Ongoing Legacy Featured Artist
I first encountered the music of Stan Rogers through dance. Specifically through Morris dancing, which is old English folk dance that Stan called "delightfully goofy". After a few hours of heavy dancing, Morris dancers inevitably wind up at the local (or nearest - they're not particular, so long as it's licensed) pub. Once refreshed by a pint, or in my case, a cold Pinot Gris, inevitably someone would begin singing. As inevitably, someone would call for a Stan Rogers tune - usually Barrett's Privateers -- but occasionally The Mary Ellen Carter, or The Idiot, which we had also choreographed a dance to. I eventually purchased his CDs and they became favourites of my husband and mine.
I have been trying to get a career as a fiction writer off the ground. Last year I placed 2nd in the Science Fiction Writers Of Earth (SFWoE) global short story contest. I knew I wanted to write something for this year's contest and I knew I wanted it set in the Montérégie region of Quebec, where I'd grown up, but had absolutely no ideas beyond that.
My winning story last year had been inspired by a Canadian folktale so that seemed the logical place to begin searching for inspiration. I spent an entire weekend reading poetry, legends and ghost stories while listening to folk songs - to no avail. I was as dry as a Morrisman without a pub.
Then that Sunday evening, while participating in a Taoist Tai Chi meditation class, at just about the same moment my feet went numb from sitting so long in a half-lotus, it came to me. What if the farmer's wife in Stan Rogers' song "Lies" had a magic mirror? With that thought the whole story tumbled into my brain. Her name, Marie-Hélène, is a nod at another Stan Rogers song, "The Mary Ellen Carter". I threw in a dash of Snow-White and a pinch of barely remembered French Canadian fairytale and stirred. Mirror, Mirror was born. I submitted it to the Science Fiction Writer's Of Earth 2003 short story contest and learned it won first prize in February 04.
I like the idea of weaving our legends and folksongs into my stories. It's very gratifying to share our culture with a global audience and I hope this award will bring a new audience to his music. I'm especially tickled to be acknowledged on this 'legacy' page.
Learn more at gkierans.com.