For Those Who Find My Blog Too Verbose

After over a year of resisting, I finally signed up for Twitter.

My main reason was that I was afraid I would find it fun, and thus too distracting. Lord knows I have enough fun things to distract me away from my writing time.

So I signed up yesterday.

Well, lo and behold, it IS fun and distracting. Sigh. More fool me.

I'm fascinating by the concept of Twitter as a "micro-blog" and since I've been having so much fun using my Facebook status updates for fun and games (such as posting silly lyrics and planting ear-worms in the minds of my Facebook friends), I thought it would be neat to sign up for Twitter and have a bit more creative fun.

And for those of you who think my blog posts are too wordy, the great thing about Twitter is that you're limited to 140 characters in total for each post. So if I wanted to be verbose, I'd have to do it in a series of chunks......

Well, I did roll out a novel on a blog a couple of years ago, testing the format and trying to tell the story through the POV of the main character as a blogger -- perhaps I'll come up with something similar for Twitter -- I know other writers have done so; it might be a fun creative endeavour.

In any case, if you want to follow me on Twitter go the following url:

http://twitter.com/MarkLeslie

How Many Books Are You Reading Right Now?

One of the presenters at BookNet Canada Tech Forum 2009 had mentioned a couple of times during his presenation of the Sony ebook Reader the fact that he often reads more than one book at a time, and switches what he reads based on the mood he's in, where he is, etc.

I can understand that. When I used to commute into Toronto, I'd always have some sort of thin book (usually a paperback or mass market book) that I kept in my laptop bag, for reading on the GO train. I'd save the hardcovers or the really thick books for the bedside table.

But I found it would be an interesting question from one booklover to another not to ask "what book are you reading?" but rather "how many and which books are you reading?"

As for myself, here's a breakdown of the books that are currently in my various "in progress" reading piles.

Me Minus 173: From 328 Pounds to the Boston Marathon
Alicia Snell
I started reading this on Thursday morning when I was on the GO Train heading in to the BNC Tech Forum in Toronto. Alicia had done a book event at my bookstore in Hamilton the day before, was an incredibly fascinating and motivating speaker, and when she read a couple of passages from the book I knew I had to read the rest of it in its entirety. (Interestingly enough, since I helped format the book for her -- she printed it on our Espresso Book Machine -- I had read at least the first paragraph of each chapter and bits throughout. Here's the cool thing. While formatting the book, I had to keep reminding myself to STOP reading, and get back to formatting, because her writing draws you in so powerfully. For example, the book opens with the following line. "There is a fat world and a thin world and I have lived in both." How could you NOT want to keep reading when the writing is that compelling? I'm currently on page 111.

The Book of Negroes
Lawrence Hill
I bought the book back in October 2008 when Lawrence was the Writer in Residence at McMaster. And again, though I was moved by Lawrence's talk and reading when he was in the store and wanted to pick up the book immediately, there were just too many other books on my "in progress" pile to add it at the time. I'm kicking myself over not simply pushing those other books aside now. I often do that. I hang onto this book I bought for months or even years before I pick it up to read -- and then, once I read it, I curse myself for putting off such a fantastic read. Larry's book is like that. He is a marvellous, brilliant writer. His story is vivid and tangible; his characters are continually in my heart nomatter when I put the book down. It's easy to see why he is winning so many awards and getting so much acclaim for this incredibly powerful novel. I'm on page 137. (FYI, in the U.S. this novel was published under the title "Someone Knows My Name")

Hannibal Rising
Thomas Harris
I hate wasting time when I can be doing something with lost time. There are many moments in a person's day where short bursts of "reading" can help fill the time (waiting in line, waiting in traffic, walking to and from work, etc) Since it's difficult for me to always have a book with me, I decided a few years ago, that I'd select books I wanted to read, and listen to the unabridged version of them. I then copy the files to my mp3 player and keep it handy for when I'm driving and don't want to listen to the continually repeated top 40 crap on the radio, or while I'm on the treadmill, or walking to work, or waiting in line at the grocey store, etc. I've read a few of Harris's other novels and was particularly fasinated with the character of Hannibal. There were some great passages in the book Hannibal that offered an insight into the mansions of the mind of Dr. Lecter as well as his childhood, so when Harris came out with a look at Hannibal's childhood, I knew I was going to enjoy that exploration. This unabridged audio version I'm listening to is read by the author and is quite good. I'm halfway through disc 4 of 6 (not quite sure what page number that is)

Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King
Lisa Rogak
A friend sent me an ARC of this book several months ago -- and again, though I wanted to pick it up back then, I found myself only recently grabbing onto it. I've always enjoyed a behind the scenes look at this brilliant writer, and get the sense I'll get a good view of it. I started reading it about a week ago, but ended up not being in the mood for it and so picked up Larry's book instead and started plowing through that. (When I mean plowing through a book, I should mention that I'm a terribly slow reader......so my kind of plowing is often slower than the average person's plowing through a book). I'm on page 21.

The Need To Kill: Inside the World of the Serial Killer
Steven A. Egger
This is, at it appears, a profile of various serial killers, a look into the pathology of them. One of the most fascinating courses I took back in university was a class in Criminal Behaviour in which our instructor (who used to work for the RCMP) spent some time teaching us about psycopathy and other fascinating things that are now more popularly know thanks to television shows about police procedure and crime scence investigations (such as Criminal Minds, which is among the more intelligent of these shows, IMHO) To me, this book is useful reference material for my own writing -- as I'm reading it, I'm storing bits of information that I am likely going to use in my own fiction. I'm on page 187.

First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
I'm not actually reading this book in the traditional sense. Instead, I'm skipping around through it. This book was highly recommended in a wonderful management orientation program I'm attending at McMaster -- and so I've been doing readings from it based on the various topics we've been covering over the past 8 sessions of the "class" -- so I'm doing a lot of jumping around within this. (I'm sort of on page 195, 28 and 223)

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Special Illustrated Edition)
Bill Bryson
Here's one of those books that I know is going to take me a loooooong time to get through, but which I keep on the back burner for a while. As a basic overview of the history of scientific learnings, it's a fascinating read -- and it is giving me all kinds of insights into discovery and basic science from way back. Like the serial killer book, this one can be considered reference for my writing. Inspired by the intense research Robert J. Sawyer often delves into when he begins working on a new novel, I have always found it fun to learn a bit about specific scientific areas that I'm not familiar with, often finding that just by reading about these things I am inspired to ask "what if" questions that turn into science fiction stories. This one, though, doesn't delve into anything too deep, which is good to give me a generic overview. I'm really enjoying it. But it's often too much for my little mind to digest in large chunks. So I have decided this will be one of those books that I pick away at in small chunks. I'm on page 171.

So there are 7 books that I'm currently reading.

And I'm a bit surprised to see how many non-fiction books are on my list. If you were to ask me, off the top of my head I'd likely tell you that 80% of what I read is fiction and perhaps 20% is non-fiction and that at any given time I likely have 1 fiction book and 1 non-fiction book on the go. Similarly, I one a Sony Reader and quite enjoy it -- only, I haven't read a book on it in a while -- and it was during my GO Train ride that I thought I should have downloaded something to read on the train (as slipping that VERY thin Sony Reader out of my bag is so much easier than a conventional book -- and reading standing up, etc, is also easier with the Sony Reader than a traditional printed book)

But upon looking at the books on my "currently reading" pile I see only 2 fiction books and 5 non-fiction. I never would have guessed that.

I'm not even going to start listing the books in my "to read" pile, as there are at least 30 or 40 books I've bought in the past year or so that I still have to pick up, nevermind the other dozen or more books that I'm currently wanting to purchase......

So, how many and which books are YOU reading right now?

They Say You Want An Evolution

Yesterday I attended the BookNet Canada Technology Forum 2009: evolution or REVOLUTION.

What a fantastic day, with a great series of speakers.

