Four authors are packing up their novels and hitting the road. They’re touring the Maritimes asking readers to “forget everything you know about Canadian literature.”
“Husk is, in my own words, the Great Canadian Gay Mennonite Zombie Novel,” said Corey Redekop, one of the Canadian authors. “It’s really a story of a down-on-his-luck guy who comes down with a life-threatening illness, which just happens to be zombie-ism. But, I also wanted to leave a sense of humanity underneath the monster.”
“This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Book Tour” will be stopping in Moncton, Saint John, Halifax and Fredericton. Four independent Canadian publishers teamed up and shipped out four of their edgiest authors on an unconventional tour.
These vibrant publishers are pleased to unleash Fredericton’s Redekop, Victoria’s Chris Gudgeon, Montreal’s Barry Webster and Halifax’s Ian Colford.
Husk, the novel by Redekop, is just one of the dark magical-realism stories that are kicking up a stir on the tour. The other novels include Colford’s The Crimes of Hector Tomas, Gudgeon’s Song of Kosovo and Webster’s The Lava in My Bones.
“We’ve got four authors yearning to travel a bit and meet new people, make new fans, and see new things. We’ve got everything in place, so let’s do it,” said Redekop.
The four books all share a theme which shies away from traditional Canadian Literature.
“This is not perhaps the quiet or pastoral CanLit our fathers read or wrote about. Not that there is anything wrong with being a dad! It just conjures up a certain Norman Rockwell-esque image that all these authors kind of shatter,” said Webster’s publicist, Cynara Geissler.
These envelope-pushing authors are writing about some of CanLit’s darkest and most unexpected characters.
“Canadian Literature is not the staid and boring genre many people make it out to be,” said Redekop. “We’ve got horror, magic-realism, satire, comedy, and stark drama. And not a prairie homestead in sight.”
This tour is the brainchild of the folks at one of Fredericton’s own publishing companies: Goose Lane Editions. Redekop is a published author with Toronto’s ECW Press, but is from Fredericton and is one of Goose Lane’s publicists.
Redekop teamed up with Vancouver author Chris Gudgeon (Song of Kosovo). The two drew up some tour plans and brought them to life.
“Chris and I have a working relationship and he was going to be in Toronto so, we thought we should bring him out to the Maritimes while he’s so much closer than usual,” said Redekop. “However, neither he nor I have much of a base in the region, so we thought that adding a few more authors to the mix might help generate some excitement.”
Redekop reached out to publicists at Arsenal Pulp Press and Freehand Books to see if they had any authors with new works, and it all flowed together from that.
“I suggested Barry because I thought his book [The Lava In My Bones]-irreverent, provocative, wild, and wonderful- would be a felicitous and fun match with Corey and Chris’s books and sensibilities,” said Geissler.
The guys wanted the originality of the tour to come full circle. They’ve ditched the bookstore venue and sought out a more intimate location. They chose the Wilser’s room, upstairs at the Capital Complex.
‘It’s a great spot, cool and dark, and a terrific venue for some dark fiction” said Redekop.
With an aggressive tour name and a booze-friendly venue, the authors are aiming for unconventional readings. They are going to have a writers’ circle which will discuss the ins and the outs of putting together their novels, as well as the troubles they’ve faced. And some reading will take place, of course.
“Readings expose me to wonderful authors and books,” said Geissler. “Without them it’s unlikely I would have found these books in this climate of infinite Google Chrome tabs and Internet information glut. I think in-person events matter more than ever because of that human connection and the disappearance of shared in-person experiences. So much of our lives play out online and it’s not the same.”
The evening will encompass zombies, men who eat rocks, Balkan war-criminals, terrorists, mythological warriors and women who sweat honey.
“We’re the four authors of the CanLitopocalypse,” said Redekop.
Feed your head with “This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Book Tour”. The authors will be at the Wilser’s room on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.gooselane.com/events.php
