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Through support of friends and a pivot during COVID, Belfountain resident authors book of short stories

December 2, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Rob Paul

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a battle for nearly two years for everyone in Canada; it’s changed how everyone lives and put many in new situations. It’s also been a time of reflection and transition for Canadians across the country.

For Caledon’s Susan Gesner, she turned an impossibly negative situation into the fuel she needed for the fire inside her to write. Though she wouldn’t call herself an author, when the opportunity arose to expand on a passion, she seized it.

Gesner now has a book of 34 short stories entitled “It’s Never the Things You Think.” It’s officially launching December 11 with a singing at Higher Ground Café in Belfountain.

For over 30 years, Gesner ran an environmental consulting business where she was able to incorporate her environmental knowledge, facilitation expertise, and change management skills.

When COVID entered the picture, like thousands of other Canadians, she decided the time was right to make a shift.

After being encouraged by her friend Nicola Ross, another Caledon author (whose Loops and Lattés hiking guides provide all the information you might need to hike in southern Ontario), Gesner took a good close look at the blogs she had posted on her website.

“The most important thing is that it wasn’t actually something I planned, in fact it wasn’t actually my idea,” she said. “I had just done an awesome consulting gig in Italy, and I was on a high and my daughter was with me, then when we came home, I realized I didn’t want to keep searching for more work. As a consultant, I wanted to coast and then literally COVID slam-dunked and I did a couple consulting gigs where I used Zoom and I just didn’t like it. 

“So, I wanted to take a break and I think many of us did the same thing and we paused and reflected. In the summer, I was out with my friend Nicola Ross, and she told me I should write a book. When I finished laughing at her, I told her, ‘I’m not an author, you’re the author.’ But then I went home and looked at my blogs that I had that were supposed to be about environmental consulting and as I read them, I realized, none of them were; they’re fun stories that make people smile. When I would share them on Facebook it wasn’t my clients who would get back to me, it was people reading them for enjoyment. That’s when I realized Nicola was right and I looked hard at them all and one thing led to another and, boom, I have a book.”

Gesner knows the most important pillar in her foray into becoming an author was the support around her, rather than jumping into something new on her own, she found herself surrounded by friends ready to lift her up, making the experience all that more special.

“Really, it’s been all this meshing of these unique wonderful friends who have turned my little sets of blogs into something really quite beautiful,” she said. “When you’re doing something where you’ve got no idea what you’re doing, to have this group of friends believe in me was everything. I’m not Margaret Atwood who has a huge network and is a tremendous writer; I’m Susan Gesner who doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing and who is a consultant, and all of a sudden these people step up to help me.”

The 34 stories including everything from brief anecdotes and accounts of meaningful events to adventures in Cape Breton, the Yukon, Ontario, and beyond. Some are funny and some heartfelt, but Gesner’s goal with each and every one of them is to bring a smile to the readers face and try to help them take their mind of the difficult situations they may be going through. 

“The way my blogs were written where they were about 750 to 1,500 words and I didn’t think of myself as an author; I’m a technical writer or a report writer,” she said. “That’s why I took my blogs and sort of fixed them, I didn’t add to them tremendously, I just changed them so more people would find enjoyment in them. When I was out on a hike, one of my friends asked me a hard question—I wrote about this in the book—she asked me what my intent was and why I’m doing it. It’s a good question and it made me pause. Was I doing it because I was bored? Or was there another reason I was doing it? I realized we’ve gone through all this trauma with COVID.

“Our lives have been turned upside down and sideways, we’ve lost people and we’ve changed the way we do everything. We’ve all just been hurting, and it’s kind of like for us in Ontario and Canada, we’ve got a rug burn on our soul and it’s not going to tear us apart, but it hurts every time we breath. This little book of 34 stories will give people a chance to pause and find little pieces of joy in the world. Little things that will make them smile and they won’t have to think about everything we’ve dealt with, they’ll turn a page and look at a beautiful illustration and for a few minutes immerse themselves in a story and smile. That’s my intent, to sooth the rug burn, that’s all it is.”

If you would like to get a copy of Gesner’s book, visit her website at susangesner.com or, visit Higher Ground Café December 11 for the opportunity to get your book signed and chat with her. 



         

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