My Review of Pandexicon, by Wayne Grady for Canadian Writers Abroad

I'm happy to announce that I'm back in the digital pages of Canadian Writers Abroad, this time reviewing Wayne Grady's nonfiction work about Covid-19, Pandexicon: How the Language of the Pandemic Defined Our New Cultural Reality. 

I really enjoyed this book: through the terms, neologisms, and slang that arose during the pandemic, it lays out the history and consequences of that collective tragedy and how it altered our very language. Grady brings a ton of journalistic rigour to his study of the pandemic, and he displays full command over its chronology of events. I imagine this book will prove, years from now, an invaluable resource for authors who want to replicate the events of the pandemic through historical fiction, once it's far enough in our rearview mirror.

Anyway, a must-read for those interested in a deep dive into Covid-19. You can also check out my other contributions (reviews, interviews, listicles, etc.) to Canadian Writers Abroad.  

Another Guest Post for Rebecca's Newsletter

Well, I'm back with another guest post for my wife Rebecca's newsletter. This piece, called On the Sunk Cost Fallacy, or Why I Wrote a Horror Novel is a deeply personal one for me. It talks about the long, hard road to getting my forthcoming new novel, Lowfield, accepted for publication. 

I put this out there, not just as promotion for the book (which you can pre-order wherever you buy books), but also to share some insider baseball about just how tough the publishing game can be, and the work, luck, and faith you need to have to get your work out into the world. I don't do a lot of confessional-style writing, so please let me know what you think of this piece!

Devouring Tomorrow Launch Party!

Okay folks, save the date! The launch party for DEVOURING TOMORROW will be on April 2 at Toronto's Teddy Beer. I've got a short story, called "Unlimited Dream," included in this speculative fiction anthology about "food of the future." The book is edited by Jeffrey Dupuis and A.G. Pasquella and includes works by Carleigh Baker, Gary Barwin, Chris Benjamin, Catherine Bush, Jowita Bydlowska, Lisa de Nikolits, Dina Del Bucchia, Terri Favro and many more. 

The evening will be a blast, so come out and help us celebrate! See this Facebook invitation for deets.

Reminder: Devouring Tomorrow Anthology Coming in March!

 As I mentioned just about a year ago, I have a new short story, called "Unlimited Dream," forthcoming in a speculative fiction anthology Devouring Tomorrow, edited by Jeffrey Dupuis and A.G. Pasquella. Built around the theme of "food of the future," this book is out in March (not in the fall as previously reported) and is already getting some buzz, including a writeup in last weekend's Toronto Star. I'll provide more updates about this delightful book as they become available, but in the meantime check out its snazzy cover and a fantastic blurb by Chris Turner, author of How to Be a Climate Optimist. Pre-order your copy of Devouring Tomorrow - today!

Guest post on the Wolsak & Wynn blog

So I've got a guest blog post on the Wolsak & Wynn website today, in which I pair some books and cocktails to help you unwind during this festive season. My choices include books from Gerald Arthur Moore, Shashi Bhatt, Daniel Tysdal and others, and the cocktails include the Irish Maid, the Boulevardier, and the Chelsea Sidecar. Don't forget to add a comment and share some picks of your own. Enjoy!

Another Guest Post for My Wife's Newsletter

So apparently there's some demand for "more Mark content" over on my wife's newsletter. Who knew! If you've read Rebecca's 2023 pandemic memoir, These Days Are Numbered, you know that recreated dialogues with me featured prominently in the Facebook posts that comprised that book, and these tend to be what readers have reacted to the most. (Not bragging, just a fact.) Now that love has followed Rebecca to her recently launched newsletter as she tries to wean herself off the algorithmic hellscape that Facebook has become. But recreated dialogues are, it seems, not enough (man, I wish I were this popular IRL), so Rebecca asked me to pull together another essay instead.

This one is called Why 4:30? and discusses a subject near and dear to my heart: my relatively insane writing process whereby I rise at 4:30 am five days a week to write for two and a half to three hours before toddling off to my day job. This has been a topic of fascination, bafflement and annoyance among friends, family, acquaintances, former roommates, and ex-girlfriends across the 30+ years I've been doing it. So Rebecca suggested I talk about why this is part of my process, what are the creative benefits of writing that early, and whether it's a routine I think I can maintain forever. Anyway - enjoy!

And ICYMI, here is the previous essay I wrote for her, called In Praise of Writing Manuals.  

My Review of National Animal, by Derek Webster, for Canadian Writers Abroad

 

I've done another review for the lovely and eclectic Canadian Writers Abroad magazine, this time of Derek Webster's new poetry collection, National Animal. This is a wise and warm book of verse, and I'm not surprised that it's also gotten some recent love from the Quebec Writers Federation Awards. 

Here's an excerpt from my review:

The nation in National Animal is, for the most part, Canada, with riffs on everything from Joni Mitchell to the surprisingly evocative line “palm tree in a Lotto Max sky” in the piece "The Writing on the Wall.” But Webster, despite his book’s title, does not limit these poems to our nation’s boundaries or the project of nationalism, as CanLit has defined it in the past. His reliquary is more inclusive than that. This is verse that travels widely and blurs borders wherever it likes. 

Anyway, check it out!