Purchase both titles online at:
A couple of weeks ago, Julie Forrest, leading literary blogger, digital maven at Random House, and all-around nice person, passed along a series of 20 questions on behalf of BookLounge, and asked for my responses. I was happy to oblige. If insomnia plagues you, please feel free to check out my not always thoughtful answers. (You can just click on the graphic below to get to the site.)
Shortly after McClelland & Stewart published The Best Laid Plans in September 2008, I was invited to appear at the Headwaters Arts Festival in Caledon, Ontario alongside Giller winner Joseph Boyden, and prolific writer Drew Hayden Taylor (on whose new book Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, a blurb from me appears). I was over the moon to be sitting at the front of a packed house next to these wonderful writers. We all spoke for a bit and then read a piece from our respective books. Finally, the audience could buy books from the good folks at Booklore and we signed them. (To be clear, we each signed our own books.) It was a memorable night for me as you can read.
Well, I get to do it all over again this coming October. Yes, undoubtedly against the organizers’ better judgement, they’ve asked me back, this time to read from The High Road. Even better, I’ll be joining three other accomplished writers, one of whom I already know. Cathy Marie Buchanan, NY Times bestselling author of The Day the Falls Stood Still is married to a fellow ball hockey player in the Withrow Park Ball Hockey League. I attended her book launch last fall and I’m delighted to get the chance to read with her. Terry O’Reilly, the author of The Age of Persuasion, based on his excellent radio show, and Kate Taylor a Globe and Mail columnist and novelist round out the line-up. It’s still a couple of months off, but I know this will be a great night.
My thanks to Nancy Frater at Booklore for inviting me back.
A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by Mark Medley for a story on self-publishing in the National Post. It seems I forgot to mention it here on the blog (at least I think I forgot). It ran in many Canwest papers across the country. In any event, here’s the piece. Thanks Mark.
Other than my rather crazed look in this photo, alongside Leah McQuire, Event Coordinator at Queen’s Square Library in Cambridge, Ontario, this is a very nice article in the Cambridge Times from last week. Thank you One Book, One Community!
A few weeks ago, I did a radio interview with Waterloo librarian and CKWR Monday Night with the Arts contributor Alannah d’Ailly. This was related to my One Book, One Community good fortune. It was a phone interview so the sound quality on my end is not always great, but you get the idea. Many thanks to Alannah and CKWR for the interview.
There’s a fascinating self-publishing story in the July Chatelaine about the extraordinary publishing journey of Mary-Ann Kirkby and her memoir, I Am Hutterite. She self-published in June 2007 and the book has taken off. She’s sold 75,000 copies! That is just amazing. She’s a Canadian bestseller 15 times over. There’s a brief sidebar to the story with some tips on self-publishing. I was interviewed briefly and there’s a mention or two in the sidebar. Every little bit of coverage helps…
I’m really looking forward to participating in the Elora Writers’ Festival this coming Sunday, June 6 in the picturesque village of Elora, Ontario. I’m humbled to be included among such a stellar constellation of Canadian writers. I’ll be one of six writers reading at the event. The others are this year’s Giller winner Linden MacIntyre, 1999 Giller winner Bonnie Burnard, Trillium Book Award winner Pasha Malla, Canlit stalwart Ray Robertson, and Barry Dempster who was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for his poetry. What an amazing lineup. Oh yes, and I’m there as well.
I was not expecting the news release McClelland & Stewart issued yesterday morning to attract as much media attention as it did. The idea was simply to announce that M&S would, for the first time, release a book (in this case, The High Road) in a serialized, chapter by chapter format, as a podcast, as I did with The Best Laid Plans back in 2007. And that it would be available for free. The President of M&S, Doug Pepper, was interviewed and the stories started rolling in from across Canada. In a spasm of self-indulgence, here’s a quick selection preserved on the blog for posterity’s sake.
I received an email this afternoon from a good friend who had just perused a copy of the Annual Report of the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy. Much to my surprise and delight, on the inside back cover of the annual report is the following quotation from The Best Laid Plans:
“The engineer’s critical and methodical approach to problem solving is well suited to realms beyond the scientific. What are the knowns? What are the unknowns? What are the constants? What governing laws are at play? It’s the scientific method brought to life in a different setting.”
Terry Fallis, The Best Laid Plans
It took me a while to place the passage but I eventually found it. It’s part of Angus McLintock’s diary entry that closes Chapter 13. I had no idea that it had found its way into the Annual Report of CEPP but I’m thrilled just the same.
The Chair of the One Book, One Community initiative in the Waterloo Region, Katherine Seredynska, was recently interviewed on FM 98.5 CKWR about the program and the selection of The Best Laid Plans as this year’s OBOC choice. She does a great job promoting OBOC and I’m happy to post the interview here. I’m really looking forward to all of the OBOC-related events coming up in June and September.
Just click on the image, or on the link below it, to listen to Katherine’s great interview.
Here’s a shot of Katherine at the OBOC launch a few weeks ago presenting Woolwich Township Mayor Bill Strauss with a copy of The Best Laid Plans. This photograph is from OBOC’s flickr stream.
Welcome to terryfallis.com where award-winning novelist Terry Fallis blogs about his writing life and podcasts his novels.
