ARTICLE VI. Woe to the woman who, once Named, refuses to heed the call of service to her city! Woe to Edmonton should she deny her sacred duty! She shall be Melting Queen, and nothing in Heaven or Earth shall prevent it. For once one is Named, she cannot be changed. She who flees the call incurs a curse on our city. Let history forget her name. Let her memory be damned.
ARTICLE VII.
When the river flows swift and free of ice, the Melting Queen shall crown her new sister. The new Melting Queen shall assume her rightful seat, a flourishing throne in full bloom, and summer shall truly begin.
ARTICLE VIII.
The blossoming city shall truly have cause to rejoice. For a true Melting Queen shall restore the natural world to its grand, majestic splendour. The city shall burst into full flower, resurrected by the rains of spring, and the people of Edmonton shall exult in the purity of their Melting Queen. She shall be the beating heart of her proud city.
ARTICLE IX.
As summer gives way to fall, as crisp autumn leaves are dampened by the First Snow, the people of Edmonton need not despair. The Melting Queen shall uphold the joyous spirit of Melting Day over the next Long Winter. She will light the way through the darkness, a fiery beacon in the night. She shall provide a warm bosom against the cold winds, a lush oasis in a desert of ice and snow.
ARTICLE X.
Should the Melting Queen so desire, she may endeavour to undertake a Grand Project as a key strategy in the battle against the manifold miseries of winter. To assist the Melting Queen in her Good Works, she shall be attended by advisors who convene a gathering of worthy petitioners. From amongst these meritorious supplications, the Melting Queen shall select an initiative, to warm the hearts of her people in the depths of the Long Winter.
ARTICLE XI.
The Melting Queen must be endowed with a marvellous vision for her city. She shall only be released from her duty when she fulfills this vision and crowns her successor.
ARTICLE XII.
Though she is Edmonton’s perfect mother, though she is beloved of the people, no Melting Queen shall serve her city for more than one year. Her time has come and gone, and she must clear the way for her successor to join our city’s great sisterhood.
ARTICLE XIII. The Melting Queen shall brook no rival. All festivities, all revelries, all celebrations shall be organized under her auspices. Edmonton shall not permit any Other, man or woman, to usurp her sacred place at the head of our city.
ARTICLE XIV.
And finally, we lucky few, the people of Edmonton, must remember our Melting Queens and honour their devotion to our city. For we are far from the world, here at this bend in the river. We shall not appear in the pages of the great histories of man. We must treasure this obscurity, and love our traditions, and rejoice that we are a city unlike any other. And in return, our eternal mother, with her infinite grace, shall bring us springtime forevermore...
Note: the following Article was inserted by Kastevoros Birch shortly after River Runson became the Melting Queen.
ARTICLE XV.
And last of all, should a Melting Queen be Absolutely Unable to fulfill her Sacred Trust, the Good People of Edmonton shall be called upon to appoint Another to serve in her place. And should this Sad Event occur, a General Consensus shall be required among Edmontonians, so that she who is Late-Named, like every Melting Queen from First to Last, shall surely embody the Spirit of Spring.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people for their help and encouragement while writing this book:
First, I’d like to thank Thomas Wharton, my first and last editor, who helped me begin the journey of writing my first novel and who was there at the end when I needed to make sure that every last word sings.
Next, thank you to Mark Witzaney for having the patience to read a 240,000-word first draft and for pointing out that I’d accidentally written two novels which were hopelessly entangled with each other.
Thank you to Ruth DyckFehderau, for reading the 140,000-word second draft and for giving me the exact same feedback. Sometimes you need to hear it twice before you believe it.
Thank you to Kimmy Beach, for helping me disentangle my two novels, write my third draft, and lay the foundation for a book called The Melting Queen.
Thank you to Natalie Cook and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Mentorship Program for introducing me to Kimmy Beach and giving me the opportunity to reshape my manuscript.
I’d like to thank Daphne Read for reading every draft I sent her and for providing me with continuous feedback and moral support throughout this lengthy process.
I’d like to thank Norma Dunning for her advice and encouragement, not only with this novel but with many short stories way back in my very first writing class. We made it, Norma! Seriously, buy her book, it’s amazing.
I’d like to thank Danielle Fuechtmann, who has not only read multiple drafts and been the perfect sounding board for countless ideas, but also provided me with emotional support during the hundreds of times I doubted myself and this book.
I’d like to thank Kyla Hewson, for asking questions that nobody else ever thinks to ask and for helping me bring this book across the finish line.
I’d like to thank Matt Bowes, Claire Kelly, and everyone at NeWest Press for taking a chance on this book and agreeing to publish a parallel-universe, magic realist, alternate history, genderfluid Edmonton fantasia. Fingers crossed guys.
I’d like to thank my family—my parents, my aunt, and my sister—for always encouraging me and for never making me feel like I was wasting my time by pursuing an artistic passion.
And finally I’d like to thank Edmonton. It’s easy to hate your hometown when all you read in books and see on screen are images of New York and Paris and London. It’s easy to hear, and believe, and uncritically reproduce the narratives that you live in a boring, grey, boiler room of a city. But any city can be grand and colourful and magical, if you just look around. All you need is an open mind, a curious spirit, and a little imagination. Dozens of authors have written books and stories and poems set in Edmonton. I’m proud to be one of them.
Bruce Cinnamon was born in Edmonton and grew up just downstream in Fort Saskatchewan, along the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. He holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Alberta and a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto. His favourite authors and literary influences include Garth Nix, Haruki Murakami, Jorge Luis Borges, Rachel Carson, Thomas King, Tomson Highway, and Italo Calvino. The Melting Queen is his first novel.
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