Bookbits

Zen and Now

2008-09-29T20:47:49Z

If you are a fan of the 1960's classic "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence " I would strongly suggest you go out and buy a copy of Toronto Star Wheel's Section editor Mark Richardson's first book, "Zen and Now". More than a sequel to the classic, it is its own multi-layered journey across the middle of America on the back of a motorcycle.

I don't know Zen from Zip.
I don't know a Harley from a pothole in the road.

But I do know good writing and there is plenty of it in this book.

Diana Gabaldon-Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

2007-09-27T19:03:29Z

Having a hugely successful fantasy/historical series like Outlander could easily go to a lesser writer's head. Not so Diana Gabaldon. I have interviewed her three times over the years and she's still just as charming as ever. She likes to come to Toronto so she can take a side trip to the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games.Originally she went to Fergus, which I swear has fewer people in it than any one of her books, because one of her characters was named Fergus. They liked her, she liked them and now the town invites her back for their festival every couple of years as a guest of honour.

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander universe now has two narrative strands. The story of the time-travelling Claire and her love for Jamie Fraser an 18th century highlander has spun off one of the major-minor characters into his own series with the latest Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz

2007-09-27T18:52:38Z

Interviewing Gail Anderson-Dargatz is a great pleasure. There is absolutely nothing stuck up about this literary writer. She is who she is and writes what she writes and frankly doesn't seem to give a damn what any critic might say.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, best known for her 'British Columbian Gothic' novel The Cure for Death By Lightning, has a new book out. Turtle Valley is threatened by a forest fire coming down the mountain, but the real menace is much closer to home.

Anne Szumigalski-Mark Abley ed.-When Earth Leaps Up-interview

2007-09-26T17:00:01Z

I hate missing a chance to interview an author. I was about to step onto an elevator at Random House when I learned that Pierre Berton had gone into hospital. He died the next day. Although Bookbits did interview him, it was under the watch of my predecessor, and ex-wife Tracy Shepherd.
I’ll also never get a chance to interview poet Anne Szumigalski. She died in 1999. Fortunately her work lives on. A new collection of poems has been edited by her literary executor Mark Abley When Earth Leaps Up.

Anne Szumigalski, the Saskatoon poet and 1995 winner of the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, died in 1999. Her editor and literary executor Mark Abley has produced a posthumous collection of new poems When Earth Leaps Up.
Published by Brick Books.

David Creighton-The Ecstasy of the Beats-author interview

2007-09-25T17:48:04Z

Sometimes I really just hit it off with an author. David Creighton is one of them. Some people might call him an old hippie. They’d be wrong. David Creighton is an old ‘beat’. The Beats, not to be confused with their bastard love-child “The Beatniks”, changed the way the world wrote and read. All four of the leaders of the movement are now dead leaving only a few like Canada’s Beat Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Creighton still believing.

Separately they were: Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. Together they were the core members of the literary movement known as “The Beats”. Author David Creighton takes readers ‘on the road’ to understanding “The Ecstasy of the Beats”.
Published by Dundurn Press.

bookbits @ 2007-08-16T11:32:00

2007-08-16T15:33:43Z

Getting a chance to interview really cool authors, editors, translators and illustrators has to be one of the best jobs on the planet. But Craig Glenday does me one better. As Editor-in-Chief of Guinness World Records 2008 he spends half the year travelling the planet verifying records.Who's the fastest? What's the tallest? Which is the oldest, smallest, fattest? If you have a question chances are editor-in-chief Craig Glenday has the answer in Guinness World Records 2008.
Published by Guinness World Records.

Sherwin B. Nuland-The Art of Aging-author interview

2007-07-27T16:55:03Z

It's not that I'm opposed to dying. It's that I'm opposed to ME dying.
The thought of being dead offends me greatly. (And yes, I know this is an immature and childish position.) Strangely being dead in the future bothers me much more than not being alive in the past ie. before I was born. When you think of it, both amount to much the same thing. So I've decided not to die. Dying has been, literally, done to death. (Ditto the immature and childish add pathetic punning) So talking to the author of the award-winning best-seller "How We Die", Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland was an interesting prospect. In his new book, The Art of Aging: A Doctor's Prescription for Well-Being he talks with scientists who are trying to extend our lives well beyond the old 'four score and twenty' to two hundred, five hundred and thousand or even five thousand years. Dr. Nuland isn't in favour of that.

