’t have complete sentences with correct English because you’ve lost the old prospector’s voice.”
Similarly, a sense of place was very important to Renner in choosing the stories, which are arranged in the anthology by different regions of the Interior.
In her blog request for submissions, Renner said she was looking for stories reflecting such B.C. experiences as wildlife, logging, mining, fishing, tree planting, fruit growing, vineyards, skiing, hiking, backpacking, climbing, camping, boating, tourism, forest fires or avalanches and featuring RCMP, firefighters, fishers, farmers, First Nations peoples, mountain climbers, fruit pickers, artists, musicians, hippies, students “or any other B.C. types.”
She suggested stories should include a dilemma or challenge rather than just descriptions, information or musings.
Hopkins said she’s been writing short stories and poems all her life, but a couple years ago she became more serious after taking a creative fiction writing course in Calgary.
In January, she placed second in a short story writing contest sponsored by the Osoyoos group O’s Own Writers.
That story, Angels and Mistletoe, recently appeared in another anthology published by the Penticton Writers and Publishers group called An Okanagan Tapestry.
Hopkins hopes someday to publish a book of short stories of her own as well as a novel.
For now though, short stories are a good way to hone her writing skills.
“You’re not as invested in it as writing a novel, which takes a lot of planning,” Hopkins said. “I’m finding short stories are a really good way to get your message down. You’re forced to be very creative to keep your words down.”
Hopkins said she kept Snowbird Melting close to her impressions of Osoyoos, though she fictionalized details of restaurants and businesses.
Nor was the story autobiographical.
“It’s totally about many different people,” she said. “I think we all carry with us experience from life. I could relate somewhat because I had a love story happen that was later in life, so I could relate to falling in love when you’re in your 50s or 60s. But certainly the facts and circumstances are very different.”
Renner said the e-book will be released as a Kindle book through Amazon this Friday. A print version will be out between the middle and end of November in time for Christmas.
The initial printing will be limited to 300 copies, with a second printing including reviews if the first goes well.
The book will also be available from Amazon as a print-on-demand book and it will be sold as an e-book on Kobo.
Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Doctors Without Borders, Renner said.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
