Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

Katie Bickell says she was quite surprised to get a call from George Kelham, asking if she would consider writing his life story. She took the job, which involved a lot of meetings with Kelham, during which he dictated the details of his life he wanted in the book.

“It was how I spent the pandemic,” she says.

Bickell has a growing reputation as a writer. She’s working on her second novel at the moment. But the Kelham job was the first such writing experience for her. She’s done speech writing, technical writing and so on, but nothing of this sort of scope. She was a bit nervous, but says “working with George was wonderful. He was very generous with the amount of information.”

Bickell did the writing, but “it’s definitely George’s book,” she says.

Speaking of that second novel of hers, she says it’s “set on the shores of Lesser Slave Lake.” Whereas her first book she describes as “gritty,” this one is more “whimsical and romantic.” It’s to be called ‘Alskling,’ which she says is Swedish for ‘beloved.’