Icelandic Roots Book Club returns on January 9, 2025. Our host, Heather, will be featuring The Writing Place with the author, Sharron Arksey. Sharron is also a member and volunteer with Icelandic Roots. Please join us.
By Heather Goodman Lytwyn
Sharron Arksey is a graduate of the Ryerson School of Journalism, now known as the Toronto Metropolitan University, in Toronto, Ontario. Her career included working for several years as a reporter and photographer in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. She also worked for Lögberg-Heimskringla as a writer and editor when it was weekly periodical where some articles were written in Icelandic, the rest in English. Sharron's weekly column “Rural Routes" appeared in local Manitoba community newspapers for 25 years. The articles from her column were compiled and published.
Most recently, Sharron did a series on Icelandic folklore with information gleaned from the “Icelandic Folklore in a European Context” course she took at the University of Manitoba in its 2020 fall session. She has also written for Icelandic Connection and joined the board of that organization in 2020. In addition to non-fiction, she has published fiction and poetry in several literary magazines.
Her debut novel, The Waiting Place, published in 2016, was celebrated in a book launch at the McNally Robinson Book Store in Winnipeg. Her book was a finalist in the 2017 High Plains Book Awards in two categories: (1) First Novel and (2) Woman Writer. Alfreda Jónsdóttir, author, wrote a review in Goodreads which began: “Sharron, I really enjoyed reading your book. You have a wonderful sense of humour.” I agree!!
Besides being a journalist and an author, Sharron inspires others to write. The past two years, she has developed and instructed the Icelandic Roots Memoir Writing Course. The first course six weeks long and was held in Winter of 2023, with the second course in Winter 2024. There is another Memoir Writing Course being offered this Winter in 2025.
A writer is often challenged with connecting the reader to the story's setting. A few lines from The Waiting Place demonstrates Sharron’s skill at doing just that:
I hear a vehicle coming behind me and know without turning around that it is our red Ford half-ton. I move over to the side of the gravel road, dusty prairie grass lightly flouring my shoes. (p50)
I watch the ditches and fields as we drive the four miles to the north pasture. Mid-July and the vivid colours of spring have lost their clarity. Mottled green leaves hang in a sun-drenched haze. The heat clings to the day with sticky fingers...
The freshly-cut hay in the fields smells like honey with a hint of mint. I breathe it in with pleasure….
I just walk, senses soaking in the sky, and the ground and the space in between. The silence is a comfort rather than a void that needs filling. (p51)
The setting for The Waiting Place is one Sharron knows first hand. It proves the adage, “write about what you know.” Because of her life experiences, we begin to see the challenges that farmers and ranchers are up against. We also learn about the rich rewards when one is connected to the land. Then add Sharron's humour. It keeps us enjoying the variety of fictional characters that seem real and are very believable.
This novel is a great escape from the long dark nights of winter. You won't want to put it down, so give yourself the luxury of a few hours with the main character as she awaits a life changing event and reflects on her life.
Where to find it? Check your libraries. It is available in Canada at McNally’s, Chapters, Amazon.ca and from the publisher, Turnstone. From the United States, it is also available as an e-book through Amazon.com, or Barnes and Noble. In addition there are a few used copies available at AbeBooks.
Please join me when I host Sharron for our first Icelandic Roots Book Club of 2025 on Thursday, January 9th at 7 pm CST. The link to connect will be sent in the Samkoma newsletter for Members on Wednesday, January 8th.
Until then, Happy New Year and happy reading.