The Art of Aging is published by Random House.

Austin Grossman-Soon I Will Be Invincible

2007-07-23T01:23:56Z

Okay, so Austin Grossman looks like a young Lex Luthor. And yes, he's fiendishly brilliant and a computer whiz and getting his doctorate in Literature. But that doesn't mean he HAS to become a super-villain. He could turn out to be a brilliant young writer instead. Judging from his first novel, he's on his way.
Look up on the shelf!
It's a literary novel!
It's a super-hero comic!
It's Austin Grossman's debut novel Soon I Will Be Invincible!!!

Coming this fall to Bookbits...

2007-07-11T13:10:44Z

I am pleased to announce that Bookbits will be interviewing two famous Canadians about their new books. Former Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chretien and Wrestling great Bret "Hitman" Hart.

Coming in October of 2007!

Colin Angus-Beyond the Horizon

2007-07-06T18:53:38Z

When I met Colin Angus I realized I was jealous of three things:
1. His ability to grow vast quantities of facial hair
2. His amazing physical strength and endurance necessary to circumnavigate the planet.
3. His girlfriend Julie looks hot in a bikini made entirely of fish skins!

Colin Angus is the first man to circumnavigate the planet using only human power. He began his adventure with one partner, but when they had a falling out his fiancee Julie joined him. 4,000 chocolate bars, 72 inner tubes, 250 kgs of freeze-dried foods, 31 dorado fish (caught from the sea), 2 offshore rowboats, 4 bicycles, 80 kgs of clothing, two tropical storms and two mid-Atlantic hurricanes later, he tells the story of how they made it home in his book Beyond the Horizon.
Published by Doubleday Canada.

The 100 Mile Diet

2007-07-05T20:58:30Z

For a couple, writing a book together is hard enough. Writing a book while you are deprived of food you love would seem to me to be a recipe for disaster if not divorce. But these two were all smiles when I interviewed them about their new best-seller "The 100 Mile Diet".

For one year food journalists Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon decided to eat only food which had been grown or raised close to home. Now everyone is trying The 100 Mile Diet.

Rudyard Griffiths-Great Questions of Canada-Bookbits editor interview

2007-06-27T15:06:05Z

Canada Celebrates its 140th birthday on July 1st. Along with a day off from work and picnics on Parliament Hill Canadians get a chance to do what we do best: navel gaze!

The Dominion Institute has revised its 2000 book Great Questions of Canada. Contributors include: Neil Bissoondath, Charlotte Gray, Michael Ignatieff, Naomi Klein, Peter C. Newman, Allan Gotlieb, Ovide Mercredi, Bob Rae, Jack Granatstein, and George Jonas. Editor Rudyard Griffiths says they tackle questions ranging from: Does History Matter?, to Is Multi-culturalism viable in a post 9/11 world?
Published by Key-Porter Books

Alissa York-Effigy-Bookbits author interview

2007-06-22T22:23:14Z

Novelist Alissa York's new book Effigy explores life inside a Mormon marriage in the 1800's. Erastus Hammer brings home his fourth bride, much to the displeasure of her three 'sister' wives. The story also weaves in the terrible Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 when a group of Mormons disguised as natives killed a wagon train of settlers.
Published by Random House of Canada.

Lynne Olson-Troublesome Young Men-Bookbits author interview

2007-06-22T22:17:59Z

Everyone knows that after the failure of Neville Chamberlain's 'Peace for our time' appeasement of Adolf Hitler that Winston Churchill replaced him as British Prime Minister. What is not well known, and explained in Lynne Olson's new book, is that it was orchestrated by rebels on the Prime Minister's own back benches, the so-called Troublesome Young Men.
Published by Bond Street Books, distributed in Canada by Random House.

Julian Sher- One Child at a Time

2007-06-20T16:52:42Z

Considering the recent mess here at LJ concerning child porn material, this is probably taking my life, if not account into my hands, but here goes. This book is about the international internet business of exploiting children and the efforts by authorities around the world to halt it. Julian Sher is an investigative journalist who isn't afraid of tackling tough subjects like organized crime and biker gangs, but even he found this subject difficult to handle at times.

