Hello, friends. It's been a ferocious week (long story, won't bore you). Among other things, I've been making corrections to the typeset, copy-edited version of Rivals in the City, which will be published in the UK by Walker Books this June. (June! Hurray!) There are 299 pages, of which this is the first: That's a bit of a tease, isn't it? In fairness, I should really give you a legible … [Read more...]
That’s my agent!
Hello, friends. This past weekend was the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada. I am still coasting on leftovers (that's a splendid thing, in my opinion), basking in crisp sunshine, and in total denial of the sudden onslaught of Christmas cack in the retail world. This is not a terribly new video and I can't seem to embed it here the way I usually do, but I'm linking to it anyway because hey! that's … [Read more...]
Women doing literary things
This week's blog post is over at Women Doing Literary Things, a new series created by critic and blogger Niranjana Iyer in response to VIDA's survey on women in publishing . My post is called "Money, Literature, Domesticity", and it's my attempt to puzzle through some of the contradictions, triumphs, and frustrations of being one of them. I'd love to hear your thoughts. … [Read more...]
My ebook problem
It's okay, friends - I'm not up on my piracy soapbox today. But I was recently asked for my general opinion of ebooks and realized, I seldom think about them. As you know, I love books with a fervour that approaches the religious and have plenty of opinions about technology, but where those two things collide, I just shrug and go, "Meh." Basically, I'm suspicious of the medium. Dedicated … [Read more...]
Piracy, borrowing, theft
Yesterday, a discussion about illegal e-book downloads exploded on Twitter. Some of the comments were illuminating, others sanctimonious, still others plain illogical. It makes for frustrating reading. (You can find the unedited discussion here.) In brief, though, lots of readers appear to believe that illegal downloads are "like a library card on the Internet". There are lots of problems with … [Read more...]
“How do you get published?”
This was the #1 question that came tumbling out of the students at my first school visit. At four different sessions, in different-sized groups, students ranging from grades 9 to 12 all wanted to know the secret. And, sadly, there’s no magic for that. I don’t even think the question “how do you get published” is answerable, because routes to publication are so varied; no single path will do. I … [Read more...]