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