Some Love for Track & Trace

Over at Pickle Me This, Kerry Clare has posted her list of favourite books from 2010. I'm pleased and honoured that she's named Track & Trace among them. She got the book by an indirect route. I did some readings at Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School in the spring, hosted by Karen Christie, who happens to be the mother of Evie Christie. Another teacher in the department bought copies of T&T and Anything but Hank!, the former for her daughter, Kerry (a writer, I was told), the latter for her grand-daughter, Harriet. I've never met Kerry in person and at that time had never corresponded with her, so it didn't twig that her mom was talking about the proprietor of PMT. I only found out a little while later, when my publisher told me that he'd got an email from Kerry about T&T.

I wonder what it is in Peterborough's drinking water. I've said before that my experiences reading to the students at PCVS are easily highlights of my public life as writer. The fact that two of the school's teachers have had daughters who have gone on to be very good writers (Kerry has a very moving essay in the latest issue of The New Quarterly) probably says a lot about the quality of English instruction going on there. It was certainly evident in the engaged, enthusiastic response I received from the students.

Here's the audio from that day, again, if anyone's interested: