MiC
NEWSLETTER
Spring 2003 Edition (last updated April 23/03)
       

 

  

 

Welcome to the spring edition of the MiC Newsletter. Lots has happened over the last few months as you will see by the size of this issue. This months "Reaching Critical Mass" review talks about Gibson's new contribution to the genre while Edo van Belkom talks about publishing "The One" in the guest editorial. The Media Watch is packed with all kinds of SF news from the film and TV world. There's also lots of News, a few Updates, and some additions to the Upcoming and new releases lists. I hope you enjoy the issue! 

Ken BasarkeOn an unhappy note, I am sad to report that Ken Basarke, one of MiC's official authors,  passed away from cancer on April 1st 2003. I just learned of his passing over the Easter weekend. His friends in the SF community are deeply saddened by this news. I have created a memorial page for Ken and would appreciate contributions from those of you who knew him. The page is at www.oocities.org/canadian_sf/basarke/basarke_memorial.htm. Please email your contributions to mic-newsletter@rogers.com.

News
Literary News
Award News
Con News
Media Watch Reaching Critical Mass review Upcoming and Recent book releases
Recent additions and updates to Made in Canada Guest Editorial Readers Write MiC Newsletter Archives page

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Literary News

After a successful eight-week test run, Robert J. Sawyer's weekly radio column "Science FACTion: The Cutting Edge of Science" has been picked up as a regular weekly feature by CBC Radio. Sawyer's three-minute commentary will be heard on local CBC morning shows across Canada starting July 1. Specific air dates and times will vary; check local listings.

Internet history is being made at www.craphound.com where Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross are blogging their collaboration on a short story for ReVisions, an alternate science fiction history anthology from DAW books, edited by Isaac Szpindel and Julie Czerneda. For those unfamiliar with a blog, it's basically a series of posts in sequence on a website. To share the adventure, go to www.craphound.com/unwirer/

MiC Official author Robert Charles Wilson has a featured interview in the April 2003 issue of Locus Magazine. Excerpts from the interview are available at Locus Online

  Robert J. Sawyer has an essay entitled "Science & Salvation" rebutting the bleak view of the future in Margaret Atwood's new novel Oryx and Crake in the April 28, 2003, issue of Maclean's. The text of the essay is online here. The print version features a one-third page color photo of Sawyer. 

The Leacock Museum in Orillia Ont. is hosting a Book Launch for Julie E. Czerneda and her newest work Hidden in Sight, the third title in her Web Shifter series. Julie will be introduced by Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award finalist  Robert J. Sawyer. The event takes place on Sunday, April 27 from 2 - 4 pm at the Leacock Museum, 50 Museum Drive, Orillia Ont. Canada. If you would like driving directions, please email me at mic-newsletter@rogers.com

 Matt Hughes has delivered the ms of a new Archonate fantasy to David Hartwell at Tor.  The working title is Black Brillion, and it will be out in hardcover in the summer of 2004.  Warner Aspect plans to re-release Matt's two earlier paperbacks -- Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice -- at the same time. Black Brillion takes place in the same milieu as the first two books but with new characters.  It's also less comical.

 A.M. Dellamonica has two new stories out: "The Riverboy" in Candas Jane Dorsey's Land/Space: an anthology of prairie speculative fiction, and "Cooking Creole" in Nalo Hopkinson's anthology,  Mojo: Conjure Stories. Both titles are now available.

On April 14, the Canadian government's Canadian Television Fund awarded Cdn$2,300,000 to help fund production of Charlie Jade, an hour-long science-fiction film-noir detective series. Executive Producers are Robert Wertheimer, formerly of the series Due South, and SF novelist Robert J. Sawyer; Sawyer will also serve as head writer.  The series is in pre-production for Canada's Space: The Imagination Station, with a September 2004 target air date.

  R. Scott Bakker will be reading from his new book, The Darkness that Comes Before at Bakka-Phoenix (formerly Bakka Books) on Friday April 25th, at 7pm.  Bakka-Phoenix is located in Toronto at 598 Yonge St., just north of Wellesley.

Award News

The nominations for the 2003 Hugo Awards have been announced. Four Canadians made the ballot this year; Robert J. Sawyer's novel Hominids is a finalist for best novel, Pat Forde's story "In Spirit" is a finalist for best novella,  Judith Merril & Emily Pohl-Weary's book Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril is a finalist for best related book, and Karin Lowachee is a finalist for the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The Torcon website has a web page with links to many of the nominee's works and websites. (what a great idea ;-).

