The blog of Ron Schafrick
On Saturday the 19th, starting at 1 PM, please join me and a whole slew of other fantastic writers at Glad Day Bookshop where I'll be signing books and talking to other readers and writers. Oh, and cider will be involved. For more information, click here.
I'm pleased to announce that my collection of stories, Interpreters, is now available at Glad Day Bookshop. You can order it here or, better yet, drop by the world's oldest LGBTQ book store and support local queer writers.
I'm excited to announce that on Sunday, December 6th, I'll be reading at the Lit Live reading series in Hamilton. I'll be reading alongside Donna Langevin, Janthan Ball, Pearl Pirie, Maureen Hynes, and Ruth Roach Pierson. The event takes place at Homegrown Hamilton, which is at 27 King William Street. Readings start at 7:30 pm. (I guess you can see all that from the adjacent graphic...) For more information about Lit Live, please click here. Hope you can join me!
I first learned of the Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra when I came across his short story “Family Life” in Harper’s earlier this year. It’s a charming and unassuming story about an apparently unemployed forty-year-old named Martín who is housesitting the family home of a distant cousin, his beautiful wife, and their young daughter. While they’re away in Europe, Martín spends much of his time smoking, watching TV, and doing little else until the cat goes missing, at which point he meets a woman named Paz and pretends that both the cat and house are his, that the picture of the beautiful woman on the wall is of his recently separated wife and that she’s keeping their daughter away from him. Things get complicated after that, both with Paz and with the mounting lies out of which Martín sees no exit. At the time I made a mental note of the story and its author, and so when the collection My Documents recently came out—to a great deal of buzz—I made sure to order a copy. I’m glad I did.
My short story "Conjecture" can now be found on The Danforth Review website. You can find it here, alongside stories by Adam Giles and Sarah Richards. Hope you enjoy!
I'm pleased to report that my story "Conjecture" was accepted by The Danforth Review. It's an online journal out of Toronto, and I'll post again when the story goes live. In the meantime you can find out more about The Danforth Review here.
So after a hiatus of a couple of months, during which I read other novels and story collections, I finally got back to the business of reading Proust, this time tackling the third volume, The Guermantes Way. And what a happy homecoming it was to meet all those familiar faces again! How nice it was to become reacquainted with our unnamed narrator (I understand that in Volume VI his name is finally revealed to be, not surprisingly, Marcel); the family servant, Francoise, who simultaneously dispenses equal (and hilarious) measures of both compassion and cruelty; and Marcel’s (let’s just call him that) charming and aristocratic friend, Robert St-Loup. Also back are Marcel's calculating and unctuous friend, Bloch; the aristocrats we first met at Balbec in Volume II, Mme. Villeparisis and that arrogant and irritating Baron de Charlus (the kind of character you love to hate!); and of course the narrator’s grandmother, mother and father (although the latter makes little more than a cameo appearance in this volume—more on that later).
Just to follow up on my earlier post, I'll be reading next Monday, October 5th at Wise Bar (1007 Bloor St. West) along with Tara Gereaux and Andrew J. Simpson, the organizer of the Words at the Wise reading series. The event starts at 8 pm. For more information about Tara and her novel Size of a Fist, check out her website here. Also, check out the Facebook page for the event, and of course Andrew's website too. Very excited! See you then!
I've known about it for a few months now, but I've been asked to keep it under my hat until the announcement was officially made by the good people at McClelland & Stewart and the Writers' Trust of Canada. And now here it is. I'm thrilled to report that my story "Lovely Company" is included in The Journey Prize Stories 27. Check out their Facebook page here. The book will be available in stores on October 6th, and you can find out more here. I have to say that it was a real pleasure working with Anita Chong during the editing process of the story. Thanks so much!
On Monday, October 5th, I'll be reading once again at the Words at the Wise reading series. The event will be held at Wise Bar (1007 Bloor St. West) and starts at 8 pm. At this point, I'm not sure who the other readers will be, but I'll post more information as details become available. Andrew Simpson is the host of the reading series (and also the author of the newly released collection of stories, Heaven's Gone to Hell) and you can learn more about him here.
Hope to see you there!
