Archive for April, 2016

2016 Leacock Long List includes Poles Apart

Tuesday, April 26th, 2016

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I was thrilled to learn yesterday that Poles Apart has been long listed for the 2016 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. I’m in great company this year with Patrick DeWitt, Charlie Demers, Stuart McLean, and Susan Juby all in the running, along with some other fine writers. The short list of three will be unveiled on Friday, May 6th, with the winner to be announced at the annual Leacock gala in June. With all these other wonderful writers in the play, I’m truly grateful to have made the long list.

As for what may lie ahead, I’m studiously not thinking about it. What will be, will be…

Writing Update

Monday, April 18th, 2016

 

It’s been many weeks since my last post where I revealed that I’d started writing the manuscript for my sixth novel, One Brother Shy. I figured I owed you an update. As of today, I’m more than 30,000 words into the new novel and all seems to be going according to plan. Finding the time to stay on schedule is the challenge. I’ve been trying to complete one 5,000-6,000 word chapter each week, and for the most part, I’m on track. At any rate, I’ll have the manuscript finished sometime in the summer.

I’m currently writing Chapter 6. When it’s finished later this week, I may send the first six chapters to Doug Gibson, my principal editor at McClelland & Stewart for his initial take on the story. We’ve learned from the last two novels that comments he might have are much easier to accommodate at this early stage, rather than waiting until I’ve finished the entire manuscript.

So there you have it. It’s about one third written. So far, so good (I think!).