There is not nearly enough distance from the Leacock ceremony for me to offer any kind of perspective on what winning the Leacock Medal for Humour means or will mean to my life as a “writer.” I think I can say with certainty that life after the Leacock will, almost by necessity, be different. In a way, I am already different in my own eyes and likely in the eyes of others. The shock of winning is compounded by the fact that I really had little sense of whether I had written anything worth reading. I was far too close to it to have any literary objectivity. Here’s a passage from my very first post on this blog when I was about to record and publish the very first episode of the TBLP podcast. At this point in January 2007, my manuscript had not yet been submitted to iUniverse to start its long journey to print.

“I spent close to a year writing this book. As a PR professional with over 20 years of political and communications experience, it would not be inaccurate to say that I write for a living. I’m also an avid reader, particularly fiction. Having said that, I’ve been immersed in writing this novel for so long that I fear my sense of perspective has deserted me and may well be filing for divorce. The upshot? I actually don’t know whether this book is any good at all. I honestly don’t. So I’m a little anxious about pulling my pants down and running around in front of all of you. But I finally decided I need to get this story “out there,” for better or worse, to justify all the hours I spent sequestered in my attic office clacking away on my Fujitsu Lifebook.”

The Best Laid Plans blog, January 14, 2007

In large measure, despite some very positive feedback from people I know and some I don’t, this sense of doubt in what I’d written remains with me. I confess that the Leacock shock helps assuage my fears on this front to a certain extent. As I said in my remarks thanking the Leacock Association for this extraordinary honour, “you have made a weekend writer feel like a bona fide novelist.” While this is true, I think my writing will be better if I never stop wondering and worrying about how the reader will react. Will they enjoy this? Will they stay with me for the whole story? Will they chuckle at this scene? Are they just consuming words or are they invested in the story? Does it all hang together? Am I trying too hard? Have I crossed the line. Etc. etc…

It’s difficult to imagine feeling the same way writing my next book as I did while toiling on the first. It cannot be the same. The first time around, I was just writing for me. It was a personal challenge to see whether I could string 100,000 words together in a way that kept the reader engaged and turning pages. I had no expectations. After last Wednesday, I, and I suppose many others, have expectations. How could I and they not? Yes, everything has changed now, in a most wonderful way, but it has changed. I like change…

Here’s a quick shot of my favourite clipping from the last week. It ran in the Orillia Packet & Times the day after the Leacock announcement. The headline says it all. I would only add that quickly on the heels of shock, came an almost overpowering sense of gratitude. My life as a writer, such as it is, has been irrevocably altered by this wonderful medal that carries with it such history and prestige. I am immensely grateful.

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, reviewed TBLP today in its wonderful Books section. My stomach has been in knots since I learned today would be the day. I can breathe again. It’s not bad:

More satire, please, we’re Canadian

D. GRANT BLACK

May 3, 2008

THE BEST LAID PLANS

By Terry Fallis

iUniverse, 257 pages, $21.95

A few years ago, CBC-TV foolishly cancelled Snakes and Ladders, a political dramedy set on Parliament Hill. The appetite for more Canadian political intrigue, especially with a satiric bent, is still there. But where do you find it in novel form?

First-time novelist Terry Fallis knew there was an audience. So he penned The Best Laid Plans and shopped it around to Canada’s publishers, but was not offered a book deal. So the tenacious Fallis self-published his 2007 book of fiction through iUniverse.

Fallis also submitted his own book to the judges of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. And this week, The Best Laid Plans won the $10,000 prize, beating out such A-list authors as Will Ferguson and Douglas Coupland.

This self-published wonder should be a cause for concern for the decision-makers at Canada’s faltering publishing houses about what should be jumping out of their slush piles, into print and on to national market.

The Best Laid Plans is not the best book of political satire I’ve read, but it’s amusing, enlightening - and Canadian. It deftly explores the Machiavellian machinations of Ottawa’s political culture, from the grassroots level in a fictitious federal riding during an election campaign, to the Wizards of Ottawa who operate the levers behind the curtain. This is a great platform to create satire that verges on parody.

Fallis, a former Ottawa backroom player who now runs the Toronto PR firm Thornley Fallis, is all too familiar with how the federal political game is played. The Best Laid Plans is written in first person through the eyes of the main protagonist, Daniel Addison, a 32-year-old former speechwriter to the leader of the Liberal opposition.

