Looking for a book to read this summer? A great choice whether you’re lounging in the sunshine (hopefully) or curled up in a comfy chair avoiding the rain (preferably not), is Reluctant Dead – the newly released exciting third novel in the Quin and Morgan Detective series by John Moss. Previously a writer of literary criticism, John Moss was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2006 for his work.  Since switching to mysteries he has published two other titles in the Quin and Morgan series, Still Waters and Grave Doubts, under the Dundurn imprint Castle Street Mysteries. We asked John some questions, not only about the inspiration behind his most recent work, but also about his overall thoughts on writing and the creative process. Read his answers below!

How did you come up with the idea for this work?

Reluctant Dead brings together a number of passions I’ve nurtured over the years that led up to my writing mysteries. I have trekked over much of Baffin Island as a self-contained unit, carrying all my gear on my back as I explored the Arctic landscape and wrote about my experiences. Beverley Haun, my partner in crime, pursued research on legendary Easter Island in the South Pacific and I have had the good fortune to travel there with her on several occasions. For years it struck me that there are profound similarities between these two very different parts of the world, but it was not until I turned from academic travel writing to mysteries that I was able to bring them together. Both the lands of the Inuit and the Polynesian island “at the centre of the world” are repositories of ancestral memories only dimly perceived that still inspire their peoples to remarkable pride. I tried to capture some of this fierce resilience in a context of intrigue and mystery that would allow me to revisit both places and excite my readers with the story of a people who refuse to fade away. My perspective is through the eyes of keen outsiders – police detectives who, after being to the Arctic and the South Pacific, return to Toronto to piece together their separate stories.

In your own work, which character are you most attached to, and why?

I’m attached to all my characters. If I’m not, if we don’t connect, they’re not real. And if we do connect, they are so real to me they continually surprise me. Even my most minor characters have back stories and authentic personalities. Life is too brief to spend time with them otherwise. The featured detectives in my Quin and Morgan mystery series are first and foremost engaging humans dealing with life and death, passion and fear, logic and intuition; working homicide for the Toronto Police service through the comedy and tragedy of life under duress. Miranda Quin is in her late thirties. The reader and I share in knowing her, who she is, how she thinks, what she remembers. David Morgan is in his early forties and a very different character. And yet we meet inside his life in much the same way.

Describe your ideal writing environment.

I am a compulsive writer. In another age I might have been a voluminous diarist. I write while I’m out on the land in the Arctic and on the beaches of Polynesia, but I’m happiest with my laptop poised on my knees for three or four hours every morning, writing in front of an open fire at our old stone farmhouse in Peterborough.

What was the creative process like for you?

What we call the creative process is a phrase to describe artistic endeavours when they’re going really well. Inspiration, itself, is a foundling. There must be the desperate urge, the rage, to create. As William Blake observed, without inspiration and rage struggling together in the writer’s breast, there is no true creation. This holds true for the genre writer as much as for the laurelled poet.

 What’s the best advice you’ve ever received as a writer?

 The best advice I ever received as a writer is to go through the first draft, select all the best parts, and delete them. The best advice I’ve ever given is to write, then re-write, re-write, and re-write.

Tell us about the book.

Arctic Naturalist is the first biography of the late J. Dewey Soper. Dewey (193 – 1982) was Canada’s foremost naturalist and a meticulous and fearless explorer. Greatly respected by his peers, Dewey Soper re-drew the maps of Baffin Island, he discovered the Arctic breeding grounds of the blue goose and he compiled a complete catalogue of Alberta’s mammals. In addition, Dewey donated thousands of fauna and avifauna specimens to museums and universities as well as donating hundreds of his own water colour paintings.

How did you come up with the title?

The title for this one was quite obvious to me from the start. Arctic Naturalist, the life of J. Dewey Soper says it all. I wrote that line down before I had even started the main research.

Tell us about the overreaching theme.

