Book Review: The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson (literary fiction)

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shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize

In The Saturday Night Ghost Club, protagonist Jake Baker looks back on his boyhood relationship with his uncle Calvin.

My uncle owned a shop, the Occultorium, at the top of Clifton Hill.The name was spelled out in Gothic lettering on the marquee, while below, in elegant script, the slogan--Investigating the dark cubbyholes of otherworldly experience... (p. 32) 

In the 1980s, the year Jake turned twelve years old, he spent the summer chasing ghosts with his uncle. Was his uncle teaching him to deal with his fears or was something else going on? (Adult Jake--with the perspective time has bought him--believes that his uncle was trying to deal with his own nightmares.)

Jake grows during the course of the summer. He learns to confront his fear and stand-up for himself.

Published by Knopf Canada

Published in 2018

Under the pen names Patrick Lestewka and Nick Cutter, Craig Davidson writes horror. The Saturday Night Ghost Club--literary fiction--includes some tantalizing scary scenes and in this way serves as an introduction to his other work.

 Freedom to Read

Celebrate the 35th anniversary of Freedom to Read from February 24 to March 2

Freedom to Read week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom...

Click this link to find out more.

photo by ldyck

March on this blog...

In like a lamb

and out like a loin

or

In like a loin

and out like a lamb

Whatever the weather we'll have fun. We'll start the month with a list of Canadian picture book publishers. The ink is still wet on the short story and poem I wrote for you. And I've reviewed two prize-winning books:  Washington Black by Esi Edugyan and A Wake for the Dreamland by Laurel Deedrick-Mayne. I'm looking forward to spending March with you.

photo by ldyck

Sharing my author journey...

This month a writing group invited me to talk about my author journey. My goal was to provide information drawn from

my experience--after stressing that every author's journey is different--and to maintain or even, if possible, increase their passion for their own journey. I planned to discuss...

-the benefits and challenges of self-publishing (I've self-published four books)

-marketing a book

-the benefits and challenges of traditional publishing (I've worked with publishers since 2003)

-the submission process

It was an interactive, engaging and lively presentation. Needless to say, I covered far more material than I had planned.

This is the third time I've given a talk about my author journey. The two other times were during the Active Pass Festival on Mayne Island. (I've given far more author readings and even a few lectures.)

I'm looking forward to more author journey talks at universities and literary festivals. Through Linked In, I've begun to connect with universities. 

And I look forward to visiting libraries and schools, book-in-hand. If you do too and live in BC, here's a link you'll be interested in:  Writers in the Classroom