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Ojibway Chief Stories

Behind Anung’s Journey: Anung’s Journey a Finalist for Book of the Year

What an honor. 'Anung's Journey' is a finalist for the INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award in two categories, Multicultural Fiction and Juvenile Fiction. The book was previously named one of the Top 10 Middle Grade Novels of 2014 by Foreword Reviews. To celebrate, here's the next of the talks I had with Steve Fobister, when he and I were in Winnipeg last November. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN95poP8rQg&w=640&h=480]...

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Behind Anung’s Journey: Steve Talks About Famous Guests

This is part 3 of a six part video series where Carl and Steve Fobister, creators of 'Anung's Journey', talk about their time together and Anung's origins. Watch part 1 & part 2 here! The second fishing camp that Steve and I worked at, Ball Lake Lodge, attracted many famous and near famous guests. Here's a quick video where Steve remembers some of of the most famous. For those of you who were fans of the Cubs, White Sox, and Blackhawks and watched on WGN television, and listened on WGN radio, the announcers Jack Brickhouse, Lyod Petit, and Vince Lyod, were frequent guests as well. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzcFsJ58vGc&w=420&h=315]...

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Behind Anung’s Journey: Carl, Steve, and American Football

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sod4P2RNNUo&w=420&h=315] This is part 2 of a six part video series where Carl and Steve Fobister, creators of 'Anung's Journey', talk about their time together and Anung's origins. Watch part 1 here! I have recently mentioned in a blog about how delighted I was to learn that Steve had such found memories of me teaching him and his friends how to play football that first summer we worked and lived together. We captured Steve talking about it with me. ...

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Behind Anung’s Journey: The Day I Met Steve Fobister

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ueh4GWvp9s&w=420&h=315] This is part 1 of a six part video series where Carl and Steve Fobister, creators of 'Anung's Journey', talk about their time together and Anung's origins. When I traveled to Winnipeg in November to meet with Steve and present him with a box of 'Anung's Journey', I arranged to have a local videographer, Tyrone Otte, shoot us in our hotel talking about the pioneer days, the good old days, the four summers in the mid to late 60's when Steve and I worked together, at Delaney Lake Lodge for one summer, and Barney's Ball Lake Lodge for three. This is the first of six short videos we edited from that evening. This first video is our memories...

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Steve tells stories about me–and I saw a wolf

One of the delightful surprises of my just concluded trip to Winnipeg to spend time with Steve and give him a box of 'Anung's Journey' was to learn that while I have stories I like to tell about Steve, he has stories he likes to tell about me. At our talk at the University of Manitoba, after we shared our stories about meeting for the first time, Steve then went on to describe how after supper the first day I went to my cabin and returned with a football. Here is a close take on his riff, for I heard him tell this story twice: "After supper the first day he was in camp I saw Carl was tossing a football...

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One of the best endorsements of The 53rd Parallel

I mentioned Steve was traveling with his grandson. Dorian Assin is 18. (assin means something like 'teaching rock' in the Ojibway language). He seems to be a great kid, very respectful of his grandfather, really into video games, and eager for his last year of school to be over. I happened to be watching yesterday when he noticed the open box of 'The 53rd Parallel' in the corner of the room. He picked up a copy, checked out the awesome cover that Elizabeth Turnbull at Light Messages designed, checked out the back cover, then put it down without any comment. An hour or so later he picked it up again, and I could see he was reading...

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Steve Fobister

I arrived two hours ago at the Place Luis Riel Hotel and found Steve waiting for me in the lobby. He arrived last night, with his grandson. We've been telling old stories and he's just retired for his 4 pm nap. All the events are still to come, and I'll do some reporting, but for now I needed to say this, upfront and on it's own, and right away: Fairly recently I realized that I have known one great man. And what makes a great man? The version I consider starts with a good man who does good things. But there's something more to greatness. Maybe something like, a defining self- sacrifice informed with genuine humility. I am with...

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Steve and I in Winnipeg

When Steve Fobister and I began to plan our reunion in Winnipeg next week the good folks at the University of Manitoba learned we would be in town and first invited us to speak at a previously scheduled event for the evening of the 6th, then set up this event for earlier in the day. Isn't the old camp lovely to behold? It's the inspiration for Innish Cove. And I have arranged for Steve and I to be video taped as we talk about meeting for the first time, about working and living together in the frontier days on the English River, about when he entrusted me with the legend of Anung, and where my Indian nickname came...

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Tales from an Ojibway Chief: n’Gosh

Having just submitted 'Worlds Between', the second novel in The River of Lakes trilogy, for publication in the Spring, I am focusing now on the third novel. My working title for this book has been n'Gosh', which is the name Steve Fobister gave me when we worked together as teenage boys, for it isn't until this third novel, set in 1969, that a character loosely based on me shows up. This character's name, by the way, is Guy Greene. And Guy immediately falls in love with the daughter of Brian and Maureen Burke, who they named Grace O'Malley Burke. First he saw her hair. It was long and black, wild and wavy. And then he saw her eyes, her...

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Tales from an Ojibway Chief: Planning a Visit to See Steve Fobister

Steve Fobister and I have a wonderful and very unusual relationship. He is a strong presence in my life, yet we rarely see each other these days, and we can go years without even talking. His phone service on Grassy Narrows Reserve is not too reliable and doesn't include voice mail, so I can call and call and not get through. But I have been trying extra hard these past few months to get him on the phone because I want to visit him, to bring a box of books as soon as Anung's Journey is published. I am always able to find his work reported on in the media, including his recent hunger strike. ...

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