The image above is courtesy PixaBay.
It has been a long time since I last wrote, here, but the time has come to wake up this blog from its slumber. I’m pleased to report that a new book of mine will soon be out.
The book is The Night Girl, and many of you will remember the long process it took getting from idea to manuscript. I started writing in 2003 when Erin suggested the premise of TTC workers “digging too deep” and unleashing something on Toronto, and it morphed into something much more complex, featuring goblins and trolls trying to make it in the human world, and a young woman who helps them along as an employment agency’s secretary. In 2013, I rewrote the story from the ground up, taking the concepts and many of the scenes, but adding a new antagonist and broadening the world that Perpetua lived in.
So, after sixteen years, I’m about to hold a book in my hands, and it feels really good to have achieved this milestone. The Night Girl is worth it. I’m fond of its protagonists, I love its take on the City of Toronto, and I believe the story is compelling, funny, and hopefully surprisingly deep.
Well, we’ll see what the reviewers have to say.
I’m working on a few promotional events to celebrate The Night Girl’s launch, starting with a trip, of all places, to Portland, Oregon. REUTS Publications, my publisher, operates out of Portland, and so have a booth at the Rose City Comic Con event on the weekend of September 13-15. Over 40,000 people attended Portland’s Comic Con in 2016, so it seems an excellent venue to promote the new book. The organizers have also arranged me to participate on a panel entitled “How Urban is Your Fantasy”, talking about how urban settings contribute to the fantasy narrative.
I’m able to head to Portland thanks to a grant by the Canada Council for the Arts, and I would like to thank the Canada Council for this opportunity to promote my book to a wider audience.
After Portland, the next event will be an authors’ panel and launch party organized by Bakka-Phoenix Books in Toronto. It will either take place at the bookstore, or at the Merrill Library at the corner of Huron and College. Details will follow, but the event will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, September 28, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and I will be moderating the panel discussion about Toronto as a setting for science fiction and fantasy. My fellow panelists will be Shawn Micalief, Mari Ramsawakh, J.M. Frey, Phoebe Barton, Ben Berman Ghan, and K.T. Bryski. This diverse group of science fiction, fantasy, and urban writers should provide many interesting insights, and I’m looking forward to the free-flowing discussion.
The following Saturday (October 5), from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.., I will be in Kitchener-Waterloo, hosting another author panel/launch party with the panel discussion on Canada as a science fiction and fantasy setting. My fellow panelists there will be my wife Erin, Leah Bobet, James Nicoll, and James Alan Gardner. Words Worth Books is helping to promote the event and will be along to sell copies. I’m hoping to confirm a venue shortly.
And I’m working on attending the Can-Con science fiction convention in Ottawa on the weekend of October 18-20, and Scintillation 2019 in Montreal on the weekend of October 11-13, where I hope to meet and greet attendees, and participate in a panel or two (fingers crossed). If this works out, I look forward to meeting you and enjoying good company in the fine cities of Ottawa and Montreal. I’ll be enjoying smoked meat, and (I hope) riding Ottawa’s LRT.
I’m looking forward to talking up my fifth novel, and launching it onto the world. Please watch this space as we get more information in the lead-up to the release date, including a cover reveal and (I hope) reviews.