More awards? Unlikely, but then again, who thought Crash would take home the Oscar?

I really don't think I have a chance at this one, but even being on the longlist is a real boost to my ego.

Shelf Monkey is on the official longlist for the 2008 Relit Awards!

The Relit Award, by way of explanation, is Canada's preeminent literary award celebrating independent presses. Started by acclaimed Canadian novelist Kenneth J. Harvey, the final ceremony is held on the beaches on Newfoundland, with awards presented for fiction, short stories, and poetry (go, Emily Schultz!).

The prize? Check this out:

This is a ring made up of four rotating rings, each adorned with a complete alphabet. The wearer can rotate the letters to create any four letter word he or she wishes.

All together now: One ring to rule them all...

But while I love being on the list of possible shortlist nominees, let's look at the competition.

The Reckoning of Boston Jim, Claire Mulligan (Brindle & Glass)
I, Tania, Brian Joseph Davis (ECW)
Shelf Monkey, Corey Redekop (ECW)
Orphan Love, Nadia Bozak (Key Porter)
The Milk Chicken Bomb, Andrew Wedderburn (Coach House)
Glass Voices, Carol Bruneau (Cormorant)
Macdonald, Roy MacSkimming (Thomas Allen)
Dirtbags, Teresa McWhirter (Anvil)
Homing, Stephanie Domet (Invisible)
The Flannigans, M.T. Dohaney (Flanker)
The Silent Time, Paul Rowe (Killick)
The Convictions of Leonard McKinley, Brendan McLeod (3-Day Books)
A Place of Pretty Flowers, Jerrod Edson (Oberon)
Brother Dumb, Sky Gilbert (ECW)
Big White Knuckles, Brian Tucker (Vagrant)
As Good as Dead, Stan Rogal (Pedlar)
Be Good, Stacey May Fowles (Tightrope)
Coureurs de Bois, Bruce MacDonald (Cormorant)
Bottle Rocket Hearts, Zoe Whittall (Cormorant)
The Book of Beasts, Bernice Friesen (Coteau)
Where White Horses Gallop, Beatrice MacNeil (Key Porter)
Correction Road, Glen Dresser (Oberon)
Smuggling Donkeys, David Helwig (Porcupine’s Quill)
74 Miles Away, J.D. Carpenter (Dundurn)
Post, Arley McNeney (Thistledown)
White, Rob Mclennan (Mercury)
The Skin Beneath, Nairne Holtz (Insomniac)
Room Tone, Gale Zoe Garnett (Quattro)
Soucouyant, David Chariandy (Arsenal Pulp)
Be Wolf, Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
Snow Candy, Terry Carroll (Mercury)
Stealing Nasreen, Farzana Doctor (Inanna)
The Housekeeping Journals, Jim Mason (Turnstone)
Planet Reese, Cordelia Strube (Dundurn)
The Prison Tangram, Claire Huot (Mercury)
Crown Shyness, Curtis Gillespie (Brindle & Glass)
The Flush of Victory, Ray Smith (Biblioasis)
Delible, Anne Stone (Insomniac)
Pulpy & Midge, Jessica Westhead (Coach House)
The Hole Show, Maya Merrick (Conundrum)

Now that's an impressive lineup. With Strube, Tefs, Whittall, and Gilbert on the list, I think holding my breath might be an ill-advised procedure.

But let me dream, will you?

Corey Redekop accepts award!

Alright, this is obviously not me.  But it's definitely my book.

Pictured to the left is ECW Press publisher Jack David, in Los Angeles at Book Expo America, accepting the Gold Medal for Best Popular Fiction at this year's Independent Publisher Book Awards.  Notice that shiny hunk of bling around his neck?  Yeah, that's mine, and I want it.  I'll likely pick it up this weekend at Book Expo Canada, where I'll be picking up free books, meeting people, and generally having a blast.  I won't be signing, as I have no new novel out, but please stop by the ECW booth to meet some truly talented and quality writers.  John McFetridge is signing copies of his latest novel on Sunday, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

Shelf Monkey: oh yes, it's worthy of awards

It is with great honour and humble acknowledgement of my genius that I accept this award...

Just kidding. About the false modesty part, not the award part.

