The Incomparables available for Christmas!

My new book The Incomparables is available in local bookstores, and from the web via Amazon, Indigo and Anvil Press.

And I'm available to do readings from the novel, talks, and interviews. Contact Karen Green of Anvil press - info@anvilpress,com

Upcoming readings include:

 Junction Reads April 26.2015

Read the latest reviews of the book at:

The Winnipeg Freepress

First Fiction Fridays

The Incomparables

Watch for the launch of my new book, The Incomparables , this March.

I had a few things I still wanted to do with the book, which is why it was not released in the Fall. Better to take one's time and be happy with the final result. Looking forward to a Spring Launch!

The Incomparables

This fall, watch for the launch of my new book - The Incomparables.

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/1927380626

the poet in me

Was thinking of Hemingway a lot today, his "iceberg theory" write more with less and kept reciting and reciting this poem in my head. I wrote it years ago on a cruise to Havana. Must have been the time spent in Hemingway's home there, the open water and flying fish, Havana and wishing I could still write poetry

Lo


you came through water like a dorsal fin

it was too much trouble

to keep your head above it

so you dove in and stayed

it's not the lack of air that's strange

but the silence

how it comforts you

and lures you further down



and when the sun beats through the surface

it's warmer than what you've ever felt from love

it's not absolution - being under

but it's home

(from my first book This is me since yesterday)

Taddle Creek No. 29 Launch and its 15th Anniversary party

Taddle Creek is 15!It’s true: Taddle Creek is now fifteen years old. Let the celebrations begin! The magazine has all kinds of special things planned for the coming year, but the most exciting surely will be its giant-sized fifteenth anniversary issue and accompanying anniversary party.



Taddle Creek No. 29 launches Thursday, December 6th, at No One Writes to the Colonel, 460 College Street (just west of Bathurst), beginning at 8 p.m. While there will be fun and merriment, there will also be door prizes, not to mention brief readings by the all-star lineup of Tony Burgess, Chris Chambers, Alexandra Leggat, Jessica Westhead, and Zoe Whittall. There’s sure to be some unexpected surprises too.* (*Unexpected surprises not guaranteed.)



While you’re there being entertained and winning door prizes, please do pick up Taddle Creek’s anniversary issue. The magazine is especially proud of it. It features new fiction and poetry by Gary Barwin, Alex Boyd, Tony Burgess, Chris Chambers, Michael Christie, Matthew Firth, Jason Guriel, Alexandra Leggat, Marguerite Pigeon, Emily Schultz, Stuart Ross, Paul Vermeersch, Adrienne Weiss, Jessica Westhead, Zoe Whittall, Elana Wolff, and Lindsay Zier-Vogel. Plus: comix by Joe Ollmann and Jason Kieffer, illustrations by Matthew Daley and Nina Bunjevac, Jeet Heer looks at the lost Bible drawings of Dave Lapp, Seth’s secret kingdom, Heather Hogan chats with Grace O’Connell, Taddle Creek finally answers the question, “What’s the deal with the New Yorker’s umlaut?” and more. All wrapped up in a cover by Ryan Heshka. Only $5! Cheap!



Speaking of cheap, here’s a free preview to get you going:



“Dumpling Night,” a new short story by Jessica Westhead; and



“Battleships,” Michael Christie’s first-ever published poem. Because apparently he’s just good at everything. (Oooo! How Taddle Creek hates him!)



A big thank you to everyone who has supported the magazine in any way thus far. Taddle Creek hopes ever so sincerely that you’ll come and help it celebrate on December 6th.

Rereads

Just finished rereading Philip K Dick's Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep. Amazing how prescient the man was. A great re-read. Noted the significance of the animals a lot more this time around. I don't know why, when the title is what it is, that didn't stick out to me as much the first time I read the book. It was the androids themselves, the Nexus 6, I was taken with initially. During the reread Deckard's obsession with wanting a real animal lured me through. I saw a completely different side to his character. The great thing about rereading great books is you never know, depending on the phase and stage of life you're in, what layer of the work you'll hook into. About to reread Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 and the Illustrated Man. Bradbury has always been a big influence, not so much what I write, but how I write - naturally. I'm sorry he's gone.

