Dirty Laundry: Prattlings

Sparing No Expense

So, since BEAT THE BAND is coming out on September 14th—which is just 52 short days away—I thought I’d start some heavy duty promotion. You can see my first shameless plug in the picture below. It was fairly pricey to hire the plane out and all but I think the few minutes the good people of NYC got to see my message will translate directly into mega book sales. Of course, it might have been smart to tip people off as to what “Beat the Band” was supposed to mean, but what can you do.

After my wonderful visit to the Burial Park last week I decided it would be a good idea to lose a bit of weight. Just, because, you know, all the pastry eating that goes along with being a writer (an occupational hazard, I’m afraid) has taken it’s toll on my waistline. Plus, I need to fit in the suit I purchased eight years ago so that I can wear it to my step-son’s wedding in September. You might not know this about me (or maybe you do, but I’ll assume the former) but I REALLY love my food. A really good tasting menu dinner with great wine is probably in my top five best things to do of all time. In fact, if I ever find out the exact date I’m going to vacate this lovely planet of ours, I would seriously consider flying to London and going to Gordon Ramsey’s wildly-overpriced-but-amazingly-worth-it restaurant for my final meal.

The other four best things of all time? Well, I’ll probably get around to telling you at some point or other.

Of course, now watching my food so that I can shed my winter coat has taken precedence over eating truly fabulous food. But that’s not to say I’m not cooking some good meals. In fact, I made probably the best eggplant parmesan that has ever been tasted by human (and dog, because Scooter demanded his share) lips. I could be all modest and say that it was just simply tasty. But I’m not going to do that because it wouldn’t be true. I made my own tomato sauce and carefully sliced the eggplant into thick slices (a secret I learned from my friend at Zambri’s Restaurant - the best Italian in Victoria by a Canadian mile) and breaded and fried the pieces. I layered it all carefully with parmesan and mozzarella cheese and baked the hell out of it until the top was crispy-licious! I wish I had a way of sharing it with all of you because you would have been impressed.

What else? Let’s see. I’m still in love with my iPad. So many great apps to play… I mean… work with. If you haven’t bought one yet, you should.

Going through serious hockey withdrawal. It always hits mid-July. But luckily I’m waist-deep into Book Three of my Swim the Fly Trilogy. I’m not sure I should call it The Swim the Fly Trilogy but I don’t have a better name for it right now, so we’re stuck with that.

I guess that’s about it for now. Oh, yeah, I’m reading THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin. It’s a big long fat book but really well done. It’s vampires after the apocalypse but that doesn’t do justice to it at all. I’ll recommend it right now even though I’m only half through, just because the writing is so good. It’s scary vampires. The way they were always meant to be.

Posted by Don Calame on 7.24.10 at 02:43 pm in Prattlings. (0) Comments

Of Gravesites and Grandeur

I have no idea what the grandeur part of that title means but I do have some wonderfully exciting news to report about graves. And no, it has nothing to do with the new Twilight movie.

Yesterday my wife and I went on a lovely field trip to a burial park. Yes, they do call it a burial park. Just like an amusement park but less amusing. Think of a water park and remove the fun slides and wave pools and replace those with tombstones and mausoleums. That’s right. You’ve got the picture now.

Even though we are nowhere near the age one thinks about dying (well, actually, I think about dying quite a lot. How I might go. If it’ll be in a plane crash or an earthquake or if my heart will explode or if I will simply go mad and start drooling and forget my name and all my internet passwords) BUT my wife thought it prudent for us to make all the arrangements for our inevitable passing (because we’re all going to go sooner or later) so that our families wouldn’t have to worry about it when we do “move on” and so that there wouldn’t be any arguments or fisticuffs over where we should be planted and what type of headstone (color, design, engravings, etc) we should have.

Thus, our jaunt to the burial park to choose and pay for our gravesites. This is only part one of the process. We still need to choose a funeral home and a casket (can mine be in the shape of a hockey net?) and a headstone.

