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I feel free. Or at a loss.
I received official word from my editor yesterday that the book is done. She’s sent it to Invisible, and they’ve let me know to expect page proofs soon. I feel…satisfied with what I’ve written. It’s such an odd feeling. I definitely feel that at this point, as the writer I am today, I’ve done the…
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Blue pencil special
I filed what I think is my final version of Fallsy Downsies yesterday. My editor, Bethany Gibson, is very good at her job indeed. The degree to which she has held me accountable, made an honest writer out of me, is startling. And awesome. Her careful, thorough, no-bullshit approach is exactly what I was looking…
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Almost there
I am not sure what I used to do before I started writing/rewriting Fallsy Downsies. The last three weeks have been given almost entirely to rewriting. Every evening and all weekend. Thousands and thousands of words. My editor made gentle suggestions, asked probing questions and just generally made a better writer of me. I decided…
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Third time lucky
So, I got out of the weeds, in the end. I got out of the weeds and I wrote and wrote and wrote, and then I wrote some more. And all the writers in town conspired to keep me fed and watered, dropping off meals to my door and stuffing my mailbox with candy. And…
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The weeds
Oh god, the weeds. Every writer gets in them. Somehow, knowing that doesn’t help when you get there yourself. The point at which you look at your stack of paper with all your sentences all written out by hand over the last however many years and you think: God. Who’d want to read that pile…
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Signed, sealed, delivered
Okay, not delivered, not yet. But I have signed a contract with Invisible Publishing to bring out Fallsy Downsies in the fall of 2013. Which means I’ll need to deliver them a manuscript on or around March 15. No problem, right? Cue panic attack. No, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Just fine. Stay tuned for…
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You can’t start a fire without a spark
I’m late to the Springsteen party. I got obsessed with Dancing in the Dark a couple years back. Mostly that line: I’m dying for some action, I’m sick of sitting around here trying to write this book. Tell me about it, Boss. Last week I watched a couple of documentaries about Springsteen. A BBC one…
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My back pages
The writing retreat in Tata was a huge success. Well, the reading at Fables was—let’s call it an intimate affair. Usually on the Friday night of our retreat, we Common members would read to each other that which we’d accomplished that day. And so it was at Fables that night, but with a few extra…
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Getting away to it all
This has been my least productive year as a fiction writer since I learned to hold a pencil. So far, anyhow. Since January I have been so busy with everything but writing that I occasionally forget that it is, as Sue Goyette frequently points out to me, my true work. Instead of writing I have…
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For your information
Oh hello! Thanks for dropping by! It seems there’s a spate of interest out there about some of my activities beyond writing. The rumours are true, I am learning to run. I am training for a 5K at the Bluenose Marathon, and you can read all about my adventures in running here. Also, lots of…
