Crimes of Disrespect: A Novel
CRIMES OF DISRESPECT, my novel based loosely on land-claim protests at the Six Nations reserve, came out in 2020. I spent the previous decade honing my craft by writing literary short stories.
For example, "Paper Icon" appears in the book POLISH(ED): POLAND ROOTED IN CANADIAN FICTION, 2017, by Guernica Editions, Toronto. The literary journals GREAT LAKES REVIEW (Toronto/Chicago), POSTSCRIPTS TO DARKNESS (Ottawa), and OTHER VOICES (Edmonton) have also published my short fiction.
In the Late Cretaceous period (the 1980s), I studied architecture at UBC, Vancouver, and completed a master's in environmental studies at York University, Toronto, in 1994. I worked in both fields before turning to writing. Currently, I'm based in Kingston, Ontario.
Crimes of Disrespect: A Novel
A mix of Canadian social realism with the mystery genre, Crimes of Disrespect is based loosely on the 2006-07 land-claim protests at Six Nations of the Grand River and the neighbouring town, Caledonia. Available through Amazon and your local bookseller.
"A well-paced, topical whodunit. A debut mystery, set in an Ontario town where high school proves to be murder. It’s 2006, and Pamela Renard, who’s of Indigenous and White French Canadian heritage, is often bullied on the Mohawk reservation where she lives. She meets an all-new group of bullies when she gets a scholarship to attend Oakville’s prestigious Woodmore Academy...."
Novelist R.B. Young responds to questions about his mystery/Canadian social-realist novel, Crimes of Disrespect. Young talks about historical research into the Six Nations reserve near Hamilton, Ontario. He also muses on the who-gets-to-write-what question. Aired on Global TV, 17 Aug 2022.
Short Stories (Selected)
Included in POLISH(ED) -- an anthology of Polish-Canadian diaspora stories -- "Paper Icon" is about a Stratford, Ontario, bed-and-breakfast owner who has fallen on hard times and faces a difficult choice.
The Great Lakes Review (Issue 2, Spring 2013) has published my short story "Ascent." You can buy the issue from Amazon or, in the U.S., from Barnes & Noble. The journal publishes fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry from around the Great Lakes, including Toronto, Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Hamilton, Buffalo, and the rest of the Great Lakes region.
Postscripts to Darkness, an Ottawa literary anthology, published my short story "Old Softie" in fall 2011. The tale is part ghost story, part technological speculation, but it's fundamentally about the betrayal of friendship.
Book Reviews
A Delicate Truth, by John Le Carré: Because governments are so inefficient at everything, and making war is expensive, why not privatize the military? With tongue in cheek, John Le Carré, master spy novelist, attacks that question in A Delicate Truth.
The Fever, by Megan Abbott. In high school, I spent my lunches at the dweeb table, and I always wondered what it was like to be one of the cool kids. So, to my amusement, reading Megan Abbott's novel The Fever provided a peek into the souls of the coolest kids at a high school in small-town USA.
The Longings of Wayward Girls, by Karen Brown.In this novel, Brown meditates on the suffering that goes along with love and lust. This is Brown’s debut as a novelist, but Publishers Weekly named her short story collection Little Sinners and Other Stories as a Best Book of 2012.