This week, artist Jonathon Earl Bowser and I have been discussing the cover image of the new COAST novel.

Isn’t it a little premature, you ask?  Sure it is, but having a very rough mock-up of the previous cover really helped me get into the right mindset when writing ‘Act Of Burial’.  There are a number of things I find inspiring when I write.  Usually, coming to the wordprocessor fresh from watching an action movie really helps, as does playing scores from those kinds of films.  Having images works in the same way.  When I wrote the first book I made a terrible version of what later became Jon’s amazing cover painting.  It featured a couple of friends and myself in a bad montage with submarine, choppers and so on.  I’m no artist, but at least it gave me a sense of direction, so to speak.

This time round I’ve got Jon involved at an earlier stage.  We’ve been passing ideas back and forth and I for one have been thoroughly enjoying the process.  You see, I have a few ideas and suggestions about what needs to be in there (well, if I hadn’t by now there’d be a heck of a problem, wouldn’t there?) but Jon has this amazing way of clarifying it all.  He takes my rough version—which actually isn’t anywhere near as rough as the first time—and sees all the things I don’t.  He makes sense of it.  He draws out the ideas in a way that both emphasizes the details and shapes the whole to make it communicative.  It’s an impressive skill and I feel very privileged to have him on my ‘team’.  I already have in my greasy grasp a rough pencil sketch which has blown me away, and added more fuel to the fire of my writing.  Awesome!

That’s all for now.  Roger and out, X.

Dear friends, I’m thrilled to announce that ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ has been awarded the CBC Bookies Golden Beaver in the category ‘The Page-Turner Award for the Canadian Book You Couldn’t Put Down’.  I am very privileged to be honored with this award, especially when up against other books of such outstanding caliber.  Most importantly, I want to warmly thank everyone who voted for ‘C:AAOB’, in both the nominations and the finals.  I am extremely grateful for your votes and I hope that my writing continues to please you.

It also gives me great pleasure to add my heartfelt congratulations to my good friend Wes Funk, whose book ‘Cherry Blossoms’ was given the Golden Beaver for ‘The Hot and Bothered Award for Steamiest Read’.  I’m sure I speak for us both when I say that we are proud to represent the awesome province of Saskatchewan which is home to so many amazing writers.  Both of us are also honored to stand for independent authors everywhere.

“Contra omnes dissident!”

Roger and out, X.

Hey folks, it’s been a wee while and a lot has happened in that time!

First of all, no-one is more surprised than me that ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ got nominated in the CBC Bookies Awards!  Holy cow you should have seen me when news of the nomination came through.  Anyway, a humongous THANK YOU to everyone who’s voted so far, and PLEASE keep those votes coming because the deadline isn’t until April 14th.  At time of writing, C:AAOB is second in the running in the category ‘The Page-Turner Award for the Canadian Book You Couldn’t Put Down’, so let’s see if we can’t improve that!  Also, would you please consider voting for fellow Saskatchewan writers Wes Funk and Candace Savage?  They’re in the ‘Steamiest Read’ and ‘Best Canadian Writer’ category respectively.

To make it easier, here’s a shortened URL:  http://bit.ly/vote4sk

In other news, I’m very pleased to announce that work on the new COAST novel is progressing well.  In contiguous terms I’m a few chapters in, although I never write in order so I’m going to be bold and say I’m about a quarter of the way done.  Of course, there’s still a LOT of writing, tweaking, editing and criticism to go.  But I’m really pleased with the way the new novel is shaping up.  Although I’m not an experienced writer by any means, I really enjoyed the (admittedly rather long) process of plotting out ‘Act Of Burial’ and the same is true of the new book.  There are moments when complex plot points just ‘snap’ into place in one’s imagination and they’re awesome.  It’s like one’s brain is a tumble-polisher with all these rough stones in it.  You close the lid, switch it on and just let stuff rattle away for a bit.  Then, magically, wonderfully, out come little wee polished gems.  I never knew writing could be so much fun.

Thanks to help from my good friend Gary Chappell I’ve managed to get the novel in a couple of Coles bookstores here in town and that’s great, because Saskatchewan people are getting interested in what’s happening with C:AAOB.  So the novel is now for sale at Coles Midtown and Coles Lawson Heights.  Big thanks to their respective managers Bill and Amy, who’ve both been really helpful.  As it goes, Gary and I have booked signings at both stores for this month: Lawson Heights on Saturday 2oth and Midtown a week later, both events running from 1-4PM.  We look forward to seeing you there!

That’s all for now.  Please go vote and keep voting!  Vote for Candace Savage, Wes Funk’s ‘Cherry Blossoms’ and ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’.  THANK YOU!

Roger and out, X.

Hey folks it’s been a while but there are a whole bunch of developments I need to pass on.  Life is really very busy and all sorts of water has passed and is passing under the bridge.  My work life has been getting crazy, which kinda detracts from writing, but I’ll take some time off soon to stick my nose to the grindstone.  Secondly, a new business venture is starting to get some motion, and that’s very exciting.  But on the other side of the coin we’ve had a couple of rather sad family incidents, which helps remind one that reality delivers up both the rough and the smooth.  It’s all part of life’s rich tapestry, as they say, but let’s get into the news:

• First of all, work—despite Work haha—continues on the second COAST novel.  I’m not going to give too much away if I can help it, but let’s just say that a lot of the questions raised in ‘Act Of Burial’ will be addressed as well as loads of new clues for the boys to unravel.  It’s going to be different, fun and definitely more creepy.
• I’ve decided to take on a professional publicist who’s a bit brill.  My main brief to them is to find C:AAOB a certain niche which I can’t really talk about, but more details will, I’m sure, be forthcoming in time.
• The television interview I did with Wes ‘Big W’ Funk on his ‘Lit Happens’ show is online here.  Massive thanks to Wes for being a hero to all us Saskatchewan writers, and to the awesome lads from Shaw Cable who make the show.
• Got an AWESOME new review today and you can read it here.  Thanks, MaryAnn!
• Put the license plate ‘COAST 1‘ on my vehicle, just for fun.  Heck, it’s rude not to.

Right… talking of my publicist, I need to go transact with them, so that’ll do for now.  Catch you later spyfans!

Roger and out, X.

Before I get into explaining the peculiar title, let me just briefly draw your attention to this interview posted on the Every Read Thing website.  Brandon over at ERT is a top fella and I’m not only super-grateful for his interest in my writing, but also to be the very first author interviewed on his site.  By a curious reciprocity, it’s also my first website-based interview.

Artist Stephen Hutchings has been touring Canada with his exhibition ‘Landscapes For The End Of Time’, a series of remarkable paintings created to accompany Messiaen’s famous suite of compositions, ‘Quartet For The End Of Time’.  I was invited to attend the exhibition’s opening concert yesterday by my Russian friend Oxana Ossiptchouk, who would be the violinist.

So Jon and I are sitting there when, how about that?  In walks Yann Martel, the local author behind the rudely successful ‘Life Of Pi’.  I’ve met Yann before so we kinda vaguely know each other.  He sat right next to Jon, from whose other side I said hello and shook hands.  Then the presentation began and we settled down to enjoy it.  Listening to this awesome composition, amazingly performed, I couldn’t help but be struck by the weird symmetry which was going on.  There was an incredible fine-art painter sandwiched between two writers; one an internationally-renowned and successful author, the movie of whose book is playing in 3D right now at a cinema near you, and one who is right at the start of the journey and feels utterly unworthy to even dare think of comparisons.  This bizarre concept of painter meat sandwiched between slices of author bread seemed ridiculously funny at the time and it was hard not to laugh, which indiscretion would have at the very least solicited disapproving glances from the assembled turtle-necks and at worse invoked an invitation to ignominious egress courtesy of the security guard.  And, the context of culinary comparison being thus massively weighted to one side, I’ll say this;  Yann Martel’s got a lot more bread.  :-)

Olivier Messiaen was drafted as a medical auxiliary in the French army and in 1940 interred in a German POW camp.  There he met a cellist, a violinist and a clarinetist (the anarchist in me wants to suffix that list with the phrase “walked into a bar”).  Based on the Biblical book of Revelation, Messiaen composed his well-known suite, inspired by his belief that he was actually going through the apocalypse.  Eventually the four of them performed the work for the camp officers, the guards and about four hundred of their fellow prisoners, on broken instruments in the freezing cold.  The remarkable and oddly happy ending to this tale is that after the concert the camp commandant invited the four musicians to his office, where he told them that no-one who could compose and perform such remarkable music was an enemy of the Third Reich, and that they were free to go.

And that is all for now.  Roger and out, X.

I would like to wish all my friends, fans, fellow authors and anyone who stumbles upon this website a very happy, peaceful, prosperous and blessed new year full of fun, great times and awesomeness!

To celebrate, here’s a book giveaway thanks to those nice folks at Goodreads.  Get your name on the list before February 1st to win one of ten free copies!!!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Coast: An Act Of Burial

by Xander Richards

Giveaway ends February 01, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Life has been oddly full recently, but I couldn’t excuse myself if I didn’t spread the word about a few things going on.

The ‘Lit Happens’ show on which I appeared is now being broadcast on Shaw Tv.  You can check it out at Shaw TV’s YouTube channel, or go to channel 10 on regular Shaw Cable, where it’s been showing at the bottom of the hour during the ‘Go! Saskatchewan’ segment.  Because I was so nervous, I can barely remember the details of the shoot, but I’m happy to report that it’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it was!  Wes is a really great guy who does his best to promote new writers, and I’m very grateful to him for the opportunity.

And so to the headline of this post, I’ve got a couple of book signings happening soon.  The first one is at The Cake Witch in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, on December 6th, 3PM—8PM.  The Cake Witch is a new art-house cafe being opened by pastry chef Barbara Harder-Lutz, who wants to turn it into a go-to venue for arts and crafts (and her amazing baking).  So if you happen to be in or near Rosthern on Thursday the 6th, why not drop in and say “hi”?  Even better, grab yourself a signed book or two from the several Saskatchewan authors who’re going to be there.

The next signing is on Sunday December 9th, 1PM-3PM  at McNally Robinson on 8th Street East, Saskatoon.  This is a joint signing with cover artist Jonathon Earl Bowser, where he’ll be displaying some of his amazing paintings.  The folks at McN&R are a brilliant bunch and they love to help indie authors.  This is going to be a good event so please swing by and meet Jon, who’s one of the most talented and intelligent people I’ve ever known.  If you already own a copy of ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ then bring it with you and we can both sign it.  See you there!

In the new year I’m going to be doing some joint events with Gary Chappell, whose debut poetry collection was recently released.  As there’s no conflict of interest between a spy novel and a collection of poems, we’re likely to be traveling together to libraries in various Saskatchewan towns, doing signings and readings.  More details on this down the road.

Finally, check out ‘The Buzz’ on Saskatoon’s CFCR 90.5 this Wednesday at around 5:30PM when I’m going to be interviewed about the book, spies, writing and all sorts of good stuff.  Don’t be scared: I have a British accent, just like all the good villains in movies these days!

That’s all for now.  Roger and out, X.

Well, that’s what it felt like.

This week I recorded a segment for the ‘Lit Happens’ TV show with host Wes Funk and I was as nervous as hell.  Seriously; scared out of my wits.  I’ve never been comfortable with publicity or being in the public eye and have always preferred to remain ‘backstage’.  Someone once asked me if I wanted the limelight and I answered “no, I don’t use that stuff.”

This being said it was a kinda fun experience too, mostly because of Wes being such an amiable host and because of the cool people that I met there.  First of all, Jay and Dean from Shaw Cable were awesome.  They each had a camera and a light and everything was set up in a corner of Indigo Books.  They were highly professional and clearly experts at what they do.  Then I met a bunch of other authors; Gary Chappell (who I’d met before), James Brayshaw, Jean Freeman and Glenda Goertzen.  They all seemed like a great bunch and I remarked to Wes afterward that you get to meet such interesting people with this author lark — goodness knows he must have met hundreds of fascinating writers of all kinds of literature!

The ‘Lit Happens’ show that I appeared on will be broadcast on Shaw Cable soon, and I’ll post the details once I get them.  Go watch my ugly mug haha!

In a curiously coincidental happenstance, I spent the next two days filming small acting roles for Media School.  I’ve been collaborating with them for a few years now, helping out in a professional capacity and, now that people think of me as some kind of author, even consulting on stories and plots.  Watching these young people explore their creativity, producing their wee movies, has been a tremendously rewarding experience and I’m very much looking forward to future participation.  As long as they don’t ask me to play a zombie!

In other news, work on the second COAST espionage thriller is progressing, but slowly.  Life intervenes, as it always does, but as well as this I’m suddenly finding that a whole heck of a lot more research is needed to kick-start the novel.  This, however, is not a bad thing.  The more research I can do, the more real the narrative will be, and that’s an important factor.  I guess it also gives me more time to allow the ideas to simmer in my brain-box and thereby develop further, and that’s no bad thing either.  I’m going to hit the writing really hard over the festive season and I’m looking forward to it.  The new story is definitely a different animal than the first, but I’m excited about the direction it’s taking.  As volume two of my expostulated tetralogy / quadrilogy, it needs to answer a few questions left hanging by the first and set up a bunch more intrigue for the third and fourth.  But that’s all part of the fun of it.

Edit-update:  There were a couple of tiny mistakes in ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ which were really annoying me on pages 159 and 202.  Nothing harmful to the overall story, but I’m a detail nut so what the heck?  Might as well fix ‘em.  Unfortunately there’s no change for the ebook version as those nice people at Bookbaby will want an arm, a leg, a pound of flesh AND my firstborn to incorporate the changes into the existing product.  The printed version, however, will reflect the changes once current stocks have been depleted.  What this means for you, my friend, is that if you want to buy a printed copy either from me, my e-store or one of the other outlets (such as McN&R, Alibris or Amazon), you should wait a few days for the new stock to filter through.  Inbox me for further details.

And that’s all for now.  Roger and out, X.

Okay, so, no blog posts for a while as I have been RUDELY busy with things.  Sorry about that, but honestly would you rather me write this or the next book?  No, really.  :-)

Despite the ghastly and treacherous conditions on the roads (snow on ice; never a good mix), today was a good day for two reasons, the first of which being that I munched my lunch with a bunch of local writers.  Wes Funk (who kindly invited me), Gary Chappell, Marion Mutala, Jefferson Smith and I met at The Coachman and discussed all kinds of interesting stuff to do with writing, publishing, editing and so on.  Honestly, I felt like a total newbie amongst them, even though my book’s been out for six months already and Gary’s official launch is this Tuesday.  That said, he’s on the board of a local writers’ group so he’s clearly well involved in all this stuff and therefore totally trumps me in that sense.  Very nice group of people though, and everyone was very welcoming to me.  I hope to interact more with the local writing scene, my inherent sociophobia notwithstanding.

The other reason that today was a good day is because I got rid of a big box of books to one of my favorite stores, Brit Foods.  Run by a very fine gentleman called Tony Badger, Brit Foods is a home-from-home source of goodies from the old country for any Brit ex-pat.  They have stores in Saskatchewan, BC and Alberta, and ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ will be for sale in them all.  This is excellent news and I’m super pleased.  Now I gotta order some more!

Another really good thing which deserves mention (and should have been mentioned well before now) is that I’m doing a book signing at McNally Robinson, 3130 8th Street East, Saskatoon on Sunday December 9th.  You can find McN&R close to the junction of 8th Street and Circle Drive and the event starts at 1:00PM.   But this is no ordinary book signing!  Not only do you get the author of the novel, but the awesome cover artist as well!  Yes, my fine art painter friend Jonathon Earl Bowser will be there with a selection of prints and his own book, ‘The Lotusmaiden‘.  Come along and say hi!

Right, anyway, there you have it.  Be there or be square, as they say!  And that is all for now.

Roger and out, X.

Getting the timing right… that’s a toughie.

You see, things can’t just happen at random times or—put another way—be chronologically inaccurate.  To quote an example, yesterday, the missers and I were watching ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets‘.  It’s a great little movie, one of the better ones of the Harry Potter series.  It’s also one of the better-constructed stories of the seven, but I digress.  In the third act, when Harry and Ron force Gilderoy Lockhart down the hole into the chamber, Lockhart takes just a second to announce “It really is quite filthy down here”, indicating that he’d arrived at the bottom.  However, when the two heroes make the same journey, the viewer notices that their plummet takes quite a lot longer (and involves a lot of yelling as they fall through the labyrinthine tunnels).

It is about such things that I write, if on a grander scale.  You see, that kind of dichotomy jars the viewer and harms the suspension of disbelief.  Whether you’re a detail nut like me or a passive movie-watcher, you couldn’t help but notice such a drastic difference.  Yes, I know it’s a case of filmakers’ licence, and that such decisions are ultimately taken to make a better movie, but how can the latter be true when it harms one’s viewing experience?  I can’t have stuff like that happening in my stories.

The chronological plotting for ‘COAST: An Act Of Burial’ worked out pretty well, thank God.  I managed to get it all to fit into the timeline that I’d planned, and it seemed realistic, which was the goal.  Hopefully, one day, someone will take the time to figure out which year AAOB takes place in, just like they have with the Potter series.  Of course, I know what year it is, but it would be great if someone was interested enough to do such a thing, right?

The next novel is proving to be a much harder nut to crack in this regard.  The reason is that it’s becoming something of a ‘road movie’ or, if you prefer, ‘road book’.  There’s a lot of travel involved—a total distance of over 13,000 miles—and that all has to happen in realistic time scales.  I therefore decided that the best thing to do was to set a provisional date for the end of the narrative and work backwards to find the start.  I would have to be flexible, considering the massive number of variables, but as long as I’m in the ballpark I can tinker with the details later.  So the last couple of days off work have been spent calculating times and distances, speeds and dates—even stuff like fuel consumption and bunkering (look it up Sherlock).  Without being shockingly indiscreet, I’ll just say that Google Earth has been getting a good workout.

I’ve got the prologue pretty much written now.  I’m just hashing out some forensic details with my old friend Gary, who knows about such things.  But as to the date on which the prologue actually happens, I’m advancing my way backwards toward it.  And, in a topsy-turvy, back-asswards sort of way, that’s progress.  Or is it ssergorp?

Roger and out, X.