I’ve had quite a month. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been presented with numerous promotional opportunities during March. It’s been three months since I released my new book, “My Name Is Hardly” and, along with my first book, “My Temporary Life”, they’re both selling great and new readers are downloading both books every day. So, maybe the folks who have promotional sites took notice. I’m not sure, but I’m certainly not complaining either.
When I was a young lad, barely out of high school, I moved from small-townsville, on the west coast of Canada, to the bright lights of Toronto. It was one of those “have to get out of the town I grew up in” moments. My intention wasn’t to find a career. It was to find loud music, plentiful supplies of alcohol, and girls who wanted to take their clothes off in front of me. I found all of those things, and, in spite of myself, I also found a career.
Cody Martin was kind enough to invite me to participate in his Dream Big Blog Hop. Here are the questions and answers.
You have the opportunity to hire anybody as your cover artist. If you write children’s books or books that are heavily illustrated, who would you get for the interior artwork?
I don’t write children’s book or books that are heavily illustrated but I have found a cover artist who does fantastic work.
On Monday December 10th I hit the upload button on Amazon’s site and gave birth to a two hundred and forty-eight page novel. MY NAME IS HARDLY is book two in the MY TEMPORARY LIFE Trilogy and the minute I released it out into the world I started to feel depressed. I wasn’t “pulling the covers over my head and pass me the ju jubes” depressed, but I definitely felt like something was missing.
A few years ago I met a retired British soldier who served in Northern Ireland during the time of “The Troubles”. I remember seeing on the news, back in the eighties, British soldiers patrolling the streets in Irish towns, and bombs going off in Ireland, as well as in Manchester and London. The soldier told me about missions he was sent on. He was a loft-sitter. He was stationed in the attics, above the homes of ordinary Irish citizens, and he eavesdropped on the neighbourhood.
Canadian author, and all round good guy, Bruce Blake sent me an email. I was in Mexico at the time, but it was BB sending it, so I read it. He asked me to participate in a blog hop, and answer some questions about my forthcoming book. So, I sat on the beach and answered his questions. If you click on his name below you can see where he tagged me, then come back and you can learn about MY NAME IS HARDLY.
Barry Finlay gives his opinion on whether or not traditional Canadian media reflects “us” as Canadians.
When Martin asked me to provide an opinion on whether or not I, as a Canadian author, feel I am represented in mainstream Canadian media, it didn’t take me long to tell him that I would. I have had some firsthand experience that I would like to share.
First, let me say that I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
There’s an old Van Halen song bouncing around my head and there are feathers everywhere. A small area of the hotel room has been roped off using the drawstrings from the complimentary robes that the Sheraton kindly supplied, and there are small scraps of paper spread on the floor. I pick one up, and in barely legible writing, it says, “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times”. Then it’s crossed out and in different handwriting is written, “been done already, cheater”.
After publishing a blog a few weeks ago questioning whether my Canada, or your Canada, was reflected in major Canadian magazines and newspapers, I asked some other Canadian authors to weigh in on the subject. Scott Bury couldn’t wait to give us his thoughts.
Where is my Canada?
Do newspapers, magazines and the general, big mass media reflect the Canada that I live in?
No.