Campbell River's literary festival this past weekend was such a good time. It's one of the most beautiful places (the traditional territory of the Laich-Kwil-Tach people, at the south end of Discovery Passage on Vancouver Island), and its book fan community is disproportionately huge! If you have a chance to go next year, do. You might even get to see the hundred Pacific white-sided dolphins that breezed past, which I . . . missed.

I did get to talk onstage with Mark Leiren-Young about how hard it is to write openings (his non-fiction book, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, sold out at the fest).  I was also lucky to hear him get the whole house singing, accompanied by our CBC host Grant Lawrence. Novelists Heather O'Neill and David Chariandy performed a little play, Chief Bev Sellars revealed her path to writerhood, Renee Sarojini Saklikar created a hive of sound with her poems, journalist Terry Glavin revealed his secret bank-robber past, and fiction writer Kim Fu had everyone on edge with her new novel excerpt. I gave a little teaser from My Name is a Knife.  I'm happy it hits stores in July. And I'm happy to have been among this group for a few days.

That's me, Chief Bev Sellars, Terry Glavin, Renee Sarojini Saklikar, Heather O'Neill, Mark Leiren-Young, Grant Lawrence, Kim Fu, and David Chariandy. Photo credit: Words on the Water.

You can now pre-order My Name is a Knife (out in July) from your local bookstore (I love Mosaic Books here in Kelowna), Chapters, or Amazon.  Really looking forward to it being out in the world , and I hope you like the read. Meanwhile, here are a couple of recommendations I'm thrilled to have:

 "Hawley's brilliant second novel continues the story of American frontiersman Daniel Boone. This is a                                                         historical novel, but more than that it's an existential novel, sensuous, philosophical, with carefully                                                                 drawn characters and deep dives into the human consciousness. If you crossed the best of Michael                                                               Ondaatje with the best of Alice Munro, Alix Hawley is what you'd get." 
--Philipp Meyer, author of The Son

“History raw and bleeding, My Name Is a Knife is a superb sequel to the inside story of Daniel Boone begun
in Alix Hawley’s first novel, as exciting as it is thoughtful. We’ll never see this American icon—and now, his wife,
Rebecca—the same way again. Move over, James Fenimore Cooper: a woman has come to take your place.”   
​--Nick Mount, author of Arrival: The Story of CanLit