October 19, 2006
Names
Until this morning, a character in my story was called Bob. I’m not sure why that was his name, as it’s not a name I’m overly fond of, but it’s been his name for nearly two years now and I’d sort of grown accustomed to it. But it didn’t sit perfectly with me. When I hear the name “Bob” in real life, it brings about connotations I don’t associate with my character. I’d sort of invested him with an “alternate Bob-ness”, but of course a reader wouldn’t get that. Readers have indicated this. And so this morning, with just a click (“change-all”), Bob became John. I am interested to see how this change alters my story, and how his new name changes his character. What elements will the fact of John-ness bring?
October 18, 2006
Sherrie Mitten?
The bad thing about the fictional creative writing workshops I mentioned is that on my bad days, I wonder exactly which pitiful-student-in-the-workshop-driving-my-instructor-to-suicide am I?
October 17, 2006
An all-night cosmic dance-a-thon
I loved Jennica Harper‘s book The Octopus and Other Poems and now she’s coming to read in Toronto! I’m going. You should too.
8:00 pm, Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Box Salon Reading Series
Rivoli Cafe and Club
332 Queen Street West
Toronto
8:00 pm, Friday, October 27, 2006
I.V. Lounge
326 Dundas Street West
Toronto
7:30 pm, Thursday, November 2, 2006
Fellini’s Shoe Cafe
226 Carlton Street
Toronto
October 17, 2006
The Great Pumpkin Shortage
I am the worst wife. Last night I heard a teaser from the CTV eleven o’clock news about a pumpkin shortage, and well, naturally I panicked. I told Stuart to get out to the shops first thing this morning and secure us a pumpkin; that there would probably be mass hysteria and he’d have to fight for his gourd. Brave noble man that he is, he set out this morning in the pouring rain to fetch us our punkin. However it seems that The Great Pumpkin Shortage is actually the plight of our American friends and Canadian patches are fine. I feel bad for sending Stu into the rain for nowt, and I will never trust Lloyd Robertson again.
October 16, 2006
Homesick
bMay I introduce the incredible Laura Conchelos, who has become blogolicious of late. Mainly just cuz she’s moving to the South Pole this week. If you know Laura Conchelos, you are probably not altogether surprised to hear that, and if you don’t know Laura Conchelos, you should. Sometimes she comes to my house bearing organic non-perishable goods she canned herself. I adore her. In addition, the ever-brilliant Erin has moved blogs, so update all links accordingly!
André Alexiswrites that the best English book in Canada probably shouldn’t be French, and that translators are getting shafted. India Knight has edited an anthology called The Dirty Bits for Girls: “And of course one of the marvellous things about finding out about sex through books was that it instilled a love of reading”. On growing up on MOR radio. The Governor General’s shortlist– and no women! oh my. Now reading Barometer Rising and Nixon in China: The Week that Changed the World.
October 15, 2006
Go your own way
Britt slept over Friday night, and Saturday morning we awoke bright an early to be in the audience at the live-taping of Go at the CBC, which was enormously fun and also means I’ve now said the word “sex” on national radio (not my choice; it was the question they gave me!). I spent the afternoon reading the newspaper, napping and devouring an enthralling novel (see below) that got me into such a state of Britishness after reading an account of afternoon tea at the Orchard Tea Rooms in Granchester, I ended up baking scones at 8:00 on Saturday night (and they were good!). Today’s highlight was a trip to Riverdale Farm (with a looong walk there and back), and it was excellent as usual and the lambs have become large.
October 15, 2006
One Good Turn
I’ve raved about Kate Atkinson before, when I read Case Histories last summer and when I reread Behind The Scenes at the Museum in August. She writes with the social and historical awareness of Margaret Drabble, but with the dark edge of Hilary Mantel, though of course her works are also startlingly original (and challenge genres). Kate Atkinson has yet to fail me, and in her new novel One Good Turn, she has truly crafted what her subtitle suggests: “a jolly good mystery”.
Yes, indeed, a mystery. I have spoken to fans of early-Atkinson who’ve gone off her a bit since her characters took up sleuthing, but none of them had actually read the books in question (Case Histories, and now its companion One Good Turn [though the two books both stand up alone]). I am no mystery fan (my interest sort of waned with Nate the Great) but I’ll read anything by Kate Atkinson, and moreover Behind the Scenes… really had a mystery at its heart. The genre suits Atkinson well, and she writes with her signature wit and brilliance.
In One Good Turn, Atkinson expects her readers to hang on tight, because the ride goes so fast. Jackson Brodie from Case Histories has stumbled onto a whole new batch of mystery at the Edinburgh Festival, but he is just one character in an excellent ensemble which includes a suburban housewife with a trick up her sleeve, a ruthless Russian call-girl, a fourteen year-old shoplifter and has-been comedian. Atkinson’s tongue-in-cheek depiction of the publishing world is particularly humourous, as seen by a writer of a particularly bad mystery series, and the book’s subtle CSI references indicate that Atkinson is very aware of the world she’s writing in. The story itself is so tight, admirable considering how many pieces had to be tied together in the end. The pace is quick, twists are so surprising, the end was a stunner. One Good Turn was simply a delight.
October 13, 2006
Freaky
Got a terrible case of the lurgy; we’ve had snowstorms already and last night the power was out for six hours, so we went out to Mexitaco at Bloor and Shaw, which was fun, and then we came home and I had to read by candlelight, re-rereading actually- Away by Jane Urquhart (pour l’ecole).
Ne pas pour l’ecole, I just finished reading Blue Angel by Francine Prose, and it was incredible. Written in third-person, Prose gives an illusion of objectivity that duped me at times, and once I realized I’d been taken in, I felt sort of dirty. The narrative voice was an absolute feat, but moreover the book was funny, smart and twisted, and the writing workshop was priceless. The satire was complicated and many-edged, and left me feeling uneasy, which, coming from a bundle of paper, is a powerful impact.
October 13, 2006
Nigel
I never mentioned that the story below was my submission to the McSweeneys Thirteen Writing Prompts Contest. A losing submission, obviously, but I still wanted to share it because I had fun with it.
