Blurred Line

Just returned from out of town this afternoon - yesterday was my cousin's wedding, so I trucked up to the Toronto area yesterday and spent the day hanging out with family members, eating good food, and taking advantage of the open bar (less so than last year however - at a different cousin's wedding last year, I not only took advantage of the open bar, I made it my bitch).

One thing I might not have mentioned here is that, especially amongst my family members, I have a reputation for being a crazily fun dancer. So, imagine everyone's disappointment when I only got up and danced for one song. I blame it on them, though, because no one wanted to come up with me. And dancing alone is just making too much of a public spectacle of myself.

Anyhow, the biggest culprit here was the DJ. I have a song that'll make me dance, regardless of mood, setting, or blood-alcohol level ("Gimme Some Lovin" by The Spencer Davis Group in case you were wondering...don't ask me to explain it). So, after the DJ encouraged us to request songs, I made my way up there and put in my request. He told me he'd be sure to play and I noticed that I was request #3 on his list. Fast forward to midnight. The dancing has been going on a couple hours, and still no love from the DJ. I could understand if he was playing good stuff and the crowd was really into it, but not so much. As a wedding DJ, isn't it your job to please the crowd? I mean, really.

Dancing disappointments aside, a good time was had by all. Glad to be back home, though. When I go away for a while, even if only for a day or two, I realize just how attached I've become to Ottawa. Sad, really. I'm a writer, I shouldn't be allowed to be happy unless I'm living in New York.

Another worthy read to mention today. It only took me the day to read this book of short stories (it clocks in at 147 pages), but you wouldn't exactly want to call David Bezmozgis's Natasha slight. The stories all revolve around a common character who, like the author, emigrated to Toronto from Latvia as a child in 1980. The stories, obviously, look at the life of Canadian Jewish immigrants - some of them hopeful, some uncomfortable, some longing for the past while others long for the future. Overall, the strongest stories here are the title story, "Natasha", which revolves around the now sixteen year old main character and his experiences with the daughter of his uncle's new wife, and "An Animal to the Memory", a story about schoolyard insults and Jewish heritage.

This one was recommended to me by my Canadian Lit professor last year (not surprisingly, one of the courses I took with him was a seminar in Canadian Jewish literature), and it definitely measures up to the glowing terms in which he spoke of it.

A couple of books to remark on today - and those of you who are irritated by the Pottermania going around will be glad to know that one of them's not a Potter book and that my remark on the last chapter in that saga is going to be kept pretty brief.

So, my impressions on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: A worthy end to the series. Book number five remains my favourite, but I really enjoyed this one.

See? Brief.

For those of you looking for a good non-Potter book, I'd like to recommend Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers. The story revolves around a spinster named Klara, living in a remote Ontario town in the 1930's. However, the narrative also spends time in the 1860's with Father Gstir, the German priest who helped to found the town, and with Tilman, Klara's brother, who has left his family to become a drifter, thanks to an overwhelming wanderlust. The whole thing centers around the erection of the Vimy Ridge monument (if you're not Canadian, you might not have heard of the battle - but it's part of the Canadian identity, supposedly the battle where Canada stopped being a former colony of Britain and emerged as a country in its own right). Anyhow, the story is one of those typical Canadian novels - slow moving, full of emotion and hardship, but packing an incredible sense of whimsy and wonder.

Went to relive a bit of my childhood last night when I went out to watch Transformers. And...well, wow. Probably the best pure popcorn movie I've seen in years. Sure, it's ridiculous and the plot is flimsy to begin with, then riddled with holes as the movie progresses, but it's a movie about giant transforming robots. If you're looking for a great script, you're not there for the right reasons. Not only does it have awesome effects, but it's also a hell of a lot funnier than you might expect, thanks largely to Shia LaBeouf, who does a surprisingly good job acting with robots and the distractingly hot Megan Fox as co-stars. Anyhow, it gets my seal of approval.

Finally, the second issue of Fusion Fragment is here. The issue includes:

"Consequence" by Imam Baksh. This is Baksh's first published story, and it concerns a future where technology has removed all possibility of danger from our lives.
"My Bonny" by J.F. Peterson. A tale of first contact and picking up women in bars by a previous winner of the Writers of the Future contest.
"One Night In London" by Ian Whates. A cyberpunk-ish story of political intrigue. Whates has an upcoming story in a Tor anthology, and is responsible for editing some highly regarded anthologies himself.

Be sure to check it out.

