A couple of weeks ago I began the story of Deadly Lessons' origin.

When my agent friend Laura gave me a clear rationale for being a published author - in essence, that it would help me to become a produced television scriptwriter - I set off.

Truth be told, like many stories, the seeds of the origin came from real life experience. And there's kind of two parts to that.

But first - pretty major spoiler alerts. In my enthusiasm to share the roots of the story I may give away key plot points. So, I implore you; please do not let this column dissuade you from reading the book.

Let's deal first with the creation of Winston Patrick.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that at the time I was writing the book I was a practicing classroom teacher, then at Dr. Charles Best Secondary School in Coquitlam, B.C. If one really is supposed to 'write what you know,' it made sense to me that Winston Patrick would be a teacher. It wasn't always thus.

Though Laura was the immediate impetus for writing the book, it was certainly an idea that had crossed my mind. A long time reader of the crime genre, I initially conceived of a series about a private detective who wasn't particularly good at this job. And along the lines of Howard Engel's Benny Cooperman series, I wanted my detective, Mickey Jones was his name, to be wholly Canadian - read unarmed. I enjoy the hard-boiled, tough as nails detective but I’m also intrigued by the hero who kind of stumbles his way through the mystery, solving crime essentially by accident because he’s really not that great at his job.

Read into that what you may.

In my head, Mickey would be routinely bested by his adversaries and only his stubbornness and tenacity would help him to reach his aims. Somewhere along the lines, Mickey the private investigator became Winston the lawyer turned high school teacher; and his origins also came from experience.

As a new teacher, I encountered three colleagues who had previously been lawyers, some longer than others. I found myself wondering if there was some kind of connection between the two vocations (full disclosure: law school was a path I crossed but did not take, though I stood at that juncture for some time considering its merits). I have heard it said (it’s possible I said it) that teachers are frustrated lawyers, lawyers are frustrated teachers and they’re both just frustrated actors. I thought I would combine all three of my experiences in these realms (I studied some criminology in college and clerked for in-house counsel for an oil company – not exactly legally stimulating but I could lay claim to at least a modicum of background legal knowledge).

Finding legal issues in the classroom was far easier than I would have imagined. Teaching an elective senior Law course, teenagers not only concocted some of the most intriguing legal scenarios, many students had experience with them.

I arrived at the central premise of Deadly Lessons actually quite easily. What are the worst things a teacher could do to a student: sleep with her or kill her? What if it was both or at least it was suspected that was the case?

This premise gave me the opportunity to merge Winston’s two worlds, the legal and educational, and, like Mickey, fumble his way through an investigation he is woefully ill-prepared for. But what intrigued me even more than that was taking the story beyond just the sordid teacher-student romance angle and imbuing it with an even darker undercurrent.

That dark undercurrent was also inspired by what I saw as a shocking true experience – and I’ll share that next week.

Next week: Deadly Lessons Origin Part III – Hey, I wrote a whole book on the story you don’t think I can detail my process on it in just two columns?

Also – if you read last week’s column you’ll recall I’m earnestly hoping people will spread the word – it’s a revolution! Please visit, like, share or whatever else we do on my Last Dance Facebook page. And don’t forget to pester your local library like I’m pestering you.

Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT

Updated: Monday, 3 June 2013 7:29 AM PDT

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I'm taking a break from the Deadly Lessons origin story this week to engage in a call for help. But first, a little backgrounder.

Okay, clearly, I'm not in this for the money. If there is a Canadian author beyond Margaret Atwood or Michael Ondaatje who could even make the claim to be in it for the dough - and I'm sure they're not, oh legions of Atwood-lovers and Ondanjate worshipers so put down the pen; I'm just drawing an analogy - they probably have probably set the economic bar pretty low for themselves. Does rolling on the bed in a pile of dimes and quarters make one feel rich?

That said, last week I received a statement from the publisher and, well, let's just say, it wasn't exactly inspiring, at least in the financial sense. Sure, I know I have the day job that pays the bills but would it be so much to ask for, say, enough book sales to buy a weekend cottage? How about a new SUV? A high end vacation?

