Susan Swan's Blog, page 11

Star Review Compares The Western Light to Huck Finn

Published on Friday December 07, 2012 by The Toronto Star By Jennifer Hunter Read the full article here: www.thestar.com The Western Light by Susan Swan: Review There is a soupçon of an adolescent Huck Finn and his friendship with the escaped slave Jim in Susan Swan’s portrayal of the young Mouse Bradford and her bond [...]

Some Wise Things I Forgot I Knew

Recently, a psychic told me to remember what was happening to me when I was 45. He said how I was during that year would help me with my life now. So I looked up an old journal from January to March 1990 and found these forgotten, permission-giving thoughts, which describe the importance of connecting [...]

New Thoughts from an Old Journal

Recently, a psychic told me to remember what was happening to me when I was 45. He said how I was during that year would help me with my life now. So I looked up an old journal from January to March 1990 and found these beautiful, permission-giving thoughts, which describe the importance of connecting [...]

Is It Wrong to Flog Books on Facebook?

Now that my book tour is almost over, I am doing most of my publicity for my new novel through online marketing. And I feel downright awkward about asking fb comrades to buy my book. For instance, is fb the right place to sell books? Like most of my friends, I ignore fb ads–in fact, [...]

The Western Light: a perfect stocking stuffer this holiday season

My publisher would like to invite you to put The Western Light in your Christmas stocking this holiday season. My novel tells the story of Mary ‘Mouse’ Bradford, heroine of my bestseller The Wives of Bath, who is torn between love for her distant father and a charismatic and possibly dangerous father substitute. Here’s what [...]

What Only the Peacock Knows

Do Teachers learn from Their Students? Last week end, one of my former students, Canadian playwright, Paul Ciufo, interviewed me at a book event in Bayfield, Ontario. We kicked off the evening with Santa Claus and the lighting of the Christmas lights in the town square, and then Paul and I went back to the [...]

Mouse is back in Susan Swan’s prequel to ‘The Wives of Bath’: a Globe and Mail review

By CANDACE FERTILE Published Friday, Nov. 02 2012, 4:00 PM EDT in The Globe and Mail. The following is an excerpt. Full article available here :www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books Mouse Bradford, the central character in Susan Swan’s The Western Light, first appeared in The Wives of Bath (1993), and I fear my enjoyment of this new novel was hampered by knowing [...]

Reading Like a Writer: Authors and their beloved books

On Sunday October 28th, a group of novelists and industry professionals gathered at Harbourfront Centre to discuss how authors can read “as professionals.”  The round-table discussion was led by novelist and Humber School for Writers director Antanas Sileika. Others on the panel included novelists Christine Poutney, Kylo Maclear, James Clarke and Susan Swan. The following [...]

A Letter to my Younger Self

Community Voices: Susan Swan Fiction brings the past into focus Published in the Vancouver Sun October 16, 2012   Dear 12-Year-Old Me, As you know, I’ve written about a character like you who appears in my new novel, The Western Light. Of course, its narrator, Mouse Bradford, isn’t identical to you. It’s always better for novelists [...]

Rolled cigarettes, mothers in literature and a new fiction prize for women

2012 Orange Prize winner Madeline Miller for The Song of Achilles   There were a few things I learned on the road this fall including how to smoke a rolled cigarette with Martin Amis. (Gingerly, and only half way down.) What to say about mothers and fathers in literature: in Canada mothers (with the exception [...]