Well, wouldn’t you know it. All the cozy shady tree lined nooks of the graveyard were already “occupied.” And so, we had to settle for the new “wing.” In a spot behind a recently built meditation circle, next to a young sapling of a tree that will be grand (ah ha! there’s the grandeur I promised you!) in a hundred years or so.

Here’s me standing on the spot where one day I will be buried. Pretty neat, huh?!

I suggested to my wife that we might want to consider getting our headstone put up immediately (well, after the two months it takes to carve the thing). Just so that we know it’s there waiting for us and so that nobody else can steal our perfectly chosen spots. This way, we can go visit our plots, even have a picnic lunch (it is a park after all) and enjoy our gravesites while we still can!!!

Posted by Don Calame on 7.16.10 at 11:38 am in Prattlings. (1) Comments

Michigan Library Association’s Thumbs Up Award 2010 Honor Book

I can’t tell you how excited I am this morning.

But I’ll try.

I just received an email from Pat Hemingway, a chairperson for the Michigan Library Association’s Thumbs Up! Awards, informing me that SWIM THE FLY has been chosen as one of three Honor Books in the 2010 Awards. I’m not going to tell you who the actual winner was, or what the other two Honor Books were, because I haven’t seen the official announcement on the internet yet and I don’t want to give anything away (well, except for the fact that Swim the Fly was chosen as an Honor Book). I will say, however, that I feel incredibly lucky to be in such great company.

It’s super cool that the book has been recognized like this. Not only because it’s my very first novel, but also because there is so much of me in Swim the Fly. So an ENORMOUS THANK YOU to all the Michigan teens and librarians who read and enjoyed the book enough to vote for it!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In other cool news, the iPad.

Yes, I got one. And it’s better than I ever imagined it could be. It is probably my favorite gadget ever.

Yes, yes, I know that everyone says it’s just a big iPod Touch. But that’s the very reason it’s so amazing. The iPod Touch is great. The iPad (at four times the size) is four times as great.

It’s impossible to describe really why it’s so magically wonderful, but it is. And this is from one of the skeptical people. Because, honestly, I wasn’t sure what I would use it for. Now, I’m not sure if I could live without it.

I use it for practically everything. Research, and outlining, and for quick notes on the new book, and looking up recipes, and reading newspapers and books, and watching videos, and playing games, and checking emails, and keeping my life organized. I have to say, it hasn’t left my side in the two weeks that I’ve had it. My wife is getting a little worried about me, I think.

Seriously, I was going to wait until the next generation when they added a camera and all but I’m so glad I didn’t.

And finally, a belated congratulations to The Chicago Blackhawks for winning the Stanley Cup. After the Canucks and Penguins got knocked out, I was rooting for the Hawks all the way and I was happy to see them win it. The series was hard fought and exciting. And now, the hockey drought begins. Two solid months of just drips and drabs or hockey news. I’ll have to survive on the draft and free agency and trades and the NHL Network where they show all the old games.

 

 

Posted by Don Calame on 6.19.10 at 09:59 am in Prattlings. (0) Comments

Top Teen Fiction at Chapters/Indigo!

Just browsing through Chapters on West Broadway today, looking for some good hockey literature to ease the pain of the Canucks and Penguins early exit from the playoffs and look what I found!!!

The fabulous Glen (who I must apologize to for my wobbly handed out-of-focus iPhone shot) at Chapters was kind enough to have me sign their stock of Swim the Fly and then he looked up on the computer to see that the book is not only Top Teen Fiction in his store but NATIONWIDE! So, apparently every Chapters/Indigo in Canada will have Swim the Fly on their Top Teen Fiction table. Which is super cool!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to thank the great people at Chapters/Indigo for their support of Swim the Fly. It put a big smile on my face today to see the book displayed on that table and made me that much more excited about getting to work on the third book in the series.

Posted by Don Calame on 5.28.10 at 03:09 pm in Prattlings. (1) Comments