Writer | Journalist
Hey folks! Still travellin’!
This show features an interview with Michelle Berry, whose great new book The Prisoner and the Chaplain is out with Hamilton’s very own Wolsak & Wynn. We also feature a book review by LitLive‘s Susan Evans Shaw, in which she reviews the latest in Alexander McCall Smith‘s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The House of Unexpected Sisters. Dig!
Hey folks! I’m doing up all these episode blogs in advance as I’m off in Japan doing research for the new book. Hence the shortness and sweetness of this….
This show features an interview with Jocelyn Parr, who may or may not have won the Governor General‘s award by the time you see this…lol. The problems when you pre-record episodes, right?
Her book Uncertain Weights and Measures is available through Goose Lane. Hope you enjoy.
Check out the blog I wrote for www.cfmu.ca on the cult children’s classic TV show, Hilarious House of Frightenstein!
Things could not be more frantic. Don’t I say that every week? I say that every week. Okay. Well, this time I truly mean it. Next week, I’ll be off to Japan to do a research trip for the new novel. New episodes of GET LIT will be airing every week though!
Part of the frenzy, besides day jobs and preparing for travel, is that it’s the International Festival of Authors this week. I’ve managed to check out some great events so far. On the weekend I checked out In Conversation with Chantel Acevedo and Amanda Earl; Poetry & Process with Ronna Bloom, Julie Cameron Gray and Anne Michaels; In Conversation with Antanas Sileika and Drew Hayden Taylor; Of Fathers and Sons with David Bouchet, David Layton and Pasha Malla. Monday was the Governor General’s Literary Award event with Alison MacLeod, Kathleen Winter, Joel Thomas Hynes, Michael Kaan and upcoming GET LIT guest Jocelyn Parr. Finally – for now, until the weekend – I checked out the 45th Anniversary event for Dundurn Press and In Conversation with Heather O’Neill (hosted by my pal Emily Saso). Back at it on Saturday, too!
This week’s show features something new – we start our book reviews on GET LIT! First up, Elizabeth Obermeyer from GritLit reviews Alison Pick‘s Strangers with The Same Dream. Our feature guest is Karen Smythe, whose This Side of Sad maaaaay have actually helped me figure out how to deal with major parts of my new novel. So listen in!
Hey everyone!
Once again I fail to live up to the status of “blogger” and I simply upload my show. What can I say? It’s a busy time of year. On top of the day job and family, I’m freelancing for the kind folks over at Hamilton Magazine (come to think of it, I’ve been there for about 19 years!). I’m also preparing to be away the first half of November, doing a research trip for the new novel. Hope to talk about some of my experiences in Tokyo and Nagano, Japan.
This week there’s a few guests. We re-air part of my interview with Jennifer Gillies, to remind you about the excellent stuff going on at the Staircase Theatre on Sunday Oct 22, as GritLit’s fall program continues. We speak with Theresa Randles, from the Grandmothers of Steel, a group that works with the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Alongside Blooms for Africa and Grapevine Grannies, they’re presenting a book launch for Powered By Love: A Grandmother’s Movement to End AIDS in Africa.
Our feature interview is with Christine Saratsiotis, Associate Director of the International Festival of Authors, which kicks off this week at Harbourfront in Toronto. If you’re around, you might bump into me there.
Enjoy!
Hey all!
Bit of a tight day around here, no time for bloggin’ thoughts.
Today’s show highlights some local book shindiggery thanks to Grit Lit‘s Jennifer Gillies. After that, we’re joined by author Gurjinder Basran to talk about her book Someone You Love Is Gone. Thanks and enjoy!
Hey folks!
I’m stepping aside for this one! Local writer and former radio host Margaret Shkimba takes the reins and interviews local author Deborah Serravalle about her book, How We Danced. Starting off, however, is a reading from Smells Like Heaven by author Sally Cooper. Hope you love it!
A few weeks ago I took to the Hivemind (read: Facebook) to ask peoples’ advice on how I should proceed on writing the new novel (which I now have under the working title “River, Diverted” but I dunno…”Diverted” is a weird word and the comma is possibly pretentious)(River is my main character, BTW). Everyone and their dogs agreed, write all of the words and sort it out later. I grudgingly agree – “grudgingly” because it means a rough draft could be years in the making.
Structure is a difficult thing. Unless you’re starting at A and going to B, with little backstory, it’s easy to get bogged down. My story takes place in the present but the past is a huge element of the plot, to the point where it is almost a separate timeline – but this was a surefire way to end up with a 1,000 page (read: unpublishable) novel.
Enter this here radio show/podcast. I read about a book a week in order to stay on top of interviews, and recently I read This Side of Sad (Goose Lane) by Karen Smythe. It’s a book with no present tense to speak of, and no traditional plot to speak of…and it works incredibly well. The narrator remembers her past in short sections, paragraphs a half-page long or less, presented in an order that seems random but, of course, was probably painstakingly assembled (I’ll find out when I interview her). Her structure may have cracked this story open for me, giving me a way to illuminate important moments without dedicating entire chapters to them.
The takeaway is, writers – keep reading!
Two guests today. First up, Chris Pannell, a Hamilton writer who is part of the LitLive committee. We discuss LitLive, a long-standing reading series in Hamilton (and I’ll be making my LitLive debut this coming Sunday, Oct 1, so if you’re around, come on by! 7:30 pm at the Staircase Theatre.
We also speak with poet Shane Neilson about writing, his career, and his remarkable collection Dysphoria. Hope you enjoy the conversations.
It’s been a busy week, starting with this year’s Polaris Music Prize gala. This year’s event was dedicated to the late Jack Rabinovitch, founder of the Giller Prize, which was a huge influence on Steve Jordan’s vision of the Polaris. Speaking of the Giller, the long list has been announced for 2017; check out the list here.
Speaking of prizes, today’s show features Toronto-based author Alison Pick. Her last novel, 2010’s Far To Go, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize. Her latest, Strangers with the Same Dream, is stellar as well. Hope you enjoy!
I’m doing a reading from The Captain of Kinnoull Hill at an upcoming LitLive. I will be doing a show about the reading series, to air in two weeks, and I’ll post more info then. For now: come out and support me if you’re in the Hamilton area! It’s at the Staircase Theatre on the evening of Sunday, October 1st.
This week’s show ties in to so many things. We talk with Zoe Whittall about her novel, the Giller-shortlisted The Best Kind of People. We had a great and somehow spoiler-free conversation, for all the folks who are just picking up the book. Many people around here are doing just that, as the book was chosen for the Common Reading program at McMaster (as well as the same program at Guelph U) and for the Hamilton Reads program at the Hamilton Public Library.
Enjoy the show!