ITS PRIX AURORA NOMINATION TIME! The deadline for mailing in nominations is April 30, 2003. The 2003 Prix Aurora Award nomination form, is now available at the Prix Aurora web site in both html and .pdf  format. If you don't yet know who you want to nominate, check out the 2003 Eligibility lists also at the Prix Aurora web site

The Made in Canada Newsletter is eligible for a Prix Aurora Award in the Fan Achievement: Fanzine category. Please consider nominating the MiC Newsletter for an Aurora Award. 

For more Canadian SF News and upcoming events, visit SF Canada's news page and Mici Gold's SF Calendar.

Con News

  APRIL 26 - 7th ANNUAL FANTASTIC PULPS SHOW & SALE, Lilian H. Smith branch of Toronto Public Library, Toronto, ON. Pulps show. Admission: $2. For more information, www.girasolcollectables.com , and click on "Events and Shows".

MAY 16-18 - ANIMÉ NORTH 2003, Regal Constellation Hotel, Toronto, ON. Animé convention. Guests and memberships: Mark Hildreth, Scott McNeil, Kirby Morrow, Brad Swaile, Ted Cole, David Kaye, Brian Drummond, Stan Sakai; Jem Project. For more information, www.animenorth.org.

JULY 11-13 - TORONTO TREK 17, Regal Constellation Hotel, Toronto, ON. SF media convention. Guests: James Marsters, Julie Caitlin Brown, Erin Gray, Gil Gerard. Memberships: See website. For more information, www.tcon.icomm.ca.

AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 1 - TORCON 3 / WORLDCON 61, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Royal York Hotel, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Renaissance Toronto Hotel at Skydome, Toronto, ON. World SF convention. Guests: George R.R. Martin, Frank Kelly Freas, Mike Glyer, Spider Robinson, Robert Bloch as GoHst of Honour. Memberships: see website for breakdown. For more information, www.torcon3.on.ca .

Visit Lloyd Penney's Cancon list for a much more detailed list of Canadian and close-to-the-border U.S. conventions. 


Note to publishers, authors and editors: Please send your news, press releases and updates to 
mic-newsletter@rogers.com

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Media Watch

Media Happenings

  • Opening May 2 is X-Men 2, filmed in Vancouver.

  • Opening May 15 is The Matrix Reloaded, starring Vancouver's own Carrie-Anne Moss as well as Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and thousands of special effects. A word of warning: the movie ends abruptly in a cliffhanger, as Reloaded and its sequel, The Matrix Revolutions (opening in the fall), were shot as a four-hour movie and then chopped into two movies.

  • Opening May 23 is Bruce Almighty, a fantasy comedy starring Jim Carrey as a man who's allowed (by Morgan Freeman) to play God for a week.

  • Director David Cronenberg says his next film, Painkillers, will have an SF theme about "performance artists in the near future."

  • Out now on DVD: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?; Ringu, the original Japanese horror film about a haunted videotape; Ghost Ship; Red Dwarf, season 1; Futurama, season 1; Star Trek: DS9, season 2; Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, season 2; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; and Relic Hunter, season 1 (orders accepted from and shipped to Canada and the US only). Out April 29 are Babylon 5, season 2, and Xena: Warrior Princess, season 1; out May 13, Star Trek Nemesis; out May 20, A Bug's Life.

  • The world premiere of A Wrinkle in Time, based on Madeleine L'Engle's book of the same name, will kick off the sixth annual Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, April 25–May 4. Wrinkle is about children on a quest to rescue a physicist whose experiment with time travel has gone wrong.

  • Director James Cameron says he has put plans on hold for a fictionalized film about a manned expedition to Mars until NASA gears up space exploration again. In other news, Arnold Schwarzenegger will present Cinescape magazine's Dr. Donald A. Reed Award to James Cameron in recognition of his contributions to SF filmmaking at the Academy of Sci Fi, Horror and Fantasy's 29th Saturn Awards, May 18 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel.

  • Production begins June 9 in Vancouver for the SF film The Chronicles of Riddick, which continues the adventures of actor Vin Diesel's character, Richard Riddick, from Pitch Black (2000). Also in the cast are Karl Urban, Judi Dench and Colm Feore. Radar Pictures and One Race Productions are producing the film for Universal Pictures.

