{"id":1820,"date":"2026-09-22T10:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T14:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T14:18:17","slug":"one-month-in-the-ottawa-review-of-books-tpl-shout-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/22\/one-month-in-the-ottawa-review-of-books-tpl-shout-out\/","title":{"rendered":"One Month In – The Ottawa Review of Books & TPL shout-out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You know how in those cooking contest shows there\u2019s often a \u2018reinvention\u2019 challenge, where the cooks are asked to take an everyday comfort food and \u2018elevate\u2019 it? The Curve of the Corridor<\/em> is that for Space Opera.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That’s just the opening paragraph<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[…] The deeper I got into the novel, the harder it was to put down.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Honestly this review is a quilt of pull-quotes all vying for the cover of the next edition.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was the fourth paragraph that reverberated in my head while I was watching the clouds drift by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Modern speculative fiction has largely moved away from space opera (although Hollywood is still fixated on the 1950s-60s SF with Star Trek<\/em> and Star Wars<\/em> and the like). If Feistner had published this back in the day, she would be counted among the genre\u2019s founding grand masters because this is absolutely great science fiction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Just. Wowsers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole review is here<\/a>, and yes, I have <\/em>printed it out for days when I need reminding that I am an okay writer, actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Friday wasn’t done with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em>. We got celebratory gelato. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the biggest one was the Pillbug with: “Guess whose book is front and centre on a TPL post!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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wwwwwwhhhhhhhhaaaaaaattttt<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Toronto Public Library has featured BOO on two<\/em> of its recommended reading lists now!! (Remixed Odysseys<\/a> – of which BOO gets top billing! – and Scarborough<\/a> – 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<\/em> the books. Never mind TWICE. NEVER MIND LISTING IT BEFORE MADELINE MILLER’S CIRCE.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

what is even happeninggggg<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Kate got to watch my soul leave my body for the second time<\/em> on Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}