The topic, as often happens these days in the world of bookseller, continued to focus on new media such as ebooks, etc, with particular attention to mobile devices. While stats show that people might be reading fewer books, stats also indicate that people are actually reading a LOT more than ever before -- (one must NOT discount the reading that happens online, on mobile devices, etc)

We had a chance to see presentations about Indigo's new shortcovers offering of digital content (during the presentation by Indigo CTO, Michael Serbinis, I uploaded a story of my own* and then an hour later, my buddy Randy from Waterloo's bookstore tested out downloading the story to his iPhone -- nothing better than a "let's check this out" kind of demo. I was amazed at the simplicity of this tool -- of course, I'm not surprised, having worked with many of the incredible minds at Indigo both in the business and within the IT group, at how well this new venture works)

There were great presentations involving online communities, audio, ebook readers, and various visions of changes currently affecting and immediately forthcoming within the book industry. (And yes, the wonderful Espresso Book Machine was mentioned -- I also brought some sample copies of books we printed off on our machine to show various people)

I'm still quite impressed at the way Harlequin has mastered the world of ebooks so quickly and efficiently, offering some new lines available only electronically (ie, born electronically rather than books that were converted to e-book form) If you look at the demographic for loyal Harlequin readers, you'll be amazed at how quickly they have adapted to consuming this content in a whole new way. And talk about loyalty and customer interaction. Something most publishers would kill for.

As always, the folks at BookNet Canada put on an incredible line-up of presentors, the audience was filled with incredibly bright and dynamic people from the book industry, engaged and asking lots of great questions, and, at the end of the day, while filled and satisfied, I'm already eagerly awaiting next year's event.


* The story I uploaded was "Active Reader" which originally appeared in Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror in Feb 2008. Interesting fact -- this story offers a chilling look at discount/loyalty cards and what could happen if info tracked from one of them gets into the hands of a disturbed individual. You can read the entire story online for free -- go check it out. I have since also uploaded Distractions, from my book ONE HAND SCREAMING, which is another dark humour piece.

HNT - Contemporary Hamilton Author

Quick HNT post this week, and it's all about the self-promotion. (Okay, who am I kidding, when is it NOT about self-promotion?)

This week I was added to the rosters of the Hamilton Public Library's list of Contemporary Hamilton Authors, complete with an author photo that my good buddy Greg Roberts took a few years back.

Since this photo was taken in what used to be my upstairs writing den (what is now Alexander's room), I know it's more than 4 years since the photo was taken. I'll need to have Greg back to take some author photos in my new dark, shadowy basement den. Oooh, creepy. And yes, that file folder being held together with black electrical tape behind me is STILL being used. That is where I track my writing submissions, rejection letters, etc. And THAT is the real "nekkid" part of this HNT post.

I found it interesting that I was listed in the Hamilton Library database twice. Separate entries for ONE HAND SCREAMING and NORTH OF INFINITY II. I was listed once as Leslie, Mark and then another time as Leslie, Mark 1969-

The good folks at the Hamilton library are going to merge both of those listings into a single, self-promoting, Leslie, Mark.

Check out my profile here -- and then go to the library and check out one of my books. Of course, if you don't live in the Hamilton area, then you really should ask your local library to get ahold of my books, which are both easily available from major book wholesalers in Canada and the U.S.

Photo by Greg Roberts

Something Eerie Coming Up

I was going through my calendar recently and remembered that I'm going to be one of the author guests at EerieCon 11. (April 17-19, 2009)

I attended my first EerieCon (a celebration of Fantasy, Horror & Science Fiction) last year and quite enjoyed it. A smaller convention, held in Niagara Falls, NY (just across the boarder at a hotel that is practically a stone's throw away from the spot where you wait patiently for the border guard to ask to for your passport, to declare your citizenship and ask if you're bringing any fruits or vegetables across) this is a fun and intimate con attended by a wonderful mix of folks from the U.S. and Canada.

Last year at EerieCon, I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Haldeman, one of the very first sci-fi authors that I ever read and getting him to sign my well-worn mass market copy of The Forever War which I'd read multiple times since first getting it in the mid 70's.