  • Author Robert Sawyer's weekly radio column "Science FACTion: The Cutting Edge of Science" has been picked up as a regular weekly feature by CBC Radio after an eight-week test run, Locus Online reported on April 8th. The three-minute commentaries will be heard on local CBC morning shows across Canada, starting July 1. In other Sawyer news, on April 14 the Canadian government's Canadian Television Fund awarded Can$2.3 million (US$1.58 million) to help fund production of Charlie Jade, an hour-long SF film-noir detective series. Executive producers are Robert Wertheimer (Due South) and Robert Sawyer. Sawyer will also serve as head writer. The series is in preproduction for Space: The Imagination Station, with a September 2004 target air date.

  • Directors, actors and writers are demanding that the federal government immediately restore $25-million to the aforementioned Canadian Television Fund, warning that government cutbacks are placing the domestic television industry in a position of "catastrophic collapse" and "freefall."

  • Among the pile of Oscars won by the musical Chicago in March was the best-picture award, thus making Chicago the first film shot in Toronto to win the Oscar for best picture. When the movie was nominated in February, the mayor of the real Chicago, Richard Daley, had a few things to say about runaway productions that receive generous incentives from various governments in Canada, especially the federal government. "We do the creative work," said Daley. "We do the financial work. Why should we send the production work overseas?" A spokesperson for Mr. Daley later said the mayor was certainly aware that Canada is not in fact overseas.

  • American studio executives frequently praise Toronto and Vancouver for their high-quality film crews and for a citizenry who tolerate the logistical difficulties of hosting large film productions. Some American cities, notably New York, are famous for the drastic measures residents take to obstruct filming, such as honking their car horns. [Source for this and the preceding item: The Toronto Globe and Mail, February 14, 2003, pp. A1, A16.]

On the Box

  • Renewed shows so far include Smallville and Charmed. Al Gough and Miles Millar, Smallville's co-creators, have signed a two-year deal with Warner Brothers Television to continue running the show. Gough and Millar also agreed to work exclusively for WBTV in development, but plan to focus their small-screen work on Smallville while continuing to write feature-film screenplays such as the comic-book adaptation Iron Man for New Line. The season finale of Smallville, entitled "Exodus," airs on The WB on May 20. (There's an official Smallville site, but unofficial fansites such as Kryptonsite and Tvtome are much more useful for cast info, spoilers, episode guides, etc.)

  • Although Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda has been renewed for a fourth season, apparently there will be little or no sign of Tyr Anasazi (Keith Hamilton Cobb) on it: Cobb says he's leaving.

  • Cancelled this season by ABC were genre shows Veritas: The Quest and Miracles. Both were mid-season replacements.

  • Tremors: The Series debuted in Canada on the CHUM network in late March. (There's no Canadian involvement in the show that I can discern, but hey, Canadians can watch the series, so I'm reporting it.) On Space, Tremors airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. The series description on Space says Tremors: The Series "examines the struggles of the eccentric townsfolk of Perfection Valley, a town with a world-renowned monster hunter and an albino male 'Graboid' who's protected by the government because he's considered an endangered species." The Sci Fi Channel is airing it Fridays at 9 p.m.

  • Parts 2 and 3 of the six-hour mini-series Children of Dune, based on the second and third novels of the Dune saga by Frank Herbert, will air on April 20 and 27 on Space, starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The Sci Fi Channel page on the mini-series is here.

  • The Dead Zone star Anthony Michael Hall is being sued by the show's insurer, which says he failed to disclose a mental illness. Chubb Insurance of Canada claims production of the series in Vancouver was disrupted when Hall was admitted to St. Paul's Hospital in May 2001 following an episode of "bipolar affective disorder depression with psychotic features."

  • The Sci Fi Channel has released a list of new programming to be broadcast in the 2004–05 year, and it includes eight ongoing series, two new mini-series and a host of special programs. Of the ongoing series, at least three—The Divide, Suture Girl, and Stargate SG-1 spinoff Stargate: Atlantis—have Canadian involvement on the production side.

  • A new CBS series entitled Century City, about a law firm in the year 2053, is now filming in Vancouver. It stars Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, best known for playing Horatio Hornblower in a recent series of TV-movies. My thanks for this tip go to Warchild author Karin Lowachee, who says that "Ioan Gruffudd...would be my PERFECT Captain Azarcon (from Warchild)."

  • Rick Berman, producer of Enterprise, has offered spoilers for the second-season finale, saying it will set the show on a new course. "For the first time on a Star Trek series, we're going to be dealing with a mission to save Earth," Berman said. The finale, entitled "The Expanse," airs May 21 on UPN and May 25 on Space. Linda Park, who plays Ens. Hoshi Sato on Enterprise, will be the Trek guest at the Toronto Trek 17 convention in July.

