January, the longest month, is finally done! My February plans mostly involve putting my head down and working on a new novel (Part 1 is already done!) and connecting with my scriptwriting students here at Memorial University in St. John’s. I’m looking forward to the release of HYSTERIA in paperback later this month — at the end of last year, I was thrilled to see it land on the Globe and Mail Best Books list, and just this week I was equally thrilled to see the Ontario Library Association Evergreen nomination list includes HYSTERIA, too! Hope you’re staying warm (and curling up with a good book), wherever you are this month.
On the road: September
Taken last month (on the road: August edition), on the way back from Writers at Woody Point — here I am outside the famous Dustabella’s Dining Lounge at the St. Jude Hotel in Clarenville. We’ve never been inside! I imagine it as full of fairy lights and crystal chandeliers.
September tour dates! It’s book season, my friends. Come see me (and Hysteria) in Ontario starting next weekend:
September 23, Word on the Street (Toronto). I’ll be chatting thrillers with Amy Stuart. Amazon Bestsellers stage, 3:30pm.
September 25, Port Hope. Solo show at the Port Hope Public Library, 31 Queen St., 7pm.
September 29, Kingston Writers Fest. I’m teaching a morning workshop in Story Architecture, then it’s on to a Griplit panel with Iain Reid and Nathan Ripley, 2pm.
Wonderful Woody Point.
Heritage Theatre, Woody Point. Photo by Tom Cochrane.
It’s hard to imagine a better beginning to the fall literary festival season than the perfect gem that is Writers at Woody Point.
Nestled within the bounds of Gros Morne National Park, the town of Woody Point sits on beautiful Bonne Bay, just across the water (and a water taxi ride away) from another picturesque town, Norris Point — and only a short car ride from some fantastic hikes (check out the Tablelands and Trout River, among others.)
Woody Point audiences are so incredibly warm and engaged, it’s hard not to feel spoiled.
View from the community trail, waterside.
I was doubly-spoiled this time around: while I was there myself to read from the new novel, Hysteria, one of the short stories from my first book, How To Get Along with Women, was adapted by David Ferry for his ongoing Short Waves/Short Stories theatre project.
A stealth shot of rehearsal. Left to Right: Beatrice Freedman (stage manager), director David Ferry working double-duty as narrator, actors Colin Furlong and Jenny Munday as Jim and Nadine, and Sarah Newell singing. Guitar and music composition by Erin Best and Sandy Morris, (who is sadly hidden away in this photo, behind Newell).
Part live theatre, part radio drama, Short Waves/Short Stories took my own story, “Jim and Nadine, Nadine and Jim” to a new audience in a new way. Ferry also dug up a long poem I wrote in 2009: an excerpt from Letter on St. Valentine’s Day was set to music by Erin Best and Sandy Morris and performed live by Morris and Sarah Newell.
Jody Richardson and Candice Pike break down the fourth (third?) wall of radio. Photo credit: Tom Cochrane.
This was my third invite to the festival, which happens in mid-August every year. I’ve decided this makes me part of the Three-Timers Club.
It certainly makes me lucky.
New! From Ms Fixit: The Personal Master Class
Great news! Responding to an increase in queries, I have expanded my mentorship services to include a new, custom-designed program:
Starting September, 2018: The Personal Master Class.
For writers who are looking for longer-term guidance as they work through issues and complete a manuscript-in-progress, this one-on-one, five-month bespoke mentorship will help you get past the hurdles and finish that draft.
I’ll be offering the program twice a year: beginning September 1st or February 1st. Enrolment is limited. For more details, or to get in touch, check out the Ms Fixit page here.
Hysteria on the road!
Just back from a whirlwind working trip to Ontario and Quebec, and starting to look forward to some really fun events in the coming months, including summer festivals like Lawnya Vawnya and Writers at Woody Point here in Newfoundland, and fall writers fests across the mainland, including Word on the Street, Kingston Writers Fest, and Calgary WordFest!
Looking to see me in 2018? Keep checking the Events Page here for dates and places. See you soon!
Happy UK Book Birthday!
I’m delighted that I REMEMBER YOU — 
the UK version of Hysteria, published by Titan Books UK — hits store shelves today! Hysteria has had a fantastic reception here in Canada, and the good vibes are already rolling in from across the pond– witness this great review over at Liz Loves Books.
Heike Lerner has a charmed life. A stay-at-home mother married to a prominent psychiatrist, it’s a far cry from the damaged child she used to be. But her world is shaken when her four-year-old son befriends a little girl at a nearby lake, who vanishes under the water. And when Heike dives in after her, there’s no sign of a body.
Desperate to discover what happened to the child, Heike seeks out Leo Dolan, a television writer exploring the paranormal, but finds herself caught between her controlling husband and the intense Dolan. Then her son disappears, and Heike’s husband was the last to see him alive…
I Remember You goes on blog tour for the next couple of weeks, so you can expect to see more reviews, some sneak-peek extracts, and even a few guest posts written by yours truly. All the dates, places, and details are listed below.