A few quick things to mention here:

OK, I realize I said in my last post that FF #2 would be out very soon. It will be, but my internet connection has been on the fritz over the last couple days. So, yeah, stay tuned. I'm hoping to have it online by Friday, just in time for everyone to be distracted by the Harry Potter movie.
Speaking of which, looks like I'm going to see the movie that night...and yes, I'll be one of those nerds coming from a Harry Potter who's wearing Gryffindor house colours.
The big announcement of the day (why it's bullet #3, I have no idea) is that Apodis will have a new book coming out in the next couple of months. It's written by one of the authors from the Goodbye, Darwin anthology, it's a great story, and it has a real kickass cover. More on that soon.
Just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I'd give it its own post to recommend it, but I'm pretty sure most people on the planet who read that type of book have already read it. If you haven't read it, do.
File under best concert of my life: The White Stripes played the Ottawa Bluesfest on Sunday night and it was one hell of a show. Jack and Meg are my heroes.
Last night while on the phone with my mother, I was complaining about how I hadn't had any halfway decent story ideas lately. Today, I came up with a bunch. Unfortunately, I'm going to be so busy during the rest of the week that I don't think I'll have time to get anything down.
Finally, Getting Out of a Murder Sentence on a Technicality 101.

Fusion Fragment is due out very soon and I'm excited - it's got some really excellent stories for the second issue, including one by a Writers of the Future winner. Stay tuned.

Also, on listening to "Born on the Bayou" from my brand-spankin new 2-disc CCR anthology: What the hell is a hoodoo? If you're from Alberta like me, then a hoodoo is a kind of rock formation that you'll see if you drive out into the badlands around Drumheller, which is where they found a crapload of dinosaur bones (and now have just about the coolest museum in the world). They look a little something like this. So, when John Fogerty says he's chasing down a hoodoo, I keep imagining some guy with bad 70s hair climbing on a giant, funky-shaped rock.

