WHAT I’M WORKING ON NEXT

I wrote my first two novels — neither of which was published — in the 1980’s. The first one, called Country Music, was a coming of age story about a group of young men in Haliburton, north of Toronto. It almost made it; it was with Doubleday for eleven months, and the young editor who [...]

THE DEATH OF JOHN UPDIKE

I’d intended to write about my next project in this blog, but something far more important came up: the death of John Updike. For any serious reader of modern American fiction, Updike is a must. His quartet of novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom (Rabbit, Run, 1960; Rabbit Redux, 1971; Rabbit Is Rich, 1981; Rabbit at [...]

HOW OUR AMERICAN ODYSSEY LED TO ‘BLACK TUPELO’

All writers of fiction depend on their imaginations. The more vivid the imagination, the better the writing. But there’s no replacement for experience, and that’s why Karen and I set off to follow the itinerary of my character Campbell Young as he pursued a scam artist named Wendell Honey through the American midwest. The route [...]

AMERICAN ODYSSEY REVISITED

In the summer of 2007, my girlfriend Karen and I embarked upon a 12,726 kilometre road trip which took us from Picton, Ontario, to Bayou Sorrel, Louisiana — via the Colorado Rockies and the Grand Canyon and Route 66, etc. — and back. The purpose of our journey, which lasted 34 days and covered 20 [...]

Jack Taggart At His Best

It was a pretty good weekend publicity wise for Dundurn with three mentions in the Globe and Mail Books Section. First up, Angel in the Full Moonby Don Easton, which was reviewed by Margaret Cannon as part of her Crime Books column. Former undercover operative Don Easton brings twenty years of experience to this third gritty [...]

A Globe and Mail Weekend

Last weekend was a Globe and Mail weekend for Dundurn with two books – The Firebrand and Running with Dillinger – receiving mentions! First up, in the Books section, The Firebrand: William Lyon Mackenzie and the Rebellion in Upper Canada, part of our Voyageur Classics series of books, was included as part of the Paperbacks column. In this [...]

Running with Dillinger Reviews

Since everyone else seems to be blogging today, I could not help but feel left out so I’m jumping into the fun by letting you know about a couple of recent brilliant reviews of Edward Butts’ Running with Dillinger, a book filled with chapters on various Canadian outlaws of the past.

Let’s hop to the reviews [...]