  • Spoilers on the season finales of Alias and Angel, and of the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, are available at Eonline. There will not be a Buffy spinoff in the fall. The WB won't make a decision on Angel's fate (renewal or cancellation?) until May.

  • The April 30th (on UPN) airing of Vancouver-produced The Twilight Zone will include a remake of another classic episode: "Eye of the Beholder", about a woman who has plastic surgery for the 11th time. (A remake of the classic "It's a Good Life," entitled "It's Still a Good Life," aired on February 19.)

NEWS WANTED! Please send your Canadian media news clips, tips and rumours to
canadian-sf@rogers.com.

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 "REACHING CRITICAL MASS"
a Velvet Delorey Review

Pattern Recognition
by William Gibson
Putnam Hardcover, Feb 2003 
ISBN 0-399-14986-4


So, it’s like this. In these times of the Chinese curse, there have been diatribes aplenty, tirades in plethora, and many many manifestos as to what, exactly, the State of The Future of Science Fiction actually is. Upon reading a representative sampling of these declamations, whether they appear in what few slightly-paying markets still exist, or they are the mad utterances of the self-styled "revolutionaries" that hold forth to all and sundry with much gnashing of teeth that they are "storming the Internet on behalf of the SFF field", it becomes painfully apparent that when it comes to Science Fiction and its ersatz Future, there’s just No Such Thing, no matter how many capital letters and exclamation points the false prophets try and use to dress up whatever it is they are doing as being the Next Best Thing.

Upon closer examination of a cross section of these disputations, they seem to be split evenly between two camps. Those who grew up reading the "New Wave" authors are desperately seeking "the Next Wave" authors, supposedly given a kick-start in the pants by Al Sarrontonio’s anthology Redshift. The nightmarish demonspawn who grew up reading cyberpunk (I count myself as one, I add, so put that flamethrower down before you hurt yourself) are calling every innovative comic book that comes along the "post-cyberpunk", which to be brutally honest with you, isn’t very. Both camps, regardless of their political affiliations and marketing theologies, seem to be coming up empty-handed when it comes to saying exactly what SFF literature in the world today represents the Next Best Thing.

Science fiction fans and interested bystanders alike, may I present Exhibit A: Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson.

Unless you’ve been living as a castaway since 1983, it does not need to be said that Pattern Recognition is a good book, product of the mind of a very good writer. With solid, documentary-like narrative, this book is as believable as if the events within had actually happened. It reads like a science fiction novel, but the events of the story took place in the very present past of the year 2002. What needs to be said, loudly, is that Gibson achieves a mainstream novel that reads like science fiction. Or a science fiction novel that reads like "straight" fiction. At least according to the marketing hype which, in an irony-imitating-art maneuver, is not to be believed. Better to trust what Gibson appears to be doing, which is write bleeding-edge mainstream literature utilizing the tropes of science fiction. What results is the creation of a novel that is unlike any other.

Understand me, please: This is not a grown-up version of that battered, tattered, dog-eared and well-weathered, nicotine- and coffee-stained copy of Neuromancer that still gets dragged off your bookshelf every couple of years and reread. You certainly wouldn’t want the hardcover copy of Pattern Recognition to be subjected to such abuses, because it is a beautiful book, in every sense of the word. The typeface and the colour choices make it an incredibly easy book to read, or more properly, easier to imprint the ideas contained therein directly onto the brainstem. Similarly, the content bears little or no relation to the Sprawl or Bridge trilogies, unless you want to shoehorn it in as being on the same timeline. Do whatever you want, just buy the book and read it. You will not be disappointed.

Remember those dialectic testimonies I mentioned above that concern themselves about the state of the future of science fiction? Most of them end on a sour note, bemoaning the fact that science fiction writers can’t write "traditional" science fiction anymore because present-day society is living science fiction in the moment that it occurs, and the "future is now" syndrome is all around us. What exactly the traditional science fiction writer can write, however, is never clearly elucidated by those who moan and wail about the overwhelming dearth of media tie-ins and serial retreads. The answer is a book that clearly scans like science fiction, but is so obviously set in the present, it can’t be marketed as anything other than a mainstream novel. Pattern Recognition meets that criteria as neatly as if the place for the book in the timeline of literature was just waiting to be filled. As with Neuromancer, Gibson is in the right place, at the right time, with the most appropriate words.