Francine likes EerieCon because while I'm doing the writer/nerd thing and cavorting with my genre buddies, she's out at the outlet malls in Niagara Falls, enjoying the shopping experience. Alexander is just delighted with the hotel room pizza parties that we have when we travel. In all, last year it was a wonderful mixture of family "vacation" time combined with some fun writing work time. (Yes, though it's fun, I consider attending a convention work since it's about networking and when you sit on panels, you do need to do your homework to prepare for it -- and when you are attending a convention you're "on" as an author, hoping to meet and chat with fans)

I'm doing a reading at 12:30 on Saturday April 18th, and am also sitting on the following panels:

- Music To Read By
- Does Anyone Make A Real Horror Movie Anymore?
- Genre Crossing
- What's Your Object When On A Panel?
- I Want You, Beloved

Last year, one of the most fun panels I sat on was one with Sephera Giron, Nancy Kress and Caro Soles and where we discussed "Getting Away With Murder" (The discussion was regarding how and why you would kill off a major character in a story or novel? Is it a good idea? What was your readers' reaction?) You can read more about EerieCon 10 and that panel here.

EerieCon 10 - Nancy Kress, Mark Leslie, Sephera Giron, Caro Soles

Nicely Bleak

This morning I was reading through a short story that a friend had written, making comments, and suggestions on an early draft of a tale she'd written, when, at once particularly bleak, poignant and ultimately sad moment, I made the comment:

"NICE!"

Then I paused and looked at it. In the particular line, the writer was describing a terribly sad and devastating moment in a person's life. And there I was writing "Nice!" It made me wonder if someone else were to see this would they think that I was thrilled at the concept of this terrible turn of events?

I reflected back on how often that sort of thing happens between writers and writers and editors. The writer makes an intensely moving statement that captures the proper sense of sadness and loss, and the editor or other writer says: "Wonderful!" or "Nice!" or "Great!" If I go back through my own work that had been commented on by friends and editors, I wonder how often I'd see that sort of thing. Of course, not once did I believe that the person writing a positive comment on a particularly terrifying or ultimately sad moment was commenting on the moment itself, but instead on how that moment was nicely portrayed by the writing.

It's a good thing we writers understand what is meant by those comments, otherwise we'd have a really skewed view of those friends.

HNT - By His Skill He Draws You In

Yesterday at Titles Bookstore McMaster University, we had a special author appearance by Douglas Smith, doing the Hamilton launch of his book Impossibilia. (Actually two versions of the book. The limited edition hardcover (limited to 300 signed and numbered copies), which retails for $18.00; and the even more limited edition jacketed hardcover (limited to 100 signed and numbered copies) which we're retailing for a steal at $28.00.

But in addition to Doug's great new book from the award winning PS Publishing, we also launched a special collector's edition movie companion book to the film "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down" (A TinyCore Pictures in association with Southpaw Pictures film, directed by Anthony G. Sumner) which was based on Doug's haunting short story of the same name.

With the purchase of either of these hardcovers from Doug, Titles is giving away a copy of the 116 page book (which retails for $11.99) featuring Doug's original story, notes on writing the story, the director, producer and actor notes on making the film, the original storyboard for the film, pictures from the set, sketches used in the movie as well as an interview with Doug (done by yours truly)

We still have a small handfull of Doug's books left, and I doubt they're going to last. One has only to start reading a Douglas Smith story in order to get draw in to his brilliant prose and vivid characters.

The official movie companion book to Douglas Smith's BY HER HAND, SHE DRAWS YOU DOWN was printed on our Espresso Book Machine from On Demand Books.

For this week's HNT post, here's a picture I took last weekend after I printed the first test copy of the book. (For this first test my cover design was a little off, as you can see the spine text wraps around the front a bit -- but with a bit of tweaking, I managed to correct it and the version we're printing now is, like Doug's writing, stunning.)

My hand holding the first test copy of BHHSDYD, featuring actress
Zoë Daelman Chlanda on the cover. The EBM is in the background

Douglas Smith chats casually with the crowd after doing a reading

Ode To Beaker

A friend of a friend posted this on Facebook and I just HAD to share it here (mostly so I could easily find it and watch it every once in a while . . . . okay, I'll admit it, watch it once a day)

Man, Beaker and a great piece of music.

