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Literary couples
25 BC couples who both write books
Roderick & Jean Barman (Vancouver)
Audrey & Paul Grescoe (Bowen Island)
Terence & Patricia Young (Victoria)
Pat & Ron Smith (Lantzville)
David & Andrea Spalding (Pender Island)
DIFFERENT SURNAMES:
Stephen Reid & Susan Musgrave (Haida Gwaii)
Brad Cran & Gillian Jerome (Vancouver)
Sharon Brown & Andreas Schroeder (Roberts Creek)
Dede Crane & Bill Gaston (Victoria)
Mark Zuehlke & Frances Backhouse (Victoria)
Alicia Priest & Ben Parfitt (Victoria)
Patrick Friesen & Eve Joseph (Brentwood Bay)
Susan Mayse & Stephen Hume (Victoria)
Gary Geddes & Ann Eriksson (Thetis Island)
J.B. MacKinnon & Alisa Smith (Vancouver)
Michael Kluckner & Christine Allan (Vancouver)
Teresa Kishkan & John Pass (Pender Harbour)
Robert Bringhurst & Jan Zwicky (Quadra Island)
Lorna Crozier & Patrick Lane (Victoria)
Frank White & Edith Iglauer (Pender Harbour)
Ernest Hekkanen & Margrith Schraner (Nelson)
Robert Hilles & Pearl Luke (Saltspring Island)
Celine Rich & Julian Darley (Vancouver)
Michael Elcock & Marilyn Bowering (Sooke)
Ajmer Rode and Surjeet Kalsey (Vancouver)
Battles & beavers
A diligent duo digs deep into thoroughly Canadian subjects-working independently of one another
Lots of B.C. writers are married to B.C. writers - there are at least twenty such couples - but the majority, like Mark Zuehlke and Frances Backhouse, retain different surnames.
Backhouse and Zuehlke became life partners after they met twenty years ago, through the Periodical Writers of Canada local chapter. Disciplined and productive, they now approach writing as a challenging daytime job, keeping most weekends free for outdoor recreation.
"Mark and Frances are dream clients,"; says their agent, Carolyn Swayze. "They are true professionals in the very best way-ethical, diligent and dedicated.";
Neither writer seeks the limelight. Few would recognize them as a power couple, even though they have written 33 books. Their travel is usually related to book research or promotion and their lives follow publishing seasons and schedules.
The couple shares a renovated heritage home and flourishing garden in the Fernwood district of Victoria. Having just completed another World War II battle history, Zuehlke is preparing for a national reading tour while planning his next book about a trek though Sicily; Backhouse is well into a manuscript about Canadians' long relationship with the beaver.
Zuehlke, from the Okanagan, had trained and worked as a journalist and also taught writing. Then he moved east to earn a history degree; Backhouse, from Ontario, had trained and worked as a biologist, then taught high school in Malawi with the World University Service of Canada.
Each resettled in Victoria, freelancing for magazines while writing historical books. They bonded over manuscript drafts, plus hiking, biking and kayaking around Vancouver Island.
In the 1990s, Mark Zuehlke mostly wrote regional reference volumes, but he also began to write history, completing popular studies of western Canadian remittance men and Canadians who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Zuehlke's uncle had been in combat with the Canadian army, operating tanks in Italy, and told stories about his experiences. Later Zuehlke was listening to a veteran describing the battle of Ortona. He thought, "Why don't I know anything about this?"; He searched for a history, found none, and resolved to tell it himself. He plunged in, traveling to Italy to research. As he asserts, "You can't write about battles without walking the battlefields.";
With his best-selling Canadian Battle series, now boasting a dozen titles, Zuehlke is now widely regarded as one of Canada's pre-eminent World War II historians.
Beginning in 2000, Zuehlke also ventured into fiction with a trio of mystery novels set in Tofino. Mild-mannered coroner Elias McCann enjoys a relationship with Cambodian businesswoman Vhanna Chan. He sets out to solve murders committed in his windswept beach bailiwick. Zuehlke writes without plot lines. As he puts it, "I've got a character, and suddenly there's a situation, and away we go!"; He hints there may be more McCann episodes to come.
Zuehlke's new Forgotten Victory: First Canadian Army and the Cruel Winter of 1944-45 (D&M $37.95) details several bitter operations that pushed German forces east out of the Rhineland. With limited aerial and armoured support, the Canadians mostly slogged through muddy fields and forests to assault entrenched enemy paratroopers, taking heavy casualties.
Zuehlke's narrative follows Allied and German preparations, then the grinding action on the ground. His epilogue claims that while tactically flawed, those offensives shortened the war in Europe.
