Ask the Author: Jennifer Bain
Answered Questions (6)
Jennifer Bain
Never stop learning. I went to journalism school and then wrote thousands of stories (average length 800 words) for newspapers for 28 years. Now I'm going to grad school for a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction (a low-residency program through the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia) and learning to write longer, more creative and more personal stories for a fishing adventure memoir.
Jennifer Bain
I spent 28 years writing for newspapers, so I was trained to just write and get it done. Usually I'm itching to get the story out of my notebooks and out of my head and on to the computer, partly so I can file it and give it a good home and partly so I can move on to the next story.
Jennifer Bain
Every day there's a new story to tell. I'm a journalist who evolved from writing breaking news (crime and courts) to food and travel. That means I'm constantly on the move, eating new things, meeting new people and writing new stories.
Jennifer Bain
I'm a city girl. When I started dating a bison rancher, I bought a chest freezer to hold all the bison (buffalo) meat he bought me. After we got married and I spent a year living at his family ranch in southern Alberta for a maternity leave, I knew that I had to translate all my cooking into a bison cookbook. Niche and single-subject cookbooks were all the rage, but I was told that bison was "too niche." I kept pitching until I found the right publisher. I like to call Buffalo Girls Cooks Bison "an adventure cookbook" because I start each chapter with a feature story about the bison world.
Jennifer Bain
I don't get stressed about writer's block — in fact I don't even use the term. I've been writing steadily since I graduated from journalism school in 1990 and know there's an ebb and flow with writing, research and rest. In my busiest week last year, I wrote 22,000 words for various grad school and freelance assignments. Then I didn't write a word for several weeks.
Jennifer Bain
I'm writing 111 Places in Calgary That You Must Not Miss. It's a travel series for a German publisher (with a NYC editor) that does insider's guides aimed at locals and experienced travellers. I'm in the midst of researching and writing 111 vignettes about graves, ruins, haunted places, historical crimes, neglected pieces of art, taxidermy shops and wacky museums.
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