all my little words...CK's mono{b}logue

Yesterday Cover

2012-01-27T13:43:00.001-05:00

It's been a good few months since I first saw this and I've been dying to share ever since. But you know how these things are, top secret until you get the go ahead to share! Now that the cover for Yesterday is up on the Random House site and Amazon.com it's not a secret anymore and I couldn't be more thrilled to post the cover for my next book, due out September 25th.

Since there's no description up along with it I'm afraid I'll have to refrain from blabbing about the book much, but I will say it's set partially in 1985 and there are sci-fi elements. Sci-fi elements and references to The Smiths in the same book! Yes, I have indulged myself a wee bit and I would love to tell you more but for now my lips aresealed.

My Beating Teenage Heart & Yesterday

2012-01-12T14:13:00.001-05:00

By now most of you have probably seen The Joy of Books video that bookstore Type (883 Queen Street West) recently created and posted to YouTube. It's an absolutely magical video that you really should watch if you haven't already. However, I can't say the delightful activities captured at Type Books surprise me because I never doubted books (in their superior physical form!) have lives of their own and must admit I have a habit of anthropomorphizing fiction especially.

For instance, just a couple of days ago I discovered the paperback of My Beating Teenage Heart is being released on the same autumn day as my upcoming YA novel, Yesterday: September 25th. To me, this feels like a very happy thing as My Beating Teenage Heart can act as moral support for Yesterday and show it the ropes. The two books can make their way out into the world together, maybe even have some secret adventures and take some road trips out west or something.

I'm hoping I can show off both their covers soonish (My Beating Teenage Heart will be getting a brand new cover for the paperback) and tell you a little bit about Yesterday but for now it's top secret. Well, except for the facts from the Random House site which state the book is 368 pages and falls under the category Juvenile Fiction - Science Fiction. Although Borders in Australia has it listed under the category of historical fiction so who knows, right now the book could be about practically anything! Maybe it's a Paul McCartney bio or a cookbook full of classic Irish recipes? Or a book about Paul McCartney's favourite classic Irish recipes? Or even a futuristic novel centering on a robot revolution and how said robots have been inspired by Paul McCartney's career? In time all will be revealed...

A 1939 Motto for 2012

2011-12-31T19:06:00.005-05:00

Months back a writer friend sent me a link to Margaret Atwood's insightful TED talk on the future of publishing, "The Publishing Pie: An Author's View." The part that resonated the most deeply with me begins at the 2:16 mark where Atwood, reflecting on acute changes to the industry remarks, "We have heard a certain amount of panic and my first message to you is, don't panic because if you do panic and run away they will think you're prey."

To me, this seems to be solid advice in any number of situations: Don't panic because you'll look like prey.

When my first book was accepted for publication in 2006 the publishing environment was very different than it is today, only a few short years later. The rise in popularity of e-books has significantly changed the publishing landscape. For one thing, there's tons more piracy (and most writers make very little money to begin with so that's extremely bad news). A 2011 poll of French readers found that 27% of ebook readers reported that they got their content from pirate sites. Another 2011 Digital Entertainment Survey showed the "advent of eBook readers has increased illegal downloading activity across the board: 29 per cent of eReader and 36 per cent of tablet owners of all ages, both male and female, admit piracy."

To be honest, I have trouble understanding some readers' willingness to download (and even post) pirated copy of books. It doesn't take much insight to realize that if you don't financially support books there'll be less choice in reading materials in the future. Worried publishers, seeing diminishing returns for many, many books, will award less contracts and writers that aren't perceived to be writing the next Hunger Games or The Help will be out of luck. Some may self-publish (with varying degrees of success and still facing piracy in that arena) and some, in time, may be forced to stop writing almost entirely, bruised by financial realities—the need to feed themselves and their families. Surely if you're a reader, you'd want a certain diversity and depth of reading material to be available to you in the future. You'd think, right? But it seems that a significant percentage of readers are woefully short-sighted on this point.

Piracy aside, this is the year that Borders disappeared from the United States, leaving a single big national bookstore chain in place, Barnes and Noble. Even before Borders went bankrupt Barnes and Noble had way too much power— influencing book covers, titles and sometimes even the content of books. But now if Barnes and Noble decide not to stock your book it's a bigger concern for writers than ever. There may not be an indie store around for miles and they just don't get the traffic that Barnes and Noble do (if you have the chance, please give indie bookstores all the traffic you can!). At times it may in fact be easier for readers to find pirated copies of your book online than physical copies of your novel on bookstore shelves (head slap!).

Too, when my first book, I Know It's Over, was released contemporary young adult books were in much greater demand than they are now. These days, while there are still some contemporary YA books kicking around at Barnes and Noble, their shelf and table space is puny compared to that awarded to more escapist fare—paranormal, fantasy and dystopian fiction for teens. Not that I have anything against books that offer an escape from reality but I do have a problem with those books being supported by publishers and chain booksellers to the exclusion of almost anything else.

And this is the place I find myself at the end of 2011, a writer who wants to continue to pen books for young people (realistic contemporary books mainly but other things too. A little of this, a little of that, whatever inspires me at a particular time) despite not having any hit novels to my name at a time when the industry feels like it's standing at the edge of a hill, beginning to cascade down the side like a runny egg.

A writer could get very nervous thinking about it all and then there's the shaky state of the economy in general and the fear that every year we delay getting serious about combatting climate change puts our collective future in greater jeopardy. There's alot to worry about for all of us, no question, but the act of worrying isn't actually helpful in the least so in 2012 I'm adopting a WWII slogan Britain's Ministry of Information came up with way back in 1939. Given the anxiety of the current times it's easy to see why it's become popular again.

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions and I'm not even sure this is one exactly but in 2012 I plan to take Margaret Atwood's and the British Ministry of Information's advice. I'm not sure what the publishing industry has in store for me, or any of my fellow writers this year—or what the slippery global economy has in store for any of us either—but soldier on with me, folks. We'll have to get more creative in working around our problems than we've had to be in the recent past. Much more, I imagine. But we can do that. Our species happens to be quite talented at adapting once we put our minds to it.

Keep calm and carry on.

Favourite Rock Fiction

2011-12-28T02:59:00.054-05:00

The Christmas holidays may be a great time for turkey, plum pudding and sledding (if you have the weather for it), but one of the other things I love about the season is the feeling, after the main festivities are over with, that it's okay to slow down and smell the roses or, er, the snowflakes. I haven't been doing any writing during the past few days but I've been doing a heck of a lot of movie watching (including the adventures of my childhood hero Tintin!) and reading. One of the novels I devoured over the holidays is Amplified by Tara Kelly, which I'd been especially looking forward to tackling because I have a big ol' crush on rock fiction. Now I can officially say I have a big ol' crush on Amplified too. Main character Jasmine Kiss is an awesome guitarist, one hell of a strong girl and one hell of a mess too. Delicious drama with a hard rock edge.

Reading Amplified prompted me to put together this list of my favourite rock fiction. It was originally intended to be a top ten list but I couldn't decide which of the Superchick trilogy novels should make the list and even if I just named one, that would've left me with a top eleven list. Most of the below descriptions are the publisher's (because I'm lazy at this time of year and have a bad memory at the best of times) but they're all fantastic, highly enjoyable books, some of them YA and some of them adult. I consider them all perfect examples of crossover books, ones that would appeal equally to older teen and adult readers.

TOP 13

Amplified (by Tara Kelly, 2011)
When privileged 17-year-old Jasmine gets kicked out of her house, she takes what is left of her savings and flees to Santa Cruz to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. Jasmine finds the ideal room in an oceanfront house, but she needs to convince the three guys living there that she's the perfect roommate and lead guitarist for their band, C-Side. Too bad she has major stage fright and the cute bassist doesn't think a spoiled girl from over the hill can hack it. . . .

Chartbreak (also known as Chartbreaker, by Gillian Cross, 1987)
When Janis Finch storms out of a family row, it starts a chain of events which transforms her whole life. For it's in the motorway cafe, minutes later, that she meets the unknown rock band, Kelp, who talk her into coming to their gig that night. Janis goes along for the ride and finds herself increasingly provoked by Christie, Kelp's arrogant lead singer. He pushes her into singing with them, and winds her up into a fever of rage, awe, and attraction. So when Christie asks her to join the band, Janis feels powerless to refuse—and her life explodes.

The Commitments (by Roddy Doyle, 1987)
Barrytown, Dublin, has something to sing about. The Commitments are spreading the gospel of the soul. Ably managed by Jimmy Rabitte, brilliantly coached by Joel 'The Lips' Fagan, their twin assault on Motown and Barrytown takes them by leaps and bounds from Paris Hall to immortality on vinyl. But can The Commitments live up to their name?

The Exes (by Pagan Kennedy, 1998)
A hip and hilarious tour of the world of rock 'n' roll. The Exes, an up-and-coming indie band, is made up of people who used to be lovers. Progressing from jam sessions in a basement to second-rate clubs to a cross-country tour that requires them to share seedy hotel rooms—with their exes—the four band members reveal their quirks, their problems, and their fantasies in alternating narratives.

Girl (by Blake Nelson, 1994)
Meet Andrea Marr, straight-A high school student, thrift-store addict, and princess of the downtown music scene. Andrea is about to experience her first love, first time, and first step outside the comfort zone of high school, with the help of indie rock band The Color Green. *There's also a sequel called Dream School which came out on December 6th.

Guitar Girl (by Sarra Manning, 2003)
Seventeen-year-old Molly Montgomery never planned on becoming famous. Molly's band, The Hormones, was just supposed to be about mucking around with her best mates, Jane and Tara, and having fun. But when the deliciously dangerous Dean and his friend T join the band, things start happening fast. Soon The Hormones are front-page news, and their debut album is rocketing up the charts. Molly is the force behind the band, but the hazards of fame, first love, screaming fans, and sleazy managers are forcing the newly crowned teen queen of grrl angst close to the edge. Fame never comes for free, and Molly's about to find out what it costs.

High Fidelity (by Nick Hornby, 1995)
Pop music junkie and record store owner Rob finds that his myriad diversions after the breakup with his longtime girlfriend are not as entertaining as he thought they would be. This international bestseller was Nick Hornby's first novel.

Live By Request (by Rob Payne, 2002)
On paper, Jay Thompson is a 26-year-old bartender going nowhere. But his burning desire is to be a working musician, or failing that, a working songwriter. Together in pursuit of the dream is his band, Archangel: Tyler, headstrong composer of the experimental rock opera "Space Oddity"; Jan, the sassy bass player and object of Jay's affection; and Noel, the Gap-wearing, scissor-kicking guitar player, who spends his days labouring in the corporate world. Set on the Canada-US border, Live By Request follows the exploits of a band on the run from bscurity, boredom, and sometimes, even themselves.

Rock Star Superstar (by Blake Nelson, 2004)
Music is Pete’s life. He’s happiest when playing his Fender P-Bass. He doesn’t care about prestige or getting girls; it’s the quality of the music that matters. Then he meets the Carlisle brothers. They can’t sing and they can barely play, but somehow they have a following. Pete can’t resist, and he joins The Tiny Masters of Today. When the band gets a chance at real stardom, Pete wonders if he’s ready. He knows the music should come first . . . but who knew selling out could be so much fun?

Superchick (2004), Rock and a Hard Place (2006), Ride On (by Stephen J. Martin, 2008)
The Superchick trilogy follows Jimmy Collins' journey from Dublin middle manager to full-blown rockstar along with his perpetually randy bandmate Aesop. All three novels absolutely bleed Irish sensibility which is a big part of their charm. I keep hoping some talented filmmaker will get them onto the screen and give these books the exposure they deserve.

Vinyl Princess (by Yvonne Prinz, 2009)
Summer's here, and 16-year-old Allie, a self-professed music geek, is exactly where she wants to be: working full-time at Berkeley’s ultra-cool Bob and Bob Records. There, Allie can spend her days bantering with the street people, talking the talk with the staff, shepherding the uncool bridge-and-tunnel shoppers, all the while blissfully surrounded by music, music, music. It’s the perfect setup for her to develop her secret identity as The Vinyl Princess, author of both a brand-new zine and blog. From the safety of her favourite place on earth, Allie is poised to have it all: love, music and blogging . . .or is she?

Rock on!

Christmas Sights 2011

2011-12-20T10:20:00.002-05:00

I'm an absolute sucker for those miniature Christmas villages people set up on their mantelpieces at this time of year. If I had boundless room my own village would no doubt expand to the point where it would, in fact, be so large you'd have to call it a town.

Recently my dad told me about a fantastic Christmas display in Campbellville that features a collection of these Christmas villages as well as lights, animated boxes and more. So this past Sunday Paddy and I drove up to The Stonehouse in Campbellville to visit the Singleton family's Christmas lights display. It's open to the public free of charge from mid-November to the end of December and donations made on sight go to Halton Women's Place for its Children's programs.

The display is totally charming and I swear I've never heard a kid filled with such excitement as the young girl who, during our visit, squealed with uncontainable glee from behind us. "I love this!"

I've posted a selection of photos from our visit below, starting with the fuel we ingested before our visit — a sugar cookie (mine) and mince pie (Paddy's) from our local bakery here. In one of the snaps you can even see me doing an amazing skating stunt!

Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping, Slipping...

2011-12-09T21:05:00.004-05:00

into the future, just like the song says. Sometimes I feel like the Doctor must be messing with the fabric of time because, for instance, how can it already be two weeks since I last updated my blog? What has happened during all that time (aside from my trips to the cinema to watch Arthur Christmas, Hugo and Breaking Dawn)?? Shouldn't I have more to show for it?

Now, if the Doctor is fooling around with time I'm sure it's in the service of good and that the earth has just been saved from maleovalent aliens but for our own sake we haven't been allowed to remember it. If this is the case I heartily thank the Doctor for once again rescuing humanity (and humbly request that he consider doing something about getting us Canadians a half decent Prime Minister). Either way I'm hoping to get much more writing done next week because I'm falling behind in my new book and have left the main character alone in the middle of a very precarious situation for far too long. Let me tell you, she's not happy about this. I'm probably going to hear alot of crap from her when I get back to the book!

Meanwhile in real life I've acquired a case of shopping mall sickness which comes from having been in four shopping malls (five if you count the Atrium on Bay) within the last three days. Not that I've bought alot mind you, but I've spent hour upon hour there just the same. I think shopping mall air must be similar in quality to airplane air because I feel generally lacklustre and am exhibiting the symptoms of a head cold. Today the Santa Claus in Dixie Value Mall wished me a Merry Christmas as I passed him, without me having to sit on his knee or anything. Hopefully the good vibes will set me right
again soon but while I'm on the subject how ridiculous is it that while even a discount shopping mall has a real-life Santa to visit Toronto's Eaton Centre has nixed this longtime tradition in favour of offering Skype visits with Santa? That's a big bah humbug of an idea to me. So much of daily life now is already divorced from reality and spent interacting with electronic devices. The cool thing about being able to meet a mythological figure like Santa live in the flesh is the fact that, well, he's live in the flesh.

And it's doubly a shame because the Eaton Centre used to have some of the best Santas around (I was so entranced by a particular one that I felt compelled to go have a chat with him myself a few years ago, picture at right). Great job with the cool illuminated giant deer decorations, Eaton Centre, but thumbs down on the too cool for school Santa Skype idea.

During my time in downtown Toronto yesterday I had a chance to check out G for Gelato at the corner of Adelaide and Jarvis. I'm a total sucker for gelato and after reading the Toronto Star review I was all excited to stop by. Trust me, if you're as big a fan of gelato as I am you should go too. So yummy (I had the pistachio)! And my husband really enjoyed their espresso too.

Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me if I stay away from the blog a little longer to try to make progress on my current book. By the way, the other day I noticed that my next book, Yesterday, has been posted on Goodreads. It doesn't hit shelves until next September so there's no finalized cover yet but I'm excited to see it just dipping its toe into the pool of existence at this stage and when I can, I'll definitely say more!

Alternate (Unisex) Covers

2011-11-24T13:17:00.006-05:00

The following post is inspired by one I read on YA author Jill Murray's blog last year about gender and reading. In it she did some very cool unisex cover designs for her books Break On Through and Rhythm and Blues. I've been meaning, ever since I read her post, to create my own more unisex covers.

Personally, I bristle at the idea that people are drawn to certain design types based on their gender but advertisers and marketers make a living out of trying to hem people in and shrink them down to size. They attempt to define us with their visions of masculinity and femininity because if they can convince us who we are, they can also convince us what we need to buy in order to be that guy or girl.

There's a common belief in YA publishing (pretty much the same one we see at play in Hollywood movie making) that guys don't want to read about girls. It's insulting, to say the least and who's to say how true it really is or how true it would be if entertainment wasn't so often designed and packaged with that sexist belief in mind? The ideas constantly put across by advertisers and mass media are that guys like fast cars, team sports, tech gadgets, shoot-em up action in their entertainment, hate shopping (except for fast cars, tech gadgets and shoot-em up entertainment), love beer, are sex obsessed but mostly uninterested in intimacy and are emotionally one-dimensional. Girls, on the other hand are portrayed as innately nurturing and communicative, ruled by their emotions, obsessed with romantic love, shopping, fashion, 'pretty' things in general and anything related to the home and cooking.

And so L'Oreal Vive for Men and Axe put their products in a black bottle they think exudes a masculine look while chocolate bar Yorkie even goes so far as to proclaim on the package 'It's not for girls'. Meanwhile practically anything marketed to woman and girls (we're talking telescopes to frying pans to the game of Monopoly) is released in a pink edition as though anyone with ovaries has a deep and natural affinity for the colour. Pink's become a sort of marketing shorthand — girls, this is for you.

The publishing industry, having figured out teenage boys don't read much (though again, who knows why? Is it because it's ingrained in them by society that this activity isn't for them? How can we ever say what they or anyone would naturally be drawn to when we're bombarded by gender pressure messages from the moment we're born?) chiefly focuses their marketing efforts on girls. Publishers (with added pressure from chain Booksellers) don't rely on pink to gender code their products the way many other industries do but they definitely do gender code YA covers and more often than not those covers are designed to appeal to girls (more on that here) in a monolithic way.

No doubt this coding does sell a certain numbers of books but the problem is that in aiming for a certain kind of reader, a cover can alienate others. Like guys and girls who feel that coding has marked that book as being not for them, albeit in a subtler way than the Yorkie bar!

I like to think of my books as potentially appealing to readers of any gender yet I've read, not infrequently, reviews or Internet commenters mention that while they believe boys would enjoy I Know It's Over or My Beating Teenage Heart, for example, they probably wouldn't pick them up in the first place because of their covers. In the case of I Know It's Over a writer friend passed on direct comments from a sixteen-year-old boy she knew who, after reading the book, said it was awesome and that he had several friends who should read it but that he knew they'd be worried about being seen with the cover.

Firstly, I hate the fact that teenage boys feel their gender is so strictly policed, by each other as well as by much of the rest of society, (if you want to know more about that read Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School) that it stops them from picking up certain books. Hate it.I hate gender policing in general because it limits all of us.

Secondly, although I'm fond of my book covers I can also see that while they may attract some readers, likewise they'll discourage others. So I've run with Jill Murray's idea (before I was published I used to regularly design mock covers for my stuff) and have re-imagined the covers of all my books to appeal to a different audience, chiefly, a more unisex one but also perhaps more literary in nature (maybe I'm having delusions of grandeur?). You'll notice I've avoided faces (faces on covers are a pet peeve of mine) and people in general and have instead concentrated on mood. Have a look and see what you think. Do these alternate covers make the books feel like different entities than the current covers suggest? Do they make you more interested in the books or less?

Occupy

2011-11-16T13:07:00.000-05:00

Driving back from The Airborne Toxic Event's show at The Phoenix last night I was extremely relieved to see the Occupied protesters' tents still in St. James Park. I'd heard about the eviction notices issued earlier in the day but hadn't yet heard the later news of the injunction granting them a temporary reprieve.

Too many people have too little to get by on and it's getting worse by the day as numerous western governments push austerity agendas crippling our societies. Like millions of other people, I don't want to live in a society where the rich grow richer while the poor and dwindling middle class struggle to land and keep the ever fewer decent jobs on offer and stress over health care bills and skyrocketing third level education costs. How is it that austerity seems to be prescribed for everyone but the rich? In a truly democratic society this would not be the way of things.

For most of us and our families there's not a happy future in store if the wealthiest force us to continue to tread down this path. The Occupy protesters are saying, very vocally, that this must stop, that the status quo is poision and they want democracy back. For all our sakes.

Thank you, Canadian Occupy protesters for standing on guard for this country. Thank you, Occupy protesters everywhere for refusing to give in to economic tyranny.

Campaign for the American Reader

2011-10-31T11:12:00.000-04:00

I just finished the final book in Australian author John Marsden's amazing Tomorrow series. I've become very attached to main character Ellie and so immersed in the harrowing situations she and her friends have had to deal with since Australia was invaded in book one that I'm experiencing a good bit of withdrawal now.

This series is something I should've read ages back but somehow it slipped under my radar until YA author Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson recommended it to me months ago. So, thank you, Kathleen, and thanks, Marshal Zeringue, for having me over to Campaign for the American Reader where you can read some more of my thoughts on this mesmirizing series from the nineties.

Happy Halloween!