During his fall book tour, Zuehlke will visit Ottawa to receive the Governor General's History Award for Popular Media, also known as The Pierre Berton Award. Given that Zuehlke counts Berton's classic Vimy (1985) as a strong influence on his own approach to history, the Berton Award marks an important milestone in his career.
His next book, Through Blood and Sweat, will recount his hiking around Sicily. It will be both a World War II travelogue and "a meditation on remembrance.";
Lately Zuehlke has also contributed to graphic novels, adding text to The Loxleys and the War of 1812 (Renegade Arts Entertainment $19.99) and writing the script for an upcoming title about confederation.
Frances Backhouse has continued to freelance for magazines while producing five history and nature books. She now teaches in the writing department at the University of Victoria alongside one of the province's more widely-known literary couples, Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier. Backhouse has written books about the Klondike gold rush and nature titles about woodpeckers and owls of North America.
Her most recent book, Children of the Klondike (Firefly $19.95), reconstructs the experiences of the youngsters raised in placer camps and boomtowns of the Yukon, more that a century ago. It's a spin-off from her bestselling Women of the Klondike. Coincidentally, while researching, she was writer-in-residence at Berton House Writers' Retreat, in Dawson City.
Backhouse's new natural history work in progress, Once They were Hats, combines her interests in human and natural history. "It's my most personal book to date,"; she says.
Research has included observing beavers in the wild, working with a trapper, attending a fur auction and touring a hat factory. She started with "open-ended curiosity"; and now hopes her book will encourage Canadians to revise their impression of the humble beaver, now considered a keystone species.
While Zuehlke and Backhouse have written about each other, they have never collaborated. They say their methods are too different. Both practice creative non-fiction, but Zuehlke pushes ahead in a "free fall technique,"; then edits later, while Backhouse prefers to compose from outlines and edit as she writes.
While they no longer scan each other's drafts, Backhouse muses, "We talk about work a lot-at lunchtime or when we take a break to go for a walk. We're probably the first person we each tell about a new idea. It's great to have that trusted person under the same roof to help make that first foray.";
Forgotten Victory 97817716204136
Loxleys 9780992150808
Children of the Klondike 9781552859506
David R. Conn is a Vancouver-based freelance researcher, writer and editor. He guest edited Raincoast Chronicles 22 (Harbour 2013).
Roderick & Jean Barman (Vancouver)
Audrey & Paul Grescoe (Bowen Island)
Terence & Patricia Young (Victoria)
Pat & Ron Smith (Lantzville)
David & Andrea Spalding (Pender Island)
DIFFERENT SURNAMES:
Stephen Reid & Susan Musgrave (Haida Gwaii)
Brad Cran & Gillian Jerome (Vancouver)
Sharon Brown & Andreas Schroeder (Roberts Creek)
Dede Crane & Bill Gaston (Victoria)
Mark Zuehlke & Frances Backhouse (Victoria)
Alicia Priest & Ben Parfitt (Victoria)
Patrick Friesen & Eve Joseph (Brentwood Bay)
Susan Mayse & Stephen Hume (Victoria)
Gary Geddes & Ann Eriksson (Thetis Island)
J.B. MacKinnon & Alisa Smith (Vancouver)
Michael Kluckner & Christine Allan (Vancouver)
Teresa Kishkan & John Pass (Pender Harbour)
Robert Bringhurst & Jan Zwicky (Quadra Island)
Lorna Crozier & Patrick Lane (Victoria)
Frank White & Edith Iglauer (Pender Harbour)
Ernest Hekkanen & Margrith Schraner (Nelson)
Robert Hilles & Pearl Luke (Saltspring Island)
Celine Rich & Julian Darley (Vancouver)
Michael Elcock & Marilyn Bowering (Sooke)
Ajmer Rode and Surjeet Kalsey (Vancouver)
Battles & beavers
A diligent duo digs deep into thoroughly Canadian subjects-working independently of one another
Lots of B.C. writers are married to B.C. writers - there are at least twenty such couples - but the majority, like Mark Zuehlke and Frances Backhouse, retain different surnames.
Backhouse and Zuehlke became life partners after they met twenty years ago, through the Periodical Writers of Canada local chapter. Disciplined and productive, they now approach writing as a challenging daytime job, keeping most weekends free for outdoor recreation.
"Mark and Frances are dream clients,"; says their agent, Carolyn Swayze. "They are true professionals in the very best way-ethical, diligent and dedicated.";
Neither writer seeks the limelight. Few would recognize them as a power couple, even though they have written 33 books. Their travel is usually related to book research or promotion and their lives follow publishing seasons and schedules.
