Jack Knox

Column by Jack Knox - Victoria Times Colonist - October 16, 2000
Re-published with permission of the author

....by Jack Knox
Victoria, BC Times-Colonist
October 16, 2000
Hobby Goes Out Of Control

Jack Knox

It was a dark and stormy career ... "I spent a good part of my life in broadcasting, where in most cases I was told what to say and what to do," says Bill Loeppky. "It wasn't a good forum for someone to express them-self, because you're always writing what someone else wants you to."

So after he retired a few years back, Bill decided to launch a non profit, on-line magazine where writers could submit humour, short stories, poetry - whatever they want. Six years and 450 contributors later, Inditer is thriving. "It's been a hobby at's gone out of control."

Loeppky, who runs the site from his Victoria home, pays the costs - phone line, some Intemet fees - out of his own pocket. "It runs me about $70 a month. It's not lot of money.!

Maybe not a lot, but enough for a 73 year old pensioner, a victim of Canada's tainted-blood scandal who has become something of an unlikely hero to hundreds of frustrated writers.

Magazine contributors - about 70 per cent of whom come from the U. S., many from the education community - gush about Bill and the vehicle he has built for them.

"Inditer provides a marketplace for talent and minds," says Kimit Muston, a Los Angeles freelance writer. "And that was the promise of the Internet; not Barnes and Noble and porno. Inditer is what the Internet was supposed to be."

Contributor Tom Bentley, the founder of the Saskatoon fringe festival, says he recognized immediately the Saskatchewan sensibility in Bill - coming from the place where you either burn down the barn or become an artist. He has a great sense of humour and loves words."

John Clennan, a New York lawyer who writes as John Davis Collins, calls Loeppky "a true gentleman (who) never takes credit for himself."

Kind words from people who have never actually seen Bill. These folks all get together at www.inditer.com.

"I have never met him in person," says Royston's D. Grant DeMan, who considers Bill a great friend. They haven't even spoken by phone. "I think sometimes you get closer on e-mail than you do in real life."

Real life saw William Lyon Mackenzie Loeppky bom in Laird, Sask., back in the days before his godfather became prime minister. Bill's grandfather had become a friend of Mackenzie King when the latter was parachuted into the riding in 1926.

Bill began in radio in the late 1940s. it took him to Regina, Dawson Creek, Vancouver, Port Alberni, Fort St. John, Alberta. There were two stops at CJVI in Victoria. The first one ended when Bill was fired after a couple of other staffers threw a drunken party in the station one night while he was on air.

He knew nothing about it - "I didn't I didn't even get a taste" - but was bounced none-the- less.

He set up Inditer - an old Engish word meaning scribe, or record keeper - in 1994. It didn't take long to attract talent, even though no money changes hands. "I know a lot of writers are against this sort of thing, because they believe they should never let a piece go without getting paid, "

But a lot of people don't write for the money. And in any case, it's good exposure for those who do.

There aren't a lot of rules. No smut, no porn, no libel. Loeppky doesn't edit, so the stuff has to be good enough when it arrives. "I think I use about half of what comes in."

Notes Muston: "I think I could write a column claiming the existence of Big Foot, and if it was well written, Bill would publish it. But if I sent him a badly written column supporting Mom, apple pie and hockey, Bill would send it back to me. I like that."

Loeppy has done much of this while dealing with health problems that would have many of us thinking about no one but ourselves. "I started getting pretty sick about three years ago," he recalled. It was then that he was diagnosed with hepatitis C, which he links to a blood transfusion 12 years ago.

Canada's federal and provincial governments have set aside more than $1 billion in a compensation plan for people like Bill, but none of it has reached him yet. "We've been waiting now for three years, and not a dime."

But he carries on regardless, an improbable icon for a collection of contributors who vary in style and background, but who are joined by their gratitude to someone who appreciates writing for its own sake.
EMail Jack Knox at the Victoria, BC, Times Colonist.

Ed Note: You may also see a response to the Jack Knox column at our response page.

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