Kirkus on My Beating Teenage Heart

2011-10-29T21:20:00.006-04:00

Years ago I used to have a bunch of movie review guides and in one of them (I can't remember who the reviews were written by in the specific book I'm thinking of but it definitely wasn't Roger Ebert and I don't believe it was Leonard Maltin either) the worst reviews earned a turkey rating so instead of any stars next to the movie title there was just a tiny turkey image.

Anyway, it happens that the Kirkus review of My Beating Teenage Heart is essentially a turkey review. Kirkus didn't go so far as to include a turkey icon but I'll do them the favour of adding it here. I'm guessing it's the same Kirkus reviewer who didn't like The Lighter Side of Life and Death because they both have an obvious fondness for ending on zingers.

Here's the last sentence of The Lighter Side of Life and Death review by Kirkus:

“For a summer novel focusing on love and lust, this barely causes the temperature to rise.”

And here are the closing words of their My Beating Teenage Heart review:

“Beats only with a dull pulse.”

BAM! KAPOW! ZOWIE! Take that hapless YA writer!

Now, we're all aware that it's par for the course that you'll be subjected to negative reviews sometimes if you're writing or performing so, although I would've much preferred a positive review, it's not the thumbs down in itself that particularly bothers me about the Kirkus review. No, it's that reviewer refers to one of the main characters, seventeen-year-old Breckon who feels responsible for the death of his little sister, as sulking and moping.

To me, moping suggests something like the following scenario — a kid who breaks his father's camera (an expensive piece of equipment that he was forbidden to use) is grounded and therefore not allowed to go to the local amusement park with his friends the next day. He's sure they're having an amazing time on the scrambler and tilt-a-whirl while he shuffles around the house, looking bored and feeling sorry for himself for missing out. Personally I'd consider that moping and sulking. What I don't feel qualifies as 'sulking' and 'moping' are grieving, suicidal thoughts and clinical depression, you know? There's a crucial distinction to be made there and while we're talking about fiction here, what does this review say to someone who is genuinely experiencing deep grief and/or suffering from depression? That real people don't ever feel this way and if they do their emotions are overwrought? And so those references to moping and sulking in the Kirkus review, they bother me a great deal.

Below are some real life stats and info about suicide, depression and complicated grief that I think it's extremely important to be aware of and take seriously.

Click any of the below to be taken to the original source of the information.

• "Untreated depression is the number one cause of suicide."

• In Canada suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 15 to 24. "More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined."

• In the U.S. in 2007, "suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24."

• "About 20% of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood. Approximately 5% of teens are suffering from major depression at any one time."

• "Nearly five times as many males as females ages 15 to 19 died by suicide." Overall men are nearly 4 times more likely to die by suicide than women but women attempt suicide 3 times as often as men.

• "Bereaved individuals who either feel the death of their loved one is unexpected or violent may be at greater risk for suffering from major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complicated grief."

• One of the factors that increase the risks of teen suicide is "A recent traumatic incident (the loss of a loved one, legal troubles, a hard break-up, etc.)." Other factors include having a mental illness, such as depression or bipolar, having a substance abuse problem, having a history of violence or abuse in the home and a GLBT sexual orientation.

• Grief can "take intense forms that surprise a bereaved person, including forms that in other circumstances would be called a psychiatric disorder... if the symptoms linger and become increasingly debilitating, the condition turns into what is now being called unresolved, protracted, traumatic, or complicated grief. It has features of both depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)...The most characteristic symptoms are intrusive thoughts and images of the deceased person and a painful yearning for his or her presence. Other complications are denial of the death, imagining that the dead person is alive, desperate loneliness and helplessness, anger and bitterness, and wanting to die."

• "1.9 million Americans are cutters...Often people say that self-injury helps them to release unbearable tension, which arises from anxiety, grief, anger and loss. Many people deal with their pain differently by turning to drinking, smoking, drugs or even through crime. Some even do all of these things. They come to feel like lost souls wondering in the dark."

The American Academy of Pediatrics describes the following signs that may signal that a depressed teen may be considering suicide:

• withdrawal from friends and family members
• trouble in romantic relationships
• difficulty getting along with others
• changes in the quality of schoolwork or lower grades
• rebellious behaviors
• unusual gift-giving or giving away own possessions
• appearing bored or distracted
• writing or drawing pictures about death
• running away from home
• changes in eating habits
• dramatic personality changes
• changes in appearance (for the worse)
• sleep disturbances
• drug or alcohol abuse
• talk of suicide, even in a joking way
• having a history of previous suicide attempts

If you suspect your teenage son or daughter is suicidal, get them professional help immediately. If you're a young person who is experiencing these feelings themselves or know someone who is please tell someone —a parent, teacher, counselor, someone who will be able to get help.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in an acute crisis (if a friend or loved one is threatening, talking about or making plans for suicide):

•Do not leave the person alone.
•Remove from the vicinity any firearms, drugs or sharp objects that could be used for suicide.
•Take the person to an emergency room or walk-in clinic at a psychiatric hospital.
•If a psychiatric facility is unavailable, go to your nearest hospital or clinic.
•If the above options are unavailable, call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) in the U.S.

In Canada young people can call Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868. Other Canadian suicide hotline numbers are available here.

Eighties Week!

2011-10-27T13:29:00.005-04:00

I'm having my own personal eighties week up here in Southern Ontario with a Howard Jones gig this past Tuesday and Duran Duran show tonight and believe me, the air around me is rife with nostalgia and excitement. I was an enormous fan of both musical acts when I was a teenager and that music still totally gets to me. I mean, I still feel wistful when I hear Duran Duran's Save A Prayer, charged up when I listen to New Moon on Monday and like I want to make peace with the whole world when Howard Jones sings Like to Get to Know You Well. My Simon Le Bon crush is recorded in my old school yearbook (in the form of a French poem) for everyone to see and Howard Jones has to be one of the most positive performers I've ever seen play live. That's as true now as it was when I saw him at the Kingswood Music Theatre and Maple Leaf Gardens in the mid-eighties. He's infectiously warm, endearing and hopeful. How could you not love someone who sings about throwing off your mental chains?

Anyway, the funniest thing about the Howard Jones show (which was superb!) is that I've never seen so many people from a single demographic gathered in one place. Never. Literally ninety-nine percent of the people there were men and women I could've gone to high school with. The age range looked like it stretched from about three years younger than me to three years older and that—well it was kind of a shock. How did I get to be this old? Like, I must have fallen through a time portal or something because it doesn't seem possible. I know it's been a long time since high school (so long that it's highly possible I did go to high school with some of those folks at the show and just didn't recognize them) but I feel basically like the same person I was in university.

I guess maybe you always do because I could tell Howard Jones felt like the same person too. That's one of the things I love about seeing these fabulous acts that debuted in the eighties; they show those of us who grew up in the 80s and the bands/artists that played the songs that were the soundtrack to our lives that we're all still around doing our thing. So, hey, if in another twenty-plus years these guys are still touring I intend to still be in the audience, singing along to the songs I know by heart (even all those years later because, like Depeche Mode sang, I Just Can't Get Enough) and I'm guessing many of the people who I could've gone to high school with will be there too.

Eighties forever!

Update (October 28)

Now I can say I sang Happy Birthday to Simon Le Bon! Loved Duran Duran's mix of Wild Boys and Relax at the ACC last night. So great to see the band and audience having so much fun throughout the night.

My Beating Teenage Heart Stuff

2011-10-22T00:01:00.001-04:00

I want to thank Marshal Zeringue for having me over to the My Book, the Movie blog where I got to assemble my dream cast (and director!) for a movie version of My Beating Teenage Heart. Thanks for indulging my Hollywood dreams, Marshal! The only cast hint I'm offering is the below photo (guess who?) so you'll have to jump over there to check out the list in its entirety.

I also want to thank Monica Kulling,creator of one of my favourite fictional pooches (the dapper Mister Dash of Merci, Mister Dash) for pointing me towards a fantastic new review of My Beating Teenage Heart in CM Magazine. I'm positively glowing after reading this review. I bet I'll still be lighting up the room when I switch off my bedside lamp to go to sleep later tonight.

Jamie Hubley

2011-10-20T13:58:00.001-04:00

When I saw the text and photo at the top of yesterday's Toronto Star something inside me broke. It's happened again. We lost a young person that should've had years and years left to shine and we lost them not to accident or disease, not to something that couldn't have been helped. We lost fifteen-year-old Jamie Hubley, just like we lost eleven-year-old Mitchell Wilson and countless others before him, because he was relentlessly tormented by his peers to the degree that not living another day seemed like a better option.

There's a Japanese proverb that goes, “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” This seems to be truer in our schools than it is almost anywhere else in our society. Schools should not be something that have to be survived, places where our young people have to twist themselves out of shape to avoid standing out.

Jamie Hubley was a kid I would've liked and one my fifteen-year-old self would've liked—a young man who loved music and singing, who preferred figure skating to hockey and who tried to make his school a better, more accepting place by starting a rainbow club. One of Jamie's friends had this to say about him, "It's hard to describe him in one sentence. I couldn't even describe him in a novel. He was so colourful. My favourite thing about him was how he would put his problems aside for others -- put everybody else first and then worry about himself later."

Jamie was the only open gay guy at his Ottawa high school. Imagine the kind of guts that takes, especially at just fifteen. By all accounts, Jamie had guts, heart and talent in spades. The world needs more of all of these things and I'm sad for Jamie and sad for all of us who are left in a place that is a dimmer in his absence.

It's hard for me not to hate the bullies who in seventh grade tried to stuff batteries down Jamie's throat on the school bus because he was a figure skater, hard for me not to hate the kids who tore down his rainbow alliance posters and the people who called him "fag." But I know hate isn't the answer. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

So if you see these horrible things happening at your school, or wherever you may be, don't let hate accumulate, unchallenged. I know there are situations where it may not feel safe to challenge the haters then and there. But you can tell someone afterwards. A teacher, a parent, a guidance counsellor, someone. And you can tell the person you saw or heard being bullied that you don't share the bullies' feelings. Anyone being bullied needs to know that they're not alone. Anyone bullying others (either emotionally or physically) needs to know it will not be tolerated. You need to stop. Right now. It's not funny and it's not okay. It doesn't make you a more powerful person. It diminishes you and when we let it continue it diminishes all of us.

None of us can afford to be bystanders. People's lives are at stake.

Meet Jamie Hubley. He was what one of his idols, Katy Perry, would've undoubtedly called a "firework". I won't let myself hate the people that made Jamie feel less than that but I will forever hate that we are without his light.

Fall 2011

2011-10-13T13:27:00.001-04:00

Late September/early October was a busy period as I tried to finish up line edits for book 5 but as you can see below I still took a little time out to read, wander and snap a few photos. This late September day at the beach spent reading Water Balloon was so gorgeous that I didn't want to go home.

Don't be fooled, these are inedible (though scrumptious looking!). In fact, they're soaps. It seems a bit unfair that something you can't eat would look this appetizing, doesn't it?

Flowers and sunny lake views seem especially precious in autumn.

Cupcakes, of course, are precious at any time of year. I had to go on the run from a wasp who wanted to steal this coconut iced one from me (and I fear wasps but I wasn't about to abandon my gorgeous cupcake on a rock by the lake).

Canadian Thanksgiving veggies courtesy of my aunt.

A Thanksgiving decoration I stumbled on in town.

Fudge galore in Niagara-on-the-lake.

Me, hanging out with a polar bear in Niagara-on-the-lake's Christmas shop, October 11th.

The temperature that day in Niagara-on-the-lake was a stunning 22 degrees Celsius and we made sure to stroll by the lake. Ahhhhh.

I so wanted to take this little guy from the Christmas shop home with me if only my apartment weren't so small. I'm sure someone else will snap him up soon.

And here are a few more photos from that day in Niagara-on-the-lake.

Wherever you're reading this from I hope the season has been as kind to you!

Hop on over to Audrey's

2011-10-11T20:40:00.001-04:00

With line edits, Canadian Thanksgiving baking and feasting and a day trip to Niagara-on-the-lake all freshly behind me I feel like I have some big-time catching up to do on the blog. I want to start by thanking the fabulous Audrey Vernick (author of Water Balloon and Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten) for having me over to her bloggy home to talk about My Beating Teenage Heart and other bookish stuff. She's also giving away a copy of the book so if you think you'd like to read it, jog on over to her blog for a chance to win. Don't miss the photos of her adorable new puppy Hootie while you're there!

But that's not all, I'm giving away a copy of Audrey's exceptionally loveable new book, Water Balloon, along with My Beating Teenage Heart swag and Bronxwood (by Coe Booth) via The Secret Life blog and there's only one day left to enter. One day! Yikes.

The Secret Life giveaway

Photos snapped during the last few weeks to follow!

Amazon Best Books of the Month

2011-10-05T11:22:00.000-04:00

So I'm in the middle of line edits for book 5 but I couldn't let another day go by without announcing some very exciting news—My Beating Teenage Heart is Amazon's Best Book of the month in Young Adult for October. See it on the right side of the page there? Wow. I'm so excited to see it up there with The Scorpio Races (Maggie Stiefvater), The Death Cure (James Dashner) and How to Save a Life (Sara Zarr). Pinch me!

I also want to point you in the direction of a wonderful review for the book up at Mabel's Fables. This stunning review by Shanti makes me very proud indeed. I noticed a fabulous review of Teri Hall's Away (the sequel to The Line) posted there too. Having loved The Line I'm really excited to read this sequel. Hopefully soon after those line edits are done! With a deadline two days after Canadian Thanksgiving (October 10th), though, I'm going to have to pause book-work on the weekend to bake a couple pear pies. My stomach is getting grumbly at the thought.

I'll also be pausing to vote in Thursday's provincial election, of course, and I'm hoping a whole lot of Ontarians are as worried about what a Conservative
hat trick would do to this place as I am.

Inukshuk

2011-09-24T20:44:00.002-04:00

The first time I remember seeing an Inukshuk in person was on a trip to Vancouver in 2007. It was the inukshuk that overlooks English Bay off Vancouver's west coast to be exact. Possibly I'd seen an inukshuk before that but somehow failed to register the fact, but anyway, since that 07 trip I've always found the sight of them comforting.

In recent years I've noticed that someone near our bit of Lake Ontario likes to build inukshuks. I never see them at it, mind you, just spy the evidence of their efforts. The below inukshuk was standing by the rocky shore of the lake late this afternoon. It was fairly large (although I don't think you can tell that from the below photo I snapped of it) and, as usual, it gave me a good feeling. According to my research, "The traditional meaning of the inukshuk is 'Someone was here' or 'You are on the right path.'" I especially like the idea of being assured you're on the right path and wish there were more tangible signs of this sort in our lives. Sometimes it's really tough to know if you're doing the right thing — in relationships, in your career, and in so many different realms. Like in the poem The Road Not Taken, we always seem to be coming to forks in the road. Choices.

I admit I've wondered, sometimes, if in becoming a writer I've allowed myself to travel too far down a rocky road that's only destined to get rockier or even disappear entirely. I can't imagine not writing but am I delusional to think I can make enough money to support myself by writing novels at a time when bookstores are disappearing, piracy is a chronic problem and the big publishers seem ever more like Hollywood studios in their choice of blockbuster material? I wrote that in past tense—wondered—as though I've finished turning the question over in my mind, but no, I still wonder. I wondered during the writing of My Beating Teenage and again during the novels I wrote after it. No doubt I will wonder again in the future (possibly even again and again and again) but I'm glad I didn't let that stop me from writing My Beating Teenage Heart and glad that very soon now it'll be finding its way out into the world. It's the most emotionally draining book I've ever written and while I think all my novels are both what people would term edgy while simultaneously wearing their hearts on their sleeves I believe that's most true of My Beating Teenage Heart.

I'm expecting revisions for my fifth book to arrive sometime Monday so I probably won't be posting on My Beating Teenage Heart's release day (the 27th) or the next little while, but you can catch up with the second week of my blog tour:

Sunday, September 25: Hannah at Paperback Treasures (Character Book Picks)

Monday, September 26: Cyndi M at Dog Eared and Bookmarked (Author Interview w/ Music Line
Answers)

Tuesday, September 27: Kari at A Good Addiction (Character Interview: Breckon)

Wednesday, September 28: Jen D at What's On the Bookshelf (Review)

Thursday, September 29: Bailey at IB Book Blogging (Multicharacter Interview)

Friday, September 30: Ashley B at Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing (Review)

If you're interested in checking out the songs I'd include on a playlist for My Beating Teenage Heart I have them posted here but the one I want to highlight today is one of my favourite songs from 2009—Geraldine by Glasvegas. I love this song to bits and, really, how many passionate rock songs about social workers do we hear? The lyrics absolutely fit the role Ashlyn comes to play in Breckon's life in My Beating Teenage Heart. I think many (if not most) of us need some kind of guiding and understanding voice/voices in our lives to get us through the hardest times. Sometimes we might be surprised who those people turn out to be. Sometimes they'll be close friends and family, other times teachers, social workers, therapists, religious figures, fellow members of support groups. And sometimes, we will be that voice for others.

Con B-Gone

2011-09-21T03:22:00.012-04:00

I discovered this absolutely fantastic product online the other day. Simply spray in and around your office, workspace, place of residence, vehicle, or any other location you frequent. The refreshing smell of reason in Con B-Gone quickly acts to drive irrational ultra conservatives of all nationalities, ages and genders from the immediate vicinity. Can safely be used against climate change deniers, creationists, reactionary politicians at all levels of government, sexists, racists, homophobes and those who believe in punishing the lower and middle classes with austerity measures while shielding corporations and wealthy individuals. Retails for $4.99 plus shipping and handling. What a steal!

No longer must we endure the pesky presence of unwanted Cons! For especially tough ultra Conservative infestation problems (such as those currently being experienced in Toronto's City Hall and the British national government), try the deep penetrating foam of Con B-Gone Ultra.

Farewell TIFF, Hello My Beating Teenage Heart

2011-09-18T18:28:00.006-04:00

Somehow it's been a whole two weeks since I last blogged! My sole excuse isn't a very good one because I ran into folks in downtown Toronto this past week who were watching 32 to 50 movies at the Toronto International Film Festival and I only saw five. FIVE! But between the travel time from the burbs to downtown, queing to pick up tickets from the Metro Centre on several occasions, queuing hours to get our pick of seats at the theatres, waking up early on certain days to attempt to score the freshly released tickets that become available on the day of screenings, well, those things seemed to be enough to throw off my schedule. Not that I'm complaining, because I love film fest time and I wish I had the stamina and $ to see more movies! I'm always sad when TIFF is over and the mad film/celebrity buzz around town disappears and we all have to return to real life and the fact that yes, it'll officially be fall in five days.

Not that I'm complaining about fall either because autumn is a perfectly lovely season; it's the thing that happens after it that I'm not too psyched about. The thing that involves a heavy coat, lined boots, hats with ear flaps and woolly mittens. But anyway, back to the more cheerful subject of 2011 TIFF. We started out with the following list of movies we hoped to see

Albert Nobbs
Butter
Page Eight
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
Restless
Take Shelter
The Deep Blue Sea
The Ides of March
The Other Side of Sleep
The Woman in the Fifth
Twiggy
Twixt
Violet and Daisy
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Wuthering Heights
Your Sister's Sister

and according to schedules and interest whittled the list down to the five bolded titles. My favourite was Page Eight, the festival's closing film which was written and directed by David Hare (writer of The Hours, The Reader and Plenty) and was shot in five weeks for British television on a budget of just three million dollars. Bill Nighy gives an outstanding performance as a veteran MI5 officer in possession of a secret document that asserts the British Prime Minister knew about incidences and locations of torture camps by the American government.

Page Eight's dialogue is crisply intelligent in a way that most blockbuster films seem to have forgotten is even possible. While at the festival David Hare remarked, "It's very, very difficult to make films at the moment that are about human beings," adding that anything that isn't a blockbuster spectacle seems to be a tough sell. "One of the challenges was to make a suspense film in which there are not implausible killings. The death rate in modern movies is just absolutely unbelievable, if life were like the movies there'd be nobody left on this planet at all."

If you weren't able to catch Page Eight at the festival and are into smart movies about smart people embroiled in political intrigue you might want to look out for it on PBS where it will air on November 6th. You can also check out the Roger Ebert review of Page Eight here.

That brings us up to today's date which is eight short days until my new book, My Beating Teenage Heart, is released. I'm ever so happy to report that Omnivoracious, the Amazon blog has such nice things to say about the book including the following, "In the vein of some of my favorite novels of the past few years, namely Gayle Forman’s If I Stay and Jenny Downham’s Before I Die, Martins’ latest is the type of novel that will remain with you long after you’ve read the last page." Whoah. Thank you, Amazon!

With the release date of My Beating Teenage Heart almost upon us I'm on blog tour starting tomorrow (an enormous thanks to Teen Book Scene for putting the tour together!) and running through to the end of the month. Here's the schedule and I'd be glad to see you stop by somewhere along the way to say hello! If you'd like to read My Beating teenage Heart be sure to enter the two tour giveaways.

