C.K. Kelly Martin's Blog, page 20

Eighties Week!

I'm having my own personal eighties week up here in Southern Ontario with a Howard Jones gig this past Tuesday and Duran Duran show tonight and believe me, the air around me is rife with nostalgia and excitement. I was an enormous fan of both musical acts when I was a teenager and that music still totally gets to me. I mean, I still feel wistful when I hear Duran Duran's Save A Prayer, charged up when I listen to New Moon on Monday and like I want to make peace with the whole world when Howard Jones sings Like to Get to Know You Well. My Simon Le Bon crush is recorded in my old school yearbook (in the form of a French poem) for everyone to see and Howard Jones has to be one of the most positive performers I've ever seen play live. That's as true now as it was when I saw him at the Kingswood Music Theatre and Maple Leaf Gardens in the mid-eighties. He's infectiously warm, endearing and hopeful. How could you not love someone who sings about throwing off your mental chains?

Anyway, the funniest thing about the Howard Jones show (which was superb!) is that I've never seen so many people from a single demographic gathered in one place. Never. Literally ninety-nine percent of the people there were men and women I could've gone to high school with. The age range looked like it stretched from about three years younger than me to three years older and that—well it was kind of a shock. How did I get to be this old? Like, I must have fallen through a time portal or something because it doesn't seem possible. I know it's been a long time since high school (so long that it's highly possible I did go to high school with some of those folks at the show and just didn't recognize them) but I feel basically like the same person I was in university.
I guess maybe you always do because I could tell Howard Jones felt like the same person too. That's one of the things I love about seeing these fabulous acts that debuted in the eighties; they show those of us who grew up in the 80s and the bands/artists that played the songs that were the soundtrack to our lives that we're all still around doing our thing. So, hey, if in another twenty-plus years these guys are still touring I intend to still be in the audience, singing along to the songs I know by heart (even all those years later because, like Depeche Mode sang, I Just Can't Get Enough) and I'm guessing many of the people who I could've gone to high school with will be there too.
Eighties forever!

My Beating Teenage Heart Stuff

I want to thank Marshal Zeringue for having me over to the My Book, the Movie blog where I got to assemble my dream cast (and director!) for a movie version of My Beating Teenage Heart. Thanks for indulging my Hollywood dreams, Marshal! The only cast hint I'm offering is the below photo (guess who?) so you'll have to jump over there to check out the list in its entirety.


I also want to thank Monica Kulling,creator of one of my favourite fictional pooches (the dapper Mister Dash of Merci, Mister Dash) for pointing me towards a fantastic new review of My Beating Teenage Heart in CM Magazine. I'm positively glowing after reading this review. I bet I'll still be lighting up the room when I switch off my bedside lamp to go to sleep later tonight.

Jamie Hubley

When I saw the text and photo at the top of yesterday's Toronto Star something inside me broke. It's happened again. We lost a young person that should've had years and years left to shine and we lost them not to accident or disease, not to something that couldn't have been helped. We lost fifteen-year-old Jamie Hubley, just like we lost eleven-year-old Mitchell Wilson and countless others before him, because he was relentlessly tormented by his peers to the degree that not living another day seemed like a better option.

There's a Japanese proverb that goes, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." This seems to be truer in our schools than it is almost anywhere else in our society. Schools should not be something that have to be survived, places where our young people have to twist themselves out of shape to avoid standing out.

Jamie Hubley was a kid I would've liked and one my fifteen-year-old self would've liked—a young man who loved music and singing, who preferred figure skating to hockey and who tried to make his school a better, more accepting place by starting a rainbow club. One of Jamie's friends had this to say about him, "It's hard to describe him in one sentence. I couldn't even describe him in a novel. He was so colourful. My favourite thing about him was how he would put his problems aside for others -- put everybody else first and then worry about himself later."
Jamie was the only open gay guy at his Ottawa high school. Imagine the kind of guts that takes, especially at just fifteen. By all accounts, Jamie had guts, heart and talent in spades. The world needs more of all of these things and I'm sad for Jamie and sad for all of us who are left in a place that is a dimmer in his absence.
It's hard for me not to hate the bullies who in seventh grade tried to stuff batteries down Jamie's throat on the school bus because he was a figure skater, hard for me not to hate the kids who tore down his rainbow alliance posters and the people who called him "fag." But I know hate isn't the answer. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
So if you see these horrible things happening at your school, or wherever you may be, don't let hate accumulate, unchallenged. I know there are situations where it may not feel safe to challenge the haters then and there. But you can tell someone afterwards. A teacher, a parent, a guidance counsellor, someone. And you can tell the person you saw or heard being bullied that you don't share the bullies' feelings. Anyone being bullied needs to know that they're not alone. Anyone bullying others (either emotionally or physically) needs to know it will not be tolerated. You need to stop. Right now. It's not funny and it's not okay. It doesn't make you a more powerful person. It diminishes you and when we let it continue it diminishes all of us.
None of us can afford to be bystanders. People's lives are at stake.
Meet Jamie Hubley. He was what one of his idols, Katy Perry, would've undoubtedly called a "firework". I won't let myself hate the people that made Jamie feel less than that but I will forever hate that we are without his light.

