New Year New Love

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:02:24 -0800

Just to show my faithful readers (you have to have faith to wait for me to blog, durn it!), this story just in from a reader. And there were you all thinking that my books just led to rioting!

(The names have been snipped to protect the lovelorn)

‘I want to thank you for writing "A Place Called Armageddon." Several weeks ago, I was reading the book while on a stationary cycle at the gym I go to. A lovely woman approached me and asked me about it, so I gave her a short synopsis. After that encounter, I made sure to say hello to her anytime I saw her. In the weeks that followed we'd end up on adjacent cardio machines and chatted away the minutes. The chats turned to lunch and dinner dates by Christmas. When my mom asked me what I did for New Year's Eve, I told her, "I went to a friend's house to help her take down Christmas decorations and by the end of the evening, she became my girlfriend.” I thought you'd like to know how your book played a role in this romance.’

Altogether now... “Aw!”

And on the news front: ‘Fighting Man’, my new novel about Shakespeare’s fight arranger is now with my editor in London and I await notes. Meantime I am doodling new ideas. Considering a hop into historical fantasy. Or modern noir. Comments anyone?

Wind storm

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:46:42 -0800

So one of the drawbacks of island life is when you are off island and want to get home so you can CARRY ON WRITING and the wind gods say, ‘Uh Uh’ and all ferries are cancelled!
Grr! The only place I want to be is in my hut now because I am obsessed by the new novel and in the Zone of the second draft. Could I write in this coffee house? Probably. But I feel I need my sanctum now. Then I can mumble with my characters and the guy on the next seat won’t look at me askance.
So what can I do? Goethe says: Enjoy what you can. Endure what you must. I say: Good luck, Bad luck: who knows? I ain’t moving those ferries so...
What do I miss when on island? Movies. Beer. So I’ll go to a film... and then have a drink.
All of a sudden I am feeling MUCH better.

More Harbourfront

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:48:05 -0800

Not a bad alignment - Myself, Peter Robinson and Ian Rankin. Now, if only I can earn one tenth of their combined sales!
I do enjoy the Harbourfront festival. But like they sing in that great Spirit of the West song, after a week there I needed ‘Home for a rest’! Authors don’t get out much, so when they do they tend to overdo it. Well, I do anyway! Too many late nights, closing the hospitality suites - and Toronto followed onto Vancouver, where there had been much more of the same.
I dry out back in my hut. I return to the second draft of my Shakespeare book, provisionally entitled ‘Fighting Man’. And clean my liver for the next round!