Something weird happened when I tried to write in the first person

Things got all creepy.

Absolutely thrilled to see my story, Let's go backwards, featured in the 10th anniversary issue of Ottawa's beautiful Guerilla magazine alongside a painting by the best looking artist in town, Peter Shmelzer.

Thanks, Guerilla!

http://www.getguerilla.com/index.php/issue-39-feature-2-marston-fiction

The Love Monster Playlist

Like most human creatures, I love music. I love listening to music, I love thinking about music and I love (god help those around me) talking about music. I don't talk about it in an informed, critical way. I just go on and on about songs I love and bands I love and concerts I would like to go to and so on and so forth. Pure, heartfelt blathering. I won't do that here.

I hope. Stay with me.

When I was writing The Love Monster, I was also working full time. Each day, I would walk to work -- it is about a forty-minute walk -- and listen to music and e-mail myself writing ideas. (It is a wonder I wasn't struck down.) Many bits and pieces of songs found their way into the text or became themes for specific passages. Before I knew it, the alien was a Lou Reed fan. James Taylor was singing. Prince, the Sex Pistols, Warren Zevon appeared. They are all in there. And David Bowie. And The Kings. And Shaun Cassidy. And on and on.

So, for my own amusement, I started putting together a Love Monster Playlist. I have worked and worked on it. I love this thing. It's got it all: joy, pain, sunshine and rain. And I think it follows the arc of the book in a satisfying way.

I could work on it forever. But it is time to stop and set it free. I hope you enjoy it.

Love,
Missy


The Love Monster Playlist

Figment, Gordon Downie

Margaret Atwood, Rheostatics
Kicking Television, Wilco
The Faster I Breathe the Further I Go, P.J. Harvey
Set Out Running, Neko Case
Do You Believe in Magic, Shaun Cassidy
I Just Want to Be Your Everything by Andy Gibb
I Only Wanna Be With You, Bay City Rollers
Pretty Vacant, Sex Pistols
(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea, Elvis Costello
What’s the World Got In Store, Wilco
No Children, The Mountain Goats
This Jesus Must Die, Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar Soundtrack)
I Wanna Be Sedated, Ramones
Moonage Daydream, David Bowie
Werewolves of London, Warren Zevon
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, Warren Zevon
Working in the Coal Mine, Devo
Mother, The Police
There Stands the Glass, Van Morrison
Just Like Honey, The Jesus and Mary Chain
It’s Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World), The Ramones
Guitar, Prince
El Amor de Mi Vida, Warren Zevon
I’m In Love With My Car, Queen
Mr. Personality, Gillette
Ro Ro Rosey, Van Morrison
Lets Get It On, Marvin Gaye
Pecan Pie, Golden Smog
Property of Jesus, Bob Dylan
Blood of the Lamb, Billy Bragg/Wilco
Miner’s Refrain, Gillian Welch
Switchin’ to Glide, The Kings
Bluebird, Paul McCartney & Wings
Aliens (Christmas 1988), Rheostatics
Kicks, Lou Reed
This Flight Tonight, Nazareth
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), David Bowie
Walking Blues, Hindu Love Gods
Stir It Up, Bob Marley
Mother and Child Reunion, Paul Simon
The Lobby, Jane Siberry
Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd
Everything is Broken, Bob Dylan
Bad Reputation, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
The Delivery Man, Elvis Costello and the Imposters
Sugar, Sugar, The Archies
Pharoahs, Neko Case
Chain of Fools, Aretha Franklin
I Shall be Released, The Band
Stepping Razor, Peter Tosh
Main Man, T.Rex
Changed the Locks, Lucinda Williams
Busload of Faith, Lou Reed
Its No Game (Part 1), David Bowie
Ooohhh Baby, Lou Reed
Get up offa that thing, James Brown
Sexy MF, Prince
Goodnight Ladies, Lou Reed
You Might Walk Away, Jesse Sykes
Thunder Road, Bonny “Prince” Billy / Tortoise
Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen
Blossom, James Taylor
Ramble On, Led Zeppelin
Tom Sawyer, Rush
Closing Time, Leonard Cohen
Northern Sky, Nick Drake
Listen to the Lion, Van Morrison
God Only Knows, The Beach Boys
I got you (at the end of the century), Wilco
More Than A Feeling, Boston
Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In HeavenWhen You Smile), Van Morrison

 

Thanks, Ottawa!

Ottawa:

I have always loved you. You are good-looking, you have a great personality and you always know the right thing to say.

Jury Statement:

In this joyous calliope of a book Missy Marston has achieved that rare thing in a first novel: a literary romp and a riveting tale that fights tough in the corners. Marston's characters stick with the reader and her audacious turn of phrase wizardry lingers on the page. A book to engage and delight, The Love Monster rewards the reader page after page with a flair that dazzles just as much as it entertains. A modern fairy tale and a zoned out fantasy in one satisfying confection.

I was thrilled that The Love Monster received the Ottawa  Book Award for fiction on October 22, 2013. This is a beautiful city, full of great writers. I was honoured to be honoured.

Brain taken over by new plot line

I'm sorry. I have fallen behind. It must be incredibly boring to come to this blog and see that my last post was ten words long and was written in February.

