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Captain of Kinnoull Hill

GET LIT 45 with CHRIS PANNELL (LitLive) and SHANE NEILSON

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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.

 

GET LIT 43 with ZOE WHITTALL + NEWS

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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!

GET LIT E38 with Carole Giangrande

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Some writers will tell you that writing is painfully solitary work. There’s some truth in that, of course; when I’m staring down the barrel of a 6:30 am writing session, all I have at hand is my CFMU mug of coffee and, occasionally, one of the cats in the cat tree behind me. You spend your time alone at a keyboard (or with a pen, or etching stone tablets, whatever your jam) and then, when you’re not actively writing, a lot of time in your own head, mulling, creating, upending, uprooting, debating, convincing, paining, despairing…you get the idea.

If you’re not an isolated person by nature, however, there’s usually an incredible community out there, wherever you live. I’ve been lucky enough to be accepted – mostly, I think? – by the community here in Hamilton, Ontario. Between writing groups, readings, events, committees and SM activity, I have met some ridiculously talented, very giving, very open, very thoughtful people.

At 7:30 am one day this week, I was feeling especially stuck with the new (still untitled) novel. At 36,000 words, the work felt as though it were barely a quarter done…and there’s little chance that I could pull off a 140,000 word book (or get it published for that matter). All I did was post on Facebook, and suddenly there were dozens of people giving me good advice (and I should add that not all of them were writers, but…).  Over on Twitter, another dozen of us were having an entertaining riff on #BookLoversDay, and it was wonderful.

Unsolicited, obvious advice again: if you ever feel stuck, if you ever feel alone, take a chance and try to find your community. It’s probably out there.

Today’s show is a feature interview with Carole Giangrande. Her latest, All That Is Sold Melts Into Air, is available through Inanna Publications. Enjoy!

Jamie

Get Lit Episode 13…and The Captain of Kinnoull Hill EBOOK!

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Yeah, don’t click on that. It’s just an image.

With many thanks to the good folks at Palimpsest Press, The Captain of Kinnoull Hill is finally avalable as an ebook! I screencapped Amazon so, you know, I could have an image of some kind with this post…but you can buy it in all ebook formats in most of your favourite ebook sellin’ places. Thanks for your patience.

Speaking of buying books…this week’s episode of Get Lit features an interview with Scott Dagostino, manager at Glad Day Bookstore in Toronto. Glad Day is the world’s oldest LGBT bookstore. Scott’s a thoughtful and well-spoken fellow, and I really enjoyed this interview. Hope you do as well!

Welcome, folks.

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Welcome to my blog at jamietennant.ca

This is the first blog I’ve written for my own website.

That’s boring as hell.

What’s hilarious is in the photograph. This is the first long-form story I ever wrote. Inspired by Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, I did what any budding storyteller would do. I shamelessly ripped off the great Mordechai Richler, stole his characters, and then, always one to live vicariously through fiction, turned his characters into me and my friends. I figured he wouldn’t mind.

I found this recently, as I was searching for a long-lost manuscript about demons from other dimensions (as one does). Written on a plastic portable typewriter in my parents’ kitchen at the age of about 10, it reminded me that inside, I’d always known I would be a novelist. Adult life wasn’t proving it – from the ages of about 25 to 35, in fact, I wrote tens of thousands of words but nary a clause of fiction. Now, rounding that last bend to middle age, I’m published and have caught the bug again. It began with this 4,000 word riff on Intrepid Shapiro and Fearless O’Toole.

This blog will be about…well, tons of things, I’m sure. I’m a music nerd, a father, a husband, a pop culture geek, an author, a community radio program director…it might get unwieldy here. It might go off on tangents. I will be posting episodes of my soon-to-air radio/podcast, Get Lit, as well as some short videos, if I can stomach looking at my own face during the editing process.

Hopefully, you’ll come see it.