Up in Ontario

McNally Robinson in New York

This past weekend I was in Winnipeg and Kenora for a series of writers workshops for Lake of the Woods authors. Before heading out to Kenora I spent a day in Winnipeg and met with Wayne Tefs, a friend and the editor on my novel, Up in Ontario. We talked about a number of things - the writing life, what he was working on, hockey, what I was working on - and he mentioned that the McNally Robinson Booksellers enterprise was expanding to New York.

For the uninitiated, McNally Robinson started as a single, small bookstore in Winnipeg and over the past decade has become a superstore in Winnipeg, a downtown store in Winnipeg, a store in Saskatoon and a store in Calgary. Many people mention to me that the McNally stores are the best in Canada. I have visited all of their locations save the Saskatoon store and I would agree; they all have a great feel about them, as if they're run by folks who love books and readers. The owners, Holly and Paul McNally, can often be seen in the stores, managing day-to-day duties. At an impromtu book signing I did last December in Winnipeg, Paul took my coat and showed me around the store and Holly set me up at a table with a stack of books to sign and stickers to affix to the cover - 'Signed by the Author!'. McNally Robinson has won the Canadian Booksellers Association's Bookseller of the Year award 4 times in the past 10 years.

Now their expansion is hitting the epicentre of publishing, New York city, and it's the next generation leading the charge. The daughter of Holly and Paul, Sarah McNally, stands set to open a bookshop on Prince Street in Manhattan. The New York Times covered the opening over the weekend - Defiant Newcomer Hopes Small Booksellers Still Have a Place - along with CBC - Family-owned Winnipeg bookstore to open New York City branch.

I wish the McNally enterprise and the family the best of luck, as I'm sure many others do too. If you're in New York, make sure to check them out. When I asked Wayne about the sanity of opening a bookstore in New York, Wayne said to me, "They're very smart about their business," and I believe him because the book business is crazy, and to survive in it for long you have to be shrewd or lucky. And luck runs out pretty quick.

Chimps Do Kung Fu

For the month of November, the most popular search term folks used to arrive at UpinOntario.com was orangutan.

In honour of that finding, I present Chimps who do kung fu (.mpg movie file).

Kenora Writers Workshops

This coming weekend, November 27 and 28, I'll be in Kenora, Ontario at Elizabeth Campbell Books presenting two workshops for writers. The weekend is focused on books written about the Lake of the Woods area and the authors who wrote them. I'll have a worn copy of Up in Ontario in my hands and my mitts on to keep my hands warm. The schedule for the weekend looks something like the following.

On Saturday night, from 7 to 9, I will be presenting a writers workshop entitled Oral Tradition and Storytelling, and on Sunday afternoon, from 1 to 3, I will be presenting a second writers workshop, entitled The Importance of Setting in the Novel. Make sure to check out the Elizabeth Campbell Books website for the all details and directions to the store and how to sign up.

A number of other authors will also be in Elizabeth Campbell Books over the course of the weekend, signing books, reading and generally carrying on in a celebration of Lake of the Woods stories and literature. If you're in the area, or could be in the area with some forward planning, I recommend you check the event out.

I'm using the proceeds from the Live at the Lake Social to carry me there from Vancouver. So to all the folks who helped and attended the Live at the Lake Social, thank you. I'll think of all of you while I'm driving out to Kenora. It seems like the natural progression of a circle, since the Live at the Lake Social was all about bringing the culture and setting of Up in Ontario - the Lake of the Woods and Winnipeg areas - to Vancouver and now, on the cusp of winter, it's the proceeds from that same social sending me back to where I wrote about. And all of it just over a year since I received my first copies of Up in Ontario, my first books in hand.

Paris Review Interviews Online

It came to my attention this week through the grand arts miscellany of Bookninja that the archives of the Paris Review had been opened in digital format, available for browsing, reading and printing to anyone with a web browser, an Internet connection and Adobe PDF Reader software. I browsed through the Paris Review collection of interviews and discovered that only the interviews from the 1950s were online so far, with the following decades still to come. Hmm, I thought to meself, the piece I was looking for was not yet available.

So what was that piece? An interview with Martin Amis, he of the bad teeth, the rollercoaster career and the sharp, dry wit. The bit I liked the best goes something like this:

Bald egos: Inside the novelist

"Novelists have two ways of talking about themselves: one in which they do a very good job of pretending to be reasonably modest individuals with fairly realistic opinions of their own powers and not atrociously ungenerous in their assessments of their contemporaries. The second train of thought is that of their inner egomaniac: your immediate contemporaries are just blind worms in a ditch, slithering pointlessly around, getting nowhere. You bestride the whole generation with your formidability. The only thing your contemporaries are doing — even the most eminent of them — is devaluing literary eminence. Basically, they are just stinking up the place. You open the book pages and you can't understand why it isn't all about you. Or indeed, why the whole paper isn't about you. I think without this kind of feeling you can't operate at all. The ego has to be roughly this size. I'm not sure if it's true, but I was told by a poet friend that even William Golding can come to a literary party at six-thirty and do a good imitation of a self-effacing man of letters, but at nine o'clock the whole room may be brought to silence by his cry of 'I'm a genius!' Just give him a bullhorn. They may have their little smiles and demurrals and seem twinkly and manageable characters but really..."

"Is there anything you'd like to add?"

"Yes. I'm a genius!"

End of interview.

I liked this bit so much that when the local newspaper reprinted the excerpt in its miserable Arts & Books section, after it had been reprinted already in Harper's magazine, I cut the section out for reference and instruction. It sits to this day at eye level, in a prominent place, yellowed with time, held to our fridge with magnets. A squinty photo of Amis the imp, receding hairline in full evidence, the collar of some mismatched beige suit showing below his skinny neck, accompanies the piece with the caption "Amis" as if that's all there is to know.

Putting Hobbit Rock Back on the Map

Ain't no party like a hobbit party .... I might mention that James is away and I seem to have a lot of time on my hands. For example, I found this entry when I searched for "crazy internet shit." I confess I was a bit worried that the search results would reveal images of poo and other excrement. I was quite pleased to find none of that in the first entry, so I forged ahead into the dark forest of Lords of the Rhymes. More amusing than [insert least amusing thing possible here], but definitely no substitute for James' witticisms.

Check out the movie trailer. "Hobbiton it's on."

If you've got something better, I've got time on my hands. Let's hear about it. No T&A please, this is a family show.

Another day, another visual aid.

3rd Annual Christmas Sale

Nicole, Jane and Jenn are hosting their 3rd annual Christmas sale on December 4. If you're in the Vancouver area, or can make it to the Vancouver area, drop by to spend a little time and money.

Last year I made the scene to sell and sign copies of my novel, Up in Ontario, which was freshly printed at the time, and felt weighty in my hands. I was a total new author, shy and eager with my books. This year I'm a hardened veteran. I'll be quick to the cheese tray and stuck to the door of the fridge where they keep the frosty pops.

In closing, yes, I recommend it. I suppose I'll be bringing some drinks.

Electing to Leave, 2004

For our American readers receiving this down in the U.S.A., we point to an article in Harper's magazine on how to renounce your US Citizenship. Unsurprisingly, it's harder to do than you might think. For instance, emigrating to Canada can take up to 5 years. So when the draft comes next spring, young men looking to stay alive had best look to the caribbean for safety. Canada has closed its borders. Unless you can make a refugee claim and hide out in a church until it comes to a hearing.