Local author included in Hot Cider Christmas themed anthology

Barrhead resident writer Sharon Espeseth was a little surprised to find that her latest submission, a non-fiction short story, was included in the latest Christmas themed issue of the Hot Cider book series.

“I didn’t feel like it was my best work,” she said, adding that shortly after submitting her short story she wrote to the editors of the book and asked to have it taken out of consideration.

The book’s editor N.J. Linquist wrote back asking Espeseth to reconsider because she felt the story was unique and fit with the book’s theme perfectly.

Espeseth acquiesced and worked with Linquist in editing the story.

“She definitely helped me make my story better and when we were done with the process, it was something I was proud to be able to put my name to,” Espeseth said.

The Hot Cider books are an anthology of short stories of fiction and non-fiction, as well as poetry, designed to be uplifting and help inspire the reader. Each book features an average of 50 Canadian writers.

Espeseth’s submission, Touched By Christmas, is a non-fiction narrative taken from her childhood.

“When I was five and my sister, Joan was six-and-a-half we were skating on a pond near our house in Lakeview [near Norquay, Sask.] when we spotted a box hidden in the bulrushes,” she said, adding the pair thought they had discovered where their parent had hidden their Christmas presents. “I don’t want to give the whole story away, but we skated over to the box to find out what we were going to get. When I tripped and fell on the box we heard what we thought sounded like a baby crying.”

Eventually, in the 1950s Espeseth’s family moved to Edmonton. It was here that she decided to pursue a career as a schoolteacher, mostly at the elementary school level. It was while she was working at an Edmonton area school, that she met Hank the person who would eventually become her husband, who owned Bonanza Burger Bar, in Barrhead.

After the pair married, Espeseth moved to Barrhead in 1975 where she resumed her teaching career. All totaled, in between taking time to raise a family, she taught for 35 years, before retiring at the ADLC in 2000, where she spent her last four years helping with course development.

It was sometime in these 35 years when Espeseth became interested in writing.

“Mostly I write, what I like to call memoir, non-fiction in that that everything is based on my own experiences,” she said, adding she has also dabbled in poetry and other non-fiction faith based articles.

Over the years Espeseth’s work has been published in the Edmonton Journal, in its Voices and Offerings columns, The Western Producer, Grainews, Western Catholic Reporter, and the Canadian Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

However, Espeseth said being published in the Hot Cider series has given her the opportunity to do things she never has done before.

As part of the official book launch on Sept. 28, Espeseth took part in her first ever radio interview and also in the Facebook book launch.

Even though Espeseth’s story is included in the book, it wasn’t until recently that she had the opportunity to sit down and read it from cover to cover.

“It really is a wonderful book. The stories are uplifting, even though a lot of the subject matter isn’t always happy. The basic tone is definitely positive, uplifting. Not necessarily the happy-ever-after kind of thing, but realistic,” she said.