Purchase all titles online at:
So thrilled to learn this morning from my wonderful editor at McClelland & Stewart, Bhavna Chauhan, that Albatross has cracked the Globe and Mail Bestsellers list just three days after it hit bookstores. I’m over the moon. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen so soon after publication. Onwards!
It’s always nice when a major media outlet reviews your novel. It’s even nicer when you and your novel survive the experience. I’m grateful.
I’ve been monitoring Bookmanager these last few weeks to see how Albatross is faring in the “future releases, Canadian author, fiction” category. It’s been climbing the charts and recently took another bump up the list where it now sits as the fourth most-anticipated novel soon to be released by a Canadian author. I’m just using my blog as a place to record the novel’s journey for posterity’s sake. Just about four and half weeks to go before Albatross hits bookstores.
Loanstars is a program that promotes the ten most anticipated books each month, as chosen by librarians across Canada. What an honour to discover that Albatross is on the Loanstars August list. I’m grateful for public libraries and the librarians who bring them to life. They do so much to promote reading and writers in Canada. I would have said that before this honour and I’ll continue to speak in dozens of public libraries every year. They are important and always seems to be under threat. Let’s step up and support our public library system.
I’ve always found Bookmanager to be an easy way to follow how well my books are doing in the weeks leading up to, and the months following, publication. It provides the sales data for the CBC Books Bestsellers List and many other bestsellers lists. But it also tracks preorders and ranks the most anticipated books in the run up to their publication. You can also engage various filters to pinpoint exactly what you’re looking for. So the ranking above is for “future releases” by “Canadian authors” in the “Fiction” category. It’s certainly gratifying to see that with still two months to go before its publication day, Albatross currently seems to be the eighth most anticipated Canadian work of fiction. I’ll take it! I’m thrilled to be in such fine company alongside Margaret Atwood, Louise Penny, Rawi Hage, Ian Hamilton, Miriam Toews, Lori Lansens, and the late, great Richard Wagamese. August 13th is the official publishing date. It won’t be long now.
I’m not suggesting you’ll be able to read the cover copy, but you can at least see how the book will look when it arrives in stores in August. I’m very happy with it, but book cover design is such a subjective world. We just wanted it to be arresting so that readers notice it on the shelves. My deep thanks to the designer, Five Seventeen (yes, that’s his name) for the “look,” and Bhavna Chauhan, my editor for coordinating the whole design process. My twin brother Tim took the quickly-aging author photo on the back flap.
Nationally bestselling novelist Amy Jones, who was a finalist for the Leacock Medal for her debut novel, We’re All in This Together, has kindly provided an endorsement for Albatross that will appear on the back cover of the book when it’s published this August. Amy is a wonderful writer and I loved her first novel. Her second, Every Little Piece of Me, will be published by McClelland & Stewart in June. I look forward to reading it.
In the meantime, here’s what Amy said about Albatross:
“It’s hard not to get excited about a new Terry Fallis novel, and it is equally hard not to fall in love with Adam Coryell, the big-hearted, sarcastic, fountain-pen-obsessed hero of Albatross, a young golf prodigy who just wants to write short stories. In his inimitable style, Fallis has crafted a tender, funny, and compulsively readable novel about what it means to stay true to your dreams, and to yourself. Do yourself a favour and pick up this book–you won’t put it down again until the final page has been turned.”
Amy Jones, nationally bestselling author of We’re All in This Together
I’m grateful to Amy for her support.
If you’re a fan of topnotch thrillers, you’ll know the name Linwood Barclay. He is a New York Times and internationally bestselling thriller writer who is likely as well known around the world as he is in Canada. He’s also a very nice guy. We’ve appeared at a few events together and I’ve always enjoyed the time we’ve spent with one another. Linwood has been kind enough to read the Albatross manuscript and I’m over the moon to share the endorsement (or “blurb” as we say in publishing) he has kindly provided to appear on the back cover of the novel.
“Fallis writes from another time when Wodehouse and Leacock and Twain roamed the earth. May he never become extinct.”
It doesn’t get much better than that. I’m thrilled and grateful.
I urge you all to pick up Linwood’s recent novel, A Noise Downstairs, as well as Elevator Pitch when it’s published in September. He is a fantastic writer and a brilliant storyteller.
As promised, here is the cover design for my seventh novel, Albatross, to be released on August 13th. The goal of any cover is to reach out from bookstore shelves, grab readers by the lapels as they walk past, and force them to take a closer look. I think this cover scores very well on the old “eye-catching” meter. Breaking up the word Albatross using the hyphen is unusual and I hope makes the cover a little more arresting than if the word had been displayed in the usual fashion.
As for symbolism, the cover leans on the “gilded cage” metaphor. My narrator, Adam Coryell, is blessed or cursed, depending on your perspective, with unmatched natural ability at golf. This grants him fame and fortune beyond any sane person’s wildest imagination. Yet he is not happy in his life. Not to put too fine a point on it, Adam’s golf prowess “imprisons” him in a gilded cage. The novel tells the story of how he found himself in the cage, and how he escaped.
I’m very happy with the cover, though I know it will not appeal to everyone. Here’s hoping it does its job and catches bookstore browsers’ eyes starting in mid-August. My thanks to my editor, Bhavna Chauhan, and the design team at McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House) for coming up with this. It was not a straightforward design challenge.
A few weeks back, I promised to unveil the new title for my seventh novel, due in bookstores on August 13. The original title I’d come up with was If at First You Succeed. I liked the wry little twist on this common phrase. But it is a mouthful. My editor, the wonderful Bhavna Chauhan at McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House) and I agreed that it was worth considering some other title options that were a little pithier and punchier. I’ve always liked titles that have at least two different meanings, even if the reader doesn’t understand the second meaning until later in the novel. One Brother Shy and Poles Apart are two examples of titles of mine that, I hope, take on additional meaning for the reader as the story unfolds.
So with all of this in mind, the title for my new novel is Albatross. Without giving too much away, this word has strong connections to the story but in two different contexts. This is not a novel about golf, but the game does play into the story. In golf parlance, an albatross is that rare and wonderful event when a player shoots three below par on a hole. In other words, if a golfer holes her second shot on a Par 5, she would be said to have scored an “albatross.” I’ve scored many birdies (one below par on a hole) in my less-than-stellar golfing career, and one lonely eagle (two below par on a hole). But I have never come close to landing the elusive albatross. So in one sense, the word albatross reflects the rare talent for golf that the narrator in my novel possesses.
But there is a completely different meaning for the word albatross (I mean beyond the literal sea bird definition). Back in 1798, the English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a very long poem called The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In the poem, an albatross seems to bring good weather and favourable winds to a ship that was threatened by the ice of a winter storm. When a sailor shoots the albatross with a crossbow, the ship’s fortunes change for the worse. For his crime, the sailor is forced to hang the dead albatross around his neck as punishment.
This second meaning of the word albatross – the bearing of guilt or a burden – becomes a powerful reflection of the narrator’s life when his golfing prowess becomes a burden or the albatross around his neck.
When I suggested the alternative title, my editor, and according to the legend, everyone else at Penguin Random House, thought it was short, punchy, clever, and perfect. Who am I to argue?
So when the novel hits bookstores in August, the title will simply be Albatross.
I should soon be able to share the cover design, but not quite yet. Stay tuned!
Welcome to terryfallis.com where award-winning novelist Terry Fallis blogs about his writing life and podcasts his novels.
