A lot of people are asking “what are you making” in Edmonton these days. The 40 Below Project is something that I am making with the help of dozens of talented Edmonton writers and artists. The November release date is still a couple of seasons away so I have to take any opportunity that is out there to spread the word about this great project.

Pecha Kucha is a multiple speaker event in which their presentation has 20 slides and they have 20 seconds to speak per slide. I felt that this would be a great platform to read some (very) short passages from the stories and poems that will be featured in 40 Below.

This is a YouTube video taken from my Pecha Kucha presentation. Please enjoy.

All of the final decisions regarding 40 Below have now been made. All of the people whose pieces were chosen have now been contacted. Congratulations to them and thanks again to everyone who submitted. Here are some interesting numbers and figures regarding 40 Below:

300- Overall submissions of poetry, prose, non-fiction, and visual art.

50- Submissions received on December 31st. The day of the deadline.

43- Degrees Celsius below zero (with the windchill) the temperature got to in Edmonton on January 29th, 2013.

84- Age of the oldest contributor to be featured in 40 Below.

9- Age of the youngest contributor to be featured in 40 Below. 

270- References to “Old Man Winter” in all submissions.

1- Edmonton vampire story.

277- Days until the release of 40 Below.

We will also be featuring some of the visual art we received on this website in the next few weeks.

Thanks again to all those who submitted work to this anthology. This collection will be something Edmonton has never seen before. If you are interested in receiving an advanced copy of 40 Below to review for your blog or website, or have any other media inquiries please contact Jason at submissions@40belowproject.ca

Christmas is almost here! Can you feel the anticipation in your bones? What’s that? You can’t feel your bones because it’s so freaking cold out there? Well, that’s understandable. It’s quite cold out there. I spoke with a girl from Ottawa the other day and this is going to be her first winter here in Edmonton. She doesn’t really mind the cold. She’s most excited about the possibility of a white Christmas. Not just lots of snow on the ground like we already have but also the possibility that it may actually snow on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. That is a magical thought, isn’t it?

Today many people are already off from work and beginning a much deserved Christmas vacation. Some may be visiting family and others may be sticking around here. I hope that everyone enjoys themselves and gets just what they wanted from Santa.

I also want to thank everybody who has submitted something to the 40 Below Project. The submissions queue is really filling up. We are now well into triple digits for stories, poems, artwork and other writings. Some of you may think that that is plenty of submissions already but I want more. There’s still ten days to go until the submission deadline. In the last couple weeks we have received some of the strongest work to date. Really exciting and moving stories and words that tell me that this anthology will be a force of nature in itself. There will be something in it for everybody. It’s going to be great.

Once again, there is still time to submit something to the project. Now that there is no work for a couple days and your evenings are a bit more relaxing, perhaps you will take the time to sit at your laptop or writing desk with a hot beverage and look out the window and let Christmas in Edmonton inspire the words to flow effortlessly out of you.

With every new snowflake that falls on our city there is a new story to be told. Whether you tell that story through poetry or prose, paintings or photos- we want to see them in the 40 Below Project.

Have a great Christmas break. Thanks again to all those who have submitted already and thanks to those who are still working on something to send to us before December 31st, 2012. I can’t wait to send out the good news to the writers out there whose works have been accepted. I hope you’re one of them.

Merry Christmas Edmonton.

The Weather Network was nice enough to come and cover the event that we did with the Slam at the Blue Chair event last week. It was a lovely event. Many people had Christmas themed or winter themed stories ready to go and some of them didn’t even know that we would be there. I’m happy to announce that we found four great stories at the slam and they will be published in the anthology next year. You can see the video here and as a special bonus you can read the first two poems that have been accepted into the anthology. The Weather Network has them up on the same page that the video is. Congratulations to Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail and Rayane Doucet whose poems will be in 40 Below next year.