Fall 2011

Late September/early October was a busy period as I tried to finish up line edits for book 5 but as you can see below I still took a little time out to read, wander and snap a few photos. This late September day at the beach spent reading Water Balloon was so gorgeous that I didn't want to go home.


Don't be fooled, these are inedible (though scrumptious looking!). In fact, they're soaps. It seems a bit unfair that something you can't eat would look this appetizing, doesn't it?

Flowers and sunny lake views seem especially precious in autumn.



Cupcakes, of course, are precious at any time of year. I had to go on the run from a wasp who wanted to steal this coconut iced one from me (and I fear wasps but I wasn't about to abandon my gorgeous cupcake on a rock by the lake).
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Canadian Thanksgiving veggies courtesy of my aunt.

A Thanksgiving decoration I stumbled on in town.

Fudge galore in Niagara-on-the-lake.

Me, hanging out with a polar bear in Niagara-on-the-lake's Christmas shop, October 11th.

The temperature that day in Niagara-on-the-lake was a stunning 22 degrees Celsius and we made sure to stroll by the lake. Ahhhhh.


I so wanted to take this little guy from the Christmas shop home with me if only my apartment weren't so small. I'm sure someone else will snap him up soon.
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And here are a few more photos from that day in Niagara-on-the-lake.



Wherever you're reading this from I hope the season has been as kind to you!

Hop on over to Audrey's

With line edits, Canadian Thanksgiving baking and feasting and a day trip to Niagara-on-the-lake all freshly behind me I feel like I have some big-time catching up to do on the blog. I want to start by thanking the fabulous Audrey Vernick (author of Water Balloon and Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten) for having me over to her bloggy home to talk about My Beating Teenage Heart and other bookish stuff. She's also giving away a copy of the book so if you think you'd like to read it, jog on over to her blog for a chance to win. Don't miss the photos of her adorable new puppy Hootie while you're there!

But that's not all, I'm giving away a copy of Audrey's exceptionally loveable new book, Water Balloon, along with My Beating Teenage Heart swag and Bronxwood (by Coe Booth) via The Secret Life blog and there's only one day left to enter. One day! Yikes.
 The Secret Life giveaway

Photos snapped during the last few weeks to follow!

Amazon Best Books of the Month

So I'm in the middle of line edits for book 5 but I couldn't let another day go by without announcing some very exciting news—My Beating Teenage Heart is Amazon's Best Book of the month in Young Adult for October. See it on the right side of the page there? Wow. I'm so excited to see it up there with The Scorpio Races (Maggie Stiefvater), The Death Cure (James Dashner) and How to Save a Life (Sara Zarr). Pinch me!
I also want to point you in the direction of a wonderful review for the book up at Mabel's Fables. This stunning review by Shanti makes me very proud indeed. I noticed a fabulous review of Teri Hall's Away (the sequel to The Line) posted there too. Having loved The Line I'm really excited to read this sequel. Hopefully soon after those line edits are done! With a deadline two days after Canadian Thanksgiving (October 10th), though, I'm going to have to pause book-work on the weekend to bake a couple pear pies. My stomach is getting grumbly at the thought.
I'll also be pausing to vote in Thursday's provincial election, of course, and I'm hoping a whole lot of Ontarians are as worried about what a Conservative
hat trick would do to this place as I am.

Inukshuk

The first time I remember seeing an Inukshuk in person was on a trip to Vancouver in 2007. It was the inukshuk that overlooks English Bay off Vancouver's west coast to be exact. Possibly I'd seen an inukshuk before that but somehow failed to register the fact, but anyway, since that 07 trip I've always found the sight of them comforting.

