It's Red Letter Day, and this week, Stephanie Domet gives us her book picks, some serious food cravings, and a reminder of how awesome The Weakerthans are.
Red Letter Day is a new 49th Shelf series where Canadian authors tell me about a dream day where all pleasures are possible, thanks to a combination of extraordinary talent and mad cash.
Today that day is envisioned by Stephanie Domet, author, most recently, of Fallsy Downsies (Invisible Publishing), her second novel.
Here is the premise: It’s been a good year. Things are looking up. You’ve sold your book, some lucrative foreign rights, and won a few prizes. AND it’s your birthday. It’s time to treat yourself. For once, money is no object. It’s time to go live a little.
And so ...
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GM: You walk (or fly!) to your favourite bookstore (SD: Type in Toronto) and browse the shelves for three books you’ve been meaning to buy (SD: only three?!?). What are they?
GM: Then you see a student scanning the shelves of the Canadian Literature section. You decide to “pay it forward” and buy three must-read books by Canadian authors to leave anonymously at the counter for the student. What are they?
GM: You’re a little bushed from all that buying and being considerate. So you’re going to go home, flake out on the couch for a while, and do something to celebrate the birthday. What is it?
GM: Now you’re going to fly ten friends into town and take them out for dinner somewhere special. Where are you going to go? Why?
SD:Edna, on Gottingen Street in Halifax, because there’s a super long table in the middle of the restaurant that we could take over; the staff are amazing, well-informed, efficient, and awesome; and the menu is inventive, creative, and local.
And if the restaurant’s too busy, there’s a good chance The Food Wolf will be parked across the street, serving up mind-blowing Mexican-Korean fusion food out of an old truck, and we can always stand around outside, in Squiggle Park, eating Korean tacos and licking the sauce off our forearms when it drips down.
GM: At dinner, that good old question comes up: what would you be if you weren’t a writer?
SD: I would be an amazing diner waiter. Like, a professional, life-long, dedicated, uniform-wearing, coffee-slinging diner waiter.
GM: Then they ask you about your latest book. What do you say? How do you describe it in two sentences?
SD:Fallsy Downsies follows aging folk icon Lansing Meadows on his final tour across Canada, on which he embarks in the company of a young, stars-in-his-eyes singer-songwriter named Evan Cornfield, and a stuck-in-neutral photographer named Dacey Brown. It’s about fame, hero worship, art, and getting old.
GM: Finally, because you’re the sort of person who puts aside 10% of your income for charity, you decide to make a significant a charitable donation. Who to?
SD: I’d split it between Adsum House and Bryony House, both doing amazing work offering shelter to women rebuilding their lives in the wake of abusive domestic relationships. And then I’d hive off an extra five percent for Feed Nova Scotia.
GM: That night you head to bed a contented person. Only one thing remains: deciding which of your new books you’ll read first until you fall asleep.
SD: I can’t help it, I’m such a news junkie, I’d definitely dig in to Crazy Town first!
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Stephanie Domet is the author of two books. Her novel Homing won the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award in 2007. Fallsy Downsies was published in 2013 and is nominated for the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction in this year's Atlantic Book Awards. She lives in Halifax, where she is forever trying to perfect homemade ravioli, and Sweet Caroline on the piano.
Stephanie can next be seen:
Thurs, April 24, 7 pm, Wine and Words: A fundraiser for Word on the Street Halifax, Bishop’s Cellar, Halifax.
Thurs, May 15, 7 pm, Atlantic Book Week reading with Anne Emery and Rosalie Osmond, Banook Canoe Club, Dartmouth.
Sat, May 17, Atlantic Book Week signing with Anne Emery, Chapters Bayer’s Lake, Halifax.
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