Maybe a latte?

I know, I know, artistic success isn't measured in numbers (thank God). Last Dance has been very well reviewed, not only by people I know who have read it (and I like to think they're not simply being nice to me because they're friends, or, you know, my mother) but also by book critics and reviewers as diverse as The Globe and Mail(Xanadu!), the National Post and Publisher's Weekly. Heck, when PW said good things about the book the publisher was so pleased they made sure a pull quotation from their review was put on the cover. If people saw the endorsement of Publisher's Weekly surely they would buy the book.

I haven't seen PW sitting on too many people's coffee tables, even pretentious people's.

Thus, I’ve given up on untold riches rolling in from book sales. I’m happy in my house; I don’t need one the size of J.K. Rowling’s. Really, all I hope for is that enough copies of my books move that when W3.doc is actually finished, the publisher is still interested in publishing it and, of course, any others that follow.

To be sure, the largest numbers of books move during the first month or so of sales, and last year I was surprised to see that I actually did receive a royalty cheque even though the fiscal sales year ended just four weeks after the release of the book. It wasn’t a big cheque and I hadn’t been expecting one at all. I was, after the positive reviews, expecting more books to have sold over the course of the past year than it appears did.

Weird, huh?

To that end, I’m seeking the help of readers of the blog (come on, there’s gotta be a dozen of you). I want to start a revolution in sales. I’m talking big here. I’m thinking about one of those ‘get a hundred thousand likes and my wife will let me buy a Harley’ kind of campaigns. Hell, if people help me get enough sales, I’ll buy a Harley and take you all for rides on it. I’ve even started a Facebook page, because what I’ve learned is that any problem you want solved can be by creating a Facebook page. So you can help by going to the page and ‘liking’ it. If they install a ‘really like’ it button, all’s the better.

I know, I know, Facebook alone won’t sell the book (if it was that powerful, Facebook would be trading above, not below, its IPO price of $38.00.

But here’s what you can do and it won’t cost you anything (okay, maybe a few minutes of your time but beyond that – free). Probably I’m not supposed to encourage the borrowing of my books but if they’re being borrowed from libraries, that’s a great thing. Thus, if you don’t already own a copy, and have no plans to (remember – I deliver!), you can help by checking with your public library branch to see if they have a copy. And if they don’t – request it.

It’s an amazing thing about our public libraries. Unlike so many government services, they listen to the requests of their citizens. If they don’t have a copy of the book for which you’re looking, most often they’ll get it. And whether it’s purchased by a library or an individual – the publisher still sees it as a demand for the book.

And here’s where you can really help: if you’re not local to the Vancouver area – or you know people across Canada who aren’t – please spread the word, either through liking and sharing the Facebook page (seriously – I just figured out how to make the page – I’m pretty excited) or sharing this post.

Let’s start this library revolution and make it big. There are over three thousand public libraries in Canada, more branches than McDonald’s restaurants – definitely something to celebrate. If every branch had at least two copies of Last Dance and Deadly Lessons, both books would be easily propelled into ‘bestseller’ category – a bestseller in Canada being 5,000 copies.

Too ambitious? How about one copy? What if a thousand library branches each had a copy? How about five hundred? I’m willing to modify my revolution.

But I need your help and the help of hundreds of readers like you. Haven’t you always wanted to be part of something big? This could be your chance.

I’ll even buy the lattes.

Next week: Deadly Lessons – the origin story – Part II.

Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT

Updated: Friday, 24 May 2013 10:46 PM PDT

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As I determine things about writing about which to write each week, I have thought, and stated, it might be interesting to talk about the origins of one of my novels, Deadly Lessons. I keep threatening to talk about where it came from, lest it inspires soomeone with the kernel of a story to grow it into a cob.

Yeah, I heard it too. I'm not convinced of the efficacy of that metaphor either.

Each time I mention it, and I recognize I've promised/threatened to do so in a number of previous columns, I wonder about how much I should tell, worrying, given the original intent of this weekly blog column is to drive readers to my books, that I might give away too much of the story in my description of its creation process and thus make people not bother to read it.