* Monday, September 19: Yani at The Secret Life of an Avid Reader (Author Interview w/ Book Line Answers)

* Tuesday, September 20: Deborah K at Books, Movies, and Chinese Food (Character Interview: Ashlyn)

* Wednesday, September 21: Cyndi M at Dog Eared and Bookmarked (Review)

* Thursday, September 22: Jen D at What's On the Bookshelf (Author Book Picks)

* Friday, September 23: Ashley B at Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing (This or That List)

* Saturday, September 24: Bailey at IB Book Blogging (Review)

* Sunday, September 25: Hannah at Paperback Treasures (Character Book Picks)

* Monday, September 26: Cyndi M at Dog Eared and Bookmarked (Author Interview w/ Music
Line Answers)

* Tuesday, September 27: Kari at A Good Addiction (Character Interview: Breckon)

* Wednesday, September 28: Jen D at What's On the Bookshelf (Review)

* Thursday, September 29: Bailey at IB Book Blogging (Multicharacter Interview)

* Friday, September 30: Ashley B at Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing (Review)

This year I happen to share a release date with Jim Cuddy's new album, Skyscraper Soul which is a big thrill. As a major Blue Rodeo and Jim Cuddy fan I won't fault you if you buy Skyscraper Soul instead of My Beating Teenage Heart but I'm sincerely hoping you'll pick up both!

I'd like to end this entry with one of the songs that I think of as being part of the playlist for My Beating Teenage Heart the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, singing I Say a Little Prayer.

MBTH @ Stacked Books

2011-09-02T16:26:00.000-04:00

Happy September and Happy Labour Day Weekend! Though it still feels like mid-July to me in the Greater Toronto area today and I'm glad for that.

I want to give Kelly at Stacked Books a huge thank you, both for this beautiful review of My Beating Teenage Heart and for having me over for a Twitterview. I hope you'll scoot over there and check out the entries because she's giving away two copies of My Beating Teenage Heart!

I also want to wish everyone who's trying for single TIFF tickets tomorrow the best of luck. I'm setting my alarm to wake me up bright and early. Then, no doubt, I will spend hours on the computer battling with the TIFF ticketing system while simultaneously hitting redial on my phone. But it'll all be worth it in the end, right? Movies. Movies. Movies.

Autumn 2011 Books

2011-08-31T12:27:00.002-04:00

I'm delighted to have a new book coming out at the end of September and am also extremely excited about some of the other novels for young people being released during the season. Here's what I'll be picking up and devouring in September and October:

* Amplified by Tara Kelly. “When privileged 17-year-old Jasmine gets kicked out of her house, she takes what is left of her savings and flees to Santa Cruz to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. Jasmine finds the ideal room in an oceanfront house, but she needs to convince the three guys living there that she's the perfect roommate and lead guitarist for their band, C-Side. Too bad she has major stage fright and the cute bassist doesn't think a spoiled girl from over the hill can hack it...”

Tara had a fabulous debut with Harmonic Feedback (I loved Drea) and I'm an absolute sucker for books that revolve around music. How cool does that jacket copy sound!

* Bronxwood by Coe Booth. “Tyrell's father is just out of jail, and Tyrell doesn't know how to deal with that. It's bad enough that his brother Troy is in foster care and that his mother is no help whatsoever. Now there's another thing up in his face, just when he's trying to settle down. Tyrell's father has plans of his own, and doesn't seem to care whether or not Tyrell wants to go along with them. Tyrell can see the crash that's coming — with his dad, with the rest of his family, with the girls he's seeing — but he's not sure he can stop it. Or if he even wants to.”

Tyrell remains one of the best YA books I've ever read. I can't wait to find out what happens to him in this sequel.

* How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr. “Jill MacSweeney just wants everything to go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. You can't lose one family member and simply replace him with a new one, and when her mom decides to adopt a baby, that's exactly what it feels like she's trying to do. And that's decidedly not normal. With her world crumbling around her, can Jill come to embrace a new member of the family? Mandy Kalinowski knows what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, she knows she wants a better life for her baby. But can giving up a child be as easy as it seems? And will she ever be able to find someone to care for her, too? Critically acclaimed author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr delivers a heart-wrenching story, told from dual perspectives, about what it means to be a family and the many roads we can take to become one.”

I've enjoyed each of Sara's books and Sweethearts, in particular, made me ache and ache. I'm in love with the cover for How to Save a Life.

* Water Balloon by Audrey Vernick. “A warm debut novel about friendship and first love, from a popular picture-book author. Marley’s life is as precarious as an overfull water balloon—one false move and everything will burst. Her best friends are pulling away from her, and her parents, newly separated, have decided she should spend the summer with her dad in his new house, with a job she didn’t ask for and certainly doesn’t want. On the upside is a cute boy who loves dogs as much as Marley does . . . but young love has lots of opportunity for humiliation and misinterpreted signals. Luckily Marley is a girl who trusts her instincts and knows the truth when she sees it, making her an immensely appealing character and her story funny, heartfelt, and emotionally true.”

I read an early version of Marley's story and adored it. Such a nice vibe. I'm looking forward to catching up with Marley again.

I hope you'll check out some of these great new fall releases along with me!

Jack Layton, the best Prime Minister Canada never had

2011-08-29T18:45:00.002-04:00

“Across Nathan Phillips Square...there were chalk messages to Layton scrawled on every square of concrete. It rained three times this week, washing them away, and three times, mourners wrote them again.”

We went downtown on Saturday to say goodbye to Jack. Our first stop was City Hall to take in the sight of what must have been thousands of chalk messages of loss, love and thanks. I've never in my life seen such an emotional reaction to the death of a Canadian politician and I found myself choked up throughout the day as politicians and regular people alike honoured Jack Layton.

At City Hall hundreds of people watched as Jack's casket was loaded into the hearse waiting to take him to Roy Thomson Hall. The People's Procession (on foot and by bike), us along with it, followed in the cars' wake along Queen Street and then University Avenue, shortly arriving at Roy Thomson hall where throngs had already gathered to watch Jack's state funeral from neighbouring David Pecaut Square. Fittingly, the ceremony itself was as much a celebration of a life that harnessed hope and fought for change as it was a poignant goodbye.

I think the Nathan Phillips Square chalk message pictured below said it most succinctly. Adieu, le bon Jack.

Thanks for everything you've done for Canada and Canadians over the years. I think we didn't say it enough when you were with us but we've been shouting it from the rafters these last few days to make up for it. Hope you can hear us, Jack.

Remembering Jack Layton: 1950-2011

Summer 2011: Ireland

2011-08-26T04:40:00.019-04:00

Between being away in Ireland in June, various other summer activities, and a revision deadline for my upcoming book I haven't had much time to dedicate to blogging this summer but I've still been taking photographs! I'm going to share some of them here, breaking them into two categories/posts, one of photos taken in Ireland (mostly Dublin and Belfast) and the other snapped nearer to home. This, as you'll see by the title, is the Ireland entry but you can have a look at my other summer photos on the Ontario post.

Since I've posted tons of other Dublin images on the blog over the years I tried not to repeat myself too much but when it comes to the Forty Foot in Sandycove I just can't help myself!

My friend's daughter snapped this photo of me lounging on the lawn by the Powerscourt Waterfall in Wicklow. To me it looks look like an image that would appear on an album cover from the late sixties so if I ever decide to record a bunch of cover versions of sixties tunes this will definitely be the cover photo!

The girl in the lower right hand corner of the frame (who happens to be the same one who snapped the above photo of me) gives you an idea of the scale of the Powerscourt Waterfall (Ireland's highest).

Below are some snaps of the Dublin Pride Parade, which I watched from O'Connell Bridge.

We watched Laura Marling play Vicar Street while we were in Dublin. She was terrific and I swear I've never seen a more devoted crowd.

Photos from our day trip up to Belfast. The murals were really something to see.

The Forty Foot, Sandycove:

Finally, some assorted images of Dublin:

Botticelli's in Temple Bar has the best gelato I've ever tasted. Pistachio, yum!

On the beach in Sandymount. Someone had been doing some design work.

* Go to Summer 2011: Ontario photos

Summer 2011: Ontario

2011-08-26T04:22:00.006-04:00

All of the below summer photos were taken in Ontario this August. In some cases I didn't have my camera with me and had to use my cellphone instead.

This year's Oakville Jazz Festival was wonderful all round but my favourite performance was by Doctor Draw who we also caught at the festival two years earlier. I was so impressed back then that I had one of the characters in My Beating Teenage Heart make reference to him in Chapter Ten. He's a wonder. Be sure to check out the video below the photos if you've never heard his music.

This was my first time in Beausoleil Island (coincidentally Doctor Draw has a song called Beau Soleil) and I couldn't figure out whether I was more relieved or disappointed that we didn't see any snakes that day. The island is a refuge for the venomous Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake but from what I hear there are also plenty of other, less dangerous snakes, around the place. Not to mention bears! The island itself is a lovely spot and it was such a treat to have dinner sitting on the back of our friends' boat with our feet soaking in Georgian Bay and Neil Young and Loverboy playing on the radio. Does it get any more Canadiana than that??

It's not the dog days of summer without the Ex and it's not the CNE without fried food! This year we tried the deep fried macaroni, which was quite yummy and not oily like you might expect

and the deep fried Oreos, which pleasantly retained their cookie-ness. They look a bit of a fright when they come out of the deep fat fryer but I swear they were really good.

David Smith Jr. is a second generation human cannonball. Luckily he was able to complete his last peformance of the day about an hour and a half before the weather turned crazy and the sky filled with lighting bolts! But the wind was already beginning to pick up at the time. In fact, the weather later got so nasty that they closed the CNE gates early last night and cancelled the Toronto FC game in the middle of it.

Strong Man John Beatty was also very entertaining. In the second photo below he's actually pulling two trucks but I couldn't fit them into the frame with him.

This was my favourite sculpture from the International Sand Sculpting competition:

They're all outstanding.

But my very favourite thing from this year's CNE was listening to the Searcher
Group speak about their paranormal investigations. They don't charge for investigations but their leader, Richard Palmisano, has written several books about the groups' investigations, including one about the Ghosts of the Canadian National Exhibition. If you have an interest in parapsychology and are planning to attend the Ex this year I strongly suggest you go on the 29th or 31st when the group will again be speaking at the Direct Energy Centre presentation theatre (seating is limited) at 5:30.

This is the second year I've had the chance to hear them discuss their investigations and it was compelling to hear them speak about EVP work. According to their experience, ghosts talk, even amongst each other, and protect each other like we would with those close to us too. One of the Searcher Group members noted that, “They don't sound like us at all. They talk in very loud whispers.”

You probably can't tell from my fuzzy photo but that's Casper on the podium. Boo!

* Go to Summer 2011: Ireland photos

Don't Let Them Tell You It Can't Be Done

2011-08-23T11:47:00.001-04:00

“Politics matter. Ideas matter. Democracy matters, because all of us need to be able to make a difference.”
— Jack Layton

I had begun to hope, in the aftermath of May's federal election, that we would one day see Jack Layton become Prime Minister. It wasn't until I heard the very sad news of his passing yesterday that I realized just how strongly that I'd believed he'd return to lead the NDP as official opposition, despite his illness. The entire country was in shock yesterday and personally I felt it afresh with every article, photo and TV news story I saw about Jack. Such an outpouring of loss and somehow I can still hardly believe it. We lost Jack.

He believed this country could be a better place and that that was an idea worth fighting tirelessly for. Canadians, whatever their political leanings, knew we could count on Jack to fight the good fight with courage, grace, passion and hope. For me, Jack Layton's victory in becoming the leader of the official opposition was the sorely needed bright spot in our most recent election. Both an assurance and a promise of what was to come.

In his last letter to Canadians, Jack directed the following comments at young Canadians, “I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.”

I'm grateful for the time Jack had with us. His inspiration rings out clear and strong across the country and although this battle feels heavier without him, I am mindful of his words in that final letter. "Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world."

We miss you already Jack.

Gatekeepers Post Interview

2011-07-22T13:13:00.000-04:00

Tiptoeing in to leave a link to an interview with me at The Gatekeepers Post.

For those of you in the Canada or U.S. I hope you're finding ways to stay cool during these crazy heat dome days. And for those of you who love the Toronto Public Library and want Toronto City Council to keep their hands off it, please go sign the Our Public Library petition pronto!

Quick Question

2011-07-19T20:12:00.000-04:00

Why is it that you're never more deeply in love with your WIP than the moment a revision letter for another book arrives to tear you away from it. Why?

See you at the end of August when the deadline is behind me, WIP. See you at the end of August, Internet!

Blast from the Past Vacation Photos

2011-07-02T02:55:00.015-04:00

I wanted to send some sort of electronic post-card from 1981 but of course since there was no Internet that wasn't possible. I did end up getting some snaps taken with a couple of my favourite bands from that time. Simon Le Bon looks so serious in this picture but he was really charming and funny (hence the fact that I couldn't stop smiling although the members of Duran Duran were obviously trying to exude a more sombre attitude here). Andy Taylor was rocking the Andy Warhol look.

You can see that I got into the spirit of Antmusic for my photo with Adam and the Ants. I admit I got kind of attached to the white stripe and walked around with it on for the rest of the day. Also, Adam humoured me by teaching me the Prince Charming dance and didn't even complain when I sang him my favourite line from Car Trouble in an embarrassingly off-key voice: “You don't need anything after an icecream.”

It was a fabulous trip and I highly recommend 1981 as a vacation destination. I wish I had more time to talk about it but I have to get down to editing here. I hope all my fellow Canadians had a most excellent Canada Day!

Blast from the Past Vacation

2011-06-13T13:19:00.008-04:00

For the next little while I'll be on summer holiday and so won't be posting here (or elsewhere, for that matter). It could be some time before I return to the blog because once I'm back there's a good chance I could be jumping straight into revisions for book 5.

Anyway, before I go I want to tell you a bit about my vacation because this is something I'm really excited about. I'm heading someplace I haven't been in thirty years, somewhere my money will go much further but there'll be a whole lot less TV and no Internet for the masses. I've been there before but since I was really young last time around I didn't pay much attention—this time I plan to take notice of everything! Vacation destination photo hint below:

My travel agent has finalized all the arrangements and quite soon now I'll be on my way to (drumroll)...1981! For those of you who have never been there or, like me, haven't been there lately, here are some fast facts about 1981:

• the global population was roughly 4.5 billion
• the median household income in the United States was $19,074
• the cost of a new home in the United States was $83,000
• a gallon of milk went for $2.22 in the U.S.
• it was the year MTV debuted
• aspartame was approved by the FDA
• The Yukon Gold potato was introduced
• Lean Cuisine frozen dinners first appeared in American supermarkets
• IBM introduced its Personal Computer (PC)
• Pope John Paul II was wounded by a gunman
• the U.S. hostages in Iran were freed
• an assasination attempt was made on President Ronald Regan

And to give you a further cultural snapshot here are some number one singles from the U.K. and U.S. in 1981

Jessie's Girl, Rick Springfield

Prince Charming, Adam and the Ants

Under Pressure, David Bowie and Queen

Jealous Guy, Roxy Music (*caution, I think it may be impossible to watch any live Bryan Ferry performances from this period without swooning)

Don't You Want Me, Human League

The Tide is High, Blondie

There are many things I plan to do while in 1981. A few musical highlights of the trip will be watching Adam and the Ants play Tokyo (the videos up on YouTube look fantastic—it's time for me to see the real thing!), Billy Bragg (Mr. Love and Justice himself) gigging with his band Riff Raff before they break up later in the year and catching Simon and Garfunkel's free concert in Central Park along with half a million other people. Of course, I'll also have to make it into the MTV studio to watch the station's debut as they play their very first video, Video Killed the Radio Star.

You can't go back to 1981 without watching the Royal Wedding so I'll be stopping into St. Paul's Cathedral to see Princess Diane and Prince Charles tie the knot. I also plan to witness the first flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and watch (live) Scott Hamilton win the U.S. male figure skating championship and then take gold in the World Championship. Go, Scotty!

I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark at the movie theatre during my first time in 1981 but couldn't snack on popcorn back then because of my braces. Sob! This trip will see me rectifying that wrong by stuffing my face with buttery popcorn while watching Harrison Ford proclaim his fear of snakes and battle nazis on the big screen.

As for the small screen, since I wasn't normally allowed to stay up after Love Boat to watch Fantasy Island on Saturday nights I will be good and sure to stay awake well past ten o'clock and watch both ABC shows back to back (also while stuffing my face with popcorn!) while in 1981 this time.

As a Canadian, one of the wonderful things about being in 1981 will be knowing that the country has decent political leadership back there (Pierre Trudeau). It's going to be hell coming back to an epically small-minded, cold-hearted, ethically-challenged Tory majority government, I tell you! But let's not put a dent in my holiday enthusiasm by dwelling on the negatives.

Because 1981 was the height of Pacmania I fully expect to indulge in some ghost munching during the vacation. Depending on how much spare time I have, I could drop into my old school (which back then had grades 7 to 10 but which subsequently transformed into a full high school meaning I was able to attend the school all the way from grade 7 through 13, yes we had 13 grades in Ontario then!) and tell a certain teacher of mine how much she sucked. But I probably won't. Better just to let it go, right? Who wants to deal with unpleasantness during their vacation?

One thing I will absolutely make time for is dropping in to visit my Aunt's Airedale Terrier who was the BEST DOG EVER. I wonder if he'll recognize 2011 me as the same kid he knows in 1981? It wouldn't surprise me.

Of course, there are some people I'd love to catch up with who have since passed on but are alive and well in 1981—my grandparents and several of my uncles—and other folks I've lost track of over the years but as you know, that would be breaking the rules of time travel so I'll have to be content to watch them from a safe distance.

I hope you also have a wonderful summer vacation, whether you're spending it at home, some other place or some other time. See you back in 2011 later in the summer!

Dragging Darkness Out of the Shadows

2011-06-06T12:46:00.012-04:00

So much wonderful writing has already been done about the recent Wall Street Journal article claiming today's YA fiction is too dark and that 'grim' as some YA novels from years past were "they seem positively tame in comparison with what's on shelves now" that I felt I hardly had to say anything about it and didn't plan to. But now it's several days later and the article (particularly the dismissive superior tone) is still irking me so I guess I want to talk about it a little after all.

Obviously I firmly disagree with the WSJ article and to quote from my own website FAQ, “As far as I'm concerned many of the things that are hardest for people to talk about are the things we probably need to discuss in more depth and try to drag out into the light. I know there are some people who don't think that teenagers should be reading about things like drug use, sex and sexuality, abusive situations etc. but the reality is that teenagers live in this imperfect world with us and are already exposed to these things through the media, their own lives and the lives of their peers. I believe books are a medium that can inspire critical thinking and give young people a chance to explore their thoughts regarding various subjects as well as open discussions.”

I have numerous problems with Megan Cox Gurdon's article which, as others have pointed out, is an opinion piece masquerading as 'news':

1) The article completely ignores lighter YA offerings and pretends they simply don't exist. Yeah, the first thing you're likely to see as you approach the YA section of a bookstore is a table full of covers like this one because paranormal and fantasy YA have been hot for some time now and many of these books tend to have a certain look to them. But there absolutely are lighter, less controversial teen books available on the shelves than those Gurdon spotlights.

2) The article negatively compares YA of the past to the current crop of YA books without taking into consideration that we live in extremely different times. To give Megan Cox Gurdon a taste of what the times are actually like:

* A recent survey by The National Campaign showed 22% of teen girls and 18% of teen boys had sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves. 39% of teens are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages. 48% have received such messages. “38% of teen girls and 39% of teen boys say they have had sexually suggestive text messages or emails—originally meant for someone else—shared with them.”

* In the U.S. the rate of teen suicide has tripled since 1960. “The decrease in suicides for 14- to 18-year-olds during the summer months is stark.” Recent statistics reveal “that approximately three million youths, aged 12 to 17, either thought seriously about suicide or attempted suicide in 2000. More than one third, 37%, actually tried to kill themselves. Most were suffering from undiagnosed or untreated clinical depression.”

* 20% of children and youth in Canada have a diagnosable mental health disorder according to the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. "Depression is a huge reality among youth right now," according to Sue Cook, a therapist who specializes in working with families. Currently, about 40% of young adults with depression do not use any mental health services.

* “Two recent Canadian studies showed sexual harassment at school was epidemic. 29% of Grade 9 girls ... felt unsafe at school partly due to sexual comments and unwanted looks or touches; 27% of the girls in Grade 11 admitted to being pressured into doing something sexual that they did not want to do; 14% of the females reported being harassed over the Internet.”

* 44% of sexual assault victims in the U.S. are under 18.

* “Almost one in six teenagers deliberately harm themselves by cutting, burning or other self-harming behaviours, according to a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.”

* “In the U.S. approximately one in five teen girls have been physically or sexually abused by their partner.”

* “23% of Ontario students report that they were offered, sold, or given a drug at school in the last year.”

* “42% of Ontario students surveyed have used an illicit substance in the last year.”

* “83% of Ontario students in grade 12 drink alcohol. 49% of gr. 12 students admit to binge drinking.”

This is obviously not an easy time to grow up. Gurdon writes that, “If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is” but I would argue that the books she criticizes the most scathingly, books like Shine by Lauren Myracle and Scars by Cheryl Rainfield, accurately reflect a world that Gurdon herself isn't prepared to look squarely in the face. Often teenagers don't have the luxury of avoiding these realities as they're experienced either personally or by their friends, peer group or at school. It can hardly be an accident that teen suicide rates are lower in the summer. Not only does the high school environment create stress, “research has shown that alcohol consumption, poor self-esteem and sexual activity (are) related to youth suicide, there is little discussion about the fact that these risky behaviors tend to originate at school.”

So suggesting that avoiding dark YA books will keep teenagers content is ludicrous. We need to talk about these issues, not put a happy face on and pretend they don't exist. To quote a Billy Bragg song (as I'm prone to do): “He said that some things are really best left unspoken. But I prefer it all to be out in the open.”

3) My final issue is that Gurdon makes absolutely no distinction between glorifying or glamorizing issues and behaviours and intelligently examining them. In this lazy way of thinking you could charge that the movie The Accused, Laurie Halse Anderson's book Speak or Emma Donoghue's Room make rape more acceptable. At the very least I suppose Gurdon would state (as she does about another book during her piece) that “one depravity does not justify another.” So talking about harsh realities equals depravity? Huh? How on earth are we ever to discuss anything unpleasant under this philosophy?

To my mind (because I won't pretend this isn't an opinion piece) YA books can offer young people a safe space to emotionally and intellectually explore difficult real life issues. Gurdon, and people like her, who knock books they deem dark, do teens a huge disservice by suggesting some of their realities are too dangerous and unseemly, not fit reading material.

By all means, let's all do whatever we can to help create a better society where young people have less mental health issues and are safe and happy at home, in school and wherever they go, but until we achieve that better society let's not do young people the disservice of acting as though what Gurdon terms 'misery' and 'coarseness' are author invention or exaggeration.

Doors Open Toronto

2011-05-31T03:43:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday marked my first time taking part in Doors Open Toronto, an annual event that takes place during one weekend a year. City-wide well over a hundred buildings of “architectural, historic, cultural and social significance open their doors to the public” allowing visitors free access to properties that are either not usually open to the public or would normally charge an entrance fee. Some of the locations offer guided tours and other special activities at this time. It’s a terrific (and free!) way to explore the city. My friends and I were able to have a look at seven locations: Osgoode Hall, Campbell House Museum, Canada Life, King Edward Hotel (Crystal Ballroom), Flatiron Building, St. James’ Cathedral and Toronto’s first post office. I’ve posted some of the day’s photos below and hope to explore more buildings in next year’s Doors Open!

Osgoode Hall opened in 1832 and houses the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. The Great Library is one of the most amazing rooms I’ve ever laid eyes on.

But the rest of it was wonderfully picturesque too.

Built in 1822, the Campell House Museum is one of the few surviving examples of Georgian architecture left in Toronto.

Canada Life was the tallest building on University Ave when completed in March, 1931.

Various views from the 17th floor tower room.

The King Edward Hotel opened in 1903 but the once magnificent Crystal Ballroom was added in 1921. Unfortunately, unlike the rest of the hotel the 17th floor Crystal Ballroom hasn’t been restored yet, although one of the tour guides assured us the current owners have plans to do so.

St. James’ Cathedral and the surrounding streets from one of the Crystal Ballroom windows.

Inside the iconic Flatiron Building which was completed in 1892 as the offices of the Gooderham & Worts brewing company. It contained the first manually-operated Otis elevator in Toronto, which has been restored and is still in operation today. Apparently there was also a tunnel linking the building to the bank across the street so Gooderham & Worts employees wouldn't have to walk outside with large bags of cash.

The former Cathedral that stood on this site was destroyed in a 1849 fire. Erected in 1859, St. James’ Cathedral is actually the fourth church to be built on this land and features the highest church tower in Canada.

This Adelaide Street East post office dates back to 1833 and is Toronto’s first post office. You can still rent a post office box there.

Interview & Lighter Side contest

2011-05-28T21:23:00.000-04:00

There's a very nice new review of The Lighter Side of Life and Death up on the Fragments of Life blog. Not only that but you can find an interview with me there where I talk about gender, writing sex scenes for YA and more. Plus, Fragments of Life are hosting a cool summer contest where you can win signed copies of my most summery books, The Lighter Side of Life and Death and One Lonely Degree! The grand prize winner will also score an Amazon giftcard and additionally, I'll send them a copy of My Beating Teenage Heart when it's released at the end of September.

Visit the Fragments of Life interview and contest

I believe the contest closes July 1st and hope you'll stop by to enter. Many thanks to Precious for chatting to me about The Lighter Side of Life and Death and for hosting this great summer contest!

The Girl on the Cover

2011-05-25T14:01:00.011-04:00

A few weeks ago I was over at my local shopping mall and dropped into the Coles to look for a book as a Mother's Day gift. The display I spied near the front entrance was just like a thousand other teen books displays you'd currently see in bookstores across Canada and the United Stations, which is to say that the novels gathered there looked almost indistinguishable from each other. Most of them had some pretty young white girl (or part of her anyway, a big enough part that we could recognize her as an attractive young white woman), usually not doing much of anything, on the front.

Covers like this seem to very nearly be a default in YA publishing these days and in some ways I'm a little hesitant to be critical of aspects of this trend because we live in a culture where female stories generally don't get put on the big screen, for example. Hollywood doesn't believe young men (who they feel are their main ticket buyers - erroneously I may add because MPAA stats from 2010 show that women and men go to see movies in equal numbers) want to see movies about girls and women and consequently are very reluctant to produce many. Women can be eye candy in films, sure. They can be girlfriends, wives or peripheral characters but movies that feature a woman in the lead role are few and far between. A 2008 study that tracked women on screen and behind the scenes in the top 100 grossing films from that year found that males vastly outnumber females in speaking roles. Of 4,370 speaking roles, only 1,435 ( 32.8%) of those roles were female. Girls aged 13-20 were also hypersexualized in films at a rate of 39.8% vs. only 6.7% for boys.

The Geena Davis Institute has researched gender inequality in media aimed at young children and those same issues exist there too. “For every female character there are three male characters in G-rated films. In group scenes, fewer than one in five characters are female.” Their research also showed that when female characters do exist in media, "most are highly stereotyped and/or hyper-sexualized", with female characters in G-rated films wearing virtually the same amount of sexually revealing clothing as those in R-rated films.

So in that light the publishing notion that a young woman can sell a story without being a sex object seems positive. However, many of these covers feature young women that could be (and probably are) fashion models which is one problem (isn't even the fashion industry trying to veer away from the idea that a girl needs to be be a size two to represent them?). Another is that there's a marked lack of diversity on display. Where have all the teenage boys gone? Where are all the black and Asian girls? And does making novels look like carbon copies of each other really help sell them? Really? Really?

In my opinion ideally a book cover should give potential readers a hint about the story inside, not just offer a snapshot of a super idealized version of the main character or his girlfriend. When I say the 'story inside' I don't just mean the plot but the tone of the novel. Is it wistful? Funny? Tragic? Off the wall? A cover should illustrate what's unique about a book, rather than seeking to make it look generic.

Admittedly, I've heard my own publisher say that bookstores want girls on the covers of my books (seemingly even when they're actually as much, if not more, about boys!). But I have trouble understanding the big chain stores' dedication to this default. It seems a little like running a café where the manager has labelled every dessert as New York Cheesecake (because hey, cheesecake is popular!), although when a customer's order arrives at their table they may well find it tastes more like key lime pie or a banana split. Wouldn't this irritate the customers who were actually expecting cheesecake? And what about the people who were hoping for something other than cheesecake but don't realize key lime pie and banana splits are on offer because the manager has placed all their eggs in the cheesecake basket?

As an illustration of the cheesecake issue, here are two different covers of a warm, original young adult novel about loss, friendship, family and memory. It's a book with three dimensional characters that I greatly admired and was sorry to say goodbye to.

The first cover is the U.K. one and obviously takes its inspiration from an airmail envelope. It looks extremely creative and dynamic, like a story that we haven't read before. Something fresh and original. On the other hand, when Broken Soup was later released stateside it was with a cover that didn't reveal a thing about the book's feel or contents. Voila today's default cover. Is it an attractive cover? Yeah, sure. It looks just fine. But I'm not sure what would make someone pick up this book rather than the one next to it on the shelf unless they already knew something about Broken Soup (which, incidentally, everyone who is into YA should read because Jenny Valentine is an amazing writer).

Now of course I'm not saying there shouldn't be any attractive white girls on YA covers because there are some extremely creative, individualistic looking covers featuring just such people. But I am saying it doesn't make sense to have any one single default template for book covers because it does novels a disservice by suggesting they're telling the exact same story in the exact same way. It makes it seem that if you don't want to read that similar story again and again maybe there's just not that much out there for you read, which I don't happen to believe is true (although unfortunately some terrific YA books may not have made it into your nearest chain store if their covers or subject matter don't blend in well with the rest).

I realize there are trends in publishing and the popularity of the current default cover is bound to fade and be replaced with some other default in time but it would be tremendous if we could bulldoze the idea of putting together generic covers entirely and allow designers some room to, you know, be creative. This is supposed to be a creative industry, no?

Having said that, there are still teen books out there that have managed to avoid the current generic default cover trap and I want to show off some of my favourite such covers from the last couple of years. Each of the below covers links to the author's website or blog and at the briefest glance gives you a clue what it would feel like to read the stories contained within. Vive la différence!

The Airborne Toxic Event @ The Opera House & Emma Donoghue on Room

2011-05-21T17:25:00.004-04:00

There are finally some video clips from last Friday's Airborne Toxic Event show at The Opera House in Toronto up so I thought I'd post them here for fellow (or future!) TATE fans. I'm already more than ready to see the band again so I hope it won't be so very long until they're back in town.

Gasoline:

Papillon:

Does This Mean You're Moving On? (You won't actually see much later in the clip because it's one of the points during the night that lead singer Mikel Jollet disappeared into the crowd to sing):

All I Ever Wanted:

They also performed This Losing, one of the first tracks I heard from them back before their first album was released in 08. It's not on either of their albums but it's a testament to the band's talent that This Losing is every bit as good as the songs that do actually appear on their CDs. So far there's no live footage of this one from the Toronto show so the below clip is actually them playing it live at the El Ray Theatre in L.A. on April 27, 2011:

And last but not least Friday's (May 20th) appearance on David Letterman where they sang Changing:

I was also lucky enough to see Irish writer Emma Donoghue speak about her enthralling 2010 novel Room this past Wednesday. The Oakville public library will be posting a podcast of her talk which I'll link to once it's up. Room's already gathered a mountain of accolades so it definitely doesn't need me to recommend it but the narration by five-year-old Jack completely blew me away. At one point in the novel I couldn't sleep for worrying what was going to become of Jack and his mother and had to get out of bed and continue reading until two in the morning!

In speaking about the novel Emma Donoghue herself was completely candid and effortlessly charming so if you enjoyed Room it's definitely worth your time to listen to the podcast.

If you haven't read it yet, you might want to watch the Room book trailer and think about picking up a copy. While the material is emotionally challenging it's not graphic and Jack himself is such a charismatic narrator that there are times the book even seems (unlikely as it seems considering the horrifying situation Jack and his mother are in) almost whimsical.

The Airborne Toxic Event

2011-05-14T20:39:00.001-04:00

We went to see The Airborne Toxic Event at The Opera House in Toronto last night and if you've heard either of their albums or have ever seen them peform live you will probably be completely unsurprised to hear that they were amazing. Lyrically the band floor me by being so intelligent, honest, energetic and raw that sometimes it's hard to know whether to sob, punch the air or just dance because the Airborne Toxic Event are equally impressive musically. The title track from their second CD, All At Once, makes me want to grab tight to the moment and never let go. Innocence tears me to shreds. The first verse or so of Gasoline is like a YA novel I'd kill to read and their cover of Book of Love is a slice of heaven.

The Airborne Toxic Event's debut album is hands down the best album I've heard in a decade and I'm loving the hell out of their sophmore CD, All At Once, too. However, I have to admit that psychologically I'm now in the confusing state where I wish them all the success they deserve (aka world domination!) but am simultaneously dreading the time where I'll no longer be able to catch them at intimate venues like The Opera House.

Unfortunately, there aren't any videos of the Toronto gig up to share at the moment but here's a clip of them playing the title track from their new CD live in Washington last year:

The band singing Sometime Around Midnight on David Letterman in 2009 (incidentally they're going to be on the show again on the 20th and Gossip Girl on May 16th):

And playing Numb live in Manchester in 2010:

You can also read my previous ravings about the band here, September 5, 2008, where you'll find my two Airborne Toxic Event favourites, Innocence and Gasoline, embedded. Here's a link to the shows remaining on their current tour. Pick up tickets if you can, trust me.

My Beating Teenage Heart Goes to China

2011-05-10T09:05:00.000-04:00

My Beating Teenage Heart has sold to Chinese publisher Beijing Land of Wisdom Press and will be coming out in Simplified Chinese. How cool is that? I can't wait to see what the cover will look like!

Spring Blossoms

2011-05-08T19:31:00.001-04:00

I've mentioned before that May is my favourite month. This part of the world is never more beautiful than it is in May and so yesterday we took ourselves over to the Royal Botanical Gardens to revel in spring's sights. The Tulip Festival was on at the Rock Garden this weekend and will be continuing next weekend too but the blossoming trees there and in the Arboretum were just as gorgeous.

In case you can't quite read the above sign on the passionate nature of tulips, here's the bit that really caught my eye: “When a young man presents a tulip to his mistress he gives her to understand, by the general color of the flower, that he is on fire with her beauty; and by the black base of it, that his heart is burnt to a coal.”

Marauding squirrels, huh? I picture people arriving home from vacation to find their entire neighbourhood—maybe even their entire town—has been pillaged by pint-size furry marauders. Do you think I could shop the idea to an animation studio? I'm thinking Steve Carell could do the voice of the lead character, a reluctant marauding squirrel who isn't sure that the otherwise motley crew he belongs to is doing the right thing. And there's gotta be a part for Catherine Keener in there, mainly because I love her in everything but secondly, it'd be nice to reunite her with her 40 Year Old Virgin co-star.

I hope wherever you are that you're able to enjoy some of nature's beauty this May—and if marauding squirrels happen to swallow up some of your bulbs, consider that maybe they're not marauding at all but simply misunderstood. Hey, we all need a snack once in awhile.

Uh-oh Canada

2011-05-05T16:14:00.000-04:00

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hopes for a Conservative majority now an unfortunate reality, Canadian Parliament's transformation into Mordor is complete. At this juncture I must advise fellow citizens to be aware of the risks inherent in approaching the nation's capital. Anyone other than the true blue should proceed with extreme caution, lest they be captured and turned into Orcs (an extremely unpleasant conversion process).

Meanwhile Jack Layton, Bob Rae, Elizabeth May and a band of young Quebec NDP MPs will be making the perilous journey to attempt to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom and thereby hobble Harper's malevolent power. I wish the Fellowship of the Ring well and extend them my eternal gratitude but the rest of us should be aware that in all likelihood we will soon be called to join the battle for Middle Earth.

So stay strong fellow citizens! Stand on guard...

Canadian Election Blues

2011-05-03T11:41:00.001-04:00

I'm in no frame of mind to write much today so I'm just going to quote film critic Norman Wilner's reaction to last night's nightmarish (orange seats aside) federal election results:

“So, just to make sure we’re all on the same page — being found in contempt of Parliament, ordering the forging of government documents, lying to the electorate and generally being dicks is the way to a majority.”

What a sad, sad day in Canadian history. Many of the 60% of us who didn't vote Tory in this election already realize that and I believe a significant portion of the 40% who rewarded Stephen Harper's contempt for this country will also come to rue the day as they begin to understand the devastation that unchecked Tory rule can wreak in five years.

A big thanks to Quebec for giving us the only silver lining in this election, an NDP opposition government. How I wish Ontario had been with you and not let the nation down.

Now, more than ever, I'm still waiting for the great leap forwards.

May Second Election

2011-04-29T20:11:00.004-04:00

If you're Canadian and haven't voted early I hope you and I will be doing the same thing on May second, which is voting in the federal election. In the last few Canadian federal elections the media and fellow citizens have been especially worried about younger voters staying away from the polls but apathy and cynicism aren't qualities that any specific demographic have the market cornered on.

Sometimes (often?) in the west we seem to smugly think of our countries as shining examples of democracy. In our case I find this strange indeed — if only 58.8% of registered voters actually voted in the last Canadian election how invested in democracy can we be as a nation? Then there's the fact that many Canadians don't have even the most basic understanding of how our voting system here works. According to a 2008 Ipsos-Reid poll 51% of respondents erroneously believe the Prime Minister is elected by direct ballot when in actuality Canadians don’t vote directly for the PM, but for a member of Parliament in 308 ridings across the country. As leading constitutional expert Peter Russell explains it, “The basics of our system are simple. We elect the Parliament and the Parliament decides who gets the right to govern.”

So it's time for us to do our research and deserve the democracy we've inherited in this country. Then, to quote Margaret Atwood, “Vote, and — as they say — cherish the moment. People elsewhere are dying for it.”

Trailer Park Boys Say Vote:

Rick Mercer Calls Offside on Stephen Harper:

Rick Mercer's Message To Student and Youth Voters:

Montreal Days

2011-04-25T17:55:00.007-04:00

As promised, the first chapter of My Beating Teenage Heart is finally up! You can read it right here.

I was in Montreal last week and as usual the camera came along for the trip while my laptop stayed home. There were some signs of spring around the place (like the flowers in the below snap of old Montreal) but for the most part it was pretty chilly and overcast. One day we even had snow but fortunately there are plenty of great places to pop into to keep warm and dry

like the tropical rainforest section of the Biodome where I fell in love with the impossibly adorable capybaras.

I'm not sure whether you can get an accurate idea of their size from these photos but the capybara is the world's largest rodent (who knew?) and can grow up to 4.3 feet (130 centimetres) in height and weigh up to 140 lbs (65 kg).

There were plenty of other cool animals to discover at the Biodome ranging from colourful macaws to monkeys, a caiman, a lynx, four different types of penguins and poisonous frogs.

I was already in love with Archambault's flagship store (which carries books, CDs, DVDs, videogames, musical instruments and an extensive collection of sheet music) from previous visits but am also more than a little jealous that we don't have anything to match it in Toronto.

Behold the impressive sheet music floor of Archambault:

I picked up some vinyl in Primitive Records on St. Denis too

and had a look in several other Plateau area record stores,

videostores (doesn't this one look cozy),

and bookstore Renaud-Bray which is always doing something new and cool with this nook near the graphic novel section:

Speaking of bookshops, I stopped into the Paragraph bookstore across from McGill University where I visited with Courtney Summers' hauntingly grief drenched book Fall for Anything (if you want to read my thoughts on the novel, you can check them out in this December blog entry).

Some other Plateau area sights:

Even the Easter bunnies in Ogilvy's were getting in on the Habs mania last week.

Hanging out at the Musée des beaux-arts (Museum of Fine Arts), outside

and in.

Old Montreal statues and monuments:

Downtown Montreal:

Some commentary scrawled on this Bloc Quebecois campaign poster:

And finally, I can't resist taking a picture of Le Château Apartments on Sherbrooke Street each and every time I visit Montreal. Built in the 1920's, it's one of the most gorgeous buildings I've ever laid eyes on.

View last year's Montreal photos

The Second Best Feeling on Earth

2011-04-17T20:39:00.002-04:00

I hope everybody had a good Record Store Day this past Saturday and that if you weren't able to make it into an independent record store over the weekend that you'll be dropping into one soon because a good record store is truly a magical place.

“The best feeling on earth is to be surprised by something you never expected to find in a book store. The second best feeling on earth is to be surprised by something you never expected to find in a record store. If it something used, or rare or out-of-print all the better. And, honestly, what are the chances of something like that happening in a chain store. I can spend three hours going through the stacks at a place like Sound Garden. It is never time wasted.”
— David Simon

Spin.com has an online list of America's 15 Best Indie Record Stores (all the shop info is correct as of April 15th, 2011) and TimeOut has details about London's best record shops. For those in or near Toronto, blogTO posted their pick of the best vinyl record stores in Toronto last October.

This past weekend was also British Isles show time in Toronto and I didn't load up on much food or many DVDs this time around but the one purchase I'm very excited about is our brand new multi-region DVD player! And it's just in time too because only last week the region 2 copy of By Any Means with Charley Boorman: Ireland to Sydney that I'd ordered from the U.K. showed up and I didn't have any clue how we were going to watch it!

Several years ago I got hooked on Long Way Down and Long Way Round, the motorcycle travel documentary series Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor did together, and I've had my eye on By Any Means for some time but it's never been released in region 1 format, meaning North Americans without a multi-region player were out of luck. However, recently I couldn't resist the sale price of £2.99 at amazon.co.uk despite my lack of a multi-region player. Worst case scenario, I figured I could watch it the next time we're in Dublin.

Now I don't have to wait and I've already ordered a couple of other region 2 DVDs—By Any Means: Sydney to Tokyo and British spy show Spooks (otherwise known as MI5 in this part of the world) season 9. From the vague things I've heard online I suspect I'm not going to like what they do with the Lucas North character but I'm trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible until I've caught the show in its entirety. Meanwhile I'm rewatching season 8 to refresh my memory.

In book news, next week will mark the paperback release of The Lighter Side of Life and Death and along with it, chapter one of My Beating Teenage Heart. I'm finally, finally going to post the first chapter to my website on the eve of the release (April 25th) so if you want a peek stop back then, this will be the working link for Chapter One of My Beating Teenage Heart, but not until the twenty-fifth!