The moment I saw Dewey Soper’s name on a passenger list for an HBC ship heading for the eastern Arctic in the 1920s, I was hooked. Beside the name was one word: Naturalist. Once I learned that no one had explored Dewey Soper’s life in print, I was determined that I should do it. I obtained permission from his family and from the University of Alberta Archives and I began to dig. The more I read about this incredible Canadian, the more fascinated I became. Dewey was incredibly dedicated to his craft, almost to the exclusion, at times, of his immediate family. Having lived a life in exploration, and having visited the Arctic on many occasions, I was able to relate to Soper in a way that most other writers, perhaps, could not have done. The book became a labour of love for me.

What was your first publication?

About 1980, or ’81, I wrote a travel article with the title of Timbuktu: myth and reality. It was published with half a dozen of my colour photographs as a full page spread in the Edmonton Journal newspaper. I was paid $250. My first book was a biography of an extremely popular ‘Welsh’ author and adventure sailor. Wayward Sailor, in search of the real Tristan Jones, was published in 2003. In 2004 it was long-listed for the Wales Book of the Year Award.

What is your next project?

I am just starting research for a book about Hudson Bay, that’s the body of water, not the company. With the working title of HUDSON BAY, in history and literature, the book will explore all aspects of the great bay, including the geography, indigenous peoples around its shores, the wildlife – in the water, on land and in the air, the early explorations and the literature that has resulted.

When I’m not working on a book — as is the case right now — I still have to keep my tools sharp.

READING – One way to keep my tools sharp is by reading; I read the New Yorker Magazine religiously and recently picked up James Wood’s How Fiction Works, Drew Gilpin Faust’s The Republic of Suffering, and John Updike’s The Centaur and In the Beauty of the Lilies.

WRITING – Another method is to write other things — diary entries, a log, letters, or, as I did for a number of years, book reviews. Although I don’t do it anymore, I used to write reviews for Books in Canada and the Kingston Whig-Standard Magazine. The advantage of writing reviews is that it forces you not only to analyze another writer’s work, but to articulate that analysis. Writing about writing can be very instructive.

EDITING – A third way is to edit other people’s writing: at the moment, I am reading my son’s novel in manuscript; he hopes, as all writers should, that an objective eye will help him improve his book. A long-time friend of mine, Roderick Jamer, who was for many years a staff writer with TV Guide, has asked me to take a look at his murder mystery-in-progress; and I am also participating in the evolution of a film script by another friend, Peter Blendell; the script involves a Stanley Cup victory by the Toronto Maple Leafs (some of you will suggest that this project be categorized as fantasy), and Peter hopes that I will be able to help with the scenes that deal with hockey itself. (I have a long history in the game, first as a player — my career peaked when I was 13; it’s been all down hill since then — and as a fan — the Leafs are what I have instead of religion, or more correctly, they are my religion; sitting down to watch a game is, for me, what going to church is for other people. And although I may bleed blue, at least I can say that the only violence associated with my religion is restricted to the arena.)

TEACHING – Although not all writers have the opportunity to teach, those who do know that teaching another writer’s work is an edifying experience. I taught Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises at least thirty times over my 25-year career as a high school English teacher. I know the book like the back of my hand — its strengths, its flaws — and may even have become more familiar with it than Hemingway himself, who wrote it in nine weeks. Hemingway said that studying a still life by Cezanne taught him as much about how to write as anything he read, and, similarly, I have learned as much about how to write from teaching The Sun Also Rises as I have from anything else.

BLOGS – Writing this blog also helps me keep my tools sharp, because I can write about whatever interests me, and I can do it whenever I feel the urge — every writer’s dream. Now if I could only make it pay …

Next Installment – Salvaging a Novel I Wrote in 1983

As well as being a writer of consummate style, Updike was prolific. Compelled to write, he tried to produce at least one book a year. In the end, he wrote almost 30 novels, more than a dozen books of short stories, nine collections of poetry, as well as books of essays and criticism and autobiography. During 2008 alone, he published two short stories, a memoir, and three book reviews in The New Yorker Magazine. Especially poignant are his musings on getting old  in “A Desert Encounter” (20/10/08); and in his powerful short story “Outage” (07/01/08) he flexes his muscles one last time on the subject of sexual tension in suburbia. His last short story (26/06/08) was — ironically and wonderfully — called ‘The Full Glass.’ He was a writer to the end.