The next story slam at the Blue Chair Cafe is on Wednesday, December 12th. The 40 Below Project will be there to provide a little extra incentive for anybody who has an Edmonton winter story that they want to share. We will be offering a bonus cash prize of $100 to any story that we think would fit nicely into the 40 Below Project. This isn’t just one prize either. We are looking for great stories so if there are ten great stories that can fit into the anthology then we’ll be awarding ten prizes of $100 each. The usual judging will take place and the winner can pick up all the audience donations for the night. We won’t be judging the story slam but we will be there to award any stories that we’d like to use. So even if you lose you can win and even if you win you can win even more if your story is good enough.

The Blue Chair Cafe is located at 9624 76 ave in Edmonton. The story slam starts at 8:00pm but you should be there at 7 if you want to sign up. Spots are limited. So if you have a story to share and think it might just also fit into the 40 Below Project then I hope to see you next week. This is the one and only time to get personal feedback on your stories before the December 31st deadline for submissions.

We are receiving new things each day and the pieces are getting stronger. Thanks to those who have already submitted and thanks to those who are still working on their stories and getting ready to send them in.

See you next week at the Blue Chair Cafe.

The term “throw down the gauntlet” comes to mind at this point in our call for submissions process at the 40 Below Project. If you have a story or a poem in you, there is no reason not to submit it to this project. Some people out there are still a little confused at our selection process. Allow me to make things more clear. If it is good, it gets in. Whether you are a published author or whether this is the first thing you’ve ever written, the important thing is that only the best work will be included in the 40 Below Project. The works should be about or inspired in some way by the winter months in Edmonton. Whether you have lived in Edmonton all your life or spent a month inside West Edmonton Mall and then moved back to Pittsburgh, it doesn’t matter. We are looking for stories inspired by Edmonton winters or about Edmonton winters. Where you currently reside is not as important as how good your piece is.

When your story or poem or essay is accepted to the 40 Below Project it may be your first ever published piece or one in a long list of credits to your name. This project is for amateurs and professionals alike. We are all inspired by Edmonton in our own ways.

So if you are on the fence about whether or not to send something our way, get off that fence and send it. If it needs a little polish then polish it up and then send it. If you are a Giller winner: send it. If you work at a laundromat on Whyte ave: send it. Whether you’ve published a dozen novels or haven’t even read a novel- send your piece to the 40 Below Project. Whether your name is Paula or Todd or Adam or Elizabeth or Lynn or Marina or Omar or Jessica or Jeremy or Ryan or Joceyln or Marty- send something. Whoever you are, you have a unique perspective and a unique voice that needs to be shared.

We receive a new submission every day and each one goes towards ensuring that the quality of this anthology is high. Our deadline is December 31st. There is still plenty of time to get your piece in. Any questions or concerns can be addressed to submissions@40belowproject.ca

Michael Hingston from the Edmonton Journal wrote a lovely article/interview about the 40 Below Project. Here are some excerpts:

“It’s unavoidable. Take part in any conversation about winters in this city, and it won’t be long before you hear that famous temperature invoked: –40 C.

Jason Lee Norman has noticed this phenomenon, too. But for the local author, it’s less an actual weather forecast than a kind of symbol that binds Edmontonians together.”

“Norman is an accomplished fiction writer himself — his story collection Americas was featured in these pages back in September. Looking around the city these days, he says he sees literary potential at every turn. “The sound that your feet make in the snow. The way things seem muted. When you start the car at six in the morning, for some reason. It’s a different kind of quiet. It seems like a blank page — like it’s waiting for stories to be written on it.”

Read the rest of the interview here.

Many thanks to Trevor Robb at the Edmonton Examiner for his story about the 40 Below Project. You can read the whole article here.

Here is a little bit from the article:

If there’s one thing that unites Edmontonians every year, it’s winter. Whether you’ve lived in Edmonton all your life or are a new comer to town, you learn quickly just how resilient Edmontonians are when faced with falling temperatures.

Jason Lee Norman was also on CBC Radio Active yesterday afternoon. He talked about what he was looking for and what kinds of submissions he has already received for the project. You can listen to the full interview on our Sound Cloud Page here.

The Edmonton media have been very kind in helping us get the word out about this project. The more people that hear about it, the more people who will consider submitting something and the better the anthology will be. More pieces are rolling in each day.

