Learn more: Interviews with Margo
Audio clip: Look me in the eye and say that, Orange aid
Telkwa in the late 50's and early 60's is not much different from other small towns or tight-knit neighborhoods across North America. Except for one person: Nana Noonan. Her granddaughter Maggie Mulvaney learns first-hand that a lot of things get her Nana going. Telkwa's only Jehovah's Witness tops the list.
"That Damn Jehovah" is the incessant phrase in the hundreds of letters Nana sends Maggie. They live 150 miles apart, and Nana and her letters show Maggie the human aspects of life. The Jehovah's Witness is hell-bent on saving Nana. His high hopes on salvation equal her intent to remain as she is: hell-bent on being herself. After all, she is an Anglican. To Nana, the Jehovah's Witness is not just trying to impose his religion - he also represents an ugly undercurrent in northern and rural Canada in the 1960's - prejudice. He doesn't like Nana's best friend, a native Indian named Tyee Mary.
In this humorous and touching tale, Margo Bates shows how her Nana stands up to prejudice in the north. She does it the only way she knows how - using her Irish temper and some fine-tuning from a shotgun.
Nana tells Maggie that it is important to be fair to your fellow humans. As long as they don't drive you to do something foolish. Maggie thinks about the lessons learned at Nana's knee. She writes back and offers suggestions on how Nana might better deal with the Jehovah.
The townsfolk place bets on Nana and the Jehovah and when they will have their next set to. Cash exchanges hands on a fairly regular basis.
Only two people visit Nana more often than her family: Constable Reems of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and her ill-fated devotee, who visits every Saturday, rain, shine, sleet or snow.
Nana and the Jehovah reach a stalemate one fall day in 1960. Her Irish temper and accuracy with a gun is what gets Nana into trouble. And Telkwa isn't the same without Nana ... or that Damn Jehovah.
It's Open Mic Night. Members and non-members are invited to read their work. read more...
Maggie Mulvaney is the social columnist for the Terrace Herald Newspaper. Funerals are taking on a life of their own in Canada's Pacific Northwest. read more...
Margo Bates' debut novel, P.S. Don't Tell Your Mother, brings to life the rough-and-tumble world of Canada's frontier northwest in the late 50s and early 60s. Part fact, part fiction, P.S. Don't Tell Your Mother is based on hundreds of letters Margo excha read more...
Margo is available to speak to Book Clubs in the Metro Vancouver area, or via Skype. read more...
Margo Bates is available for private workshops for writing groups. Her topics include Character Development, Humour Writing and Personal Publicity for Authors read more...
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