Muskoka Novel Marathon – Page 3

LGBTQIA2 Pride – Why I Still Love PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE

5 years ago today, I received the ORANGE BANNER treatment on Amazon for my brand new young adult novel PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE! For those who don’t know, the orange banner indicates BEST SELLER. You get it when your book hits #1!

Happy 5th Anniversary of being #1, book!

It was such a moment, writing Pride Must Be A Place! I remember where I was, who I was…everything about the experience! Such a pivotal moment. What a rush!

I wrote quite a lot of it at the 72hr Muskoka Novel Marathon during the summer of 2015. A week later, Michael and I spent a week at his sister’s cottage and I wrote the remainder of the novel. We would take long walks during the day and discuss the story-line. It was a magical time I still hold dear.

Whenever a writer thinks back on a book they wrote, it’s often that time in their life that they reflect on. It makes them either love or hate their book more…the book is like a litmus test to the time in which they wrote it. That’s the way it works for me, anyway. I LOVE this book! I still love the book because it immediately brings me back to that time when I wrote it!

Click THIS LINK to visit my post about how Pride Must Be A Place is tied in with Lorraine Segato of The Parachute Club.

PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE Synopsis:

Ezra Caine is gay. He’s sort of out at school but not at home, where he fears the wrath of his father’s bigotry. When Ezra’s flamboyantly out friend Alex Mills takes one too many beatings from homophobic bully Will Carter, Ezra finally snaps. Fed up with the situation at school, he decides to do something about it. With the help of his BFF, Nettie, and some unlikely allies, Ezra rallies to create their small-town school’s first gay-straight alliance. The Rainbow Alliance Club is formed. But the changes don’t come without hiccups, one of which being a messy scandal involving Alex and a gay hook-up app. As Ezra and his friends attempt to sway their school into an alliance of tolerance and acceptance, Ezra experiences a few surprises of his own on the home-front. He also learns the hard way that friendships out of convenience aren’t always a good idea, just as some enemies might not be as bad as he originally imagined them to be.

I know it won’t get to the ORANGE BANNER status again, but if you haven’t read PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE…consider picking it up today! It’s good!

AMAZON USA: Pride Must Be A Place

AMAZON CANADA: Pride Must Be A Place

BIG NEWS! Hint? Wait Until You HEAR My New Novel!

I have been dying to shout this bookish news from the rooftops and now I finally can! This is big! A bucket list item!

BOOK OF DREAMS IS GETTING AN AUDIOBOOK!!!

O.M.G!

I am so excited about this development. This will be the first time one of my books has been recorded as an audiobook. And the voice actor recording the book? CHEF’S KISS! I actually got to listen to some of the auditions along the way, and then some samples of the actor eventually hired to record BOOK OF DREAMS and I could NOT be happier!

The voice actor is CJ Heineman! The second I heard their audition tape, I knew they were the one! Without a doubt, CJ was Gaige! They do such an incredible job. I’ve only heard the first couple of chapters so far, but it’s pure magic. They’re just the perfect voice to narrate Gaige’s story. If I had imagined Gaige’s voice in my head, CJ is what I would have heard.

This is truly a dream come true. This little book that began with the idea WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THIS KID STUMBLED UPON A BOOKSTORE WHERE NO BOOKSTORE SHOULD BE? at the Muskoka Novel Marathon is now an audiobook! This nugget of an idea that I ran with amidst the chaos of 40 writers hanging out together in one room has been realized into an actual book. Writing is magical, isn’t it!?

Thanks to the people at the Muskoka Novel Marathon for giving us writers a warm friendly place to make magic.

The Active Living Centre in Huntsville, Ontario, where the marathon usually takes place (when there’s not a pandemic).

And thanks to my publisher, Chicago Review Press, and its Duet Books imprint, for believing in my story enough to not only publish it…but to produce the accompanying audiobook.

And a HUGE thanks to CJ Heineman for bringing the story to life with their flawless rendition of my narrator, Gaige!

Check out the audiobook of BOOK OF DREAMS today!