Beauty and the Beast

It's been a busy year, but new work is on the horizon and I'm excited about the prospect of it being read. I have new fiction scheduled to appear in the upcoming issue of Taddle Creek, a short piece of fiction, my most desirable medium, and a new book, my longest story to date, a novel, that is close to the end of the final draft. What I've learned from writing this new book is simple - novels are beasts. I truly don't know why anyone writes them. But the story and the characters I am very fond of and the details. Details I discovered are integral to the beast. Beauty is also integral to the beast. If one can get past the glowering enormity of the form and concentrate on the beauty of the world being created and existing within the form, it becomes less of a laborious task and more of a frightening journey. I am not adverse to frightening journeys - after all what is life? The short story form is my friend. The novel is my obsession, like a lover. I didn't seek it out. I didn't premeditate its existence. I was happy with my friends. It seduced me one day in my car while waiting for a light to change. Wandered into my psyche, latched on and I was stuck. Like a lover I've had to learn what its trying to tell me, what it wants from me, what its all about. Like a lover, I hate it, I love it, I cry over it, I tell it I never want to see it again, then pull it to my chest and embrace it. I dream of it. It keeps me awake. I don't talk to it for days, then we don't stop talking for hours. It makes me smile, cry, manic, hungry, starving, drink, smoke, laugh, reflect and ultimately, I hope, in the end, I will have become a better person from surviving the experience, the relationship we've survived. I hope in the end, at least, I will come out of this a better writer and storyteller. I hope in the end, like all lovers, the next one will be different!

Join Me to celebrate Randy Macho Man Savage's birthday...

RANDY MACHO MAN SAVAGE BIRTHDAY MEMORIAL ART SHOW IN TORONTO!
Savage: Cult of Personality, Pure Media and the art of Macho Madness


curated by Nathaniel G. Moore


White House Studio 277 Augusta

November 12-15th (Opening 12 November 7pm)

The voice. The colours. The intensity. Pop culture magician Randy Savage transcended the sport of pro wrestling. This November in Toronto, the man who entertained thousands of Torontonians in the 80s and 90s at Maple Leaf Gardens and Skydome is having a party. An art show. A movement.

With fellow fans such as Greg Oliver (author of several wrestling books including The Heels Hall of Fame), Michael Holmes (author of Parts Unknown, wrestling poetry book) Daniel Scott Tysdal (award winning poet) who will be doing short readings, longtime fan Nathaniel G Moore will be unveiling almost 20 pieces of original art dedicated the the late Randy Savage. Other artists include Sherwin Tjia, Sonja Ahlers, Alexandra Leggat, Vicki Nerino and more.

Music, video and artwork from across North America including New York, Montreal, Calgary, Nebraska and Toronto.
The show runs from 12-15 November. Opening reception is Saturday November 12th 7pm. The event is free to the public. Wrestling fans young and old encouraged to attend.

For more information please contact Xenia or Nathaniel at

theotherwhitehouse (@) gmail.com

More info and preview:

http://criticalcrushes.blogspot.com/2011/09/savage-art-show-november-12-2011.html

Canadian Sadcore
NATHANIEL G. MOORE
-------------------------------
http://canadiansadcore.tumblr.com/

http://twitter.com/nathanielgmoore

New Story in...

Taddle Creek | www.taddlecreekmag.com

Unfaithful By Alexandra Leggat. Last night I drank wine and thought of Idaho. ... www.taddlecreekmag.com/unfaithful

Didn't wake up to the Golden Gate Bridge this morning, or on it, over it - my heart is somewhere between Jackson and Broadway, teetering on the incline - the rest of me? Northeast.

Branch Magazine

I'm thrilled to be the feature writer in Branch Magazine's Wild Issue and to be in such great company. Have a look at this beautiful publication, the art, the words...

Here's the link

www.branchmagazine.com

Anvil Press Book Launch

Check out the Anvil Press Book Launch this Wednesday December 8th featuring my husband Salvatore Difalco.

TORONTO » READING/LAUNCH PARTY!
Ed Macdonald (Spat the Dummy), Tony Burgess (Ravenna Gets), Bonnie Bowman (Spaz), Kerry Ryan (Vs.) and Salvatore Difalco (The Mountie at Niagara Falls
December 8, 2010 | 7:00 p.m.
The Garrison
1197 Dundas St W
Toronto

Come out and celebrate the release of these great new books!