Harper-rama (Harper Mask, Action Figures Etc.)

2011-04-13T09:33:00.001-04:00

With the Canadian election coming up on May 2nd I'm seeing a fair amount of folks land on my website and blog looking for Stephen Harper items. For some reason the Harper mask seems particularly popular. As far as I know it doesn't exist outside of this website but perhaps someone should create one in real life tout de suite. Anyway, I've posted all my Stephen Harper artwork here—in one place—for handiness sake. Feel free to use any of the images (crediting me) elsewhere if they resonate. Click on any image to see the original blog entry where it appeared on my website.

Harper Action Figures

I'm beginning with a brand new Stephen Harper action figure: Easter 2011 Harper. With an election less than a month away Prime Minister Harper doesn't have time for his annual Easter card photoshoot and has persuaded the Canadian Federal Collectibles collection to issue an Easter action figure instead. The rendering attempts to capture the jovality of Stephen's cards by featuring the Prime Minister wearing a set of rabbit ears. The basket of Easter goodies included with the figure represents offerings Harper is prepared to make voters in exchange for their ceding of democracy. The pooping puffin who took part in the Conservative campaign against Liberal leader Stephane Dion in 2008 is also included as a potential ally in this year's Harper campaign.

The Canadian Federal Collectibles series recently issued a 2011 Stephen Harper action figure to represent this year's election campaign. This Harper figure comes with a rolled security fence that can be erected to keep the press at a distance from campaigning Stephen (and which also harks back to the G20 Toronto Summit), a spare set of snap-on hair (in the unlikely event that Harper's gets mussed) and a package of face match software which allows Conservative henchman to scan the crowd at Harper campaign stops and turf those suspected of partisan leanings.

Election 08 Harper carries the Canadian flag in one hand; the other is poised to lull us into a false sense of security as he attempts to conjure his Jedi mind trick magic.

April 2009 brought the release of a Harper action figure set to celebrate Harper's reign during the previous six months. As you can see, the Darth Harper figure clutches a Canadian flag in one hand and a chunk of Alberta tar sands earth in the other, the oil proceeds of which Harper hopes to use to fund creation of his Death Star. Statesman Harper (in full ceremonial garb) also grips a Canadian flag, which he can wave vigorously while proclaiming Canada's finances are sounder than any other country in the world. In the event the flag waving fails to placate Canadians, Harper can quickly don the sweater vest he holds in his other hand.

* Recession Harper accessories sold separately:

When Canada (with Stephen Harper at the helm) dragged their feet standing agains progress at the Copenhagen climate change talks in 2009 a close observer remarked that, “Canada has become the Darth Vader of the G8 in particular. The marks they now get regularly from the environmental groups are last place.” The below action figure commemorates Canada's toxic environmental position and their opposition to the defenders of our natural landscape.

Harper's True Colours

Scary things Harper has actually said and inset, Harper's less threatening sweater vest image:

Harper's favourite threat and insult:

A probable conversation with a former U.S. President:

More honest Tory campaign literature might look something like this:

Seasonal Harper Images

Stephen Harper's annual Easter cards to Canadians:

A Christmas snap. Even dressed as Mr. Claus, Harper can't resist raising his hand to attempt his Jedi mind trick:

Pop Idol Stephen

With bling and boat:

Faux soulful avec guitar:

Sith Lord Harper

Emperor Harper and one of his minions supervise the destuction of the environment and the creation of dirty fossil fuel at the Alberta Tar Sands.

Emperor Harper at the helm:

Conservative campaign leaflet from 2008:

An image from the televised 2008 Canadian leadership debate: Sith Lord Harper, Elizabeth May and Jack Layton:

Having taken off his day-wear suit, Sith Lord Harper settles down for a night of TV watching, common man style:

Harper's company has made his alliance clear:

Harper Mask

A true likeness of Stephen, right down to the immoveable Ken-doll hair:

Harper Friend or Foe?

The puffin who pooped on Liberal leader Stephane Dion cozies up to his old political ally, Stephen Harper, in 2008:

Harmless Camouflage Harper

Pinocchio Harper

Prince of Darkness Harper

Read about Stephen's true identity, Stephane Harperoux, a French Baron who has been feeding on democracy since 1789.

Canadian Parliament as Mordor

Harper suspends democracy by proroguing Parliament to avoid a confidence vote:

Merci Mister Dash!

2011-04-12T03:54:00.001-04:00

Happy release day to Monica Kulling for her extremely lovable new book, Merci Mister Dash! Wild child Daphne isn't the fastidious mixed breed pooch Mister Dash's favourite person. He'd much rather read the newspaper in the park than suffer a visit from his owner's niece. But naturally Daphne has less peaceful plans for Mister Dash.

The story's warm, charming and full of chuckles and the illustrations are simply gorgeous. I pre-ordered a copy for my young niece and nephew and can't wait for them to discover Mister Dash!

Lighter Side News Etc.

2011-04-10T20:16:00.001-04:00

It's been kind of a strange week (one where it was difficult to distinguish good news from bad) but I did receive some outright positive news on Thursday. The Lighter Side of Life and Death made Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year list in the fourteen and up category along with All Unquiet Things (by Anna Jarzab), Finnikin of the Rock (by Melina Marchetta), Please Ignore Vera Dietz (by A.S. King), The Vinyl Princess (by Yvonne Prinz) and more. You can check out the entire list here. I always get so excited when I find out one of my books is in such terrific company!

Also a reminder that the paperback version of The Lighter Side of Life and Death comes out on the 26th. The book actually begins in April so an April paperback release date seems fitting indeed. Come to think of it My Beating Teenage Heart also begins in April. Paperback release aside, I'm partial to spring and extremely glad winter is behind us and the chill is beginning (at times!) to subside.

It was pretty windy when we were strolling Queen Street last Sunday though (even before the rain turned into what I hope was winter's last gasp of snow in the evening). Unsurprisingly I bought more records at Rotate This and I was planning to pick up the new Glasvegas CD early last week but the release was put back to this coming Tuesday up here.

Wandering past the Silver Snail last Sunday I had to stop and snap a couple of photos of their extremely cool window display of unfolding Star Wars drama. Unfortunately, because I took the below images with a camera phone and the glare from the window was strong the coolness isn't nearly as evident in the picture as it was in real life.

For example, you can't even see Darth Vader and Obi-Wan duelling in the structure off to the left in the image below. Or that in the above photo Yoda is holding a sign saying "Dagoba," hoping to catch a ride in that direction, I suppose. What Spiderman is doing hanging out on the Millennium Falcon, I don't know but I guess the Rebellion can use all the help it can get!

Finally, earlier this week I saw this great Irish anti homophobic bullying ad that I want to point to:

It was created as part of BeLonG To Youth Services annual Stand Up! LGBT awareness campaign.

New Stephen Harper Figure

2011-04-07T16:16:00.003-04:00

The Canadian Federal Collectibles series has issued a new Stephen Harper action figure to represent this year's election campaign:

As you can see the 2011 figure comes with a rolled security fence that can be erected to keep the press at a distance from campaigning Stephen (and which also harks back to the G20 Toronto Summit), a spare set of snap-on hair (in the unlikely event that Harper's gets mussed) and a package of face match software which allows Conservative henchman to scan the crowd at Harper campaign stops and turf those suspected of partisan leanings.

Limited quantities of the Election 08 Harper figure (featuring Stephen clutching a chunk of Tar Sands rock in one hand and the Canadian flag in the other) are still available from various venders.

Stephen Harper Wants To Take Democracy Off Your Hands

2011-03-31T13:50:00.005-04:00

It's election time in Canada again but this is an election with a difference as it marks the first time in the history of the Commonwealth that a government has been found in contempt of Parliament (a penalty that theoretically could involve jail time). On March 21st a Commons procedure and house affairs committee tabled a majority report concluding the government was in contempt "for refusing to disclose enough information about the cost of several big-ticket items." The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois concurred and united in a non-confidence motion against the Harper Conservatives.

So not a first we can be proud of but then there hasn't exactly been alot to be proud of around these parts in recent years. According to Amnesty International Canada's global reputation as a human rights champion has been eroded. “No longer the champion, more and more Canada is perceived to be a country that is reticent to take a consistently strong stand for human rights. Sometimes Canada now is also seen as part of the problem, not the solution,” said Amnesty Secretary General Salil Shetty. The scathing Amnesty International report also notes that “On the home front, Canada’s human rights movement feels under siege. Never before have Canadian organizations worried so much that there might be consequences if they disagree publicly with the government on a human rights concern.”

As we move towards election day I know the nation is in dire straits when I find myself missing sweater vest Harper. At least back during the last election Steve-o was actively trying to convince Canadians that he was harmless (how could a guy in a sweater vest from Sears possibly be a serious threat to democracy?). But now it's as though he's figures that not enough of us care about democracy in the first place—that a significant percentage of Canadian voters are either NeoCon fanboys or apathetic and lazy enough not to want to be bothered by pesky little things like the environment, human rights, transparency, ethics and democracy. So these days Steve-o's dropped the sweater vest act and is sticking to alternately sneering and uttering the word "economy" like it's a chant.

Economy. Economy. Economy. I made the economy, damn it. And I can take it with me when I go too.

Or something to that effect. Which is a hoot because Steve-o was the last party leader to realize the Canadian economy was in trouble in 08.

How about this Stephen Harper gem from back in 2005: “When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” Coming from someone who has since prorogued Parliament twice (to avoid confidence votes he would've lost) and brought U.S. style media control to Canada that's downright hilarious.

Stephen still can't take any heat from the press and during his campaign stops is limiting national media to four questions a day which stands in marked contrast to the way NDP leader Jack Layton and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff are running their campaigns. "Harper finds time to do one or two carefully staged photo opportunities each day...As with all such events, the people who come in contact with Harper are Conservative supporters or part of the planning."

If the Tories were to run an honest campaign it would look like this:

But then again, Steve-o hasn't really been hiding his feelings these past few years, has he? So maybe he's right about the NeoCon fanboys and folks that don't want to be bothered with democracy. I can only hope he's wrong about the number of them that are out there because I know there are quite a few of us who are livid that he's been able to continue tearing the country down for this long.

Some Additional Reality Check Reading on Stephen Harper

Ten reasons to oppose the Harper candidate in your riding

The Canadian Nixon (a 2008 article which is more relevant than ever)

The Harper anthem: USA! USA!

What if Harper's dream of a majority comes true?

Don't Know What You've Got Til It's Gone

2011-03-29T00:57:00.047-04:00

Remember when I said that I hoped to put up a chapter from My Beating Teenage Heart soon and then it didn't happen? Remember sometime later when I repeated that message and still didn't put up a chapter? Well, I haven't gotten the okay to post Chapter One yet and now I'm not sure when that's going to happen so this time I won't say soon and maybe refraining from saying soon will make soon arrive sooner than it would've otherwise. We'll see...

In my impatience I did post a sort of countdown page for the book which links back to the main site. Lately I've also been listening to my one of my favourite 80s bands who have a great new album out:

It's pretty damn cool that a band I loved as teenager is putting out good music 28 years after I first started listening to them. It would never have occurred to me back then that this was possible, namely because I never thought that far into the future. Meanwhile now I'm wishing I had tickets for Duran Duran's upcoming Toronto show but since The Phoenix only has a capacity of 1300 the gig's sold out. Sigh.

I'm still listening to mucho Adam Ant these days too

and I think “Ridicule is nothing to be scared of” has to be one of the great pop music lyrics of all-time. I also finished reading his autobiography, Stand & Deliver, not long ago and am looking forward to his upcoming album.

Incidentally, if you're an Ant fan you might want to check out an interesting new interview with Adam from BBC 4's On the Ropes. He discusses his career, his experiences with bipolar disorder and how he takes issue with the label.

When I say I'm listening to music I often mean albums (rather than individual songs) in the CD or even vinyl format because for me, digital just doesn't feel the same. I do sometimes listen to tunes on shuffle (or Internet radio) while at the computer but if I'm really into something I want a physical copy (whether we're talking about books, movies or music). More on that here and here if you missed my posts on the topic last month. Obviously I'm in the minority on that, though, because globally recorded physical music sales fell by almost $1.5bn (14.4%) last year. During the same period digital revenues grew by only 5.3%.

It's often pretty disheartening reading comments to articles like the Guardian one I linked to above because many of the posters typically blame record industry greed (those posters must be having flashbacks to an earlier time!) for the continual fall in profits, claim artists shouldn't expect to be paid for their efforts (though I'm sure these same posters wouldn't be happy if it was suggested that they themselves put in long hours at work for free) or rant that the music industry isn't raking in money anymore because music today sucks (why these folks never seem to consider that the current state of pop music might in part be due to record companies no longer having the funds to support as many diverse artists and bands resulting in their clinging to proven formula acts in an effort to stay afloat, I'm not sure).

No one is ever going to be able to completely correlate lost sales with piracy (this is another point which commenters repeatedly raise in an effort to dismiss the scope of the piracy problem) but just because we can't draw a direct line between the two doesn't mean that piracy doesn't continue to play a major role in the gutting of the record industry. I find it strange (and frustrating) that many people don't have an issue with paying for hot new digital devices (phones, tablets etc.) on a regular basis but are extremely quick to either rip off or call for bottom of the barrel prices from companies and individuals who create content for those devices (games, movies, music, books). Seems to me like those devices would get boring pretty fast if there was nothing new to put on them. The well can run dry if it continues to prove more and more unlucrative to create music, movies, book and games.

I worry about that not simply because I'd like to be able to make a living as a writer but because I want to read new books, listen to new records and watch new movies. Many, many of them! And not only by writers, musicians and filmmakers whose work is mainstream and popular enough to scrape up decent profits at a time when piracy is rampant and there's constant pressure to lower prices.

I mean, hey, I'll always love 80s music, classic screwball comedies and Jane Austen novels but I sincerely hope there are enough of us out there who realize what's at stake here and are willing to support the arts (whether through legal downloads or purchasing physical copies of works), otherwise our culture's in danger of getting pretty damn stagnant and stinky.

Once You Start Having Sex...

2011-03-21T12:37:00.002-04:00

There’s a scene in classic YA book Forever where main character Katherine’s mother tells her, “Once you start having sex, you can't go back to holding hands.” When I first read Forever I was a pre-teen myself and thought of that statement as some kind of profound truth that I was being clued in to. Because sex was, like, this monumental thing, right? This line in the sand – you’ve either done it or you haven’t – and once you have, it changes you. Forever.

Well, actually, not necessarily, no. It’s potentially physically and emotionally risky and those are risks everyone should take seriously (and deal with appropriately) but sex, on its own, isn’t likely to change who you are if you’re comfortable with what you’re doing and you’re doing it responsibly and safely. And once you start having sex you can, of course, go back to holding hands (or whatever else) if you want to. And, yeah, there are people out there who want to do just that (no matter what popular culture or Katherine’s mother says) so rest assured if this is how you feel, you’re not the only one and you shouldn’t feel there’s anything wrong with wanting that. Likewise if you haven’t had sex yet but things are going too fast for you sexually with a partner you shouldn’t feel pressured to keep up. We have some pretty messed up, unhealthy ideas about sex in this culture and the once you start having sex you can’t stop idea is one of them, which is why I’m so happy to see that sex ed guru Heather Corinna has written an article called “Whoa, There! How to Slow Down When You're Moving Too Fast” for the ever awesome Scarleteen website.

Whenever I talk about sex ed I inevitably bring up Scarleteen and its founder Heather Corinna and I hope if you’re looking for honest comprehensive information about sex delivered with a non-judgmental attitude you’ll drop by the site and have a look around.

In this brand new article Corinna writes:

“A lot of young people think that sex is like Pandora's Box: once you open it, you can't ever close it and everything you took out of it can't ever be put back in, whether you like it or not. But that's just not true: just because we've done something once sexually never means we have to do it again or always have to do it. Just because something felt right once, or in one situation, doesn't mean it feels right now or always will in every situation. And sometimes what felt like the right pace for a while can later feel way too fast in hindsight. If and when that happens, we never have to stay at a given pace: we always have the choice to slow things down and only do whatever it is that feels right for us at a given time, even if that's nothing at all.”

Corinna also offers a handy list of warning signs that things may be moving too fast for you or a partner:

“· Sex feels more like something that "just happens" rather than something you or your partner actively choose to do

· You or your partner are experiencing anxiety, fear and/or regret during, after or about sex

· You or your partner don't, can't or don't feel able to really talk about sex together

· You or your partner feel pushed sexually or like one person is always leading sexual activities

· Sex feels physically painful, uncomfortable or just really blah for you or your partner

· Sex feels like it starts and ends too fast or too soon

· You or your partner are taking risks you don't really want to or don't feel ready for

· You or your partner are skipping or being inconsistent with safer sex and/or birth control

· You or your partner feel unable to be assertive with limits and boundaries or like limits and boundaries aren't respected

· You are being dishonest or feeling like you can't be totally honest with friends and family about
the pace of your sexual relationship

· You or your partner feel dissatisfied with sex, or like sex is very one-sided

· And the easiest clue of all: things feel like they are moving too fast”

The article then moves on to offer practical advice on how to slow things down and reminds us that, “Obviously, there are other things in our lives that we have to do even when the timing doesn't feel perfect or when we'd rather be doing something else, but sex should never be one of those things. Sex should always be 100% optional.”

There’s just so much good information in this article that I hope you’ll head over there and read the whole thing (and then send out the link widely) but in the meantime I’ll leave you with this final thought from “Whoa, There! How to Slow Down When You're Moving Too Fast:”

“It's a pretty good rule of thumb that if you or a partner aren't able to talk about what you're doing well or at all, then you probably shouldn't be doing it. Try and make sure that whatever you're doing, you're talking about it first before acting on it, rather than the other way round.”

Ireland Forever

2011-03-17T13:55:00.001-04:00

“Everything that we inherit, the rain, the skies, the speech, and anybody who works in the English language in Ireland knows that there's the dead ghost of Gaelic in the language we use and listen to and that those things will reflect our Irish identity.”
— John McGahern

It doesn't have to be St. Patrick's Day for me to feel sentimental about Ireland. You can read me wax on about it elsewhere on my website:

Life On Mars (things just won't be the same...)

This is What You Do

Dublin and Billy Bragg

Once

Through Narrow Streets of Cobble Stone: Dublin Through the Years, My Not-So VIP Life and (Mis)adventures in Dublin’s Transportation System

Dublin Flashback

Below is one of the songs I associate most strongly with my time in Dublin in the early 90s. Such great times that I'll always feel grateful for.

I hope if you haven't been there yet you soon get a chance to experience Ireland and discover all the good things I found in it. And if, like me, you already know and love Ireland but don't live there, I hope you find yourself back on Irish soil again soon.

Here's some more from The Saw Doctors to make you long for Ireland:

And Everything is Going Fine

2011-03-15T14:33:00.001-04:00

I first stumbled across American monologuist and actor Spalding Gray's autobiographical work in the late 80s when the filmed performance (directed by Jonathan Demme) of his monologue, Swimming to Cambodia, was shown on TV. Just Spalding, sitting at a desk in a plaid shirt, talking about his experiences in Southeast Asia while playing an ambassador's aide in The Killing Fields.

If I had any idea who he was when I first encountered Swimming to Cambodia it would've only been because of Spalding's acting roles in movies like Beaches, Clara's Heart and (of course) The Killing Fields. But I was instantly hooked on his unique brand of storytelling filled as it was with keen observations, much angst, confessional humour and a constant underlying sense of the bittersweet nature of life. So revealing is Spalding Gray in his monologues that I almost felt like I knew him by the time he died in 2004 (He was last seen on the Staten Island ferry on January 10th of that year and his body was pulled from the East River roughly two months later).

Over the years I was lucky enough to see two of Spalding Gray's monologues live—Monster in a Box in the early nineties in Toronto and It's a Slippery Slope in Dublin in the late nineties. I also enjoyed his novel, Impossible Vacation, and his monologues Terrors of Pleasure and Gray's Anatomy, which I still have VHS copies of. I was hoping to see more of him over the years and watching And Everything is Going Fine, a documentary about Spalding Gray composed mainly of clips of Spalding talking about his life and work (the two seem indivisible), is like one final visit with the great monologuist.

I'm thinking now, of my very favourite moment in Impossible Vacation, when main character Brewster North entertains a six-year-old child.

I reached down and took the pillow that Shanti was sitting on and lifted him up from the couch real high and held him there, as if he were flying on a magic carpet, then I let go of the pillow and dropped him. Shanti squealed and let out with a wild laugh as he and the pillow hit the floor and bounced; and then, making an immediate recovery, Shanti jumped back on the pillow and cried out, "Do it again!" I made up my mind right away to try to totally satisfy him so that perhaps for once in his life at an early age, he would know the condition of complete indulgence and satisfaction. He would have no leftover longings; at least for this day he'd be cured of the longing for the event that never happened.

I'm thinking how we'll never hear more stories from Spalding Gray. We will never be cured of the longing for the event that will never happen.

And Everything is Going Fine closes at the TIFF tomorrow.

The Sting of Rejection

2011-03-10T03:30:00.005-05:00

I was doing some pre-spring decluttering last weekend and one of the things that I decided to tackle was the rejection file that I started in 2001. I don't know if you can really tell from the below photo just how stuffed this file folder was but take my word for it, the thing was positively crammed with rejections (and some requests which would later lead to rejections) from four different countries.

