More on Writer's Gym...

Check out the interview with Eliza Clark about Writer's Gym posted today on CBC.ca, Words at Large.

http://www.cbc.ca/wordsatlarge/features/feature.php?storyId=506

Also, see the review in NOW magazine.

>http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2007-07-19/books_reviews.php

summer

If you've got kids, summer is brutal for a writer!
Maybe several weeks' forced break from writing is a good thing. Maybe I'll have fresh eyes in September. Or maybe I can get some reading done!
On my list:
Saturday, by Ian McEwan
The Outlander, by Gil Adamson
A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
The Birth House, by Ami McKay
Maybe I'll revisit some Trollope, too, as we're going to London on vacation. I do miss reading the classics. Would love to lie on my chaise reading novels and eating bon bons all day...

Have just finished Writer's Gym and was very impressed! I immediately sat down and wrote a long page of ideas from it to apply to the next rewrite of Poets'. Also, it's always entertaining to read what other writers have to say about the writing life, and the writing process.

Writer's Gym--sold out!

I went to my local Book City yesterday to pick up a copy of Writer's Gym by my friend Eliza Clark. It's just been published by Penguin. It's a collection of interviews, tips and fiction exercises from lots of respected authors--like Margarent Atwood, David Eggers, Rick Moody, Michael Redhill, Catherine Bush, Marnie Woodrow, and lots of others. Kind of like a writing workshop in paperback.

So I went to get a copy and it was sold out! But they have more on order, and I should get it in a week or so. Yay!

I recommend you try your own local independent for this book, and if it isn't there, get them to order it!

paper clips

I'm sure you've heard the paper clip story--how a guy called Kyle MacDonald used his blog to parlay a lowly paper clip into a house. As it turns out, the house was really just a jumping off point for his fabulous new career--his book about it all is coming out soon, and he's about to go on tour internationally to promote it.

And then there's the story in the Globe this weekend about the Chinese girl who wanted a recording contract. So she got hooked up with a guy who set her up with a blog, the aim of which was to trade up from a paper clip to a house in a hundred days. Somehow, after a hundred days, she ended up with a recording contract--I'm not clear about the house.

I can't imagine how this could possibly work.

Well, I'd like a five bedroom house off Withrow Park, but I'm going to be much more modest. I would like to trade up to--a Bookshort!

In case you haven't heard of them, Bookshorts are little mini-films about 3 to 5 minutes long that are like movie trailers for books. Authors use them to promote their books. I'd like to get one made for my novel, Things Go Flying.

Here's my favourite Bookshort--it's for Douglas Coupland's Jpod. You really have to see this to get what I mean.

http://bookshorts.com/watch_jpod.htm

Now I just have to think of something to trade...maybe I should hit some garage sales.