Friday, October 05, 2007

Certainty


... and the award goes to, Certainty, by Madeleine Thien.

Had a great time at the First Novel Award dinner last evening. Funny trip up to Sunnybrook through rush hour traffic in a rented van with all the other short-listed authors. My brother phoned me about halfway through the ride to wish me luck and remind me not to get too big-headed about it all. Ended up, briefly, in the wrong place, but a short walk through a nice park in the weird evening mist brought us to the stately manor. There was plenty of red wine on hand and many friends and acquaintances from the publishing industry.

Thanks to Olga and Adrian Stein of Books in Canada for a splashy dinner, and thanks to Amazon.ca for the short-list prizes, which will make Christmas shopping that much easier this year. What I know about my fellow authors:

Peter Behrens is not fond of socks, Annette Lapointe may need new socks after a terribly inconvenient ankle injury, I can't tell anything about Heather O'Neill's socks because her boots are so intimidating, Adam Lewis Schroeder reads like an old woman -- but only when he's reading the part about the old woman -- and Madeleine Thien writes award-winning fiction.

A highlight of the evening for me was talking with Val Ross at the end of the presentations. Ms. Ross was one of the judges, and she had very insightful and generous things to say about the entire short list.

Also, the coffee with dessert was first rate.

So, maybe my next First Novel will win.

1 comment:

John said...

to the anonymous commenter,

I don't erase comments lightly.

There are appropriate places to air your grievances against specific publishers. The Writers Union of Canada, PWAC, small claims court, etc. This blog is not one of those places.

Please keep personal attacks out of my comments section. I am not saying your anger is not justified, or that it is. I'm just asking that you respect the established conventions of this public forum.

Thanks.