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Marie Jakober

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Marie Jakober

Marie Jakober Marie Jakober lives in Calgary, Canada.

I was born and raised on an isolated homestead farm in northern Alberta. Few neighbors, no school; I took my first eight grades by correspondence. Books were scarce until I was fifteen or thereabouts, when we were able to take advantage of a 'borrowing by mail' library. In such an environment, the life of the imagination takes on a central importance.

At age thirteen, I won an international competition based in India with a poem called The Fairy Queen. This attracted a great deal of attention and many rewards, including a scholarship which enabled me to attend university. I graduated from high school in Edmonton, and from university (Carleton) in Ottawa, with distinction. Since then I have held a variety of jobs but have always considered my real work to be writing.

All of my work is, in one way or another, about power. Who has it and why? Who doesn't have it and why? What happens to people and societies when power relationships become seriously unequal? How are power structures and power relationships created, how are they maintained, how are they changed? What ideas and myths form their foundations? What are the connections between power and religion? Power and sexuality? Power and ethics? Power and the use of violence?

My first book, The Mind Gods, set in 2350, explores what happens when the inhabitants of a small colony planet develop extraordinary psychic powers along with their severe, mind-centered religion. Sandinista and A People in Arms are contemporary novels dealing with the Nicaraguan revolution. High Kamilan examines the coming of patriarchy to an ancient realm of the Goddess. And in The Black Chalice, a man's belief in his own right to total power threatens the entire medieval world.

Where do these ideas come from? The gods, I presume. The Unknown. Chaos. Certainly no place to which I can draw a map. It feels as though I do not choose my stories; rather, they choose me. And when they decide they want to be written, they're very insistent about it.

As a result I'm very disciplined when I have a work in progress. Get up early (sixish) and maybe an early morning walk. I almost always sit down with a pot of coffee and some appropriate music (medieval, American Civil War-whatever 'links' with the work in hand) and spend the first thirty or forty minutes just listening, letting the music create a mindspace and focus my concentration.

Once a project is well underway, most of my available time goes toward it-daytime to writing, evenings to related reading and research. I still see my friends, but most everything else suffers.

When time allows, I am addicted to music, good ethnic food, challenging conversations, and yes, believe it or not, hockey.

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Books by Marie Jakober:

1. The Mind Gods : A Novel of the Future / Marie Jakober
       -London : Macmillan, c1976.
       -Toronto : Macmillan of Canada, c1976.
2. Sandinista : A Novel of Nicaragua / Marie Jakober.
       -Vancouver : New Star Books, 1985.
3. A People in Arms / Marie Jakober.
       -Vancouver : New Star Books, 1987.
4. High Kamilan : A novel / by Marie Jakober.
       -Calgary : Gullveig Books, c1993.
5. The Black Chalice / Marie Jakober.
       -Calgary : Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2000.
6. Even The Stones / Marie Jakober.
       -Calgary : Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2004.

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