March 21, 2024
The Books Themselves
Last week marked seven years since the release of my first novel, an occasion I didn’t mark as in years past because I’m trying to be more honest and human about my publishing experiences (as opposed to, like, posting, say “WOO HOO BIG BOOK TOUR ENERGY!” posts when it’s just me eating crullers at a series of Tim Hortons across Southern Ontario).
I’ve been really lucky and privileged to have published three novels in total, but it’s never been like how I thought it would be, I’ve never received the validation that my books are real, that I’m legit. I’ve never made a major bestseller list, I’ve never had any of my books nominated for an award, let alone won one. In many ways, trying to pass in the world as a bonafied author has felt more like a series of embarrassments and humiliations that anything else, and I know I’m not alone in this, it’s just too mortifying for most people to say it out loud (and everybody else is John Grisham).
It helps a lot, however, to divorce my books from the idea that they exist to solidify my identity as an author and my sense of self-worth, to look elsewhere for the latter, to freaking get over myself in regards to the former (I think about Annie Dillard’s line, “…he himself likes only the role, the thought of himself in a hat…”)
To think of the fact of these books in themselves, as singular creations rather than as extensions of me. To consider how true I was able to be to my vision for all three of them, how I’m able to open any one of them at any page and start reading, and think, “This is a book I’d like to read.” How proud I am of the secret subversion in each of these stories, the poignancy, the humour, and how they lift up, complicate, and celebrate women’s lives and women’s stories.
Here are, at least, three parts of my author life of which I wouldn’t change a single thing.
January 13, 2023
235 Days
235 days until Asking for a Friend is released! And in the meantime, my previous novels are still out there in the world, being read, and (in one case) wearing a moustache. Thank you to everybody who’s reading and sharing.
October 12, 2022
Looks! Looks! It’s my books!
If you need me for the next month, I’m going to hard at work on the final round of revisions to my novel before it goes for copy editing (it comes out September 5 2023, which is less than a year away) but, in the meantime, how wonderful that my first two novels are still out there in the world, going places and being read! Thanks to everybody who’s reading and sharing.
March 25, 2022
Good Bookish Things
One of the highlights of my March has been hosting the virtual lunch for Danielle Daniel’s debut adult novel Daughters of the Deer, which continues to appear on bestseller lists across the country—which is just the best news, and I’m so thrilled for the book’s success. As a token of thanks following the event, Danielle was kind enough to create a beautiful image of a a reader and my book, and I couldn’t love it any better.
March 9, 2022
On Entitlement
So SOMEBODY is currently making the rounds hoping that his reputation can now be fully rehabilitated, especially after the sexual assault charges against him that (temporarily) derailed his political career back in 2018 have fallen apart. And fair enough. But as someone who has read his terrible autobiography (which is the worst typeset document in the history of documents), I would like to underline that the specific assault charges, to some of us, were never the point. Instead, it was a question of character. The entitlement of a guy who launches his political career with a case of beer at his elite all-boys private high school, who builds a political career with a strategy of unseating female incumbents, who has the fucking audacity to vote to reopen the abortion debate and court the family values crowd—all the while he’s in his thirties and having relationships with women just out of their twenties who work in his office. One of whom he’s now married to, whose secret relationship he only admitted to on the night in 2018 when his whole career came crashing down and suddenly it seemed opportune to be a man with a partner. Who’d be exasperating enough if he were only one guy, except that he’s emblematic of so many mediocre men in positions of leadership who have no idea how irresponsible and reckless it is that they get to have so much power over ordinary people’s lives.
So this is why I don’t feel sorry for Patrick Brown, and that so many people do only underlines the power of “himpathy” (read Kate Manne’s book), and I’ll tell you again that his is the natural trajectory of the men whose “lives are destroyed!” in #MeToo style takedowns, and, finally, if you want to know more about my thoughts on the subject, go read my novel, Waiting for a Star to Fall.
March 4, 2022
It’s Here, It’s There….
Images of Waiting for a Star to Fall out and about in the world lately, including in the company of a couple of excellent mugs.
January 24, 2022
Shooting Stars!
Just a fun round-up of Waiting for a Star to Fall out and about in the world—including a review in the latest issue of Herizons!
January 3, 2022
My Novel in STELLAR Company
A very pleasant end-of-year surprise for me was the inclusion of Waiting for a Star to Fall on this amazing end-of-year round-up! Thank you, Rochelle!
