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.

A year later, and still getting reviewed!

The world of publishing is obviously far different than that of the movies, where reviews are up the first week or so, and that's likely it. But not for books; over a year after being published, Shelf Monkey is still getting reviewed, and it goes without saying, reviewed well. Like I'd promote a bad review.

This week, it's the independent (and fantastic) magazine Broken Pencil. I love the independents, they can get away with so much more...colourful language. I think every book review ought to be laden with obscenities.

From the review by Richard Rosenbaum in issue #39:

The dialogue is thoroughly witty, Thomas' desires and frustrations feel genuine, the style is quite original, and if you've got any sort of literary tastes or preferences at all, the discussions between the characters over which books are treasures and which ones are trash will have you laughing out loud in recognition. Let's put it this way: if you hate the [obscenity deleted for our more sensitive readers] Da Vinci Code, this book is totally for you!

Thanks, Richard! You and your review rock in every conceivable way!

How the second novel progresses...

I thought I’d take a moment of this glorious day - it’s windy and cloudy, but not snowing, (which around these parts constitutes a minor miracle), and I've just discovered some new promotion of my novel via the Amazon/Omnivoracious blog, which is always a good thing (thanx, J. Vandermeer) - to write on the topic of my next novel. That’s right, instead of actually writing it, I’m going to write about it. I am aware of the irony, you needn’t point it out.

As I sit in the Northern Flavours coffee shop, The Police on my iPod drowning out the country music playing throughout the shop, I am currently on a quest to fulfill one of my hero Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s basic tenets of writing:

Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

In that spirit, my protagonist is going through hell at the moment. A manufactured hell, a physical hell, a literal hell, not the nebulous religious hell parents frighten children with and leaders use as a weapon to keep down the masses.

And there’s more of this to come. As the novel progresses, he will have his soul stripped bare, and possibly, quite possibly, he will lose. I haven’t quite decided yet, but as the god of this little world, I am going to taunt my Job mercilessly.

In other words, I’m going to take a lot of personal frustrations out on the little guy.

Perhaps some of you have noticed the constantly changing tally of my output at the right-hand top of this page. Some others will notice (and have already commented) on the title, an ever-shifting designation which promises a sequel to Shelf Monkey. Sadly, this is not the case. I’m just being snarky, which is my right. The book may be a spiritual sequel, and it is a sequel in the sense of being my follow-up novel, but it is definitely not a sequel in the Rocky II, III, IV, V, Balboa sense. I just have nowhere else to go with it, and while the next novel certainly exists in the same universe, the monkeys will have no part in it. Aubrey will not suddenly pop up as a mystic offering advice, Danae is nowhere to be seen, Warren has likely died by now, and Thomas is still in prison. A part of me wants to reference it somewhere, like in a news item playing in the background, but it feels a little too self-congratulatory, too smug. I'm not Stephen King, I can't shoehorn a Dark Tower reference in.

Or am I wrong? Doubtful, but it could happen. Write in, tell me what your think, and how I could seamlessly integrate Shelf Monkey into the new scenario.

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!

Win a copy of Shelf Monkey (and some other books too)!

Recently, being a Canadian literary icon (shut up), I was contacted by Canadian Living Magazine for a little tidbit on any favourite hang-outs I have in Winnipeg. I chose Red River Books, which is summarized in the May issue thusly:

Red River Books in the heart of Old Market Square in Winnipeg is a holistic experience. Paperbacks are scattered everywhere, floor space is rare, and there's only a hint of order to the place. But you can spend hours digging through the books.

Well, I wasn't the only one they contacted: accomplished literary luminaries such as Todd Babiuk (The Book of Stanley), Gail Anderson-Dargatz (Turtle Valley), and Ami McKay (The Birth House) all put in their two cents as to their cherished areas in the Canadian landscape.

Maybe I should have chosen a more...poetic place, but I am who I am.

The magazine is having a contest to win all 10 (!) books, including yours truly. Simply visit here and put in your info.

Free Canadian literature. Who says nothing good ever comes for free? Wait, I said that. Well, I was wrong.

Shelf Monkey: the motion picture

The good folks at The Page 99 Test have a neat sister blog at My Book, the Movie, wherein authors lay out their dream casting choices for their novels. When pressed, I finally made some choices:

The lead character Thomas at one point opines on who should portray him in the eventual movie, laying out Jake Gyllenhaal and Ewan McGregor as his favored candidates. Nice try, but Thomas as a personality does not have that kind of Hollywood heft, and should not get played by a personality that would overwhelm the character (although Ewan would be a good choice in any event). He’s kind of a sarcastic milquetoast, and Paul Rudd would be a fine choice, if possibly a little too old (sorry Paul). In a few years, Michael Cera would be absolutely perfect. And seriously, how good is Cera anyway? I can’t get enough of the guy. Also, he’s Canadian, and as Shelf Monkey is a shaggy little Canadian novel, it would be nice to get an actor with that je ne c’est quoi sensibility. Or Topher Grace.

