Five amazing authors share their interesting quirks

A grand event

The annual Book Lover’s Ball is a reader’s dream: an opportunity to mingle with authors at a black-tie affair at a swanky hotel in celebration of libraries and the written word.

This year, the event takes place Feb. 6 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Some 60 authors are taking part, including Andrew Pyper, Olivia Chow, Guy Gavriel Kay, Rose Reisman, Kamal Al-Solaylee, and Kevin O’Leary, all of whom are generously donating their time in support of the Toronto Public Library. In 2013, the ball raised $530,000.

We asked five authors who are attending the ball a few questions about libraries, dressing up for balls and what getting down to writing is all about. Here’s what they had to say.

Author: Terry Fallis (The Best Laid Plans, The High Road, Up and Down, No Relation)

Q: Tell us one quirky thing your readers might not know about you.

A: I have an identical twin brother named Tim who looks, talks, and generally acts exactly like me (or is it that I look, act and talk exactly like him?). Either way, we're daily mistaken for one another and have been for our entire lives.

Q: What’s the most interesting, funniest or most touching thing that’s ever happened to you at a library.

A: You might think that I'd go for a funny incident, but this falls under the "touching" heading. On three separate occasions in three different libraries, an audience member has told me that one of my novels was the last book an ailing loved one (a mother and two husbands) read before passing away, and that it had made a difficult time easier. I was blown away each time. 

Q: What’s your daily writing routine?

A: I actually don't have a daily writing routine. I'm definitely not one of those "writers must write every day" advocates. I still work a day job, and so writing tends to be a weekend endeavour. I also need at least a few hours stretched out in front of me before I can even start to write. So this means much of my writing is done late on Friday and Saturday nights and early Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Q: What would one of your characters wear to an event like the Book Lover’s Ball?

A: The protagonist in my first two novels, Angus McLintock, would almost certainly be rocking a McLintock tartan kilt (commando of course), with a mickey of Lagavulin secreted in the sporran. 

For more on the author: Terry Fallis

Author: L. Marie Adeline (S.E.C.R.E.T., S.E.C.R.E.T. Shared)

Q: Tell us one quirky thing your readers might not know about you.

A: I used to live in a "van down by the river," quite literally . . . I was 20, and it was a VW van near the Klondike river, back when I lived in Dawson City, Yuk. In the ’80s, you had to drive what you'd eventually live in as there were few rentals in the city. I guess that's quirky now, but it was just practical then.

Q: What’s the most interesting, funniest or most touching thing that’s ever happened to you at a library.

A: A tough one. I can't think of any one thing that happened to me in a library, but I was just commenting to my sister how remarkable it was that our tiny town of Emeryville, Ont., (pop. 1,200), actually once had a library. In fact, to age 18, I don't remember ever not being within walking distance of a library. But the one in Emeryville was special. It was just this tiny storefront place, and though we would regularly steal candy from the Red & White, and torment the farmers by building forts in their corn fields, at the library we were angels —quiet, rapt, respectful. And though the librarian likely dreaded how we stayed the whole day, and always went over the allowable quota for books, she never made us feel less than welcome.

Q: What’s your daily writing routine?

A: I am viciously disciplined to get up before the sun. I meditate and stretch. I start work before everything else kicks in — the coffee, the internet, the phone. I can usually get my quota in before noon most days (anywhere from 1,000-2,000 words). I treat writing like a job. I don't talk about it. I don't overthink it. I don't worry about doing it perfectly. I just try to get to my desk a little early and work a little harder than the day before. There is always time for rewrites. Getting the words down for the first draft of whatever is in front of me, that is key.

Q: What would one of your characters wear to an event like the Book Lover’s Ball?

A: My character in book two of S.E.C.R.E.T. Shared, Dauphine Mason, owns and operates a vintage clothing store. She would probably wear this beautiful vintage YSL black jumpsuit. In fact, I might borrow it from her if it fits me! 

For more on the author: L. Marie Adeline

Author: Kevin Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians)

Q: Tell us one quirky thing your readers might not know about you.

A: I'm not sure what even qualifies as “quirky” these days. I try to meditate every day. I find it to be extremely therapeutic and inspiring on so many levels, and I don't think I ever would have been able to finish my novel without this daily practice. (Now, if I can only convince myself to feel the same way about giving up wheat . . .)

Q: What’s the most interesting, funniest or most touching thing that’s ever happened to you at a library.

A: In college, I took a botany class with these awful tests where we had to list the taxonomies of hundreds of plant fossils from memory. I hosted a study group at a local library, and about six of us would smuggle in food, drink and all our plant fossil samples. We'd array everything out on a large table in a desolate corner, and then figure out how to memorize everything. Invariably, we'd resort to some sort of sexual reference to associate with each fossil. We’d sit there for hours, furtively eating, drinking and roaring in laughter as it became a contest to see who could come up with the most ridiculous, juvenile, nasty connotation. I don't think this endeared us to the librarians, but we all ended up acing the class.

Q: What’s your daily writing routine?

A: The mornings are my sacred writing time. I get up, make a pot of tea and try to get lost in my story for the next few hours. At 1 p.m., I take a lunch break and check my emails for the first time. The afternoon is spent catching up on my other work, and then in the late afternoon I start writing again until dinnertime. Quite often, though, I'll go on these marathon bouts of writing and spend the whole day and night obsessing over a chapter until I get it right. This is especially true if the chapter involves a food or party scene.

Q: What would one of your characters wear to an event like the Book Lover’s Ball?

A: It really depends on the background of the character. A Crazy Rich Asian from a relatively new fortune (like Araminta Lee or Francesca Shaw) would probably be dripping in exquisite jewels and wearing some fabulous outfit that looks like it came right off the runway from Paris. If the character comes from an established old money family like the Youngs or the T'siens, there's a good chance she'll be wearing a single strand of pearls and a gown made by the family tailor back in 1984.

For more on the author: Kevin Kwan

Author: Cathy Marie Buchanan (The Day the Falls Stood Still, The Painted Girls)

Q: Tell us one quirky thing your readers might not know about you.

A: Spelling eludes me.

Q: What’s the most interesting, funniest or most touching thing that’s ever happened to you at a library.

A: Before I was published and before I understood how lovely it is to be tapped on the shoulder and told by a reader that she loves my work, I hemmed and hawed and quietly stalked Nino Ricci at the Toronto Public Library's Pape-Danforth branch until I'd worked up the nerve to tell him I adored his work.   

Q: What’s your daily writing routine?

A: I sit down at the computer at 8:30 Monday through Friday and do my best to write for at least four hours before I get distracted by Facebook and Twitter and email and blogging and interviews and preparing talks and organizing events and book club visits.  

Q: What would one of your characters wear to an event like the Book Lover’s Ball?

A: Bess Heath, the dressmaker protagonist of The Day the Falls Stood Still, would wear a brown-grey silk velvet gown with lace trim very much like the one I’m sewing for the ball. 

For more on the author: Cathy Marie Buchanan

Author: Ania Szado (Beginning of Was, Studio Saint-Ex)

Q: Tell us one quirky thing your readers might not know about you.

A: I love working with tools and would like to make a yurt. In my dream life, I would write in the mornings; wield drills, power saws and screwdrivers to fix or make stuff in the afternoons; spend evenings cooking, reading and playing; and take summers off to canoe, hike, build big things and paint.

Q: What's the most interesting, funniest or most touching thing that’s ever happened to you at a library?

A: When I was a kid and my parents split up; we moved into an apartment that felt very remote from everything and everyone I knew. The day I discovered the library bookmobile across the street, I felt like someone I had adored and lost had somehow found me. The librarian within it recognized me as a fellow book lover and shared with me her journal listing all the books she had read. She encouraged me to start my own list at a young age. I've never forgotten how she took the time to connect with me — and I've always regretted not keeping up the journal I started way back then.

Q: What’s your daily writing routine?

A: Every day starts with coffee — sometimes in bed so I can start writing immediately. Otherwise, I either procrastinate online for a while, or I jump into reading what I wrote the day before. I often do some light editing to bring me back into the flow and rhythm of the work before I start on the day's new writing. When I'm well into a manuscript, I might write for 17 hours a day, but before I get to that point, there are excruciating stretches during which I might not even write for an hour a day.

Q: What would one of your characters wear to an event like the Book Lover’s Ball?

A: My fashion designer protagonist, Mignonne, would wear the dress on the book cover of Studio Saint-Ex: a clingy floor-length number whose soft ruching barely conceals the fact that nothing comes between the model and her gown. It was designed by Valentina Schlee, a NYC-based designer who was renowned during and after World War II and dressed the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo, but who has been largely forgotten since then. Her designs were sensual and elegantly draped — and she stipulated that her clients should be naked underneath. 

For more on the author: Ania Szado