• I did 95 talks and readings over the course of the year, a pace of nearly two each week. I travelled to Vancouver, Whistler, the Sunshine Coast, Calgary, Banff, Halifax, Ottawa, and all through Ontario.

• In early February, The Best Laid Plans, due largely to Ali Velshi’s stellar advocacy, snared the 2011 Canada Reads crown. This put TBLP on the bestsellers list for much of the year and even dragged The High Road on to the list in its wake.

• In April, The High Road was shortlisted for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.

• In May, I officially signed with McClelland & Stewart for my third novel.

• In June, I started teaching at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing program. I developed, and have now twice taught, a five week course on how to build an audience for your writing.

• In July, TBLP was the only novel included in the twelve books shortlisted for the Best Canadian Political Book of the Last 25 Years honour compiled by the Samara Foundation and The Writers’ Trust.

• In late October, I finished the manuscript for my third novel, tentatively entitled Up and Down, and in November, passed it along to my wonderful editor and publisher at M&S, Douglas Gibson.

• In November, I started my stint as CBC’s resident blogger for Canada Reads 2012.

• Also in November, CBC announced that it is developing The Best Laid Plans as a six-part television miniseries.

• In December, the City of Woodstock announced that The High Road had been chosen as the official Woodstock Reads 2012 selection.

• Finally, to close out the year, Margaret Atwood “tweeted” very positively to her nearly 289,000 followers after reading The Best Laid Plans.

As you can see, it was a very happy fifth year in my life as a writer. I am one, very grateful novelist.

Looking ahead, there’s more excitement coming in 2012. First and foremost, my third novel will hit bookstore shelves in September. Beyond that, who knows?

Six months ago to the day, I started drafting the manuscript for novel #3 (it’s still untitled). Last night, at close to midnight, I actually wrote the words “The End” to complete the draft. It always feels great to bring the story full circle. It comes with a real sense of accomplishment, even though the journey is far from over. The manuscript is just over 91,000 words, which should make the book about 300 pages, I figure.

So what’s next? Well, now I head back to Chapter 1 and start the editing and polishing process. I also do a ‘humour check.’ This can mean toning down or even cutting out some of the funny stuff that may just be trying too hard. Alternatively, I may pump up the laughs in places where I haven’t fully exploited the comic potential. But I’m learning to let the story carry most of the load. It’s nice to have a laugh or two along the way, but it should only support, not supplant, the story. So I’ll spend the next month of weekends and the odd weeknight massaging, rearranging, cutting, and adding to make sure the last six months of writing hangs together as one continuous, seamless, compelling story. Then on December 1st, I’ll send it off to my editor, Douglas Gibson at McClelland & Stewart, as well as to my literary agent, Beverley Slopen. Doug will carefully read the manuscsript more than once, and then add his distinctive, insightful and almost always sound editorial suggestions in pencil in the margins. He’ll pass the manuscript back to me probably by the Christmas holidays. I’ll then work my way through it, making changes where required. Then I imagine I’ll send it back to Doug sometime in January where the more formal publishing process begins. There’ll be copy-editing and cover design, not to mention the gathering of blurbs from interesting folks. Then, if all goes according to plan, the book will miraculously appear on bookstore shelves and in online catalogues in early September 2012.

But the big news today is that the first major hurdle has been surmounted. The story is fully written for the first time. I’m going to bed…

On the writing front, I made great progress on our holiday. While my family slept, I got up every morning, usually between 6:00 and 7:00, and dug in for a few hours on novel #3 (still untitled). I wrote just shy of 20,000 words while I was away and am now nearly 70,000 words into what will probably be a 95,000 novel. My December 1st deadline to submit the manuscript to McClelland & Stewart is not quite so daunting with only five chapters yet to write. We stayed in a wonderful 160 year old house on the south shore of Nova Scotia, about 20 minutes from Chester.

Here’s a shot of the house. It was tough to sneak around inside. Everything creaked. But I guess we’ll all creak at 167 years old.

Here’s the view out the dining room window where I wrote every morning. That’s Little Tancook Island across the water.

After a week on the south shore, we stayed with my wife’s parents in the Annapolis Valley, a second home to us. As I have for each of my previous two novels, I wrote part of what will be novel #3 in the K.C. Irving Centre at Acadia University in beautiful Wolfville. I love writing in this room…

The fall is going to be very busy with quite a few upcoming appearances at several writers festivals. You can check out the heavy schedule here. But I still need to find time to finish the manuscript for novel #3.

