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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Friday April 25, 2008 - 39 Artscene Oakville Beaver · FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008 Writing is a learning experience By Melanie Cummings SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER It's not unusual for novelists to delve into offbeat research while writing a work of fiction. Scribes Will Ferguson, Diane Schoemperlen and Padma Viswanathan certainly ventured into unfamiliar territories while assembling their latest books Spanish Fly, At A Loss For Words and The Toss of a Lemon, respectively. The threesome revealed their quirky paths to completing their latest works to about 130 readers who attended Bookers bookstore's recent authors brunch at the Oakville Golf Club. Calgary writer Ferguson even ventured beyond book writing to songwriting. Ferguson said he ascribed musical styles to his characters and was inspired to write three of the songs for the soundtrack that accompanies the book -- a publishing first. Country music played through the author's mind as con man Jack McGreary appeared on the pages. Jack was based loosely on Ferguson's dad, who grew up in the dustbowl of Saskatchewan. The ever-changing rhythms of jazz music accompanied swindlers Virgil Ray and Miss Rose. DEREK WOOLLAM / OAKVILLE BEAVER BOOK TALK: Will Ferguson, author of Spanish Fly, left, Diane Schoemperlen, author of At A Loss For Words, and Padma Viswanathan, author of The Toss of a Lemon, discussed their most recent works at the recent Bookers Brunch at the Oakville Golf Club. Tom Phillips wrote the rest of the songs on Spanish Fly's soundtrack. Ferguson also read extensively about the art and soul of the crafty con, the economic depression of the 1930s and the ghost towns of that era. Spanish Fly is the story of the scam man Jack as he hooks up with the fast-talking, rip-off team of Virgil and Rose who lure him out of his despised hometown of Paradise Flats on a crime spree across the southern U.S. Author Diane Schoemperlen's foray into the unusual took her to the self-help section of her local bookstore in Kingston, "obsessively" reading up on curing writer's block. As she placed two props on the podium -- a cube with `writer's block' written on it and another that said `mental block,' Schoemperlen said the problem was not one she faced while writing her novel, but rather one for her book's character, a 40-something lonely writer. Ironically, Schoemperlen wrote At A Loss For Words in record time, just six months. "It started as short story and I just kept on writing. I hope it's not a fluke," she added. Published in 1994, In the Language of Love took four years to write and Our Lady of the Lost and Found, released in 2001, took nearly four years to complete. Her son Alexander is now 22, so her recent speediness could be due to no longer having to work around his schedule, she surmised. Schoemperlen infused the information into her female character who as a writer takes hours to email intimate missives to a former lover that she just recently met again -- 30 years after the heartbreak -- but is eager to rekindle their old romance. "The more her former lover tries to retreat the more the woman tries to keep him near," said Schoemperlen. Edmonton fiction writer, playwright and journalist Padma See Grandmother's page 40