In recent years I've noticed that someone near our bit of Lake Ontario likes to build inukshuks. I never see them at it, mind you, just spy the evidence of their efforts. The below inukshuk was standing by the rocky shore of the lake late this afternoon. It was fairly large (although I don't think you can tell that from the below photo I snapped of it) and, as usual, it gave me a good feeling. According to my research, "The traditional meaning of the inukshuk is 'Someone was here' or 'You are on the right path.'" I especially like the idea of being assured you're on the right path and wish there were more tangible signs of this sort in our lives. Sometimes it's really tough to know if you're doing the right thing — in relationships, in your career, and in so many different realms. Like in the poem The Road Not Taken, we always seem to be coming to forks in the road. Choices.


I admit I've wondered, sometimes, if in becoming a writer I've allowed myself to travel too far down a rocky road that's only destined to get rockier or even disappear entirely. I can't imagine not writing but am I delusional to think I can make enough money to support myself by writing novels at a time when bookstores are disappearing, piracy is a chronic problem and the big publishers seem ever more like Hollywood studios in their choice of blockbuster material? I wrote that in past tense—wondered—as though I've finished turning the question over in my mind, but no, I still wonder. I wondered during the writing of My Beating Teenage and again during the novels I wrote after it. No doubt I will wonder again in the future (possibly even again and again and again) but I'm glad I didn't let that stop me from writing My Beating Teenage Heart and glad that very soon now it'll be finding its way out into the world. It's the most emotionally draining book I've ever written and while I think all my novels are both what people would term edgy while simultaneously wearing their hearts on their sleeves I believe that's most true of My Beating Teenage Heart.
I'm expecting revisions for my fifth book to arrive sometime Monday so I probably won't be posting on My Beating Teenage Heart's release day (the 27th) or the next little while, but you can catch up with the second week of my blog tour:
 Sunday, September 25: Hannah at Paperback Treasures (Character Book Picks)

 Monday, September 26: Cyndi M at Dog Eared and Bookmarked (Author Interview w/ Music Line
Answers)

 Tuesday, September 27: Kari at A Good Addiction (Character Interview: Breckon)

 Wednesday, September 28: Jen D at What's On the Bookshelf (Review)

 Thursday, September 29: Bailey at IB Book Blogging (Multicharacter Interview)

 Friday, September 30: Ashley B at Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing (Review)

If you're interested in checking out the songs I'd include on a playlist for My Beating Teenage Heart I have them posted here but the one I want to highlight today is one of my favourite songs from 2009—Geraldine by Glasvegas. I love this song to bits and, really, how many passionate rock songs about social workers do we hear? The lyrics absolutely fit the role Ashlyn comes to play in Breckon's life in My Beating Teenage Heart. I think many (if not most) of us need some kind of guiding and understanding voice/voices in our lives to get us through the hardest times. Sometimes we might be surprised who those people turn out to be. Sometimes they'll be close friends and family, other times teachers, social workers, therapists, religious figures, fellow members of support groups. And sometimes, we will be that voice for others.

Con B-Gone

I discovered this absolutely fantastic product online the other day. Simply spray in and around your office, workspace, place of residence, vehicle, or any other location you frequent. The refreshing smell of reason in Con B-Gone quickly acts to drive irrational ultra conservatives of all nationalities, ages and genders from the immediate vicinity. Can safely be used against climate change deniers, creationists, reactionary politicians at all levels of government, sexists, racists, homophobes and those who believe in punishing the lower and middle classes with austerity measures while shielding corporations and wealthy individuals. Retails for $4.99 plus shipping and handling. What a steal!


No longer must we endure the pesky presence of unwanted Cons! For especially tough ultra Conservative infestation problems (such as those currently being experienced in Toronto's City Hall and the British national government), try the deep penetrating foam of Con B-Gone Ultra.

Farewell TIFF, Hello My Beating Teenage Heart

Somehow it's been a whole two weeks since I last blogged! My sole excuse isn't a very good one because I ran into folks in downtown Toronto this week who were watching 32 to 50 movies at the Toronto International Film Festival and I only saw five. FIVE! But between the travel time from the burbs to downtown, queing to pick up tickets from the Metro Centre on several occasions, queuing hours to get our pick of seats at the theatres, waking up early on certain days to attempt to score the freshly released tickets that become available on the day of screenings, well, those things seemed to be enough to throw off my schedule. Not that I'm complaining, because I love film fest time and I wish I had the stamina and $ to see more movies! I'm always sad when TIFF is over and the mad film/celebrity buzz around town disappears and we all have to return to real life and the fact that yes, it'll officially be fall in five days.

