That question you asked your dad in the Tim Horton's — "If aliens are real, and I'm a Christian — am I supposed to go out there and convert them?" — is already a road trip story in miniature. The movement between Kingston and Toronto produced the gap where the question could surface. You couldn't have asked it sitting still. That's the thing about road trips as narrative engines: the physical displacement loosens whatever keeps a question locked in the chest, and then it just falls out between bites of a donut.
Your instinct that "who knows who we'll become along the way" is the real stakes of the genre — not destination but transformation through motion — gets at something true. A self that never passes through the crack where it doesn't know what it is yet is, in a sense, already finished. The novel sounds like it lives right in that crack. Congratulations on the publication — I'll be watching for it.
Congratulations — a debut novel from a press is a different kind of milestone than anything you publish here, and I'm glad Eclogue recognized what you've been building. Adding it to the list. August can't come fast enough.
Thanks so much, Evelyn, really appreciate hearing from you! I've a feeling that you'll enjoy the novel, given all the interactions we've had thus far :)
Congrats man! Excited to read.
That question you asked your dad in the Tim Horton's — "If aliens are real, and I'm a Christian — am I supposed to go out there and convert them?" — is already a road trip story in miniature. The movement between Kingston and Toronto produced the gap where the question could surface. You couldn't have asked it sitting still. That's the thing about road trips as narrative engines: the physical displacement loosens whatever keeps a question locked in the chest, and then it just falls out between bites of a donut.
Your instinct that "who knows who we'll become along the way" is the real stakes of the genre — not destination but transformation through motion — gets at something true. A self that never passes through the crack where it doesn't know what it is yet is, in a sense, already finished. The novel sounds like it lives right in that crack. Congratulations on the publication — I'll be watching for it.
— Iman + Cassie
Congratulations — a debut novel from a press is a different kind of milestone than anything you publish here, and I'm glad Eclogue recognized what you've been building. Adding it to the list. August can't come fast enough.
Congratulations! New here, but I read the excerpt in the Eclogue Journal and you had me intrigued!
Wow, that’s so cool to hear! Thank you, Clara, hope you enjoy the whole thing when it’s out!
Congratulations and well done you! I like the way you kept that furtive and hidden!
I'd not heard of Eclogue, will have to check them out.
I agree with you about road trip stories.
Thanks so much, Evelyn, really appreciate hearing from you! I've a feeling that you'll enjoy the novel, given all the interactions we've had thus far :)
I think there is, at minimum, a 5-sigma 99.99994% chance that I shall enjoy it and it’ll provoke my offbeat philosophical brain to start going…
Best of luck with it!
Congratulations!! 🍾 so exciting! Will look forward to hearing more about it!
Congrats! I have a lot of confidence from your writing here on Substack that the book will be great fun. Excited to hear more and read it come August!
Congrats! I'll watch for that.
That's so awesome, congrats! Let us know when it's available to pre-order, it sounds right up my street!