brilliant sunshine, bitter cold, temps minus 15
Dear Lord, how the climate changes! From torrential rain to blizzard to bright blue skies today.
And the literary climate has shifted as well for me! I just had a call from my editor in the UK, the magnificent Dan Mallory of Sphere/Little, Brown, to say the words I never dared dream I'd hear.
Bury Your Dead is on the London Times Bestseller list!!!
Poor Dan, I might have shattered his eardrum. How wonderful he was to call to tell me, instead of writing an email. He said he wanted to hear my reaction. I think it will be ringing in his head like tinnitus for years to come. A crazy canuck shrieking for joy.
Wow. Both an hysterical wow, but also a quiet, heartfelt, deep down wow. Wow.
How many times I heard, in rejection letters, 'Nobody is interested in a mystery set in Canada.'
And still we hear it. And still Canadians often feel they need to set their books in the US or Britain or elsewhere. But readers are so much more open than they're given credit for. Bury Your Dead, the most Canadian of all my clearly Canadian books, is the one that has been embraced in Britain.
And before that, the American put it on the New York Times list.
Wow.
Now, I have a personal favour to ask. Can you spread the word? Tell everyone you know in the UK about the books and the Times list? And maybe even more people in Britain will pick it up. Thank you SO much for your help!
In other fun news (not to do with me, you'll be happy and shocked to hear) - do you know Marshal Zeringue? He has a couple of Blogs. One is called the page 99 test...where he asked writers to read page 99 of their latest book and say whether it's representative of their book, and if people only read that one page, what would be their perception. A fun exercise.
But he also has a wonderful blog called Coffee with Canines - and after I mentioned Danny and Lucy a few times, and ran a photo of them in their bookstore (Brome Lake Books) with their dog Jessie, Marshal contacted them and asked if they'd take part in Coffee with Canines.
Danny did - and you can see the results if you google Coffee with a Canine and find the latest post...it's Danny and Lucy McAuley & Jessie. He actually sent a link, but I can't seem to cut and paste it into the blog.
the post is wonderful....exactly like a visit with them. Very funny, very moving, very warm.
Enjoy.
And thank you again for celebrating with me!!! Yippeee....
12 comments:
Congratulations, Louise. You're a trailblazer for other Canadian writers. Here is the blog you refer to. They're very nice at Brome Books. I hope to be able to visit there some day.
http://coffeecanine.blogspot.com/
abso-freaking-lutely wonderful! I'm happy to put a notice in my next blog post and I have a few brit followers so...
And yay to not giving up on Canadian settings - I won't, in my mysteries or my other fiction. Why would we when we have such a vast and interesting land?
Weather changes abound! Here in Fort Worth, TX, the day began in the 40's and it is getting near 80 now at 2 p.m. What a world! My world is made better by your books -- thank you so much for all the enjoyment!
FÉLICITATIONS LOUISE! It's fantastic and marvelous. Hope I will be there in few years... maybe :)
Congratulations. It must be your dream (one of them, anyway) come true. I've written to a cousin of mine who is a retired writer for the Guardian to let her know. I think she will be particularly interested since she and her sister spent most of World War II with my father's family here in Canada (summers at a cottage in Que.) She has such fond memories of this country and she is so connected with the journalism world in the U.K.
Bury Your Dead is the best one so far, and it is hard to imagine what you will do next! But I am sure it will be brilliant. My partner and I are all up for a trip to Quebec City now. A friend just returned from there, loved it loved it loved it.
Keep on writing these Canadian mysteries. You are just the very best. If ever I find "Three Pines", I am moving there, bringing my friends Tim and Victor to take over the pub!
Huge congratulations! And well-deserved, too. Now you can put "London Times Bestseller" in your blog header, too!
I've read all the Inspector Gamache novels; loved them all but Bury was absolutely remarkable. I actually cried out loud at the end, which is very rare for me. Thank you so much for the wonderful characters you have brought to us. Looking so forward to your next.
Many congratulations!
Just last week I sent a list of all your books to my friend in Bedfordshire, England. She heads a book club there, so maybe they will take on one of yours - & tell all their friends. Looking forward to Sept. & your new book.
Well deserved congratulations! I've just finished reading Bury Your Dead and absolutely loved it, what a wonderful setting and characters. I now can't wait to read the others in the series. I've already spread the word to workmates so am doing my bit for marketing your books here in England :O)
Congratulations! Was so pleased for you, I Twittered it twice with a link to the blog. Canada is a great and largely undiscovered setting. I was dithering about changing my wip's setting to a US one when I read this, now it's staying in Ontario. Thank you for your courage!
Hi all! Thank you so freakin- much!!! Love your comments and feel your support. Wow. Many of you remember when I was first starting out, and thrilled beyond words to have one book out. But, frankly, except for a handful of people - no one else cared.
And now this. Thank you SO much for all your help, in getting the books known! And now, a special thanks to all of you trying to spread the word in the UK. It would be amazing to be able to build on this.
And Glenys - good decision!! If we love what we write about, and where we write about, the readers will too. Thank you for your courage!
And thanks to all of you for your help. Yay!!
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