The perfect medley.

Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Hands Screaming

I found it amusing that my horror collection One Hand Screaming was listed on a website (Rediff books - India's largest online bookstore) with a price of 666 rupees.

Yes, 666, the number of the beast, or mark of the devil.

(And it usually ships within 45 working days -- wow - that makes the standard 1 week wait around here for ordered books seem lightning fast)

How wonderfully fitting for a horror collection.

And yes, there is at least one specific reference to Satan in the book -- my story "Tricky Treater" which appears in OHS and was originally published in Crossroads magazine features the father of lies disguised as a little trick or treater.

HNT - I'm On A Roll

It's "RRRoll up the rim to win" time again at Tim Hortons.

There are two seasons in Canada.

"Roll up the Rim" season at Timmy's and the rest of the year.

No seriously. Especially in Hamilton, you can tell it's that time of year not because of any television or radio ads or billboards or other signage. No, you can tell because the tell-tale cups are in everyone's hand no matter where you go. It's like judging what time of year it is by the Christmas lights going up on every second house in the neighbourhood.

Everywhere I went yesterday, every second hand is clutching, not a normal coloured Tim Hortons cup, but a specially designed cup that offers the chance to win. And the design of this cup is so distinct that you can spot one from at least a mile off.

I haven't seen a swearing in of new Canadians ceremony in a long time, but I'm beginning to suspect that instead of pinning a tiny Canadian flag pin on them, they should simply thrust a Tim Horton's cup into their hand. "There you go, sir, you're officially Canadian now. "

And I'm not kidding when I say that they're everywhere. For example, yesterday, during Ash Wednesday ceremonies, the priest was marking people's foreheads with black ashes in one hand and holding a Roll up the Rim cup in the other. I could have also sworn I saw a cup sitting on the desk beside Peter Mansbridge on The National last night. I think I even saw Steven Page, though walking in the other direction, and away from his former band mates, Barenaked Ladies, holding, yes, you guessed it, a Timmy's RRRoll up the rim cup in his hand. He might be turning his back on20 years of incredible success with BNL, but he won't give up his Tim Hortons coffee.

In any case, yesterday I forgot to bring coffee in to work with me, so I ended up buying a couple.

And with each double double, and eventual rrroll, I won a free cup.

Woo-hoo!

I'm on a roll. Or should I say RRRoll?

So, in honour of RRRoll up the Rim season here, I'm rrrolling up a picture of me from a few years back sitting with a coffee in hand for HNT. (For what it's worth, though it's not an official rrroll up the rim cup, that IS Tim Horton's coffee in the cup. We buy it for home brewing.)

100 Terrifying New England Tales

The other day I received my copy of the Northern Haunts anthology from Shroud Publishing edited by Tim Deal that contains my short story "The Shadow Men."

Subtitled "100 Terrifying New England Tales" the book was created to be the perfect campfire companion, a guidebook for a journey through the shadowy New England otherworld.

Each story is told in the first person so that the reader can employ the book as a fire-side ghost story reference book. Editor Tim Deal, in the introduction says he would love to see this collection of stories become a living document where the reader takes the stories and situations and adapts them to fit their own personal situation to be told around campfires in order to tantalize, thrill and frighten the reader.

I had fun writing a short short specific to the guidelines for this collection.

"The Shadow Men" was actually derived from a scene from a story I had published quite a while ago (Erratic Cycles), in which I equate the haunting call of the loon with a sort of bogeymen of the wilderness whose sole purpose is to lure curious kids deeper into the forest and away from the safety of their parents. In "Erratic Cycles" I mentioned these shadowy creatures in a short childhood flash-back scene, and thought it would be fun to explore them again, this time from a first-person perspective geared specifically for the guidelines of this anthology.

But all I was really doing was exploring the fact that, though I absolutely love the beautifully haunting sound of the call of a loon echoing across the lake, at how, when I was younger, hearing that sound once the sun started to set, put a very distinct chill in my bones.

