The End Is Near

On March 10, I will present my novel, OurGlass, to my group of peers, industry professionals, Red River College instructors, and members of my family. It is an accomplishment that has been a long time coming, and it has created a feeling of personal achievement that I have never felt before. While it has been tough at times to visualize this project to its completion, I am very glad that I chose to write a novel for my Independent Professional Project.

I am a writer. I love the creative process. I love the feeling of crafting events and visualizing situations and worlds outside my own. OurGlass posed a particularly difficult challenge in that it is a novel in the science-fantasy genre, a genre I never thought to consider, much less complete an entire novel for. The story itself lent to the genre. That is just how it turned out.

OurGlass exists as a finished manuscript at 120 pages on a 8″ X 11.5″ formatted data file. For the remainder of 2011, I will enter the marketing phase of this project and work at finding a publisher for OurGlass. This process may involve using the expertise and connections that an agent has to offer, or I may go it alone. I have created this mock-up cover of how I think the novel might look.

During my final edit, I read OurGlass from front to back. I can be very critical of books (especially since I’ve attended CreComm), and I surprised myself in that I actually liked my story. This may sound self-serving, but after writing a novel for an entire year (editing, fixing grammatical errors, re-edits, re-consideration of certain events), I was growing tired of reading OurGlass in small, unfinished sections as it progressed forward.

I may choose to print copies of OurGlass in the latter half of 2011 before any official launch. In the event that I do, stay tuned to my Twitter feed. I will advise you to the time and place where this event will take place.

Cheers, and thanks for listening.

Aqua Books Reading

Last weekend I participated in a reading that was held at a bookstore in Winnipeg called, Aqua Books. One of my instructors, Karen Press, asked me to read for a series entitled, The CreComm Reading Series, a Creative Arts department initiative at Red River College.

Good friend and classmate, Jeff Ward, hosted the event and did a great job introducing me and accomplished author, Matt Duggan. Matt’s novel, Cherry Electra, sounded very crisp and the parts he read from really grabbed my attention. I read three pages from my novel, OurGlass, and those who I spoke with afterward liked what they had heard. I really enjoyed talking with some of the people “post-read” even though I felt a little bit out of my league. I am amazed at how far my comfort level has come in terms of speaking publicly. All of this is great practice as I will prepare to publish my book, either by myself, or with the help of an publishing house. I will return to Aqua Books when I prepare to launch my novel upon the reading public in the latter half of 2011. What a great atmosphere.

If the plumbing holds in the house and the stove doesn’t go on the fritz (again), I will wrap up the ending of my novel today. I think my story has built to a great climax and conclusion. All that will remain after I finish this scene is to write a prologue that will bring the novel “full circle” from the way it was introduced.