Thanks to all who are currently writing something to send it and thanks to those who have already done so. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please direct them to this website so they can learn a little bit more about what we’re looking for.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

40 Below will eventually become a book. A real book. A book book! (Pronounced Boo-ck). Books are wonderful things and many people enjoy reading books. My hope is that many people enjoy reading this 40 Below book when it is released. Before it becomes a book, we must have words to put in the book. Every day I receive a submission for this project. The Submittable program I use to organize all of these submissions has a cool feature where it hides any information about who wrote each piece that was sent. So I won’t know if the poem I read last night was by Margaret Atwood (she lived in Edmonton once you know) or a high school student. The next story I read could be from my friend Matt (hi Matt!) or Todd Babiak (ahem) or some kind of sentient story-writing robot just invented by Edmonton scientists. The point is that 40 Below is not a popularity contest. I want only the best work to appear in this book (pronounced Ba-OW-ck).

My advice to you is that if you are a writer you should definitely submit something to this project. Especially if you are a writer who enjoys seeing their words printed in a real, actual, shiny, new, book-smelling book! If you have never before had the pleasure of seeing your words printed in a book then what better place to start than this great collection. Did I mention that all writers who appear in 40 Below will be paid money? Cash money (in the form of a cheque made out to the writer’s name). You will also receive a free copy of the book that you are in. This is the deal of deals!

So, in summation: Picture a book store. Your favourite book store. Now picture a bookshelf and on that bookshelf is one of the best looking books you have ever seen. Now picture yourself taking that book off of the shelf and running your fingers over the cover (we all do it). Now open it up and take a smell. It smells like Christmas morning doesn’t it? I knew it. Now flip to the Table of Contents. Look! It’s your/your friend’s/your favourite writer in the whole wide world’s name! Amazing! Now look at the cover again. What’s the title of this wonderful book?

40 Below

Some people have asked me why I am calling this project ’40 Below’. The short answer is that I think it’s a pretty cool title for a book. Plus, if I can get some combination of 40 stories or 40 authors in the book that would be pretty sweet too. People say that it doesn’t really get to 40 below zero in Edmonton. That’s true. It has very rarely (if you count wind chill) and I always count wind chill because I am not a wind chill factor denier. Wind chill is real. It makes things colder. That’s science.

This week in Edmonton the temperature has been hovering around the freezing mark and the sun has been shining brilliantly every afternoon and it’s mid Movember. Who knows what the weather is going to do. Not me. Certainly not you (I’m looking at you Josh Classen!).

In December 2009 the temperature got to -46 degrees and -58 degrees if you count the wind chill. The media was all aflutter because Edmonton was basically the coldest place on the planet for the day. Only Siberia had a colder temperature without the wind chill. Amazing! Incredible! Another amazing thing is that a lot of people still probably went to work that morning. The majority of people treated it almost like any other winter day. Yes, some flights got cancelled and some power lines went down but it was definitely no Hurricane Sandy or Irene. A few days later things were basically back to normal and we all had a story to tell about exactly how cold it was.

“Colder than Siberia!”

“Almost as cold as the moon!”

“As cold as deep space!”

40 Below is more of a state of mind than anything else. It’s that extreme that we’ve all survived together. It’s a state of mind where things that don’t usually happen can happen. Noses or ears don’t usually just break off like pieces of gingerbread but sometimes it does get so cold that the automatic sliding doors at grocery stores can’t open. That’s pretty funny. Other times extreme cold has been known to set off fire alarms in some buildings. It’s happened and it’s hilarious. 40 Below is Edmonton.

40 Below zero is also the same number in Celsius as it is in Fahrenheit, so it’s one of the few times where Americans can understand us when we try to tell them about the weather. Unity!

So now that all that weather stuff is out of the way, 40 Below is the name of this anthology. It might have 40 stories or 40 authors or 40 pages. All of that is up to you. If you’re a writer you should submit something to the project. If you’re a reader then you should help spread the word so that as many people know about this project as possible. If you are an Edmontonian, a former Edmontontian, a new Edmontonian, or just like Edmonton then you should also get involved in this project.

Sit down this weekend and open up a new word document and look out the window. Allow this city and this season to inspire you and see what happens.