Creative Chaos Now Available in Paperback

Two things are happening right now that have an intense and resonant connection. 1. The Blue Light Project is published in paperback at the same time as being selected as a contestant for a reality-television-styled vote-based Bookie Award. 2. The Red Gate artists’ collective has found a potential new home, but needs City of Vancouver…

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The Stock Market with French Flaps

The Golden Beaver

  The Blue Light Project has been nominated for a CBC Bookie Award. Thanks to the CBC producers who included me on a list with Patrick deWitt, Esi Edugyen, Brian Francis and Elizabeth Hay. Those are amazing writers! I’m truly honored. That said, it’s fascinating that this particular novel would be nominated for this particular…

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They’re Everywhere

Holy stickers Batman. These things have hit Toronto, New York, Halifax… everywhere. Now they’ve reportedly crossed the pond. They’re going up in the UK now. Move over Banksy. Or whatever. I have no idea what this means.

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Do You Trust Your Phone?

various cell phones

The Blue Light Project weirdly presages this extraordinary news story: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has told smartphone and email users “You’re all screwed”, as he unveiled his latest publications. The 287 documents Wikileaks has released point to 150 agencies around the world that are making use of *existing technology* to monitor people’s phones and computers. Software…

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Save the Red Gate

I’m mid-way through a piece for Vancouver Review on the topic of public art. As a result, I wouldn’t normally write and post anything on the topic because it might end up stealing from work to-be-published. But, with apologies to my kind and forbearing editors at VR, I’m going to make an exception here because…

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Herzog’s Critically Important Idea

“We need adequate images, or we’ll go the way of the dinosaurs.” Herzog has said this numerous times. I think it’s one of the most critical ideas of our time. It was true in the 70’s when he first said it. It’s more true today. In The Blue Light Project, I built my street artist…

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Blue Light Project Street Art – Part II

Is a fictional character from my novel The Blue Light Projectcoming to life? A mystery is growing here. I’ve just published a new novel about a street artist, the semi-fictional Rabbit. The book’s been getting amazing reviews. Banksy even tweeted about it recently. Not bad. In the book there are multiple photos of street art. Most of that work…

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“…the name Rene Girard may ring a bell…”

Rene Girard

I’m outed as an admirer of Girard by Humber College Professor of Political Philosophy Kent Enns. He’s writing about my new novel The Blue Light Project. If you’re interested in Girard and the urgency of his ideas, you might enjoy the novel. About a three day hostage crisis at the studio of a controversial reality television show,…

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Blue Light Project Street Art – Part I

train tracks

I’ve just published a new novel about a street artist, the semi-fictional Rabbit. The book’s been getting amazing reviews. Then the other day Banksy tweeted about it. Nice! But this series of posts isn’t about the book. It’s about the artists in my part of the world who inspired Rabbit and make him “semi-fictional”. Artists whose…

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Don Delillo

I’m hugely flattered by some recent and heavy praise for The Blue Light Project, a “thriller that makes you think” about a hostage crisis in a television studio. In each of these reviews, I’ve been compared to Don Delillo, who is a serious hero of mine. That comparison leaves me speechless (almost) but grateful. The…

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