Finally, stay tuned for some big news in the coming weeks that I just can’t quite share yet…

Sorry for the long stretches between blog posts lately. It’s been so busy at the office and with readings, talks, and festivals that I haven’t been able to post as often as I’d like. Anyway, I thought it had been a while since I’d updated you on the status of novel #3. I think the last time I wrote about it was back on April 23rd when I announced that I’d finally started writing the manuscript. This came after spending a year or so thinking through the story and a couple of more months actually laying it out using my rather rigorous outlining process. Now, some three months later, the manuscript is coming along, although I’d hoped to be further into the novel by now. As of this past weekend, I’ve finished six of 18 chapters and am up to about 33,000 words. I’m pleased with what’s written so far, but there is still plenty of editing and polishing to do.

My outline for novel #3 is only about 30 pages long, while the outline for my last book was 65 pages long. I decided that there could be two reasons for this discrepancy. Either I’m more confident that I can write a 5,000 word chapter based on only a page of bullet points as opposed to two pages, or I really don’t know my story as intimately as I did the first two times around. I was hoping it was the former, but it turns out it’s the latter! But all is well. It just took me a bit longer to get the first third written. I know much more about the remaining two thirds of my story, so I think the rest of the manuscript should unfold more easily.

As usual, I’m getting most of my writing done on weekends as I’m still working fulltime during the week. Sometimes I”ll get a few hours in on weeknights, but not very often. My aim has tended to be to write a 5,000 word chapter over the weekend. It hasn’t always been possible, but lately I’ve managed to come close. With six chapters behind me, I now feel the gathering momentum of the manuscript and it fuels my motivation to keep it going. I’m away in British Columbia in the first week of August for book-related appearances, and then in Nova Scotia for our family vacation. I’m hoping to get a big chunk of writing done then. In any event, I’ll keep you posted as the chapters pile up. December 1st is my contractual deadline to hand over the completed manuscript to McClelland & Stewart, so I’ll be hard at it straight through the fall. I have not intention of needing or seeking an extension! Fingers crossed, at least when they’re not burning up my laptop keyboard…

I’ve been asked often in the last several months whether I’m working on a third novel. I figured this is as good a time as any to give you, my small but mighty band of followers, an update on novel #3. Yes, I am writing another novel. I spent a good portion of the holidays sequestered in our third floor library mapping out the story that’s been steeping in my head for over a year. You may recall that I am a big outliner. I like to know virtually everything about the story, the characters, the conflicts, the plot points, the settings, etc., before I write the first word of the manuscript. I eventually break it down chapter-by-chapter with two or three pages of bullet points for each. I do this so that when I’m ready to start the actual manuscript, I can really focus on the writing, rather than on thinking through what happens next. My outline for The High Road was 65 pages long. I don’t think my outine for novel #3 will be quite that long when it’s finally done.

There are two working titles competing in my head these days. Neither may survive the writing/editing/publishing journey, but for what it’s worth, they are, Making Space, and Launch or Lunch? I like both of these for different reasons. Both have a direct connection to the story (which is always a good idea!). Making Space is more subtle, but Launch or Lunch? has the added benefit of being shortened to LOL, which I hope will be a fitting abbreviation. In any event, I find it helpful to have working titles, if only as mental placeholders.

As I think I’ve mentioned in this space before, this is not the third volume in the exploits of Angus McLintock and Daniel Addison. I’m sure I’ll come back to these two old friends in the future, but this novel bids at least a temporary farewell to Cumberland, politics, and, yes, the hovercraft. Having said that, I do hope readers will find this new novel as funny, and even as familiar, as The Best Laid Plans and The High Road. There are other similarities beyond humour. I’ll still be writing in the first person through a narrator who is very close to, but not always at the epicentre of, the story. There’s also another protaganist to whom the narrator is unavoidably tethered. Settings for the story include Toronto, Washington, New York, the interior of BC, Florida, and briefly, even a very, very remote location seldom visited in Canlit. Topics to be explored include the public relations business, the intrepid bush pilots of the British Columbia wilderness, our aging population, Canada-U.S. relations, and North American society’s apparently fading interest in the space program. That’s as far as I think I should go in describing it.

