More Turning Pages...

Here's what might be my favourite author interview from last season.  They're all good but there's a lot about my talk with Rio Youers that sets it apart.

The first is that I saw Rio read at one of my very first Elora Writers' Festivals.  This was long before I was invited to get involved with the committee that presents the festival each year.  He had just published his very short novel, End Times.  It's a dark, dark little book.  Rio had obviously taken a great deal of time choosing just the right passage for an reading that would pack a punch - but then he noticed a kid in the crowd - a girl - probably around 8 years old.

"Oh my," he said (or words to this effect).  "I can't read that part...let's see."  He did find a passage that was dark and disturbing but lacked the language and perhaps graphic content of his initial passage.

I love that Rio is local and that he, like me, chose this community to call home.  He lives just five minutes from me with his editor wife and young family.  There's a moment in the interview when I asked Rio about his first reader and his response could just as easily been my response.  My very first reader is also my wife - with similar results.  My wife laughed aloud at that part of the interview.

And he's also a really great writer.  I enjoyed his book, Point Hollow but I loved Westlake Soul.  Read them both - it's time well spent.

The thing I like most about this interview is that it's not the first one we taped for Turning Pages.  Rio and I got together a few weeks before this interview was shot at the Fergus Library.  We picked out a great windowed spot and Larry Peters, the show's producer, filmed a wonderful segment.  The following week Larry approached me somewhat sheepishly while Roxanne and I were shooting some interviews at her bookstore.

"Say, Dave," he said.  "I'm really embarrassed and this has never happened before - I somehow lost the footage of that interview you and Rio shot last week."

It was a happy accident because we had originally planned to re-shoot the Rio interview in the same spot - to kind of recreate what had been lost.  When I asked the Library if I could take over that particular corner they informed me that there was a tour coming through at the time we'd arranged for the re-shoot with Rio.  Since it was a beautiful day, we moved everything outside and, I think, ended up with a fairly good interview.

Here it is - enjoy my conversation with Rio Youers:

To find out more about Rio and his writing, please check out his website by following this link.

After a long absence...

WOW!

The last time I posted here was following Fan-Expo last September.  SEPTEMBER!  2015, no less.
A lot has happened since then.
A half dozen assorted holidays and at least three family birthdays.
Different things are currently in the air and I'll have a little something nice to crow about in a few weeks, I think.  For now, I'll talk about Turning Pages.

I don't think I've written here about Turning Pages before.  Well, last year - back in the aforementioned 2015 and perhaps as far back as 2014 - local cable station, Cogeco Cable 14 here in Fergus approached our local independent book seller, Roxanne Beale, and asked her if she would be interested in creating a "book show" for their station.  She told producer, Larry Peters that she was interested but that she'd need some help - a co-host - and she thought of me.

The three of us developed a format and thought of a name - I wanted to call it The Book Club for Shut Ins but I was (quite rightly) overruled and the show is called Turning Pages.

The mandate of the show is to cover all aspects of books, writing, reading, literacy, creativity, poetry etc.  We have author interviews, and we've interviewed editors, librarians and had people come on the air and tell us about their favourite author or genre.  It's a lot of fun and, from feedback that people give me, well-received in the community.

We shot a full season last year and have just finished an initial planning meeting (over beer and wings) to brainstorm the upcoming season.  We'll maintain (mostly) our current 3 x 8 minute segments for 24 minutes (approximately) per show.  But we might have a field trip (or two) and we'll try to get outside a little more and try more interesting camera work.

Now, the show is owned by the Cogeco.  It is intended for their subscribers but they have generously posted the author interviews on-line so that individual authors who have agreed to be interviewed  may link to them from their own websites.

Here's the first interview we did on the show.  It's children's author, Lisa Dalrymple.

In the coming weeks - in a effort to be a little more diligent about the blog - I'll post other interviews from last season.  For now, enjoy watching and listening to Lisa and Roxanne talk about children's stories...

FanExpo Toronto 2015

The family, still bleary and suffering from travel and jet lag from our trip to Hawai'i (I may post something about that later) made our weary way to FanExpo on Sunday.  It was a day of long lines, huge crowds, celebrities and wall to wall merchandise.  My daughter sported a steampunk outfit she made herself and my son wore a jumpsuit from the video game Fallout 3.  My wife and I opted for the "tired parent in tow" costume that seemed popular this year.

Here's everyone being patient while the line crawls forward.

The great irony of this particular show is that most of it is held in what basically amounts to the world's largest basement.

There was a lot of cosplay going on and when I've gone in previous years, there was a lot of steampunk.  This year - not so much.  It looks like anime and gaming were well represented, as were comics.  There were more Castiels (from the TV show, Supernatural) than you could shake a stick at.

There was also a cadre of Daleks.

The Red Dalek was wonderful, telling my daughter, "No need to be nervous, Human.  Regardless of your emotional state you shall still be exterminated!"

It was, of course, crowded.

I've been to FanExpo before and knew what to expect.  My family, I think, were a little overwhelmed by the shear volume of people.  They were also impressed by the variety and (sometimes) quality of the convention's guests.

Here's Malcolm McDowell signing autographs.

Speaking of quality guests, we attended Q&A with both Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame and Hayley Atwell, star of Agent Carter.  As the dad of a 14 year old girl and a 12 year old boy, I think it's a good idea for them both to see capable, independent women who play capable, independent roles.

My daughter and I attended a panel that featured authors who belong to the Horror Writers' Association, Ontario Chapter.  The panel's title was "What's the next big thing in horror fiction?"  I know one of the panelists and recognized the names of a few others.  In all, the panel was a disappointment.  Almost from the start, the seven fiction writers (most of whom had books they were trying to promote) ignored the written word.  The discussion lead invariably to movies and film.  Example that could easily have been made citing books and short stories were made through references to movies and video games.  At one point, the moderator got onto the subject of desensitization and immediately spoke about a YouTube video that depicted a beheading.  From that point forward the moderator seemed obsessed with the subject of snuff films, returning to it so often that members of the audience began to leave and members of the panel looked increasingly uncomfortable.  Eventually - I think audience questions finally got the panel onto the subject of the horror fiction - there was some talk of Stephen King's recent crime fiction but the panel never really delivered on its promised subject matter.

Fortunately the panel experience didn't sour my daughter's day.  She and her brother had a great time, entirely enjoying spotting particularly well pulled off homemade costumes.  The best of the day was a Sharknado costume made from wire, cotton batten and toy sharks that lit up from the inside.  Totally inspired.

FanExpo IS wall to wall geek and yes, a goodly number of the people there have poor hygiene and even poorer social skills but anything that can draw together so many people with shared interests in a safe environment for mutual enjoyment can only be a good thing.

God help me, we'll likely attend next year too...