I’ve been busy with a whole host of things “around” writing, like launches and readings, but right now, I’m back. Back at my desk, that is, working on a novel – my third. This Monday morning when I woke, my first thought was I’m back at it, and I have to say, I felt ecstatic.
I got a Manitoba Arts Council grant for the project late last year, which was wonderful, not just for the financial support, but for the focus and accountability it provided. I did what I promised; I revised a rough first draft into a near-final draft. But near-final isn’t yet the same as final, so working towards Final is what I’m doing now. I’m enjoying it, yes, but also impatient to be finished, since a couple of non-fiction ideas are begging for attention too.
As for what the novel is about, here’s the sentence I gave the people at MAC, which is still more or less accurate: “a novel in which an archivist investigates the mysterious life and death of her odd uncle.” I’m squeezing all the time I can find into revisions from now until mid-December or so and will try not to let myself fret, until I absolutely have to, about the where, when, and how of publishing the book in today’s publishing environment!
I also write an occasional post at my blog, “Borrowing Bones.”
Dora Dueck recently launched a collection of short fiction, What You Get at Home (Turnstone Press). Her novel, This Hidden Thing (CMU, 2010), won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction at the 2011 Manitoba Book Awards.