Thoughts on publishing so far

A friend asked me yesterday how I liked being a writer.

I said that in the self-publishing realm, at least, I felt that I was a writer about 3 years ago but in the last two I was not so sure. In 2022, I was a producer and publisher, making decisions about everything from font size and type to colours to pricing. This past year - 2023 - I feel most like a travelling salesman, and delivery driver.

For all that, I learned a lot about producing a book, and also about Indigenous matters, the wonders of Alberta, and the NWT, and myself. 

Today, another friend suggested that writing A Métis Man's Dream was a personal act of reconciliation on my part, which I had not considered before. I will need to think about this further, and more deeply. My main concern in writing about Gordon Gill's life was with appropriating Gordon's story. That's why Gordon's oral history From Traplines to Tugboats component was such a crucial element of the book for me.