The new book has a title – The Damned – and a cover too. Both took a while to get right, but I gotta say, they feel like a perfect match right now.
(The Damned is out February 2015 in the US and Canada, and March 2015 in the UK).
Demons Take New York!
There’s surprises…and then there’s SURPRISES!
When The Demonologist was announced as a finalist for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel I took it as an enormous honor in itself, and never thought I stood any real chance of winning. Why would I? My fellow nominees were Lisa Gardner, Lee Child, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, Linda Castillo, my fellow Canuck and friend Owen Laukkanen and Stephen King. With a field like that, I was more than happy to just be a shoulder rubber.
Then, this weekend, I went down to New York for the awards banquet at ThrillerFest. Hundreds of colleagues, agents, and editors in a Manhattan hotel ballroom – many of whom I’ve read with admiration and who constitute the firmament of the world’s thriller writing. An audience I found myself addressing when I accepted the award.
It still feels a bit unreal. I feel so very privileged. It was a fun night, I tell you.
So thanks to the ITW, the judges, Jenny Milchman for being the one to say my name into the microphone, and for anyone else who may have had a hand in this. As I said at the awards banquet (and is captured here on video, even if you can’t quite hear me), it was the fifth most exciting night of my life. The others? My wedding day. The births of my two children. And one night I can’t discuss publicly.
Lost Girls Makes You Proud to be Canadian
Over at the CBC Books website, in honour of Canada Day, they’ve compiled a list of the all-time 100 Novels That Make You Proud To Be Canadian. And guess what? My first novel, Lost Girls is on it!
Aside from the terrific honour at having my book on the list with The Greats, I’m proud in a slightly different way.
It’s the feeling that my story – a made-up thing about ghosts and a cokehead lawyer and a monstrous Lady of the Lake who pulls swimmers down into a lake’s depths – has entered people’s consciousness in unexpected and reality-reshaping ways. To think that something I’ve written has changed (however slightly) the way some might see a familiar thing – a northern lake, a neglected town – is rewarding beyond description.
The Demonologist on the Sunburst shortlist
Just saw that The Demonologist is on the shortlist for the Sunburst Award! And this as the sun actually appeared outside the window. Coincidence? Obviously not.
The Sunburst Award acknowledges excellence for Canadian literature of the fantastic. My thanks to the Sunburst association and the jury, as well as congratulations to my fellow nominees, including the wonderful Nalo Hopkinson and Guy Gavriel Kay.
The Demonologist a Finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award
Shirley Jackson is the sweetest when it comes to sourness, a shining light in the darkness field. Have you read “The Lottery” or The Haunting of Hill House or We Have Always Lived in the Castle? No? You must. I’m not kidding. Quit your job, file for divorce, barricade yourself inside a storage locker – do whatever you need to do to read her.
As you can see, I’m an admirer.
Shirley Jackson, the late American writer of literary horror, subtle psychological thrillers and weird tales, has a prize named after her. In honour of her accomplishments, the prizes are given each year to stories, anthologies, novels etc. that mine the Jacksonian vein of horror and suspense. And this year…The Demonologist is a finalist for Best Novel!
I’m blown away grateful to be on the list with such great writers and books, some of which I’ve already read and the others I’m about to. Check out all the shortlists here:
The Demonologist a Finalist for ITW Best Novel Award
I learned today that The Demonologist is a finalist for the 2014 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel. Mondays don’t typically come with such pretty bows tied on them, gotta say.
So honored to be on a shortlist with amazing writers like Linda Castillo, Lee Child, Lisa Gardner, (fellow Canuck) Owen Laukkanen, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, and…Stephen freakin King.
The Demonologist Makes It 9 Weeks
Returned home from the Dark Side Tour appearances in Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa (all great fun) to see The Demonologist paperback on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for a 9th week (in the #9 spot).
Scary nice. And I’m frightfully grateful. (Forgive me).
LIBRIS Longlist
I’m honoured to see today that I’ve been longlisted along with a number of other amazing Canadian authors for the LIBRIS Awards Author of the Year. And that’s not all! The Demonologist has been similarly nominated for Fiction Book of the Year.
Well thank you, colleagues. And thank you, 2013. You were quite a year.
8 Weeks Straight for The Demonologist on the Globe and Mail Bestseller List!
That headline about says it all for today’s news. (I think I could write for a newspaper, but I’d be terrible at making up the headlines. I’d either rely too heavily on puns, or flat-as-a-pancake statements of the kind above. A road wisely not traveled).
Anyway, thanks you devils.
Answering the Proust Questionnaire on The Next Chapter
I’m on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers answering the Proust Questionnaire today. If you missed it, you can hear the podcast at the link below. (My bit is towards the end, but the whole thing has good stuff!)