What an amazing couple of weeks it’s been since The Best Laid Plans was somehow crowned the 2011 Canada Reads winner. I’m still reeling from the news and don’t expect to touch back down for some time yet.

In the aftermath of Canada Reads, one of the comments I’ve often heard usually goes something like this:

“You must have had so much faith and belief in your book back in 2007 to podcast it and self-publish it, even when agents and publishers didn’t seem interested. You must have known people would like the novel if you could just get it into their hands.”

Well, I hate to burst that bubble, but the idea to podcast The Best Laid Plans had little to do with any confidence I had in the story. Quite the opposite, in fact. When I finished the manuscript, I honestly had no idea whether I’d written anything worthy of anyone’s time. I really didn’t know. When you labour over a manuscript for months, virtually immerse yourself in it, your perspective and judgement on what you’ve written can abandon you. Mine certainly did. Podcasting was simply a way to get a sense of whether people liked it. In short, I podcast The Best Laid Plans not because I believed in it, but rather because I didn’t yet. It was only after I received so much encouraging feedback from listeners that I felt comfortable moving ahead with the self-publishing process. I now understand, and am grateful, that many readers seemed to enjoy The Best Laid Plans, but I certainly didn’t know or expect that back in 2007. That just makes the events of the past month that much more surreal and gratifying. MORE…

Have you ever read a book that touched, moved and brought you to tears? It may sound dramatic, but with no exaggeration, Roberta Rich’s historical fiction The Midwife of Venice, set against the backdrop of sixteenth-century Italy, is that kind of book for me. (Read the first chapter here and you’ll see what I mean!) I was extremely excited when a lunch invitation with the author was extended to me; I would have the chance to tell her personally how passionate I am about her book!

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Recently Christopher Plummer was in our downtown office to sign 500 plus copies of his biography, In Spite of Myself, for an upcoming event. The signing was split into two sessions, and I was lucky enough to be part of the assisting team for both sessions. Yes, we were all thrilled and honoured to meet him. Yes, he was genial and affable. And, yes, his eyes are just as amazing in reality as they are in film.

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Publicists have very clean cars. This observation may score low on the profundity scale, but it did make me realize that I could never do what they do. Not only could I not keep my car that clean, but I also lack the grace, patience and persistence required to trot authors around all day.

I have just finished the first leg of the Moolala media tour and I loved it. It was like spending three weeks at Disney World, in large part thanks to these great publicists. All I had to do was show up and I was escorted around, fed, watered, entertained, introduced and protected. I’m usually a very independent traveller and didn’t think I’d appreciate that level of service. But I did. To a seasoned book tour veteran I’m sure I sound completely naive, even deluded. But for now I’ll relish in the newness of seeing the book in an airport, hearing its title mangled by TV hosts, and being chauffeured around in a nice clear car.

[editor's note: If you missed Bruce Sellery on tour, check out these great videos featuring tips from Moolala.]

What would you be listening to if the end of the world was nigh? Nicolas Dickner, author of Apocalypse for Beginners, shares some of the songs that inspired his writing.

Five Years - David Bowie
Bowie provided the soundtrack for the first half of the manuscript. I longed for Cold War music - a weird musicological category, I admit - and Bowie was the quintessential Cold War musician, especially with his Berlin Trilogy. Five Years (recorded a few years earlier) is not only a great apocalyptic song, it also follows the rule of great films: talk about the monster, but never show it.

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One of my greatest pleasures as a writer, besides the work of writing itself, is sharing the result in public. Maybe it’s the vestigial acting gene I got from my father’s side of the family, or the other gene I think I can trace there, having to do with a taste for applause. Whatever the underlying factors, it’s simply true that I love giving readings. Writing is all about connecting with a reader, and sharing what you’ve written with an audience makes that idea real.

There’s a lot a writer can do to make the most of a public reading. Embracing the experience means really caring about giving people a good show, choosing passages from the book that give listeners an arc to follow and a feeling of reward for having listened, and actually practicing the reading for a good hour or more prior to the event. The writers who give more to a reading event usually get a great deal in return.

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Flavia de Luce is back on the case, her third in this sweet mystery series by Alan Bradley. In A Red Herring Without Mustard, Flavia comes to the rescue when a gypsy is charged with the abduction of a local child. Flavia must draw upon her encyclopedic knowledge of poisons — and gypsy lore — to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice, and to solve a greater and far more personal mystery: What really happened to her long-vanished mother?

A Red Herring Without Mustard will be available wherever books and eBooks are sold on February 8, 2011. But we’ve got a sneak peek for you:

“You frighten me,” the Gypsy said. “Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.”

She cupped her hands around the thing, as if to shield my eyes from the horrors that were swimming in its murky depths. As her fingers gripped the glass, I thought I could feel ice water trickling down inside my gullet.

At the edge of the table, a thin candle flickered, its sickly light glancing off the dangling brass hoops of the Gypsy’s earrings, then flying off to die somewhere in the darkened corners of the tent.

Black hair, black eyes, black dress, red- painted cheeks, red mouth, and a voice that could only have come from smoking half a million cigarettes.

As if to confirm my suspicions, the old woman was suddenly gripped by a fit of violent coughing that rattled her crooked frame and left her gasping horribly for air. It sounded as though a large bird had somehow become entangled in her lungs and was flapping to escape.

Click here to continue reading the first chapter of A Red Herring Without Mustard. And if you love Flavia de Luce as much as we do, join the Flavia Fan Club!

British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction - Canada’s largest non-fiction prize - was awarded in Vancouver yesterday to John Vaillant for his book, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. The jury cited The Tiger as as “a page-turner that in the end brings us to understand the tiger, probably the most intelligent super-predator in the world. Superbly written and highly enlightening, this is a gripping story about man in conflict with nature.”

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Music was crucial in both the inspiration for and the writing of A Cold Night for Alligators. A big part of my enduring fascination with the South is the tradition of music - running the gamut from early Mississippi delta blues through Lynyrd Skynyrd and their suitably hairy offspring (lesser mortals like the Marshall Tucker Band) into chemical cowboys like Steve Earle and Waylon Jennings. I listened to hundreds of songs while writing this book (including a number by The Protestant Choir of the Wallkill Correctional Facility and Van Halen’s Somebody Get Me a Doctor). Here are just six of the key ones:

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