Growing up, there’s one in almost every class: a budding bibliophile that breezes through assigned readings while devouring books on their own. Some dream of someday seeing their names on their first published books.
For Patricia Veldstra, it was not so cut and dried.
“I’ve always been a big reader, and I used to do a bit of writing. But I ended up just getting fascinated with the basic creation of books themselves,” she says.
After completing a certificate in publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University through distance learning in Edmonton, she started doing freelance book design work and while working as a project coordinator with the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.
She still dreamed of working in publishing, but she realized that the industry is concentrated in the big centres. And while there are great presses outside of that, including in Alberta, she says, they operate on small margins and therefore the ability to get into the industry is limited.
“Because of how concentrated the industry is, and how difficult it is to get started … lack of diversity in what gets published was and still is a huge problem,” says Veldstra.
She wanted to help change that, so in 2023, Veldstra founded Mythic Roads Press in Edmonton.
It’s a traditional, royalty-based publishing company and one of its main goals is to “publish unique, thought-provoking stories that resonate with people who may not have had the chance to see themselves in mainstream genre fiction… and to ensure that [the stories] can be read and enjoyed by the largest audience possible.”
Starting her own publishing company was the answer to her childhood dream of being surrounded by books — today, she’s involved in all sides of production.
Veldstra opened to submissions in March of 2023 and went through dozens before coming to the manuscript that would become her company’s first published title, Moon Dust in My Hairnet.
Non-binary, Marietta, Georgia-based author JR Creaden (they/them) says they initially struggled to find a publisher that wanted the same things. They wanted to focus on an underdog and her experience as someone adjacent to the fastest and strongest around her. They wanted diverse voices that are often lost in the noise of louder voices around them — and to represent those voices accurately.
And they wanted to create an accessible sci-fi story written from the perspective of someone — in this case a lunch lady — who would not use technical science talk but share experiences in a relatable way. Creaden also wanted the simultaneous release of an audio book, making the words even more accessible.
“When I spoke with Patricia for the first time, it was cement — it did not matter who else gave me an offer, I knew she was my partner,” says Creaden. “A lot of these words — diversity, and representation and equality — they feel almost trite in the industry, they’re just words. And I could feel with Patricia the heart behind the words and how much it mattered to her and why.”
Veldstra hired two sensitivity readers — those who belong to a specific community or identity to go through the book to flag for bias or stereotypes — for Moon Dust in My Hairnet. While some publishers use sensitivity readers, there are also those who avoid the practice, seeing it as a form of censorship. When Ronald Dahl’s estate posthumously altered some of his classic books with the help of sensitivity readers, for example, many in the industry strongly opposed the changes.
For Creaden, the practice was something they sought in a publisher—they believed it would make their work stronger, and more relatable. “There is a lot of effort put into making sure we were not doing harm — and that was the help I wanted and needed,” says Creaden.
The main character is autistic and has ADHD, and her internal thoughts take readers through her daily experiences: making mental notes of a way a specific person uses their body language, struggling with sensory challenges like loud noises, misreading social cues and feeling like an impostor among her highly educated peers.
Creaden received an autism diagnosis while part way through writing the book. They already knew they were neurodivergent — having previously been diagnosed with ADHD — but this new diagnosis changed their perception of their own life and their writing.
“I stopped writing for a couple months while I grappled with what that meant for my life thus far, and what it revealed about the characters I’d been writing,” says Creaden. “When I returned to work, I rewrote that beginning and each draft afterward grew with me in my unmasking.”
Pre-publication, Creaden started hearing from beta readers — one after another.
Veldstra’s currently working on more titles to be released in 2025 including The Moon the Sun Forgot, written by Calgary author, BJ Wagner.
“My main goal at this point is just to continue acquiring amazing titles and to put them out. I also have the goal of releasing them all in audio book as well. That’s part of the reason I’m taking so much time,” says Veldstra. “And I also believe in quality over quantity. I think it’s important I’m bringing in the right books, the right authors, and that I’m not rushing anything; so every book that’s published gets the care and attention it needs to succeed.”
This article appears in the October 2024 issue of Edify