Shelf Monkey has just been awarded Gold as Best Popular Fiction Novel at this year's Independent Publishers Book Awards!

From the release:

This year's contest attracted 3,175 total entries, with over 2,500 entries in the national categories and over 600 entries in the regional competition. Books came from 49 U.S. states (come on, North Dakota!), D.C., and U.S. Virgin Islands; 9 Canadian provinces (get with it, Northwest Territories!), and 16 countries around the world: Trinidad to Thailand, Croatia to Czech Republic, and France to Finland.

I've gone over some of the past winners of different categories - famed Canadian author Ray Robertson won for Best Regional Fiction (Canada East) in 2007 for his novel Moody Food, Dave Eggers won in 2007 for Best General Fiction with his novel What is the What, and Jim Harrison took home the gold in 2001 with his collection of novellas The Beast God Forgot to Invent. Pretty heavy hitters to be in company with. I'd better start lifting weights or something.

So, I humbly accept this award - although I won't be at the ceremony next week in L.A., I have been informed by my publicist that a representative of ECW will be in attendance, and will accept the award with a photocopied image of my face adhered with scotch tape to his visage. Classy.

Shelf Monkey: worthy of academia?

Now, I fully understand why academic English courses can get a bad rap: there's a lot of reading (oh, boo hoo); a lot of the texts are either musty relics of a bygone and best forgotten era or indecipherable post-modernist tracts that critics gush about and mere mortals weep in terror at the thought of yet-another angst-filled chapter of eye-bleedingly intense prose; and let's face it, books? They're on their way out. Why write whole sentences when you can text, or, wy wrt hol sntnses wn u cn txt?

But fear not, help is on the way, at least in Alberta: the ENGLISH 376 A1 course Canadian Literature and Culture (at the University of Alberta) is teaching Shelf Monkey as part of its required curriculum. I don't know who the professor is, but it's fair to same I love him/her with all my heart.

Don't believe me? Check out the screen-cap below from the University of Alberta Bookstore:

Finally, my name will ring throughout the halls of academia alongside English lit luminaries such as Melville, Orwell, Atwood, and Austen! And just think; with a little luck, soon Shelf Monkey will have reached the status of yet another boring tome that a freshman will have to suffer over to achieve that all-important career-saving grade of C-.

Ah...immortality.

Shelf Monkey conquers YouTube!

Or at least, I assume it will. It doesn't have the bawling Brittany-lover, or that Chocolate Rain thing that honestly will never get old, but still, I'm positive this will be the newest sensation. A guy talking about a book? What's not to love?

Check out below for my Cult Pop interview in all it's glory, but cut in half because of time restrictions.

Part I

Part II

Again, big shout-outs to Jim Hall and the Cult Pop crew (Jerry). Good show, guys!

Shelf Monkey interview on Cult Pop! Live and in colour!

Cult Pop is a terrific pop culture show broadcast out of the Detroit area, as well as being available online and through RSS feeds. Matt Staggs of Skullring.org - major booster of my work, and obviously a swell guy with discriminating tastes - brought my novel to the good people behind it (specifically Jim Hall), and the resulting interview (along with an interview with author Lauren Groff, whose book The Monsters of Templeton I am definitely going to look up) is now up on the website.

I recommend checking through the list of past shows (after you've watched my interview, of course). Jim has interviewed some spectacular talent in the short time the show has been in existence, and is well worth checking out. Jeff Vandermeer, John Scalzi, Tobias Buckell - these are some major heavyweights, and I'm honoured to now be lumped in with them.

Check out the show here. I'll have a separate link to the interview up soon, but why would you wait? Go!

Too much of a good thing? Nah.

Sure, gas is getting priced out of purchasability, wheat stores are at a thirty year low, and polar bears should be extinct any day now. But there are more copies of Shelf Monkey coming! That should alleviate your crippling depression about the aforementioned catastophies, right?

Yes, Shelf Monkey is officially in its second printing, a rarity for a first-time author with a small publisher. Whoo! Raise the roof!

And Shelf Monkey is currently in contention for nomination in a number of prizes at the Manitoba Book Awards, so cross your fingers.

Young Corey dreams of wookies and spaceships

[NOTE] This is also my Open Book Toronto entry, but I'm so proud of the damn thing, I thought I'd reprint it here in its entirety.

