Wow, It was Close

Canada Reads 2011 picked the political satirical novel, The Best Laid Plans, by first time author  Terry Fallis.

Fallis was in Thunder Bay last August as a presenter at The Sleeping Giant Writers Festival.  He spoke about the travail of getting the book published. Rejection followed rejection.  He entered the book in the Leacock  contest and won.  He also podcast the book in segments using his own store-bought set-up and a quiet room at the top of his house.  Soon, he had picked up a following.  Finally and at last, a publisher.  I talked to Terry after the workshop and he praised  our festival highly. 

Terry toppled The Birth House by Ami McKay in a dramatic finish to this year's contest.  This morning, the participants voted off Carol Shield's Unless which was the audience favourite and The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou.  The graphic novel Essex County by Jeff Lemire had been eliminated last week.  (For a complete list of the books in the running,  scroll down and check the side bar.)

Congratulations to Terry Fallis.  Come back to Thunder Bay.

I’ve run out of words for “shocked”

Terry Fallis in the Great Hall at the Old Fort

photo: Joan Baril

Terry Fallis, who was a presenter at the Sleeping Giant Writers Festival this summer, gives us this account of his Canada Reads nomination.

Ten minutes before the 10:30 announcement of the Canada Reads Essential Top 10 Canadian Novels of the Decade this past Tuesday, our internet at the office died. Yes, it did. I waited to see if it were just a momentary glitch. Alas, no. So with a couple minutes to spare, I grabbed my iPad and dashed to Starbucks up the street to enjoy my regular tall no-whip hot chocolate, and more importantly, their free wifi. So I sat there by myself, with the hustle and bustle of the mid-morning coffee rush swirling around me, and called up the Canada Reads website on my iPad. I can assure you, I certainly had no expectation of being on the Top 10 list given the stellar array of novels in the Top 40. in fact, I was still recovering from the shock of making the Top 40. But neither was I going to miss the announcement… just in case.