Cheers!

Favre from the truth

I like Brett Favre. I do. He is great to watch, has been one of the greatest quarterbacks to watch over the years. Even throughout his on again off again flirtation with retiring, I have stuck by him because I can't help but like the guy. I am a diehard Indianapolis Colts fan, Peyton Manning is my guru and yet I have written about Brett Favre more than Manning and the Colts. Of Course, Manning doesn't threaten to quit every year.

This time around, I think I want Favre to leave. It bothers me that he doesn't like to attend training camp, that he doesn't feel he has to, which helps explain his inconsistencies. Sometimes he's brilliant and others completely useless - unlike Manning who is, I think, consistently brilliant, even on his off days. It's true Favre has a knack for joining teams in need and bringing out the best in them - a great leader. We saw this with the Jets and with the Vikings. He gives teams hope. He gives teams hope and he gives team's fans hope and that's why I think it's even worse that he threatens to leave each time he joins a new team. He dashes everyone's hopes.

I never liked the Minnesota Vikings. They were one of the teams I liked to dislike. However, last season they were likable, watchable, had a sense of discipline, channeled their thuggery into useful, effective energy which I attribute to Favre. Now the rumor is he won't be returning.

At this point, crying wolf is an understatement. Will I miss him? Or will I miss the on again off again Favre's not returning threat I've come to look forward to at the beginning of each new NFL season? That is the question.

Tate Leggat 1996 - 2010

Sometimes the hardest thing for a writer to write is the truth, and yet I strive for truth to be present in everything I write and for everything I write to be true. As a kid, seeking truth was my life goal. Over the years I learned that truth is not what I thought it was. I am mystified and driven by it and ultimately realized that the truth was all around me, present and communicating and feeding me every moment for the past fifteen years of my life. The ultimate joy, the greatest gift I have been given on this earth, in this life has been the truth and for me it came in the form of a beautiful, intelligent, wise, funny, instinctual creature - my incredible husky/cross Little Man Tate - Tate for short.

When Tate passed away on July 19th, I felt that he guided us as beautifully and heroically through death as he did life. We have learned from him and grown because of him. Adjusting to his spirit's presence opposed to his physical presence is painful and yet enlightening for his spirit is as strong as it ever was. He is too powerful a being to not continue to envelop our days. I even believe that when he moved on to the next leg of his journey, that the earth new one of its greatest beings had left it.

I always thought an incredible animal like Tate would be immortal. When he died, I thought of one of my favourite passages from Marguerite Duras' novel The Lover,

"People ought to be told of such things. Ought to be taught that immortality is mortal, that it can die, it's happened before and it happens still. It doesn't ever announce itself as such - it's duplicity itself...It's while it's being lived that life is immortal, while it is still alive."

As a writer I have always dealt with pain and suffering and confusion and perplexity by pouring my thoughts and feelings into words - so it only seems fitting in honor of Tate, in honor of the ultimate truth that I have to write about him - my guru, my best friend, my spirit guide - our Wolf Totem. Our hearts are breaking Tate but our souls are together always. You were always my angel.

ANIMAL AMONGST FINALISTS FOR TRILLIUM BOOK AWARD

17 FINALISTS FOR TRILLIUM BOOK AWARD: "TORONTO – Seven English books and five French have been short-listed for the 23rd Annual Trillium Book Award, the Ontario government’s prestigious award for literature. This year, three titles are also short-listed for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry in English language and two titles in French language."