It takes a while for the audiobook to be uploaded, so as of yet there is only one place where it is available. I will update this post as it appears on other sites. BUT OFFICIALLY, IT’S AVAILABLE! It just showed up at KOBO CANADA!

AUDIOBOOK LINK AT KOBO CANADA!!!

AUDIOBOOK LINK AT KOBO UK!!!

AUDIOBOOK LINK AT KOBO USA!!!

Just a quick reminder that I will be signing paperback copies of Book of Dreams at Chapters-Indigo Oshawa Centre on Saturday October 1st, 2022 at 1:00pm. THAT’S THIS COMING SATURDAY!! Please come out and say hello!

Chapters-Indigo Oshawa Centre

419 King Street West, Unit #1135,

Oshawa, Ontario

L1J 2K5

Canada

CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE INDIGO OSHAWA LOCATION.

Upcoming Event at Muskoka Authors Association…

I will be speaking at the Muskoka Authors Association in Bracebridge on WEDNESDAY, November 13th. Looking forward to some on-the-spot writing exercises and communion with fellow creatives. For several years I have felt a bit like an adopted child of the Muskoka region on Northern Ontario. It’s the place where I do the lion’s share of my novel writing. I have been going up to Huntsville, Ontario, in the heart of Muskoka, every year for over ten years. Huntsville is host to the yearly fundraiser for literacy known as the Muskoka Novel Marathon…where 40 or so writers get locked into a room together for 72 hours so that they each may attempt to write a complete novel in one sitting. It’s a magical experience that has had me falling deeply in love with Muskoka and its creative community.

From the Muskoka Authors Association website:

Novelist and Playwright, Kevin Craig, Shares Tips on Jump Starting Your Writing!

About this Event

Try Everything! Quirks and Tips to Help You Jump-Start Your Writing…

On Wednesday, November 13, Muskoka Authors Association welcomes, Kevin Craig, author of six published novels (Summer on Fire, Sebastian’s Poet, The Reasons, Burn Baby Burn Baby, Half Dead & Fully Broken, and, Pride Must Be A Place). Kevin will give a short overview of their own writing journey, including how they bounced from one form of writing to another while attempting to stay focused on their long-term goal of writing young adult novels. Kevin will also share how they discovered there is more than one way to write a novel, and that you should explore the different ways with each consecutive novel you write. They will discuss how invigorating it can be to explore alternate writing forms along the way to your own writing goals, whether they are to write the Great Canadian Novel, a screenplay, a memoir, or a poem. As well, Kevin will discuss how important it is to allow yourself to escape your comfort zones while getting to those goals.

Whether you’re new to writing or a seasoned pro, you should never be afraid to try something new. New forms of writing can often trick our creativity and jump-start a stalled project back to life. They may even accidentally help you to discover new creative callings. What if the novel you’re writing is actually a play? Maybe the short story you’ve been struggling with is really a collection of poems.

Kevin will introduce some of their favourite exercises and prompts that helped in their own creative journey. Like Kevin, you may find that the journey is just as exhilarating and rewarding as the destination. Attendees should come prepared to write and share their work.

Kevin Craig is also a five-time winner of the Muskoka Novel Marathon’s Best Novel Award. Kevin’s seventh novel, THE CAMINO CLUB, is forthcoming from Duet Books, the YA imprint of Interlude Press (October 2020). In addition, they are a playwright with a resume of ten short plays and two one-act plays staged in various places from Toronto to Mumbai, Australia, and the United States. Kevin’s poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals throughout the world. For several years Kevin worked as a freelance writer, writing everything from articles on interior design and travel to interviews with musicians such as Bif Naked. Several of Kevin’s songs have been recorded by various artists. Kevin was a founding member on the board of directors for the Ontario Writers Conference and is currently a member of the Writers Community of Durham Region. Kevin lives in Toronto, Ontario.

You can visit the EVENTS PAGE HERE FOR TICKET INFORMATION.

Here’s a link to the MUSKOKA AUTHORS ASSOCIATION WEBSITE.