That said, the other day I received a statement about how many books I've sold (much more about that next week) and it may be a moot point. Thus, with no further ado, Deadly Lessons:the genesis.

I've talked before about some of my early writing days, fancying myself as a television or movie writer before I ventured down the novel path. In those days of yore before we even owned a laptop, I wrote by hand on yellow legal paper (I can't bring myself to write on white paper - surely an early OCD sign I didn't recognize at the time), often times while substitute teaching in classes I was either unqualified to teach or in which the teacher had left me absolutely no work to do with his or her students (it happens). One can only watch so many videos about single cell mitosis (that may or not be a real thing - I wasn't paying that much attention and I failed eleventh grade biology) before one's head is ready to explode.

As I settled into a full time teaching career my written output diminished for a few years while I found my teaching legs (I like to think I eventually found them - there are probaly at least dozens of former students who would challenge that assertion). As I became at least somewhat more efficient I found I could carve out time to return to creative endeavours and I developed a number of scripts and teleplays.

An old improv friend of mine became a screenwriters' and directors' agent in Los Angeles. We chatted frequently by phone about stories I was developing, which ones showed promise, which ones needed a whole lot more work. At the time, Fox had a show set in a Boston high school. My agent friend thought this seemed like gold: here was a series set in a high school and here was I, a high school teacher who wrote. I, of course, wanted to agree with her, refusing to believe there could be many frustrated writer-teachers out there; Paul Giamatti's Sideways character and I must surely be the only ones.

While Laura tried to get me a pitch meeting only with David E. Kelley, the uber-producer of the time with three television series running concurrently on major networks, I kept plugging away at story ideas, including one that contained the basic story elements of what would become Deadly Lessons. To be sure, I originally envisioned the story as an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, then in about its third season. But if David Kelley wanted it, I could make it happen; it was, after all, set in a high school.

As Laura ran into roadblocks on the road to my screenwriting fame, it occurred to her as we discussed the story idea that it was too involved, too complex for an episode of a television series. She asked where the story had come from and I told her. "You know," she told me. "You'd be so much easier to sell as a writer if you had written a book. Telling producers you were an author who wanted to write for television would be so much better than just pitching you as a baby producer. Can you write that as a book?"

"I'll give it a shot."

Next week: a sales pitch.

Two weeks from now (that's right - I'm thinking two weeks ahead!): Deadly Lessons origins - Part II

Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT

Updated: Thursday, 16 May 2013 2:27 PM PDT

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Notwithstanding how not terribly productive I have been on W3.doc of late (an update on that later), I have ambitions about the work I plan to write.

I have mentioned on other occasions that I have storylines for two more Winston Patrick novels after W3.doc finally is completed (notice the passive voice? man, talk about a fear of commitment!). They’re not formally outlined but the major plotlines are there. And certainly new story ideas pop up regularly so I’m confident I can keep Winston alive for a good while yet.

And like my colleague (hey, I’ve got two books out I can call him a colleague!) Robert Crais I do wish to write an ‘Andrea Pearson’ mystery, a novel written from the perspective of Winston’s best friend Andrea in which Winston becomes the sidekick or has even just a cameo appearance or two.

At some point I may also have mentioned a novel I began back in 2003. At the time, my wife and I were traveling in Italy, which, as we know, inspires people to write. Thus, while I was well underway with Last Dance I began writing a political thriller set in Venice and in Canada. So excited was I by the story that I had handwritten more than fifty pages by the time we got home. For sure I still plan to return to what I’ve taken to referring to as “The Italian Story” (Summit.doc, as it’s known on my laptop). In fact, on the writing agenda, it’s in the batter’s circle right after W3.doc.

But while it’s not exactly in the same genre as a typical mystery, as a political thriller it’s at least in the crime genre. Or at the very least, I kill a lot of people and blow stuff up.

Of late, when my mind has wandered onto new story ideas, I wonder how effectively, or if, I would be able to divorce myself from the crime genre altogether and write in a completely different area.