Most of the correspondence in the above folder are agent rejections, both from before and after things didn't work out with my first agent. I'm not sure why I held on to all of them for quite so long (maybe it felt like proof of my efforts?). In fact, even after weeding out the form rejections or others that didn't offer much wisdom on why whatever particular manuscript I'd sent along a query for wasn't for them, I slipped quite a few back into the folder for further safe keeping.

If you're not a writer (or a musician, actor or some other type of artist/performer) it might seem distinctly odd to continue to choose to do something that involves so much rejection. Needless to say your confidence can take a beating. Maybe you even seriously consider quitting. But often the desire to write (or act or sing or whatever) won't leave you alone so stopping isn't as simple as it sounds. Even as the professionals (agents and editors) tell you that your work isn't what they're looking for, telling stories is what you want to do.

It's important to remember that when the rejections become particularly painful. If you're truly passionate about your own stories it's easier to stand behind them when the going gets tough. It's also important to realize that getting published doesn't mean your rejection days are behind you. Not all your books may sell and when those that do start to make their way out in the world inevitably they will encounter detractors. There's absolutely no way your work can be everyone's cup of tea. Some reviews will (reject!) slam your novel. Some readers will react with indifference or irritation. Having been through the submission process with agents and/or editors beforehand this will be nothing new to you but it can still be frustrating.

If they have too strong a negative impact you might find that it's better not to look at reviews at all. You definitely don't want any unnecessary negativity messing with your creative energy. In fact, personally I find it's better not only to avoid reviews but industry blogs and websites in general and just lose myself in whatever story I'm writing, like a tightrope walker or a horse with blinkers on.

So to sum up, for those of you who are precisely where I was before my first book was published (stuffing your rejection folder): write what you love, dedicate yourself to making your work the best that it can be, don't give up and—if it's going to throw off your balance—as much as possible, don't look down!

International Women's Day: Are We Equals?

2011-03-08T11:08:00.000-05:00

Today is the one hundredth anniversary of the first International Women's Day events which were held in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland in 1911. There's a lot to celebrate and a hell of a lot left to fight for.

There are some people out there who are fond of saying feminism is no longer needed because gender equality has already been reached. But despite the progress made in women's rights there's not a country on earth where equality has truly been achieved.

Annie Lennox, who helped start the EQUALS campaign which advocates for equal rights for women, has written an article on the sobering gender inequity statistics and need to push forward:

“Despite the fact that half of the world’s population are female, women’s rights have become marginalised as a ‘minority issue’. Many young women feel that the label of ‘feminist’ is, at best, irrelevant to their lives and, at worst, a stigma to be avoided at all costs. Sullied by stereotypes of hairy arm-pitted man haters, the concept of feminism and its principles of equality and anti-sexism need to be refreshed and reclaimed by a new generation. Feminism shouldn’t be an F word. We should embrace it.”

You can read the entire post over at the Oxfam blog:

The 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day: Let's make it count!

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.”
— Cheris Kramarae & Paula Treichler

On Music Magic

2011-02-26T21:30:00.004-05:00

Two weeks ago I wrote a post lamenting the disappearance of physical stores as entertainment (movies, music and books) continues to go digital. Since then Borders have announced they'll be closing 200 stores across the United States and the media are pondering whether this is the beginning of the end of bookstores.

It stands to reason that in an era where people value portability and instant access to material, physical stores would suffer. But I, for one, have never gotten over record stores. I love to flip through the racks and to me a digital file is no replacement for a physical copy of a book, film or album. If I'm a big fan of a novel or album I want the artwork (and lyric sheet!) that goes along with it and helps create an overall vibe for the work.

Granted, I grew up in a time when music was sold mostly on tape, which was an intensely crappy storage medium (I can't even begin to guess how many tapes I killed through over-listening in the 80s or how many I temporarily saved by unspooling them and working out the knots). It's also pretty impossible for artwork to look truly impressive at such tiny dimensions. But vinyl albums, now they were really something. A presence to be reckoned with.

So not only am I shunning e-book readers for the foreseeable future, we've actually gone and bought a record player so we can start adding some vinyl back into our collection! The above is a USB turntable (as well as a CD, tape player and radio) so we can still create digital backups of the music if we want to. As you can see from the photo we've already hit some Toronto record stores. Having just picked up the record player last weekend I'm obviously no expert on where in the city to buy vinyl but after some Googling I discovered this extremely helpful article on The Best Vinyl Record Stores in Toronto. We hit four of the Queen Street West stores today—Criminal Records, Cosmos, Hits & Misses and Rotate This—and I was really impressed with them all. It was such an amazing feeling to flip through all those vinyl albums that I don't know why it didn't occur to me to buy a turntable earlier!

Equally ridiculous is the fact that it's taken me this long to buy an Adam and the Ants album. Honestly, I don't know what happened there and have only myself to blame for this oversight. I'm in the process of remedying the situation and so far have picked up a copy The Essential Adam Ant CD and an original vinyl copy of Prince Charming (their third album).

For the benefit of those of you who are younger than me, or who missed the Ants invasion of the early 80s for whatever reason, here are a couple of clips from a Tokyo Adam and the Ants concert in 1981. I'm telling you, if my record player could double as a time machine I'd be whipping back there to catch this gig pronto!

Car Trouble:

Stand and Deliver:

While I'm on the subject of music magic I'm also extremely happy to say that I have tickets to see The Airborne Toxic Event's upcoming Toronto show. I missed them the last time they were in town but their 2008 debut was, no joke, the best album I've heard in a decade. Here's a track from it:

Gasoline:

And my very favourite Airborne Toxic Event tune, Innocence, a song which I've come strongly to associate with my book, My Beating Teenage Heart:

Their new album, All at Once, will be released on April 26th.

I hope, wherever you are, you're taking advantage of the physical bookstores and record shops nearest you! Digital is sure handy but there's nothing quite like being surrounded by oodles of bookshelves or stacks of recorded music to get you excited about books and music past and present.

***Update, February 27th***

For the Adam Ant fans out there, Matt Everitt's critically acclaimed BBC 6 series The First Time broadcast a brand new hour long interview with Adam today. It's available for online listening for the next seven days.

Matt Everitt:
“It sounds like it's been more of a battle than I think people assume maybe with your career early on.”

Adam Ant:
“Well, I think everybody has to realize if you want to be in rock and roll it's work, it's a job and it's seven days a week fight until you're at number one and then when you're at number one it's a lonely place cuz the only way is down and to stay there, I felt the four things you need are success, survival, longevity and consistency. I've had all three but consistency is the hardest.”

The Animals' Conference

2011-02-21T13:55:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) I stumbled across something special in the Prints and Drawings collection. If you're in the Toronto area and a fan of children's books think about catching the Walter Trier: The Animals’ Conference exhibit before it closes on April 25th.

The classic children's book by Erich Kästner was published in 1947 and “tells a story of a group of animals who hold a peace conference at the same time as government leaders meet to discuss war. As the story progresses, the animals are forced to take drastic measures to ensure a future without conflict.”

The exhibit features over 30 original pen-ink-and-watercolour illustrations by Walter Trier. They're hung in chronological order with the text of the story below so that you can follow the book around the room. The illustrations and story exude an ageless warmth and whimsy that will delight readers of all ages. I hope that one day this lovely book comes back into print; I'd love a copy for my personal collection. In the meantime, it's wonderful that the AGO is exposing readers to this gem and while you're at the gallery be sure to check out their impressive Maharaja exhibition. Ticket prices for the Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts are only about $3 more than regular admission.

Bricks and Mortar

2011-02-11T20:07:00.003-05:00

Depending on how closely you follow book news you may or may not be aware that British libraries are in trouble. 400 public libraries in the U.K. are currently under threat of closure. On the fifth of this month there was a national day of action with events in support of libraries taking place in numerous libraries across the United Kingdom. In advance of this, author Philip Pullman made an impassioned speech defending the value of public libraries and chastising those who don't see their value.

“Market fundamentalism, this madness that’s infected the human race, is like a greedy ghost that haunts the boardrooms and council chambers and committee rooms from which the world is run these days...The greedy ghost understands profit all right. But that’s all he understands... He doesn’t understand libraries at all. That branch – how much money did it make last year? Why aren’t you charging higher fines? Why don’t you charge for library cards?”

The market fundamentalism Pullman speaks of isn't, of course, just a British issue. It's very much alive and well on this side of the pond. It scares me how the word austerity is used as though it's some kind of virtue, as though the value of human lives and experiences can be measured in profit and loss statements. And these 'austerity' cuts seem to punish low income people the worst (slashing people's lifelines like unemployment benefits and much needed social programs), although it's the folks at the top of the wealth pyramid that caused our current economic crisis. Funny how that works.

Vancouver Public Library atrium

Ugly market fundamentalism isn't the only threat to public libraries. The rise of the Internet and the growing popularity of e-books are used as rationalizations to suggest that public libraries are no longer important. The BBC recently ran an article asking if libraries were finished and posing five arguments for and against libraries. As can you guess, the #1 and #2 arguments against libraries were the value of the Internet as a research tool and the existence of digital books.

The Internet argument particularly bothers me because it comes from an ignorant, privileged point of view that assumes everyone has a decent Internet connection. As for digital books, not all books are available as e-books and even if they were, not everyone who currently signs books out from their local library could afford to purchase as many books as they would like to read. To offer an equivalent of the library's current service in providing access to physical books an extensive collection of digital books would have to be available for free lending. If this were the case and suddenly everyone was magically able to afford Internet access, an Internet connection and e-books would still be no replacement for a good local library. A library doesn't merely offer access to books, it provides the expertise of its staff and functions as a community hub, which brings me to my next worry, which is that our physical lives are beginning to disappear.

I grew up haunting record stores, spending every bit of money I could scrape together on tapes and vinyl recordings by my favourite bands. In my early twenties I worked at a Blockbuster Video in Southern Ontario and then, for several years, at an outlet of the Xtra-Vision video chain in Dublin, Ireland. There were quite a few regular customers including a single mom and her action movie loving teenage son, a sweet sixty-something year old gentlemen who used to tape TV shows for me when I'd miss them while working, a restaurant owner whose Dublin restaurant I used to frequent, and a gorgeous Irish TV actor from Kerry who usually rented under his girlfriend's account. Having a chat with these folks became part of mine (and their) day. It was the sort of casual but regular daily interaction we've begun to lose in public spaces as we focus more on our electronic devices and Internet interactions and less on those around us.

These days I typically drop into my local library at least twice a month but virtually the only record stores left standing in this part of the world are HMVs (just recently in the UK sixty HMVs were slated to close) which are filled largely with videogames and DVDs because music's gone digital and scarcely exists in a physical form anymore. Blockbuster Video in the States filed for bankruptcy in September. Borders Books are hanging on by a thread and a couple of weeks ago I read that the two Waterstones bookstores in Dublin that I used to frequent when I lived there have closed. It's beginning to seem that, jobs aside, if there was a way to digitally download food and coffee we'd barely have to leave our homes! And that's not a good thing. It's just a couple of steps away from Bruce Willis movie The Surrogate.

Needless to say I'm not in any hurry to get myself an e-book reader. I prefer my books physical, thanks. I've been through format changes too many times before. With music I've transitioned from vinyl to tapes to CDs to MP3s and in movies from VHS to DVD (I drew a line at Blu-Ray and won't pick one up until regular DVD players are absolutely obsolete!). Yeah, I'm plenty tired of re-collecting material I've purchased previously and although I don't have any more space for books, filling an e-reader up with material would just be a short-lived solution. When people's e-readers start breaking down and they begin losing their fabulous digital collections and have to start over, or when the file format of e-books change (because believe me, they will! Before we know it there'll be some kind of cool advanced 3D or scratch and sniff format everyone will be raving about and the old formats will be outdated) I'll be sitting here reading my paper books, without the aid of any machinery or batteries whatsoever, like they did hundreds of years ago. This is the beauty of physical books. All they require is literacy.

It seems to me that depending on digital files is to risk losing a civilization's knowledge. Much as we love our electronic toys in this age they're not as reliable or enduring as simple pieces of paper. And abandoning bricks and mortar stores and physical libraries is a good way to lose a sense of community and make us ever more insular until we no longer know how to interact with real-world people who don't happen to share our Twitter and Facebook interests.

My Beating Teenage Heart

2011-02-04T14:42:00.002-05:00

I've been wanting to post this for awhile and today I got the all clear so I'm extremely happy to be able to share the cover for My Beating Teenage Heart:

I would've had it up a bit earlier in the day but there's been a flurry of activity centred around the fact that our heating is broken. In February. In Canada. Fun times.

I'm waiting on the repair person as I type this and my fingers aren't nearly as cold as they could be because we nipped over to Canadian Tire last night to get a space heater. This is one of those times that I'm happy that the apartment is rather small (less to heat!).

As well as the cover I've added the flap copy here and hope to add the first chapter soon too.

January in Review

2011-01-23T18:01:00.006-05:00

I know we're not done with it yet but it seems as though January has been going on forever and as I haven't been hanging out on the blog much recently I thought I'd do a bit of a wrap up of the month so far. As of January 19th Toronto already had more snow than it had all last winter and for the most part it's been cold, too cold for my liking (what can I say, I'm a lightweight when it comes to chilly temperatures!). But it didn't start out that way. New Year's Day the temperature reached a whopping 11 degrees Celsius in the Toronto area. Honestly, it felt like spring was on the way and we went for a long walk and pretended April was right around the corner.

There was some residual evidence from the holidays left down by the river though. Goodies left in the trees

and a party balloon that I was impressed to find intact by the path. Get a load of the mist coming off the melting river in the distance. There was a moment when I wondered if we were in imminent danger of being attacked by a werewolf or something...and then I realized they only tend to do that when it's dark.

Unfortunately, the warm weather was not to last and since New Year's Day I've been spending a lot of time working on my new YA novel, hanging out in movie theatres and rewatching period dramas on DVD.

The King's Speech was just as enjoyable the second time around (thanks to inspirational subject matter and performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush that remain remarkably fresh even when you know the ins and outs of the story). The new Mike Leigh movie Another Year blew me away (I'm in continual awe of Leigh's profound understanding of ordinary people) and made me want to hang out with Jim Broadbent's and Ruth Sheen's characters until the end of time. I swear if the Doctor ever runs into Tom and Gerri he'll park the Tardis permanently on their street and never bother with time travel again, just be happy to hang out in their living room or help them with their gardening.

Made in Dagenham was funny, smart and inspirational and deserves a much bigger audience than its gotten so far. Black Swan was unnerving but thankfully slightly less disturbing than Requiem for a Dream (another Aronofsky effort). I was very glad to see Rabbit Hole reach my local suburban AMC. It's one of the most truthful movies about grief that I've seen. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart offer raw, multi-layered performances as parents who have lost their young son to a car accident but try to deal with the loss in their own individual ways. There are no Hollywood plot points here or easy answers, just a faithful portrait of what loss can do to people, bringing unexpected people together and pushing others apart.

Last weekend we also hung out in the Royal Ontario Museum (which I'm a big fan of) for several hours. Upon leaving I took my gloves off for just long enough to snap this snowy picture. Pretty...but cold.

If, like me, you live in Canada there's a good chance you have a copy of the Milk calendar and if, like me, you're a fan of veggies I heartily recommend the calendar's Hodgepodge recipe (which you can also find online by clicking the link). We tried it last weekend (photo proof below) and I'm not a big foodie but just look at it. Yum.

Continuing on with the countdown to April 1st we're at sixty-seven days remaining. In the meantime, stay warm!

My Beating Teenage Heart

2011-01-12T09:53:00.002-05:00

is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Borders, and Chapters.Indigo. There's no cover or info for it up yet so it's kind of a shadowy presence but I hope that soonish I'll be able to post a sample chapter here and, of course, the cover!

It feels like a long time until the release date of September 27th but I sure don't want to whip through spring and summer so that's probably a good thing. I am, however, perfectly ready to see the back of winter and am counting down to April 1st, a date when I can reasonably hope snow and the coldest temperatures of winter are in the past.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T17:10:00.011-05:00

When I was a kid I'm sure I imagined that by 2011 we'd be looping around town on jetpacks and have established outposts on other planets. One of the things I used to really enjoy about the Star Trek: The Next Generation series was that in the 24th century on earth, at least, human wars and human need were a thing of the past. I hope this is the direction we're headed in, although we seem to have fallen a bit behind schedule on the matter of jetpacks and outposts!

Anyway, with the more immediate future in mind here's a list of things (in no particular order) I'm hoping for in 2011. Some of these are more likely to happen than others but I'm wishing for them all.

2011 Wishes

* That Steve Carell changes his mind about leaving The Office because I'm going to miss Michael Scott way to much to keep watching the show without him. Please, Steve, Staaaaaay! Dunder Mifflin won't be Dunder Mifflin without you.

* That governments and industries around the world get serious about preventing global warming. All us citizens of the globe play a part here but to truly make any headway on this issue we need the people with the power onboard and the clock is ticking down.

* That scholars discover a previously unreleased sequel to Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel, North and South, because I'm dying to know what happens to Margaret Hale and John Thornton (and I'm sure there are a huge crowd of people out there who feel the same way). Said sequel should promptly be adapted into a delightful but rousing BBC miniseries with parts for Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage (from the original North & South cast) as well as Alex Kingston, Paul Bettany, James McAvoy and Mia Wasikowska.

* That Canadian citizens finally make up their mind to kick Prime Minister Stephen Harper (or should I say Stephane Harperoux?) to the curb and get ourselves a forward-thinking PM who realizes the future isn't going to look like the colour of dirty oil. I'm hoping this happens toute de suite because I don't know that my soul can survive watching Stephen choke out any more Who covers. I mean, if we have to endure a singing Prime Minister, even J-Roc would be an improvement. How 'bout it J-Roc, want to join the Liberal party?

* That my third book The Lighter Side of Life and Death gets made into a charming feature film that feels like a burst of sunshine. Because this is a wish-list I'll go ahead that and wish for my dream-cast and director too. You can read full details about both on the My Book, The Movie blog.

* At the moment I know quite a few writers that should by all rights (because these are super-talented people!) have wonderful book deals for their projects. Most of these folks are YA or MG writers and I'm rooting for them all—whispering to the universe (because sometimes it needs that kind of nudge) that this should be their year.

* Of course I usually have a book on the go myself and there are two that I would love to sell this year: my current WIP (a YA novel) and Book X (an adult novel), which I have an ardent crush on and which is still buzzing around in my head. So if you would like to whisper a suggestion in the universe's ear on my behalf I'd be very grateful indeed.

* That the citizens of Ireland, a nation which has been through the shredder recently, don't allow their government to rob the country of its potential by cutting off their fellow citizens at the knees. Nixing jobs and cutting health, education and social welfare funding will only hobble the country further. These are the kind of mean-spirited solutions which punish the people at the bottom of the economic ladder (and more of us are there every day) rather than those who caused the economic crash in the first place. I wish the same wish for citizens of the U.K. and everywhere else governments are trying to put the boot in in the name of austerity.

A brave new year to everyone!

2010-12-23T10:34:00.005-05:00

The other night we temporarily transformed our apartment into a cookie factory and baked a ton of cookies for the holidays—chocolate chip, cinnamon chip and chocolate mint chip—while watching Chevy Chase succumb to holiday psychosis in Christmas Vacation.

Usually the first batch of cookies gets a bit burnt on the bottom because we haven't figured out precisely how long to leave them in for yet (our cookie factory typically only opens once a year!) but this time each and every cookie came out perfectly. In the end things also worked out for Chevy Chase as his boss learned the error of his ways and decided to give Clark (Chevy) the bonus necessary to put in his planned swimming pool.

However, sometimes the holidays really are a full-fledged disaster. The pressure to be joyful can make us just the opposite if our lives are the slightest bit less than perfect. Financial problems, work stresses, falling out with friends, undergoing a break-up, fighting with family, illness, suffering the loss of a loved one or having to spend the holiday alone—any of these things (and many more) can infuse us with sadness, anger and feelings of deep frustation or dissatisfaction.

And so, although I hope your holidays are happy I also hope that if that's not in the cards for you this year that you can find a way to ditch the happy holiday pressure. Sometimes doing things for people that have it worse can help and sometimes we might feel better skipping the holiday entirely or breaking with previous traditions and spending it with different people and/or doing different things than usual. I think it's important to remember that now isn't always and that if are having a tough time now that next week, next month or next year you could be on top of the world.

With that in mind I want to wish everybody out there all the best for 2011! One of the things I'm really looking forward to is, of course, reading some great new YA books early in the new year. Here are some with late December or January release dates that I'm especially looking forward to and either have on order or recently picked up:

Truthfully, I finished Fall for Anything last week and it is stunning. Like Courtney Summers' previously novels it's extremely intense but Fall for Anything is my favourite of her books so far. I just loved Eddie and my heart ached for her as she tried to make some sense of her father's suicide. The books I love the most are the ones that make me feel something deeply and this is one of those books—a painful, truthful exercise in empathy.

***

One last thing, there are still a couple of days left to enter the contest to win signed copies of my three books at Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm. Contest closes December 27th!

