Terry Fallis - Best Laid Plans

A few weeks ago, my friend and editor/publisher Doug Gibson and I met to record a podcast for Booklounge, a great website that brings together offerings for the book lover from a number of Canadian publishers, including McClelland & Stewart.   Doug is a stellar conversationalist and as I hope you can tell, we had a great time in our little chat.  The only real challenge was sticking to our ten minute target as prescribed by the folks at Booklounge (we came in at 12 minutes!).  Hope you enjoy our wide-ranging conversation about TBLP.

As promoted earlier this morning, I did in fact participate in the National Post’s first live blogging experiment with a host of prominent authors and publishers today.  It was a little surreal sitting at my desk over the lunch hour typing in my modest contributions and enjoying the insights of my fellow live bloggers.  Towards the end, the floor was opened for visitors to ask questions.  The technology worked well.  Click here or on the photo montage above to review the transcript of the live blogging session.

Today at noon, I’m thrilled to be participating in a live blogging session with some very big names in Canadian Literature (I’ll be representing the little names in Canlit!).  Also on the panel will be:

• Nino Ricci, author of The Origin of Species, 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award finalist
• Vincent Lam, winner of the 2006 Giller Prize for Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
• Martha Kanya-Forstner, Editorial Director, Doubleday Canada
• Doug Hunter, author of God’s Mercies, 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award finalist
• Doug Pepper, President of McClelland & Stewart
• Lewis DeSoto, author of Blade of Grass, 2004 Booker Prize longlist
• Yvonne Hunter, Director of Marketing and Publicity, Penguin Canada
• Sarah MacLachlan, President, House of Anansi

We’ll be live blogging and responding to “audience” questions and comments on a range of topics including:

• New generation of writers in the spotlight
• Awards submission processes
• Author of the year
• New trends in publishing
• This year’s surprises
• How to measure the success of your book
• How awards change the process

I’m looking forward to it.  Here’s the link for this live blogging session.  Come and join the conversation…

As Halloween recedes and the dying strains of pumpkin carols fade, yes it’s time to start thinking about… (I know, I can’t believe it either)… the Holiday Season!  In my day job in public relations, our team has been pitching clients’ stories and products to holiday gift guides for several weeks already.

In short, ’tis the season, and the great book-lovers site Booklounge.ca is already into the holiday spirit…

I wrote this blog post for the Booklounge.ca Insiders’ Blog and thought I might as well cross-post it here.

Appearing at readings and writers’ festivals is still a new and wondrous experience for me, as is bearing the surreal label of “writer.” If you’d have told me six months ago that this past weekend I’d be reading and on a panel, as a “writer”, at the Ottawa International Writers Festival, I’d have suggested reassessing your medication. Yet here I am.

I arrived in Ottawa by train on Saturday and met fellow writer and panelist Stephen Henighan, author of The Afterlife of Culture. Good guy. Smart guy. We checked in at the Delta and then headed over to the National Archives building a couple of blocks away on Wellington Street where the festival has been unfolding all week. We made it in time for a a reading and discussion with prolific writer Bill Gaston, Giller-winning novelist David Bergen, and the much celebrated author Rawi Hage recent recipient of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. What a line-up. These wonderful writers read powerful pages from their new novels. To coin a phrase, “the audience was listening.”

After the session, Stephen and I helped ourselves to some dinner laid on for festival staff and authors. I learned that tofu can actually look exactly like beef bourguignon and I was reminded why I remain an inveterate meat-eater. I’m looking forward to our panel discussion on Sunday afternoon. Stephen Henighan, the aforementioned Bill Gaston and I will each read from our books, and then we’ll be led in discussion by award-winning novelist Sarah Dearing on the current state of Canadian literature. Yikes! I expect I’ll be doing a lot of sage head-nodding punctuated by the odd “agreed” and “exactly.” A friend has also suggested that I consider “steepling” my fingers in a thoughtful pose. Good advice. Stay tuned…