River Music Is Launched

River Music was properly launched on Wednesday with  a little party at Librairie Drawn and Quarterly.  It was great fun. 

Now to get cracking on the next project...

River Music to Launch in May

It'll be worth waiting for, I assure you. 

Cormorant Books will bring out River Music in mid-May.  Mary will present the book at noon on Thursday, May 14 at the Atwater Library, corner Atwater and Tupper St.  Pianist Jana Stuart will play Debussy's La Fille aux cheveux de lin which is very important to the story. 

Then on Wednesday, May 27, the novel will be officially launched at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 211, Bernard West, Mile End.

More details later.

A New Novel: River Music

Cormorant Books will publish Mary's most recent novel River Music  in the winter of 2014.  Here's the catalogue bumph:

"Gloria Murray’s daughter jokes that Gloria would have sold her first born to further her musical career — a reproach closer to the truth than anyone but Gloria suspects.

"Gloria, born just before the Great Depression, knows from the moment she hears a soaring song played on the piano that she must follow that river of emotion. After an adolescence playing in churches and hotel lobbies, she prepares to study in post- World War II France, when another sort of passion intrudes and, halfway through her year abroad, she finds herself forced into a hard choice that she shares with no one. Her career blossoms, she marries, and has two more children, and her secret seems best forgotten – until, thirty years later, she learns of the murder of a young composer who could have been her son.

"Set against a backdrop of war, economic changes, and social upheavals, River Music explores the sacrifices that women make to fulfill their destiny, the wildcards of sex and passion, and the complicated relationships between mothers and their children."

Racey Cover for Desire Lines!

Well, the old gal can rock, I guess!

 On Friday Oberon Press sent me the cover art for my new collection of short stories that will come out in November, Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography. My reaction was: Hey, not bad!  But then I blushed.

Can't say I was surprised at the basic art  since I'd suggested the painting "Nude" by Group of Seven artist Edwin Holgate.  Michael Macklem, the founder of the press, designs its covers personally, and I knew he likes to use Canadian paintings wherever possible.  For the last two books I'd published with Oberon--one other short story collection The Truth Is and a novel The Words on the Wall: Robert Nelson and the Rebellion of 1837--I'd also suggested a couple of works that might be appropriate. 

Told to suggest three possiblities, this time I came up with the Holgate, plus details from works by Ed Bartram  (Zebra Rock, bottom right) and Tom Thomson (Forest, October, 1916. top right)  I liked the  Holgate best, particularly because there are two stories that take place in the rocky wilderness.  As well the nude reflects a theme that recurs throughout the book.

But, as you see from the small image that I'd photoshopped as a sample, I didn't think Oberon, a rather staid house, would go for so much flesh and I put the print in a couple of strategic places.

Macklem obviously disagreed and used far more of the nude as well as placing  the print to the side.  He also toned down the palatte so that the lines of the nude are almost abstract. 

But, wow! 

The Next Step on Desire Lines: The Page Proofs!

The page proofs for my new short story collection, Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography have arrived from Oberon Press!

Very interesting to go over the text after several months away from it.  The pub date for the book itself is Nov. 1.  There will be details about the launch later.

Desire lines, urbanists say, are paths that people take whenthey want to go somewhere. They frequently have no relationto the formal layout of roads and sidewalks. They sometimeslead to new places. They are often maps of the heart.

The photo is of such a path, such a "desire line," in the Champs des possibles that got me thinking.

New Kindle Editions Now Available

This just in: two more of my books are now available on Kindle.

This time they are Green City: People, Nature and Urban Places and The Walkable City: From Haussmann's Boulevards to Jane Jacobs' Streets and Beyond. 

(My novel After Surfing Ocean Beach is a Kindle too, in case you're interested.)

Desire Lines: A New Book of Short Stories on the Way

A head's up, everyone: Oberon Press will be publishing my new collection of short stories in November. Called Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography, it's my third short collection and 13th book.

A word about the title: Desire lines, urbanists say, are paths that people take when they want to go some place. 

Frequently they bear no relation to the formal layout of roads and sidewalks. Sometimes they lead to new places, and often they are maps of the heart.

The collection was born during the awful winter when we were out of our house because of the fire.  All my books and notes were in storage and I found I couldn't think in blocks of more than 45 minutes at a time. So I started reading short stories again, and then began writing short stories again.  

 At the end of the winter I had a plan for a book and five stories that I thought I could show to someone.  Quebec's Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec gave me a generous grant in June 2011 on the strength of what I written: it was encouragement that came at just the right time.

 This spring I finished putting the stories together, and submitted it several small publishers.  Oberon immediately made an offer, which pleases me a great deal.  It will be fun to work again with Dilshad Engineer, a very good editor and a very sympathique person.