Marion Agnew

  People have said nice things about my debut novel ahead of its official launch on October 15. It's humbling and I'm so grateful to everyone who's had a hand in helping this story reach readers.   It's available for preorder wherever books are sold, both brick-and-mortar locations and online.  Here's a suggestion: Perhaps ask your local independent bookstore to order it--and if you don't have a local independent bookstore, check out Bookshop.org, where your online purchases support independent bookstores. They even have an agreement with All Lit Up, a consortium of Canadian Independent Publishers !  And yes! It's also available to order from the large chain bookstores in both the US and Canada.  PRAISE FOR MAKING UP THE GODS Full of humour and heart, Marion Agnew’s debut novel is both a love letter to northern Ontario, and a moving meditation on grief, community, and family—the one we are born with, and the one we choose. No matter where you are in the wor

A Fitbit. I’m learning a lot, which I’ll talk more about at some future time. But let’s just say I respond well to step counts. A proofed manuscript and cover of my novel, Making Up the Gods, which launches in one month!* A new refrigerator, plus a bar fridge that served in the pinch between a fridge on the fritz, a fridge that we ordered and paid for that never arrived, and at last a fridge that was delivered. A reduced need to worry about the house’s plumbing! Our septic tank is freshly pumped. Because we know how to have all the fun here, folks. (There’s more fun ahead, as is the way with household projects.) A month’s worth of memories with my sister, who helped proof my book and helped me pick up spices from Penzey’s in Minneapolis (not as easy as it sounds; those places smell great and hold the possibilities for a million meals). We’d seen each other briefly a year ago, but she hasn’t come up here for four years. It was great to have her here. A sense of possibility, a stirring o

Breathe Cry Breathe, by Catherine Gourdier The subtitle of this memoir is “From Sorrow to Strength in the Aftermath of Sudden Tragic Loss,” and it’s an apt description. In a very short time, Catherine Gourdier unexpectedly lost her mother and her youngest sister in a traffic accident, and her father died of a broken heart a few months later. These are the kind of losses that prompt innumerable questions, perhaps especially “why?” Everyone affected by the death may answer those questions differently. Certainly each of Catherine’s siblings coped with their losses in different ways. If you’ve ever felt unmoored after a loved one’s death, reading this book will help you see that there is no one way, no right way, to grieve—there’s only your way.

This year, August had so many rainy days that was easy to forget the sunny ones. Which isn’t a bad thing. Rainy days aren’t doomed to be bad days. No need to assign value judgments.  Especially because rainy days fill the well, the physical one from which we draw water for the house. In theory, I want to have the flexibility of spirit to leave my desk and play outdoors on “nice weather” days and leave indoor tasks for “bad weather” days. This summer, practice has shown me something different. Sailboat Races! I like my work, my indoor work, the writing stuff. I like it enough to miss being outdoors on sunny days—to skip the activities I could be doing—in favour of taking my last look at the interior of my forthcoming novel and then creating some draft marketing materials. I like finishing things, and meeting deadlines, and always (always, always) trying to exceed expectations—others’ and my own. It doesn’t feel like work. It feels like being myself. I also feel like myself when I’m outd