I wouldn’t be breaking new ground. Plenty of authors have broken free of the restraints of their genre to tackle new subject areas and styles with varying degrees of success. What I wonder is how much readers will accept a writer who moves away from his or her established genre. J.K. Rowling is but one of the most recent and renowned examples. Her Harry Potter series introduced or re-introduced a love of reading to whole generations of young people, so much so fans lined up for hours on end with the release of each new book. I’d be happy if people were willing to stand in line long enough for the next available cashier to buy my book.

But step away from the fantasy literature genre and the critics are not so kind. Of course, the Harry Potter series was so beloved that anything that did not include the bespectacled young wizard was sure to be a tough sell but it does give one pause to wonder if success in one genre limits the possibilities of success in another.

Certainly a pattern appears in that those books outside what readers typically expect of their favourite author are often the least well received. John Grisham, well known for his legal thrillers, strayed from the courtroom with his Skipping Christmas novella to lukewarm reviews at best. He fared somewhat better with Calico Joe, a baseball story, but baseball fans tend to be more forgiving because of their love of the game. In particular, Washington Nationals fans needed something to feel good about and Grisham provided it for them.

I wonder about stepping out in, well, steps, first by writing a crime novel that isn’t set in a school and then by moving away from crime altogether. I have several story ideas that start out as independent of any specific genre that I can identify but as they develop in my mind, and the plot starts to thin out, I find myself looking for someone to kill.

Of course this may say more about me as a person than it does as someone married to the crime writing motif.

Like Grisham and many others before him, I too would love to write in the baseball genre, primarily because I often enjoy reading them so much. But my desire to write one is significantly stronger than my in-depth knowledge of the game and I’m not sure I could convincingly set a story within its confines. Or I might have to start killing off infielders to keep it convincing.

I hesitate to say I’m trapped within the crime genre. I still love it, I still have stories to tell and I haven’t made a real concerted effort to try anything else. And until I start increasing my output it may all be moot anyway, unless of course, writing in a genre completely new to me is the at least part of the magic bullet I need to keep the writer’s block at bay.

W3.doc Update: a few fingers have reached over the top of the wall as I made some limited progress in moving forward with the story this week. Fingers crossed (those not currently hanging on to the wall).

Next week: the Deadly Lessons origin story

Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT

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In recent weeks I've been documenting the struggles I've been having with writer's block. These columns have been like my own twelve-step program, though I had been hoping it wasn't going to be anywhere near twelve weeks before I'd have a major breakthrough. I thought it would be nice to include in each week's post "three weeks without a block." Not exactly anonymous but it might have the same effect.

I don't have any weeks to report yet.

Of late I have been fixating on how long my current novel - W3.doc the current working title, you'll recall - ought to be. Full disclosure: math has never been my strongest suit, and fixating on numbers of words is probably not the best way to overcome whatever anxiety has been keeping me away from the book for as long as I have been. But here are some numbers that have been keeping me up nights:

1) One hundred thousand. This is approximately the number of words I'm figuring that W3.doc ought to be. This is a number I was given by a couple of crime writers who told me with some authority that one hundred thousand is a generally acepted target number for crime novels.

When I turned in Deadly Lessons it came in at 126,000 words. The end product was more or less the same. When I submitted the first draft of Last Dance, it was a whopping 132,000 words. Whether or not there is a hard and fast rule about crime novel word counts, that number was too high. And given the amount of editing that went into it - seriously, I wrote that book about five times - the final version that made it between the covers came in at about twenty thousand words lighter than draft 1. Even still, the published product was about 111,000, which even a reviewer or two highlighted as being on the longish side for this genre.

When I initially found myself beginning to struggle with W3.doc, I took comfort in numbers. If I could bang off one hundred and thirty or so thousand words in Last Dance, a hundred thousand ought to be, well, easy. I'm at twenty-two thousand. A hundred thousand doesn't feel all that close right now. Eighty percent to go.

