Douglas Smith's blog

I wrote recently about the upcoming publication of my story "The Walker of the Shifting Borderland" in the new Italian magazine Quasar. The issue with my story (issue #2) is now out (see the cover at the right).  

"The Walker of the Shifting Borderland" won the Aurora Award in 2013, and I'm pleased to see that my tale is appearing with a Hugo-nominated story by Mike Resnic and one by Robert Silverberg. This is my fourth publication in Italy. 

If you'd like to read "The Walker...," you can pick up an ebook version here.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be teaching a course this fall at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. The course is called "Playing the Short Game: How to Market and Sell Short Fiction" and is part of the certificate program that the U of T offers in their Creative Writing program.

The course is based on the popular blog series of the same name that I did in 2013 for Amazing Stories. My upcoming book, also titled Playing the Short Game, will be released later this summer and will form the textbook for the course.

If you live in Toronto and are interested, here’s the registration link for the course.

Also, if you know of a short story writer in the Toronto area who might be interested, please feel free to forward this information to them.

The course will run for ten weeks on Wednesdays, from October 1 to December 3. Details are as follows:

Course Description

A wealth of courses and books exist to teach you how to write stories. But what happens when you've finished writing? Do you know how to sell what you've written?

In this course, you will learn everything you need to know to sell your short stories to professional markets and to build a career as a short fiction writer.

Learner Outcomes

This course teaches you the business side of short fiction. By the end of the course, you will understand the benefits of short fiction for a writing career, rights and licensing for short fiction, how to find the right professional markets for a story, how to submit and sell to those markets, mistakes to avoid in submitting your work, how editors work and why they choose or reject stories, what to look (and look out) for in short fiction contracts, how to work with an editor, and how to handle rejections and reviews. Most importantly, this course will teach you how to use your short stories to build a career as a writer.

Prerequisites

Students should have at least one story completed and ready to send out to market.

And here again is the registration link.

Steve Stanton has a nice review of The Wolf at the End of the World up on the "Recommended Reads" page at The 49th Shelf, the site dedicated to Canadian books. Here's a brief excerpt from his review:

"An excellent debut novel. … Modern controversy over aboriginal land claims is mixed with a romantic embellishment of ancient stories. … Staccato pacing and multiple POVs with a hook at the end of each short segment [keeps] the energy level perpetually high."

Check out more on The Wolf, including an excerpt and full buying links, here.

I had the opportunity recently of viewing the film "Moose River Crossing" at the Reel World Film Festival. Through the voices of six characters, all survivors of the residential school system, we are given a glimpse into the terrible impact that this shameful program had on our native peoples. I wrote more on the residential schools here earlier

The movie is wonderfully done, but powerful and (as it should be) disturbing. The film's writer and director, Shirley Cheechoo, herself a residential school survivor, attended the screening and the Q&A after, as did the producer and some of the actors. When asked by an audience member what could be done to make more Canadians aware of this sad chapter in our history, Ms. Cheechoo asked for help in getting the film to be included in our public school curricula, so that our children will at least know what our own government and churches did to several generations of native children. 

So if any of you are reading this and are a teacher or educator (or know someone who is), please point them to this movie and ask them to help. A contact page for inquiries about the movie is available here.

One of the key themes in my novel, The Wolf at the End of the World, is that of protecting our natural environment and specifically the habitats of our wild animals. If that topic also concerns and interests you, then I think you'll enjoy (and be encouraged) by this fascinating TED talk by George Monbiot. Monbiot discusses the many postive and seemingly (at first) counter-intuitive benefits that occurred when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the US.

As Wisakejack tells Zach in my novel, "everything's connected." We humans don't yet understand how complex the natural food chains in this world are (or were). His talk and his suggestions that we need to "rewild our world" give some hope that we can restore the complexity of these chains and in so doing heal the natural environments that we have ravaged--the environments that we rely on as well.

My first collection, Impossibilia, which was a finalist for the Aurora Award in 2009, is now available in trade paperback. The book was originally published in jacketed hardcover and hardcover limited editions, both numbered and signed, by the award-winning UK press, PS Publishing. An ebook edition was later released, and now I am pleased to have a trade edition available.

See this Impossibila page for full buying links.

Impossibilia contains the Aurora winning novelette, "Spirit Dance," which is the precursor story to my novel The Wolf at the End of the World. It also contains the Aurora finalist story, "A Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by Van Gogh" and one of my Springsteen-inspired stories, "Going Down to Lucky Town." I hope you'll check it out.

I'll be at Ad Astra, the long-running Toronto SF&F convention, this coming weekend, April 4-6. This year, the con is at the Sheraton Parkway North hotel (600 Highway7 East, Richmond Hill, Ontario). More info on the Ad Astra site. 

Here's my schedule for the weekend:

Friday April 4:

• 8:30-9pm -- Reading (Oakridges room)
• 10-11pm -- Panel: Non-European Fantasy Worlds (Richmond C-D)
• 11pm-midnight -- Panel: Indigenous Futurism (Markham A)

​Saturday April 5:

• 2-4pm -- Author Signings (Richmond A)
• 9-10pm -- Panel: Veronica Mars movie (Markham A)

Sunday April 6:

• 1-2pm -- SF Canada table (Dealer's Room)
• 3-4pm -- Panel: Rejectomancy (Newmarket room)

Weekend and day passes are available for the con. If you're in the area, I'll hope you'll drop by.

I wrote earlier about my sale in late 2013 of one of my early Heroka stories, "Dream Flight," to The Dark Magazine, a new dark fantasy online magazine. Issue #3 with "Dream Flight" came out in January. Here's a link to where you can buy the story as an ebook. 

The story was only the third one I ever wrote, so be gentle. It was also the third of my Heroka stories. "Dream Flight" is a sequel of sorts to the earlier "A Bird in the Hand," which appeared in Warrior Wisewoman 2 in 2010. But you don't need to have read "A Bird in the Hand" to enjoy "Dream Flight." Both of these stories appear in my translated collection, La Danse des Esprits. 

My first Heroka story, "Spirit Dance" (the inspiration for my Heroka novel, The Wolf at the End of the World) is also available as an ebook and is included in my first collection, Impossibilia.  

I was one of three authors at the Toronto ChiZine reading series event at The Round in Kensington last week. Here's a pic of me reading from THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE WORLD on my Kobo.

The other authors were Terri Favro (THE PROXY BRIDE) and Stan Rogal (OBSESSIONS), who did two wonderful readings. In between the readings, we were all entertained by two incredibly talented performers: Kari Maaren, the ChiSeries Toronto's resident ukelele comedienne (Album: BEOWULF PULLED MY ARM OFF) and Peter Chiykowski (co-creator of the Kickstarter darling, HALF-CAT).

Thanks to Sandra Kasturi and Brett Savory, co-publisher / owners of ChiZine, for hosting this series and for including me in the lineup. And thanks to everyone who came out.

The Round has been completely renovated since my last visit when it was the Augusta House. It makes a great venue for this type of evening. Comfortable and intimate, with a good stage and sound, lots of seating and room to move around and mix and meet, and very gracious hosts.

Publishers Weekly, the "bible of the book business," has reviewed my debut novel, The Wolf at the End of the World. Here are the highlights:

"Smith (Chimerascope) has a thorough grounding in Native American lore, and this creates an immersive and enjoyable reading experience. Readers will delight in learning more about Native American mythology, which is skillfully woven throughout the story. Smith's novel is both well paced and deftly plotted—leaving readers curious about what comes next for the Heroka in the modern world."

You can read the whole review here and buy The Wolf at the End of the World here