"The Shadow Men" is my attempt to put that same chill into the reader.

HNT - Nekkid Espresso

We're doing inventory at work this week. Which means it's a pretty crazy, busy week.

However, we got ahead of schedule a bit yesterday, which meant I had some time to spend working on replacing the motor of the de-curler unit on the main printer of our Espresso Book Machine. (This is the part of the device that keeps the paper, which runs through the printer at an extremely high speed through a dozen or so roller units, smooth and straight. In a nutshell, uncurled)

So, I took some time to open up the side of the machine and have a look at replacing the motor. Despite my general lack of knowledge in taking apart mechanical and electric devices, I didn't do a bad job. Below is one of the pictures I took on my Palm Treo prior to replacing the plug.


I took the picture and drew a quick sketch of which of the seven wires went where so I could assemble the new one in the same manner. Of course, the Palm Treo isn't made for taking close-up "macro" type pictures, so it's a good thing I also sketched the layout of the wires.

Otherwise I would have messed up getting the wires back together properly.

Not a bad job for an amateur.

Family Pajama Day

We spent most of today in our pajamas.

It's like one of the patented "Hugh Hefner" days that Alexander and I enjoy having. I call them "Hugh Hefner" days because, in Hef style, we lazily lounge around the house all day in our pajamas.

Except, on this particular day, Family Day 2009 (Ontario has declared this particular Monday "Family Day" and it is a provincial holiday), wasn't just a pajama day -- it was a LEGO day.

A good portion of the day (almost 3 straight hours at least) was spent constructing the various LEGO sets from the City LEGO that Alexander started acquiring about 6 months ago.

It's quite amazing to see the cool setup that can be made from the various construction sets in the City LEGO models.

And while I'm a bit disappointed that, unlike the LEGO of my childhood, the modern LEGO sets seem to be a bit less geared towards "free" creative build (most of the new sets use so many specialty pieces and there isn't as much flexibility in terms of using the pieces to make things of your own creation), I'm quite delighted to be toiling with those little coloured bricks again.

LEGO rocks! A day with the family, rocks!

Sleep With One Eye Open

It's like something out of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" song, inviting you to sleep with one eye open, clutching your pillow tight.

The other day, after waking, my four year old was complaining that his eyes were sore because during the night the Sandman had spread salt into his eyes.

I asked him to explain.

Alexander went on to explain how, at night, The Sandman comes into your room and spreads salt into your eyes to help you sleep. He used the term "spread" rather than "sprinkle" in a wonderful re-imagination of the mythology.

And, of course, he used "salt" rather than "sand."

I'm betting that this mythology from my four year old's mind comes from the fact that we live in a northern climate and he has witnessed the fact that the winter service trucks (salt trucks) often use a mixture of salt and sand to melt ice and offer better traction on the roads. This is particularly important the further north you go because the temperatures are often so cold that the friction of the sand is more important than the salt, which requires closer to freezing temperatures to actually work. Thus, "salt" and "sand" are easily interchangeable in his mind. It makes sense to me (having grown in a more northern climate than where I now live)

I explained to him how The Sandman spreads magical sand that helps put us to sleep.

I left out the technical explanation of the more technical term of Rheum which is a medical term for the natural watery mucus discharged from the eyes -- or perhaps more commonly known as matter, sleepydust, sleep, lagañas, eye boogers, sleepers, sleepies, sleepy men, eye gunk - (Thanks, Wikipedia).

But I think I much prefer his version of the mythology. And I'm curious, particularly given his passion for trucks, that he didn't explain how The Sandman left his big service vehicle parked outside and running while he nipped into the house to spread his sand. I could almost feel the throbbing of the still-running engine vibrating through the house from The Sandman's vehicle parked, running, at the curb in front of our house, a bit nervous about looking outside and seeing the dark frosted glass of the front window preventing you from seeing inside the cab.

It does inspire some interesting imagery, though.

Perhaps I'll use the concept in a short story one day.

