A weekend with Alan and Budge Wilson

The book, which came out this year, has been phenomenally successful. Published by Penguin Books, it has gone through several printings and is being sold in English in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. It has been translated and sold in a number of other countries.

Budge and her husband, Alan spend half the year living in a lovely old house by the water in Northwest Cove, Lunenburg Co., and half in an apartment in Halifax (it is not difficult to figure out which half is spent in Northwest Cove). Budge is well known at schools in Queens Co., because she devotes much of her energy to visiting schools and talking to students, encouraging them to become writers themselves.

I told delegates at the conference that Budge was one of those special people who, when she is in a conversation with you, makes you feel as if you are the only person in the world. She has the talent of listening well and responding thoughtfully.

I need to tell you that both Budge and Alan are tremendous role models. They embody the message that you are only as old as you think you are. They have the energy and spirit of people many decades younger, and their activities would put many young people to shame.

Budge began writing at the age of 50, trying for the first five years to get published. Now she has written 33 books, many for young people and some for adults, winning a host of awards along the way. Her books include The Leaving, an award-winning collection of 11 short stories, and The Best Worst Christmas Present Ever, which has been published in 21 foreign editions.

She was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2004.

Her husband, Alan is an historian and writer. He was the founding chair of both the History and Canadian Studies departments at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, taught at a number of Canadian universities – including Acadia – and is a past chair of the South Shore Public Libraries Board and the Library Boards Association of Nova Scotia.

An expert on Sir Sanford Fleming, known as the father of standard time, Wilson helped create a television documentary on Fleming in 2003. Sir Sanford Fleming lived in Halifax in the 1880s as the engineer-in-chief of the building of the Intercolonial Railway and was the creator of The Dingle, on the Northwest Arm. He died in Halifax in 1915. Since then, Alan has been preparing for the publication of a biography of Rev. James MacGregor, one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in Nova Scotia.

Together, Alan and Budge make a formidable couple. They both write constantly and have turned parts of their property in Northwest Cove into writing sanctuaries. Budge's latest book, Before Green Gables was written in a little fish store – no longer used for storing fishing gear – on the wharf in front of their property.

Budge told the audience at the annual library conference at the Old Orchard Inn that she had had to give a request to write the Green Gables prequel a lot of thought before making a commitment to write the book. She needed to satisfy not only the publishers, Penguin, but also the family of Lucy Maude Montgomery, who wrote the Anne books.

She finally told the publishers she would do the book so that it would be true to the Anne stories, but that she would do it in her own voice. And in the end, after the first draft was written, the Lucy Maude Montgomery family was delighted with the work.

She told the crowd that she wrote the entire book in longhand, in Hilroy scribblers. Alan helped her by researching the background of the book, and by doing research on particular historical parts of the book.

Budge also said she did not plan the entire book, with a detailed outline, before she started writing. She said she likes to think about the characters in a book first, and then begin writing, allowing the characters to lead the story.

- Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com