As a PR agency veteran in my day job, some of my colleagues may be alarmed that I intend to take nasty shots at my own profession. They need not fear. There will certainly be satire, but as you can imagine, I’m a big believer in the value that professional and strategic public relations and communications offer. There’s no question that we’ll have some laughs along the way, but I’m not out to bite the hand that feeds me. The outline for Making Space/Launch or Lunch? is nearly finished. I hope to be writing the manuscript by the end of the month. I’ll keep you posted…

As I’ve noted several times already in this space, Robertson Davies is one of my literary heroes. His novels were among the first to show me that literary prose, compelling stories, and deeply developed characters could coexist with a heaping helping of humour. John Irving also helped enlighten me on that score. That Robertson Davies and I appear together on the list of Leacock Medal Winners (he in 1955, for Leaven of Malice) still sends a tremor through me when I think of it. In December 1995, shortly after his death, my wife and I attended Robertson Davies’ memorial service in Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto. It was the first time I’d ever laid eyes on Douglas Gibson, Davies’ longtime editor, and miraculously, now mine. Last night, some 14 years later, my wife and I attended Robertson Davies: The Peeled I at the wonderful Hart House Theatre, just across the quadrangle from Convocation Hall. It was a one man show featuring Reed Needles as RD. He bears a striking resemblance to the great writer. We thoroughly enjoyed the play. It only runs for a couple days, so if you’re a Davies fan and are anywhere near Toronto, check it out.

Here’s the photo of Robertson Davies that hangs in our third floor library, supervising my writing. Whenever I hit a dry spell or am struggling with a sentence, I look up at this photo for inspiration. Then I get back at it…

So, here are my ten rules, such as they are:

• Very few rules apply to all writers. Every writer is different, so only observe these rules if they happen to work for you. If they don’t, make up your own rules to break.

• Create a quiet, comfortable space for writing. Then, write there often. If that’s too regimented, carry a notebook and try writing wherever you find yourself, whether it’s Starbucks or the JiffyLube when your car is up on the hoist. As well, write in stretches of at least four hours so that you can get into a groove and not feel rushed or forced by the clock. If you don’t have four hours anywhere in your life, try writing in short snippets and see if that works.

• I’m an “outliner” so I favour investing the time up front to map out a story in considerable detail. For writers with a fulltime job and not enough spare time for writing (like me!), I find you can maximize efficiency if you know what happens and where you’re going in each chapter. If that doesn’t work, try starting with a blank page and follow where your story leads you. This seems to work for many writers, though it’s a foreign concept to me.

• Read. I don’t know many great writers who aren’t also great readers. Although I do know lots of readers who aren’t writers. What was my point again? Oh yes. Reading is professional development for writers. In other careers, people go to conferences and take courses. Writers read. (Having said that, I’ve spoken at a few writers conferences and will be teaching a course in the fall, so what do I know?)

• Worry less about finding an agent or publisher, and more about your manuscript. (I know, I know, easy for me to say.) But most agents will tell you it’s really all about writing. Landing an agent and/or publisher will be easier if your manuscript is as good as it can be.

• When your manuscript is finished, for the first time, let it sit for a couple of weeks before you return to it. Time inflicts distance and perspective, which almost always inform and aid editing.

• Read your writing aloud. You’d be surprised how often I rearrange a sentence or choose a different word after hearing my writing, rather just looking at it. It was one of the benefits of podcasting my first novel before it was ever a book.

• Print out your manuscript-in-progress once in a while. It’s easier to read it, and the growing stack of paper provides a sense of progress and satisfaction that can help you through the home stretch.

• Visualize the scenes you’re writing as if you’re a movie director. This will add realism to your words, and help you decide what to describe and what not to. If it helps, go ahead and cast major stars as the main characters so you can see them in your mind.

• I know this seems like a drag and may appear to contradict Rule #5 above, but when your book is written, commit as much effort to promoting your book as you did to writing it. Build an audience by using the online tools to which we all now have ready access, like podcasting and blogging. Offer to do readings at libraries and book clubs. Enter your book in competitions and awards. Sit on panels. Get out there, even if it’s uncomfortable. Publishers like it when you do this because you sell more books. And, you get better at it with practice. You might even come to enjoy it. I know I have.

On Monday, March 1, the essays defending each of the Canada Also Reads finalists begin. TBLP is being defended by singer/songwriter and all-round great guy, Andy Maize of the Skydiggers. I’m not sure which day his essay will run but you can bet it will commemorated on this humble blog.