Terry Fallis - Best Laid Plans

Tomorrow afternoon, we’re starting our family driving trip out to beautiful Nova Scotia to visit my wife’s family.  We make this trek every few years or so and it is always a great and restful time.  My older son may even lend a hand with the driving if the traffic is quiet.

I hope to make some more progress on the sequel to TBLP while I’m down east.  It will bring back some memories.  I wrote at least a couple of chapters of TBLP while in the stunning Irving Centre at Acadia University (photo below) while vacationing in Nova Scotia back in 2005.  I’ll try to give you all a more formal update on the status of The High Road (working title only) while I’m down in NS.  Time to pack…

A great place to write.

Last night I gave a talk and reading at the wonderful new McNally Robinson Toronto bookstore in Don Mills.  Carla and her team at MR know how to put on an event.  There were amazing posters hanging throughout the store and public address announcements before the reading started.  They have an events area on the second floor and there were so many people that they kept having to add more rows of chairs.  There were some familiar faces in the crowd from my childhood neighbourhood who had seen ads in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star for the event.  There were a couple of other writers in the audience including Tom Armstrong whose manuscript recently won second prize in the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Awards along with the $7,500 payday.  Better yet, Tom just inked a publishing deal with DC Books with publication of his novel slated for April 2010.

The talk and reading seemed to go well and the line-up for the signing was both humbling and gratifying.  Afterwards, Tom and I went for a drink and had a great talk about writing.

Thanks again to Carla and the good folks at McNally Robinson for a memorable evening.

This should be an interesting event.  I’ve just been booked to run a session on self-promotion at the 2010 OWC next May organized annually by the very active Writers’ Circle of Durham Region.  I’ve heard wonderful reports about this conference and I look forward to the event, even though it seems like a long way off.  Time flies when you’re writing…

Last night I was back in Orillia, Ontario, for the annual Leacock Dinner at which the 2009 Leacock Medal was presented and I guess you could say I officially surrendered my sash as the 2008 winner.  Mark Leiren-Young was as wide-eyed as I was a year ago as he signed his winning book, Never Shoot A Stampede Queen, and humbly received the good wishes of the few hundred guests at the gala dinner.

Mark is an accomplished artist.  He’s a filmmaker, screenwriter, comic, and writer.  His acceptance speech at the dinner last night was wonderful.  Funny, thoughtful, self-deprecating, and warm.  I hope he sells a ton of books.

We’re going to meet when he’s next in Toronto and I’ve promised to show him the secret Leacock handshake.  Mark, enjoy every moment of this ride…

Last Friday night I was in beautiful Bracebridge, Ontario in the heart of Muskoka for the Canadian Federation of University Women’s 11th annual  Author’s Night.  I didn’t really know what to expect although the organizers heavily promoted the event in the weeks leading up to it.  There were posters hanging around town and a great article in the local paper.  As it turned out, they sold nearly 190 tickets for the event.  And what a great audience.  They were very supportive and graciously laughed at all the right lines.  In fact, it seemed that many of them had already read TBLP.  After my talk and reading, I answered a few questions and then got down to signing.  I think in the end, over 40 copies were sold so the local bookseller was pleased, and I was certainly grateful.

There may be a few photos of the event coming my way and if they do arrive, I’ll post here.  My thanks to the organizers for a wonderful evening.

As I wrote recently in one of my little “Writers I revere” posts, I’ve been a fan of Paul Quarrington for over 20 years.  I’ve read all of his novels and have first editions of each one.  I’ve always admired him and his writing.  So it was wonderful to share the stage with him in April at the Grimsby Author Series.

I started my day this morning as I often do, reading the Toronto Star.  To my great shock and concern, there was a story about Paul and his lung cancer diagnosis made two weeks ago.  What a bastard this disease is.  It’s fitting that today is dreary, overcast, and melancholy.  That just about sums up how I feel. Paul, your many fans are sending you positive vibes…

If you live in western Canada, you need no introduction to McNally Robinson. MR is the leading chain of independent bookstores west of Ontario.  They are wonderful large stores with knowledgable staff, an amazing selection of books, and an unrivalled commitment to in-store author events.  Well, last month, McNally Robinson opened their first Ontario store here in Toronto.  I’ve been to the new store twice now and am very impressed.

I’ll be doing a reading and signing at MR on June 24th.  If you’re in the neighbourhood, consider this your formal invitation to come to the event.

This is a very interesting initiative offered by the Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge Ontario, about an hour west of Toronto.  They’ve created a Book Club in a Bag program as a support to local book clubs.  Included in the kit are eight copies of the book, a discussion guide, and a discussion leader’s tracking sheet, all in a Cambridge Library tote bag.

TBLP is one of the books offered through this innovative program.  They feature the original iUniverse edition of the novel which suggests that this library was a very early supporter.  Kudos to the staff for this interesting idea that I hope takes off.

I first read King Leary, Paul Quarrington’s 1987 Leacock winning novel, shortly after it was published, and then proceeded to read everything else Quarrington has written before and since.  I loved King Leary.  Its mix of humour and pathos is masterful.  And, it’s about hockey!  Sports figures in a number of Quarrington’s earlier works that I also thoroughly enjoyed including Logan in Overtime and perhaps my favourite of his books, Home Game.  In fact, I recommended Home Game during my recent  interview with Hannah Sung of the CBC Book Club.  But Quarrington is no one-trick pony. His fiction ranges from sports, to the early days of the movie business in Civilization, to life in a small town in The Life of Hope, to the story of a drugged out and freaked out rock icon in Whale Music (1989 Governor General’s Award), to the world of Las Vegas magicians in The Spirit Cabinet, to storm chasers in Gavelston.  His latest book is The Ravine and is his most autobiographical novel.

Quarrington’s uncanny ability to make you laugh one moment and then break your heart in the next, is a gift that has always kept me turning the pages.  His humour is never gratuitous but is fully embodied in the story he’s telling. He creates characters that, while larger than life and sometimes even picaresque,  are fully realized and ready to step off the page.  There’s a John Irvingesque feel to his writing yet Quarrington is never derivative.  He’s an original. I confess that while I have loved all of his novels, I think I enjoyed his earlier offerings most of all.

I have collected first editions of his novels, including his very first, The Service, published by Coach House Press in 1978.  A high point of the last year for me, was driving to Grimsby with Paul, having dinner with him, and then sharing the stage with him as we both read from our novels at the wonderful Grimsby Author Series.  What a thrill.  As I wrote in an earlier blog post, Paul dutifully inscribed my first editions of his novel that I lugged in a backpack.  Nice.

Paul also writes nonfiction, screenplays, and music.  A man of many talents.  If you haven’t yet read a Quarrington novel, do yourself a favour and pick one up.  Then get ready to read the others…

Here we are signing at the Grimsby Author Series. This photo accompanied an article in Niagara This Week.

I’m thrilled to be appearing as part of the very Canadian eh List Author Series at the North York Central Library next week on Wednesday, June 27th.  It’s wonderful and a little intimidating to be included in a literary series that features such great Canadian writers as Miriam Toews, Nino Ricci, Austin Clarke, Andrew Davidson, and Donna Morrisey.  I’m looking forward to it but hope I can persuade my butterflies to fly in formation.