As a Canadian, I am not really in a position to speak of the choices Americans made yesterday. I don’t agree with them, fundamentally, and I’m extremely saddened by them, but that was their decision to make, and they made it. The fact that they made it is going to lead to more analysis than […]
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When Your Local Bookstore No Longer Has Your New Book (After A Week)
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Because they had it, a bit before the launch date, and now, a little over a week later, they don’t. Which I discovered yesterday when I went to pick up Jeff Vandermeer’s latest. It bugged me. It also didn’t. This bookstore, and it’s a great bookstore, […]
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Tagged bookstores, indie press, novel, Publishing, Seinfeld, The Reeds, writing
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Because Unboxing Is Now A Thing
I unboxed the book when I received the package from the printer. Or, rather, I UNBOXED it. That’s what one must do now. I posted a video of the unboxing to social media. I won’t do it here. You can find the videos (there is more than one) with minimal effort if that kind of […]
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Tagged book, cover design, ECW press, orange, shag carpets, the 70s, The Reeds, unboxing
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My Podcast About Magazines
It’s true. I have a podcast. And you’re thinking, just what the world needs, and I wouldn’t disagree, because, yes, there are a lot of podcasts out there, too many, let’s admit it, but who am I too say there’s too much of anything? I’m just a man. With a podcast. The podcast is called […]
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Tagged Magazines, media, Mountain Gazette, Nylon, podcast, Saveur, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair
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A Short Introduction to Settings That Will Only Make Sense Once You Read The Reeds (and yes I’m going to say “read The Reeds” quite often in the coming months)
The long road to publishing is indeed a long road. Duh. But you’ve seen the cover. The first blurbs are in. And they’re good. Again, duh. We have chosen an actor to read the text for the audiobook; he’s worked in Montreal and knows French so he won’t massacre some of the words and names. […]
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Tagged Chinese food, Cote St. Luc, Fay Wong, golf course, Meadowbrook, Montreal, NDG, novel, settings, shopping mall, The Reeds, train yards, writing
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The Cover (Preliminary)
There’s nothing to add here. This is the cover of the ARC (look at the words in the black circle for clarification) for my forthcoming novel. Orange shag shows up a few times in the text, in two different places, connected to an individual and the two halves of his life. He strokes the shag […]
2023 Cannot Be Dreamt Away
I am tired of year end reviews. Years can suck for the writer of the review or for the world at large, or can be good for the writer of the review (but rarely for the world at large) but 2023 seemed to continue a string of crap that started with the pandemic that refuses […]
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Tagged 2023, AI, Bobby Ewing, business, Canada, COP, economy, Elon Musk, enshittification, environment, EV, Montreal, nothing, politics, Quebec, Spotify, tech, Tik Tok, wealth, writing, year end review
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New Novel Coming But Not For A While
It’s true. I have a new book coming, next year, in the fall, so announcing this now feels silly but I’m going to announce it, if I haven’t already. It’s possible I did. If so, I’m sorry. The book is called The Reeds. It will come out in the fall of 2024. It was supposed […]
Nine Years Ago Today
I launched my previous novel at Montreal’s venerable Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, which just happens to be my neighborhood bookstore (lucky me — it’s truly a great place, one of this city’s treasures). I remember there was a lot of beer. My publishers indulged me. So much beer that there was a lot left over and […]
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The Liminal Year
This was a year. There is not much more to say about it. Things happened but they always do. This was a year as liminal space between dumb and stupid. Dumb things happened. I kept saying “everything is stupid” and I was never proven wrong, perhaps proof of what I was saying. A quote as […]
