Summer news

Summer is officially here and I look forward to my paid work slowing down and the expansion of my writing life. I’ll be spending much of my summer vacation doing a writing retreat.

I’m currently working on my third novel and am at the 100 page mark. Still so much to write, to understand, to develop. It’s good to have large swaths of time opening up.

And what of the second novel? Well, it’s done, and I’m still shopping it around to agents and am hopeful I’ll find one soon. I have to admit, this is not my favourite part of the writing life. Writing is enlivening. Promotion can be an interesting challenge. Touring is totally fun. But shopping it around? Bleh. I’ve developed a multitude of coping strategies for rejection; I could write a book about it!

And there is some news about Stealing Nasreen, the first novel. It’s been two years since it was published, but the story is still getting some attention.  I just read at Proud Voices at Pride Toronto (the photo at the bottom is courtesy Salma Akbar) . And the novel has just been reviewed by Feminist Review: http://feministreview.blogspot.com/2009/07/stealing-nasreen.html .

And, I still delight in receiving e-mails and Facebook wall posts from happy readers (keep them coming! Reading them is Rejection Strategy # 28).