I took some small measure of comfort when I was speaking at an event a couple of weeks back with fellow crime author and vivacious co-presenter Cathy Ace. During her talk, she indicated her current new release was approximately 89,000 words. Even better: only seventy-five percent to go.

2) Two. Number of Winston Patrick books I already have planned out beyond W3.doc. From the moment I completed Deadly Lessons I knew that I had another book I wanted to write, and not just because the publisher asked me if it was intended as a series and I sensed the correct answer was yes. The fact was that as I wrote the first book I grew very fond Winston and wanted to spend more time with him as he bumbled and fumbled his way not only through becoming a teacher but through whatever crime scenario in which he found himself and for which he was hopelessly unqualified to participate. 

An author I met through a mutual friend told me over dinner one night about the awful pressure he had at one time been under because his contract required him to turn in a sequel in his series by a certain date. He felt the book wasn't ready but he had no choice: his contract demanded he meet the deadline. He believed the second book was horrible as a result. Having read them both prior to our meeting it was hard to disagree, though I said polite things like "Oh no, it maybe wasn't quite as strong but..." He laughed off my earnest politeness with an acknowledgement that being under deadline pressure has potential to undermine the creative process.

Even still, I wonder if even a bit heavier pressure might force me to climb the wall in front of me. 

In much the same way that I was anxious to leave behind Last Dance for W3.doc, the novel that was supposed to write itself. I had the story so nailed down when I rough drafted it out literally in one morning after awakening from a dream that I couldn't wait to get to it.

Eighty thousand words to go.

3) Over 300,000. Number of books published in the United States in 2010. On the one hand, despite what we're hearing about technology having a negative impact on the publishing industry, that's a whole hell of a lot of books. On the other hand, that's an awful lot of print competing for readers and it's possible that's feeding my writer's block anxiety.

4) One thousand. The number of words per day I convinced myself I could consistently write after having one good, productive morning writing session a few weeks back. Really, at a thousand words a day I'd have this puppy done before summertime arrived and when we sojourned to Europe in July I'd be well on my way to a refreshing new book project. Each time I struggle with a sentence and fall off my target my anxiety at triple digit word output seems to slow me down even further.

Still, math phobia notwithstanding, I am remain reasonably convinced a hundred thousand words isn't such an astronomical target. To put it in perspective, each week this column runs between seven to nine hundred words. If I could just produce the equivalent in the book, I'd be there in no time.

Seventy-seven thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight to go.

Next week: the limitations of genre

Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT

Updated: Thursday, 2 May 2013 1:44 PM PDT

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When I speak at book events - and I do, so if you're looking for someone for your book club or writing group, I'm your guy - I'm often asked about what my writing process looks like. I wish that there was some sort of cohesive - hell, even coherent - response. I've heard many different writers talk about many different creative processes; I can't say that I really have any kind of process that consistently could be called a process.

One of the things I find interesting when I talk to other writers is where and under what conditions they write.

Of course, different writers have different needs - or at least perceived needs - for physical space and environment in order to be productive. My preference, at least most of the time, are for quiet, near absolute silence while I'm actually writing, at least when I'm trying to write the novel. Part of my process - some might say 'psychosis' - is a desire for order, cleanliness and lack of clutter before I feel like I can be productive. My work space has a mostly empty desk with only my laptop in front of me. Generally, there are no papers, notebooks, superfluous detritus to get in my psychological way. Call it literary OCD, or an advanced form of procrastination, but clutter causes me anxiety that gets in my way when I'm in creative mode. This is a condition that seems to be progressing with age.

The exception, interestingly, is when I'm writing this column. Often I find I'm writing this in Tim Horton's coffee shop while my daughter is in gymnastics class. Clearly this isn't the silent environment of the home office and believe, my desire for snobbery wants to shun it for the nearest Starbucks or Blenz but its proximity to the gym and the brevity of the class make it the only option besides sitting at a plastic picnic table in the parent viewing area. My lower back has difficulty with those conditions. This is also a condition that seems to be progressing with age.