Oh, what words they are. Long-gone are the "eyeball kicks" of the cyberpunk heyday, to be replaced by a crisp view of our current reality, brought into focus with a migraine-inducing intensity. Gibson’s flair for description has always been notable, but it is a talent that has been lovingly cultivated in the two decades since Neuromancer, and has borne some very impressive fruit indeed.

As with any Gibson novel or story, the layers-within-layers of context and meaning and plot ensure that Pattern Recognition is as likely to be reread by its proud owners as many times as Neuromancer, and still remain as compelling, engaging, and intelligent as it did on the first pass. To attempt to describe the plot, or any of the characters, will of course defeat the purpose, since the book contains enough subtext that it is virtually guaranteed no two readers will have read the same book when they are through. Ironically, this is similar to the footage the protagonist Cayce Pollard chases after through the bulk of the plot, where every "follower of the footage" brings their own experience and background to the mysterious Flash segments released randomly around the Internet.

The Internet is the ubiquitous access point for the present-day setting, and even drives the plot, in a way. The Internet of the present is not the cyberspace of the past, however, and Gibson demonstrates this clearly. Instead of multinational dataspheres, consensual hallucination, and a deck-riding cowboy, we have a thirty-something protagonist who has perpetual contact with the Internet, no matter where she is, whether it’s through her cellphone, her iBook, or an internet café, but still doesn’t talk to her mother.

That is only a small portion of the rich tapestry that makes up the book, however, which courses from marketing trends, and the industry behind them, to the sale and purchase of post-WWII mechanical calculators, to the future of the fossil fuels industry as powered by Baltic oil instead of the Middle Eastern oil fields, to the artifacts of the Cold War that lie just beneath our forgotten histories, to a documentary being shot in a forest of Siberian mud where WWII artifacts, including a completely-preserved WWII-era plane, are being unearthed, to the vagaries of post-traumatic stress disorder relating to 9/11, to the Internet as a means of facilitating human connection and even human destiny, to the recessive trait of "apophenia", seeing meaning wherever you want it to appear, and many other points in between, which would take a book of its own to list in entirety. All of these things are delivered up to the reader as micron-thick slices of the world we actually occupy in the here and now.

Pattern Recognition. It’s the Next Best Thing.


Want another Gibson review? Check out Neuromancer Redux: Twenty Years Later. Velvet Delorey examines the impact of Neuromancer over the last twenty years. (ed)


Velvet Delorey is the MiC Newsletter's first regular review columnist. This is her first  "Reaching Critical Mass" review. For more information on Velvet, visit her contributors page. For review requests please email mic-newsletter@rogers.com

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MiCro Editorial

I am pleased to introduce this issues guest editorial by Edo van Belkom. Edo is principally a horror writer. His first novel, Wyrm Wolf, was nominated for The Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a first novel. His short story "Rat Food" (with co-author David Nickle) won the Bram Stoker Award for best short story. Edo's other works include Lord Soth Mr. Magick, Martyrs, Teeth and the non-fiction Northern Dreamers, which proved to be a valuable resource for the creation of Made in Canada. Edo has two short fiction collections, Death Drives a Semi and Six Inch Spikes, and has edited four anthologies, Aurora Awards, Northern Horror, Be Afraid and Be Very Afraid. For further information about Edo, visit his MiC entry and his Website


I Scream You Scream We All Scream For Scream Queen 
by Edo van Belkom

April 2003 marks a milestone in my career as a writer. It is the month in which my first mass-market novel, Scream Queen, will be published by Kensington Books of New York City. (If you're not familiar with the name Kensington, just think Zebra/Pinnacle. The book will have the Pinnacle Horror imprint on the spine.)

First mass-market novel? you say. Didn't he do Wyrm Wolf and Lord Soth and Martyrs and Teeth?

Yes I did. Wyrm Wolf was a mass-market release by Harper Collins (via White Wolf) and Lord Soth was a TSR (now Wizards of the Coast) publication. But those novels were based on role-playing games -- Wyrm Wolf on "Werewolf: The Apocalypse", and Lord Soth on "Dragonlance" -- and no matter how I try to reason it out they will never be considered wholly my own novels. In fact, Locus always refers to gaming novels as novelizations whether they are based on an existing gaming scenario or are an original creation by the author. Locus aside, even I consider my gaming novels to be shared endeavors. Bits and pieces of Lord Soth's history can be found in almost all Dragonlance material, and I wrote the novel based on Soth's existing life story. But even though I created all the characters and the situations in Wyrm Wolf it will always be like I've been playing in someone else's sandbox.

