The Geography of Hope

Two things:

It's been a long time since I've really felt delight at a digital communications advance, but making this post from a high-speed train zipping steadily past the barren snow-dappled forests of eastern Ontario has me gee-whiz grinning. Kudos to Via for its on-board internet! (And for its complementary wine with lunch in Via 1 Class!)

Another thing that's got me gee-whiz grinning: I received word today that The Geography of Hope is officially a national bestseller. It makes its debut at No. 9 this week on the Maclean’s bestseller list. The hunch down Random House way was always that the book would be a slowburner, building by word of mouth and the tenacious touring of its tireless (and alliteratively inclined) author. And, four months on, there it is: A National Bestseller! That’ll look sharp on the cover of the trade paperback, which is out this August, and whose final edits I’m procrastinating typing up just now.

(UPDATE: Turns out, for reasons seeming to have to do with the way my blogging software talks to Via’s wireless network, that I couldn’t post this till I got to Kingston. While I remain a bit gee-whizzed, it’s symptomatic of the whole internet snap-your-fingers-and-the-novelty-is-essential thing that I’m also slightly irritated that this unprecedented level of on-board connectivity isn’t yet flawless . . .)