I have forgotten how to update my Google calendar, but here are two festivals I’m looking forward to (and appearing at) in 2012.

Galiano Literary Festival, February 24-26, Galiano, BC

Words on the Water Literary Festival, March 23, 24, Campbell River, BC.

Fabulous line-ups in fabulous places. Hope to see you there!

Editor and author Mel McKee says that a “story is a war. It is sustained and immediate combat.”
He elaborates that there are four imperatives for the war story:
1) Get your fighters fighting
2) Have something at stake that is worth fighting over
3) Have the fight divide into a series of battles with the last battle the biggest and most dangerous of all
4) Have a walking away from the fight

It occurred to me as I reeled away from the current draft of my latest novel that it’s not just the story itself that can be compared to a war. The process of writing each novel sometimes feels like a sustained fight. The thing to keep in mind when you get tired or discouraged is that some books are epic battles and others are first round knock outs.

When I wrote my first book it was as though someone had pulled me out of the crowd and stuck me into the ring wearing someone else’s shorts and no mouth guard. My fighting style was best described as “surprised”. I couldn’t believe I was still on my feet when the bell rang after the first round. Thrilled, I kept dancing around my first person narrative and pretty soon I’d developed a technique of my own, similar to kung fu but without the fitness, discipline and opponents. Let’s call the technique Froo Do (not to be confused with a short, hairy-toed hobbit with a similar name). Imagine someone dressed up in gi, with a polka dot belt tied around her forehead going for broke in front of the mirror with made-up katas. That was me in my first fight. I wrote my diary format manuscript (Alice, I Think) with blissful and near total ignorance of what I was doing.

I survived that first battle and it was so exhilarating that I decided to get in the ring again. During the second bout, I took on no comers (I wrote a sequel) and had a hell of a good time. Thank you, Miss Smithers! Even more emboldened, I went for a third match (Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last) and then decided to expand my repertoire and looked to the larger world of fighting for inspiration.

Imagine my surprise when I got into the ring with a narrative featuring all new characters and an experiment involving alternating third and first person (which I used because I wanted to test the emotional effects of POV on readers). Well, I barely made it out of that one alive. The fight went the distance and I only won because my opponent nearly died of exhaustion from all my spinning and running around the ring. I don’t remember much of what happened because of the concussion I sustained when I was asked to cut nearly 200 pages. All I can say about that now is, thanks, Another Kind of Cowboy. You taught me a lot and most of it was painful.

After an extensive training montage that involved me running around the house in an Adidas tracksuit, I got back in the ring for a middleweight bout between me and one of my favourites: the YA detective novel. I had practised the noir moves but detective stories were harder than I thought. The match was a draw and Getting the Girl was my consolation prize.

Next came a middle weight bout with a contender that I’m pretty sure cheated during the weigh in. Don’t ever get in the ring with a memoir if you haven’t taken wrestling lessons. I’m just saying. My shoulders will never be the same after some of those choke holds that book put on me. I finally got the book to tap out, but only because I employed an unexpected underarm tickle manoeuvre. Nice Recovery indeed.

Punch drunk and with my dreamed-of modeling career derailed by a matched set of cauliflower ears, I decided to get myself on the card in the heavyweight division: adult fiction. It took some eating of cheese, some serious contemplation of what adult fiction even means, and plenty of watching MMA fighters crying nonstop on reality TV, but when the match came I enjoyed it, even though it mostly involved me and adult fiction running past one another and slamming into the ropes, slapstick style. Adult fiction kept climbing out of the ring and disappearing into a crowd of metaphors and weighty thematic material while I tried on the hats. I got through that battle and Woefield is the result. (Which reminds me: feel free to buy a copy for someone you love this Christmas!)

Now, like someone who is getting bad advice from management and/or a show business parent, I’ve gotten into a street fight with a science fiction, fantasy, comedy and a few other guys (who may be on drugs) and I’m a little concerned about my long term health. Science fiction landed a punch that closed one of my eyes. Dystopian pulled my hair and comedy tried to knee me in a bad place. It has been a crazy time, fight-wise, and it’s not over yet. But when I retreated to my corner my coach said, “Don’t forget to use your Froo Do. Try on a hat! Do that thing you do.” That’s all I needed to hear. It’s what all writers need to hear sometimes.