On June 23, 2010 the public are invited to join in the celebration of the finalists with authors’ readings followed by a reception. The event will be held in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library, 2nd Floor, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto. On June 24, 2010, the Honourable Michael Chan, Ontario Minister of Tourism and Culture, will announce the winners in Toronto at a luncheon.
English Finalists for the Trillium Book Award/Prix Trillium are:

Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood (McClelland & Stewart)
Ian Brown, The Boy in the Moon (Random House Canada)
Alexandra Leggat, Animal (Anvil Press)
Anne Michaels, The Winter Vault (McClelland & Stewart)
Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness (McClelland & Stewart)
Emily Schultz, Heaven is Small (House of Anansi Press)
Cordelia Strube, Lemon (Coach House Books)
French Finalists for the Trillium Book Award/Prix Trillium are:

Ryad Assani-Razaki, Deux cercles (VLB éditeur)
Nicole Champeau, Pointe Maligne. L’infiniment oubliée (Les Éditions du Vermillon)
Jean Mohsen Fahmy, Frères ennemis (VLB éditeur)
Daniel Poliquin, René Lévesque (Les Éditions du Boréal)
Daniel Soha, La Maison : une parabole (Éditions du GREF)
English Finalists for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry are:

Susan Holbrook, Joy is so Exhausting (Coach House Books)
Karen Solie, Pigeon (House of Anansi Press)
Matthew Tierney, The Hayflick Limit (Coach House Books)
French Finalists for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry are:

Jacqueline Borowick, Le chant du coucou (Inanna Publications & Education Inc.)
Michèle Matteau, Passerelles (Les Éditions L’Interligne)


QUICK FACTS
•The Trillium Book Award encourages excellence in literature through its significant investment in Ontario-based writers. Award recipients for both English and French works receive $20,000. Their respective publishers also receive $2,500 to promote the winning titles. All finalists receive a $500 honorarium.
•The Trillium Book Award for Poetry was introduced during the 16th Trillium year to recognize new emerging poets in English and French language (poets’ first, second and third published works only are eligible for consideration for this prize). The winner for each of these awards receives $10,000 and their publisher $2,000 for promotion of the titles. Finalists for these awards also receive a $500 honorarium.
•Internationally-acclaimed authors who have received the Trillium Award include Alistair MacLeod, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Austin Clark and Alice Munro.

The Power and the Glory

There are two things that instantly bring tears to my eyes, an unbelievable surge of emotion comes over me, the sight of racing thoroughbreds and a football match (soccer, in translation). Every four years in a football fan's life, the world is a different place. With the 2010 World Cup less than a month away, life is beginning to feel different, take on new meaning - ah football.

As much as I want this to be England's year, my reveries are threatened by an ominous force - Argentina. And after watching the Champion's League final last week, where Inter's lethal Argentine striker Diego Milito scored both goals that shut out Bayern Munich, my gut is no calmer.

One of the many beauties of the World Cup is anything can happen. Every single team involved is in its way a threat. The names of the ruling class may astound but on the world stage they don't always take the spotlight.

Count down begins and yes, tears are welling up in my eyes this very moment. Ah, the magnitude of the beautiful sport!

Post Script

Taddle Creek Magazine Recommends:


Animal, by Alexandra Leggat (Anvil , 2009; $18). Alexandra’s stories are usually not for the emotionally squeamish, but the characters in this collection really raise the bar on reader discomfort—in the best possible way. Excuse Taddle Creek’s lack of elegance, but this is a damn fine book.

The Year of the Tiger

How ironic, that, according to the Chinese calendar, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger. That may or may not give Mr Tiger Woods hope for brighter days ahead. Who are we to judge - if the finger waggers opened their closets wouldn't there be many, many tales of immorality and such? Perhaps not to the same degree, however...

The fact that the game of golf will take a hit in the Year of the Tiger is probable.
What a shame that two greats in sports lost so much in the final days of last year. Tiger Woods and my hero the Indianapolis Colts. Imagine telling the Romans they had to rest before marching on to a major battle. Imagine Caesar worrying about his soldiers getting hurt.

To an athlete, great athletes at that, athletes who were making history, Peyton Manning, Jeff Saturday, Dallas Clark, Reggie Wayne, Joseph Addai etc, playing to the death as it were is in the script and if it isn't it should be. Why work so hard to win game after game after game to simply throw the historical winning streak away two games before the end of the season - why try at all?

I can't help wondering who the Jets' supporter is in the Indie Franchise that was willing to sacrifice his men, his team, from making history, from going ALL - THE -WAY so that the New York Jets could advance to the playoffs. On the sidelines, despite what he diplomatically voiced on TV, Manning looked destroyed. Imagine asking Picasso to erase Guernica, to erase the masterpiece.

