May 4, 2010	onegoodwriter.com How can I know what I think until I see what I say? — E.M. Forster		gauer@rogers.com
Stephen Gauer is a prize-winning writer whose short stories have been published in Prairie Fire, Descant and the Toronto Star. His story Hold me now , based on the 2001 beating death of  a gay Vancouver man, won the Prairie Fire Short Fiction prize this year and will appear in the 2010 edition of Best Canadian Short Stories, edited by John Metcalf. The man who ate sunlight recently came third in the Toronto Star short story contest. Jumper won the Prairie Fire Short Fiction Prize in 2005 and the Western Magazine Fiction Award in 2006. Stephen is an occasional contributor to the Globe and Mail and other newspapers. He makes a living as a technical writer in Toronto. Raves "How did this story hold my attention? There was never a reason to throw it down. It begins with a promise of drama, and from the story's pacing is clipped and clean. Each page is filled with unusual detail and descriptions. There's an efficient use of back story. "Several times a turn occurs in what I was expecting, making the result unpredictable yet believable .... the dialogue is clean and doesn't answer questions immediately. There's balance of summary and dramatized scene. And finally, it's in the past tense, which offers so much more versatility in layering action and reflection. "A gripping story told by a talented writer." Michael Winter selected Hold Me Now as the best story in the Prairie Fire 2009 fiction contest. Who's on top? The writers in the colour bar at the top of the page are (left to right) Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Edgar Allan Poe, Michel de Montaigne, Mary Shelley, Homer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gustav Flaubert and Charles Dickens. A smokin' bluesman ... Here's the art by Dushan Milic that ran with my Globe story, Guitar Hero, back in September: The Fender Stratocaster is rendered very well, but there's way too much hair on the guitarist's head. Oh, and I quit smoking back in 1981. A short bio Stephen Gauer was born in Toronto in 1952. He's lived and worked in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Barrie and Thompson, Manitoba. In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked as a newspaper reporter for the Thompson Citizen, Barrie Examiner, Ottawa Journal and Toronto Globe and Mail. He's also been a CBC clerk, housepainter, computer trainer, computer consultant and freelance writer. In Vancouver in the 1990s he ran Gauer Consulting, providing software training and consulting to legal clients. He has a BA in Communications from Simon Fraser University (2001) and a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia (2005). Since 2000, he's worked as a staff and contract technical writer. He's taught writing courses for George Brown College, SFU, UBC and many private clients.		NEWS — My short story Hold Me Now has just won the Manitoba Magazine Award for fiction. The novel version of Hold Me Now will be published by Freehand Books of Calgary in the fall of 2011. Please read, print, lend, enjoy, argue with or admire any of the writing you find on this site. Fiction Hold me now Prairie Fire, Summer 2009 Paul Brenner usually had dinner with his son Daniel the second Friday of every month but on that particular Friday in May, the Friday that would be the last day of his son's life, he cancelled because Gwen had invited him over and that was unusual because she worked most evenings. FULL STORY The man who ate sunlight Toronto Star, July 2009 One day in late April, in his fiftieth year, Macklin was laid off by the software company he worked for, and rather than look for another job he decided to take the summer off. FULL STORY Jumper Prairie Fire, Summer 2006 A year after his wife was killed, Fitch sold his house in the south end of the city and moved to the North Shore, to a townhouse on the side of a mountain. FULL STORY What should we talk about now? Descant, Summer 2006 Noreen had wheeled her husband into the patio garden of the nursing home and now they were sitting together in the bright June sunlight. FULL STORY A is for Auschwitz Toronto Star, July 2006 We lived in the south end of Scarborough, in a homely little gray brick house on a dead-end street near the lake. FULL STORY Change your life BC Writers Federation, Summer 2005 Only a few men are born sad; most, like my friend Don, have sadness thrust upon them. FULL STORY Non-fiction Guitar hero Globe and Mail, Sept 2009 The nadir of my music career was grade seven choir, where I was ordered by the music teacher to stand in the back row with four other shlubs who couldn’t carry a tune and lip-synch the lyrics to a dozen carols at the annual Xmas concert. FULL STORY No questions, just lend a hand Globe and Mail, May 2008 A few Sundays ago, the day after my grand-daughter died, I went to visit my mother. FULL STORY Goodbye Amelia Globe and Mail, April 2008 On the morning of Tuesday, June 26, 2007, I went into hospital to donate a kidney to my 27-year-old grand-daughter Amelia. FULL STORY Joint Venture Globe and Mail, Aug 2007 On the day of the transplant, I woke up at 5, a few minutes before the alarm. I got out of bed, put on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, took the dog out, and carried the garbage cans out to the curb. FULL STORY Sailing into the rainforest Vancouver Sun, Mar 2006 The black bear was enjoying a late dinner in a clearing near the riverbank. He looked up, leafy greens still in his mouth, and stared at us. FULL STORY The Year of Magical Thinking Vancouver Sun, Oct 2005 For close to forty years now, Joan Didion has used her masterful skills as a non-fiction writer to conduct a subtle and persistent interrogation of American culture and political life. FULL STORY Losing our religion Globe and Mail, Feb 2005 Social change can shake the ground like thunder, but it can also arrive as silently as a sunrise. In 2001 almost five million Canadians told Statistics Canada that they have no religion. FULL STORY Ponce de Leon was looking in the wrong place Vancouver Sun, Feb 2005 Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon was searching for the elusive Fountain of Youth when he landed on the coast of Florida back in 1513. He never found it. I think I know why. He was on the wrong boat. FULL STORY Meet Alice, the 10-year-old ethicist Globe and Mail, February 2005 Is there any entity on the planet more predictable than a giant corporation? In typical copycat fashion, Nortel Networks has overreacted to its recent accounting misadventures by creating the post of Chief Ethics Officer. FULL STORY Jumper Geist, Spring 2004 One night I drove to Lions Gate Bridge over Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, to research a short story I was writing about a lonely, suicidal widower. FULL STORY Miami Beach Exile Geist, Summer 2003 In the fall of 1972 I packed all my belongings in the trunk of an old Volkswagen and drove south from Toronto to Miami, where I planned to paint houses for the winter and make enough money for university the next fall. FULL STORY What should we talk about now? Geist Spring 2002 For the last six months, my father has spent all of his nights and most of his days in a pink room on the second floor of LeisureWorld, a nursing home near Lake Ontario in suburban Toronto. FULL STORY Ladder 25 Geist Winter 2001 Ladder 25 of the New York City Fire Department is a small fire station on West 77th Street, on the upper west side of Manhattan. FULL STORY Why I sail Spring 2003 Few sailors will admit it, but sailing is mostly about escape. We sail to get away, and often dream of staying away, as though our boats could provide passage to a different and better life. FULL STORY On fear Spring 2004 I went to the west coast of Vancouver Island not too long ago to research a novel about castaways. FULL STORY Please read, print, lend, enjoy, argue with or admire any of the writing you find on this site.