I’m going to make it out of this battle alive. I will be greatly disfigured and more addled than ever but I will have faced down a sci-fi/dystopian/alien mashup and lived to tell about it. And that’s all any writer can ask for. Find a fight style that suits you, then get in the ring and put your gloves up. If you take a direct hit and your eye swells shut, get out the razor. Play Eye of the Tiger multiple times per day. Take a multivitamin. Above all, don’t quit.

The new book is called Bright’s Light (I won’t tell you what round we’re in because I don’t want you to feel like you have to start a charitable foundation for me out of pity). It’s due out in August. Just know this: Bright’s Light has put up a helluva scrap. It may have even trained in Brazil.

God only knows what the next fight will be. A thumb wrestle or spit ball competition might be a nice change, but with my luck it will be a sumo match featuring me, my Froo Do and a slippery six hundred pound man in a fancy diaper. That’s how it goes when you’re a professional fighter-writer.

Thanks to Sarah-Jane English (champion defender) and Rossland Reads and Cafe Books West for choosing Woefield as the People’s Choice! (Or, as I like to call it, one away from first place. But not quite. Second Place? Third? Most Approachable Book? I’m going to go with Nicest.)

Here’s how imagine the scene as the announcement of People’s Choice was made:

Or maybe it was more like this:

Probably it was some combination of the two. (Yes, I’m aware that I should get a good psychiatrist, stat.)

In the meantime, thanks to all the participants and congratulations to the winner and runner up: To Kill a Mockingbird and Too Close to the Fall. Both are marvelous.

Hello,

I am seeking suggestions for playlists for each of the characters on Woefield Farm. HarperCollins Canada will be releasing a new paperback of Woefield in a few months and included will be one of those cool P.S. sections with interviews and other extras. (This process is being guided by writer/editor Stephen Recker: thank you, Stephen!)

If you think of certain songs when you think of Prudence, Earl, Seth or Sara, please send them along. I’ll listen happily and with gratitude. You will be credited with any suggestions that make the final cut.

Carry on then.

For all you audiobook fans, Woefield will be available as an audiobook in time for the holiday listening season! It will be available on Audible.com

Here is a clip for your listening pleasure: woefield-prudence.

You might think Edmonton is cool because it’s got the West Edmonton Mall and nice people. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s also cool because I have been invited there to do some appearances! (As you will know if you’ve been reading the Infrequently Updated Blog). Yes, indeedy! Since Jay-Z was short-sighted enough not to take me up on my kind offer to join his entourage, I am able to travel in support of my own artistic endeavors. That’s right, Jay-Z. I have my own thing going on.

So, should you be in the Edmonton area over the next few days, please join us at one of the following events:

Saturday, September 24
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Wetaskiwin Public Library
Special thanks to librarian extraordinaire, Rachelle Kuzyk for organizing.

Sunday, September 25
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Edmonton Public Library
Stanley Milner Branch
Hosted by EPL Writer in Residence Marty Chan
7 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Thank you to Anna-Marie Klassen, Jen Waters and Marty Chan for organizing!

Monday, September 26
7:00 p.m.
Indigo, Edmonton South Common
1837 99st NW
Thank you Jodey, Jaimie, Janice and all the staff for not only organizing, but for selling over 200 copies of Woefield! And thank you for taking care of Hen, whose further adventures can be found below. That bird is really getting around.

As a side note, I encourage fans of Yvonne Prinz, author of The Vinyl Princess and All You Get is Me, to keep an eye out for a Prinz sighting. It seems that the cool of Edmonton has lured Y.P. away from her edenic California and Hawaii home bases for a while and she might make an appearance at the Indigo event. Along with…

Hen! Though Hen doesn’t know it yet, she’ll be going home with a lucky Juby Gift Bag Winner. (No, I won’t be in the gift bag, but several of my books will be and so will chicken who has practically been given the keys to the city.)

I hope to see you at one of these events. It won’t be the same without you!

xox

Hen loves young men, even when they wear shirts. (See below if this makes no sense.)

Hen frequents bars and restaurants. Openings of bars and restaurants are even better.

