Why I Do This

So, here I am, at the Kitchener Public Library, doing my weekend gig as Writer-in-Residence. And in comes a fellow named John R. Little -- who had also come to see me three years ago in Toronto when I was Writer-in-Residence at the Toronto Public Library's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy.

And what does he hand me, but an ARC (advance reading copy; uncorrected proof) of his novel The Memory Tree, which will be published in February 2007 by Nocturne Press in Washington state -- The Memory Tree being the book that I'd critiqued a portion of for John back in 2003. John told me how much my critique had helped him shape the manuscript back then, and how it had helped him make the book publishable, which it now demonstrably is. I was delighted to see my name in the Acknowledgments.

John, by the way, holds the record for coming the farthest to see me for a Writer in Residence appointment -- he lives in British Columbia, some 4,000 kilometers away ...