Jury trials are a fascinating strategic contest between the prosecutor and defence lawyer, both battling for the minds of each and every juror. Of course, in criminal trials the defence doesn’t need to win over the minds of every juror. Just one would do.
Sometime ago I wrote a short story about a notorious murder trial I was involved in. An old prospector Al Kulan, had been killed in a bar in Ross River Yukon with a single shot from a .357 revolver. I defended his killer.
I have serialized a story about one of the most notorious murder trials in the history of the Yukon. My client killed Al Kulan in a bar in Ross River, a remote winter bound town in the Yukon. One shot from a .357 revolver. This is the first of 8 episodes. They are being published in Kelowna Now and the Now media chain.
When I was 11 I was sent off to a small school for boys, the Vernon Prep School. I had no idea why, it was as though my parents had decided to throw their little bird out of the nest just to see if he could fly on his own yet.
“Getting older Tony, is not for the faint of heart.” I’ll never forget the first time I heard my father say it. Turns out he was a wise old owl after all. Sure got my attention. What did I know, I was forty-four! Wet behind the ears.
I wrote this some years ago and will read it each year at our family Christmas table. I have strived and failed and succeeded in no particular order and I have been humbled. Through it all my family has always been there. Unwavering.
The Countess Bubna walked slowly along the path winding up from the lake, through a stunning rose garden and up toward the Hotel Eldorado. A floral parasol protected her from the hot Okanagan summer sun.
If you are 72 as I am, you have stood witness to countless global conflicts and several times have stood sentinel while global forces stood eye to eye threatening total annihilation. And here we are again.
Writing for profit is a fool’s game. I don’t, I write for myself. Some of my writing is profound, some is important, but most of it is neither of those two things. I am at my best as an observational humourist, filtering the mundane through the ‘amusing’ lens and writing.
David Sedaris is a great American observational humourist and he has unknowingly guided me as I spelunked my way through many a dark, confusing writing tunnel. He taught me to stop worrying about inspiration. He says that human beings are very funny, hilarious at times. The knack he says is to get better at seeing it. He is right, if I have grown as a writer it is because I am better now at ‘seeing’ us as we are, simple and complex, shallow and profound, tragic and hilarious. We are endlessly fascinating, a never ending source of writing inspiration.
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