Ten Questions with Jeffrey Round

Hop on over to Open Book Toronto, which is running a Ten Questions interview with Jeffrey Round, author of The Honey Locust.

Read the interview here!

Review of 'The Honey Locust' at Quill and Quire

And here's a review from the folks at Quill and Quire:

"Round’s prose style, though not flashy, is seamless and accomplished. The Honey Locust is a well-written exploration of conflict in all its forms."

Read the entire review
Read a preview of The Honey Locust

Preview: The Honey Locust by Jeffrey Round

War may scar the globe, but home will break your heart.

Globe-trotting photojournalist Angela Thomas is sent to cover the civil war in Bosnia. While there, she makes unexpected attachments that open her eyes and cast her old life and old problems in a completely different light.

Read the online preview
Visit Jeffrey Round's website

Death in Key West reviewed by NOW Magazine

Check out this fantastic review of Jeffrey Round's Death in Key West in NOW Magazine!

http://www.nowtoronto.com/books/story.cfm?content=170077

5 Books to take Pride in

Cormorant is proud to support Canadian LGBT literature, and even prouder to have published fantastic books by queer authors. Here's a list of some of our favourite LGBT-themed titles:

1) Still Life With June by Darren Greer - Funny, scathing, poignant, pretty much perfect.

2) Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall - Catcher in the Rye for a more inclusive era. A must-read.

3) Other Men's Sons by Michael Rowe - A collection of powerful essays by a wonderful writer, journalist, and HuffPo blogger.

4) Death in Key West by Jeffrey Round - Fun, fascinating, and fulfilling. What more do you want from a murder-mystery? Now with 150% more opera.

5) And Beauty Answers by Elspeth Cameron - A profile of two of Toronto's most influential, colourful, and underappreciated artists from the first half of the 20th century.

Arty launch for Death in Key West

Last night we threw a fantastic launch for Jeffrey Round's fun gay murder-mystery Death in Key West. The party took place at Charles Pachter's home/studio/gallery, The Moose Factory, featured music by the jazz duo of Omel Masalunga and Jeri Aniceto, and soprano Lilac Caña, and sold books from Glad Day Bookstore.

The launch was also a fundraiser for the Writers Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Award for young LGBT writers. They're lovely people working for a good cause, and you should donate to them.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera (my fault - BI), but that's okay - we were way too busy and having way too much fun to take pictures.

Thanks to everyone who showed up!

Jeffrey Round reviews Coureurs De Bois

Jeff Round: Gentleman. Scholar. All-around good guy.

Coureurs De Bois
by Bruce MacDonald

Jeff: On seeing a smiling face crossing the Steam Whistle Brewery parking lot with a case of beer in hand, I said to myself, "There goes one happy fellow." Five minutes later, the happy fellow popped into the green room where I sat waiting to read for an audience of brewery tourists. Lucky me. Grabbing a beer from the cooler, Bruce MacDonald sat and introduced himself as the previous reader. Lucky him.

"Butterflies?" he asked, giving me a shrewd look.

"No," I said. "Death In Key West," thinking he'd mistaken the title of my book.

"No, I meant do you get butterflies in your stomach before you read?" he replied.

"No, not usually," I said, not realizing I was smack dab in the middle of what could easily have passed for a scene in Bruce's debut novel, Coureurs de Bois.

Bruce nodded carefully. He explained how he'd had to read over a whirling child whose parents seemed to think it perfectly natural for their son to be spinning up a storm in front of the makeshift stage. "Sorry," he shrugged. "I don't mean to make you nervous."

Too late. But like Bruce, I, too, survived the whirling dervish, the adolescents munching Pringles and the mobs waiting thirstily for their brewery tour to begin. One to remember.

A few days later, I began reading Bruce's novel: Cobb, aka Randall Seymour, is a First Nations Indian. Recently released from prison, Cobb dreams he is about to be hanged. At the last minute, however, he's rescued by Crow. Crow has a mission for him. About the same time, a naïve young Ottawa man named William Tobe has a vision while fasting. The vision sends him to Toronto, rather than to law school as his family had planned.

Both men end up in Parkdale, Toronto's gritty west end that mirrors the upscale, mostly-white east end enclave known as "The Beach" like an evil twin. In Parkdale, crooked cops, crack whores, pimps, and practitioners of magic exist comfortably alongside diner waiters, bank managers, convenience store owners, and residents of the nearby mental health centre. In Parkdale, the insane are misunderstood geniuses and miracles happen amid the dirt and debris of everyday living.

