blogendipity – a serendipitous sense of euphoria experienced while surfing the blogosphere.

My first sighting of the word, blogendipity came this past week when I spotted it on one of my new favourite blogs, dovegreyreader scribbles. It’s put together by a woman who describes herself as

a Devonshire based bookaholic sock knitting quilter, who happens to be a community nurse in her spare time.

What’s not to love?!

How she first came to hear about The Birth House, I’m not quite sure, but through a series of blogendipitous events that include an international Chapters order gone missing and the recent arrival of the UK advanced reader copies of the book (thank-you 4th Estate!), she now has her own copy. I was thrilled when an email arrived late last night to say that she’d already read it and LOVED it. Hurray!
Here’s her review of The Birth House at her blog.
My First UK Review!

By the way, you should wander around her blog while you’re at it. She’s got some thoughtful and informed reviews of books past and present with a special nod to 19th century female authors and women’s medical history. (and she’s a Joni Mitchell fan.) I also adore her nature diary entries and photos. One other thing that she features at dovegreyreader that I love, is her photographs of the stacks of her latest bookstore finds.

I thought I’d try a little stacking of my own…
Many people have been asking, “What’s the next book?” “Are you working on the next novel?” “Can you talk about what’s next?” Although I’ve mentioned bits and pieces here and there, I’m a little shy to spill all the beans just yet. But for those of you who just can’t wait, here’s one of the stacks of books that’s been sitting next to my bed for the last little while. Just a hint of what’s to come.

i-pod, i said.
Podcasts are all the rage right now and since I’m a radio-geek-girl at heart, I love ’em!
One of my favs is Douglas Coupland being interviewed by his editor at Random House Canada, Anne Collins. Jpod

Jodi Picoult fans can hear this well-spoken author give mini lectures on everything from rats to writing.

And…
The Ottawa International Writers Festival has their first podcast from the Spring 2006 fest online.
It’s a podcast of part of my reading from the festival (what you don’t hear is when I asked everyone to get up and shout the names of their favouite novels at the top of their lungs… it was a fun evening!) What you will hear is my telling a bit of my journey in tracking down historical records and an excerpt from The Birth House that involves a young midwife and her role after the Halifax Explosion. (There’s even a little bit of Madeleine Thien at the end. I sure hope they have a pod cast of her entire reading. It was beautiful.) Have a listen.
Ami at the Ottawa International Writers Fest.

PodCast Request Line!
I’m going to put together a couple of podcasts in the near future -kitchen table style – just gabbing about The Birth House and life. Leave a comment, or drop me an email with topics you’d like to hear covered!