It’s immediately clear that Addison is a mouthpiece for Fallis’s own political views and the failings in Canada’s Parliament. This is how he starts his prologue: “I could take no more. With the backroom boys still driving Machiavelli’s motor coach, I was just a helpless, hapless passenger as they tossed the public interest under the wheels yet again. Just to be sure, we stopped, backed up, and rumbled over it once more. It was time to bail out. … On Parliament Hill, the pendulum of power swings between the cynical political operators (CPOs) and the idealist policy wonks (IPWs). It’s a naturally regulating model that inevitably transfers power from one group to another - and back again.”

After finishing his PhD on the side, Addison leaves his speechwriting job for a chance to become a tenured English professor at the University of Ottawa. But he owes one more favour to his Grit overlords: Find a Liberal candidate to run in the upcoming federal election against an entrenched Tory incumbent.

Addison’s lame-duck candidate is Angus McLintock, an indifferent 60-year-old Scots immigrant and professor of mechanical engineering. While the other characters are believably drawn, especially the Liberal leader’s obnoxious executive assistant, I struggled with McLintock, who seemed nothing more than a caricature when he was introduced.

McLintock is The Simpsons’ Groundskeeper Willie with a PhD. His pedantic tendency to correct people on proper English usage is odd since he speaks in a Scots dialect that sounds as if he just stepped out of an 18th-century Robbie Burns poem: “Aye, I cannae argue with you. Feel free to remind me what it feels like to face a rabble like that the next time me confidence clouds me judgment.”

Eventually, I came around, as the character developed into a chess-playing, hovercraft-building political rebel.

That Fallis’s political satire has won the Leacock could signal a sustained return of the go-for-the-jugular social and political satire missing in Canada these days.

D. Grant Black is a Saskatchewan journalist and editor who has considered self-publishing for his satire project.

Phew! I can certainly live with this…

I’m at a loss for words. It’s been quite a day. Thank you all for your support throughout this little journey of mine.

Here’s the news release. Here’s the CBC story. And here’s some video from the actual event.

There’s a whole weekend of celebrations in June. I’m starting to work on my speech already. Time for some sleep… if I can…

I’m sure my 15 minutes must soon be up. Because of the Leacock Medal shortlist, the Toronto Star ran a nice piece in the Sunday Star this past weekend. They even teased the story on the front page of the Entertainment section. I’d done the interview and photography last week. I’m amazed at how many people have e-mailed me in the wake of the article, including some who have said that they’ve ordered the book. Every little bit helps!

Sometime in the last 24 hours, Amazon.com has listed TBLP for sale. I immediately ordered a hardcover copy just to prime the sales pump. I confess that it feels very strange to see my novel listed on Amazon. Very cool. It’s also listed on the Amazon sites for Canada, UK, Japan, France, and Germany. Only the US site seems able to accept orders right now. It will take a bit more time until the Amazon sites in other countries are able to process purchases. But we’re out of the starting blocks!

I’ll keep you posted as TBLP becomes available through the other leading online book retailers including Chapters-Indigo, Barnes and Noble, and the others.  As well, I hope to have news soon about the display and (I hope) sales of TBLP in at least one Indigo store.  Exciting times.

Well we’re very close now.  I’ve just approved all of the professional proof reader’s corrections and added a few of my own.  I will get to check to see that they have all been implemented properly but beyond that, there can be no more changes made.  We’re heading into production.  By mid September, I should have my author copies in hand.  Stay tuned…

I recently received the full cover designs for both the hardcover and trade paperback versions of TBLP. As time has passed, I’ve become quite accustomed to the new cover design. The full layout (including the spine, back cover, and front and back inside flaps on the hardcover) really brings the cover design together nicely as a cohesive unit. The graphics here are not that sharp but you get the idea…
Trade Paperback:

Hardcover:

I’ll keep you posted as we inch towards publication…

As I await the results of the professional and final proofread of what they call the “book block,” I thought I’d share the Acknowledgements section that will appear at the front of the novel. I figure the folks who deserve my thanks and gratitude should not just read about in the novel but here in the blogosphere as well. Here’s how it will appear when the novel is in print next month:

Aknowledgements

Writing seems the most solitary of pursuits, particularly late at night when you’re clacking away on the laptop as your family sleeps. But eventually, it dawns on you that, in fact, your ability to bind up your story into a book turns on the support of so many others. My thank-you list is long, and I’ll be forever grateful to the family members, friends, and, yes, to several strangers who helped me.