Recently a huge internet-based child pornography ring was broken up because of a co-ordinated effort by police around the world. Author and investigative journalist Julian Sher has the inside story of this battle in One Child at a Time: The Global Fight to Rescue Children from Online Predators.

Joy Fielding-Heartstopper-Bookbits author interview

2007-06-15T11:30:18Z

I always love it when a publisher sends me the latest book by an author who isn't just a good writer, but also a hell of a storyteller. When I finished Heartstopper at 7AM on the day I was to interview Joy Fielding I remember saying out loud, much to the distress of my cats, "Now THAT was a great read!".

Author Joy Fielding is back with another thriller. The protagonist of Heartstopper is the deputy sheriff in a small Florida town dealing with the disappearances of attractive teenage girls.
Published by Doubleday Canada.

Liam Durcan-Garcia's Heart-Bookbits author interview

2007-06-14T15:09:40Z

Liam Durcan is one of those people who, if he weren't so damn nice, you'd just have to hate. He's a neuroscientist and university teacher by day, writer by night. He combines it all in his new first novel.

Neuroeconomics is a very new science which examines, on a biological level, how people make buying decisions. It serves as part of the backdrop to Lian Durcan's first novel Garcia's Heart.

Darcy Tamayose-Odori

2007-06-08T00:07:46Z

Odori is the Japanese word for dance. It is also the title of a first novel by Darcy Tamayose. It moves back in forth in time and space from the peace of the Canadian praires to the blood soaked WW II battleground of Okinawa.
Published by Cormorant Books.

Conrad Black-The Invincible Quest: The Life of Richard Milhouse Nixon

2007-05-24T12:32:51Z

This interview made me really, really nervous. Not quite as nervous as my interview with former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, but awfully damn close. To begin with there wasn’t just one publicist looking after Lord Black, there were three. One of the publicists was the vice-president of publicity. The room was swept. Not for explosive devices, at least not the conventional variety. No, they swept the room for literary bombs: books critical of Conrad Black. There were several of those. Lord Black arrived sipping a coffee from the deli in the lobby of the M&S building. The doors closed and we began. If you’d like to listen to the entire interview (39:07) CLICK HERE.

Conrad Black, currently appearing in a Chicago court on fraud charges, is also a highly respected biographer. The Invincible Quest: The Life of Richard Milhouse Nixon is the most thorough biography ever written about America's most controversial President.

Sure Conrad Black was tough, but he was no...

2007-03-13T10:58:36Z

I've been a professional journalist for almost thirty years now. This gives me the opportunity to interview a lot of interesting people. Sometimes I get the opportunity to interview very intimidating people. Last week I had the chance to interview Conrad Black. That's Baron Conrad Moffat Black of Crossharbour PC, OC, KCSG. I was frankly quite nervous about interviewing Lord Black. He has a reputation for not suffering fools, to which category he allegedly assigns most of those in my profession, gladly. As I sat in the McClelland & Stewart boardroom waiting for his limo to arrive, I just kept thinking back to one of my first, and arguably worst interviews ever: former Canadian Prime Minister The Right Honourable John George Diefenbaker, CH, PC, QC, BA, MA, LL.B, LL.D, DCL, FRSC, FRSA, D.Litt, DSL.

I interviewed Dief in 1979 a few months before he died. He was intimidating as hell to a 19 year old first year broadcasting student. We talked in his office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. His secretary, who seemed almost as old as Diefenbaker's 83 years, reminded me to speak up because "The Chief" was hard of hearing then we were ushered in to see the great man himself.

To say I interviewed Diefenbaker isn't quite accurate. He talked about what he wanted to talk about and I was along for the ride. I did have the nerve to ask about the Avro Arrow, one of the sour points of his legacy. "Ancient History!" he thundered, "Next question!" And that was that.

At one point, he pointed to a piece of parchment mounted on the wall. "Read that young man," he commanded. I looked up and couldn't read a word. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know Latin." He glared at me. I offered, "I can read French..." This was a mistake. Diefenbaker's grasp of Canada's second official language was infamously tenuous at best.

