INUVIK
A familiar sight at the Cafe on Mackenzie has just self-published a collection of his poems, largely inspired by his time living in the North, in a collection called Pine Cones and Small Stones.

Dave Malcolm has just released a self-published collection of his poetry, most of it based on the North. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

David Malcolm began writing his poetry in 1969, he explained, when his first child, a daughter, was born.

"That's an experience that really changes things for you," he said.

Malcolm, who at one time was the head of the Aurora Research Institute over a varied career, has been writing steadily ever since.

While he's working on at least two novels at the moment, including a non-fiction tale and a young adult novel, poetry is likely his first love when it comes to writing.

"I love how with very few words you can paint a beautiful picture," he said with a smile.

The book came about after he performed some readings at a 2012 literary festival in Yellowknife, Malcolm said.

He had such a good response to his work that he decided to look into compiling them.

When he went through his collections, he found 175 poems he thought were worthy of being published.

"So I decided I should do a book," he said. "The poems are not exclusively Northern, but much of it is based on the North."

The resulting collection is 108 pages of poetry in four loosely-themed sections.

"Everybody I've shown it to loves the book," he said, with a hint of pride in his work.

He spends most of his mornings from Monday to Friday at the cafe, which is where he does most of his work.

Malcolm said he finds writing requires a certain discipline, although he's not one to agonize over every word and polish it to perfection.

"I prefer to write in the morning," he said. "By the afternoon, my head is too full of thoughts about what else I have to do and calls I have to make to focus properly."

He also enjoys writing at night, although that's not something he does as often as he might like.

His wife, Sandra, likes to have his attention during the evening hours, Malcolm said.

He self-published the book through lulu.com, a United States-based company that makes it "extremely affordable to be published," Malcolm said.

He paid $16.50 each for two different proofs to be shipped to Inuvik for his perusal, which is "more than reasonable."

Now, he's ordered a small run of books that are available at the cafe and Boreal Books in Inuvik.

Malcolm will also be making them available in Yellowknife and Edmonton.

He also has a book signing event scheduled for Nov. 22 in Yellowknife.

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