30 ~ Friday. June 4, 1999 ~ North Shore News Plans to Fram Page 17 “Elearned a lot very, very quickly. Fortunately, having worked in law offices, Pim not intimidated by long, detailed lists of things to do and Pm not afraid of docu- ments. Tt took me twenty minutes to incorporate myself. I made a few mis- takes in the production process, but you learn from them and do better next time. The important thing is to be doing something you love, something you have a passion for.” That passion has to be strong cnough to drive you beyond the solitary realm of the writer into the market- place as your own agent, distributor, sales rep, not to mention designer and layout person to cut pre-press costs. McDevitt relished ir all. Having persuaded some bookstores to carry The Last Enemy, notably Duthics’ original Robson St. Jocation, a store legendary for its sup- port of local writers, McDevitt .chafed at the notion of waiting around for the world to recognize her genius and beat a path to her door. “I thought, why not bear a path to theirs? After all, I’m the one with books to sell. So, in addition to giv- ing readings and talks to readers and writers clubs at North Shore libraries, she literally took it to the streets. Loading saddlcbags of books on her big white Standard Poodle, Jazz, she hit the road and started knocking on doors in an ever-widening circle whose mid-point is her own Westview neighbourhood. “Going door to door seemed like a strange thing to do at the time. There were all these: stories in the news about home invasions. I thought I’d get shot or something. I took Jazz with . me originally because I was scared. Yet I have to say people on the North Shore have been absolutely won- derful. Not a single person has been rude to me. I've been invited into peoples homes, given tea or coffee, and told enough family sto- rics to fill volumes. A lot of people had parents or grandparents who lived through World War One and they’ve shared their sto- ries and mementoes with me. I’ve held the bugle that sounded the charge at Vimy Ridge. it’s in a house here in North Van. I’ve had retired printers give me kindly advice about book layout. Evervone’s been incredibly polite and sup- portive. I’ve sold about five hundred books that way.” UBC hosting writers for duly session THE Booming Ground Summer Writers Community at UBC is now accepting applications from writers who are interested in study- ing with master teachers Guy Vanderhaeghe, Anita Rau Badami, Dionne Brand, Tomson Highway, Paula Mechan and Silver Donald Cameron. For more information, picase contact Andrew Gray at 822- 2469, expand That's a figure that would make most small ta mid-size B.C. publishers sit up and take notice. “And the walk- ing keeps me fit.” Fit and wet. As she is quick to point out, last win- ter the North Shore enjoyed almost double the normal annual rainfall, accompanied by fifteen days of the heavi- est wind in twenty vears. She can quote millimetres and kilometres per hour. You take an interest when you're out in it, Hemingway always ‘advised young writers that a good book should have Slots of weather in it,” so the experience probably won't go to waste. On the other hand, McDevitt sug- gests, “You could headline this piece, Get This Woman Off The Streets!”. Undaunted by the weath- er, or by anything else, McDevitt is putting the shine on a second novel and has just published her own second book, Four Legs and a Tale, (Boomer Publications). A contributor to Douglas & MelIntyre’s great anthology of pet sto- ties, How I Learned How to Speak Dag & Other Stories, McDevitt began writing down short tales about her relationship with Jazz, the personable pack-poodle, and their relationships with assorted cats. They grew into a book, which she field- tested on a friend with unexpected results. “I never intended this to be a children’s book, but my business friend’s seven-year-old son got hold of it, disappeared into his room for a week, came out to ask about a few words he didn’t understand, and apparently spent the rest of the time reading, wiggling and hooting with laughter.” In the future, MeDevitt plans to expand Boomer Publications beyond her own output and begin pub- lishing other writers. When she does, she will very likely succeed because she’s paid her dues, gone out to the front line and “over the top,” learned everything about publishing from the desktop to the doorbell the hard way and survived, sense of humour and idealism intact. Her web site welcomes electronic drop-ins at . Slug-mail should be addressed to P.O. Box 75529, 3034 Edgemont Blvd, North Vancouver, B.C. V74-4X1, The Last Enemy will run you a well-spent $18.50 at bookstores. If you can’t browbeat your local book- store into ordering it, call 904-5634 to order by mail. And the next time vour doorbell rings and you look out the window, if there’s a large white Standard Poodle on the porch wearing sad- dlebags, get down there quick even if you've already read the book. Years from _ now, you'll be able to dine out on the “I knew her when” story. AVALON INSURANCE yo? [MVioveD! 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