There really aren’t Tim Horton’s (huge coffee and donut chain in Canada) on every corner, but it sure seemed that way when I was visiting. Wherever I popped into a Chapters/Indigo there was a Tim Horton’s nearby, and naturally I found myself in need of a coffee and something to nibble on after signing a few books. I would have thought I’d come back 15 pounds heavier, but I actually lost weight while in Canada. Maybe it was the nonstop visiting and my nonstop talking burning all the calories because I ate like a champion throughout the week. I wonder if anyone has ever calculated how many calories you burn while talking. I guess you must lose at least a few.

Chapters launched their ebook reader this weekend, the Kobo. I was impressed with how thin it was and it appeared to easy to read. I still don’t own an e-reader, and there was a time when I was certain I never would, but the more I fly the more I can see how one could come in handy.

I flew up to Canada on Wednesday (boy are my arms tired) and have been driving around ever since. I’ve visited with two of my three sets of aunts and uncles, saw one of my cousins and walked her two little girls to school where I discovered that kids are crazy full of energy at 8 in the morning, had a great dinner meeting with Stackpole Books’ Canadian distributor Georgetown (and hung out with our national accounts manager Michael who had driven up from Pennsylvania), signed copies of my books in bookstores along the way which gave me a chance to talk to some really terrific bookstore associates in the many Chapters/Indigos along the way, saw my thesis advisor and major inspiration for my career Terry Copp and old friends from my Masters days at Wilfrid Laurier where I spoke about publishing at their annual military history conference with Emily Andrews who talked about the scholarly side of things (big thanks to Mike Bechthold for the invite), stopped in just about every Tim Horton’s between London and Belleville and tried half of a donut concoction that had crushed m&m’s on it (ugh as it turns out, but I wanted to give it a try just because), semi-successfully didn’t obsess about work, and am now sipping a coffee and chatting with my brother and folks and enjoying this Sunday morning while Zoe the cat meows and looks out the window staring at chipmunks. Whew 🙂

I liked the blurring of worlds between the literary and our own and the many and varied sections in Spec Ops, but ultimately it was the dual love stories of Jane and Edward and Thursday and Landen that gave the book its heart and pushed me over the edge.

I spent a couple of hours tonight reading Rudyard Kipling poems looking for the perfect epigraph for Ashes of a Black Frost and I believe I’ve found it. If it still sounds good to me tomorrow then I’ll feel confident, and if by a week I can’t imagine anything else then I’ll know for sure.

As cool as it might have been to have JRR as ones grandfather, the pressure of trying to live up to that genius would be seemingly insurmountable. Still, Simon Tolkien sounds like he has a healthy view on this and is carving out his own path with nary an elf or hobbit in sight.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-tolkien/jrr-tolkiens-grandson-in_b_550097.html

I’m about three-quarters of the way through and definitely intrigued with the book while also feeling a bit at arm’s length to the central conceit of literary fiction brought to life. It’s exceptionally clever with sly little winks woven throughout, but for all of that I haven’t entirely bought in. Conceptually I love that Fforde’s created a world where literature is revered much the way we do sports. Intellectually it feels “right” but emotionally it just hasn’t got me. That said, I do like the main character Thursday Next and the vampire and werewolf hunter Stoker (a nice homage to Bram Stoker of Dracula fame).

Still rainy here.