Exciting things: At Last Count’s Book Ride and the world premiere of Spycraft

Written By Kirk Dunn

It’s busy at our house. Whew.

’m prepping for a wonderful Book Ride event for my novel, At Last Count, organized by Janet Joy Wilson’s The Reading Line on Saturday Sept 27, and at the same time, Kirk and I are gearing up for the world premiere of our new play, Spycraft, Oct 30-Nov 30.

So I’m here to share a bit of key intel about both events.  I’d love for you to come to either or both. Both!

Next up, a fun Book Ride for At Last Count

Intrepid publishing consultant and Brompton cycling aficionado Janet Joy Wilson has coordinated a wonderful Book Ride event for At Last Count under the banner of her wonderful organization The Reading Line on Sat Sept 27 between 2-4pm. That’s a short two weekends from now.

What is a book ride? Here’s what Janet says on The Reading Line website:

Think of a Book Ride as a literary festival on two wheels, delivered in a safe, engaging and relaxed parade format with plenty of stops along the way. Local authors read from their books at points of interest along a street, and audiences have a chance to ask questions and have their books signed. When authors ride along, it turns into a mobile book club meeting! Organizers select the route as a vital street that needs infrastructure improvements to promote cycling and pedestrian traffic; for example, protected bike lanes, more bike parking, or a "pocket park" instead of parking for cars. Local libraries and bookstores make the books available for borrowing and purchase before the Book Ride.

I feel so lucky that Janet Joy chose At Last Count as the book for Saturday, Sept 27’s Book Ride. If you’d like to join in, meet us at Alexander the Great Parkette, Danforth & Logan, at 2pm.

We’ll ride across Toronto to a few locations in the novel, I’ll do a mini-reading at each stop and talk about the meaning of that spot in the book, and we’ll finish up at Another Story Bookshop’s booth at The Word On The Street in David Pecaut Square where books will be available for sale and I can sign them if so desired.

Hope to see you then.

And then there’s Spycraft

Things are ramping up to the world premiere of Spycraft, the play I co-wrote with Kirk. We’re a lot excited, a little terrified, and a lotter overwhelmed, but that’s the way of it—how we roll in this house. Pretty much exactly the way we felt gearing up to the premiere of The Knitting Pilgrim in 2019, and 120 performances and 6 countries later, apparently we survived that. So off we go.

Here’s the blurb about Spycraft:

Directed by Richard Greenblatt and starring Diane Flacks, Blair Williams, Charlotte Dennis and Devin Lee, Spycraft tells the story of an easily overlooked yet crafty Canadian factory worker who helps Winston Churchill’s WW2 intelligence agency spy on the Nazis in Occupied France by knitting code into ordinary garments. It’s a cracking, suspenseful espionage thriller that also tackles issues of identity, the Holocaust, and the rise of Antisemitism today. 

The show's set, costumes and lights are designed by Nick Blais, sound and original music are composed and designed by Heidi Chan, and knitted costumes and knitted props are designed by Kirk Dunn. Our stage manager is Ada Aguilar, and our Technical Director is Rhett Costin. 

Here’s our poster:

And here’s a list of the theatres where it’s touring, along with links to the box office where you can buy tickets to the show nearest you.

Hope to see you there.

 

Other things:

If you are a person who has read At Last Count and enjoyed it, and you haven’t done so already, would you do me the great favour of putting a friendly review onto Amazon and Goodreads? It doesn’t have to be long, and it’s easily done in a jiffy—but it goes a very long way to helping others discover the book. You know, algorithms and such. Thank you!

Kirk Dunn
Next

On the Virtues of Not Sticking to Your Lane, and Other Good Things.