Frostbite by Wes Funk Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Shelley A. Leedahl $19.95 ISBN 9-781927-756980 When Saskatoon’s Wes Funk died in 2015 at age forty-six, he was well-known and admired in the local writing community. He’d self-published novels and a chapbook of poetry and short stories, hosted a weekly series, “Lit Happens,” on Shaw TV, and mentored beginning writers. YNWP’s posthumously released Funk’s final book, Frostbite, which contains the novel of the same name, plus a novella-“Rocket of the Starship”-in one handsome package. Funk’s set both stories in Saskatoon and there are no shortages of landmarks to help locate the worlds in which his protagonists-both with cool names: “Deck” from the novel; the novella features “Dare”-roam. Deck Hall, a recently fired accountant and recently separated forty-year-old, lives in City Park, and his estranged wife is a nurse at Saskatoon City Hospital. The Bessborough Hotel, Midtown Plaza, Broadway Bridge, the Senator, Amigo’s Cantina and Diefenbaker Hill are locations that help set the stage for the aptly-named “Frostbite.” As the book opens, Deck has just finished his fourth bartending shift in a week, and he returns, wearily, to the Star Wars memorabilia and the companionship of his bulldog, Muffin,…

Wes Side Story by Wes Funk Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Alison Slowski $19.95 ISBN 978-1-927756-15-7 A thoroughly entertaining book, author Wes Funk’s memoir Wes Side Story is light-hearted, fun-filled, and engaging. Funk glides effortlessly through several scenes in the story of his life from when he was a young boy to the present day. He writes candidly about every topic: from deep issues such as discrimination and suicide, to lighter, fresher topics such as getting married, and being wholly devoted to a man who is the love of his life. He describes his work as the host of a popular community TV show with a spotlight on writers in the Saskatchewan community, “Lit Happens”. Funk’s writing paints a picture of nn intelligent and unassuming Prairie boy at heart; there is a refreshingly honest quality to it. Funk’s memoir begins with details of his early life in rural Saskatchewan, growing up in a small town and then moving to an acreage with his family while still in his younger years. His beautifully rendered heartfelt memories of growing up as a teenager in the 1970’s and 1980’s speak to his earlier work, Dead Rock Stars. Coupled with his…

Dead Rock Stars by Wes Funk Published by Backroads Press Reviewed by Gail Jansen $15.95 ISBN: 978-0-9781396-1-8 Growing up different from others always makes its mark on who we become as adults. For Wes Funk’s main character Jackson Hill, in his novel Dead Rock Stars, growing up gay on a farm in small town Saskatchewan, with two red-necked brothers and a past that haunts him, it’s a mark that has led to isolation, no matter how far he thinks he has come. Yet as Funk writes, “there comes a time when a person has to make peace with his hostility.” In his engaging story about Hill and the Dead Rock Stars theme that plays on throughout his life, Funk subtly pushes the reader to look beyond the stereotype to see the man that Hill has become, and to see the very real issues he faces in confronting his past; a confrontation he is helped gently through with the aid of the handsome and charismatic Frank. While we have all faced such moments at one point or another in our lives – defining moments that lead us to embrace life, or run from it – in Hill’s case it’s a run…