Some office workspaces, home or otherwise, make me shudder at the very sight of them. Writers - and accountants, paradoxically - working in what I can only term disastrous workspaces claim there is a method to their madness. Ask them for an artifact or document and they can produce it from the mounds of stuff surrounding them. They just choose not to. This, I sense, is simply the work of a writer too busy or too lazy to create order from their chaos.

I suspect many writers employ some form of home office. Much has been written and shared about the writing spaces of famous authors and other artists. Many share pretty common characteristics, including a warmth and hominess necessary for a place in which they spend such an abundance of time.

Writing in public locations is an increasingly common phenomenon. My friend and fellow scribe Laura Zera has a regular coffee house in which she conducts her creative business. Just try to walk into any Starbucks and not find laptops, iPads and yes, even paper laid out over tables while goodness knows what opus is being created. I generally assume anyone under twenty-one is either doing homework or simply surfing the web, partially because I don't like the thought of that much competition and also because my biases tells me no one that young could possibly have enough life experience to write anything with much meaning.

For certain kinds of writing - and maybe limited to when I'm in certain kinds of moods - I think I could enjoy coffee house writing. It is a careful balance required of background music and noise: too quiet and the public space seems redundant; I may as well write at home. Too loud and it's distracting. And dear God let there be a law passed that only classical or gentle jazz be played (fusion? are you kidding me? I'm trying to write here!). Of course, finding writing time is always a struggle for me; adding travel time to and from the coffee house is just heaping stress upon stress.

Some writers find home writing spaces to be unproductive and to some extent I can relate. Home can provide a host of distractions. Cleaning, vacuuming, cleaning, laundry, cooking, cleaning, doing dishes, re-painting and cleaning can all get in the way of literary output.

Hmmm...this OCD may be getting more serious.

For many, having a writing space that is separate from home is very important. The challenge is making enough of a living from the writing work to warrant the expenditure on office space. I do know a couple of writers who rent an office away from home and keep pretty consistent office hours; they may not conduct business in the regular sense but their process involves leaving the house each day and commuting to a place of work - even if their work hours are in the middle of the night.

I've also known writers who only sometimes feel the need to leave the home space, if for no other reason that the distractions at home are in the short term slowing them down. 'Co-office' spaces seem like a decent compromise here. Living in the suburbs, however, the nearest co-office spaces are a good hour away; seems like the local library could provide me with a temporary workspace with a whole lot less commute. Cheaper, too.

Ideally, I'd love to have that something in between: the small shack at the back of the property, which presumes I have property large enough on which to have alternate buildings. Or the cottage by the lake to which I could escape for a couple of days when hitting a narrative wall that needs some serious scaling. Having it internet-free would probably be an important element to include in such a real estate acquisition.

Still, given the writer's block I've been suffering of late, changing up the writing environment at least periodically may be a good idea. It's possible my painstakingly tidy office is doing ominous things to my psyche. Feel free to buy me a latte should you see my iPad-illuminated face in the corner of your nearest coffee haunt.

Sidebar: last week I set a goal of completing the scene on which I was currently working. I finished it early Tuesday morning.

Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT

Updated: Thursday, 25 April 2013 9:53 AM PDT

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Last week I admitted to an ailment no writer likes to have or admit he or she has: writer's block.

The good news, particularly for fellow scribes who have happened upon this week's column, it's not thought to be contagious; it should be safe to continue reading with no adverse effect on your own literary output.

No, the bad news is all mine – unless, that is, you count the legions of fans waiting with baited breath for my next opus. I’m not sure an angry mob with pitchforks and flaming torches storming my front lawn would necessarily push me over the wall but at this point I’m willing to give it a try.

The internet is rife with sites dedicated to the topic. I’m not sure I take comfort in the knowledge that writer’s block is not only a real thing but real enough that the first google search turns up over fifty-one million hits. It's difficult to imagine there can be that much written with so many obviously suffering from the affliction.