HNT - Valentine Memory

I recently won a local radio contest where they asked people to tell the story of how you first met your sweetheart. The prize was a tour of the famous Walker's Chocolate factory AND a $100 gift certificate to romance their Valentines with the exquisite taste of Walker's chocolate hearts, roses, luscious truffles and famous Mint Meltaways!!

When entering the story I submitted the tale of how Francine and I first met as counselors/instructors at an academic camp at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Called "Campus Camp"(an alternative to the usual summer sports camps), students would enroll in two week sessions where they would take one of two "subject area" tracks where they could learn more about different areas that Carleton University had to offer and was taught by students who had studied in these areas -- courses included Architecture, Law, Biology, Journalism, Business, Chemistry, Music and Drama.

I taught the drama program at Carleton's Campus Camp for 3 years and can honestly say that those were three of the best summers of my life. The students I taught were incredible -- many of them displaying incredible talent in theatre, writing and acting. I often wonder what happened to many of those students and can only imagine how a real teacher feels having seen so many developing minds come through their class.

I'm actually still in contact with one of the students who attended my class and who grew up to become a successful writer/playwright -- we maintained a correspondence while she was growing up and it was fantastic to share in her amazing successes and accomplishments over the years. There's a brief article, one of the only remaining remnants of Carleton's Campus Camp that I could find on the internet, here.

In any case, during the first meeting of counselor/instructors in my second summer of teaching at Campus Camp, I jokingly said that I had called the meeting to order because I was looking for a girlfriend and potential wife. Francine, whom I hadn't met before that day, put up her hand and said "Sign me up!"

Despite a mutual attraction that summer as we got to know each other, we had both been dating other people while remaining friends, so it wasn't until much later that our friendship actually evolved into something more serious. But I think it's really neat how the joking we'd been doing on that first day we met ended up coming to pass.

Therefore, in honour of the tale of how Francine and I met, I'm posting a picture (taken in Ottawa) of Fran and I for this week's HNT post. (And now I get to take my sweetie on a tour of Walker's Chocolate factory -- woo hoo! Thanks, Talk820! Thanks, Walker's Chocolates!)

Talk820 Morning Interview

Yesterday morning, Jason & Jodi from Talk820 and I had a chat about the Espresso Book Machine at Titles Bookstore McMaster University and the different types of custom books that we're producing there, including the special "put your sweetheart on the cover of a love sonnet book" we're offering customers for Valentine's Day.

It was a fun conversation, running about five minutes.

I though it would be fun to throw together a short video sequence of photos to go along with the conversation, and posted it to YouTube.

It's Never Too Late For A Good Review

It's never too late for a good review.

I found a recently posted review of an anthology I edited back in 2006.

Yeah sure, the book is three years old, but any book that hasn't been read yet is a NEW book to the reader.

And that's what makes it nice to have discovered this review of North of Infinity II posted at SFreader.com (Speculative Fiction Book Reviews and More) written by Paul Weiss.


In his review, Weiss imagines a pie sliced into three distinct pieces: horror, fantasy and science fiction. Based upon this premise, he has the following to say:

"North of Infinity II", an anthology of 12 short stories edited by Mark Leslie and written by the very best that contemporary Canadian fiction in this genre has to offer is a fascinating three legged beast standing at the very center of this pie with one foot firmly planted in each of its pieces.

I like that analogy.

The authors whose stories appear in North of Infinity II are indeed worth spotlighting (Of course, having selected the tales, I'm a bit partial to them), and I'm delighted to see Mr. Weiss taking the time to share the review about this anthology.

North of Infinity II is still available at Amazon and, get this, as a remainder at Chapters/Indigo for a MERE $4.99 -- a virtual steal at this incredible price. Go snap one up now. I won't be offended that remainders mean no royalties for the authors. I'll, instead, be delighted to know that you'll discover some great writers as a fantastic price.

HNT - Curse Of The Tall

One of the side-effects of being tall are the occasional head-wounds suffered when one forgets to properly duck through doorways, entrances, etc that were constructed with the average person's height in mind.

Case in point, our basement. And while I, a tall person, finished our basement, there were some restrictions I couldn't avoid -- like the air return vent that ran above near the bottom of the stairs. It was at a point where I couldn't avoid making a sloped ceiling that was just about an inch too low for my height.

