June was busy on many fronts, notably with the Cormorant re-release of The P-Town Murders (If by any chance you missed it, you can pre-order it from: Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.ca) and the writing of a first draft of a new book, Mystery at Sulphur Springs.

The latter part of the month saw our Annual Solstice party, which was well attended and lots of fun. I accompanied soprano Lilac Caña on two songs, including the opening piece (The Rose Is A Rose by Robert Frost) from a set of chansons I’m composing for her on flower poetry by other writers.

Somewhere in there I also began revisions on A Cage of Bones (see JULY 1 blog entry for details) for e-book publication and re-release.

And if that isn’t enough looking back, this month sees me begin revisions on The Honey Locust, a literary novel about a Canadian family in crisis, scheduled for publication by Cormorant next spring.

Find June's Intro Here

"Ah! The glamour, the fame and the glories. Keep them, please and just send me some money."

July 1, 2008

Yesterday I finished the revision of A CAGE OF BONES, first published ten years ago. Not surprisingly, I found the writing uneven, with some remarkably good bits and some very embarrassing patches. My strongest objection lay with the longer descriptive passages. I was able to cut out much of the excess while maintaining the book's simplicity and charm--it's a story about young people, after all, and I didn't want to change it too much. When I got to the final chapter, however, I had a moment where I thought I might not be able to re-publish it without substantial rewriting. To me it seemed excessively flowery and I couldn't see any way around it. For comparison, I re-read the ending of Joyce's A PORTRAIT OF ... [Read More]