The couple shares a renovated heritage home and flourishing garden in the Fernwood district of Victoria. Having just completed another World War II battle history, Zuehlke is preparing for a national reading tour while planning his next book about a trek though Sicily; Backhouse is well into a manuscript about Canadians' long relationship with the beaver.
Zuehlke, from the Okanagan, had trained and worked as a journalist and also taught writing. Then he moved east to earn a history degree; Backhouse, from Ontario, had trained and worked as a biologist, then taught high school in Malawi with the World University Service of Canada.
Each resettled in Victoria, freelancing for magazines while writing historical books. They bonded over manuscript drafts, plus hiking, biking and kayaking around Vancouver Island.
In the 1990s, Mark Zuehlke mostly wrote regional reference volumes, but he also began to write history, completing popular studies of western Canadian remittance men and Canadians who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Zuehlke's uncle had been in combat with the Canadian army, operating tanks in Italy, and told stories about his experiences. Later Zuehlke was listening to a veteran describing the battle of Ortona. He thought, "Why don't I know anything about this?"; He searched for a history, found none, and resolved to tell it himself. He plunged in, traveling to Italy to research. As he asserts, "You can't write about battles without walking the battlefields.";
With his best-selling Canadian Battle series, now boasting a dozen titles, Zuehlke is now widely regarded as one of Canada's pre-eminent World War II historians.
Beginning in 2000, Zuehlke also ventured into fiction with a trio of mystery novels set in Tofino. Mild-mannered coroner Elias McCann enjoys a relationship with Cambodian businesswoman Vhanna Chan. He sets out to solve murders committed in his windswept beach bailiwick. Zuehlke writes without plot lines. As he puts it, "I've got a character, and suddenly there's a situation, and away we go!"; He hints there may be more McCann episodes to come.
Zuehlke's new Forgotten Victory: First Canadian Army and the Cruel Winter of 1944-45 (D&M $37.95) details several bitter operations that pushed German forces east out of the Rhineland. With limited aerial and armoured support, the Canadians mostly slogged through muddy fields and forests to assault entrenched enemy paratroopers, taking heavy casualties.
Zuehlke's narrative follows Allied and German preparations, then the grinding action on the ground. His epilogue claims that while tactically flawed, those offensives shortened the war in Europe.
During his fall book tour, Zuehlke will visit Ottawa to receive the Governor General's History Award for Popular Media, also known as The Pierre Berton Award. Given that Zuehlke counts Berton's classic Vimy (1985) as a strong influence on his own approach to history, the Berton Award marks an important milestone in his career.
His next book, Through Blood and Sweat, will recount his hiking around Sicily. It will be both a World War II travelogue and "a meditation on remembrance.";
Lately Zuehlke has also contributed to graphic novels, adding text to The Loxleys and the War of 1812 (Renegade Arts Entertainment $19.99) and writing the script for an upcoming title about confederation.
Frances Backhouse has continued to freelance for magazines while producing five history and nature books. She now teaches in the writing department at the University of Victoria alongside one of the province's more widely-known literary couples, Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier. Backhouse has written books about the Klondike gold rush and nature titles about woodpeckers and owls of North America.
Her most recent book, Children of the Klondike (Firefly $19.95), reconstructs the experiences of the youngsters raised in placer camps and boomtowns of the Yukon, more that a century ago. It's a spin-off from her bestselling Women of the Klondike. Coincidentally, while researching, she was writer-in-residence at Berton House Writers' Retreat, in Dawson City.
Backhouse's new natural history work in progress, Once They were Hats, combines her interests in human and natural history. "It's my most personal book to date,"; she says.
Research has included observing beavers in the wild, working with a trapper, attending a fur auction and touring a hat factory. She started with "open-ended curiosity"; and now hopes her book will encourage Canadians to revise their impression of the humble beaver, now considered a keystone species.
While Zuehlke and Backhouse have written about each other, they have never collaborated. They say their methods are too different. Both practice creative non-fiction, but Zuehlke pushes ahead in a "free fall technique,"; then edits later, while Backhouse prefers to compose from outlines and edit as she writes.
While they no longer scan each other's drafts, Backhouse muses, "We talk about work a lot-at lunchtime or when we take a break to go for a walk. We're probably the first person we each tell about a new idea. It's great to have that trusted person under the same roof to help make that first foray.";
Forgotten Victory 97817716204136
Loxleys 9780992150808
Children of the Klondike 9781552859506
David R. Conn is a Vancouver-based freelance researcher, writer and editor. He guest edited Raincoast Chronicles 22 (Harbour 2013).
Submitted on November 7, 2014 in By David.
