Douglas Smith's blog

Here's my schedule of panels, readings and signing for this weekend's annual and excellent Polaris 2009 convention in Toronto (formerly Toronto Trek). They have, as always, a number of great media guests, but they've continued the trend of recent years of including a very good literary track as well. Lots of author guests, of which I'm one. Hope to see you there!

Friday July 10:

• 7:00pm – Panel: "Neil Gaiman, Cultmaster or Literary Phenomenon?"

Saturday July 11:

• 11:00am – Panel: "Time to Get Paid"
• 1:00pm – Signing (Dealer's Room)
• 3:00pm – Panel: "It's a Must Read"
• 8:00pm – Panel: "I Just Saw Alan Moore"
• 11:00pm – Panel: "Return of the Combustible Panel"

Sunday July 12:

• 3:30pm – Reading (Unionville Room)

"Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by van Gogh" is the lead story in my collection, Impossibilia, and like Impossibilia, is also nominated for the 2009 Aurora Awards. Here are some new reviews of "Bouquet":

"the pièce de résistance of the collection and one of the best and most moving novellas I have read in a while. Haunting and evocative... Just astounding. ..." —Liviu Suciu, Fantasy Book Critic, April 2009

"'Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by Van Gogh' is an important story, a story that matters, and I hope that many, many people will read it. … While all three stories [in Impossibilia] showcase admirably Doug's impressive mastery of the short story form, 'Bouquet' stands out as the jewel in the crown … a beautifully written, brilliantly crafted story in which Smith raises the bar even higher than his previous works. Doug's characteristic vivid settings and compelling characters are present, driven, as always, by love, and by a mystery which keeps the pages turning as the reader is drawn ever deeper. 'Bouquet' is a story which begins in tragedy but, ultimately, ends in hope. Don't miss this one!" — Rainbow Dragon Recommends, May 2009

"If you’re human at all, you will be moved by ‘Bouquet of Flowers…’." — Jim Dodge Jr., Mass Movement Magazine, May 2009

You can read all the reviews for "Bouquet" here.

On Saturday, April 25, I was a guest author and panelist at GenreCon, the annual one-day literary genre convention in Sarnia, hosted by the Sarnia Library and organized by Jeff Beeler and Ellen Dark.

This year, Jeff arranged to have some of the GenreCon authors appear on Friday, the night before the con, at Spoken Word, an open microphone event held monthly at the Lawrence House Centre for the Arts in downtown Sarnia.

I was joined by mystery writers Vicki Delany (left) and Jean Rae Baxter (pictured here with Jeff and myself). Our hosts were Debbie Okun Hill and Ryan Gibbs.

Spoken Word is "an informal evening of storytelling, poetry readings, sharing and laughter. Anyone may come to read what they have written, share a story or poem by a favorite writer or just be part of the audience."

I had a great time, doing a short reading, signing copies of Impossibilia, and listening to my fellow guests and others do their own readings.

The next day, it was GenreCon, another great time, with fun panels and fun panelists. Hopefully, Jeff, Debbie, and Ryan can continue to make these joint events in future years as well.

What can I say? They really seem to like it. Writer Erik Buchanan adds his thoughts about my collection, Impossibilia in his blog. You can find links to all the reviews for Impossibilia here.

Liviu Suciu at Fantasy Book Critic has added a review of Impossibilia, my 2009 Aurora-nominated short fiction collection. Liviu uses Impossibilia to kick off a new series of mini-reviews "in the spirit of showcasing less well known recent sff works that truly impressed me."

Here's what he had to say about the collection:

"'Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by Van Gogh' is the piece of resistance of the collection and one of the best and most moving novellas I have read in a while. Haunting and evocative... Just astounding. 'Going Down to Lucky Town' [is] a very moving story about a part time gambler, part time con-man who seems to have gotten down luck to a measurable skill. ...Another superb story that made this volume such an unforgettable one for me. If you can get hold of this relatively rare collection you will truly enjoy it. Highly, highly recommended."

—Liviu Suciu, Fantasy Book Critic, Apri 2009

Read reviews of Impossibilia here.

