10 years of independent bookstores bringing me joy (and readers)

Tomorrow, Saturday April 26, is independent bookstore day! Here in the Ottawa area, we’re blessed to have 8 independent bookstores that throw a fantastic bookstore crawl, and any independent bookstore in Canada is likely to have great deals, events and prizes this weekend.

I’m a reader in large part because of independent bookstores, both in real life and in literature. (Over and over I read The Hounds of the Morrigan, in which great events are set in motion when a boy buys a book in a shop in Galway.) One of the things I love about independent bookstores is that they can be vast palaces or they can be a single shelf inside something else. I treasure the beaten-up paperback of Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man I bought when I was 17 at a pizza parlour in Belize City, because it arrived precisely when I needed it (I’d finished the other books in my backpack), in the most unexpected place.

In 2022, I did a reading at the Gaynor Family Library in my home town of Selkirk, Manitoba, north of Winnipeg. I didn’t think anyone would come, but the place was packed. And to my delight, we had books for sale, thanks to the local shop Hi Tone Records, which sold books as well as vinyl (and is now, sadly closed.)

It strikes me that indie stores have not only welcomed me inside their walls as an author over the last 10 years, but they’ve also been there at conventions, festivals and events, which is a huge support to us authors, and to our communities. They put in a lot of hard work, carting boxes of books, keeping vigil at the merch table, often on evenings and weekends.

I moved away from Manitoba in 1995, but I still go back a lot, and it was such an honour when one of my first bookstore events as an author in 2015 was at McNally Robinson in Winnipeg, and all my oldest and dearest friends were able to come out and cheer me on. That was for a story in an anthology, but when my debut novel Armed in Her Fashion (later renamed The Chatelaine) came out in 2018, McNally Robinson hosted me again, and again it made my heart grow three sizes.

I often stop in to sign copies at my local and sort-of-local stores. I can’t seem to find the photo of me at Mill Street Books in Almonte from a couple of years ago (we both put it on social media, but it seems to have fallen into a void.) But here’s me at Novel Idea in Kingston, in 2018 and then again (and considerably more disheveled; it was hot) in 2022.

I can’t even fit in all the photos of me at Perfect Books here in Ottawa. My favourite is this one from 2016 — my then-six-year-old in my arms was super cute in this photo but I don’t like sharing photos of my kid too much, so I cropped it. This was after signing copies of the anthology Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales from Shakespeare’s Fantasy World, which included my novella “The Course of True Love”, the longest thing I’d published. Signing books in bookstores was very much a novelty for me in 2016!

Perfect Books is also the longtime bookseller for the Ottawa International Writers Festival, which has been a huge part of my life as a reader and writer for more than two decades. (The next edition is coming up next week! I don’t have any events there this time but I’ll be in the audience.)

Another Ottawa bookstore that’s been enormously supportive of me both is The Spaniel’s Tale, which has also hosted me in their space as well as supporting events such as the incredible All in a Day book club (which was held at Ottawa Swordplay).

Events at indie stores often shine in my memory as moments when I made new writer friends, or deepened existing friendships. (And friends in the audience are always a highlight too!)

I can’t count how many events my longtime writing buddy Derek Künsken and I have done together. Here’s one at Bakka Phoenix in Toronto, which was for the launch of my novella Alice Payne Arrives (and for which my editor, Lee Harris, was able to be in attendance, which is great! Most of my editors (including Lee) have lived in England or the US, so it’s rare to be able to launch a book together. (Yes, for those of you who know Lee: There was karaoke afterwards.)

Bakka Phoenix is also often in the dealers’ room at Can*Con, my beloved convention here in Ottawa, supporting our ability to connect with readers there.

There are new independent bookstores opening all the time. Joie de livres is a new bilingual bookstore, coffee shop and cocktail bar in Montreal, and they invited me to their booth at the Salon du livre last year.

This photo is from the Ottawa booksellers’ dinner last year, to which I was thrilled to be invited. I was able to sign the first copy ever signed of The Tapestry of Time to Mika of Singing Pebble Books.

I have photos from so many other dealers rooms at conventions, or quick drop-by signings, but I’ve probably hit my newsletter limit! So I‘ll close with a shout out to the bookstores outside of Canada that I’m not often able to visit, but that have supported me — from the online event that Brookline Brooksmith in Massachusetts hosted for Marie Brennan and me, to the Overland bookstore in Berlin, which made my debut novel a pick for its local book club. I was also absolutely over the moon in 2022 to sign my first (and so far only) tip-in sheets for two UK special editions of The Embroidered Book, from Forbidden Planet (which I have been able to visit in London) and Goldsboro Books (which I have not yet.)

In short, indie bookstores are a huge part of my life and the life of many authors, and they’re a force for good in the world, and if you can get out to support one by buying a book this weekend, please do. And thanks to all the booksellers out there working so hard.