Writer’s New Year Resolutions
1. Create more, worry less. (h/t Diane Shoemperlen) 2. The market isn’t Stalin. Have fun writing. 3. The market is Stalin. Be subversive. n invisible force was crushing him. He…
Literary
Eugenides Advice on Writing
To follow literary fashion, to write for money, to censor your true feelings and thoughts or adopt ideas because they’re popular requires a writer to suppress the very promptings that…
Sea Plane and Reading
WWII military supply plane That is the interior of the sea plane that took me from Vancouver to Gabriola Island. As the only passenger, I got to sit in front.…
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
This is a beautiful, heart-breaking, and ultimately redemptive novel about an Ojibway (Anishnabeg) man’s journey from childhood in the bush to his undoing in residential school, experiences in the Native…
More on Walmart
I dashed off yesterday’s post in haste and want to add a few thoughts. I’m not in favour of an economic model in which cheap prices depress wages (and working…
Bestsellers – in praise of Walmart
Web of Angels is back on the bestseller list! And no small thanks go to…Walmart, which chose this literary novel about a mom with dissociative identity disorder as its featured…
‘Small Damages,’ by Beth Kephart
“Dreamlike” is one word for Beth Kephart’s latest novel, “Small Damages,” in which an American teenager is exiled to Spain after she gets pregnant. Her percolating story emerges through Kephart’s…
Light and Lively Reading?
My new project, which I’m now about 8,000 words into, is something different from anything I’ve done before. It’s a light (and I hope smart) novel. I won’t say anything…
Simply Reading: Web of Angels | Bookstack
“That must be a heckuva book,” the elderly man said. He stood before me, hand in hand with his lady friend, as they walked the boardwalk on an afternoon constitutional.…
Saving The Children | Tales from the Reading Room
Inside our minds great forces rage and collide and strange convoluted processes are developed in order to avoid internal obstacles and keep the status quo. Former versions of ourselves wander…
A Different Drummer
I just finished The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, and found it delightful, which spurred me to tell you about how I came to it. I met Sadie Jones at…
Fiction for Good Living
For a long time literary critics and philosophers have argued, along with the novelist George Eliot, that one of fiction’s main jobs is to “enlarge men’s sympathies.” Recent lab work…
#8!
BookNet bestsellers: Canadian fiction in great company! Web of Angels hanging out with Why Men lie by Linden MacIntrye, The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak, Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan…
Sharing a Delightful Photo
This isn’t one I took, but I just have to share it with you. This is in my neighbourhood. In fact I may just walk past it this afternoon to…
Most Unique Interview Ever
This week I’m guest blogging for the National Post. I decided that my first post should impart some of the wisdom I’ve gained with experience. For example, years ago before…
From Grimsby to Winnipeg: Web of Angels Travels
If only I had a cell phone with a camera I’d have taken a shot of the view of the lake and the city skyline across from it yesterday evening.…
My Favourite Spot for an Interview
I met Greg Quill (Toronto Star) at Faema’s, a coffee shop 5 minutes from my house. It’s on Dupont Street near the Jaguar dealership which is rumoured to be turned…
Celebrating a Bestseller in the Best Way
Here’s what my children did yesterday. First a creation by H landed on my desk. Pen holder by H, click to enlarge The congratulations section swivels to reveal To and…
Web of Angels: Bestseller
This morning, after oatmeal (with maple syrup, a Sabbath treat), I was at my desk drinking coffee. Emails had arrived from my agent, editor, and publicist. After I read them,…