Last October, Chris Armstrong was on a boat somewhere in Chatham Sound, and passed the time reading an “ABCs” book to his son.
Then he had a moment of inspiration.
“It suddenly hit me that Prince Rupert didn’t have an ABCs book of its own,” says Armstrong.
“So I thought, why not write one?”
The result is ABCs of Prince Rupert, an abecedarian treatment of the small city on the North Coast of B.C., with each letter represented by a colourful picture and a short descriptive poem. The process of getting the book ready started simply enough: a list of words from A to Z was made, and images were compiled for each letter.
Then came the process of writing the poems. Armstrong decided to write quatrains, with two rhyming couplets, using iambic pentameter. That was in January.
“I planned to take a few weeks to write the poems, but then the weeks turned into months,” remembers Armstrong, who finally completed the poems in March, a few months behind schedule, but somehow managed to get the book published for the tourist season.
Armstrong is now looking forward to the book launch for ABCs of Prince Rupert, which will happen on Saturday, July 14 at Seahorse Trading Company in Atlin Terminal). He’ll be signing copies from 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Before the launch, though, he’ll bring a book home and read it to his son.
“I have a feeling he’ll be my toughest critic,” says Armstrong.