What Updike gave me (aside from lessons in the craft of writing: he was a master and mentor, a guide and father-figure) was this: his subject matter, as sordid as it sometimes was — the bedroom society of Couples (1968), for example — was about ordinary human behaviour; he always dealt with it candidly and non-judgmentally. He was a chronicler of our time. When I learned of his death, I felt a personal loss, as if a close friend or relative had died. And that is exactly what did happen. Although he never knew me, I knew him (or at least I believed I did, and still do) through his writing, and I loved him for his candour — for showing me that he saw the world much the way I did, and for reassuring me that despite our weaknesses as human beings, we are all still capable — as he and his characters were — of noble deeds.

See Jeet Heer’s piece in The National Post (28/01/09) and M. T. Kelly’s piece in The Globe & Mail (29/01/09) by clicking here and here.

Next Installment: My next project: Men in Groups.

Well a few of us ended up at a Shoppers Drug Mart and as I walked into the Shampoo aisle — I immediately thought of the problem we often have when picking out books that we would actually want to buy.  There are so many brands and types of shampoo but how do I know what is for me?  Of course my first thought is, how many different types of shampoo do we really need?

Photograph by Clean Walmart

Okay so as a rather typical guy, it really isn’t too difficult for me to pick one out, nor do I pay too much attention.  Why?  Well, there are labels that tell me the result or consequence of using the specified shampoo.  The price and time that I pay will likely guarantee me a result.  There are of course always exceptions.  Of course for the others — they like to look at packaging, colours, and other factors.

Well, let’s turn the discussion to books.  I walk into a bookstore (which I honestly admit is rare since my work and focus is primarily online) but my first reaction is that I am overwhelmed by the number of books.  How am I supposed to know what is right for me?

Your response is likely one of the following:

Read a bit of the book

Ask a bookseller

Talk to others (i.e. friends, family, colleagues)

Look for a familiar author

Look for a book cover that catches my eye

Read a review

My response to your response would be:

Why do I have to spend all that time and energy?  How is doing so going to provide me with a guaranteed result that will ultimately help me?  I realize not everyone is like me but I’m using myself as an example of the challenge of connecting the right book with the right reader.  I want to know that when I spend my money that I will be guaranteed to be satisfied for the time I spent selecting the book and the time I will spend reading the book.  Time is everyone’s most valuable resource.

Being able to relate to an author on a more personal level (i.e. common interests) and being able to find the information within a book that is most relevant to me is key.  On a more personal note, I’ve been more inclined to purchase a book when I have the opportunity to read an author’s blog or when I have the opportunity to find a chunk of a book that is most relevant to me via the Google Book Search.  Of course it’s not as simple as it sounds.

So what are we doing at Dundurn?  We’re now happy to begin having our authors blogging with us (Chris Rutkowski, expert on UFO phenomenon has already started!).  Our books have been available for you to search through via the Google Book Search engine for a little less than a year and we continue to add new titles so that people can find what is relevant to them in new ways.

Speaking of finding new things through new methods, check out Musicovery where you can discover music based on your MOOD, in addition to TIME (i.e. when it was released) and GENRE.

If you are watching, and we definitely hope you are — look out for a major change right here on Defining Canada in about a month (possibly less, possibly more…).

Dundurn’s booth at Book Expo Canada last year – Cordelia Strube was signing Planet Reese.

Book Expo Canada News!

If you happen to be at Book Expo Canada this weekend, feel free to drop by our booth. Our publicity and marketing team has done an outstanding job preparing for the upcoming two days of (almost) non-stop action and giveaways which we hope you will partake in! From what I’ve heard and seen in the office, there will be plenty of author signings, [low-tech] personality quizzes, a contest, and plenty of flair!

