C.A. Logan Author

It’s finally spring and to distract you from all the insanity of the gift that keeps on giving down south, I offer you an update of life here on Electric Street.  

Doing: March is brilliant when you have a little Irish within you!

I was busy with several Ottawa-area events in celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day. First, I participated in a Local Authors Signing at the Heart & Crown in the Byward Market (the same pub where we launched The Irish Within Us in 2023). I had a brilliant chat with fellow guest Michael McBane, author of Bytown 1847, Élisabeth Bruyère & the Irish Famine refugees. Many thanks to Thomas O’Neill.

On Tuesday, March 11, the Irish Seniors Social Group Ottawa invited me to read from The Irish Within Us, and sign copies. It was a lively, very well attended lunch event. I had lots of great chat, and they’ve promised to let me come back! Thank you to Clare O’Connell Noon for inviting me.

Finally, on the weekend leading up to the 17th, I was a guest of the wonderful Austin Comerton on Irish Radio Canada. The interview link is here: https://irishradio.ca/podcast/?name=20250316b1.mp3

Writing: Deckchairs? Titanic? What?!!

My mother, a Libran with a keen eye for design, had the occasional habit of jumping out of bed at midnight to rearrange the living room furniture. I would hear her huffing and grunting as large items scrapped across the wooden floors or banged into the walls. A few hours later, I would hear my father yelping as he tried to sneak into the house in the dark.    

I know what you are thinking, and for many years I also thought it was just my mother’s revenge on my father’s drinking, but she had many more methods for that purpose.

My mother was a spontaneous creature. If, her eyes closed, her head resting on the pillow, a new floor layout presented itself, it was not something she could put off until the morning.

My mother’s room reorganizing mirrors the current state of my second novel—working title Ballybeg 2, or is it Ballybeg too? The draft is scattered into sections to be rearranged, and swathes lie out to be trimmed and altered. I am squeezing every drop of fairy dust from some characters (ouch!) to distill that magic down to its best bits.

Speaking of distillation, the weighty back story for the two main characters is on a diet, to make it sleek and light and ready for that summer frock. This great sacrifice hurts. It demands, as we say, killing your darlings—those unnecessary bits that the writer loves. 

Meanwhile, back in nineteenth century Glasgow, my next novel, a partially fictitious retelling of the life of Archibald Sloss, has jumped its first hurdle, with the writing of a three-thousand-word where and when summary of the story.

More important is the two-thousand-word narrative that outlines, scene by scene, the beginning of Archie’s life from his birth family and the start of his questionably successful life as a criminal. This is the backbone of the first draft, accommodating both Archie’s tales and my historical research, ignoring neither, by stitching them together with fine fictional embroidery silk.

Writing the outline revealed several continuing themes and related symbols that will structure the work, showing how Archie’s tale unfolds. Research also continues—do we know any Sing Sing historians?

Last on the list, the draft of what I hope is my fourth novel languishes. I want to bring a sense of enchantment, mystery and wonder to an ordinary contemporary Toronto neighbourhood, to provide a glimmer of hope that magic exists all around us, even when we can’t prove it.

Currently, the story is too big with many eccentric characters and places, including the Robert Ross Tavern, named for the British officer who ordered the burning of Washington (too timely?!?). Conversely, the main character’s sadness dominates the draft, so I need to find the right balance.

It looks more like a book series centred on the location, with the main character changing each novel. If so, the neighbourhood characters will not reveal themselves all at once, but over subsequent books. I will come back to this one after I finish the drafts above and spend more of my summer in Toronto.

Reading: Sharing a couple of my favourite writers

Evie Woods is difficult to classify since her books blend history, magic realism, romance and family stories. She previously wrote under the name Evie Gaughan, and you may have heard of The Lost Bookshop and The Story Collector, as well as her latest release, The Mysterious Bakery on the Rue de Paris. Her website is www.eviewoods.com

Louise Penny, multi-award-winning author of the Three Pines mystery series featuring Quebec detective Armand Gamache. Her newest book is The Grey Wolf (French edition Le Loup Gris). Her website is www.louisepenny.com

To wrap up the April Fool spirit this month,

The Quasar TV advert from 1984 came to mind, as it often does when I try to explain the creative process… and aren’t you lucky, I found it! Wait for the tag line at the end. Here: https://youtu.be/Z44LzH5iSPI?si=TutO1ZYnvwtB0u7L

Keep calm and carry on!

Carole