2009, the Year of the Ox, came to a bad end for many. Oddly enough the Ox signifies stablilty and perseverence. "The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task or an objective. Oxen know they will succeed through hard work and sustained effort and find no truth or benefit in concocting insincere schemes to get ahead." Hm...

The Tiger is said to be lucky, vivid, lively and engaging. Another attribute of the Tiger is his incredible bravery, evidenced in his willingness to engage in battle and his undying courage.

So for Peyton Manning and his loyal crew the future is inevitably bright - they will bounce back and fight back, as they do, to victory.

For Tiger, in this coming year that bears his name, he might just have to rely on the luck attributed to that of the other Tiger.

The Answer My Friend...

...better not be blowing in the wind. What the hell's with Drew Breeze. There's good and then there's an unnerving good. The kind of good quarterback, team, coach that is so goddamn unassuming, egoless, modest that it rattles one's nerves inexplicably -because it is inexplicable - The New Orleans Saints. The New Orleans Saints. I ask you.

At the beginning of the 2009/10 NFL season, I hoped it was going to be a Giants vs Colts Superbowl - Manning vs Manning. Then I entertained, and still hope for, a Vikings vs Colts Superbowl, but after watching New Orleans trounce New England, I have to wonder. A Saints vs Colts Superbowl? Hmm? The unpredictability of a new NFL season - one never knows. The cream of the crop curdles, an underdog reigns supreme, coaches come and go, the young take over, the vets never cease to amaze, and cease to amaze, rookies rise and fall, stars are born and others diffused - all in a day's work. Laughter, tears, crumpled brows, bones and egos, and the glue of comaraderie - ah, the beauty of meritocracy.

Oh, and in answer to some dude's question that for some reason won't post on my comments:

Unicorns can't be bought - they're earned!

The Wizard and the General

There are many great moments in the NFL that stick in my mind. Mind blowing plays, unfathomable feats performed by the wonders of the sport like Favre, Brady, Manning, Breeze, the other Manning, Moss, Hester, Polamalu, Harris, Sproles, Wayne, Ward, Clark, and on and on and on. Last Sunday's Patriots/Colts game was a beauty unto itself - ah, thanks for the memories.

I was nervous days in advance. The Colts were undefeated and the Patriots are the Patriots. They live for games like this - the two Super Powers of the NFL - but one of them has to lose. What a match up - there was something very Roman about it all. The two best quarterbacks in the league head to head - I was dying.

To me, Brady is like an army general leading his troops to war - an all out soldier, competitive, driven, merciless. He marches into the face of the enemy - unflinching and his troops respond to his lead. In that zone, he can and will annihilate the opponent. The tougher the competition the better Tom Brady is. And he proved it up until the last few plays of that brilliant Sunday night game against the Colts. But I never, for one second, doubted that the Colts were going to win that game. All the braun in the world cannot match a wizard's magic.

Peyton Manning is a wizard, a sorcerer, a magician - other worldly - a sage. It may sound over-the-top - so be it, call a spade a spade and all the other cliches. But there is noone else who can watch his team unravel before him, even allow it, want it to happen to expose the weakness, to learn the weakness, then fix it there and then, completely sew the team back up again, make it stronger and better while playing one of the best and toughest teams in the NFL. Then predetermine the exact time he is going take the game back and win it. With 13 seconds left on the play clock, Manning throws an unbelievable pass through the solid coverage into the waiting hands of Reggie Wayne.

Victory.

Magic.

How Reggie Wayne made that catch was mind blowing but that's Reggie Wayne and that's Peyton Manning - After the game, with the Wizard proudly towering over him, Wayne matter-of-factly said,"when Peyton called my number, I knew I had to make that catch." I don't know if I would ever want to be in that position, if I would ever want Peyton Manning calling my number on the last play of a supremely important game with a mere 13 seconds left on the clock.

On the sidelines, The General's face said it all. And the experts and the fans can blame the Patriot's loss on a great and risky call by Belichick, but no matter what the Patriots did in those last few moments of that monumental game - the Colts weren't going to lose. They were never going to lose. They knew it. Peyton knew it and I think Belichick new it too. How can a mortal, even great ones at that, ever beat a Wizard?