Hen isn’t a snob. She’ll do Timmy’s if that’s where everyone is going.

In fact, Hen always welcomes a bowl of Tim’s famous chili.

Followed by a delicious cup of coffee, triple, triple.

For Hen, it has always been about the company as much as the chili and coffee.

In fact, Hen’s knowledge of the Edmonton bookselling scene is such that she’s now helping to sell HarperCollins’ list.

She’s casting her small yet hypnotic eye upon the booksellers.

Giving Charidy, Harper Collins’ Premiere Publicist and Marketer, quiet clucks of encouragement as she pitches the list.

And making Charidy and Corey, from Digital Marketing, feel stylish and important, as only a good looking chicken on the arm can do.

That’s Hen for you. Spreading success wherever she goes.

Hen has been busy all week. She’s had a lovely visit with Janice and ridden hard for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. She was a key member of the team, no matter how it might appear in this photo.

Like any sensible hen, she took time out for some sunshine-enjoying and over-the-shoulder-book-reading.

She also visited Wetaskiwin in preparation for my visit. She informs me it’s a lovely library with a sensible and effective approach to signage.

Then she spent some quality time doing vanity searches for her name on Google. She’s only human.

Hen has been silent on the topic of the Surrey International Writer’s Conference, so I’ll fill you in. I will be giving two workshops at the conference. Saturday, October 22nd at 1:30 I’ll be talking about scene writing. Sunday, October 23rd at 9:30 a.m. I’ll be giving a workshop on personal writing. Details on how to register are available on the SiWC website.

Finally, if you’d like to invite me to give a talk or a workshop (and really, who wouldn’t? I am close personal friends with Hen!), the relevant information has finally been gathered into one place and is now available on my website on the link under the Author tab called Bookings.

Now we are off to join some friends for french toast. Because nothing says I love Saturdays like fried bread followed by a nap. (The nap will be followed by some vigorous revisions to the new manuscript. Just in case anyone involved in waiting for the new m.s. is reading this. Ahem.)

xo

You know those fathers who announce that they are “baby sitting” when they have to look after their own kids for an hour or two? Well, I’m like them, in that I am “chicken sitting” Henelope and her sisters this weekend.

I rose at 6:30 this morning to let them out. I hustled them into their coop last night at 7:30 because I was late to pick up the pizza. This afternoon I’ll probably stop by two or three times to make sure Pecky isn’t picking on Shelly. I have new appreciation for everything Andrew and Jen go through in a day with those birds! Not every flock requires so much direct supervision. In fact, some chickens do more on their own in a day than I do in a year. Take the case of Hen, for example. More about that in a moment.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Woefield’s cause has been taken up by some Angel Booksellers (ABs). Cafe Books West in Rossland chose the book for their book club and made Woefield their #1 bestseller for several weeks running. (Take that, The Help!) Now I see the hand of Cafe Books in the good fortune that made Woefield a Rossland Reads selection against a little book I like to call To Kill a Mockingbird. (Those who follow my publishing career carefully, i.e. me, will remember that Getting the Girl defeated To Kill a Mockingbird in the HarperCollins March Madness last year. I like to think that people are tired of classics that delve into the dark heart of American race relations in favour of light comedies about fancy chickens and depressed sheep, as well as inept boy detectives.) Sarah-Jane English Christensen will be defending Woefield and we (me and the fictional people who live in my head) wish her all the best and send her our gratitude!

Another group of ABs who have single-handedly changed the fortunes of Woefield work at the Indigo at Edmonton South Common. Jodey, Janice and Jaimie and the rest of the team have sold, at last count, 155 copies. Yes, you read that right. Let’s show that one in initial caps, shall we? One Hundred and Fifty Five Copies! The booksellers at Indigo have been tireless advocates for Pru and company. They’ve been so great that Hen asked to go and live with them at Indigo. She felt she’d be properly appreciated there and so she has been.

Hen immediately took Jodey under her wing.

That done, Hen made a point of charming upper management (Tina and Troy).

Hen wasted no time hitting the mean streets of Edmonton.

She even found herself at the scene of a crime!

She recovered from that excitement the way I taught her: by having a few cupcakes.

