On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Good morning, everyone!

Midway through this particular Canadian Long Weekend - and maybe we need to change the name of it, because Imperial/Colonial nonsense? - and I've gotten dishes washed, kitchen floors vacuumed and CPAP gear cleaned. So I'm rewarding myself with internet time that doesn't have anything to do with job-hunting.

Looking at Rick Salutin's 1973 essay "The Great Canadian History Robbery"...and I now see one of the places where Will Ferguson might have gotten some of his inspiration for Bastards and Boneheads - and the Canadian History for Dummies that followed it - from. Clearly, we need regular rethinks of Canadian history. Richard Gwyn's Macdonald-worshipping ghost can go climb a tree...upside down.

This announcement got made today:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/canada-reads-shortlist-panellists-1.5434913

If you're interested in Canadian-written books, this is a Big Damn Deal.

Full disclosure: I've met Cory Doctorow on a couple of occasions at Ottawa International Writers Festival events across the years. That may bias my choices in this.

I'm about five chapters into this one. Bought it back in January of this year, and then got distracted with a couple of metric tonnes of other stuff. One more of my mistakes.

Well, it's getting fixed now, right?

Anyway, two chapters in, and already Gail's upended stuff that Joanne Kilbourn thought she knew and understood about her own life and family. No, not going to explain it. I spoiled it for myself by finally starting to read Gail's "how-I-dunnit" book about mystery novels, Sleuth. That book is one more reason why University of Regina Press ought to be getting much more attention from the general book-reading public on the non-fiction side.

Anyway, I'll try to remember to let you know when I've finished. Gail migrated in the opposite direction of mine: to Saskatchewan from Ontario. And she found ways of proving my birth province an interesting place in its own right, as Robert B. Parker did with Spenser's Boston.

Previously, we had Margaret Atwood finally getting into writing for comics with Angel Catbird. Now this.

Can we get a deal between Hayden Taylor and Pocket Books re: Trek novels?

From Q's YouTube page: Growing up, Drew Hayden Taylor immersed himself in science fiction books yet he often felt left out. Unable to see his own Ojibway experiences reflected in these works of literature, Taylor has since written a number of books through the perspective and lens of Indigenous people. He joins guest host Candy Palmater to discuss his collection of indigenous sci-fi stories in his new book "Take Us to Your Chief".

So I'm going to attend a few panels at this convention:

http://www.can-con.org/

Not sure which ones. I'll know when finally read the schedule in the program book. Not going to be a panelist, sorry. Just another fan, me.

More later...

From Mark Bourrie and the Hill Times. Not sure how long you have before it goes behind a paywall...

http://www.hilltimes.com/books/news/2014/12/15/harper-clampdown-media-cuts-make-for-staged-predictable-hill-news-bourrie/40529

I'd forgotten this was his birthday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Berton

While the man's no longer with us, his works still are. Maybe it's a good idea to pull that copy of The Joy of Writing when I get back home again tonight...?

One: an article on Sequential Tart on the state of the artform and industry in Canada since 2001 by Erin Elisabeth Fraser. Go have a good look at this one.

Two: J Torres is starting up a new super-hero genre project, True Patriots. Inspired by previous generations of made-for-Canadian-readers characters and stories, J is looking to build on it in new ways and he and his partners are looking for help! Details in the link!

robmclennan pointed out this press release from the Literary Press Group of Canada(LPG). I can't recall having picked up much of their associated publishers' product lines over the years, but must admit to being more than a little concerned over the consequences for independently-owned, homegrown publishing of any sort. It's difficult enough to build up a local indy publisher without either falling prey to bankruptcy or foreign takeover as it is around here, and this could make the situation a lot worse.