“People drive by in their nice cars and stare because, like an accident, they realize it could happen to them. So for that brief moment, they can’t take their eyes away from that person’s tragedy because for that brief moment, they understand it could be them, and for that long moment it is them, and even when they are saying ‘poor bastard,’ they’re really thinking of the weight of their own potential loss.”
    —Marie Clements. The Unnatural and Accidental Women: a play. (Talon Books, 2003). 

“I was born with a fever, but it seemed to subside for sixteen years. High school, I was a good girl. I was pretty, I smiled, I fit in fine. And then as I turned sixteen and stopped smiling, the fever returned, though my skin stayed pale and sure, showing no sign of the heat inside me.” 
    —Rebecca Godfrey. The Torn Skirt: a novel. (Harper Collins, 2001). (more…)

Please join us for the launch of …

West Coast Line 53
Representations of
Murdered and Missing Women

Edited by Anne Stone and Amber Dean

With presentations or readings by
Reg Johanson, Larissa Lai, Sachiko Murakami, Lora McElhinney, Renee Rodin, and others…

Tuesday, October 23rd at 7pm
Spartacus Books
319 West Hastings, 2nd Floor
Free! All welcome.

For more information write to westline@telus.net

Well, it was a miserable rained-out day in Vancouver, with scraggly looking and soppy wet people huddling around piles of books, covers curling in the damp. But man, hard core book people are always great to talk to (except when they’re crazy).

Stuck around for a few hours with Dan, manning the Insomniac Press table. Am really happy to know Insomniac publishes Marian Engel, Jane Rule, Gwendolyn MacEwen. Picked up a couple of newer Insomniac titles: Whatever Happens by Tim Conley and The Grammar Architect by Chris Eaton and Julian the Magician by Gwendolyn MacEwen.

And now, for a hot bath…

CBC’s North by Northwest will air an interview about Delible Sunday morning between 8 & 9 a.m. (I think it’ll be archived on site later). I liked Sheryl MacKay right away. It was one of those interviews that morphs into a conversation (in a good way), the context falling away.

There have been a few new reviews this month: Now Magazine calls Delible “inventive and lushly rendered,” January Magazine likes the title, and Canadian Literature reviews Delible alongside Shani Mootoo’s He Drown She in the Sea.

Word on the Street is next weekend. I’ll going to be there all day (hanging out at the Insomniac Press book table, if you want to come by). Here’s to hoping that Louis Rastelli’s more-than-fine debut, A Fine Ending, is back from the printer in time for WOTS!

The Delible bookshort is up:

(Click here to play).

The video captures part of a really great interview Amy Logan Holmes conducted with me at Book Expo. I can see this being really useful as an intro at readings, and also, to offer anyone who picks up the book a sense of the thinking behind the novel, which is very cool. Judith Keenan, who creates these Bookshorts, did an amazing job.

The song they used is haunting and beautiful and, the way it’s cut in, couldn’t fit better if it was written for the short. (Thank you to Pangaea music and the lovely vocal stylings of Jessica Rhaye).

I’ve put up the Table of Contents, the Prefaces (one & two) and the Introduction to West Coast Line 53: Representations of Murdered and Missing Women.

The issue will be on stands (and sent out to subscribers) mid-September.

Thanks to Blaine Kyllo for the layout (minimalist and very elegant). Thanks also to Glen Lowry and Michael Barnholden for their support and hard work.

Apparently, if you’re American, you can download books for free. Including new books. Um, here’s a free copy of my book. (Thanks for the link, J.)

After the Tyee article came out, there was a bit of a furor over Steven Galloway’s facetious remark about burning down libraries. So, uh, I won’t say anything at all, uh, that might incite folks to burn down the goddamned internet.

Seriously, though. I do wonder what the net affect of this is. But then, I’m still happy (and even a little surprised) when I see that one of my books has been taken out of the local library.

The latest issue of West Coast Line will arrive here today. Edited by Amber Dean and me, the special issue looks at representations of murdered and missing women.

In the next week, I’ll put up the table of contents and the introduction. Both Amber and I felt some hesitancy in putting the issue together (a process that’s been two years in the making now), but surveying the works gathered up here, I am very glad we did it.

(Email me for review/desk copies).

A new review came out this morning. The Toronto Star calls Delible:

    ”… a compelling exploration of the intense, secretive world of teenagers.
    Stone has constructed a narrative that’s often wrenching. It offers no false
    comfort or tidy resolutions, but leaves a lasting mark.”

I’ll be at the Book Expo this Sunday June 10th at 1 p.m., signing books at the Publishers Group Canada Booth (#319). If you’re in Toronto, come by and say hello!