I thought I’d make a little detour through time today, and revisit myself *ahem* 27 years or so ago.

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking to a grade 4 class on the publishing process. During my talk, I mentioned that the students should save everything they write, as they will want to revisit their past efforts at some point. While I said this, I thought back to my own magnum opus of my youth, a sequel to George Lucas’ The Empire Strikes Back. I thought the story was lost to the packing boxes and dumpsters of time.

Go forward 4 months, and my mother unearths the very story, complete with barely-competent illustrations and scratch-and-sniff stickers adorning the cover (The pickle still smells!).

I’ve gone through the pages, and while I can say that my overall style has improved, my handwriting certainly has not.

Other observations:

a) My eleven-year-old self has a problem with ‘i before e.’
b) It’s spelled “Tatooine,” not “Tatoonie.”
c) My spellcheck recognizes “Chewbacca” but not “Lando.”
d) The dialogue, while rough and frankly awful, is comparable to 21st century Lucas dialogue.

And so, without further ado, and with all mistakes and errors transcribed verbatim, I present part one of Corey Redekop’s fan fiction extraordinaire:

The Jedi’s Revenge

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a great adventure took place. Commander Luke Skywalker, with the help pf his friends, had just succeeded in escaping the notorious Darth Vader and his stormtroopers. But Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon, has been captured by Boba Fett, the infamous bounty hunter, who is going to give him to Jabba the Hut. Luke is at the Rebel base on Yavin. He is about to leave to look for Han with Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca the Wookie, when Princess Leia Organa stops them.

“Luke, you can’t do this!” she cried. “This is a suicide mission!”

“Yes, you certainly can’t!” said a voice behind Luke. It was C-3PO, a tall robot which was Luke’s companion. “You can’t and R2-D2 agrees with me!” R2-D2 was a small robot that talked in beeps and whistles.

“I’m sorry, but it’s got to be done,” Luke said while getting into his ship. “If I don’t go, Han will be disinigrated, and we can’t let that happen.”

“Aroghf,” growled Chewbacca.

“O.K. Chewy,” said Lando. “We’re going.

They boarded the Millennium Falcon, said good-bye, and started the thrusters. The Falcon sputtered, coughed, and then blasted off. When the Falcon was just a twinkling light in the sky, Leia whispered to C-3PO:

“I just hope they’ll be all right.”

*

Yoda and Ben Kenobi were meditating when Yoda whisphered:

“I feel…feel something is happening to poor Luke.”

“I feel it too, master,” replied Ben. “He is in grave danger. He is going to rescue his friend. We must help him.”

“No!” Yoda screamed. “We must let him chose his own destiny. He can chose to become a Jedi, or become a servant of evil. You should have never brought him here. You should have not told him about the Force and Darth Vader. We must not interfere.” Ben was silent. Finally he said aloud:

“I must go help him! He might be killed!”

“If you go, I go! I must not lose you to the evil side of the Force as I lost Darth Vader!” Yoda stated. “I will go get our lightsabers and then we’ll go!”

*

The Falcon cruised quietly with Chewbacca at the controls. Lando and Luke were pacing the floor. Finally Lando said:

“This is ridiculus! We left two hours ago and we still haven’t done anything to save Han!”

“Aroghrf!” yelled Chewbacca. “Arroghf!”

Luke walked over to Chewbacca. “What is it, Chewy? he asked.

“There’s a Star Destroyer behind us! yelled Lando. “Chewy, put up the deflector sheilds! Luke, you control the guns! Let’s get out of here!”

*

A large, ominious shape was on the Star Destroyer. He watched the Falcon with bemused intrest and then walked to the command centre.

“I told you not to follow them too fast! Now they’ve put their deflector sheilds!” It was Darth Vader. Lord of the Empire. His black cape flowed as the shaking Admiral walked up.

“I thought surprise would be wiser,” he said. “How was I to…to…Arrgh!” Vader’s hand closed around the Admiral’s neck and choked him.

“Captain Ozzel,” he said “you’re in command now. I want no further mistakes!”

*

“There,” said Yoda. “We’re all packed.”

“But how will we get there?” Ben asked. He had not learned how to travel by the force.

