Mind blown down here.
The Guardians has today made it on to the Maclean’s national fiction bestseller list for a seventh straight week. It’s up to #5. If I knew how to add an “Insanely grinning monkey” emoticon on this thing, I would.
Zoomer Book Club webcast
I’m very pleased to report that The Guardians is the February pick (and first ever!) for Zoomer magazine’s new on-line book club. As part of the program, I’m doing a live webcast on Thursday. I will be answering questions both in-house, and from readers emailing and what-have-you while I sit in the hot seat. Check out www.zoomermag.com at 2PM EST on February 24 and see what it’s all about. It’s a first for me too.
The Guardians – Six Weeks Straight!
Well, this is a personal best for sure: The Guardians is on this week’s Maclean’s bestseller list, making it six weeks straight (it’s in there at #7). Canadians must like their ghosts in winter. Who knew?
The Guardians in The Guardian
The first major UK review for The Guardians is out today, and it’s a great one in The Guardian. Laura Wilson writes: “Ambitious…With a well-executed dual narrative, both past and present, strong characterizations and some truly arresting images, The Guardians is a compelling and genuinely creepy read.” Apparently there’s a nice photo of the cover and everything, too.
If you’re in the UK, save me the clipping, would you?
The Guardians – 5 Weeks in a Row!
Thanks to all – the sales and publicity and marketing people at Doubleday Canada, the great handselling bookstore folks out there, and you, the Blessed-be-to-God! readers – who have put The Guardians on the Maclean’s national fiction bestseller list for a fifth straight week. It’s at #3 this time out. I’m tickled. (I mean that literally. I’m sitting here tickling myself. Odd, I know. But the days are long up here in the Writer’s Roost…)
The Guardians’ 4th Week on the List!
Surprised and happy to report that The Guardians has made a fourth straight appearance on the Maclean’s fiction bestseller list this week. For those who’ve got the book ready to go on your bedside table, I hope you enjoy it. For those who’ve read it already and got the chills (of the good kind), you have my gratitude. And for those who’ve heard about it but are wondering if it’s worth taking the plunge…hell, what else you gonna do in February?
Blogging the Blogs
It’s getting so bloggy over here…I can barely see. Get it! “Bloggy” rhymes with “foggy”! Okay. It’s jet lag. Forget it.
I’m back from a fun trip to Calgary and Vancouver for The Guardians and now I’m astride the desk once more, working through the almost weirdly accumulated tasks that existed as only distant vapours a week ago. The good news is that pretty much everything I’m working on these days is stuff that I want to be working on (not always the case…right freelancers?) Among this stuff is guest blogging for the National Post’s on-line book section, The Afterword. I’m there all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress!
On the Road
A book tour can refer to any number of realities, from glam 20-city limo-and-executive-class victory laps to a drive through a blizzard to read to empty chairs in a church basement. The book tour I’m on for The Guardians at the moment isn’t Grisham-esque in its length or expense, but they’re keeping me busier than I’ve ever been on these trips, and the truth is I’m having a hell of a good time. Had a really great day in Calgary yesterday, finishing off with a reading to a warm audience at Pages bookstore in Kensington. Today I’m in Vancouver, doing interviews and reading at the Main Branch VPL tonight. Meeting some old friends along the way, and making some new ones too. I’m having a blast, gotta say.
The Guardians up to #2 on National Bestseller list!
The crappy news? I feel like I’m getting a cold. Not unusual for the sunless deep-freeze we call January in Canada. But still, against all odds, I thought I might sneak through the winter without one. It’s touch and go still – I’m clinging to the possibility that I may yet be spared (that same faint hope that drives sales of Cold FX…and yes, I’m popping them like M&Ms).
The good news? The Guardians has made it on to the Maclean’s National Bestseller List for a second week in a row! Not only that, it’s moved up from #5 to #2! I’m gobsmacked.
So here’s a question: can good news (and a hell of a lot of naturopathic voodoo pills) make a cold go away?
The Guardians – 2nd Printing!
So my son (he just turned one) wakes up screaming his fool head off this morning at a quarter after five. That’s early, even for him. I spent the next two hours letting him crawl over me in the basement and play dj (he loves to crank the volume knob on the radio to eleven – sorry neighbours!) By the time I trudge upstairs to the office at nine (were those stairs always that steep?) and check my email, I’m about as perky as a George A. Romero zombie (not to be confused with those 28 Days Later-style speedsters). But then what do I see? An email from my editor at Doubleday Canada saying The Guardians is going into its 2nd printing just two weeks after publication! That’s double-espresso news!