It's here that Will and Cobb find their destinies as twenty-first century equivalents of the renegade coureurs de bois, running not furs but cigarettes. The visionary Seymour, who "sees more", joins forces with William Tobe and his "will to become." Cobb, of course, understands Will's vision, but can't tell him what it means. As with any vision quest, he can only guide Will and help him to find out for himself, as Will eventually does, while making Cobb rich along the way.

Coureurs de Bois is a book of highly subversive humour. It carries depth charges with each subtle, laid-back observation about our social system and why and how we mistreat our social cast-offs. It's satire of a very high order, with the most unlikely mismatching of characters since Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude. I read it with that rare sense of joy at discovering something refreshingly unique and occasionally startling.

One night, a few days after the brewery reading, I dreamed Bruce came to my house and left a frozen hamburger patty in my freezer. Then he went away again without speaking. I woke thinking of Cob and Will and their quests. "Hmmm," I thought. This book has strong medicine. If it's a vision quest, however, I have yet to learn what it means. Maybe Bruce will know. Though of course he won't be allowed to tell me.

A Q&A with Jeffrey Round

Jeffrey Round is the author of The P-Town Murders, soon-to-be released Death in Key West, and the upcoming The Honey Locust.

1. What made you pick Key West as a location for your novel?

I work a lot through sheer inspiration, both in the planning and writing stages, and tend to go with my instincts. While I was still writing The P-town Murders, the first book in the Bradford Fairfax mystery series, I had already sensed that Key West would make a good second location for Brad and his gang. (Keeping in mind, of course, that all the books in the series are based in and around gay resort towns, so that leaves only so many choices.)

2. The plot of Death in Key West has so many interesting and unexpected twists. Were you ever surprised at the direction the story took as the plot developed, or did you have a general plan or ending in mind when you began?

I’m often surprised where a book will take me, both geographically and creatively, even while I try to plot its course as strictly as possible beforehand to minimize writing time. In the case of mysteries, however, the need to create secondary characters can suddenly assert itself as the protagonist finds himself in a challenging situation and I find myself needing to invent a way out of the dilemma. Frequently, the personality of a secondary character will dictate where the plot goes. For instance, Jim’s friend Lindsey is a rebel and social refugee, hence her home at the wildlife preserve on No Name Key. Having Brad look for Jim there gives the story an added twist. (There really is a No Name Key, by the way.)

3. Did the Bradford Fairfax series originate with a single book idea, or did you envision it as a series from the beginning? Do you think of each book as a unique entity, or do you write with the plots of subsequent installments in mind?

I think the correct answer is that both the book and series originated with the character of Bradford (named after Bradford St. in Provincetown.) I was in Provincetown, sitting in a Jacuzzi, when I looked up and saw a pair of binoculars trained on me from a house across the way. At that moment, I envisioned a character being spied on and shot at, etc. Out of this came the seeds of the first book plot, which later developed into the idea for a series.

As for a series, I disliked TV sit-coms as a teenager because the characters never grew or changed in any noticeable way. To me they didn’t seem real or, if they were, then they were boring. I decided my characters would change and develop like real people over the course of the series. The most obvious example of this is how Brad comes to terms with his relationship with Zach. It’s a struggle for him on many levels, and thus becomes the catalyst for change. I purposely use that tension in the books, but had to plan it carefully over the course of the first few story lines.

Sometimes, an off-hand remark in one book can become a larger piece of the puzzle in a subsequent book. For instance, a brief mention in The P-town Murders of the murder of Brad’s former work partner gave me the inspiration for a major segment of the action in book three, Vanished In Vallarta. At the time of writing the first book, however, it simply seemed an unimportant fact I had no intention of using again.

In the long term, the series (which I initially envisioned as six books, while leaving open the possibility for more) is heading toward a grand conclusion of sorts, bringing together many smaller pieces of a puzzle I’ve left lying around in earlier books. This will address such questions as “Who is Grace?” and “How did Box 77 (Brad’s agency) begin?” In the larger sense, it will also address the issue of a personal legacy: What do we leave behind when our lives are over? Although the agency’s aims are non-violet, this is an issue Brad frequently grapples with in the course of his work for the recondite security organization.

4. How does writing a series differ from other types of writing you have done? Have you encountered any particular challenges while working on a project of this scope?

