Last Friday morning I was in the Rexall, picking up a couple of items. An email from my publisher came in, mentioning a “glowing” review. I decided to open it there in the aisle – the couple of reviews we’ve had have been… well the reviewers liked the book, but the reviews themselves were lackluster. More or less a summary of the plot, and then a line or two at the end about whether they enjoyed reading it or not. I was expecting more of the same, and wanted to get it out of the way.
Instead, my soul left my body. On autopilot, I replied to my publisher, walked to the front of the store, paid for my items, and continued walking to the nearest park, where I then laid down in the grass for a good while and watched clouds and waited for my soul to come back.
You know how in those cooking contest shows there’s often a ‘reinvention’ challenge, where the cooks are asked to take an everyday comfort food and ‘elevate’ it? The Curve of the Corridor is that for Space Opera.
That’s just the opening paragraph.
[…] The deeper I got into the novel, the harder it was to put down.
(Honestly this review is a quilt of pull-quotes all vying for the cover of the next edition.)
But it was the fourth paragraph that reverberated in my head while I was watching the clouds drift by:
Modern speculative fiction has largely moved away from space opera (although Hollywood is still fixated on the 1950s-60s SF with Star Trek and Star Wars and the like). If Feistner had published this back in the day, she would be counted among the genre’s founding grand masters because this is absolutely great science fiction.
Just. Wowsers.
The whole review is here, and yes, I have printed it out for days when I need reminding that I am an okay writer, actually.
But Friday wasn’t done with me.
I stayed in the park for a good long while. I would text the review to friends / fam chats and then lay down for a while in the grass. Post it on socials, and then go back to watching the clouds. Reply. Repeat. Wait for my soul to return to my body.
A friend of mine was coming to meet me (she had an errand in the neighbourhood) so at a certain point it didn’t make any sense to go home. I stayed in the park. It was a gorgeous day. I had written a great science fiction novel (apparently.) I was going to have gelato soon (definitely needed to do something to celebrate).
Eventually my soul did return and I felt more or less normal, if still elated. I met up with my friend Kate. We had some minor adventures. I signed her newly arrived copy of Curve. We got celebratory gelato.
Finally, we went to the bike store to do her errand/reason for being in the west end. While she was paying, I decided to stand out of the way and check my notifications, of which there were… a few.
But the biggest one was the Pillbug with: “Guess whose book is front and centre on a TPL post!”
wwwwwwhhhhhhhhaaaaaaattttt
The Toronto Public Library has featured BOO on two of its recommended reading lists now!! (Remixed Odysseys – of which BOO gets top billing! – and Scarborough – BOO being in the top three. As Kate put it: “I think you have a serious fan at the library”) Having my books in the library was the dream as a child – at no point did I ever expect said library to acknowledge the books. Never mind TWICE. NEVER MIND LISTING IT BEFORE MADELINE MILLER’S CIRCE.
what is even happeninggggg
And Kate got to watch my soul leave my body for the second time on Friday.
What a day.
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