Canadian Fiction Writers on YouTube

TickleScratch Productions has YouTube page that includes interviews with Canadian fiction writers: http://www.youtube.com/user/TickleScratchProd

Paul Quarrington
Michael Crummey
Lisa Moore
Michael Winter
Lawrence Hill
Nino Ricci
Kim Moritsugu
Robert J. Sawyer
Alissa York
Joseph Boyden
Claudia Dey
Ray Robertson
Sally Cooper
Charlotte Gill

These clips are part of the series WRITERS' CONFESSIONS.

Information abt TickleScratch Productions

Michael Glassbourg at Humber College has worked on a number of film series: Writers' Confessions, The Artist's Life, and The Writing Life, for which he as produced and directed over 100 half hour episodes.

Eileen Chang (1920-1995)

This month I am beginning another index; this will be for modern Chinese fiction translated to English.

I have a short list at this time and will expand it.

One entry is giving me a bit of a problem.

Here's what I have for Eileen Chang. (I started with Wikipedia.)

Eileen CHANG/ZHANG Ailing (simplified Chinese: 张爱玲; traditional Chinese: 張愛玲; pinyin: Zhāng Ailíng; Cantonese Yale: Zoeng Oiling) (1920–1995) b. Shanghai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Chang

The Rice Sprout Song (1955) NOVEL written in English

Naked Earth (1956) NOVEL written in English

The Rouge of the North (1967) NOVEL written in English

Traces of Love and Other Stories (2000) ed. Eva Hung - various translators - SHORT FICTION: Great Felicity, Steamed Osmanthus Flower, Traces of Love, Stale Mate, Shutdown - collected from magazine Renditions

Love in a Fallen City and Other Stories (2007) tr. Karen Kingsbury and Eileen Chang - SHORT FICTION: Aloeswood Incense: the First Brazier 1944, Jasmine Tea 1944, Love in a Fallen City 1944, The Golden Cangue 1943/1971, Sealed Off 1944, Red Rose, White Rose 1944 - most from Romances (1944), a story collection in Chinese

Lust, Caution (1979, 2007) tr. Julia Lovell NOVELLA

The Fall of the Pagoda (2010) NOVEL written in English

The Book of Change (2010) NOVEL written in English:
other

Written on Water (1945, 2005) tr. Andrew Jones ESSAYS

The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (1975) Eileen Chang's tr. of Han Bangqing's novel TRANSLATION

For the reader it might be best to start with Love in a Fallen City and other stories (2007), all but one story came from her Chinese book Romances/Chuanqi (1944). The one story that came before that was the Chinese version (1943) that was renamed The Golden Cangue when translated into English by Eileen Chang in the 1960s. The Book of Change and The Fall of the Pagoda were completed by Chang in 1960s but not published until 2010. Lust, Caution was first completed (Chinese version) in 1979 and translated only in 2007.

Further note on Romances/Chuanqi:

The collection includes the following stories:
Lingering Love pp 13-38 "Liuqing"
Happiness of Matrimony pp 39-56 "Hongluan xi"
The Red Rose and the White Rose pp 57-108 "Hong meigui yu bai meigui" ##
Waiting pp 109-124 "Deng"
Indian Summer, A Xiao's Autumnal Lament pp 125-149 "Guihua zheng, A Xiao's bei qiu"
The Golden Cangue pp 150-202 "Jinsuo ji" ##
Love in a Fallen City pp 203-251 "Quingcheng zhi lian" ##
Jasmine Tea pp 252-278 "Moli xiangpian"
Ashes Descending Incense, the First Brazier pp 379-339 "Chenxiang xie, diyi lu xiang" ##
Ashes Descending Incense, the Second Brazier pp 340-382 "Chenxiang xie, dier lu xiang"
Glazed Tiles pp 383-399 "Liuli wa"
The Heart Sutra pp 400-443 "Xinjing"
The Youthful Years pp 444-461 "Nianqing de shihou"
A Withered Flower pp 462-485 "Hua diao"
The Blockade pp 486-499 "Fengsuo" ##
Days and Night of China pp 500-507 "Zhongguo de rije"

from pp 266-267 in A Selective Guide to Chinese Literature, 1900-1949: The short story
see google books
# - stories in Love in a Fallen City and Other Stories (2007)

An Index to Canadian Fiction

I have updated An Index to Canadian Fiction in English at North Door Books.

Tolerance of Weirdness: Spider Robinson on Allan Gregg at TVO

Spider Robinson on the Allen Gregg at TVO
This 25 minute clip was first shown on TV Ontario in April 1999.




from my Index to Canadian Fiction

Spider ROBINSON (b. 1948, New York City)
      Telempath (1976) novel
      Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977) novel
      Stardance (1979) with Jeanne Robinson novel
      Antinomy (1980) short fiction
      Time Travelers Strictly Cash (1981) short fiction
      Mindkiller (1982) novel
      Melancholy Elephants (1984) short fiction
      Night of Power (1985) novel
     Callahan's Secret (1986) novel
     Time Pressure (1987) novel
     Callahan's Lady (1989) novel
     True Minds (1990) short fiction
     Starseed (1991) with Jeanne Robinson novel
     Lady Slings the Booze (1992) novel
     The Callahan Touch (1993) novel
     Starmind (1995) with Jeanne Robinson novel
     Callahan's Legacy (1996) novel
     Lifehouse (1997) novel
     User Friendly (1998) short fiction
     Callahan's Key (2000) novel
     The Free Lunch (2001) novel
     By Any Other Name (2001) short fiction
     God Is an Iron and Other Stories (2002) short fiction
     Callahan's Con (2003) novel
     Very Bad Deaths (2004) novel
     Variable Star (2006) with Robert A. Heinlein novel
     Very Hard Choices (2008) novel
     other:
     The Best of All Possible Worlds (1980) anthology, ed.

See Allen Gregg in Converstion.
See Spider Robinson homepage

Who reads young adult books?

An interesting article in the G&M today.
How Harry Potter rewrote the book on reading, in which we learn that in 2009 70% of readers of young adult books were over 18. Conjure up an image of a middle-age man reading Nancy Drew and the Case of the Twin Teddy Bears.

.
Apparently, these 18 plussers show no shame in buying or reading these things.

Room and the Road

After I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road I noticed the similarities with another novel I've read this year, Emma Donoghue's Room. Both authors tell us in interviews that the novels were inspired by their own children.

see interview with author Cormac McCarth on Oprah:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Oprahs-Exclusive-Interview-with-Cormac-McCarthy-Video

see also Emma Donoghue's interviews here:
http://www.emmadonoghue.com/samples.htm

THE RAGE OF INGRID MONK, a novel

I have just published my first novel and fourth book of fiction.
View details at the home page of North Door Books.