Therefore, as I often have to do, I need to duck my head slightly while approaching the last two stairs coming into our basement.

On Saturday morning, however, with my first cup of coffee (as yet untouched) in hand, and an early morning desire to get into the den and work on a writing project, I failed to properly negotiate this maneuver (perhaps I was so excited to get to my desk and get writing) and whacked my head on the ceiling.

Of course, there was a time when there used to be hair there that might have softened the blow, or at least hidden the scar.


Five days later, the scar is almost entirely healed. But it was pretty nasty looking. For example, when Alexander woke up later that morning, the first thing he said to me was. "Where'd you get the lump on your head from, Dad?"

Shiver Me Timbers

I received the contributor copy of Champagne Shivers 2009 the other day, which contains my short story "Captive Audience."

The magazine, edited by Cathy Buburuz, is a perfect-bound 8 1/2 by 11 magazine containing 76 pages of exquisite horror stories and poetry. Sam's Dot Publishing regards this publication as the Dom Perignon of horror.

Champagne Shivers has a hauntingly beautiful cover by Carole Hall and is speckled with great art inside by several of the genre's well-known and prolific artists. I haven't yet had a chance to read the magazine, but I know it's going to be a good one, chock full of good writing, because it has a story by my friend Michael Kelly, who is fantastic writer.

My story, "Captive Audience" looks at a situation we've all been in at least once -- the horror of being cornered and stuck in a conversation with the town bore. Only in this tale, the risk of actually being bored to death runs a bit higher. (C'mon, what did you expect from someone who enjoys dark humour?)

Brief Excerpt:

Blinking the sweat from his eyes, Sean watched a chubby middle aged man saunter toward the bus stop. Sean didn't know the man personally but knew that his name was Rupert. Everybody knew Rupert. He was the town bore. Sean had never spoken with him before, being new to the town of Overbrook, but Rupert's reputation preceded him. Apparerntly, Rupert would corner people at the library or grocery store and manipulate them into conversations that they wanted nothing to do with. According to Sean's next door neighbour, getting out of a conversation with Rupert was a difficult, learned process, on par with getting out of the heat in the middle of this tiny desert town.

I had fun writing this tale with tongue firmly planted in cheek, and recall that it was originally born out of a character sketch exercise I did during a writing class back in Grade 13. I had so much fun writing a short scene between the two characters (a rambling bore and a self-absorbed jock), that a few years later I changed it up a bit and imagined what might happen if the bore were finally able to land himself a truly captive audience for all his outlandishly wearisome monologues. It was a fun tale to write and hopefully a fun tale to read.

Snow Fun

It's snowing lightly as I write this, and gosh darn it but I'm completely delighted.


I know that usually by this time of year people are moaning about winter dragging on and can't wait to either escape to some place tropical for vacation or for summer to come.

Not me. I love the snow.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I love all 4 distinct seasons and the different things they have to offer. In the climate we live in, we're fortunate enough to actually have 4 distinct seasons, and I love sucking the marrow out of each one.

So, it's early February -- bring on the snow!!!

Why am I asking for snow? For my four year old, of course. Okay, and I'll admit it, it's also partially for me, because I also love playing in the snow, jumping off snow banks, digging tunnels and creating snow forts and snow men. It's all great fun.

And, apart from the new budget announcement that allows for large home renovations, Alexander and I have tons of renovations to do on the snow forts in our front and back yards. The kinds of renovations that can only come with a few more dumpings of the beautiful white fluffy stuff.

Yes, we weren't quite satisfied with the large snow fort in the front yard and the two sentinel snow figures standing guard over it. Yesterday (a nicely timed vacation day if I do say so myself), we decided to turn the giant snow pile beside the deck (a wonderful side-effect of keeping our back deck completely snow free so) so that we could build a proper snow cabin in the back yard. One that is big enough to fit both Alexander and I. Of course, we need more snow so we can expand it and fit Francine in as well.


So bring on the snow.

There's lots more snow fun to be had!