After a very eventful yet wonderful spring, I’m off to the cottage for two weeks with my wife and two sons for our summer vacation. I’m looking forward to reading and continuing my fledgling efforts to map out the sequel to TBLP. In the meantime, the M&S edition of TBLP is well into the production process now. The cover design is complete, cover copy is approved, and the book layout, all 314 pages or so of it, is done. I met earlier this week with the publicity team that will be doing all they can to make sure copies of TBLP fly off bookstore shelves in October. I’ll be doing a number of speaking/reading gigs to support the novel including the Ottawa International Writers Festival and the Headwaters Arts Festival in Orangeville. There’s apparently an article about, and/or review of TBLP podcast coming out this weekend in the Hamilton Spectator written by Mark Leslie Lefebvre. I hope to be able to read it just before packing up the minivan and heading up the 400 to Twelve Mile Bay.

(Update: In fact, two Mark Leslie Lefebvre articles ran.  You’ll find the TBLP podcast review article here and a second interesting piece here on how independent authors are using podcasts to build an audience adn break through into traditional publishing.  Nice job Mark and thanks!)

By the way, a segment on Global Television’s CEO TV about yours truly and TBLP will air Saturday, July 5th at 11:30 a.m. You should also be able to catch it on the CEO TV website by Monday, July 7th.

I’ll check in as soon as we’re back. (I’m not sure how I’ll survive offline for two weeks but I’m looking forward to trying…)

A couple of weeks ago, I appeared on stage at the Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto’s historic Distillery District, to do a reading for a People for Education fundraiser. It was a great evening. Also on the bill were Nicholas Campbell, Paul Gross, Claudia Dey, and Molly Johnson. I was way out of my league but had a blast nevertheless.

My wife, two sons and I have just returned from Orillia, Ontario where we’ve spent the weekend attending a number of events surrounding the Leacock Medal for Humour. It was a wonderful time spent with the incredibly warm and welcoming people who manage one of Canada’s oldest and most prestigious literary awards. I was presented with the Leacock Medal at an amazing dinner for about 250 people at the Geneva Park Conference Centre on shore of beautiful Lake Couchiching. As is tradition, I spoke for about half an hour trying to strike the right humourous-serious balance. I think it went well. Before and after the dinner my time was spent inscribing books. Don Ross, the owner of the great local bookstore, Manticore Books, took care of selling 65 copies of TBLP while I handled the signing.

The medal itself is amazing. The photo above doesn’t do it justice. It’s solid silver and shines like it’s emitting, and not just reflecting, light. It was quite simply one of the high points in my life so far.

To top it all off, the whole family sat in the Toronto Dominion Bank Comfort Zone, four leather arm chairs, at field level along the first base line for the Toronto Blue Jays - Baltimore Orioles game this afternoon. At one point we looked and found ourselves on the Jumbotron. My ever-resourceful son Calder took this photo.

Here’s the new cover from Douglas Gibson and the great creative team at McClelland & Stewart. I love it. I really like the way the Globe and Mail quotation free forms its way around the cover. I also think the wordplay on “Plans” with the “s” scrunched in at the end because of bad planning, is great. I think it will be difficult for bookstore patrons to walk by this cover, and that’s the whole point. It says satire and humour more effectively than the original cover. Plus, the prominently placed Leacock Medal doesn’t hurt either. Full steam ahead…

My friend and fellow writer Mark Leslie Lefebvre just wrote an article for Canadian Bookseller magazine about the rise of free podcasting as a way of building a pre-publication audience for a book. This is the approach I tried out with TBLP. The TBLP podcast was up and available in its entirety many months before the novel was ever published in print. I’m convinced the interest and community engendered through the podcast really helped when TBLP finally became an actual book. The article is interesting and foreshadows possible changes in the world of traditional publishing as more and more authors employ social media tools like blogging and podcasting to drive interest and build audiences. Thanks for the profile Mark!

On a whim last fall, I submitted TBLP to the Independent Publisher Book Awards in the U.S. in the regional category, Canada-East Fiction. Well many months later, the results were finally announced today. As if winning the Leacock Medal weren’t enough good news, TBLP just won the gold medal. Known as the “Ippy” awards, they recognize excellence in independent publishing, including self-publishing. Now that TBLP will be published by McClelland & Stewart in the fall, and I hope any subsequent books I may write, this may be the only independent Publisher Book Award I’ll ever win.

All of this seems too good to be true. I sure hope I’m not in for a run of bad luck…

I was browsing on Indigo today when I noticed an “Online Bestseller” banner across the top of TBLP. I have no idea exactly what it indicates, beyond I suppose that sales lately have been strong. I’m curious to know what it really means and have e-mailed Indigo in the hopes of finding out. In the interim, I’ve certainly no complaints about being tagged as an “online bestseller.” I guess the Leacock Medal honeymoon continues…

I’m certain I’ve now exhausted my lifetime allocation of good fortune. Yesterday my wonderful agent, Beverley Slopen, confirmed that McClelland & Stewart will publish TBLP as one its fall releases. M&S is the heavyweight Canadian publishing house with a long and rich history. What’s more, Douglas Gibson, yes the Douglas Gibson, will not only work with me on the manuscript, but the novel will actually be published under his prestigious imprint, Douglas Gibson Books. To me, this outcome is kind of like aiming to win the high school track meet, but instead ending up going to the Olympic Games and bringing home a gold medal. Doug is probably the most respected editor/publisher in the country having worked closely with some of Canada’s and the world’s leading literary lights including Robertson Davies, Alice Munro, and W.O. Mitchell to name but a few. I am over the moon.

As the Globe and Mail article below mentions, there is some irony in this most welcome outcome. Doug and I are actually friends, because our respective wives are close friends. I’ve so enjoyed the times the four of us have spent together. When you’re a passionate reader and weekend writer, nothing is more enjoyable than listening to Doug’s wonderful stories from his illustrious publishing career. It was a discussion with Doug three or four years ago about three-time Leacock Medal winner Donald Jack that ultimately got me off the couch and writing TBLP. Until last week, I’d never really spoken to Doug about my novel. I can only imagine how often he is accosted at parties or conferences by writers hoping that he’ll review their manuscripts. So I chose not to talk about my writing with Doug so as not to complicate the wonderful relationship we have. But after the Leacock Medal, Beverley Slopen did make an approach and the publishing deal was consummated yesterday. I could not be happier and I’m so looking forward to working with Doug.

The M&S edition of The Best Laid Plans, with new cover and interior design, will be launched this fall. I’m counting the days…

Back in February 2007, Steve Paikin, the outstanding host of The Agenda, TV Ontario’s great nightly public affairs program, was kind enough to interview me about the then unpublished TBLP. Here’s the blog post Steve wrote in the wake of the Leacock Medal announcement:

The Funniest Book In Canada

I am going to stop posting media coverage.  It does seem kind of self-congratulatory but I love this headline so much.  It’s pithy, to the point, and oh so accurate.  This story appeared on the front page of the wonderful Orillia Packet & Times on Thursday, May 1st, the day after the Leacock luncheon.