And spending some time with her girls.

Then she went on a tear.

She discovered she has a thing for bare chested men in hats. I don’t know where she picked that up.

In fact, Hen’s got somewhat pronounced groupie tendencies.

She’s also got a previously undiagnosed case of oppositional defiant disorder.

Fortunately, she keeps a unicycle handy for those situations that require her to make a wobbly getaway.

In spite of her new urban persona, Hen still remembers the old ways. These include piney-woods classics like “Playing dead when an old yeller dog’s got you by the neck feathers.”

To follow Hen’s adventures at Indigo, check out her Tumblr account.

Thanks to the fine folks at Indigo for taking such good care of Hen. Rumour has it that one lucky person who attends my book club visit in September will win a chance to become Hen’s primary caretaker By that time, I’m sure Jodey and crew will have Hen’s various behavioural disorders under control. To get in on this action, join us Monday, September 26th at 7:00 p.m. at the Indigo at Edmonton South Common.

Thanks also to the many people who’ve taken the time to write to me. I’m a bit behind in my correspondence, but I appreciate every letter/email/tweet/f.b. message.

Okay. Better go check Henelope and her sisters to make sure no one’s planning to make a run for the Greyhound to Edmonton when my head is turned.

(This is Hen’s sister who lit out for Portland. At least, I think that’s where she landed!)

xox

This blog isn’t just here so I can post pictures of angry ducks and stuffed animals in trees, you know. It’s also a serious tool of relentless self-promotion. So, with that in mind, here are a few updates on the book front.

The Woefield Poultry Collective (Home to Woefield in the U.S.) was the #1 book in June at Rossland, B.C.’s Cafe Books West.

Thanks to the fine people at Cafe Books West for choosing Woefield for your book club! If any other book clubs are reading Woefield, be sure to check out this excellent list of book club questions developed by Kaitlyn Till for HarperCollins and the Savvy Reader. And check out Cafe Books West on Twitter.

I will be giving a reading and talk at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, which runs from August 4 – 7 at the Rockwood Centre. My event takes place Saturday, August 6 at 1:00 p.m. I hope to see you there.

This October 21 – 23 I will be giving talks and workshops at the Surrey International Writer’s Conference. Hope to see you there, too. Man, you’re going to be busy!

I will also be visiting Edmonton and, I hope, Wetaskiwin, for library readings and visiting with some book clubs at the fabulous Indigo Edmonton South Common store where the booksellers have been amazing champions for Woefield. I will post exact details as soon as I have them. This visit will take place September 23-26.

Finally, I’m trying to be off salt and that’s hard but there’s only so much water one woman should retain.

xo

Last month I went to visit my family in Smithers. Ah, the Bulkley Valley is beautiful in the spring (summer, fall and parts of the winter). We spent a lot of time walking in the wetlands with the family dogs (Frank, Pippin and Jackson), all of whom had mild ailments of one kind or another. Pippin has a hearing impediment that prevents him from coming when called but doesn’t stop him from hearing interesting things in the bush. He’s also got a digestive situation, but let’s not linger on that. Jackson tore his ACL and he is now a hyper-muscular hop-along. Frank is aged and tends to fall behind. At least once we lapped him as he stood at the entrance to the path, sniffing blissfully at a bull rush.

We saw moose enjoying tender shoots in the swamp and many species of birds, the most vivacious of which were the red winged blackbirds.
The other favourite walk was behind Railway Ave., heading for the golf course. My mother pointed out that someone had strung up numerous stuffed animals in the trees.

Bears, bunnies, googly-eyed creatures: the trees were full of them.

I hate to be left out of art happenings, so my mother, brother and I went and got ourselves a creature to add to the parade.

This is Angry Duck. His anger doesn’t show up well in pictures, but trust me. He’s really pissed and he’s not sure why.

We made sure the dogs got the chance to inspect him.

He got the Jackson sniff of approval.

The Pippin look of mild concern.

When Frank realized Duck wasn’t for chewing he lost interest immediately.

Now Angry Duck is staring with tremendous disapproval at all who pass beneath him. If you’re in Smithers, stop by Railway Avenue and say hello to him and his little friends.