Just like Kanye

Quillcast is a new podcast series from Quill & Quire featuring behind-the-scenes conversations with authors and publishing insiders. We’ve been recording the sessions at the amazing space, The Orange Lounge in Toronto, where Madonna, Queen Latifah, Kanye West, and Tori Amos have also recorded. But yeah, we’re talking books.

To date, I’ve interviewed authors Andrew Westoll and Charlotte Gill, and book designer CS Richardson. Listen to all three episodes here, or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here.

Manga madness

Moby Lives picked up on a story I’ve been following for Q&Q about Canada customs stopping artists and consumers of explicit manga and violent comic books. They ask wisely: At what age can a cartoon legally have sex?

Playing in the Pop Sandbox

The Next Day team, as drawn by John Porcellino.

If you haven’t heard of the oh-so multimedia publishing company Pop Sandbox yet (Kenk?), it’s just a matter of time. Here’s a profile I wrote for the May issue of Quill & Quire.

April Fool’s feast

On April 1, Quill & Quire put out a Fool’s edition of our bi-weekly e-newsletter, which apparently tickled a few literary bones. The Globe and Mail wrote a piece about it (with a lovely but undeserved shout-out to myself); j-source.ca loved it, and Galley Cat picked the story up, too, as did lots of people on Twitter, including Margaret Atwood - most likely because people actually believed she created the Appwood. Sorry. For links to the stories, check out the Q&Q Twitter feed for April 1.