Derek Winkler

Pitouie reviews

derekwinkler — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:48:06 +0000

Hello again. Some random blogger has posted a review of Pitouie. She doesn’t seem to have a name other than Ketherine, but she seems to be a writer and she seems to like my book. Good enough for me.

Elsewhere on the review front, Quill & Quire gave Pitouie a positive review in its January/February issue. It doesn’t seem to be online anywhere, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that they said my “comedic timing and clever plot twists keep this tale fresh.”

Fresh tales, right here. Get ‘em before they’re hackneyed.

Update: The Quill & Quire review is now online. Yay.

Boxing Day madness

derekwinkler — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:43:46 +0000

Hey. So did you get any fun toys for Newtonmas? Maybe an e-book reader of some kind? Are you too cheap to or environmentally sensitive to buy a book made of paper? Have we got a deal for you.

On Boxing Day, December 26, for one day only, you can get a free e-version of Pitouie from our associates at Smashwords. Go to their website, pick the file format you want, click the “Buy” button, then enter the coupon code CN52Q.

If you spent Boxing Day recovering from holiday excesses and couldn’t drag yourself to a computer, all is not lost. From December 27 to January 1 you can get the e-book at half-price (one easy payment of three dollars) by using the code WE39R.

Don’t say we never gave you anything.

Happy Newtonmas

derekwinkler — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 06:06:16 +0000

Well, it’s after midnight on Newtonmas Eve, and I’m the last one awake at my parents’ place for the annual family gathering. How am I passing the time? Watching a Star Wars marathon and checking my email. Yes, I’m just that geeky.

What do we have here? A Google Alert result. Yes, I have a Google Alert set for Pitouie. I’m just that geeky. The alert points me to a review of Pitouie at the New Brunswick Telegraph Journal. A good review. The kind that actually uses the phrase “stunning debut novel.”

So naturally I had to blog about my early Newtonmas present. Because I’m just that geeky.

Toronto Small Press Book Fair

derekwinkler — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:28:19 +0000

Hey. Need something to do on Saturday? Need something to read? Come by the Toronto Small Press Book Fair at The Great Hall. I’ll be there.

Update: Looks like I’ll be reading too, on Sunday, Dec. 12 at the Gladstone Hotel, along with Ava Homa, Fraser Sutherland, Jasmine D’Costa, and Sachiko Murakami. Starts around eight. That should be fun.

Sunday, December 12th: Derek reads from Pitouie @ the Gladstone (1214 Queen W.) 8pm-ish, with Ava Homa, Fraser Sutherland, Jasmine D’Co…sta, and Sachiko Murakami.

Blog tour: Open Book Toronto

derekwinkler — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:34:03 +0000

And so, we come to the end of the Pitouie blog tour. (Except for BooksOnTheRadio.ca, which did an interview with me but hasn’t updated its website since November 16. Don’t hold your breath for that one, I guess.) Anyway, we’re winding things up at Open Book Toronto, which not only posted today an epic screed by me on the subject of the novel-writing process, but which has also been running a Pitouie contest all week. Technically, I think that contest is still open, so get in there and win yourself some stuff.

Novel Writing for Chronic Procrastinators: A Guide

Blog tour: Maisonneuve

derekwinkler — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 03:44:18 +0000

The penultimate stop on the grand Pitouie Internet Tour is the blog of Maisonneuve magazine. There, Simon Liem will provide you with his evaluation of my literary efforts, along with a few words from myself. Not sure if this is properly classified as a review or an interview, but blogs care not for such taxonomies.

Derek Winkler’s Pitouie: How to Use the Environment for Selfish Reasons

Blog tour: rob mclennan

derekwinkler — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:50:31 +0000

Today, it’s a game of 20 Questions with rob mclennan over at the aptly named rob mclennan’s blog. Twenty questions is quite a few, but the only one I couldn’t asnwer at all was this: “What fragrance reminds you of home?” I can’t speak for rob, but my home doesn’t smell of anything in particular. So I blew my chance at a perfect score. So it goes.

12 or 20 questions: with Derek Winkler

Blog tour: HoodieRipper

derekwinkler — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:43:36 +0000

Chris Eng has a new site called HoodieRipper where he will shortly be posting tales of punk romance. He and I recently had one of those incomprehensible multi-valenced email conversations, which he has now boiled-down to sane dimensions and posted. We talked mostly about the future of writing as the world goes all-digital all the time. Check it out. He also reviewed Pitouie and said it didn’t stink. Thanks Chris.

Blog tour: Books Under Skin

derekwinkler — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:25:46 +0000

You know what? I need a break from islands and the Arctic. I want to talk about motorcycles. Oh look! Angela Hickman of Books Under Skin has been kind enough to indulge me. In her introduction, she was also kind enough to call me twisted and multi-layered. Oh, wait. She meant the book. The book is twisted and multi-layered. Oh, wait again. Twist-ee. The book is twisty. And multi-… Ah screw it. Let’s get to the bikes.

Blog tour: The Book Mine Set

derekwinkler — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:17:57 +0000

I’m not even taking the weekend off here. Straight on with the tour. Today, The Book Mine Set has posted an interview with yours truly. The proprietor, John Mutford, lives in Yellowknife. He therefore knows a hell of a lot more about life in the north than I do, but he was kind enough to say my depiction is not an insult to every living soul in the territories. So that’s good. Blurb for the back cover of the second edition: “Not an insult to every living soul in the territories.”

Reader’s Diary #665 and an Interview- Derek Winkler: Pitouie