From 'There' To 'Here'

A Journalist Turned Storyteller - Part 2 Oil Week Magazine

CHANGE BREWING…

THE mirror_____________May 22 1986  Calgary’s Community Magazine

…that’s life

It’s enough to tax one’s imagination…

Well, I made the tax deadline – but just barely. To be honest, I’m not accustomed to filling out an income tax report. I’ve never had the kind of income for which one needed a shelter.

There isn’t a great deal of connection between my old life in geology and my present one – writing. That is because geology consistently provided income. It had paid the rent and bought groceries - writing does too - sometimes.

However, while I was busy writing a whole lot of nothing profound during 1985, it still managed to generate some activity in my bank account. After the shock subsided, I didn’t feel qualified to tackle Ottawa alone with my strange new status [getting paid] so I decided to see someone who understood the twisted plot of Ottawa’s latest [taxing] best seller.

I had all these little bits of paper – receipts or at least that’s what I called them. When I opened my shoebox the tax specialist just looked stricken. Now that I have a little more time for reflection, I may have been somewhat unfair to the woman. She had just 24 hours to sort out 53 pieces of paper and 365 days of freelance turmoil. But once she had some time to recover and reshuffle the strange deck I had plopped onto her desk, she took to her task with gusto.

“Well,” she smiled reassuringly, “I’m sure without too much difficulty we can show your financial picture at a loss.” For some reason, that seemed to please her.

But I already knew that. I’d been functioning at a loss for some time. I didn’t need a nimble numbers expert to tell me that. What I did need was someone to tell me how to explain it all to Ottawa.

“What we [she always said ‘we’ politely including the dummy who sat on the other side of her desk] are going to do for the 1985 fiscal year is set a precedent.”

She spoke to me as if I knew what she was saying – I hadn’t the foggiest.

“If we can claim a loss for last year then we can apply a portion of it to your 1986 income should you show a profit.”

Profit? Hey, no danger there. But what was a precedent? And what was a loss-carry-forward? The fiscal year is May to April, but the calendar tax year on income is from January to December. I think my confusion is justified.

I’ll say this for her, she had pluck. Somehow, she managed to make some order out of my collection of receipts. Part magician she was.

I returned to her office to sign the neat, computerized form [that fateful Wednesday afternoon] with a skip to my step and a song in my heart. Professionally I was a loss, but so what - I could parley that loss into a whole new tax shelter.

Then the other shoe dropped.

The magician told me with her final calculations that I had made a slight profit. This meant I wouldn’t have the cushion for 1986 that she thought I would.

“Wait a minute,” I stuttered, “I know what a profit is, and I didn’t make one.”

Of all the foreign accounting jargon she had pitched my way, that word I did understand. “Profit is when there’s $$$ on hand after the fiscal year or calendar year or whichever – correct?”

“Well, not necessarily. Profit and earnings are treated differently in the tax code.” She said calmly. And believe me when I say, you don’t want to understand her explanation of that distinction…

……………………

**The May 22 column was my last at the Sun-Mirror. The following week the Lifestyle Editor accompanied by the City Editor informed me that my three-month trial as a potential Sun staffer was over and I would not be offered a full-time position.

Mary Jane’s formal [stated] reason was that she could not count on me to meet weekly deadlines and claimed she had to rewrite most of my copy - most of the time! What she hadn’t documented was my objections to her inserting sensation, rumor and innuendo into some of my finished copy, after the fact.

It took me all summer to recover both personally and professionally from the sabotage of the Lifestyle Editor. Knowing from years of meeting deadlines behind me with very little [if any] editorial changes by my two previous editors – was of little comfort in dealing with why she had engineered her justification for letting me go.

As I said before, journalism [print, radio and television] is part of the ‘arts’ world filled with the same level of ego and ambition that we have come to expect from actors or painters or musicians. For some people getting ahead - if ethics isn’t a factor - then contriving to remove any competitor is a justified element in a personal career plan.

***Life Lesson: never forget that ‘politics’ is everywhere in any and every business. If the business is raising chickens or manufacturing tires or banking or selling Avon…If the business has a hierarchy with room for promotion, then there’s politics and room for competition. 

And [unlike Kit Poole] my fellow feature writer who was savvy in dealing with the Lifestyle Editor’s fragile ego, I realized too late just how dangerous insecure people can be. I had already questioned two of Mary Jane’s editorial approaches. In addition, I was beginning to get outside speaking invitations from organizations like the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and Lion’s Club that M.J. felt should have gone to her.

Regardless, the damage was done and as far as daily newspapers in Alberta was concerned, I was finished. The other city daily newspaper The Calgary Herald did not hire former Sun writers. So, I mourned the finish of my journalism potential before it even had a decent start.

Then came a knock on my back door from Myrtle McLean. Myrtle and her retired husband John lived directly behind me. She was not only my neighbor who had bravely proofread every draft of my fiction manuscripts she had become a close trusted friend. With only a silent smile she handed me an ad she had cut out of the Herald Business Section. Oilweek Magazine was looking for an Exploration Editor. Reading the list of qualifications – I had all of them and one more...

JUMP  FROM  A  PIER

McLean Hunter Publications: Oilweek Magazine, Drillsite Magazine

Oilweek’s Editor, Jim Lyon was a transplanted Englishman and a professional rarity – just as Harry Pegg my former Mirror editor had been. Both were traditional print journalists whose work quality came first. Because they were confident in their own abilities, they had no problem supporting other serious journalists.

When Jim Lyon read over my resume and spotted my geology experience with professional provincial certification [C.E.T.] he made me an offer immediately.  Gotta luv irony.  I was not only the first female to be Exploration Editor at Oilweek Magazine, but I was also the first Exploration Editor with a background in geology and the oil industry.

As Exploration Editor of a weekly magazine, I was responsible for articles, interviews and later added yet another column feature in their monthly supplemental magazine - Drillsite.

Like the girl who was told she was too plain to go to the prom with the football captain – I felt professionally vindicated [metaphorically] by the class president. After calling and thanking Myrtle for cutting out the ad, the second person I called was the Mirror Editor, Harry Pegg. Harry was quick to congratulate me then [bless him] made sure word of my new job as Exploration Editor at Oilweek Magazine got spread around the Sun’s newsroom.

But I had zero time to bask. Publishing a technical-news magazine each week was hair-raising. I was no longer a carefree contributing freelance writer - I was on the hook for accurate and professional content to fill a specific number of pages.

*Oilweek … February 23, 1987 …Alberta May Restore Gas Border Price By June

Finding costs in Canada are going down and some analysts predict netbacks in 1987 will be better than in 1985, according to Alberta Energy Minister Neil Webber at the recent Canadian Association of Petroleum Landmen.

*Oilweek … March 2, 1987 …Dye Takes Petrofina Case To Supreme Court

Auditor-General Kenneth Dye may be down after his latest round with Prime Minister Mulroney over access to Petro-Canada documents. He’s far however, from being counted out. Having lost a Federal Court of Canada judgment on the case, Dye is taking his case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

*Oilweek … March 9, 1987 …Crude Pro-rationing Scrapped

A modified system of production allocation of light/medium crude oil to replace the current pro-rationing plan, plus supplemental sales, is being instituted by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board.

*Oilweek … March 16, 1987 …Excitement Over Winnipegosis Find

Activity and excitement continue as the Winnipegosis in southern Saskatchewan gives up yet another promising play according to Martin E. Booth, Vice President of Exploration for Canadian Worldwide Energy Ltd. One of the participants announced a significant oil discovery in a deep Winnipegosis reef.

*Oilweek … March 23, 1987 …Chinese Dragon Breathes A Welcome

For three decades China held up a blindfold to Western eyes. Historically a nation of change, invasion, upheaval and revolution, the land of ancient dynasties has now plunged headlong into an open-door program in an attempt to join the 20^th Century before it’s over. China’s long silent oil and gas industry has extended broad development invitations outside the Great Wall. The Peoples’ Republic is open for business…

[There was much more but you get the idea of how my features and publishing responsibilities had taken a huge directional shift.]

With this major feature on China, I made the ‘cover’ of Oilweek Magazine then reluctantly stepped back from undoubtedly the most opportunistic staff, feature writing prospect of a lifetime.

Because…At about this point Hubby who had never been comfortable with my writing pursuits [a Field Inspector with the provincial Energy Resources Conservation Board] and I agreed on a legal separation. Though the divorce was progressing without hostility I was to become a single mother to Son aged 9 and Daughter aged 12 and worried about my time away from them.

Once again to the detriment of my writing future, circumstances seemed to set aside what my creative side wanted to do for those who tugged at my heart. I grew up the oldest of four always responsible for ‘others’ and so a lifetime of waiting my turn was steadily slipping by without my even realizing what I was doing.

***Life Lesson: without being [hurtfully] selfish - don’t wait to be counted. Carve out consistent, regular time for your dream and keep a steady watch on its progress. I finally woke up and stopped ‘waiting’ for my turn! I stepped up and finally ‘took’ my turn…

About-Me (patchworkpublishing.com)