Welcome to http://books.macedo.ca where Evadne Macedo writes about writers & how they write, literary events in Toronto, and her own fiction writing for adults and children. Evadne Macedo can be contacted by posting a comment (click the link under any posting), on Twitter as evadnemacedo or via email at evadnekm@gmail.com.

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Thanks for visiting my blog. My first novel, The 29th Day, is a 100,000 word work of literary fiction about a woman challenged by her son’s extraordinary and environmentally-significant knowledge, told from the point of view of an awkward observer. I wrote this novel between April 2009 and June 2009, because of wonderful mentorship by award-winning author, Terry Fallis. Since the summer of 2009, I have prepared three successive drafts of the novel for reader review. I have incorporated this feedback into the final version and won Terry’s stamp of approval. As of April 1, 2010, the manuscript has been exclusively submitted to one lucky agent. I will be posting an update when there is some positive news to report.

I am currently working on four writing projects:

• A non-fiction book on a topic I am quite passionate about — I absolutely have to write this book right away (I’ve written approximately 5000 words, with an aim of 50,000 words or 150 pages) – once The 29th Day is published, this will be my next priority.
• Novel #2 formerly called “Viral Hatred“ — I’ve written approximately 45,000 words, with an aim of 80,000 words or about 250 pages. This second novel is coming along much easier than the first. Because of feedback from Humber School for Writers I am more confident in my ability to write funny scenes (yes, even though I am boring in real life and relatively boring on my blog, my fiction is funny — who could have guessed?).  I’ve started workshopping this novel from the beginning and have received some validation that I am on the right track this time. Therefore, I anticipate that I won’t need to spend as much time revising at the end. Also, early readers note that the pacing in Novel #2 is less frantic than the first — I had so much to say and was thinking of The 29th Day as the novel of a lifetime … now I realize that writing is an essential part of my life and I don’t have to say everything at once!
• Poetry — I have written 30 poems  with a view to publishing a collection of poetry. Recently I’ve read poetry collections by some amazing local writers: Emily Schultz, Karen Connelly, Salimah Valiani and Priscila Uppal. This has been inspiring, but also encouraging. If they can do it, why can’t I? I included some poems in my first novel, The 29th Day, but many were written some time ago. The poems I write now are reactions to ideas, events or situations that move me. What I like (and I think my readers like) is the visceral immediacy of the images this provides.
• Author interview series — Since the fall of 2009, I have been interviewing authors on their novels and poetry, how they write and themes relating to social justice. I will be posting original interviews with Emily Schultz and Karen Connelly in May and June and then taking a break over the summer. My interview series will resume in the fall with interviews with Anar Ali, Salimah Valiani and other fantastic Canadian authors. Please check out my previous interviews with Sarah Sheard, Kristen den Hartog, Priscila Uppal, John Bemrose, Pasha Malla, Kim Moritsugu, Terry Fallis, June Hutton, Thomas Trofimuk, Gina Buonaguro & Janice Kirk, Don LePan, and Deborah Willis.
  

I have also written first drafts of eleven children’s stories. Three of these are hypnotic sleep stories with positive affirmations embedded into play-based scenarios children relate to. These books and audio recordings are aimed at children ages 4 – 7, but can be enjoyed by older children too. I prepared them to help my children fall asleep easily so I could write The 29th Day in the evenings. They worked marvellously during my maternity leave and I still rely on them, now that I am back at work (if you have young children, are busy in the days because of full-time work or child-care duties, and are trying to write novels in your evenings when your children are sleeping, please contact me as I may be able to share an audio-recording with you).  I am planning to finalize and pursue publication of my children’s picture books once my adult fiction/non-fiction has been published.

I live in Toronto with my family, am educated in science and law and have worked full-time as a human rights professional since 2002. This is a photo of Evadne Macedo (I’m on the left), with my first fan, Anna (she is on the right, holding the version of The 29th Day she reviewed). Anna is my first fan because she was the first person to enjoy the whole manuscript of The 29th Day as a work of literature, completely independent of a personal relationship with the author. Anna is Evadne Macedo’s #1 fan because when she finished reading The 29th Day, she begged for a sequel!

This is the full list of the authors and books profiled in Evadne Macedo’s fall 2009/winter 2010 author interview series, posted at http://books.macedo.ca:

• Sarah Sheard: Almost Japanese, The Swing Era: a Novel, The Hypnotist: a Novel (April 14, 2010)
• Kristen den Hartog: (Water Wings, The Perpetual Ending, Origin of Haloes and The Occupied Garden with Tracy Kasaboski (March 31, 2010)
• Priscila Uppal: To Whom it May Concern, The Divine Economy of Salvation, Traumatology, Successful Tragedies and many, many other published works (March 17, 2010).
• John Bemrose: The Last Woman, Island Walkers, Imaginary Horses, Going Under (March 3, 2010)
• Pasha Malla: The Withdrawal Method (The 2009 Trillium Award; The Danuta Gleed Literary Award) (February 17, 2010)
• Kim Moritsugu: The Restoration of Emily; The Glenwood Treasure; Old Flames and Looks Perfect (February 3, 2010)
• Terry Fallis: The Best Laid Plans and The High Road (coming in September 2010) (January 20, 2010)
• June Hutton: Underground (January 6, 2010)
• Thomas Trofimuk: The 52nd Poem, Doubting Yourself to the BoneandWaiting for Columbus (December 16, 2009)
• Gina Buonaguro & Janice Kirk: Ciao Bella and The Sidewalk Artist(December 9, 2009),
• Don LePan: Animals (December 2, 2009)
• Ray Robertson: David (November 25, 2009)
• Deborah Willis: Vanishing and Other Stories (GG Finalist) (November 19, 2009)
• Joy Fielding: Still Life & many other novels (November 14, 2009)

The views expressed on this blog do not represent the views of the Ontario Human Rights Commission or the Government of Ontario. Interviews and profiles reflect only the views of the author, unless otherwise noted.