The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Northern Author Returns Home Experiences, education, parenting, and environment _ they all blend equally in making us who we are. Experiences provide life lessons, education our thought and reasoning process, and parenting our values, empathy and priorities. And our environment is where we put it all together, a place where we enjoy, practice and learn. Snow Lake was that place for northern author Michelle Grimmelt. It was the place that framed her dreams and aspirations and fostered the accepting and introspective woman she would become. On the last weekend of June, Grimmelt returned to the community where she was raised and brought with her a long-promised and eagerly anticipated chronicle of her childhood years in Snow Lake. Grimmelt launched The Aura of the North, her first book, in the presence of a crowd of Snow Lakers, many of whom have known her most of her life. The launch and reading took place in the beverage room of the Snow Lake Motor Inn. Behind a red-draped table adorned with copies of her book and scattered with nickels ('Nickle' is her nickname), Grimmelt sat between her older brother Ben and father Bernie. Michelle thanked a number of people prior to addressing the book of short stories and how she came up with the title, The Aura of the North. 'After I had penned The Nights of the Red Wolf (one of the book's short stories), I felt, well, I might be on to something here,' she explained. 'I wanted to tell people about the magic and the wonder of growing up in northern Manitoba, in particular Snow Lake. About the culture at the time, with no radio, no television, and certainly no computers. 'And I wanted to write a story about the Northern LightsÉ because we were so blessed to grow up under the Northern Lights. Millions of people will never see them in their lifetime and it was just a staple of our childhood, like pickerel and moose meat. 'I tried to write the story and I couldn't get itÉ and this was over the course of about three years. I went on to write other things, but it was always in the back of my mind. 'By that time, we'd moved to Winnipegosis and one day the power went out and was out for about five or six hours. The following day, I was talking to my mom and telling her about the power failure and she said that a moose must have scratched his arse on a hydro poleÉ See 'Itchy' on pg. Continued from pg. 'I asked her what she was talking about and she said, 'Your dad always said whenever a moose scratched his arse on a hydro pole, the lights would go out.' Bingo. I headed for my PC and wrote The Aura of the North.' With that, Michelle read from the title story. She began and ended with the full attention of the room and gave everyone just a sample of the enchantment that lies between the covers of her book. There are many people who can relate stories of bygone days, but some, like Michelle, have that rare ability to recall and figuratively relive the past with their words. In her case, words so affecting and beautiful that they bring the story to life and draw the reader into her world. When she'd finished her reading and the applause had subsided, her father Bernie rose and, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, stated with all the bravado of a former Steelworker president, 'Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters of Snow Lake, I want you to know that I've not come back to Snow Lake to ask you to go on strike _ this time!' After the laughter diminished, Michelle advised the assemblage, 'So I brought my book home, because this is where it needs to start its journey into the world.' She advised that it was on sale that afternoon, was available later through Sweet Nothings and that a fall launch was planned for McNally Robinson in Winnipeg's Grant Park Mall. She invited everyone from home to come to that one. Those in attendance were then invited to enjoy some finger food and Michelle spent an hour or so signing copies of her book and answering questions, while folks listened to the acoustic and vocal variations of the one and only Rocky McLeod. My Take on Snow Lake runs Fridays.