For being brave enough to read my words when I was barely brave enough to share them, I thank Christine Langlois, Catherine Shepherd, Tom Allen, and Kathleen Naylor. For advice and comfort in trying to navigate the publishing labyrinth, John Lute, Steve Paikin, Beverly Slopen, Ben McNally, Mike Tanner, and Bill Kaplan were there. Camille Montpetit, retired Deputy Clerk of the House of Commons, spent time with me to ensure that the parliamentary procedure portrayed in this story honoured the standing orders. I’m grateful to him and to Audrey O’Brien, the current Clerk of the House, for bringing us together.

While I would never suggest that you judge any book by its cover, I’m thankful for the early design work of my friend and colleague Steve Palmer on both the novel and the podcast blog page. Ron Boisvert was also generous in allowing a perfect stranger to use his amazing photograph, which I found while trolling the Internet. Many podcasting and blogging friends helped to promote the podcast series of The Best Laid Plans, which, in turn, should help to promote the printed version. I owe a debt to Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, Donna Papacosta, Mitch Joel, Bryan Person, Scott Sigler, Dan York, Joe Thornley, David Jones, Keelan Green, Mark Blevis, Bob Goyetche, and many others. Novelist Mike Tanner, veteran Member of Parliament the Honourable Paddy Torsney, and the Honourable Allan Rock, former Justice Minister and Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, were very kind to provide glowing quotations to help promote the novel. Tom Allison also played a role in this. They all have my gratitude.

Thanks to my father, Dr. James C. Fallis, for passing on to me a love of our language. To all my friends and colleagues who endure my passion for proper English, you can’t fight DNA, so blame him. I’m quite sure my mother would have loved this book—regardless. As for my identical-twin brother, Tim, I certainly appreciate his support and encouragement along the way, but wish he would stop telling people it’s his book (unless of course they hate it, and then, by all means, he should carry on).

Writing—a solitary pursuit? Hardly.

Finally, this novel, from stem to stern, is a work of fiction—a complete fabrication. Though I worked alongside many interesting characters in my time on Parliament Hill, you’ll find none of them in this story.

To my wife, Nancy, and our two sons, Calder and Ben, who gave me the time, space, and inspiration to write—this is for you.

There you have it. I’ve now seen the final cover design layout of the hardcover and trade paperback. I like them and will post them for all to see in the coming days.

The dog days of summer seem to drag even slower when you’re navigating the labyrinthine publishing process. Everything seems to take a very long time. Here’s where we are in the process, what remains to be done, and some general timelines:
- Production (laying out the pages of the novel - now in process) - another two weeks

- Proofreading (a final professional proofread) - three weeks

- Author proofing (my last chance to review the final copy) - up to two weeks (but I won’t take that long)

- Making corrections - one week

- Final production - two weeks

When this is complete, the novel will immediately be available through the iUniverse online bookstore but it usually takes another three to ten weeks for the book to be listed in the mainstream online book sites including Amazon, Chapters-Indigo, Barnes & Noble, etc.

Put it all together and we’re looking at another ten weeks(!), or early October(!) before the first copies of TBLP will be available at the iUniverse bookstore, and several weeks more for mainstream online availability. I actually don’t yet know when the novel will be on display at an Indigo store, but you’ll know shortly after I do. All I can say is, we’re still in time for the holiday season!
Stay tuned…

The folks at iUniverse have just informed me that The Best Laid Plans has now earned the Publisher’s Choice designation.  This means a new cover design has been approved.  With the Publisher’s Choice designation, TBLP will now be featured on a prominent display table in at least, one Indigo location (Canada’s equivalent of Barnes and Noble) for two months.  This is great news but it has come with some minor misgivings.  The new cover developed by professional designers and approved by the Publisher’s Choice committee may take some getting used to.  As I’ve said before, I still love the clean and classy look of the cover developed by my friend and colleague Steve Palmer of 76design, but it didn’t pass the test with the Publisher’s Choice committee.  I’m the first to admit that I’m no designer (my colleagues often remind me of this), but I do know what I like.  The new design uses the same elements I submitted in the original cover, but uses them differently.  I’ll post the new design when I have the final version and you can judge for yourselves.  The new cover is growing on me but I still take wistful glances at the original design.

Could I refuse the new design and insist on the one that’s been sitting at the top of this blog for months now?  Technically, yes I could, and I considered this option.  But, the chance to display TBLP on a table at the front of at least one Indigo store is an opportunity that comes to very, very few self published authors.  I was torn, but will be using the new cover design.

I’ll post the new look in the next few days.  Stay tuned.