Slide in All Directions

The Sleeping Gaint Writers Festival has had its share of sliding about.  Two presenters, Ian Brown and Johanna Schneller, have backed out.   But, fret not.  They are being replaced by two dynamic replacements, Douglas Gibson and Terry Fallis.

Douglas Gibson is semi-retired, but is proud to be publishing Terry Fallis' new political satire, The High Road, this September. As the only editor and publisher ever to be made an Honorary Member of the Writers' Union of Canada, he is trying to justify his membership by writing a book, Stories About Storytellers, which tells of his experiences editing such authors as Alice Munro, Alistair MacLeod, W.O. Mitchell, Robertson Davies, Pierre Trudeau, and many others.

His workshop is titled: Learn About Publishing   It is aimed at writers of fiction or non-fiction who want to know more about the book publishing process, and is based on his many years as the head of McClelland & Stewart

When Terry Fallis couldn;t find an agent or publisher for his debut novel, The Best Laid Plans, he released it is a free podcast, and then self-published it. The podcast drew thousands of listeners and the book won the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. He promptly landed a literary agent and a publishing deal with McClelland & Stewart. M&S will also publish the sequel, The High Road, in September, 2010. A lapsed engineer, Terry Fallis co-founded the PR agency, Thornley Fallis

His workshop ,Shameless Self-Promotion , will explore cutting-edge techniques for boosting the prospects of writers, whether published or not, including blogging, podcasting, Facebook, Twitter etc and etc.