Creating a mystery series was one of the most liberating things I’ve done in my writing career. I think it would be fair to say I perfected my comedic voice in this series, as well as proving that writing need not be labor-intensive. Before the series, I wrote three literary novels, each of which took five years to write and each of which provided its own logistical challenges. The P-town Murders took just over five months to complete. Because mysteries tend to work on a formula (even when you subvert that formula or refashion it after your own ends, as I like to do), proper planning and plotting are essential. I’ve since applied that thinking to my “non-genre” work, and now find the writing much quicker, though still not as quick as writing a mystery.

5. Opera is referenced quite a bit in the novel. Was opera one of the inspirations behind Death in Key West, or did it just sort of work its way into the narrative during the writing process?

The latter. Although I had the character of James Vanderbilt in mind from the start, it was only after I began writing that I discovered Jim was an opera singer. Until then, he was just a spoiled, obnoxious rich person, even though I wanted him to be sympathetic. Giving Jim an artistic temperament made his behaviour much more excusable, even admirable, in a perverse way. People are more inclined to forgive your lapses of behaviour when they think you have an artistic temperament.

I usually write with music in the background and at the time I was going through a bel canto opera phase. Adding the musical component was fairly straightforward once it became clear Jim was a singer.

6. Was there any one character or person in your own life that inspired you to create the character of Bradford Fairfax?

The Peep spying on me in the Jacuzzi was key, though really it was Provincetown that created Bradford Fairfax. All during that trip, I encountered people I later reinvented for the first book. For instance, the lesbians who run Coffee Joe’s in The P-town Murders were modeled after two real-life women who ran P-town’s most successful coffee shop. Walking around town one day, I photographed a man who looked like what I thought a villain should look like. (Watch out when I have a camera in-hand.) He later became Hayden Rosengarten, the wealthy entrepreneur at the heart of the mystery. The next day, I saw two men jogging on Bradford St. and decided one of them looked like Bradford Fairfax. When you’re inspired by real life, you don’t have to do as much research.

7. Did you spend any time in Key West in preparation for writing this novel? If so, to what extent did your observations of the real Key West influence the setting of the novel?

I lived briefly in Key West in the ’80s, then still very much in its heyday as a gay Mecca. Although it has since gone into decline, the Key West I describe is strongly influenced by my memories of that time when Tennessee Williams was still alive, Calvin Klein would show up on his yacht, and the drag queen Divine lived just down the street from me. The Lighthouse Estate, a prime setting in Death In Key West, was modeled on the Lighthouse Court, the most famous gay resort of the day. It still exists, but is no longer gay.

In the winter of 2004, I felt I was ready to start writing Death In Key West. At that point, I hadn’t been back to KW in more than a decade. I decided to go for New Years, hoping I might somehow get myself invited to a party that would provide material for the book. Little did I know, the entire city becomes a party on New Years, with mass celebrations in the street, which gave rise to the scene where the drag queen Sushi descends on Duval St. in a giant ruby stiletto. As with The P-Town Murders, much of this book is a mystery grafted onto the diary of my actual trip. Even the incident with the rattlesnake on the key highway was real.

8. Were there any particular books or films from detective or mystery genres that influenced you as you were working on Death in Key West?

I hadn’t read many mysteries before writing one because I held a literary snobbishness about "genre." That trait is now nicely exorcised from my personality. These days, I particularly enjoy Agatha Christie’s Poirot books. I love her humour and her talent for creating memorable characters. The cleverness of Christie’s plots is timeless, though other aspects of the writing feel dated. For fast-paced action and truly surprising plot twists with a current feel, I greatly admire the writing on the BBC series, Spooks, aka MI5 in North America, most particularly in the first four seasons.

9. Early on in the novel Bradford draws a connection between Jim and the character of Cio-Cio-San – "The loss of both a lover and a beloved child. Unendurable sorrow. Death." In what way does Cio-Cio-San inform the character of Jim? Was Puccini’s opera a particular influence when you were writing the novel?

Without giving away too much of the plot, Madama Butterfly is an echo of what Jim endures in love and life. He identifies with it. I, on the other hand, am not a big Puccini fan (Tosca is the only Puccini opera I care for.) Like Jim, however, I too am a devoted admirer of singer Maria Callas. (For my essay on Callas’s collected studio recordings, see: http://www.jeffreyround.com/TwentyYearsOnDisc.php.) I’m far more inclined to the work of modern German opera composers like Richard Strauss and Alban Berg, with a little Richard Wagner thrown in now and again, though Wagner seldom comes in bit-sized portions.

10. There are many musical references in the book, particularly opera. What role does music play in your own life?

I’ve played various instruments all my life, beginning with the clarinet, then graduating to saxophone, guitar and piano. I’m also a composer. You can find an example of my music on my website, here: http://www.jeffreyround.com/araby.php.

11. Could you discuss your inspiration behind characters such as Yuri, Allie, Mad Dog, or DeWayne Darker? How difficult was it to create such a distinct and memorable voice for each one?

Both Yuri and James Vanderbilt were based on real-life people I met during that trip to Key West at New Years (though neither of the characters in my book would be easily identified as the men I’d met.) The other three, like Lindsey Loman, were purely and simply inventions with no basis in reality. With the smaller characters, the names just come to me, as do their personalities and even their accents, often fully formed. I’m thrilled to hear they’re distinct and memorable.

12. What do you hope readers will take from your book?

While much of my writing tends to be “weighty” (my next Cormorant book, The Honey Locust, takes place during the Bosnian War), this series is my way to exercise my lighter side. Which is not to say there are no moral lessons here: the primary one, to me, is that it always pays to do the right thing, even if no one else knows you’re doing it, or even if you’re mistaken for doing the wrong thing. Act with integrity. It’s your conscience and your karma that you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life—and possibly your next life.

On the other hand, I write these books so people will laugh and forget their troubles and take life a little less seriously. (Considering the state of the world these days that can be difficult.) If the series inspires you to travel to the magical locations I set the stories in, then good. And if you happen to meet the love of your life while traveling, even better. Despite all appearances to the contrary, life can be fun, is the message. We just have to remember to enjoy it. Sometimes I think I write these books to remind myself of that.

Preview: Death In Key West

Death in Key West
by Jeffrey Round

Bradford Fairfax, special agent, has a romantic New Year’s Eve in store for his boyfriend Zach: a stay at a luxury resort in Key West. But their plans are turned upside down when the pair run into an improbable "heiress" to one of the world’s great fortunes — someone who is desperate to convince anyone that his father wants him dead. But how much of a grasp on reality can a drug-abusing mega-wealthy man who thinks he’s Maria Callas really have? And who or what is this mysterious "Baby" that he pines for? Does the transvestite ghost, Rosie, hold the answers to these and other troubling questions? Join Brad and his sidekick Zach for this second instalment in the Bradford Fairfax mystery series, a madcap and raunchy romp through the original gay Shangri-La.

Read the preview!

Jeffrey Round's Mexican Odyssey

Jeffrey Round, author of The P-Town Murders and its sequel Death in Key West, talks about his trip to Mexico to research his upcoming novel The Honey Locust, coming out in the Fall from Cormorant Books.

Read it!

Proust and Company

Thought I should mention a neat little reading series being held at Toronto's Glad Day Bookshop called Proust and Company. As described at the official website:

Author, editor and filmmaker, Jeffrey Round hosts this bi-monthly event featuring renowned authors and musical guests. Drop by for some first-rate reading, great music and a rousing Question & Answer period, as well as food and drinks. Admission is free.

Jeffrey Round, as you may know, is a Cormorant author (The P-Town Murders, Death in Key West) as well as past contributor to this blog.

The next Proust and Company event will be taking place on Saturday, February 7, from 8-10 PM at the Glad Day Bookshop. Readers will be Sky Gilbert, Zoe Whittall, and Nairne Holtz.

Proust and Company also has a facebook group you can join to receive updates. So do it.

Our New Home, some news

The new Cormorant website is up. Check it out - and let us know what you think.

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And in case you missed it, here's the trailer for Underground, by June Hutton, due out in March:



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A big hand and plenty of kudos to the good people at the Slaight Foundation, who will be donating copies of Charles Pachter's M is for Moose to more than 4000 schools in Ontario this month.

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Last, but not least, our own Jeffrey Round (author of the upcoming murder-mystery Death in Key West), has had six of his poems published at the Maple Tree Literary Supplement website. Have a read, why don't you?

An Author’s Wilderness Adventures

As promised last week, we present to you this post from Jeffrey Round author of The P-Town Murders, writing about his recent visit to the idyllic community of Turkey Point, Ontario.

Turkey Point Beach

By Jeffrey Round

I’ve been to Hollywood, I’ve been to Redwood, and now I’ve been to Turkey Point. Where, you may well ask, is that? And better yet, what was I doing there?

I’ll tell you.

Turkey Point lies 24 km south west of Port Dover on the north shore of Lake Erie. The Point is home to Ontario’s only national park with a nine-hole golf course, and an elite campground for gay men. I went to the latter. Not your everyday camping experience, it’s a set designer’s dream of fabulously decorated trailers, cabins and tents, where a tame ocelot or a pair of peacocks tut-tutting through the gardens would not be out of place.

