Globe and Mail review

Just returned from a relaxing five days on Vancouver Island to discover that Jim Bartley reviewed Love Minus Zero in today's Globe and Mail, here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090327.wbkbartley28/BNStory/globebooks/home

Wow! Cool!

Herald interiew

Eric Volmers' interview with me ran in today's Calgary Herald. Wow, big honkin' article with photos and I made the banner on the front page! Here 'tis:


http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/booksandthearts/story.html?id=5e4ba565-83db-48e7-8499-9c043987ffd1

What happened to February?

The pace has been a little frantic lately. Coming to the end of edits on Nothing Sacred, hope to be all done with that by the end of next week as we leave on the 22nd for a week in Bowser. Have started to get into things like back jacket copy -- thanks, Taylor! -- blurbs, etc. Also preparing my piece and working out some housekeeping details for the Writing in the Works event at Memorial Park Library on the evening of April 2.

Had an interview with Eric Volmers of The Calgary Herald on Tuesday; the piece is slated to run in Sundays Books section. I was very impressed at the amount of homework he'd done before we talked; he'd not only read the book, he'd also researched the Calgary punk scene and Oberon, and wanted to talk about Nothing Sacred (I keep typing 'scared') and my second novel which awaits a rewrite. Very nice experience, look forward to seeing the piece. Will post the link when I get it.

It's a small, sick world

Went to an all-day professional development workshop put on by The Writers' Union of Canada yesterday, with presentations by Genni Gunn, Wayne Grady and Deborah Windsor. It was nice to have a break from edits and meet some new people, get some new insights, talk about the process and so on. Very interesting indeed. It's always surprising to me what a small world the publishing world really is.

I am at this moment supposed to be at City Hall with Dan's Grade Four class, but Dan is ill today. He was very disappointed to have to stay home. But when he threw up in his breakfast, I had to put my foot down. What can you do?

Starting to rehearse my reading for the Writing in the Works 2 event at Memorial Park Library on April 2. By that time, I will have handed in my manuscript -- to someone, still not sure at this point if it will be my editor or the publisher. It seems far away at this point, but soon enough.

Writing in the Works 2

Last spring's Writing in the Works event was such a success we decided to give it another go. Our mandate is to feature works in progress and this year our slate of readers includes myself, Susan Calder Arnold, Inge Trueman, Naomi K. Lewis and Elaine Morin. We'll be reading at Memorial Park Library, lower level 1221 - 2 St. SW, at 7 PM on April 2nd. I haven't decided what I'm going to read at this point, probably one of the short stories from Nothing Sacred.

In other news, I continue to make progress on the edits for Nothing Sacred. We're just coming off of a six-day break from school (argh!) and when I get back to work tomorrow I'll have a look at the additional stories I just got back from my editor. She thinks we should go with three of the four that I sent her, which is fine with me.

Got a royalty statement -- and cheque -- from Oberon last week. Wow, wasn't expecting that. I didn't think I'd even make back my advance, particularly considering that the statement only covered up to the end of November and Love Minus Zero was only published end of October. That was heartening.

Carry on edits; reading, drinking, etc.

The editorial process on this new book is, so far, a much different experience than on Love Minus Zero. For one thing, I was working from a paper manuscript on that one. Just that felt quite different. However, things are coming along. I am nearing the end of the manuscript now with the first round of edits and await feedback on some additional material I sent the editor and for some development suggestions for some of the shorter pieces. Hope to get all this finished up before spring break, when we are in Bowser for a few days. Looking forward to that.

I was awed and humbled and inspired to hear Roberta Rees and Rona Altrows read at The Women's Centre on Tuesday. Their work is very different from each other's, nice contrast in style. The discussion afterwards was interesting, too, but sadly I had to leave to pick up the gents in the middle of things. Story of my life.

For some time my pals Inge, Susan, Leslie, Rona and I have been talking about reliving the glory of last spring's Writing in the Works event, a joint reading we all participated in. We are getting together for beers and wings (well, I don't eat wings, but I'll have a beer) to hash out our plans. I think it would be nice to have it before the spring books start coming out, around April, but I don't know how soon we can procure a venue and do promotion. Details will follow as we get them worked out.

Edits, etc.

So I'm in the thick of edits on Nothing Sacred (which title we're sticking with, I think). My editor is sending me some development suggestions for some of the shorter pieces soon and right now I'm working on the marked up manuscript she sent. I also decided I'd like to replace a couple of the weaker pieces with some newer ones written since I submitted the manuscript to Thistledown in 2006. Some of these stories are close to ten years old and I'm relieved to see that my style has improved in the last ten years, so some of the older pieces I'm not so sure about. Anyway, I'm waiting for her opinion on that.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to see Rona Altrows and Roberta Rees read at a fundraiser at The Women's Centre. Haven't been to a reading in a while. It'll be nice.

Well, back to work.