Greetings all –
I’m now returned safe and (mostly) sound from my week in Saskatoon. I had a great time, our book booth did well, and from an acquisitions standpoint I think the conference will have been fruitful.
This was our book booth:
And this was my hotel:
It’s tough being an editor sometimes…
– S.
Off to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan this weekend for a week-long conference called the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which is the largest annual academic gathering in Canada.
I’m actually looking forward to visiting Saskatoon because I figure: “When will I ever get there otherwise?”
Saskatoon is Canada’s City of Nicknames. It’s known as Toontown, S’toon, the Hub City, POW City (for potash, oil and wheat), and the City of Bridges. Most oddly, though, it’s called the ‘Paris of the Prairies.’ Don’t know why, exactly… Do you think Parisians ever refer to their city as the Saskatoon of France?
Me neither.
I’m staying at the Delta Bessborough, which is supposedly “one of Canada’s legendary railway hotels. Canadian National built ‘the Bez’ in the early 1930s to resemble a Bavarian castle.”
Sounds like I should bring some Gothic novel to read. Is Transylvania anywhere near Bavaria?
See you in June!
– S.
Well, according to the Writers of the Future blog, the date for this year’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards gala will be Friday, August 24th and will be held in “Sunny Southern California” (which I think means San Diego 🙂
Though no one from the WOTF has been in touch yet to confirm details with me, I’ll likely be flying out Sunday, August 19th, and returning on Sunday, August 26th…because that’s what attendees in previous years have done 🙂 The intervening week will be spent communing with All-Knowing Professional SF Authors, from whose brains I hope, like a genre-writing zombie, to drain every last ounce of knowledge about writing and publishing.
Anybody who wants a postcard from “Sunny Southern California” better put your order in now!
– S.
Came across an interesting piece in The Independent. The article, by DJ Taylor (whose profession is ‘writer,’ I’m assured, despite what the initials may suggest) ponders the lack of “great novels of working life”–the emphasis seemingly on the lack of great novels about modern office work.
Perhaps this opening in the market bodes well for my planned roman à clef about the scholarly publishing business, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Scholarly Publishing (But Were Afraid to Ask)”. Sounds like a page turner, I know, but trust me–there are some real characters in this industry.
(And if it’s about the academic world I should refer to that “opening in the market” as a “gap in the literature.”)
– S.
(PS: For all you Joy Division fans out there, The Independent is also running an article on the new biopic of Ian Curtis).
As if being in the middle of a North American tour for his seventeenth book Rollback wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Robert J. Sawyer–Canadian SF giant and personal writing guru to myself and the other Fledglings–has found time to switch publishers and work out an amazing deal with Penguin Canada (and Ace Books in the United States).
All the info can be found on Rob’s blog or, if you have a subscription, at the online home of Quill & Quire, the trade paper of the Canadian publishing industry.
A big congratulations to Rob on this move–I’m sure he must be thrilled.
I’m really looking forward to his upcoming ‘World Wide Web’ trilogy with Penguin/Ace–sounds like an idea that Rob can really do some interesting things with.
– S.
Funny addendum to my turn as Molly Maid this weekend…
Remember how I said my office was really messy? Well, I was late getting into work this morning (due to a ruptured gas main near my place–don’t worry, they’ll never be able to prove it was me) and the change in my office was so dramatic from Friday that there was a flurry of discussion amongst the staff whether I’d quit or been fired.
Clearly my bi-annual office cleaning is a big deal 🙂
– S.
Can someone explain to me how and why the world’s lone remaining superpower is so scared of everyone and everything that even Canadian money makes them raise the Threat Level on that stupid Homeland Security Advisory System?
Seriously–are they LOOKING for things to be afraid of?
– S.
Marshall McLuhan’s book Understanding Media was subtitled “The Extensions of Man,” arguing that our media (and media technology) allow us to extend ourselves beyond our physical bodies (data storage in the form of books, films, digital information, etc. substituting for natural powers of memory and recall, for example).
Well, as this piece by Leah McLaren in the Globe & Mail points out, people especially of my generation are extending themselves with gusto. It actually frightens me how much I identify with this article.
I particularly love this passage:
For those of us who spend our waking, working hours in front of computer screens, the memory stick is not just a disc substitute, it’s a synthetic externalization of our deepest ambitions and desires. A replicant psyche furnished exclusively with half-finished masterpieces and carefully selected mementos, the memory stick – unlike our first brain – is mercifully devoid of surprises. Or as one struggling screenwriter friend of mine puts it jokingly: “For years, I searched for a matchbook-sized vessel to hold the ashes of my hopes and dreams, and now I’ve finally found it.”
That’s the kind of self-loathing I like to see in writers 🙂
– S.
PS: Her observation about “the smug feeling you get when you purchase a very serious book, as if just owning all that information is making you smarter,” is also bitingly true. I bought recently and have always wanted to read T.E. Lawrence’s (aka Lawrence of Arabia) Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Though I’ve not yet read it I do feel better just having it on my shelf 🙂
So I’ve spent the better part of Saturday afternoon cleaning my office at work.
(LOSER!)
Despite the sign on my office door which reads (and in which I firmly believe): “A cluttered desk is a sign of genius” opinion seems to have turned against my, uhh, unique filing system (i.e.: piles on floor, desk, and any flat surface).
We’re having a provincial health and safety inspector visit in the next little while and I gather my office is considered neither “healthy” nor “safe” in its current state.
I don’t mind cleaning up so we’re not fined or something, but I’m just disappointed no one appreciates clutter like I do. It took me years to get my office this messy…
– S.