Progress on So Many Writing Fronts, and a Stuffed, Happy Writer’s Brain
There is progress on many writing fronts, which I can happily share.
First, there is fun news for my novel, At Last Count. My publisher, Invisible Publishing, submitted the book to the 2025 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and it made the shortlist in the romance category. This is really exciting—partly because At Last Count is approaching its third birthday on June 14. The hope with these prizes is always that they bring new readers to the book.
There are only two books on the romance shortlist—a short shortlist! The winner of the prize will be announced by Kobo on June 17. Meanwhile, here is the press release for the shortlist announcement.
Over in the theatre department, the Spycraft script Kirk and I are writing together inches towards being as close to finished as it will be before we go into rehearsals for the show’s November tour across Ontario. Every new play has lots of growth spurts, and ours will be no exception.
We fully anticipate more refining of the script during the rehearsal process with the four-actor cast and Richard Greenblatt, our director/dramaturge. How lucky we are to have a whole team helping to develop the project.
Spycraft is about an easily overlooked yet crafty Canadian factory worker who helps Winston Churchill’s WWII intelligence agency spy on the Nazis in occupied France by knitting code into ordinary garments. We’re pitching it as The Imitation Game meets knitting. Fun, right?
Here’s our poster, designed by Tara McLellan:
The play has gone through many drafts, beginning with our work on the outline in Paula Wing’s playwriting class through the Tarragon Theatre, followed by a first draft phase with our good friend and excellent playwright/dramaturge, Beverley Cooper, followed by further script development with Richard.
Kirk and I are now in a phase where we are refining the framing device of the play, so it is much more surgical work.
Once that is complete, we will be re-sharing the script with our design team so that they can develop the design of the show. We are very lucky to be working with Nick Blais on sets, lights, and wardrobe, and Heidi Chan on sound and composition.
Kirk will be designing the knitting in the show, from the knitted wardrobe to the props, many of which will feature knitting in code. So he is in a development process of his own, going about his daily business while knitting test swatches that feature different kinds of imagery and coding. As he is wont to do.
Please mark Oct 30-Nov 30 so that, if you’re in Ontario, you can see the play. The final tour schedule is coming out ever so shortly!
Meanwhile, Kirk is full tilt into the British Columbia tour of The Knitting Pilgrim. At the printing of this newsletter, he only has one week left to go on that tour, but he’s had a lovely time touring all over BC with our projection operator, Hussein Esmail. We celebrated our 100th performance in BC, and have had some great feedback.
Kirk will be home on April 26, with less than two days’ turnaround before we head to England to tour the show there. Here is the UK touring schedule of the play:
· Friday, May 02, 7:30 PM, Portgordon Village Hall, Cross Street, Portgordon, Buckie, Moray, AB56 5QW, Scotland
· Saturday, May 03, 7:30 PM, Braemar Village Hall, 33 Mar Road, Braemar, Aberdeenshire, AB35 5YL, Scotland
· Sunday, May 04, 7:30 PM, MacRobert Memorial Hall, The Square, Tarland, Aberdeenshire, AB34 4YL, Scotland
· Wednesday, May 06, 7:00 PM, Bradford Cathedral, 1 Stott Hill, Bradford, BD1 4EH, UK. Click HERE for tickets
· Colour With Kirk Knitting Workshop, Thursday, May 08, 10:30 AM, Nelson Library, Market Square, Nelson, BB9 7PU UK
· Colour With Kirk Knitting Workshop, Thursday, May 08, 2:00 PM, Colne Library, Market St, Colne, BB8 0AP UK
· Friday, May 09, 7:00 PM, The Rainhall Centre, Rainhall Road, Barnoldswick, BB18 6HJ, UK
· Saturday, May 10, 7:00 PM, Accrington Library, Accrington, BB5 1NQ, UK
· Thursday, May 15, 7:30 PM, JW3, 341-351 Finchley Road, London, NW3 6ET, UK. Click HERE for tickets
· Colour With Kirk Knitting Workshop, Friday, May 16, 11:00 AM, Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, UK. Click HERE for tickets
· Friday, May 16, 7:30 PM, Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, UK. Click HERE for tickets
Our hope, while in England, is to promote not only The Knitting Pilgrim, but also Spycraft, given the play is set in Canada, England, and France. How joyous it would be to have an international run of that play.
Back to books for a moment: Lost in France, my next novel, inches towards being shared with publishers via my book agent, so cross your fingers. It could end up being a standalone, or the first in a series. I have beginning notions for the next book in the series, which are slowly but surely, in the cracks, being pieced together into an outline. I dream up beats for that while waiting for the bus or folding laundry—you know, the standard places where ideas like to appear.
In the department of film and TV, Kirk and I are developing a new feature screenplay—we are in the middle of writing a second draft now, and that is due the end of the month.
So my writing brain is really being exercised at the moment. Different formats: books, film, and theatre. Different stories, characters, devices, plot points, themes.
A quick note that, no matter the genre or format, stories usually go something like this:
And I’m reminded that, even though I am working in all these different formats, it’s part of what makes this writing life really fun. I keep learning about how story works no matter how you tell it—my favourite thing. My brain is busting at the seams…in a good way, if that’s possible.
I recently attended an evening of the Toronto Screenwriting Conference. Featured guest Corey Mandell, who is a screenwriter, playwright, UCLA teacher and writer mentor, gave an engaging talk on how to write scripts that succeed. He finished off by saying talking about the challenging state of the world, and that change always comes from writers.
Stories, he said, matter now more than ever.
I believe this.
