The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Wednesday, Septem ber 26, 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER C1 Arts & Entertainment Oakville Reaver A&E Editor: Carol Baldwin 845-3824 (Ext. 254); Fax: 337-5567: E-mail: baldwin@haKonsearch.com Canadian fantasy novel: no longer an oxymoron T LAST OPPORTUNITY For Seniors 65 Plus . . . Photo by Barrie Erskine Alison Baird will launch her fourth and newest book The Wolves o f Woden at Bookers on Saturday. Due to their citizenship and location, Baird says experiences of Newfoundlanders during the war were very different from those of the rest of here were no fantasy books set in Cana Canada. "O f course, it would be very tempting for da until 1999, when Alison Baird wrote The Hidden World, according to the Nazi Germany to try to take Newfoundland over and use it for their own base, because the British Oakville author. Now, she's written its "prequel," The Wolves convoys were sheltered in St. John's Harbour. It o f Woden, and she'll be launching it at Bookers was a very frightening time because there was Bookstore, 172 Lakeshore Rd. E., on Saturday, this fear o f an invasion," she explains. "They Sept. 29 between 1 and 3 p.m. knew that there were U-boats circling the island Baird says she wrote The Hidden World to In fact, the ship my great-grandfather was on was stand alone, but her publisher wanted to know torpedoed by submarines. Terrible loss of more about the heroine's grandmother, who, lives...They had blackouts. They had air-raid although deceased, is a character whose presence sirens. All the things that they had in England, is felt throughout the book. they had in Newfoundland." The Wolves o f Woden, dedicated to the memo Like her grandmother before her, the young woman in The Hidden World, is able to travel ry of Baird's great-grandfather, tells the story of between this world and the fantasy world of the Jean, a teenager in St. John's who watches her fairies. brother and her boyfriend sign up with the Royal In The Wolves o f Woden, Baird tells the grand Navy. Jean not only goes through the trauma of m other's story. And since the first book (Baird's war in 1940s' Newfoundland, she experiences second) takes place in modem times, its prede similar wartime difficulties in the parallel world cessor is set in the 1940s. The main characters in.. of the fairies. And she has no control over when she goes both books live in Newfoundland, which was not from one world to the next. It just happens. a Canadian province sixty years ago. The 38-year-old author says she's been inter Once Baird mulled over her publisher's sug gestion for awhile, she realized that a British ter ested in fantasy books since childhood, enjoying ritory on the Atlantic coast during the Second the Peter Pans and Alice in Wonderlands of her World War would make an interesting backdrop day and hoping to someday create her own. "I love stories where children go off in some for a fantasy adventure. "I have these two parallel worlds, and there magical other place and have adventures...But I could be war going on in each of them, which is always noticed that there were no fantasy stories actually part of one big universal conflict. So set in Canada," she says, adding that some begin that's what I ended up doing," she says. "And I and end in Canada, but the real adventure takes had a lot of fun researching this because I went them elsewhere. "It's just a jumping off place. to Newfoundland and I stayed with my mother's You can have Canadian characters but they have family. Her brothers, who still live in Newfound to go to some other place for adventure...I just land, have very vivid memories of what it was thought it would be nice to write a story for like living there during the war." ( S e e `F a ir y lo r e ' o n p a g e C 4 ) ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR By Carol Baldwin COGECO@Home 60 tim es faster than 2 8 8 dial-up Designed With You In Mind ^ maintenance-free living, guaranteed 65 + ^ capital appreciation, access to services s ideal location, Woodside Drive & Rebecca W hen you co m p are th e speeds, O p e n House T h u rsd a y s 2 - 4 p.m. Woodside Library Call For Details (905) 338-1657 Truly high speed Internet is not on the phone line. C O G E C O @ H o m e is tw ice as fast as Sym patico High S p eed Edition. Plus, with C O G E C O @ H o m e yo u're always connected, it's safe and secure, and you can netw ork up to 3 com puters through on e line. Royal Bank Mortgage Specialist Stephanie Papadakos (First time Buyer Expert) 9 Years' Experience Worked with Both of Canada's High Rado Mortgage Insurers Low Down Payment, Equity Financing, Self-Employed, New Immigrants From the simplest to the most complicated situations, count on Stephaniefor complete m rtgatgf solutions Sympatico High Speed Edition Call today for an appointment ONE MONTH FREE TRIAL FREE INSTALLATION Ask how you can spread your savings out over 6 m onths! HOME BUYER'S OPEN HOUSE Instant Pre-approvals Mortgage Information Saturday. September 29 RBC (Speers/4th Line) 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. 905 820-1789 - (Day, Evening, Weekend) 30 tim es faster than 2 8 .8 dial-up* " Ask About Our Rate Sale!" RBC 3 Royal Bank- Members of the public are invited to attend a free seminar entitled. Understanding Schizophrenia from the perspectives of a patient and a psychiatrist D r. W ils o n Lit, M . D . , F R C P C , P sych ia trist Director, Community Division, Homewood Health Centre Assistant Clinical Professor, McMaster University, Hamilton Ian Chovil Consumer Consultant, Community Division Homewood Health Centre COGECO m Home www.cogeco.com 1 - 8 7 7 - 8 - ATHOME Download times based on transfer speed of 2Mbps for COGECO § Home vs a 28 8 kbps modem connection and I Mbps for Bell Sympatico High Speed Edition, divided by file size. Download speeds online can vary with internet traffic, server or other factors `Based on published claims by Bell Canada. Offer ends October 3 1, 2001 Valid for new customers only 'disconnect > 9 0 days* Cable modem rental credited for COGECO Cable customers <S39.95/month and S I0 /m o n th cable modem rental* Residential service only. Business service also available. Full installation charge for laptop computers. Additional charges will apply for non standard installations. Not available in all areas. Some restrictions may apply M onday, O ctober 1. 2001 6 :3 0 p.m. Displays, Refreshments 7 :0 0 p.m. Program Halton Regional Administration Building Auditorium 1 1 5 ! Bronte Road, Oakville (Q .L IK to Bronte Hoad. Region is just north o f QEW. Free parking. Use North Lot./ Coll to reserve o seat: 905-338-4379 Presented by: Schizophrenia Society of Ontario Societe de schizophrenia de Ontario Halton Healthcare IV V /W ^ K i p \ r A r j : r A S v - v Health Promotion and Mental Health Program Made possible through an educational grant from & U AcUcf ^xtuxda * }kc.