The Coll and Art Quadrilogy

2010-12-14T12:39:00.001-05:00

I finished my very first YA book back in 2000 but long before I reached the last chapter, I realized the story wouldn't be over on the final page. No, I needed to write a sequel and then a sequel to the sequel before I'd truly be done with those characters. Yep, it turned out I was writing a trilogy and in the middle of my second book I began doing some comparative reading and discovered two YA relationship trilogies that felt like first cousins to my novels. The first of these was the Jackie & Kev Trilogy—an Irish series by Marilyn Taylor (Could This Be Love? I Wondered; Could I Love A Stranger? and Call yourself a Friend?). The second series was by best-selling British author Kate Cann and is referred to as the Diving In series or the Coll and Art trilogy. Only it's not a trilogy any longer because at last Kate Cann has released a fourth novel in the series.

While the first three books are from Coll's point of view, exploring her feelings as she falls for Art, discovers sex and navigates their often rocky relationship, this fourth book is, at last, Art's thoughts on their love affair. Being a big fan of the Coll and Art books I'm extremely excited about this new novel, Art's Story, because, as Kate Cann mentions on her website, this fourth book, “tells you if they stay together or not.”

Here's the blurb on Art's Story from Kate Cann's site: “While Coll's passion for Art is growing – what's he feeling? What does he think of her, how does he see her? And why is he so cut off and cruel sometimes? And when Coll comes back form Canada, can Art change enough to keep them together?”

I highly recommend the Coll and Art books for readers who are fans of realistic teen fiction. These novels remain amongst the best, most truthful YA books about a teen relationship I've ever read and they have the added bonus, for Anglophiles like me, of being British.

But if you happen to be in North America, you're not of out luck, because the Coll and Art trilogy was released on this side of the pond under the titles Ready? Sex and Go! several years ago. It's interesting to note what a different impression a title and cover give a novel considering that the same words appear inside. In this case, I think the British titles and above cover designs do a much better job of capturing the feel of Coll and Art's tale. You might get the impression from the American packaging that this is a sensationalized story but in fact its charm is that it's completely down to earth and open-hearted.

I fell in love with Coll and Art's story years ago and now that Kate Cann's released Art's Story (which she says her old publisher wouldn't offer her a contract for because they felt “Art was too dark and negative”) I'm going to go back and gleefully reread them all as I wait for my copy of Art's Story to arrive in the mail. If you're interested in checking out Art's Story too, you can order it on Kate Cann's website.

As a side note, I'm happy to hear that Kate Cann also intends to re-release Breaking Up, which I was lucky enough to pick up in paperback several years ago. And, finally, if you enjoy books with realistic male central characters, you'll love Cann's book Leader of the Pack about seventeen year old Jack who struggles to balance his lives and breathes rugby mentality with the realities of a relationship.

Christmas Time in the City

2010-12-09T11:46:00.002-05:00

There's only a sprinkling of snow in the city so far but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas regardless. Here's what Toronto looked like like yesterday (December 8th):

The view from Front Street:

Four foot high gingerbread recreation (created with 54lbs of flour and 54lbs of sugar) of the Royal York hotel's original 1929 construction. You can find it in the lobby of the Royal York:

Chilly, lonely park along the Esplanade:

Overhead Christmas decorations in the Distillery District:

Christmas Market at the Distillery District. It runs until December 12th. Note the snowy sign pointing the way to the gingerbread house:

Distillery District Christmas market stalls:

Voila, the {edible} gingerbread house:

It was too cold to attempt the market ferris wheel:

But watching this choir singing Avril Lavigne's Keep Holding On was fun:

And then we moved on to watch the skaters at Nathan Phlilips Square. I couldn't see where the skate rental place had gone but apparently it's currently in a construction trailer on site:

Menorah in front of Old City Hall:

The nativity scene at Old City Hall has been vandalized again this year—the glass had been smashed and the baby Jesus stolen:

As usual, the Hudson's Bay Christmas windows are absolutely gorgeous:

The Swarovski Christmas tree at the Eaton Centre was pretty much the only visible Christmas decoration in the place:

Berczy Park, Front Street:

Restaurant poinsettias:

Brookfield Place holiday lights:

John

2010-12-08T11:53:00.003-05:00

As a John Lennon fan, having a December 8th birthday can be rough. Inevitably, sometime during the day I end up tuning into one of the radio stations (this would be Q107 if you're in Toronto) playing 24 hours of Lennon tunes and feeling sad that John is no longer in the world with us.

He's been gone thirty years now and sometimes the loss still comes as a shock, like when I was watching the documentary LENNONYC a couple of weeks ago. After spending hours witnessing the charismatic figure battle to stay in the city he loved, battle with his own personal demons, and spread his message of peace, it was difficult, all over again, to let him go again when the documentary reached the moment of his murder, the moment he was snatched away from us too soon.

In fact, I was too young to really mourn John Lennon when he was killed in New York on December 8th, 1980. I became a fan in my teenage years, devouring Beatles and Lennon biographies, buying the music in tape format and reading John's own writings, In His Own Write, A Spaniard in the Works and Skywriting
by Word of Mouth. He was an enormous influence on me, both creatively and in terms of social justice. He seemed fearless, direct to the point that the naked messages in songs like Working Class Hero, Imagine and Woman is the Nigger of the World, enraged and terrified some people while striking a chord of painful recognition in others who were ready for change, sick of hypocrisy and political and social double-think.

We will always have to fight for change and though I wish John Lennon were here to help us do it in person I'm extremely grateful we have his music and message, which continue to be powerful inspiration for anyone who wants to attempt living an authentic life in a society which often values artifice, money and power over what should matter—love, peace, equality.

Thanks, John, for everything.

***

I thought I'd include a few of my teenage writings (penned when I was sixteen or seventeen) that demonstrated my admiration and/or the influence John Lennon had on me as a young person. The first poem is directly about John, the second also touches on other aspects of my life (including what a stark blue my walls apppeared to be after taking down the collection of wall to wall posters that used to decorate my room!) and the third short piece clearly shows John's stylistic influence. I wrote quite a few pieces sporting a similar style around the same time and hope to post more at a later date. If you check out a story called Tomorrow Never Knows which I wrote several years later you'll see that John Lennon also makes an appearance there.

John

We all live and die
in our own time
But for you the city sighs
becoming its own grave
And the people all forgave
you for being human

***

Isolation

I read the news today oh boy
and thought of John and Scotland and the Twins
but they were only in my head
I wished to be with them instead
of this blue room with four blue walls
and all of them bare

Once maybe someone told me that you have to be dead
but I wonder now if it’s all in my head
like John and Scotland and the Twins
and I wonder if they lie surrounded by blue
though I know it’s true of Scotland
and possibly the Twins

I read the news today oh John
and couldn’t understand what all the words were about
or where you’d gone with the Twins
I wondered if it was Scotland and
is it true that you have to be dead
or is it all only in my head?

***
The Adventures of Hippy Head in the Unreal World

“Hippy Hair! Hippy hair!” the girls cried, making faces. Hippy head was too bloated to mind the name calling. He was really grooving now, there were chicks and everything. Hippy head’s mind was filled with weird visions. He could barely see the girls from his place on the ceiling.

“Come up here and see me,” Hippy head roared pleasantly.

“Oh, Hippy head, your hair’s too long for us.”

“That may be,” said Hippy and tied it in a bow.

***

Songs for John

Here Today, Paul McCartney:

All Those Years Ago, George Harrison:

Empty Garden, Elton John:

The Late Great Johnny Ace, Paul Simon:

This (Not So) Charming Man

2010-12-04T21:33:00.000-05:00

I know I'm supposed to be on a blog break to concentrate on writing my new book but I've had to take a break from my break to giggle at the fact that Johnny Marr (ex Smiths guitarist) has told British Prime Minister David Cameron to stop saying he likes the band.

On December first Marr tweeted, "David Cameron, stop staying you like The Smiths, no you don't. I forbid you to like it."

Anyone who follows British politics will understand Marr's thought process here. It's pretty difficult to fathom what Cameron, whose government is slashing more than £81 billion from the budget (cuts which will hit the poor and vulnerable the hardest) could possibly admire about a band that was so critical of Margaret Thatcher's government.

Apparently Cameron "has made a big deal about his music preferences, talking up his fondness for The xx, Radiohead and Pulp, perhaps in an effort to look a little more alternative."

Perhaps we can look forward to other bands coming forward to tell David Cameron to get stuffed!

While I'm here I should mention that my blog tour concluded yesterday but if you want to win signed copies of all my books head over to Ramblings of a Bookworm. There you'll also find an interview with Jersy from One Lonely Degree. If you ever wanted to know more about him, that's the place to go to find out!

Blog Tour Details & WIP Woes

2010-11-22T02:44:00.011-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I blogged that I was experiencing separation anxiety at the thought of putting my work-in-progress novel aside to focus on My Beating Teenage Heart copy-edits. How I feel now shouldn't come as a surprise because it's what always happens to me when I'm away from one of my books for more than a couple days, but anyway, this Keane song sums it up exactly:

Yes, Book XI and I have become strangers...

“I don't know your thoughts these days
We're strangers in an empty space
I don't understand your heart
It's easier to be apart ”

With the copy-editing for My Beating Teenage Heart behind me (at least for the moment!), I hope we can remedy that unhappy situation soon and I'm going to put all my efforts into getting back to where we were, which means I'll be in Internet-lite mode again for at least the next few weeks.

But during that time I'm also on a blog tour with The Teen {Book} Scene so if you want to catch up with me (or some of the characters from my books), here are the details:

Monday, November 22: Michelle at See Michelle Read
(Character Interview - Mason from Lighter Side)

Tuesday, November 23: Kelsey at The Book Scout
(Review: Light Side of Life and Death)

Wednesday, November 24: Christie at The Fiction Enthusiast
(Author Interview)

Thursday, November 25: Jessica at A Fanatic's Book Blog
(Review: I Know It's Over)

Friday, November 26: Lindsay at Just Another Book Addict
(Character Interview - Finn from One Lonely Degree)

Many thanks to Kari and Kelsey for putting this tour together!

Tales from a Day Spent Otherwise

2010-11-17T15:25:00.005-05:00

You know the way you can get tired of even your favourite food, if you've had it too often within a certain timeframe? Like, it's wonderful at dinner and you'd be supremely happy for the leftovers the next day at lunch but if you had to face the same meal yet again for dinner on that second day (and then the third and so on...) your enthusiasm would seriously wane?

Well, that's sort of what copy-editing feels like after awhile. To me anyway. No matter how much I love My Beating Teenage Heart I was at the point yesterday where I was immune to all its charms and equally as blind to any of its faults. Like, someone could have inserted an alien invasion into one of the paragraphs and I wouldn't have even noticed because I couldn't force my attention to stick with the words on the page.

So here are some things I did yesterday when I should've been poring over my manuscript but couldn't face it anymore:

1) Watched The Way We Were reunion on Oprah. My heart ached for Hubbell and Katie all over again. The following quote reveals, in a nutshell, why it could never work for them:

Hubbell Gardner: People are more important than their principles.

Katie Morosky Gardner: People are their principles.

Just hearing the song is always enough to make me want to sob!

2) Munched on Cheetos with unbridled enthusiasm. Since Cheetos make an appearance in My Beating Teenage Heart I suppose I could make a case for my Cheetos consumption being related to the copy-editing process but constructing that argument sounds like too much work.

3) Watched multiple episodes of In Treatment. I've been addicted to the show since the beginning. Though we cancelled the movie network/HBO cable package only last spring, I had to reorder it this October because there was absolutely no way I was going to miss season three of In Treatment! Watching the show makes me want to go into therapy with Paul (Gabriel Byrne). I met Gabriel Byrne once in a Dublin bookshop when he was doing a reading & signing of his autobiography and he was so lovely and genuine. Lovely, I tell you!

Gabriel Byrne turns in a stellar, nuanced performance as Dr. Paul Weston (a talented but troubled therapist) on each and every episode of In Treatment. So far this season my favourite patient is the Debra Winger character—she almost had me in tears yesterday when she was talking about her mother. Amy Ryan (of The Office, Jack Goes Boating and Gone Baby Gone) is equally amazing as Adele, Paul's own therapist. If you're interested in character driven TV, In Treatment is the show for you.

Before I change the subject, let's enjoy a snippet from Gabriel's Byrne classic performance in the terrific Coen brothers flick, Miller's Crossing:

4) Watched Adventureland for the second and third time but the second doesn't really count because it was really only acting as background noise and I basically missed the entire plot. I'm not sure you can tell what a cool movie Aventureland is from this trailer but Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart are great in it and so is the amusement park/80's setting.

5) This sounds like a hell of lot of entertainment viewing, I realize, so lest you think I sat idly in front of the screen all day I'll point out my other big activity yesterday, which was renovating my website and blog. If you suspected something looked a little different around here, you're right—I put a fresh coat of paint on the place and changed up some of the graphics. Periodically, I tend to get bored of the website's appearence and then feel compelled to freshen things up. Hope you like the new look and I'm also hoping that I'll be able to post a sample chapter from My Beating Teenage Heart soon!

Separation Anxiety

2010-11-10T09:41:00.009-05:00

So I've been keeping my head down these last couple of weeks, concentrating on writing a new YA book, and though I'm still really only at the beginning I've been making some good progress on it.

Here's a snippet from Chapter One:

“When I wake up I have a pounding headache behind my eyes just like I've had every morning lately. At first my eyelids refuse to open fully and when they do the weak winter light wafting through my window burns my retinas.”

No matter how excited I am about getting started on a new book, I always find it difficult to move past the note taking and research stage and jump in. Facing a blank page (or blank screen) is pretty daunting and when I start typing the novel, for all I've thought about it, the book is sort of a stranger at that point—an unformed stranger.

Anyway, the new novel and I definitely aren't strangers anymore but I'm not entirely sure where we stand either. It's an interesting time and I'm extremely curious to see what's going to happen next but copy-editing for My Beating Teenage Heart arrived yesterday (with a fairly short deadline attached to it) which means that I'll have to set Book XI aside for the moment.

I was surprised at how much separation anxiety that involves. I seriously didn't want to stop writing! However, it's all about the copy-editing for now and so I'm continuing in Internet-lite mode for the foreseeable future, first to wrestle a bit more with My Beating Teenage Heart and then to dive immediately back into Book XI.

Completely off-topic but I just saw the trailer for Jane Eyre on the Women and Hollywood blog and am giddily awaiting its release. I've been an enormous fan of Mia Wasikowska ever since seeing her star as a troubled young gymnast in season one of In Treatment and Michael Fassbender was such a startlingly powerful presence in Fish Tank and Hunger that I'm certain this pairing is going to be dynamite!

Head over to Women and Hollywood to check out the trailer if you want to get giddy about this latest adaptation of Jane Eyre too.

Book Stuff & Upcoming Blog Tour

2010-10-24T16:35:00.007-04:00

When I first got on the Internet in 1998 our package with Compuserve gave us a mere five hours a month online.

Five. Hours.

I was living in Dublin at the time and I can't remember which sites Paddy and I used to check out in those five hours (clearly, not many!) but I do recall how cool it was to be able to email friends and family back home in Canada and that as crazy as it seems, at the time those five hours felt like enough.

Now I find I sometimes almost miss having such limited Internet access because as well as being a terrific tool the Internet can also be a horrendous time and energy sink. For someone who writes as slowly as I do that's especially problematic.

I'm not sure how other authors manage to juggle writing with maintaining some sort of Internet presence but for me, well, the more places I feel like I have to be online, the less actual writing I tend to get done. So for the next while, possibly even up till Christmas, I'm going to be in Internet Lite mode to work on a new novel. This means I won't be around my usual net neighbourhoods much. Quite probably I'll disappear entirely for weeks at a time, although I'll still answer email...just very slowly.

Anyway, this new novel (which currently consists of a mere 13 pages) will be Book XI but it's in the top secret stage. My feeling on books in progress is that they're in an incredibly delicate state during which if I even look at them the wrong way they begin to unravel and/or run away and hide and/or disintegrate like vampires exposed to daylight). So for now, pretty well all I can say is that Book XI is another YA book (Book X, which I finished in July, is actually my first adult novel and I have a huge crush on it but it won't let me talk about it yet either; damn it's coy!).

So, yeah, I'm a little short on book info at the moment but some day I hope I can share more details on both Book X and Book XI.

Despite what I said about being in Internet Lite mode there are a few places you'll definitely be able to find me next month and early December because I'm doing a blog tour (with book and swag giveaways) put together by YA blogger extraordinaire Kari of The Teen {Book} Scene. The blog dates and topics are below. If you're not in Internet Lite mode yourself then I hope you'll stop by and say hi somewhere along the way.

Monday, November 22: Michelle at See Michelle Read
(Character Interview - Mason from Lighter Side)
Tuesday, November 23: Kelsey at The Book Scout
(Review: Light Side of Life and Death)
Wednesday, November 24: Corrine at Lost for Words
(Author Interview)
Thursday, November 25: Jessica at A Fanatic's Book Blog
(Review: I Know It's Over)
Friday, November 26: Lindsay at Just Another Book Addict
(Character Interview - Finn from One Lonely Degree)

Monday, November 29: Kate at I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read
(Character Interview - Nick from I Know It's Over)
Tuesday, November 30: Kari at A Good Addiction
(Review: One Lonely Degree)
Wednesday, December 1: Christie at The Fiction Enthusiast
(Author Interview)
Thursday, December 2: Corrine at Lost For Words
(Review: Lighter Side of Life and Death)
Friday, December 3: Faye at Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm
(Character Interview - Jersy from One Lonely Degree)

Before I go I also want to recommend some wonderful YA novels I've read recently—Lure by Deborah Kerbel, Gentlemen by Michael Northrop and Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick. And I'm currently throwing all my self-discipline into resisting the temptation to read the first five chapters of Courtney Summer's December release, Fall for Anything, online because I don't want to deal with what I imagine the staggering withdrawal effects of having to stop at the end of chapter five would be. However, come December 21st you gotta know that's what I'll have my eyes glued to!

Bye for now...

More Images of Lovely (and sometimes eerie) Fall

2010-10-20T08:33:00.000-04:00

Continuing on from yesterday, here are some more autumn photos I've taken recently, these ones locally.

Autumn Rambling(s)

2010-10-19T09:43:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we went for an autumn drive up to Erin and Orangeville, both lovely Ontario towns. There's a collection of tree carving sculptures (43 in total) in Orangeville. You can see pictures of a few of them below, along with images of fall decorations, city landmarks etc.

The run-up to Halloween is an apt time for a 50% off skull tattoos sale!

Posters asking for information on Sonia Varaschin's murderer were hanging in the doorways of many Orangeville businesses. If you have any information please contact the designated tip line at (519) 941-2522, extension 2211.

Skeleton making himself at home inside The Winchester Arms:

Main Street, Erin

Just off the main street, taking it easy with a bottle of chardonnay after a hard day's work:

Wisdom from an Erin bakery:

Have you ever seen the Tin Man look this cute?

I wouldn't have suspected crocodiles lurking in an Ontario river so was grateful for the warning sign.

But I couldn't comprehend the other sign.

Here's a close-up which appears to say that little girls shouldn't eat ice cream in the middle of the river. Maybe that relates back to the crocodiles too?

The weight scrawled on this pumpkin was a whopping 734 lbs. Here, I'm pondering how to lift it:

It Gets Better

2010-10-17T12:13:00.006-04:00

There have been quite a few things I wanted to blog about lately but couldn't seem to set the time aside for. However, one thing I absolutely didn't want to miss out on was this message of hope from Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns to GLBT youth—and the thirteen-year-old boy he used to be.

I think these messages (You can check out many more It Gets Better videos on the YouTube channel.) serve two purposes. The first is to communicate to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender young people (who are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, according to a Massachusetts 2006 Youth Risk Survey) that life does get better—much better, that they'll find acceptance, build full, satisfying lives and leave the bullies behind in the dust.

The second message here (as we read between the lines) is that the bullies who are abusive to GLBT youth are small, frightened people at heart who will either be left behind or evolve and grow into better people themselves. We can't tolerate the actions of bullies of any age. They need to know we won't. Not in our schools, our shopping malls, our streets, our homes. Every person who broadcasts an it gets better message also contributes to the growing societal belief that it is completely unacceptable to stand against someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The more we hear this, the more often we discuss the issue and make our views known the less bullying in general there will be. Children aren't born to be bullies. They learn it from us and it's time to teach them something else.

On a slightly different topic (I say slightly because Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is quite the bully himself), I'm sure Stephen Harper was stunned at Canada's failure to obtain a UN security council seat. Who knew that other countries actually pay attention to a country's foreign policy when voting on these matters! Yes, other countries have noticed that our foreign policy has been exceedingly sucky lately, just like our environmental policies. In fact, we suck so much that many of us don't notice just how much Canada sucks except when other countries tell us so.

"It is hard to see what human rights principles guide Canada when it alone of all Western nations allows one of its own to continue to be held in Guantanamo or when its government is willing to padlock Parliament to avoid scrutiny of the country’s treatment of Afghan detainees."

Yep, we suck so, so much that sometimes it appears that our human rights record is being inspired by China! Just ask G20 protester Alex Hundert...or no, don't because he's not allowed to talk to the press due to bail conditions he was coerced into signing while at a Toronto East Detention. Allegedly, officers there threatened to keep Alex in solitary confinement for the rest of his trial unless he signed them...and still he initially refused. Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Hall, characterizes this aspect of Hundert's bail conditions as, "basically putting a gag order on a citizen of Canada, when it’s not clear that the gag order is at all necessary to protect public order."

