MAD: HATTER

 

  

 

 

 

DANIEL WOOD --
MAGAZINE
WRITING

 

D7" Wood loves his work.

I have the best job in the
world,” he says. "I have tremen-
dous freedom and control over
my life. I can travel the world for
free. I get to meet and talk with
the informed, the opinionated,
the successful. I can reflect on
society, trends and issues and do
it at home in my bathrobe or out-
side sitting in the sun."

Daniel Wood is not bragging;
he is just happy to be a writer.

Wood, the author of eleven
books and countless magazine ar-
ticles, teaches Magazine Writing
at Douglas College in New
Westminster.

He says that each kind of
magazine article presents dif-
ferent challenges to the writer.
And the Kitsilano author seems
to thrive on new challenges. A
look at some of his books and ar-
ticles illustrates his versatility.

His third book, Kids! Kids!
Kids! and Vancouver is a top-sell-
ing guide book of things to do
with children in and around Van-
couver. Eleven years ago the book
"sold like hot cakes," Wood says.
That convinced him to leave
teaching and become a full-time
writer.

More recently, Wood won top
honours for the best article in the
Western Magazine Awards.

Published in the August, 1986
issue of Vancouver magazine,
Spared by the Sea is the story of
Randy Morrison, a Comox fisher-
man in his mid- thirties whose
boat capsized in a North Pacific
storm. Wearing a leaking sur-
vival suit, Morrison suffered
fifteen hours in icy seas. All
through the night and into the
next day he was alone in the

 

water, whipped by the winds and
tossed about in waves as high as
five-story buildings.

Now Wood says he is working
ona collection of ten true
Canadian survival-adventure
stories called Death’s Door.

Wood has had a life of his own
adventures. One trip this year
took him by helicopter to Kluane
National Park in the Yukon. And
on a recent six-week trip he
travelled to Borneo, Australia and
Bali. The resulting articles will be
published in Saturday Night,
Western Living and the Globe

and Mail’s Destinations magazine.

From adventure stories to travel
articles, it seems Wood has done
them all. In the Douglas College
evening course which starts Oc-
tober 19th, Wood says that he will
examine the requirements for
each type of article.

"An issue story demands strict
focusing or else it grows like
Topsy," he says. "An investigative
piece needs leads, and a profile re-
quires good interviewing skills,"
he says.

Wood is no stranger to adven-
ture. His novel, The River of
Gold, is set in Borneo where he
taught school almost two and a
half years during the late sixties.

"I was living in a jungle clearing
in a house like a one-room
garage. The people were one
generation out of headhunting,"
he says.

When Wood left Borneo he
joined an expedition that lasted a
year and involved driving --often
where there were no roads--
across Asia to England. In 1969
he returned to the U.S.

"I turned in my Draft Card and
was almost immediately arrested
for Draft resistance," he says. So I
came up to Canada through
Blaine and Ive been in Van-
couver ever since."

But that does not mean he quit
travelling. Wood says he normal-
ly writes one or two travel stories

 

each year. The magazine pays for
transportation and lodgings. He
gets a working holiday.

Wood only has one serious com-
plaint about writing for a living.

"Writers are very much under-
paid. The average magazine
writer in Canada earns about
$17,000 a year. Those at the top
of the heap are making $30,000 —
it’s a low heap.”

Wood gets right to the financial
reality of writing in his Douglas
College course.

"The goal of the course," he
says, "is to produce well crafted
story proposals, ready for sale to
editors."

Daniel Wood’s Magazine Writ-
ing course runs Mondays,
October 19th to November 23rd
from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at
Douglas College, one block north
of the New Westminster Skytrain
terminal. Fee: $96.00. Call 520-
5473 for information.

 

ARTISTS LEARN
SALES TACTICS

A varied group of visual ar- .
tists, craftspeople, and
photographers will meet Satur-
day, October 24 for a one-day
marketing workshop for artists,
to be held at Douglas College.

Instructor Alice P. Rich believes
that in today’s competitive
market, being creative is only the
beginning; acquiring marketing
skills is now equally vital. In
Marketing Your Art, she will
teach creators the process of
marketing their artistic products.
With a background that includes
experience as an exhibition
curator, teacher, photographer
and marketer, Rich knows of
what she speaks.

The workshop will begin with
continued on page 3