“Concentrate on Luke and you will follow him,” replied Yoda. So they concentrated and then in a flash of light more brighter then the sun they were gone. They were on their way!”

*

A small ship sped through the galaxy toward the distant planet Tatoonie. It was the Slave One, ship of the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett. In his hold was Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon.

“You can’t get away with this, you know!” Solo said through the bars of his cage. But Fett only laughed and said,

“We’ll see about that!”

“I’ll get out of this before we get near Tatoonie!” snarled Han.

Boba Fett laughed again and said, “It’s a little late for that now! We’re here,” he said as the Slave One entered Tatoonies atmosphere.

*

Brrzaap! The Falcon’s left deflector shield fell off!

“When can we jump into hyperspace?” yelled Luke. “We can’t take this much longer!”

“Don’t worry,” Lando replied. “We’ll jump any minute. But where shall we look for Han? We have no idea where he is.”

Luke replied “Well, I think they would go to Tatoonie. Jabba the Hut was last seen there.”

“So that’s where we’ll go!” announced Lando. “Chewy, set course for the Tatoonie system!”

*

Yoda and Ben landed on a nearby asteroid.

“I don’t understand it!” muttered Yoda. “We were following them and then they dissapearred!”

“My master,” said Ben. “Perhaps I can assist. Jabba The Hut was last seen on Tatoonie.”

“Good!” replied Yoda. “Let’s go!” So they concentrated and in a blinding flash more brighter than the sun they were gone.

*

Back on Yavin, Leia was pacing the floor in anguish. Finnally she said:

“I don’t like it, 3PO! I can feel that Luke is in danger.”

“Your highness,” said C-3PO, “if your that worried why don’t you go after him. It’s much better then doing nothing!”

“Bleep va doop re Bop!” said R2-D2 in agreement.

“Okay, you guys. You talked me into it. Let’s go,” said Leia werily as she turned toward her private ship. R2 beeped in excitement and immedietly followed her and 3PO.

*

Darth Vader walked to the control centre in crest-fallen anguish.

“It doesn’t make sense, my lord!” said an officer. “We just can’t pick them up on our scopes!”

darth Vader looked out of the window. “The Tatoonie system…” he muttered. “Officer, head for the Tatoonie system!”

“But, My lord…” the officer stuttered…

“No Buts!” said Vader. “Head for the Tatoonie system! Skywalker is there!”

*

The Millenium Falcon landed quietly in Mos Eisely. Luke and Lando changed so they would fit into the crowd. Luke wore red clothes with a long blue cape and Lando changed into a white suit with no sleeves and no pantlegs. Then they all split up Luke was in a bar when he saw a familiar shape go into a laboratory.

“Han!” he shouted, and tore off after him. He ran into the laboratory, which was pitch black. Suddenly the lights went on., blinding him for a second. Then he felt a sharp pain on his shoulder. He spun around, only to be punched in the chin and tossed into a computer. His attacker jumped on him and put his hands around Lukes throat. For long, terrible seconds Luke struggled with his assaliant. Then Luke tossed him into the wall. He got up and gave the man a left hook, which knocked him head over heals over a table, and crashing into several beakers and chemicals. Luke jumped over the table and picked up the man by the lapels of his jacket.

“Who are you, and who sent you?” he demanded. The man only snarled and replied:

“You’ll never get anything out of me!” Luke dropped and turned to leave, when Lando and Chewbacca came bursting into the room.

“Luke!” Lando exclaimed. “Are you all right?”

“Oh, yeah, everythings fine,” Luke joked werily.

“Who’s that?” Lando asked, pointing at the man.

“Who, him?” Luke replied. “He’s a bully. I can’t get anything out of him!”

“Well, let’s go,” said Lando. “It’ll be safer if we stick together!”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Can your heart stand the excitement? Who is this mysterious “bully?” How did Yoda suddenly get the power to teleport? Will anyone get disinigrated?

Stay tuned, fearless readers…

Reading Schedule - Type Books and Curiosity House Books

Well, never let it be said that I don't enjoy the limelight. Whatever that means.

I have two upcoming readings to promote, for myself of course.

