Thursday, May 23, 2019

Cover Reveal: The Group of Seven Reimagined

Yesterday, I got to see the cover of The Group of Seven Reimagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings.

It's available now for pre-order on Amazon.ca (and not, apparently, available outside of Canada except by special arrangement)—I'm guessing a question of obtaining copyright permission for the paintings.

My story, "Iceberg", was my first piece of flash fiction. When I was first approached by editor Karen Schauber to participate in this project, I objected that I didn't write flash fiction. She insisted, however, so I agreed to at least try, and to my surprise, ended up drafting five stories for her to choose from. After choosing "Iceberg" she really helped me shape its final form. I learned so much from working with Karen, that I wrote a second flash piece using what she taught me, and came in second in Pulp Literature's Hummingbird (flash fiction under 1000 words) contest. After that, I was sort of hooked.

I also quickly realized that the discipline I learned writing within very strict word limits of 1000, or 500, or 100 words could be transferred to my novel revisions. I was able to really tighten up the writing in my somewhat bloated novel, by applying what Karen had shown me.

But all that aside, I'm really honoured to have been able to participate in this fabulous project. Being included in the ranks of these other writers, and associated with these classic paintings—yeah, it doesn't get better than this!