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New blog post: newspaper coverage for Cataline book

I really appreciated being interviewed the Quesnel Cariboo Observer Lindsay Chung earlier this year. Lindsay is away from her editor’s post for a while.

A quote from the 22 July 2020 issue of the Quesnel Cariboo Observer issue says, “At the start of the pandemic, Cariboo Observer editor Lindsay Chung — also a Canadian Ranger — was summoned for active duty. Chung answered that call for assistance from the Canadian Rangers but is expected to be back at her editor’s chair in September.” I knew Lindsay was an impressive young woman, she was a great interviewer.

To read Lindsay’s original article, click here.

I was also really honoured to have my book reviewed in the Vancouver Sun, and apparently, the review got syndicated to a lot of other newspapers as well. Tom Sandborn, the author of the review, said: “Cataline would be an ideal protagonist for an adventure movie. His long hair and beard, the Mexican throwing knife tucked into his boot, his broken English, and his extraordinary skill at training and using pack animals over rugged terrain all made him a colourful and memorable figure.”

To read the whole review, click here. I’d only read the review online so I was very pleased when someone (OK, it was my mom) gave me an actual physical newspaper with the review. Here I am (below), proudly holding up a copy of the review. For an author, a review means so much! So if you want to help out any author, leave a review on your own blog, or on Amazon or on Goodreads. It costs nothing and means the world to people who write books. I have to say that the review on my Amazon page is unusual, but appreciated nevertheless!

Book review: Packer Cataline a strong and reliable B.C. pioneer. Reviewed in The Vancouver Sun, July 3, 2020. Review by Tom Sandborn.
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New Blog Post: radio interview on CBC’s Daybreak North

If you’re up and about on Monday July 20, I will be on CBC’s Daybreak North at 8:15 am discussing the book ‘Cataline: The Life of BC’s Legendary Packer’. I’m looking forward to my interview with Wil Fundal so tune in to 91.5 FM.

Edit UPDATE, July 20: Here’s a link to the interview in case you missed it:

I was on @daybreaknorth this morning to talk about the life of famous mule train packer, CATALINE https://cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-109/clip/15787990… (starts at 51:45)

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New blog post: BC Bestseller List

I was so happy to see that the book “Cataline: The Life of BC’s Legendary Packer” debuted on the May 16 BC Bestseller List.

To be in such company as Robert Budd, Roy Henry Vickers, Richard Wagamese, Ken Mather and many more, is a true honour.

Now, nine weeks later, the book is still on the list and has fluctuated up and down, currently at #5.

The BC Bestseller list is compiled by Read Local BC, “which is a project from the Association of Book Publishers of BC that celebrates the vibrant community of authors, publishers, bookstores, and libraries that make up our province’s literary landscape.”

Thank you to everyone who purchased this book, thank you also to the booksellers and to Caitlin Press staff who have done such a great job of promotion, as well.

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New blog post: My Writing Day

Writers often get asked about their writing routines and schedules. I do only have one steadfast rule, and that is to write something every day.

That being said, when writer and editor Rob McLennan asked me a few months ago to be a part of his ‘my (smallpress) writingday’ blog I was happy to contribute and participate.

My desk. Note the whiteboard calendar, which I stopped writing on in March 2020. I haven’t scheduled anything since then! The handsome gentleman in the front of the calendar is my grandad, Thomas Farrow Smith. The dog is Penny. Yes, that is snow outside.

If you know a writer who would like to submit his/her/their “writing day” description, contact Rob at rob_mclennan@hotmail.com

To check out my submission, click here.

One thing I’ve changed about my writing day is the introduction of an ongoing notebook of things I’ve done and stuff I have to do. One the left-hand side of the page I write the date and everything I did that day for my writing, whether it be contacting someone, researching a topic, transcribing notes, ordering books, reading on my subject, editing something, or working on book promotion. Everything gets written down because it helps me keep track of my activities and, if I have a slow day (I have many!), I can flip back and look at what I’ve done. It encourages me and keeps me motivated. Plus, it generates new ideas.

Then, on the right-hand side of the page I have a To Do list, and I add to it whenever something comes up. And when I finish a task, I cross it out and write DONE. Very satisfying.

I’m not the most organized person, so I have to find ways that work for me. Researching and writing a book isn’t done just by one person, it takes a team of people. Granted, the author is the one coordinating everything, and, initially spending time and money getting the project off the ground. So, with all the different aspects that need to be wrangled, I find that keeping a record of my activities in the notebook really helps.

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New Blog Post: Cataline’s Last Days

Jean ‘Cataline’ Caux lived a full and varied life in the new province of British Columbia. After running pack trains up and down the province for more than 50 years, Cataline retired to Hazelton to live out his days.

He had many friends there, and they looked after him. These were the days before pensions and universal health care. However, Cataline was lucky to be in Hazelton because there was a subscription service (a form of health insurance) to the Hazelton Hospital.

A new book, ‘Service on the Skeena: Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician’ by Geoff Mynett mentions Cataline (page 250):

“The old packer Cataline died in 1922. He had always said that he did not like hospitals and that people only went there to die. Despite such talk, though, he had in fact contributed to the hospital’s appeals for donations over the years. He had resisted going there for as long as he could. His friend Sperry Cline took him eventually, grumbling, and groaning an, and there he did die.”

“They buried him in the cemetery on top of the bluff. Horace and Cataline were hardly friends, but Cataline was a link to the distant pass, to the days when Hazelton was cut off from the outside world for four or five months of the year. H was, moreover, a link to the gold rush days of the middle of the previous century.”

Find A Grave, an online collection of gravesites and cemeteries, has a listing for Cataline. He is buried in Gitanmaax Cemetery in Hazelton, British Columbia.