I finally came across a review of my story "Doorways," which first appeared in Postscripts 17 in December and is currently nominated for the 2009 Aurora Awards. Here's what Kelly Jensen had to say in her review on SF Crowsnest:

"A couple months ago I was introduced to Douglas Smith by way of his collected short stories (also by PS Publishing), 'PS Showcase #5: Impossibilia'. So I was looking forward to his story 'Doorways' and was not disappointed.

After the death of his superior, Jack is summoned by the powers that be at GenTech to figure out the puzzle of the late Rainer's legacy. His house, which also contains the laboratory for his final and what is rumoured to be his greatest work. The puzzles reveal not only the secrets of Rainer's work, but also some secrets pertinent to Jack's life. This story has a cunningly satisfying conclusion.

I find a good short story falls into two categories: There is the complete story, the novel miniaturised, which is a nearly perfect art form. These are hard to capture but constantly illustrated by such writers as Douglas Smith."

The highly recommended annual Toronto genre convention Ad Astra will be held this upcoming weekend Mar 27-29 at the Crowne Plaza Toronto Don Valley Hotel, 1250 Eglinton Avenue East in Toronto.

Ad Astra is one of the more literary-focused of the genre cons, with an excellent programming stream for readers and writers. My panels and events at the con are as follows:

Three?! Really!?! Cool!!! The 2009 Aurora Award nominees have been announced, and this year I have three of my works on the final ballot. Impossibilia, my first collection, is on the ballot under the "Best Long-Form Work in English."

Another vote of support for Impossibilia comes in the form of having its lead story, "Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by van Gogh" making it onto the ballot as well under "Best Short-Form Work in English," a position it shares with my third nomination, my story "Doorways," which appeared in Postscripts #17.

I've posted all the information on how to vote for the 2009 Auroras as well as links to reviews and excerpts of my stories (including two new long-g-g-g excerpts for "Bouquet..." and "Doorways") on this page.

As always, faithful fans, any consideration for my stories when you're voting for the Auroras would be much appreciated. And if you've never voted for the Auroras before, consider making this your first year. Support Canadian speculative fiction. Voting is easy to do and can be done online (soon). A complete ballot with all of the nominees is available here.

I wrote earlier about the launch for my collection Impossibilia hosted by BakkaPhoenix in Toronto back in February. The launch was a great success with a great turnout. Thanks to Chris Szego and the staff at Bakka for their support. Here's a slide show of photos from the launch.

I wrote earlier how fellow writer, Mark Leslie, aka Mark Lefebvre, was kind enough to host a launch for my collection Impossibilia at Titles Bookstore on the McMaster University campus on March 4. Mark did a great job of promoting and hosting the launch, and it was a very enjoyable outing for me.

One of the coolest things that came out of the launch was the result of a promotion idea that Mark came up with. The Titles store at McMaster has one of only three Espresso Book Machines in Canada. These are print-on-demand machines that lets Mark produce course work, text books, out of print books etc., on an on-demand basis, thus reducing ordering, shipping and inventory costs for the store.

Mark suggested that we print a "little chap book" as a promotional item to give away during the launch. The "little chap book" became a full-blown 116-page "Official Movie Companion Book" to the upcoming indie horror film "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down" (see my earlier blog entries about the movie here, here, and here). Mark writes about the launch and the book on his blog here.

The movie companion book is way cool, with the movie poster for the cover (see right) and the following table of contents:

1. “By Her Hand, She Draws You Down”: The Original Story

2. Writing the Story: Where Ideas Come From (and Where They Go)

3. Making the Movie: Notes from the Director, Producer, and Cast

4. From Story to Movie: The Storyboard Script

5. On the Set: Photos from the Shoot

6. Pictures from a Picture: Cath’s Sketches

7. People from a Picture: The Movie Credits

8. Talking to a Writer: An Interview with Douglas Smith

9. Who We Are: Biographies

If you're interested, you can order your own copy of both Impossibilia and the "By Her Hand..." Movie Companion book from my store.