Marion Agnew

As I may have mentioned (a time or two) (often) (repeatedly), I have an essay in Best Canadian Essays 2012 . People up here in Northwestern Ontario are fine folks, and a couple of them have asked me about it. The anthology is available for purchase at Northern Woman's Bookstore , for one thing. For another, I'm currently featured blathering about my essay at Literary Thunder Bay , courtesy of its purveyor, Joan Baril. Susan Toy scooped that interview to her new site, Canadian author Reviews and Interviews . Finally, a review is due to appear in the local paper, the Chronicle-Journal , this weekend. That is plennnnnnty (for now).

One of my favorite places to visit is Indexed, a blog by Jessica Hagy , where she explores relationships between sometimes-disparate things. She uses axes, lines, curves, and sometimes Venn diagrams. I love it. I thought of her this morning, when I was looking at the various short stories I'm (again) trying to collect. They vary along a continuum from "raw" to "stick a fork in it; it's done." They also vary along a continuum ranging from "I'm excited by it" to "I'm sick to death of it," another continuum from "examined" to "unexamined," another from "hardly any time" to "relatively, a lot of time," and yet another from "only tweaked" to "revised extensively," by which I mean "every freaking word has been second-guessed." I hope that the "stick a fork in it" end goes up at the same time that "examined," "revised extensively," a...

I try not to be a snob about much of anything, but I do have preferences about some things, and, it turns out, I have distinct preferences about the tools I work with. I can adapt to pretty well any kind of keyboard or software, but I'm kind of "that way" about pens. I don't write a LOT with pens -- definitely not production work -- but I do write with them often. Just about every day I do spend time writing "by hand," as we now must specify, and I sometimes sketch  zentangles. Generally, I like felt tips and fine points. In the world of ballpoint technology, I have recently enjoyed using Paper Mate's InkJoy pens (and no, they're not paying me to say so). I originally picked up the package because it had all different colors of pens in it, and it said something important on the package: Effortless Writing. Effortless! Writing! In a rainbow of fun colors! Who could resist that? But every time I get on a plane, my pens explode in transit. Even ...

And I'm not actually saying it does , but if age brings wisdom, how come these days I feel I got nuthin'? I'm working the short stories (AGAIN), without much break between them, and at varying levels of "work," from "what was I thinking?" to "is this ready to send somewhere?" I am discovering some very very VERY disturbing things. If you were to name Santa's reindeer after my characters, there'd be Robert, Robert, Robert, James, Jason (formerly James), Jim, Cass, and Carla. I'm tempted to name somebody Rudolph, just to do it. Plus I was looking through notes I've made for stories to come. They feature yet another Robert and another James. But wait, there's more: All these people drink a lot of coffee and talk. A lot. If my short stories were ever to inspire a drinking game, you'd need to watch out for the "drinking coffee" scenes. Sigh. There are a lot of advantages to being an ahem "mature...

A short time ago, I wrote about applying the "mouse view/eagle view" concept to revision . Before I make a pass through a manuscript, I've found it helpful to decide in advance what I'm looking for. Am I checking spelling and punctuation? smoothing infelicitous phrasings? or sending the main character to Gibraltar instead of the mall? On a related note, sometimes it's impossible for your own eyes to give you guidance about next steps. In those cases, it's important to get feedback from readers -- but which ones, when, and why? Here's some useful advice from agent Rachelle Gardner. Boiled down, she says to carefully consider why you want input from a particular person -- is she a subject-matter expert, a wide-ranging reader of your genre, an experienced writer who can step outside of personal preference to read the manuscript on its own terms? That last criterion is important. Say you're lucky enough to find a group of writers to learn from and h...

One benefit to being a (mostly) recovering procrastinator (and the reason my recovery is mostly) is that clicking around on the Internets can yield some pretty interesting stuff. For example. I read Girl's Gone Child . I don't read it every day (recovering! mostly). I'm not sure how I got there, or why -- I'm not a parent or grandparent; on lots of wintry days, seeing pictures of sunny California simply depress me instead of reminding me that I love winter; I don't cook vegan (or much of anything, either); I don't do much that's decorate-y; I haven't read any of Rebecca Woolf's books; I don't comment...and yet. That space is a destination I like. It's a creative space. It's encouraging, even when its people are out of sorts and life isn't rosy. Maybe especially then, because it celebrates the power of doing the best you can. (My parents were fabulous people, but sometimes the second half of "Do your best" was ": be ...

Last August I received word that my essay, "All I Can Say," would be part of Best Canadian Essays 2012 , published by Tightrope Books. Last week, I received my contributor copies. Yes, my essay really is in it. Really truly. NOW it feels real -- like really REALLY real! You can order a copy from the publisher -- or check your neighbo(u)rhood indie bookstore. You never know who might be carrying it! Thanks again to Room for initially publishing the essay and to the hardworking folks at Tightrope Books for including it.