Dirty Laundry: Prattlings

Writing, Speaking, Reading…

I can’t believe it’s August already. The summer is just flying by and so is my time to get the edits done on CALL THE SHOTS. I’m on target to be finished by mid to late September but that might change as I progress. This book may end up being the longest of the three but Sean has really gotten himself tangled up in all sorts of problems and it’s taking me some time to extricate him from the whole mess.

I am giving a keynote speech at the Vancouver Public Library Book Camp this week and it’s taken me much longer to write and practice it then I had initially planned. I foolishly decided to go high-tech with this talk and am using the Keynote app on my Mac to go through the entire process of getting Swim the Fly published. That means I’ll be showing and reading the two page scribble I wrote at a writing workshop many moons ago. This is the piece that would eventually become the novel. I’ll also be showing my original notes and outline and book trailer. It was fun reliving the whole experience (and should help me with the talk I’m supposed to give with my editor Kaylan Adair at the Surrey International Writer’s Conference in October).

I’m a little worried though that using all this gear for my presentation is going to throw me. I usually just get up in front of a crowd, do a reading, talk a little bit about the writing process, and take questions. This will be a new experience for me. Hopefully it doesn’t blow up in my face. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Been so busy lately that my reading has had to take a back seat. Still, I was lucky enough to score an ARC of Tom Perrotta’s latest book, THE LEFTOVERS from one of my fab publicists at Random House Canada and I am absolutely LOVING it. It comes out in September and you should definitely pick up a copy. He’s a fantastic writer. One of my favs. He even made my list of funniest books for boys (and girls) in the Guardian.

That’s all for now. I’ve still got to pack for my trip to Vancouver, run through my talk once more, and get a few more pages done on the rewrite.

And if you STILL aren’t following me on Twitter then I feel sorry for you. My random thoughts are little gems to be cherished and savoured.

Posted by Don Calame on 8.9.11 at 02:07 pm in Prattlings. (0) Comments

Summer’s Here…

And I’m holed up in the dark cave of my writing room working on the rewrite for CALL THE SHOTS (the tentatively titled third book in the STF series). Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I manage to sneak outside every once in awhile (see summer photo essay below).

I actually really enjoy the rewriting process. It wasn’t always this way. I used to dread it. I used to think the first draft was the most fun to write and everything else was drudgery. But now I know better. The first draft is fun, for sure. But it’s like a crazy uncontrolled fun where you try and get everything and anything out onto the page. The rewriting is where all the refinement comes in. It allows you to go back and add all the little details (and big plot points) you thought you wanted to add in the first place but were too busy trying to get the book finished to actually find the time to fit in (thank you, I hope you enjoyed that run-on sentence). Rewriting is where you can hone your characters and straighten the story spine and sharpen the jokes. It’s where you can go back and do a little extra research to add layers to your novel.

Speaking of which, I am going to cut this blog short as I have to get back to the book. I will leave you with a book suggestion (Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson - silly fast fun) and a movie suggestion (X-Men: First Class - silly fast fun… also) and my brief summer photo essay with many pictures of bees. Enjoy!

Posted by Don Calame on 7.12.11 at 04:44 am in Prattlings. (0) Comments

Riots and Hockey Games and Some More Guest Blogs

I won’t say much about the riots in Vancouver after the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final other than the situation made me really sad. There are times in life where I really fear for the future of humanity. This was one of them. I simply don’t understand the mentality here. What’s the point? I realize that this was a premeditated outburst, that the people who started the whole thing came to Vancouver (from Seattle, from Montreal, from who knows where else) with the express intent of causing mayhem. Whether the Canucks won or lost there was going to be property damage. Otherwise these people would not have shown up with their masks and incendiary devices.

What I do not understand is how all those other people could join in or why so many others stood around and took pictures and video while the chaos ensued. Had everyone just left the scene and gone home the police and firefighters would have been able to do their jobs much quicker.

Anyway, that’s all I will say about that. I was in the city. I saw the game. I watched the Bruins celebrate (see the photo below) and then my stepson and I went back to our hotel. Sure I was disappointed to see the Canucks lose but not once did I feel like upturning a car or looting a store or punching someone in the face or lighting something on fire.

The things that do give me hope are the hundreds of people in the city who came out to help with the cleanup the following day as well as all those who are sending their tips and photos to the police.

I have a ton of pictures from the game and the celebration but I will not bore you with them. Instead, I’ll just post one. Tim Thomas basically won the Bruins their championship. Here he is (at age 37, an oldster in the hockey world) raising his first ever Stanley Cup. This was a guy who last year got benched for most of the season and then nearly got traded. A guy who didn’t make it into the NHL until he was in his late twenties/early thirties. Who never gave up and persevered against all the odds. And now here he is, not only a Stanley Cup champion but also the MVP of the playoffs who will probably also win the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender. I say this in my talks all the time, but the people who achieve their dreams are often the ones who simply refuse to give up. It’s a lesson I carry with me all the time.

Right now I am deep into my rewrite of Call the Shots (the third book in the Swim the Fly trilogy). There are days I think I will never be able to finish this book. My brain has a hard time comprehending the enormity of all the plots and characters I need to tweak and flesh out. Then there are days where I make myself laugh with a tiny aside or a little detail I find amusing and I feel better again. Feel like there is light at the end of the rewriting tunnel.

Speaking of writing, I will leave you now so that I can take Tim Thomas’ lesson and get back to the work.

Before I depart though, here are two new blogs I did for the UK. The first one is for The Guardian newspaper where they asked me to list my top ten funny teen boy books. I do say in the article that these books are equally funny for girls but I think there is the feeling out there (which I happen to agree with) that boys are underserved in the YA market.

The second blog is one I did for The Scottish Book Trust. They are a fantastic literary organization and they helped organize some of my readings in Edinburgh. I was asked to write a blog about my experiences touring Scotland. I’d already written an overview of the entire tour on my own blog so I chose one particular reading to focus on.

The Guardian: Top Ten Funny YA Books

Scottish Book Trust: An American in Peebles

Posted by Don Calame on 6.18.11 at 11:20 am in Prattlings. (4) Comments