If don’t have the opportunity to drop by, don’t worry — you’ll have a chance to see and hear from a few Dundurn authors once we regroup after the exhibition, and start posting some neat content for you to enjoy.

We originally formed the blog as a way that we could communicate with the public and our authors while our website was being redeveloped. What we discovered was that the blog was as much of an entity as was the website — they co-exist. Personally, I love to see people comment on our blog — telling us what they think (giving us a piece of their mind).

Maple Leaf Mosaic by Chris Darling

A Look at the Past Year

After a year, we’ve blogged over 400 different posts — not bad for a first year. Let’s take a look at ten posts from Dundurn that changed the way we blog — starting from the earliest.

1. No this wasn’t our first blog post, this was our second one! We announced a chat that took place last year with Maureen Jennings about her first Christine Morris mystery, Does Your Mother Know?

2. We tried to introduce new books that came in hot off the press, but it didn’t work out so well. But we did learn a lot in the process — especially when it came to playing with photography. Take Don Easton’s second Jack Taggart mystery as an example — Above Ground worked brilliantly for the photo shoot — and the book is awesome for those who love gritty mystery novels involving undercover mounties. Stay tuned for a third book in the series.

3. There’s (almost) nothing better than posting up great reviews on a consistent basis of the books you publish. This was one of our first round ups. It just so happened to also be another staffer’s earlier blog postings.

4. It’s always fun to get to listen to audio interviews online. Especially when you don’t have the opportunity to tune in on the radio. Robert Hoshowsky, author of The Last to Die, had the opportunity to chat with Peter Anthony Holder. Peter provided us with the audio file and we posted it up right away! You can still listen to it… thanks again Peter.

5. If you can remember when the first CD-ROM encyclopedia first arrived in the early 90s, then you can remember how amazing it was to be able to view tiny movie clips direct from your computer. Fast forward to 2007 and we’ve got YouTube. Lance Goddard, author of Hell and High Water, provided us with some amazing video interviews with the Canadian veterans who fought in the Italian Campaign of World War II — YouTube let us share the first of many videos here.

6. After the Quill and Quire posted an article about the future of bookchat, I decided to run our own internal poll. This was vital blog post as it quantified and provided a visual manner of interpreting how people really felt about different mediums and their impact on our individual daily lives. To this day, it still fascinates me how people regard newspapers and blogs. Perhaps we’ll do a follow up study — another time.

7. The first author to start blogging on Defining Canada. J.D. Carpenter, author of mystery novel 74 Miles Away, and forthcoming Twelve Trees — went on a one month tour around the United States to do research on a book he is working on. While J.D. was initially a little hesistant, he turned out to be a brilliant blogger. He blogged daily about his adventures and provides some interesting side stories. This one was a favourite of mine. Make sure you check out his American Odyssey (you may need to work your way backwards).

8. Believe it or not, the Amazon Kindle ebook reader continues to be of interest to many many Canadians. They just keep searching for it and they arrive here. Sorry folks, but the Kindle just hasn’t arrived yet in Canada.

9. Just for fun around the time of the holidays. We polled ourselves and the public about whether or not they enjoyed fruitcake. By no means is this an accurate poll but — the no side wins — for now…

10. This may seem like a normal post and it is. It was a great review of Caroline Rennie Pattison’s The Law of Three. However it was also the beginning of you hearing less from me and more from others here at Dundurn.

Mind you there are so many notable posts that I can’t list them all (it is over 400 after all), so I encourage you to explore.

Just to give you a brief idea of how we’ve been doing — this is a graph of the number of posts we make per month from beginning to the present.

Now what? The future!

Look out for some upcoming changes to our blog. Some big and some small. We hope to serve up a nice new and fresh platter of variety to suit your taste buds. More voices and more interesting tales to tell.

Thanks for visiting us over and over again for the first year — let us know if there’s something you want to see more of!