Speaker: Jeanette Taylor
You've collected a cabinet full of records about your ancestors: who begot who, conflicting dates galore, family portraits, and a few surprising revelations of misdeeds and deprivation. And now you want to produce a book for family that’s guaranteed not to sit on your cousin’s top shelf collecting dust.
Historian/writer Jeanette Taylor will delve into the secrets of selecting compelling strands of historical information, using an understanding of what constitutes the classic forms of storytelling. “Specific details about people with dreams and obstacles is what sticks,” says Taylor, who will talk about how stories trigger readers’ brains.
There will be a short writing exercise, so bring a notebook or laptop. Taylor will follow her presentation with a reading list for further study.
Jeanette Taylor has written four books chronicling BC coastal history, including Tidal Passages, A History of the Discovery Islands, which remained on the BC Bestseller list for nearly a year. Harbour Publishing will release her fifth book, Sheltering in the Backrush, a History of Twin Islands, this spring.
Taylor was formerly on the curatorial team at the Museum at Campbell River. She teaches fiction and nonfiction writing workshops via Zoom and is currently writing historical fiction and a nonfiction history of the Broughton Islands and Mainland inlets. She leads BC heritage sites tours aboard the historic Columbia III, for Mothership Adventures.