Not that I'm complaining about fall either because autumn is a perfectly lovely season; it's the thing that happens after it that I'm not too psyched about. The thing that involves a heavy coat, lined boots, hats with ear flaps and woolly mittens. But anyway, back to the more cheerful subject of 2011 TIFF. We started out with the following list of movies we hoped to see
Albert Nobbs
Butter
Page Eight
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
Restless
Take Shelter
The Deep Blue Sea
The Ides of March
The Other Side of Sleep
The Woman in the Fifth
Twiggy
Twixt
Violet and Daisy
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Wuthering Heights
Your Sister's Sister

and according to schedules and interest whittled the list down to the five bolded titles. My favourite was Page Eight, the festival's closing film which was written and directed by David Hare (writer of The Hours, The Reader and Plenty) and was shot in five weeks for British television on a budget of just three million dollars. Bill Nighy gives an outstanding performance as a veteran MI5 officer in possession of a secret document that asserts the British Prime Minister knew about incidences and locations of torture camps by the American government.
Page Eight's dialogue is crisply intelligent in a way that most blockbuster films seem to have forgotten is even possible. While at the festival
If you weren't able to catch Page Eight at the festival and are into smart movies about smart people embroiled in political intrigue you might want to look out for it on PBS where it will air on November 6th. You can also check out the Roger Ebert review of Page Eight here.
That brings us up to today's date which is eight short days until my new book, My Beating Teenage Heart, is released. I'm ever so happy to report that Omnivoracious, the Amazon blog has such nice things to say about the book including the following, "In the vein of some of my favorite novels of the past few years, namely Gayle Forman's If I Stay and Jenny Downham's Before I Die, Martins' latest is the type of novel that will remain with you long after you've read the last page." Whoah. Thank you, Amazon!
With the release date of My Beating Teenage Heart almost upon us I'm on blog tour starting tomorrow (an enormous thanks to Teen Book Scene for putting the tour together!) and running through to the end of the month. Here's the schedule and I'd be glad to see you stop by somewhere along the way to say hello! If you'd like to read My Beating teenage Heart be sure to enter the two tour giveaways.
* Monday, September 19: Yani at The Secret Life of an Avid Reader (Author Interview w/ Book Line Answers)

* Tuesday, September 20: Deborah K at Books, Movies, and Chinese Food (Character Interview: Ashlyn)

* Wednesday, September 21: Cyndi M at Dog Eared and Bookmarked (Review)

* Thursday, September 22: Jen D at What's On the Bookshelf (Author Book Picks)

* Friday, September 23: Ashley B at Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing (This or That List)

* Saturday, September 24: Bailey at IB Book Blogging (Review)

* Sunday, September 25: Hannah at Paperback Treasures (Character Book Picks)

* Monday, September 26: Cyndi M at Dog Eared and Bookmarked (Author Interview w/ Music
Line Answers)

* Tuesday, September 27: Kari at A Good Addiction (Character Interview: Breckon)

* Wednesday, September 28: Jen D at What's On the Bookshelf (Review)

* Thursday, September 29: Bailey at IB Book Blogging (Multicharacter Interview)

* Friday, September 30: Ashley B at Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing (Review)
This year I happen to share a release date with Jim Cuddy's new album, Skyscraper Soul which is a big thrill. As a major Blue Rodeo and Jim Cuddy fan I won't fault you if you buy Skyscraper Soul instead of My Beating Teenage Heart but I'm sincerely hoping you'll pick up both!
I'd like to end this entry with one of the songs that I think of as being part of the playlist for My Beating Teenage Heart the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, singing I Say a Little Prayer.

MBTH @ Stacked Books

Happy September and Happy Labour Day Weekend! Though it still feels like mid-July to me in the Greater Toronto area today and I'm glad for that.

I want to give Kelly at Stacked Books a huge thank you, both for this beautiful review of My Beating Teenage Heart and for having me over for a Twitterview. I hope you'll scoot over there and check out the entries because she's giving away two copies of My Beating Teenage Heart!

I also want to wish everyone who's trying for single TIFF tickets tomorrow the best of luck. I'm setting my alarm to wake me up bright and early. Then, no doubt, I will spend hours on the computer battling with the TIFF ticketing system while simultaneously hitting redial on my phone. But it'll all be worth it in the end, right? Movies. Movies. Movies.