The last weekend in August I arrived at the Point to participate in an afternoon of author readings with my recently published Cormorant novel, The P-Town Murders.

When my first novel, A Cage of Bones, was published ten years ago with an English publisher, I expected to receive invitations to read all over Canada. I didn’t get one. So when my second novel came out, I was ready. I made sure I was invited all over the map: Hollywood, Palm Springs, New Orleans, Vancouver, Toronto, and New York, among others. Every chance I got, I asked: would you like me to read?

Admittedly, I hit a few heights. So when a friend asked recently if I’d been to Turkey Point, one of my first questions was: do they host literary readings?

He didn’t know, but it was relatively easy to find out. Being a haut couture campground, there is a Turkey Point Events Committee. And yes, as it turns out, they do host readings and were happy to have me as a guest. Gay men love their sexy mysteries, culture and humour. The P-Town Murders has plenty of all three.

Among its other amenities, Turkey Point boasts a newly designed Garden of Memories, dedicated to the campground’s late-owner. With an elegant arbour and mini-Stonehenge of circular benches set beside a pond, it makes for a perfect auditorium in the wild.

Come the day, Mother Nature was at her most spectacular, end-of-summer finest. Two authors read before me, leaving me for the main event. A sizeable number of listeners turned up to hear us read. I’m thrilled to report I sold more than enough books to pay for my trip. Not only that, I’ve been invited back to read from the sequel, Death In Key West, in 2009.

While I was there soaking up local colour, I couldn’t help wondering whether anyone had ever set a mystery at Turkey Point. Apparently not. Don’t be surprised when Murder at the Point turns up at your local bookseller.

Jeffrey Round is author of The P-Town Murders: A Bradford Fairfax Murder Mystery (Cormorant Books) and A Cage of Bones. Forthcoming books include Death In Key West and The Honey Locust (2009). He was artistic director of Best Boys Productions, an independent queer theatre company, and the founding editor of The Church-Wellesley Review, Canada’s first annual journal of LGBT creative writing. His short film, My Heart Belongs To Daddy, won awards for Best Director and Best Use of Music. He has traveled the world, but currently lives in Toronto.

Jeffrey Round reviews No Beautiful Shore, Other Men's Sons

From time to time we'll be posting reviews of our titles. Standard, right?

Not quite.

What makes our reviews special is that they'll be written by other Cormorant authors, offering a perspective you won't get from your typical book review.

Generously providing us with our inaugural reviews is Jeffrey Round, author of The P-Town Murders. Without any further ado, here's Jeff:

The intrepid Jeffrey Round

No Beautiful Shore
By Beverly Stone

Jeff: God, I love a woman who can swear! And Beverley Stone is right up there with the best of them. This beautiful, disturbing book is one of the most honest tales of contemporary Newfoundland I’ve come across. Part-Trailer Park Boys and part-Thelma and Louise, it’s an account of teenagers Bride Marsh and Wanda Stuckless’s attempt to leave out-port Newfoundland for life in Toronto, a challenge much bigger than it sounds. Bride is the sexy one who gets hit on by men, while Wanda is the entrepreneurial tomboy who sells dope to make her passage ‘away.’ Both prove hindrances to their goal. A sharp blend of the comic and tragic, Stone’s story is filled with wisdom, insight and some very deft writing.



Other Men's Sons
By Michael Rowe

Jeff: Other Men’s Sons is the 2008 Randy Shilts Award-winning book of creative non-fiction by Torontonian Michael Rowe. The writing is intelligent and witty and the subjects varied—from the title essay about Michael and his partner’s attending the wedding of their "adopted" straight son (whom they met when he was 19), through an essay about a young woman who grew up in a supportive gay environment and had to learn to contend with other people’s homophobia, to the story of Pvt. Barry Winchell, murdered by a fellow soldier when it was discovered Winchell was dating a transsexual. Each of these pieces is insightful and beautifully written but, perhaps best of all, the book is uplifting despite its sometimes tragic themes.

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Thanks, Jeff! If you'd like to read more of his reviews, blog, and other projects, check out his official site.

Coming soon: A Q&A with Kathlyn Bradshaw, author of the fantastic upcoming horror-mystery, The Frankenstein Murders.

More Photos

The Eden Mills Writers' Festival

The intrepid Elspeth Cameron, reading from And Beauty Answers


Writing Outside the Margins

The humble Cormorant table.


The intrepid Jeffrey Round, reading from The P-Town Murders


The intrepid Zoe Whittall, author of Bottle Rocket Hearts