There were a few bright spots in this last Bruins season, but one of the brightest, by far, was Liam’s story on E:60.
If you have a couple minutes, maybe your kids nearby, I would take the time to watch it.
Help Liam #BUMPOUTCANCER, he has his own fund-raising page.
Grantland put together a nice little documentary on the disappearance of the role of the fighter in today’s National Hockey League, starring Paul Bissonnette, Brian McGrattan, and Colton Orr on the fighting end of the stick. All three of those guys put in time in the American Hockey League this year, toiling away while they waited for spots to open up again in the NHL.
http://grantland.com/features/grantland-features-knuckles-vs-numbers/?edf
It’s about eight minutes long, give or take, so four hooking penalties or thereabouts.
All of those guys have enjoyed some success in the big leagues, but the American Hockey League is where William Murphy, protagonist of “William Murphy’s Trip to the Quiet Room” whiles away his hockey life, literally fighting for his livelihood. The book joins him once his career (and the career of his buddy, another fighter, Germaine Bousquet) is over, but the rough and tumble nature of what he did doesn’t just let go because he’s hung up his skates and his gloves.
Grantland do a great job of showing off the guys affected by this shift in mentality in the NHL away from fighters and the stats guys affecting the change. You’ll note, though, that never the twain shall meet (which is probably for the best).
So if you’re into hockey, or if these guys and the lives they live are in any way the slightest bit interesting to you and you’re an agent or publisher or know one, well, have I ever got a book for you.*
* And if you’re not into hockey, well, the book isn’t all about hockey. It’s also about plumbing, Old Sturbridge Village, time travel, mothers and daughters, the F.B.I., and Cape Cod.
If I told you I had a book and you weren’t immediately frightened by that prospect (of me having a book, not me talking to you), which title would make you more likely to read it?
Answers on a postcard… or, preferably, sent by picking a button next to your choice above and hitting “Vote”.
Still no news on the agent front (besides mean-spirited April Fools jokes), just working out my email-sending fingers.
Dennis did a spot for WGBH a little while ago in which he talks a little about his latest book, his connection to Boston, even though he’s now living on the west coast. It’s a short but sweet interview but obviously the part that resonated with me was this:
I think you write better when you are homesick. [… T]he next book is set in Boston. I’m writing it from California. I’m thinking about Boston all the time.
There’s a long history of the exiled writer, whether self- or Hollywood-imposed, and I wholeheartedly agree, I think (and others may not agree) that my best writing comes when I’m writing about home. For example, Butterfly (which may be retitled William Murphy’s Trop to the Quiet Room, for sake of trying to hook an agent’s interest) is set in Worcester, Massachusetts, the town in which I was born; a little bit in that venerable tourist attraction, Old Sturbridge Village, just down the street from where I grew up; and Cape Cod, a favorite vacation spot from my youth (and still). For each of the interminable drafts I sat in my grandparent’s floor in a three decker on Hillside Street, wandered the muddy spring paths of Old Sturbridge Village, probably with a stick of rock candy in my hand, or sat with my back against the dunes down on Nauset Light Beach. Which is to say I use that feeling of homesickness to try and make the scenes that little bit more vivid, much like Dennis Lehane does and Joyce did with Ulysses (with far greater commercial and just plain old regular success).
Dennis Lehane is appearing at Listowel Writers’ Week, which has an amazing lineup this year. If you’re in the area at the end of May you really shouldn’t miss it. Tell Anne Enright I sent you.
It’s finally, at long last, happened (I credit the chicken that I sacrificed the other night in a vat of boiling water with onions, carrots, leeks, and more)!
I have signed with I.F. Raud Literary Agency LLC, whose illustrious clients include J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Lenny the Bowler, Dan Brown, and Danielle Steele.
Butterfly, a novel, which had been retitled William Murphy’s Trip to the Quiet Room, has been retitled Lunchtime at the Sancho Panza Hotel, and is no longer about an ex-hockey player but a young female lawyer in the Northwest who finds love in all the wrong places and then in the right place, but the wrong time. Her twin sister, a basketball star for the WNBA’s Sacramento franchise, also finds love, not the same love… or is it? The part formerly played by William’s ex-teammate Germaine has transformed into a puppy, with whom the lawyer spends many poignant hours speaking to in a Dear Diary-type fashion as she walks the mist-shrouded beaches of a suburb of Seattle.
I.F. Raud, herself, will be representing me and not her (by all accounts) useless intern, Mathilda. Already we’re in talks with Harper Collins about a sequel and Paramount for the film rights. As you can imagine, I’m over the moon about this news and can’t wait to start pumping out sequels for you folks.