You can order I Remember You from Amazon UK , or find it in bookstores everywhere… as of today! As for me, I’ll just be over here — celebrating with a cupcake or two. Happy book birthday!
Hysteria’s book birthday, plus a first week round-up
Only a week after release, and it’s already been a whirlwind! We had a slam bang launch for Hysteria here in St. John’s — check out some fun photos below! — and today I woke up to find Hysteria taking up some serious real estate in two of the country’s biggest newspapers:
- in the Globe & Mail, Claire Cameron investigates some of the reasons behind the different cover — and title! — in the Canadian and UK editions of the book. Out across the pond on March 27th, Hysteria goes by the name I Remember You in the United Kingdom.
- in the Toronto Star, hold onto your hats, Hysteria gets a humdinger of a stellar review! How happy am I? Mascara-reapplication-level happy, that’s how happy.
Hope everyone out there is having as good a weekend as I am. Here are some of my favourites from our launch party, at Eastern Edge Gallery here in St. John’s.
Local indie Broken Books was on the scene, pop-up style, to help peddle these wares.
Lucky to be reading in a space as lovely as Eastern Edge.
Me with writer Megan Gail Coles, and sister duo Katie and Maria Callahan
City Counsellor Hope Jamieson and family were there to have a good time.
CBC On The Go host Ted Blades with Kathryn King and Holly Hogan
Poet (and my sweetheart) George Murray
A very happy author with poet (and friend extraordinaire) Andreae Callanan
MLA Gerry Rogers with the very charming Jean Kelly Smith
It’s almost here! HYSTERIA hits bookstores next week.
After two weeks (!) in shipping limbo, this gorgeous creature just arrived at my doorstep. I am over the moon and cannot wait to introduce you all! HYSTERIA will be in stores on March 6th — but, of course, you could always pre-order it right now 🙂
If you scored an early copy of HYSTERIA and loved it, the very best way you can support your author (that’s me!) is to write a review. Posting your review on Goodreads, Amazon, or Chapters Indigo really helps other readers find books they love — and helps spread the word about a book you really enjoyed.
Here’s what some kind people have had to say about HYSTERIA:
“Hysteria is shout-out-from-the-rooftops good. It is unpredictable, laced with evil and mystery, and impossible to put down. A horrifying modern-day fairy tale, Hysteria is finely written, haunting in its construction, and compelling from the first page to the last.” —Lawrence Hill, bestselling author of The Book of Negroes and The Illegal
“In Hysteria, Elisabeth de Mariaffi has crafted an epic and haunting story that manages to be both rich in character and setting and breakneck in pace. You will find yourself thinking about it long after you’ve turned the last pages.” —Amy Stuart, author of Still Mine
“Hysteria is a creepy, at times terrifying, thrill ride—taut and smart, and totally unpredictable.” —Zoe Whittall, author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist The Best Kind of People
“The story moves at a breakneck pace, the sense of place is both lush and foreboding . . . Hysteria not only provides the thrills of a suspenseful, disturbing read. On a deeper level, the novel highlights the manipulation, coercion, and abuse of women, that sadly, remains an urgent issue today.” —Quill & Quire, Jan/Feb 2018
Can’t wait? Me neither! Pre-order HYSTERIA from:
Buy Local — visit the buy local link at HarperCollins.ca
Want to hear more? Check out all the details on Hysteria here.
Gord Downie Country.
Like many of us, I spent much of yesterday thinking about Gord Downie and his incredible legacy. Very privileged to be asked to write some of those thoughts down here for the Globe. Downie’s loss is a deep wound. https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/…/why-ru…/article36645881/…&
Vamping it up with Fly Girls.
Guess what I finally got to start working on this week? If you’ve been following along (and I forgive you if you haven’t), my concept for an ultra-fun, 
Vampires vs Flight Attendants movie won the WIFTV From Our Dark Side mentorship competition back in 2016. The movie — Fly Girls — was optioned by Triton Media back in December and with Hysteria put to bed (at least for now), I finally get to write my horror movie!
Well — horror-comedy.
I managed to dip my toes earlier this year, writing a screen adaptation of The Devil You Know for New Metric Media, but Fly Girls will be my first original screenplay. I cleaned out the office this week and started re-working my existing beat sheet… but what I really want to show you here is the amazing art Melissa Lee created to inspire me!
Melissa works with WIFTV on the Dark Side mentorship project, and we had a fun talk back in the fall about what kind of art she could make to help me push the project along. The best thing I could think of was a series of digital postcards that I could pass around here in virtual-world — but they turned out so drop-dead gorgeous that I’m going to print them up as glossy posters, I think, and wallpaper my office with them for the next couple of months while I’m writing.
I wrote up the slogans (with a little help from some pals who batted them around with me at a dinner party last year) and they’ve been pinned up on my cork board ever since. A fun reminder that this project was waiting in queue for my attention —
— and it’s finally here! Of course, Fly Girls is in early stages of development — so there’s no saying whether any of these will make into the movie’s official promo. But that’s no reason not to enjoy them now! I hope you love them as much as I do ❤
Elisabeth de Mariaffi 