I lived through the interview somehow and wound up with some usable tape, but the experience still haunts me. On the other hand, anytime I have a challenging interview subject, like Conrad Black, I just think to myself "It isn't Diefenbaker. It isn't Diefenbaker. It isn't Diefenbaker. It isn't Diefenbaker..." and I calm right down. Thanks Dief!

Baron Conrad Black of Crossharbour and me...

2007-03-09T21:26:26Z

Oh, Conrad and me, we go way back! It was 1981, I was a young kid straight out of broadcasting college. He was the owner of Standard Broadcasting's radio station CFRB in Toronto. It didn't take long before...I realized he'd never know I existed. And until today, he didn't. And until today, I didn't much like the man.

He was not what I expected. There was no self-importance. There was no condescension. There was no ghost-writer. He was courteous, humourous, self-deprecating and very generous with his time. He has a very sharp mind with an amazing memory for detail. He is also a very compelling writer. I called him on using "fissiparous" twice. He thought he'd only used it once. But heck, in a 1075 page book, I guess that isn't gratuitous.

It's the little things about a person I find most telling.

The publicity staff at McClelland & Stewart were all quite nervous about making everything just so for him. They put out a couple of bottles of water, one for me and the other on the table in front of his chair. Someone else decided the big boardroom table looked a bit bare, so they added a few crystal wine-glasses and a water carafe. At the end of the interview, he asked me whether that was my water bottle. I told him it was his. He said, "I'll drink from that rather than dirtying one of the glasses. Not that I want anyone to get the idea I'm germophobic or something. I just don't want to make more work for someone else."

It wasn't forced. It wasn't for my benefit unless he is a BRILLIANT actor and totally fooled me but I doubt that. It was a just a guy being considerate. I'll be posting the edited interview here when we are closer to the publication date for his biography of Richard Milhous Nixon and probably post the entire interview as a podcast too.

After the interview was over, he signed my galley of his book. I shook his hand and wished him well with his trial in Chicago. And I meant it.

Me, a life-long lefty, liking Conrad Black...who'd have thought... ?

Jon Clinch-Finn-author interview

2007-03-07T16:47:30Z

I loved Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, which is a re-telling of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre from the perspective of the "mad" first wife in the attic. I love this sort of meta-fiction. Jon Clinch's first novel "Finn" takes its inspiration from the classic Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That character in turn is a spin-off from Twain's much lighter kid's book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

There is a very creepy scene in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn where Huck and Joe come upon a wrecked house floating down the Mississippi. Inside they find the dead body of a man who we learn, at the end of the book, was Huck's drunken abusive father. That's the starting point for Jon Clinch's new novel Finn.

Published by Random House.

William Bell-The Blue Helmet

2007-03-05T12:19:51Z

One of the most difficult age groups to write for is teens. The Young Adult writer has to walk a narrow line between being entertaining and being real. That's why books like S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders are so rare to find and so terrific when they work well. Author William Bell is a former high school teacher who now writes books for the kids he used to teach.

Young adult novelist William Bell has won the Mr. Christie’s Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, and the Canadian Librarians’ Association Award amongst others. His latest book is The Blue Helmet.

bookbits @ 2007-03-05T06:58:00

2007-03-05T12:00:34Z

I was a huge fan of Colony of Unrequited Dreams but I was stunned to realize that it was a fictional character, Fielding, who really caught my fancy. She was hard-drinking, obnoxious, tragic, funny and the equal of the indomitable Joey, the central character of the book. I am delighted that she is back in her own book in what I suspect will be Johnston’s Newfoundland trilogy.

When Wayne Johnston was writing his best-selling novel Colony of Unrequited Dreams he needed a fictional character to interact with the real, but larger-than-life Newfoundland Premier Joey Smallwood. Readers and critics loved reading about the acid-penned Dorthy Parker-like Sheilagh Fielding. Now Fielding tells her own story in The Custodian of Paradise.

Timothy Taylor-Story House

2007-03-03T11:44:56Z

Timothy Taylor's first novel Stanley Park was a huge success. This time he turns his attention from the food world, to a childhood fascination with the world of architecture. Story House follows the lives of two sons living in the shadow of their famous architect father.

Published by Knopf Canada.