A passion for story

• Name: Janice Dick
• Husband: Wayne Dick
• Children: 3 (Lorraine, Wendy and Dennis) and 3 grandchildren
• Occupation: wife, mother, author
• Enjoyment: spending time with Wayne; riding their 1979 Honda Goldwing
• Residence: grain farm near Watrous, Sask.
• Memberships: two writing groups (one local and one in Saskatoon), Toastmasters International, The Word Guild, Inscribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship; a distributor for Living Books, Inc.
• Church Affiliation: Philadelphia MB Church, Watrous, Sask., serving as librarian
• Books: a trilogy of historical novels centred around the story of the Mennonite people and their immigration into Canada: Calm Before the Storm (2002), Eye of the Storm (2003), Out of the Storm (2004). (See review MB Herald April 29.)

What you have just read are simple facts. Facts won’t tell you a story; they simply relate information. Janice Dick is a writer who is all about “the story.”

Dick has been captivated by the stories of the Mennonite people since she was a little girl. Her desire in writing the Storm series was to preserve that story for her own children – not only to preserve history but to tell the real story, the story of redemption that Jesus has made possible for all who choose to believe.

As the two of us sat in Joe Bean’s chatting, it was hard to miss the passion for writing in Janice Dick’s heart. It began as a love for the written word. She remembers a teacher in grade school who saw the potential in her and nurtured it by her remarks. In 1989 she attended a writers’ workshop with Gertrude Story and a writers’ group emerged.

Dick’s first published work was in the MB Herald, for whom she became a church correspondent. She also wrote pieces for a local newspaper, the Lanigan Advisor. Her first real break, she says, came when a friend offered her a correspondence course where she got a chance to hone her craft and get feedback on her work. But in the end, it came down to determination and desire to write.

Speaking too

Shy by nature, Dick joined Toastmasters. She has enjoyed her involvement with them. As her books were published, the arena of public speaking, readings and book signings opened up to her. She sees these events, while sometimes unnerving for her, as opportunities to spread the message of God’s love to people she would not otherwise have had a chance to reach.

To her surprise, Dick is finding that what she enjoys most about being a published author is speaking with the people who have read her books. She is finding out that people she wouldn’t have thought would be interested in the story of the Mennonite people are indeed interested. The opportunity God has given her to make a difference in the lives of others is very exciting for her.

Being published and winning an award (the 2003 Word Guild award in the novel category for Calm Before the Storm) hasn’t changed Janice Dick much, she says. However, she’s still caught off guard when people say, “We have an author in the room,” and they’re talking about her.

Dick is a “real person” writer. Asked which character in her trilogy she relates to most, she answers that it is her main female character, Katarina, a tall, ordinary-looking woman with strength she didn’t know she had and a faith that was tested. Katarina is a person who encountered very real struggles in her effort to live out her faith, just like most of us.

Through another character, Katarina’s father, Dick gave voice to witticisms that are her own father’s. Having grown up in Coaldale, Alta., in the same church B.B. Janz attended, she has a wealth of stories about a prominent, historical character in the series who was instrumental in the immigration process.

What is next for this talented writer? “Something new, something different,” she tells me. “Something that requires different research; nothing like the Storm series.”

I am waiting expectantly for what that “something” will be. Once you’ve read the Storm series and find your own story written there, you’ll be waiting, too.

Lani Wiens is a freelance writer from Saskatoon; she attends Hope Fellowship Church.