• When: Thursday, January 24, 2008, 7:00 pm
• Where: Type Books, 883 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON
• Click here for map



• When: Saturday, January 26, 2008, 2:00 pm
• Where: Curiosity House Books, 134A Mill Street, Creemore, ON
• Click here for map

Hope to see you there. Remember, in person, I'm spectacular. And due to my lengthy sojourn in the northern climes, I now come with fresh pine scent.

Corey Redekop reads!

For those of you out there you enjoy my novel, but wonder what I sound like in person, well, wonder no more!

The Time Traveller Show is a truly neat podcast show determined to present old and new sci-fi stories for the discriminating genre listener. I was surfing around a few months ago, discovered the site, and decided to send in a sample of my voice in case Rick Jackson (podcaster extrordinaire) was in need of any narrators.

And the rest was fate.

Rick has packaged the story I stumbled my way through (Mack Reynold's Prone) with two other stories read by true narration professionals. So, if you don't enjoy my reading, fast-forward to the others, because believe me, these guys know how to tell a story.

Find the recording and a link to iTunes here. Give it a listen, let me know what you think. Remember, if we don't support this podcasting thing, it may just disappear.

Shelf Monkey - a work of art?

The neato slideshow you're currently no doubt enraptured by is a selection of seven Canadian book covers of 2007, selected on behalf of Quill & Quire by prominent book designers as some of the best of the year.

And who's that in the middle?

Says designer Tania Craan:

This cover really pops off the shelf because of the strong black and orange image on a white background. The fact that there is no title or author name on the front is also very intriguing. Most publishers would not even consider a cover without type on the front, so ECW Press took a smart gamble on this one.

Whooo!

Alright, so I didn't design it myself, the multi-talented David Gee can take the credit. But I was consulted, and offered a choice of designs, so I can legitimately claim some credit in its eventual use.

So, congrats to David Gee for a strong imagination, and myself for incredible bravery in choosing an offbeat cover.

My Dinner with Robert

I'll have some pictures of the entire Words Alive Festival up soon, but as an enticement, take a gander at this:
Yes, that's me, third from the left, and who's that next to me? Oh, just incredibly popular Canadian sci-fi icon Robert J. Sawyer, that's who! And some other guys who, while pleasant enough, just don't have the same je ne sais quoi.

Robert and I - Oh yes, we're on a first-name basis now. Jealous? - were seperate night headliners for Brandon, Manitoba's first official writer's festival, Words Alive. We met at BookExpo a few months ago, which is how the whole festival got its start.

Now, here we are, compadres-in-words; peers, when you think about it. OK, yeah, I'm overplaying it, but seriously, if you ever get the chance to have dinner with Robert, I recommend you take it. He's a helluva nice guy, and smart. If you want to argue with him, you'd have better done your homework. Seriously, scary smart. And funny. And successful. Come to think of it, I should hate him, but he's too darn nice!

Open Book: Toronto chooses a new W-I-R.

Read this blog, but can't get enough? Thinking to yourself, "Gee, Corey is witty, even wise in his way, but only if he were contractually obligated to be more interesting on a regular basis"? Well, pray to the Gods no more, the answer is on its way!

For the month of January, 2008 (!), yours truly will be the official online writer-in-residence with Open Book: Toronto.

From the website:

Open Book: Toronto celebrates the new and wonderful books, authors and events coming out with Ontario's independent, Canadian-owned publishers. Open Book is committed to showcasing the outstanding range and quality of contemporary Canadian writing and invites Torontonians to connect with their very own vibrant and cutting-edge publishing scene.

Yes, you're right, I'm not technically in Ontario, but my publisher is. So come January, I'll be putting out fairly recent posts concerning the literary life, and answering emails from interested writers desperate for a taste of that Redekop luck.

And get a load of this lineup; September'sW-I-R was award-winning author (hereinafter 'AWA') Todd Babiuk (The Book of Stanley). October's AWA was Zoe Whitall (Bottle Rocket Hearts. November's AWA, Lynn Coady (Saints of Big Harbour). I don't know who is lined up for December, but considering the calibre so far, my bet is someone, oh, award winning.

To sum up:
Todd Babiuk
Zoe Whitall
Lynn Coady
TBA
Corey Redekop

All together now: One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong... (Hint: it's me!)

Corey Redekop - the Simpsons character!