But I promise I have an excellent excuse. I have been working and working on my new book. As with the last one, I swing between loving it and being woefully discouraged. But the point is, I have an idea. And it keeps doubling and tripling, replicating itself. Going madly off in all directions. I am pretty sure it will be a book and that it will be a bit better than the last one. These are my goals.

What it is it about? It is about a group of young people making bad decisions, engaging in high risk behaviour. It is about love, love, silly old love and terrible disappointments. It is set in a small town on the St. Lawrence River much like the town I grew up in. That old chestnut.

One of my kids once told me that he learned in English class that the best plot-lines were like the letter W (high, low, a little bit higher, low again and then right back up to the top). I am giving this a try. Sort of.

It will take me a while to get this done and to get it out in the world.

So in the mean time, if you would like to find out about The Love Monster, my real book that actually exists and is for sale, here are some links:

Globe and Mail review: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-love-monster-by-missy-marston/article4186641/

Quill & Quire review: http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=7652

Montreal Review of Books: http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=7652

The book can be purchased at your local independent bookseller. We have this one in Ottawa: http://octopusbooks.ca/

Or at any of the usual online places:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/the-love-monster-a-novel/9781550653267-item.html?ikwid=the+love+monster&ikwsec=Home&gcs_requestid=0COjcvorh7bgCFVLj5wodMjkAAA

http://www.amazon.ca/Love-Monster-Novel-Missy-Marston/dp/1550653261/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375961841&sr=8-1&keywords=the+love+monster

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-love-monster-missy-marston/1109673910?ean=9781550653267

It is also available as an e-book for Kobo, Kindle, Sony e-reader, Nook and so on.

Thanks for your interest and your patience. I will do my best to make it all worth your while.

M

Vancouver!

If you live in Vancouver, meet me here tomorow night.
http://www.robsonreadingseries.ubc.ca/walid-bitar-and-missy-marston/


Will be reading at the UBC Bookstore on Robson with Walid Bitar and Basma Kavanaugh at 7pm. Will read something silly or gross. Probably both.

Cray cray

Sometimes my life really does feel like something I am just barely clinging to as it barrels through the landscape. Over past few months, the following have sped by me in a blur.

1. Return of kids to school: I have one who lives here with me, one who is in university in Toronto. The administrative and logistical list is long. We all made it back to where we are supposed to be.

2. Literary Festivals! I had the time of my life at the Word on the Street in Toronto, Winnipeg Thin Air and at Plan 99 in Ottawa. Big, warm crowds at all three. Amazingly kind and organized staff and volunteers. Friends in Toronto and Winnipeg that I hadn't seen in twenty years. I had a great time.

You can hear me read with Danile Allen Cox, Anakana Schofield and Dave Williamson at the Thin Air mainstage here: http://www.thinairwinnipeg.ca/events/mainstage-new-scripts-for-love

Or by myself at the Winnipeg Public Library, here: http://www.thinairwinnipeg.ca/events/the-nooner-missy-marston

And you can read about my experience at The Word on the Street here:  http://torontowots.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/writers-words-missy-marston/

Here is how I look reading. (Those sticky notes are enormous and rough-looking! Have since replaced them with more tidy, appropriate tabs.)



And this is how hard I smile when I find an old friend I thought I had completely lost track of:




3. Art Show! Because people are wonderful, Guy Berube of La Petite Mort Gallery in Ottawa let me curate a group show about supernatural visitors (aliens, ghosts and saints). I spent time in November and December working with my favourite Ottawa artists, who all produced new work for the show: Natalie Bruvels, Karina Bergmans, Jeremiah & Joshua Degranpre, Guillermo Trejo and Peter Shmelzer. The show opened January 4th. The work was beautiful, the party was great and people listened to me read about nude green aliens sneaking up on earth women in their bedrooms. Perfect!

Below: Trejo, Bergmans, Bruvels, Shmelzer



And: Bruvels, Degrandpre, Marston


4. Reprint! Thanks to all of you who have bought my book, The Love Monster went into reprint. The new edition has a review page, including this. Life: complete. Thanks, Universe.

Get up on this!

It is literary festival season and instead of just sitting in the crowd and relaxing, I am going to get up on the stage and tell my stories.

On September 23rd, I will be at The Word on the Street in Toronto, reading and signing at The Great Books Marquee at 1pm with Stacey Madden and Mathew Henderson. http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/toronto/whatson/intro

On September 27th, I will be at two events at Thin Air, The Winnipeg International Writers Festival. At 12:15, I will be "The Nooner", reading and answering questions at the Carol Shields Auditorium. In the evening, I will be sharing the main stage with Anakana Schofiled, Daniel Allen Cox and Dave Williamson. We will be reading and talking about l-o-v-e.
http://www.thinairwinnipeg.ca/schedule/thin-air-2012/date.2012-09-27

Finally, I will be at the Plan 99 Fiction Cabaret of the Ottawa Writers Festival at the Manx Pub at 5pm on October 27th, with Pasha Malla.
 http://www.writersfestival.org/events/fall-2012/plan-99-fiction-pasha-malla-and-missy-marston

Can't wait to meet these writers and am really hoping that some of my new friends that I have only met through the wonder of the internet will come and say hello.

See you soon!