At the moment, I have a big box full of copies of Goodbye, Darwin sitting on my floor and contributing to the general clutter of my room. I'd like to get rid of them. So, here's the deal (and yes, there is a catch). So long as you feel comfortable providing me with your mailing address, I'll send you a copy completely free of charge. The only catch is that you have to mention the book at some point in your blog. You don't have to write a rave review or anything like that, just a quick mention with a link pointing to this blog, the Apodis website, the book on Amazon, or something like that. Anyway, if there are any takers, just drop me an email.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Sunday, July 29, 2007 - When DJs Suck Just returned from out of town this afternoon - yesterday was my cousin's wedding, so I trucked up to the Toronto area yesterday and spent the day hanging out with family members, eating good food, and taking advantage of the open bar (less so than last year however - at a different cousin's wedding last year, I not only took advantage of the open bar, I made it my bitch). One thing I might not have mentioned here is that, especially amongst my family members, I have a reputation for being a crazily fun dancer. So, imagine everyone's disappointment when I only got up and danced for one song. I blame it on them, though, because no one wanted to come up with me. And dancing alone is just making too much of a public spectacle of myself. Anyhow, the biggest culprit here was the DJ. I have a song that'll make me dance, regardless of mood, setting, or blood-alcohol level ("Gimme Some Lovin" by The Spencer Davis Group in case you were wondering...don't ask me to explain it). So, after the DJ encouraged us to request songs, I made my way up there and put in my request. He told me he'd be sure to play and I noticed that I was request #3 on his list. Fast forward to midnight. The dancing has been going on a couple hours, and still no love from the DJ. I could understand if he was playing good stuff and the crowd was really into it, but not so much. As a wedding DJ, isn't it your job to please the crowd? I mean, really. Dancing disappointments aside, a good time was had by all. Glad to be back home, though. When I go away for a while, even if only for a day or two, I realize just how attached I've become to Ottawa. Sad, really. I'm a writer, I shouldn't be allowed to be happy unless I'm living in New York. Cavan blogged at 3:29 PM \| 2 comments Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - Natasha Another worthy read to mention today. It only took me the day to read this book of short stories (it clocks in at 147 pages), but you wouldn't exactly want to call David Bezmozgis's Natasha slight. The stories all revolve around a common character who, like the author, emigrated to Toronto from Latvia as a child in 1980. The stories, obviously, look at the life of Canadian Jewish immigrants - some of them hopeful, some uncomfortable, some longing for the past while others long for the future. Overall, the strongest stories here are the title story, "Natasha", which revolves around the now sixteen year old main character and his experiences with the daughter of his uncle's new wife, and "An Animal to the Memory", a story about schoolyard insults and Jewish heritage. This one was recommended to me by my Canadian Lit professor last year (not surprisingly, one of the courses I took with him was a seminar in Canadian Jewish literature), and it definitely measures up to the glowing terms in which he spoke of it. Cavan blogged at 8:51 PM \| 0 comments Monday, July 23, 2007 - Harry Potter and the Stone Carvers A couple of books to remark on today - and those of you who are irritated by the Pottermania going around will be glad to know that one of them's not a Potter book and that my remark on the last chapter in that saga is going to be kept pretty brief. So, my impressions on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: A worthy end to the series. Book number five remains my favourite, but I really enjoyed this one. See? Brief. For those of you looking for a good non-Potter book, I'd like to recommend Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers. The story revolves around a spinster named Klara, living in a remote Ontario town in the 1930's. However, the narrative also spends time in the 1860's with Father Gstir, the German priest who helped to found the town, and with Tilman, Klara's brother, who has left his family to become a drifter, thanks to an overwhelming wanderlust. The whole thing centers around the erection of the Vimy Ridge monument (if you're not Canadian, you might not have heard of the battle - but it's part of the Canadian identity, supposedly the battle where Canada stopped being a former colony of Britain and emerged as a country in its own right). Anyhow, the story is one of those typical Canadian novels - slow moving, full of emotion and hardship, but packing an incredible sense of whimsy and wonder. Cavan blogged at 3:15 PM \| 2 comments Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - Transformers Went to relive a bit of my childhood last night when I went out to watch Transformers. And...well, wow. Probably the best pure popcorn movie I've seen in years. Sure, it's ridiculous and the plot is flimsy to begin with, then riddled with holes as the movie progresses, but it's a movie about giant transforming robots. If you're looking for a great script, you're not there for the right reasons. Not only does it have awesome effects, but it's also a hell of a lot funnier than you might expect, thanks largely to Shia LaBeouf, who does a surprisingly good job acting with robots and the distractingly hot Megan Fox as co-stars. Anyhow, it gets my seal of approval. Cavan blogged at 5:41 PM \| 2 comments Friday, July 13, 2007 - Fusion Fragment #2 Online Finally, the second issue of Fusion Fragment is here. The issue includes: "Consequence" by Imam Baksh. This is Baksh's first published story, and it concerns a future where technology has removed all possibility of danger from our lives. "My Bonny" by J.F. Peterson. A tale of first contact and picking up women in bars by a previous winner of the Writers of the Future contest. "One Night In London" by Ian Whates. A cyberpunk-ish story of political intrigue. Whates has an upcoming story in a Tor anthology, and is responsible for editing some highly regarded anthologies himself. Be sure to check it out. Cavan blogged at 6:54 AM \| 0 comments Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - In Brief A few quick things to mention here: OK, I realize I said in my last post that FF #2 would be out very soon. It will be, but my internet connection has been on the fritz over the last couple days. So, yeah, stay tuned. I'm hoping to have it online by Friday, just in time for everyone to be distracted by the Harry Potter movie. Speaking of which, looks like I'm going to see the movie that night...and yes, I'll be one of those nerds coming from a Harry Potter who's wearing Gryffindor house colours. The big announcement of the day (why it's bullet #3, I have no idea) is that Apodis will have a new book coming out in the next couple of months. It's written by one of the authors from the Goodbye, Darwin anthology, it's a great story, and it has a real kickass cover. More on that soon. Just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I'd give it its own post to recommend it, but I'm pretty sure most people on the planet who read that type of book have already read it. If you haven't read it, do. File under best concert of my life: The White Stripes played the Ottawa Bluesfest on Sunday night and it was one hell of a show. Jack and Meg are my heroes. Last night while on the phone with my mother, I was complaining about how I hadn't had any halfway decent story ideas lately. Today, I came up with a bunch. Unfortunately, I'm going to be so busy during the rest of the week that I don't think I'll have time to get anything down. Finally, Getting Out of a Murder Sentence on a Technicality 101. Cavan blogged at 7:06 PM \| 0 comments Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - FF #2 Out Soon Fusion Fragment is due out very soon and I'm excited - it's got some really excellent stories for the second issue, including one by a Writers of the Future winner. Stay tuned. Also, on listening to "Born on the Bayou" from my brand-spankin new 2-disc CCR anthology: What the hell is a hoodoo? If you're from Alberta like me, then a hoodoo is a kind of rock formation that you'll see if you drive out into the badlands around Drumheller, which is where they found a crapload of dinosaur bones (and now have just about the coolest museum in the world). They look a little something like this. So, when John Fogerty says he's chasing down a hoodoo, I keep imagining some guy with bad 70s hair climbing on a giant, funky-shaped rock. Cavan blogged at 11:50 PM \| 0 comments Monday, July 02, 2007 - Free Books At the moment, I have a big box full of copies of Goodbye, Darwin sitting on my floor and contributing to the general clutter of my room. I'd like to get rid of them. So, here's the deal (and yes, there is a catch). So long as you feel comfortable providing me with your mailing address, I'll send you a copy completely free of charge. The only catch is that you have to mention the book at some point in your blog. You don't have to write a rave review or anything like that, just a quick mention with a link pointing to this blog, the Apodis website, the book on Amazon, or something like that. Anyway, if there are any takers, just drop me an email. Cavan blogged at 12:57 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart