Bottle Rocket Hearts made the 2011 Canada Reads Top 40!

It's my partner's birthday today, and this morning she sent me a text from work that said: "All I want for my birthday is for you to get on the Canada Reads list!" Isn't that the sweetest thing? My gf has amazing luck, so it happened! Bottle Rocket Hearts made the top 40.

You can go here to vote. You can read more about Bottle Rocket Hearts on the Cormorant Books website, which also features a handy electronic preview of the first chapter, so if you're not familiar with the book you can feel free to check it out.

Thanks so much to everyone who voted.

Canada Reads

Much to my delight, someone else has recommended my first novel, Bottle Rocket Hearts, for Canada Reads 2011. If you would like to see it become one of the 40 books the panelists will have to choose from, you can go here to vote. There are lots of fantastic books on the list so far.

Personally, I'd love to see so many books on the list - When I Was Young and In My Prime by Alayna Munce, Fauna by Alyssa York, or Cumberland by Michael V. Smith - and these are just the ones I'm thinking of off the top of my head.

I'm sitting in my hotel room in London, Ontario right now. This afternoon I'm speaking on a panel with Shelagh Rogers from the CBC. Then it's back to Toronto, and back to work on the script version of Bottle Rocket Hearts, and my short story collection in progress.