Oh Canada, what the hell has happened to you?

Finally, I want to mention that at long last I was able to watch Nowhere Boy, a biopic about John Lennon's teen years. I first saw the trailer over a year ago and have been waiting and waiting for this to hit North American screens. In some ways (I devoured John Lennon biographies as a teenager) this felt like a movie I've been waiting over half my life to see.

Having said all, that it's obvious I had really high hopes for this film but Nowhere Boy exceeded them. The facts about John Lennon's messy childhood are well known but I wasn't prepared for the complex and highly emotional treatment Nowhere Boy offers us. For the last half hour or so I just felt like bawling my eyes out. Cool as the trailer is, it makes the movie mostly look fun. And I'm not saying there's a shortage of crazy antics and barbed quips in Nowhere Boy because there's plenty of that too but this film is much deeper than that and Aaron Johnson (who was fantastic in Kick Ass) absolutely shines his heart out here. I was in awe of his performance. Major kudos to director Sam Taylor-Wood and star Aaron Johnson for making a beautiful movie about John Lennon's beginnings.

John Lennon Forever

2010-10-09T19:32:00.000-04:00

“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal.”
—John Lennon

Stephen Harper, Prince of Darkness

2010-10-04T18:55:00.002-04:00

I know that not all of you will be surprised by what I'm about to say—that some of my fellow Canadians have suspected for quite awhile now that there's something not quite right about our current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. He possesses a startling amount of contempt for democracy, the arts, and the unemployed and the poor and doesn't even feel the need to conceal it. He also continually displays a complete lack of regard for the environment.

All of this makes sense when you know the truth, which is that Stephen Harper is a prince of darkness who will feed on Canadian democracy until it's no more. At that stage, one of his trusted minions will ship him off in a crate to some other apathetic country that doesn't have the will to defy him. As a vampire, Stephen requires no oxygen or water and is therefore not concerned with environmental damage caused by the mining of the Alberta Tar Sands or the cutting down of the Boreal Forest. This also explains why he doesn't support the long-gun registry. Unless you use silver bullets, firearms are no threat to him.

In fact, Stephen Harper's real name is Stephane Harperoux. Baron Stephane Harperoux left France at the onset of the French revolution in 1789 and has been feeding on democracy around the globe ever since. It's likely that his true identity would have been discovered much sooner if not for the extremely uncharismatic persona Stephane's adopted (most notable in his staid haircut and monotone voice).

But now, with Halloween coming up, you have the opportunity to personally validate my claims about Stephane Harperoux because every October 31st at the stroke of midnight there is one full minute during which Harperoux is powerless to conceal his true identity. At that time you will observe something like the photograph below, one I snapped at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa last Halloween before security ushered me out of the Prime Minister's residence in Ottawa.

I attempted to free Harperoux's cats before exiting the scene but they showed no interest in leaving. I hear Stephane actually treats them rather well and shows more respect for them than he does for his fellow Canadians. I urge you all to give this matter serious thought. Harperoux may well take good care of the nation's cats but the rest of us are not in good hands!

As an aside, I realize this news about Stephen Harper may disturb some people who have bought into popular culture's depiction of vampires as attractive and mesmerizing. Life might be like a box of chocolates but it's not like True Blood, The Vampire Diaries orTwilight!

Vive la liberté! Let's ditch this bloodsucker.

Songs of October

2010-10-02T20:54:00.004-04:00

And so it's October, well and truly autumn. I can't deny it. And I wouldn't mind (because it's a chocolatey, pretty month and in Canada it's also the one during which we celebrate Thanksgiving) except that October is followed by November and before you know it the cold's deep in your bones, daylight is in short supply, the sleet is slippery on the streets and sidewalks and you wish you could hibernate until spring.

With this in mind, I have a proposal for the universe. We need to rethink the calendar year. It's too cold for waaaay too long up here and that just isn't working (it's no accident that Vancouver, one of our warmest cities, is the one that's always topping those world's best city lists). Here's what I'm thinking our new calendar year should consist of:

April: January's a pretty rubbish month and February, though short, is brutal. March, well that's mostly just more of the same January and Februrary blahs. April is when things start to get good so we may as well just start the new year with that, don't you think?
May: is the ULTIMATE month. Full of promise, so many beautiful things blooming and temperatures growing mild. May is a month that I think deserves more room. We could have three months of May and still not be sick of it. So I propose that we devote a quarter of the year to this wonderful month.
May
May
June: if we're dropping January through March there's more room for June—a lovely, summery month before much icky humidity has a chance to settle in. Let's have back to back Junes.
June
July: Full throttle summer goodness! Let July burn brightly but only once before we pass into August and the dog days of summer.
August: The last true month of summer. Time to seize the day.
September: Film fest time in Toronto, yay! A great time to get back to school (or writing projects!) in earnest. Break out that jean jacket.
October: Gorgeous fall colours, some slightly chilly temperatures, ghosts, goblins, zombies, miniature chocolate bars and turkey with all the trimmings. Here's a month that's both fun and a little different. We could double the good times by slipping in two of these instead of November.
October
December: we need to keep this month in the calendar for Christmas but also because it feels natural that two months of October would culminate in something colder. And having experienced some cold dark days we will appreciate April's renewal all the more.

Anyway, I'm thinking I should take my revised calendar plan to the Dalai Lama. Seems to me he's in pretty good with the universe and could get something done about this. If it works out I'll let you know. Companies that put out calendars could be a little put out initially, I know, but in time I think the majority of Canadians would be much happier. Just cast your eyes westward to check out how milder temperatures year round could work for the rest of us. And in the meantime, enjoy some October music from the eighties (best decade ever—if the Dalai Lama comes through for me with this revised calendar I might get him to have a look at a proposal that we give the eighties another chance.

Secret Oktober, Duran Duran

October, U2:

Bye for Now, Gone Revising

2010-09-21T09:22:00.000-04:00

During the next couple of weeks I also look forward to squeezing in some time reading Lure by Deborah Kerbel. I love a good ghost story and this one takes place in the real-life setting of the {haunted} Thornhill Village Public library! Here's the book trailer:

And if you haven't seen the book trailer for Courtney Summer's Fall for Anything (out December 21st) yet have a look:

Even the trailer makes me sad. I'm sensing the novel itself will make me want to curl up in a ball and sob!

Stopping Rape: He needs to hear this now and so does she

2010-09-20T13:34:00.009-04:00

“It is very clear from the evidence, her physical injuries and her recollection of it that she was not a willing participant,” RCMP Insp. Derren Lench told reporters. “She is 16 years old and has gone through something none of us can imagine.”

If you live in Canada you've most likely heard some of the terrible details about the gang rape of a sixteen-year-old girl in British Columbia. Horrifying as this case is, it's been made yet more traumatizing for the young victim by people who are continuing to share and re-post pictures of the crime on Facebook and other social networking sites and those who are suggesting (some by calling her derogatory names) that she's to blame for the assault and/or that she was a willing participant.

Naturally many of us (including the RCMP who have been handling this case with a sensitivity I wish we could see in all police forces when dealing with rape) are appalled and saddened by this crime, wondering what kind of society we're living in when not only can six or seven young men callously commit this kind of attack against a drugged girl but still more stand around and take pictures of the violent acts as though it's entertainment. That this extremely nasty form of voyeurism has expanded its audience over the Internet (some of the Facebook users who've been contacted by the RCMP and asked to remove the pictures have refused) demonstrates the scope of the problem which is a mentality that:

1) either doesn't discern or care what true female consent looks like

AND

2) strives to shame girls and women and thereby exact some kind of control over them.

This mentality isn't created in a vacuum but is the natural result of a society that ceaselessly sexually objectifies women (promoting the idea that they chiefly exist for male approval and entertainment) while instilling in them the idea that they must tread a fine line of acceptable behaviour (a ludicrous, impossible standard rarely applied to men) lest they be labelled a prude on one side of the line or slut on the other and punished accordingly for either 'wrong'. Unfortunately, this toxic mentality isn't on its way to becoming extinct anytime soon and instead seems sadly robust in the current generation of young people as evidenced by the amount of sexual harassment and even sexual assault going on within our schools. A couple of studies done here in Ontario during the past few years showed:

" 21 per cent of the students that were surveyed said that they knew at least one student who was sexually assaulted at school. Now there's sexual harassment, which is talking inappropriately and there's sexual harassment which is being touched inappropriately. So the 21 per cent are talking about sexual assault.

"Twenty-nine per cent of Grade 9 girls ... felt unsafe at school partly due to sexual comments and unwanted looks or touches; 27 per cent of the girls in Grade 11 admitted to being pressured into doing something sexual that they did not want to do; 14 per cent of the females reported being harassed over the Internet."

This isn't just a regional problem or even a national one. Sexual bullying is also a rising problem in schools in the United Kingdom and in the U.S. (acccording to a national survey of high school students called the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System) approximately 11.9% of female students surveyed reported having been forced to have sexual intercourse against their will in their lifetime. Meanwhile a 2000 report by the National Institute of Justice found that "over the course of a college career one in four women will be raped."

Like B.C. Attorney-General Mike de Jong pointed out in relation to the recent attack, laws need to “evolve” to address the way social networking can be used to deepen a victim’s suffering. However, the more difficult change needs to occur on a social level. Most of us, whatever our ages or genders, realize how wrong what happened to this sixteen-year-old girl out in British Columbia was. We know it despite ubiquitous negative cultural messages about women and sex but if those of us who do know aren't extremely pro-active in combatting those negative social messages there will be more and more cases like this, more young girls that
don't feel safe at school or safe anywhere because we're not doing a good enough job of teaching boys to respect girls.

This message absolutely needs to be extended into comprehensive sex ed in a meaningful way. Scarleteen has a terrific article entitled How You Guys -- that's right, you GUYS -- Can Prevent Rape which I wish would be pored over and discussed in every high school and junior high sex ed class. Here's a snippet:

When someone wants to, really wants to, have sex with us, we'll know because that person will be taking a very active role, will be saying -- if not yelling! -- "Yes!" or "Please!” or "Do me NOW!" We may know because that person is the one initiating sex, at least as often as we are. (If you’re going to say that younger women just aren’t like that yet, know that isn’t always true. Some are, but those who aren’t likely aren’t because things are either moving too fast, or they really just aren’t ready for or that interested in sex with you yet.) We'll know because it will feel like something we are absolutely doing together, that couldn't happen if the other person wasn't just as engaged as we are (imagine trying to dance with someone else when they’re just standing there or not really paying attention: same goes with sex). We'll know because our partners will absolutely not "just be lying there."

We can easily be sure never to rape someone by making a choice to ONLY have sex with someone else when we are certain we have not only their full consent, but their full interest and attention, and they ours; when they’re clearly as enthusiastic about sex as we are, and we’re just as excited about their enjoyment as we are our own. If we're having sex with a partner and they start to space or zone out, or stop participating physically or verbally, if we stop what we’re doing and say, "Hey, you still into this? It's okay if you're not, we can do something else or just go snuggle," and mean it – rather than saying it to imply they need to get into it, or else -- we can be sure not to rape. If we are interested in sex with someone who seems they will allow us to have sex with them, but who is not taking equal part or deeply desiring and mutually initiating sex with us, we can and should step back and wait for them to take a lead.

The short film I've embedded below, Dormancy, is a brief but powerful one made with the aim of raising awareness of college campus sexual assault:

There's another wonderful blog entry at the Yes Means Yes! blog about boundaries which all parents, teachers and anyone else who mentors young people should read in full:

A boy and a girl run around on the grass at the park. The boy tackles the girl. The girl laughs. She gets up and runs away. She loves to run. He chases, she turns and they grab each other, tumble and land in a pile, giggling. After a few minutes, he tackles her again and she lands a bit hard. She is bigger and physical, but he more than holds his own in roughhousing. She pauses for a second. Then she laughs again; she’s still having fun.

Dad gets his attention, and says, “If she’s not having fun, you have to stop.”

He is two. He needs to hear this now, and so does she.

I'm so glad that this young woman out in British Columbia has supportive friends and family around her but as a society we need to do worlds better in preventing these horrendous crimes from occurring in the first place. The boys who committed the attack, the ones who have participated after the fact by relishing in the crime on social networking sites and the ones who suggest maybe there was no crime committed at all—these guys weren't born evil or callous but clearly they weren't taught the above lesson often enough or profoundly enough and instead absorbed society's darker messages.

“Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.”—Charlotte Bunch

Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth

2010-09-16T20:55:00.000-04:00

So I started out the week quite giddy and am still holding on to that buoyant mood thanks to the fact that The Lighter Side of Life and Death made Booklist's 2010 Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth list!

It's in fantastic company with Fire, Flash Burnout, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Illyria (which I'm reading right now) and more. Have a look at the entire list here:

Top 10 Romance Fiction for Youth: 2010

The cover art for Booklist's September 15th Spotlight on romance issue is The Lighter Side cover which I'm also thrilled about. Thank you, Booklist!

New Review & Movie Madness

2010-09-13T15:56:00.004-04:00

Having watched two wonderful movies at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend, I was already in a giddy mood when I discovered CM Magazine's terrific new review of The Lighter Side of Life and Death yesterday. Yup, it's going to be tough to match last week for thrills!

It's not every week that you receive a four out of four star review from a literary review journal, not every week that you're lucky enough to watch movies along with Robert Redford and Colin Firth and not every week that you get a chance to (technically!) spend part of Colin Firth's birthday with the esteemed actor. Check out the 2:35 mark in the below clip where director Tom Cooper introduces Colin Firth and the audience proceeds to sing Happy Birthday to him.

The King's Speech gala:

The Conspirator gala:

However, I still have one more festival screening to look forward to! Around about the same time I'll be diving back into editing mode for My Beating Teenage Heart so I suppose you'll just have to trust me when I say that if I get quiet shortly it's not because I'm watching too much YouTube or generally slacking off but because I'm working diligently away.

I hope that if you're in the Toronto area you're partaking of some festival goodness too! It's not really fall until the TIFF's finished —just one more reason to love the film festival.

Roy Thomson Hall September 10th, 2010: Tom Cooper, Colin Firth, The King's Speech screenwriter David Seidler and one of the films' producers.

Roy Thomson Hall, September 11th, 2010: Robert Redford, Robin Wright, James McAvoy (who was outstanding in the role of lawyer Frederick Aiken an initially reluctant crusader for justice) Kevin Kline and James Badge Dale await their fellow cast members on stage.

I've Just Seen a Face

2010-09-08T17:05:00.008-04:00

I admit that I've been spending a little too much time on YouTube watching videos lately and if you read my previous post you might be sensing a trend of inaction, inertness and general slothtittude. But I swear there is some research getting done (which the below videos have nothing to do with). It's just that:

1) I'll have to resume work on My Beating Teenage Heart practically any day now.

2) I very recently finished my first adult novel. Fingers crossed that at some point Book X (because, yep, its my tenth) will make its way into the world!

3) The Toronto International Film Festival is about to start and soon there will be shiny new movies to see. One I'm really excited about is Never Let Me Go. Here's the trailer:

These three things mean I'm not mentally prepared to dive into another novel just yet. Besides, I haven't finished the research for the new book!

Anyway, I added the playlist for My Beating Teenage Heart to the website yesterday. One of the songs that figure largely in the book, and which I listened to often during writing breaks from the novel, is The Beatles classic I've Just Seen a Face. I don't think I can ever listen to this song just once in a sitting. It's so damn catchy (and short!) that it's always over before you're ready to let it go. And here I must insert a warning: if you give in and replay I've Just Seen a Face it begins to act like a sort of quicksand. The more times you listen, the harder it is to tear yourself away! Indulge yourself too much and friends and family may have to plan an intervention.

Knowing this, approach the below quicksand (a variety of versions of I've Just Seen a Face) with extreme caution.

Beatles original, 1965

Pearl Jam, 1995

Brandi Carlile, 2007

Across the Universe (movie), 2007

Holly Cole

Richie Sambora, 1998

Paul McCartney, Unplugged, 1991

You Remind Me of You

2010-09-03T14:38:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, when I no doubt should've been doing more productive things, I pasted snippets from my various books into the online "I Write Like" statistical analysis tool and three names kept coming up:

Stephen King
Cory Doctorow
Chuck Palahniuk

I've only read one of these authors so can't really comment except to say that I found it interesting that no matter which of my books (unpublished ones included) I lifted the passages from the result was that I write like one of the three above authors. So then I got to thinking, does that mean Stephen King, Cory Doctorow and Chuck Palahniuk write like each other? I've only read one of the three so don't have a clue but as a test I stuck several paragraphs from Salem's Lot into the analyzer and the result was, unsurprisingly I suppose, that Stephen King writes like Stephen King.

But I wasn't convinced that Stephen King would always sound like Stephen King so I followed up by pasting a snippet from King's book Cell into the anaylzer and it spit out the name: George Orwell.

Chuck Palahniuk apparently writes like himself with more consistency as both excerpts from Lullaby and Survivor garnered the same result from the anaylzer: Chuck Palaniuk.

Finally, I put Cory Doctorow to the analyzer test, dropping in outtakes from Little Brother and then Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. The analyzer confirmed Little Brother was written like Cory Doctorow but suggested the second work was written like Robert Louis Stevenson.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that 1) the analyzer might be on to something but clearly doesn't know everything AND 2) this is mostly a tool for wasting time which is something that many writers have already mastered.

And yes, today I've wasted much time indeed. Over two and a half hours was spent at the TIFF site attempting to order film festival tickets from an overloaded ticketing system which continually crashed under the weight of demand...and then crashed again...and then appeared as if it might actually sell me some tickets only to...you know...crash. But in the end I was able to score tickets for a few things I really want to see so shouldn't grumble too much. The Toronto Film Festival is, from a writer's POV, alot like publishing in that it's a major time investment. First, there's the ticket line-up—either in person or battling the busy signal over the phone or repeatedly hitting the reload button as you begin to snore over your computer. Second, there's the endless queue for your seats hours before movie time (if you're lucky enough to have tickets at this point and don't have to join the standby line!).

But if you persevere the majority of of the time you can get into the movies you want to see at the festival. Publishing is much the same. As a writer you might be waiting in line for a good long time but if you don't give up, I think in the long-run your odds are actually rather good. And while you're waiting—and writing, writing, writing—you can indulge in the occasional amusing waste of time, like sticking words from your most recent novel into the "I Write Like" analyzer.

Blue Rodeo: Toronto, August 26/2010

2010-08-27T21:22:00.006-04:00

I got my tickets to Blue Rodeo's most recent Toronto gig at the Molson Amphitheatre good and early (only two minutes after the pre-sale tickets went up for sale) and ended up with fabulous seats : second row, centre! As usual, it was a wonderful show and this time around the audience were treated to some tunes you don't hear the band perform frequently anymore, the sadly very much still relevant protest song Fools Like You from their Lost Together album and the haunting What is this Love?

I always get a special kick out of listening to What Am I Doing Here? during these late August Amphitheatre gigs that happen while the CNE (just across the pedestrian bridge from Ontario Place) is on because of the line about standing in front of the ferris wheel.

So of course I couldn't resist snapping a photo after the show, while simulataneously fightingthe temptation to give in to the gauntlet of junk food that is the CNE's (or The EX, as we commonly call it) specialty. As you've probably already heard if you're in the area, this year they've added deep-fried butter, deep-fried macaroni and cheese and cheeseburgers in a bag to their selection of goodies.

Sigh. Just staring at this photo is making me crave a sno cone. Anyway, here's Blue Rodeo performing Never Look Back at last night's show:

And What AmI Doing Here?

Don't forget to hit the EX for a last gasp of summer before it closes on Labour Day!

Interview with Kelley & If I Knew What You Said

2010-08-23T11:30:00.004-04:00

Today I'm over at Kelley's Korner (thank you, Kelley!) chatting about my YA books, publishing and the characters I hope you'll get to meet one day:

Interview: C.K. Kelly Martin

Also, if you're in Toronto I'd encourage you to get over to the Carlton Cinema (now featuring comfy seats) and see Filipino flick If I Knew What You Said (Dinig Sana Kita) now in its second week there. It tells the story of two teenagers—rebellious music-loving Nina and deaf dancer Kiko—who get to know each other at a camp for young deaf people. With its focus on teenagers and its sincere without being saccharine nature I see it as having strong appeal to YA readers.

Read The Toronto Star review.

Through Narrow Streets of Cobble Stone II: in Pictures

2010-08-19T12:50:00.004-04:00

O'Connell Street architecture:

Looking along The Liffey, the river which divides Dublin into north and south:

Graffiti wisdom in Temple Bar

Grafton Street, Dublin's premiere pedestrian shopping street

Busker in Temple Bar:

Demonstration in front of the General Post Office:

Inside the Trinity College grounds

The cloudy sky surrounding this Dublin bus sign gives you an idea of some of the weather I experienced while there:

Trinity College:

The Spire, O'Connell Street

GPO, the headquarters of the uprising's leaders in 1916

A sunny day, Stephen's Green park:

Pedestrian shopping street, Henry Street, after the stores have closed for the day:

Hanging out in Bray:

Merrion Square Georgian door:

I'm not sure whether this message on the front of a Dublin pub actually counts as positive or not:

Dublin Photos Continued