Author: Heidi Tiedemann Darroch
-
Louise Penny’s Still Life: A Milestone Anniversary
September 30th will be the 20th anniversary of Penny’s first novel, Still Life. She famously couldn’t find a publisher until she placed second in what was then called the Debut Dagger contest for unpublished mystery writers, a UK-based prize now termed the Emerging Author Dagger. (The image above is AI-generated with the prompt “Louise Penny…
-
Christine Cosack’s Barcelona Red Metallic: Beta Readers, Reviewers, and the State of Canadian Literary Publishing
My unwieldy title is attempting to yoke together several disparate observations this morning. I’m re-reading Christine Cosack’s Barcelona Red Metallic, a first novel, which I read initially in manuscript as one of Christine’s beta readers. These kinds of test audiences for a work-in-progress are crucial; mine have been generous with feedback and guidance. And they…
-
Beginnings and Endings
For a few months now, the Sondheim line “You gotta have endings. Or there wouldn’t be beginnings!” has been going through my head. I spent several years waiting out a . . . process, so that I could return to the job I love. Much of that time was spent productively, teaching elsewhere and writing…