And while both Teeth and Martyrs were original novels with some nice cover design, they were trade paperbacks, not mass-market paperbacks. As a result, they didn't have very good distribution. As trade paperbacks published by small US companies, their appearance in American chainstores was hit and miss, and their presence in Canadian stores was almost non-existent. This was especially sad, or frustrating, when both novels were set in Canada. I couldn't even get Teeth into the big bookstore in my hometown of Brampton (where the novel is set) because ordering the book was a special task so difficult that neither the bookstore, nor the publisher of the book, was very interested in making it happen.

So, Lord Soth was a success because of its Dragonlance setting and Teeth and Martyrs went out into the world with one hand tied their back, so to speak.

None of those obstacles will be present for Scream Queen. As a mass-market paperback, the novel will be available in every Chapters, Indigo and Coles store in Canada, and in good quantities. Word is that Kensington even put up some placement money to make sure the book gets some primo display space. What's more, the salepeople tell me that jobbers and distributors have taken good numbers and the book should be available in grocery stores, drug stores and airports across the country. As one sales rep said, "Everyone did what they were supposed to do in supporting a Canadian writer."

So, after 10 years of working as a writer, this is it. My first solo mass-market novel, totally my own creation, easily available to the book-buying public, and priced reasonably enough for anyone to take a chance on it -- $5.99 US and $7.99 in Canada. Not only is this a milestone in my career, it could also quite possibly be the make or break point.

If you think I'm overstating the significance of Scream Queen's publication, here's a portion of Hank Wagner's recent review of Martyrs in Cemetery Dance magazine, one of the top horror magazines in the world.

'Recent novels such as Martyrs and Teeth seem to indicate that van Belkom is flirting with producing a truly original, "break-out" type book; that he is just one good idea from standing as an equal with some of the best writers in the field. He certainly has the talent, but so far has been limited by the subject matter he's chosen to explore for his longer work, which just doesn't display the energy and inventiveness he's known for in his shorter fiction. Here's hoping his next effort proves to be "the one."'

Whew! Talk about pressure.

Luckily, Scream Queen is -- I think -- my very best book. The idea is a timely mix of high concept and pop culture: A reality television show set in a haunted house where things go terribly wrong. And I had more fun writing it than I've ever had writing anything else. And encouragingly, reviewers have already written to tell me they loved the book, going as far as hoping I enjoy their review as much as they enjoyed my book. There was even a bit of movie interest in the novel a full six months before the book was scheduled for publication.

So, will this one be "the one?"

Who knows.

I thought Teeth-- being a trade paperback aside -- was going to be "the one" what with its subject matter and the image on the book's cover... but few seemed to notice. And Martyrs was written and published without expectation, but received dozens of rave reviews... except few people could find it in the stores.

These days I leave such things as which book is "the one" up to other people. All I know is that I've written the very best book of my career, I'm promoting it with as much energy as I have all my other books, and people will be able to find it in the bookstores, even stumbling across it as they're walking down the aisles. At last.

After that, whatever happens to the book is in the hands of fate.

If the book's a success, great.

If not... well, I've just turned in another novel to Kensington called Blood Road which will be published in April 2004. One fellow writer and very good friend has already declared it THE BEST BOOK I'VE WRITTEN.

So, maybe that one will be the one.

If not, I've just done a couple of outlines for two new books, one called Demon Lover and the other a sequel to Scream Queen called Scream Test

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Made in Canada Website Updates and Additions


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Upcoming and Recent Books by Canadians


Upcoming releases

Recent Releases

Did I miss listing your book? Please send me the info and I'll add it to the list. mic-newsletter@rogers.com


Readers Writes


"READERS WRITES" SUBMISSIONS WANTED!!

This space is your opportunity as an MiC reader to have your say. Book or movie reviews, author profiles, interviews, essays, rants, whatever. This is your soap box. Send me your Readers Writes in about 250 - 500 words. I'll print the best ones here. 
Send your "Readers Writes" to mic-newsletter@rogers.com

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Made In Canada is designed, developed and maintained by Don Bassie at mic-newsletter@rogers.com


Contributors this issue: Don Bassie (editor) - Edo van Belkom  - Velvet Delorey - Karen Bennett - A.M. Dellamonica - Mici Gold - Robert J. Sawyer  
Julie E. Czerneda
- Matt HughesDouglas Smith - Lloyd Penney