The Royal York  Ballroom above

I attended one big literary party early in the New Year before settling down to write again (see more about the party below).

After a book our each year for the last three (and two last year if you count the reappearance of Buying on Time, now Buying on Time Again), I am in the early stages of researching a couple of new novel projects.

I’ll be in Lithuania in April for business, and research, and to attend an awards ceremony, but aside from that it will be quiet work at my desk with occasional breaks to hang out  with two and soon-to-be-three grandchildren.

Now as for that party:

The Writers’ Trust of Canada celebrated its fiftieth aniversary and I attended as a writer with a recent book, The Seaside Café Metropolis.  Amusingly for me, The Story-tellers’ Ball was held int he Royal York Hotel, where part of my latest novel is set.

I have worked with the trust on and off for the last couple of decades, both on the Authors’ Committee and the Woodcock Fund jury, a resource for writers in difficult short-term financial straits.

Here I am above with some of Canada’s prominent writers, although I am the only one whose face is partially obscured in the upper right side

Mark Medley above was the sharpest literary critic around in the popular press. He moved on to editorial and now has a nonfiction book of his own, Live to See the Day.