Earlier I mentioned Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, an immensely successful book, website and seminar groups-based program that purports to have unblocked untold thousands from their creative block (it doesn't limit itself to only writer's block - apparently painters and other creative types can get blocked too). It didn't work so well for me but it must work for many, at least based on sales; the book is ranked 1,324th on Amazon's Best Seller's ranking. Last Dance, by comparison, is ranked 3,290,128th. Again, not wildly comforting so many artists are so creatively constipated they're buying Cameron's book in droves. Sure it took over twenty years to make those numbers but that just tells me writer's block isn't something for which modern science has found a cure.

To be fair, I didn't make it through Cameron's entire tomb. Call it commitment problems; maybe if I had I would be writing a different column this week.

The web seems to divide its writer's block discussion into two key groups: those with the 'practical tips' only and those that see writer's block as such a complex phenomenon as to encourage in-depth diagnosis before advocating particular cures. What most have in common is a level of ambiguity that severely limits their effectiveness.

In "The 10 Types of Writer's Block (and How to Overcome Them)", one of the better help sites I've encountered so far, the author attempts to break down the creative blockage into ten distinct categories. Some of the descriptions sound familiar, at least for some of the blocked time, but many of the tips and tricks to break through the wall are resoundingly over simplified. Like many of the fellow sites, much of the advice is of the "just walk away from it for a few days" variety.

Even "famous" writers interviewed about their struggles with creative blocks offer words more of encouragement than treatment, 'just believe in yourself and your story' platitudes that while nice sounding haven't found me increasing my output in front of the computer.

Among the most practical advice sites - at least in utilitarian terms - I encountered offered simple solutions I hope could prove to be fruitful. Some of them have less directly to do with writing but more to do with behaviours to break me out of my routine: stretching, taking a walk, establishing a non-writing ritual behaviour like drinking a glass of water exactly every twenty minutes.

Of course, one of the key parts of my writer's block stems, I think, from a decided lack of a writing routine of late. Indeed, other than this weekly column, my time creative time has been in such sporadic little bursts there really is no routine out of which to break.

One suggestion that's been repeated in quite a number of sites from which I've sought help is to try writing in a different location. Moving out of my office, a coffee shop, outdoors, etc. Perhaps having a different creative atmosphere can really stir the creative juices.

I know there is something to be said for establishing a regular, consistent writing routine. For some time, it involved getting up very early in the morning and writing for an hour or two before the craziness of the day job workday began. Of late, that hasn't been happening, principally because my sleeping abilities have deteriorated in the past number of months (yes, that does sound like Winston Patrick). The challenge of sleep may be caused, in part, by my lack of writing and what that's doing to my psyche. It's kind of a vicious cycle.

Still, it may be worth the push. If I'm not sleeping anyway, I may as well force myself out of bed early and see what, if anything, I can get accomplished. Perhaps I'll even make myself more tired in the process and reverse the cycle. One can hope.

For now, I'll set a goal to achieve by next week's column: I will complete the scene on which I am currently working in W3.doc. Be nice to see if I can push this snowball downhill for a change.

Next week: what makes for the best writing space?

Posted by davidrussellbc at 12:01 AM PDT

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I don't normally do politics on this blog but I used to write a regular column on Canadian Politics for Suite101, an early online magazine and article publisher. I wrote this piece about then Alberta premier Ralph Klein in 2004. Given Mr. Klein's passing last Friday, I thought I'd re-post it. Hope you enjoy. 

Not to worry - my regular writing column will appear this Thursday as usual. 

The Tao of Ralph 

 He's done it again.

For the fourth consecutive election, on November 22 Premier Ralph Klein of Alberta brought his provincial Tory party to a resounding majority in the Alberta Legislature.  Oh sure, the size of the majority has been reduced - slightly.  But that's quibbling: the fact remains 'Rowdy Ralph' has led his party to four victories personally, while his party is celebrating its tenth consecutive electoral victory in the nation's most prosperous province.

Naysayers may argue the Albertan Tories have primarily cashed in on the electoral dearth of serious strong alternatives and there's an element of truth to that notion: can  you name the current Liberal or New Democrat leader in the province?  For that matter, can you name any Grit or NDP member of the Alberta legislature for the past ten years?  Twenty?  Ever?