Read the rest of the story here.

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.

9 months later, and the reviews keep coming in

Jeff Vandermeer, author extraordinaire, has provided a list of his favourite novels of 2007 to Locus Online, a respected science-fiction/fantasy publication.

And guess who's on the list?

Among many, many other notable titles (he acknowledges that it was a very good year for reading), Jeff cites Shelf Monkey under his 'First Novels' choices, noting :

Corey Redekop provided this year's gonzo fun with his Shelf Monkey, an utterly enjoyable novel about radical bookworms.

I love it.

Thanks, Jeff, and I'll be starting The City of Saints and Madmen any day now.

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.

The Words Alive festival

Well, my first offical authors festival as a participant has come and gone. It was a terrific time - good conversation, new friends (Robert J., Sawyer!), and, hopefully, a fan base who'll flock to bookstores to purchase my latest opus, Writer's Block: Uh, Oh Man, I Had a Good Idea Lying Around Here Someplace.

My talk was extensive and far-reaching, travelling the gamut from Shelf Monkey itself, to how I wrote it, to religious fundamentalism, to the cartoon supervillany of Bill O'Reilly et al as an obvious influence on the character of Munroe, to Chuck Norris. Yes, Chuck Norris. We actually ended on that note: I was pointing to his latest novel as an example of how a writer saddled with an absolute dearth of imagination and talent can still, somehow, get a book published. I mean, he has three people helping to write his story, and yet, with four writers, there is not one single interesting thing about the entire endeavour. Not one interesting character. Not one interesting sentence. A simple adventure novel that has not entertaining scene or remotely believable event. The novel in its entirety should stand as the official definition of, "Meh." And the fact that people find entertainment in such poorly-written tripe depresses me as much as the late-night 'reality' dating shows that CTV broadcasts on Saturday past midnight. Seriously ugly shows.

That aside (and I think I stand on good footing that I did not offend anyone in the audience with my Norris-bashing), everything was wonderful.

And now, pics!

I argue for M.G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song as the rightful winner of the 2007 Giller Prize at the McNally Robinson Giller Light Bash. Unfortunately, I was not successful in my attempt, but I claim a moral victory in that I was undoubtedly the best-dressed debater of the evening. Although I must admit, the accusing stares of fellow Mennonite authors David Bergen and Miriam Toews (hidden) behind me gave me a serious case of the flop sweats. ALRIGHT, I'M NOT AS GOOD AS YOU! I KNOW! GET OUT OF MY MIND!

Words Alive organizer and professional Corey Redekop lookalike Tiberius Keith Edmunds.

Robert Sawyer patiently waits for his introduction to end.

Robert J. Sawyer thrills the audience by shifting his corporeal body through time.

Robert J. Sawyer explains that the 'J' stands for "Jeez, I've published a lot of books!"


Sandra Birdsell couldn't make the event (get well, Sandra!), so famed children's author Anita Daher heroically steps in to give her best 'ethereal elf queen' impersonation.

I greet my rabid fanbase.

Myself with the creators and organizers of the Words Alive festival.

As per my instructions, the board lifted me aloft for the entirety of my reading.

The topper to any succesful reading - alcohol.

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.

I'm in Seen Reading!

For those not in the know, Seen Reading is an intruguing and entertaining blog, wherein Julie Wilson of Toronto...well, this is how she puts it:

1. I see you reading.
2. I guesstimate where you are in the book.
3. I trip on over to the bookstore and make a note of the text.
4. I let my imagination rip.
5. Readers become celebrities.
6. People get giddy and buy more books.

And finally, FINALLY, I made it. Thank you, "White male, early 30s, with generic black and blue baseball cap pulled down low of his slick short hair," for reading my novel. And thank you, Julie. You made my day.

Read the entry here.

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!)

I'm a trans-hemipherical hit!

While I knew that somehow, despite the inherent weirdness of it, my novel was on the shelves at a public library in Australia, I never really believed it.

But fan mail has proved me wrong.

Cam R. recently sent me a lovely email regarding his admiration of Shelf Monkey. I, in return, admire his taste in books. This goes a long way toward proving my personal theory that Australians love Corey Redekop.

Thanks, Cam. And yes, I have read Peter Carey, and yes, The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith is a classic.