Fair rhetorical comment but ask yourself the similar question of Mr. Klein's own party: other than its legendary leader can how many other Conservative MLA's stumble immediately off the tongue?

What is it about Mr. Klein that endears him so to the electorate?  What is that je ne sais quois quality - though he'd never call it that - that makes him so compelling a figure not only in provincial politics but also influential on the national stage?

On the surface it may be a cinch to define.  Straight-talking to the point of boorishness, its easy to assert that Klein's willingness to say what he's thinking - or speak when he clearly hasn't been thinking - appeals to a populace, tired of the ethos of the eastern intelligentsia, who want their politicians to cut to the chase, eliminate the bull and say what they mean.

But that's an oversimplification not only of the man but also of the Albertan.  To much of the rest of the country, Alberta is viewed through a Bonanza lens as some kind of wild west, comparatively lawless, cultureless wasteland.  Klein, with his swaggering, bravado style (who can forget the talk of building a metaphorical wall around the ranch...er...province) and occasional apparent alcohol induced pronouncements - once making an impromptu stop at a homeless shelter on the way home from a dinner event and loudly slurring to a shelter's inhabitant to 'get a job!' - often does little to assuage the stereotype.

But Alberta is more than tumbleweeds and people who drive only really large vehicles and view Shania Twain as a serious artist.  This is also the province of figure skater Kurt Browning, renowned Royal Ballet dancer Lynn Seymour, journalist Arthur Kent, folk singer Joni Mitchell, writers as diverse as W.P. Kinsella and Sharon Pollock, Emily Murphy and the rest of the Famous Five who blazed the way for women's rights in Canada.

Hardly a hillbilly haven.

In national politics, Klein's confrontational style has often earned him the scorn of political parties of all opposition stripes.  In the last federal election, KIein's unannounced, hypothetical plans for reforms to the interpretation of the Canada Health Act in Alberta - putting aside the fact the Act is a federal jurisdiction - became a platform in the Paul Martin's campaign.  The NDP's Jack Layton and the Bloc's Gilles Duceppe even went out of their way to attack Klein, despite the fact Klein wasn't even running.

Even the media couldn't resist attaching itself to the Albertan leader, dogging him for his thoughts on how Canada's health care system needed to be fixed and pestering him to see what kind of advice he was offering to federal Conservative leader Stephen Harper, as though Klein was the grand old sage every Conservative politician turned to for electoral advice. 

Yet Klein, often portrayed by the rest of Canada as the chief cowboy, has consistently won the confidence of Albertans for nearly a quarter century since first being elected mayor of Calgary in 1980.  And immediately upon being elected to the Alberta Legislature under Peter Lougheed  he headed the environment ministry where, contrary to the pistol shooting oil baron he is often the described as, enacted some of Alberta's most progressive environmental legislation it had seen to date or since.

Clearly Klein has much more under his Stetson than that for which he is given credit.  Unlike politics in, say, British Columbia, where the ideological swings are enough to make one seasick , Klein and his Tory party have navigated the much more varied constituencies of the province with more political savvy than most. 

To the conservative base: focus on business expansion and being the first to eliminate the provincial debt.  To the more centrist: as the profits have increased from booming oil and gas sectors, an increased commitment to funding public schools and universities and permitting some of the greatest freedom for educational innovation in the country.  

Still, longevity in office does tend to breed complacency.  It's part of the reason the Americans are such fans of term limits at almost all levels of government.  Klein's pathetically lackluster performance during the campaign showed a leader whose political acumen was in need of a shakeup, and the loss of sixteen seats in this government over the last sends a message to the Tories the needs of the electorate were not being met by a party that may have drifted too far to the right for an increasingly diverse population. 

And most importantly, in the next couple of years, the Tories need to find someone with as much charisma, cachet and political sharpness to capture the imagination of Albertans and the rest of the country in the same way, as Ralph Klein prepares to ride off into the electoral sunset before his final term is done.

Posted by davidrussellbc at 8:32 PM PDT

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