James Bow's Blog

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I'm embarking on a train-related writing retreat, heading out today, and returning home on Monday. Like another trip, back in 2018, I'm going in a bit of a circle: VIA's Canadian (in coach) from Toronto to Sudbury Junction, Ontario Northland bus from Sudbury to Ottawa, two days in Ottawa to attend Can*Con, and then VIA Rail from Ottawa to Montreal. On my final day, I board VIA again, to ride from Montreal back to Kitchener. Except for the stretch between Kitchener and Toronto, there will be no doubling back (or, at least, no substantial doubling back) over roads or tracks I've taken before on the trip.

Back in 2018, I did a perfect circle, riding VIA Rail from Kitchener to Montreal, Amtrak's Adirondack from Montreal to New York, then the Crescent through West Virginia and Kentucky to Chicago, then Amtrak to Detroit, the Tunnel Bus to Windsor, and VIA Rail back to Kitchener, via London. It's become harder to accomplish this trip in the years since, as the Tunnel Bus is no more (but may be replaced by a private venture), and where there used to be two trains linking London to Kitchener, now there's only one. No late evening arrival from the west for me.

Why a circle trip? Maybe it's a means of packing in more value: more new scenery per mile travelled. Or maybe it's just the challenge. Another challenge is to make this trip on ground-based public transit only. No private cars. No airplanes. No ubers. Except I did take Waterloo Taxi to get to my early GO Train from Kitchener.

I could talk about how rushed and inhuman plane travel can be, compared to the leisure and restfulness offered by the train, but really, I've said that my transit trips are like long walks with assistance, and so there's value to me in keeping my feet to the ground.

See you in Sudbury tonight, then in Ottawa and Can*Con this weekend.

Photo by Damian Baranowski.

I've been away longer than I intended from this blog, and I remember back in the days of blogging when "longer than I intended" was about two or three days. In the years since, this blog has gone silent for months. But I was away longer than I intended and I felt increasingly bad about that. So perhaps that's a hopeful sign for the health of this blog.

We talked a bit about blogging over at Benjamin Gorman's Tilting at Windmills podcast (formerly Writers Not Writing). We talked about how social media has slurped up a lot of our audience, and uses the algorithm to keep them locked in, but that blogs can still be important as something that stands permanently (as permanently as electrons can be) without the social media algorithms shushing things in the echo chamber. In these days as polarization increases, it's important to keep saying what it is you stand for. In my case, it's that all people should have access to healthcare. They should all have enough to be able to eat and put a roof over their heads. They should have a chance at a good education, and they should be allowed to live as they are, regardless of race, gender, pronouns, or neurodiversity. Severe income inequality would appear to thwart all of this, so we must end severe income inequality.

Anyway, thanks to Benjamin and Chrys for having me back to their podcast! As always, we had a great and thought-provoking conversation. You can see the whole episode here.

Similarly, thanks to Alex Lewczuk from Southside Broadcasting in the UK for having myself and my Shadowpaw Press editor Ed Willett for a discussion of our recently released fantasy novels (in my case, re-released) as well as the process of publishing. This was my third time on Alex's podcast and as always, he was welcoming and enthusiastic. I hope I can be back again so we can share our thoughts about classic Doctor Who.

Finally, I would like to thank the good folks at Bakka-Phoenix who hosted an evening mingle for The Night Girl on Thursday, September 18. Sorry it took so long to properly thank you. As always, Canada's premiere science-fiction and fantasy bookstore was wonderfully supportive and accommodating, and it was a joy to talk to everyone who came out and share another wonderful cake from The Cake Box. Special thanks to Victor from my planning class, who shocked me by turning up. I think it must have been eleven years since we last met, and that's assuming he came out to the reunion evening. If not, then it was thirty years. But we still got back to talking just like old times.

I'd also like to thank my friend Damian Baranowski, who was on hand with his camera to shoot some great photos. He's been a tireless supporter of The Night Girl, and has even put together some wonderful reels, which you should view. The first one is the opening of the conversation about what The Night Girl is, and the second one talks about my interesting choice for the fictional mayor of Toronto in the story.

Looking ahead, I have further podcasts to attend, and I'll be at Can*Con to help Stephen Kotowych celebrate the launch the 2025 edition of his Year's Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction. I am super chuffed that my Tales from the Silence short story "After the Apocalypse in Moosonee" was chosen to be among those honoured. I'm also looking forward to being in Ottawa, as if anybody needs an excuse to visit this fair city.

After that, winter is coming. The leaves are already changing, and while I appreciate the colours and the cooler temperatures (especially once the first frost puts away the wasps and the ragweed), I'm feeling the loss of light more acutely than in the past. It's been a difficult year finding joy with all that's gone on around us in the world and at home, but I am blessed to have been able to find that joy with my family and with my friends, and with the work that I do. Thanks to all for the good days we've had so far this year, and here's to good days tomorrow.

I came into the city today to take part in Toronto Mike's podcast. I'd like to thank him for making me feel comfortable and welcome as our conversation went out live to the Internet. He's clearly an old hand at this, as I was guesting on his podcast's 1,761st episode, but he treated me fantastically well, making me feel like a celebrity. He took the time to research my background and came up with new, interesting and nicely challenging questions that got me to speak about the heart of my writing, as well as my influences, including my mother.

And it was also the perfect venue to talk about The Night Girl. As you can see from Toronto Mike's studio, this is a man who loves Toronto and grew up in the thick of things in the eighties and nineties. We shared memories about the Blue Jays' first World Series win, my love of Doctor Who, and the gigantic tonal shift TV Ontario took every Thursday at 7 p.m. as we switched out from The Polka Dot Door to Tom Baker's opening credits. These days were exactly the sort of thing that was at the back of my mind when I wrote The Night Girl, and it was wonderful to share time with a kindred spirit.

Seriously, check out the episode, and check out his podcast. Many interesting epsiodes with fascinating guests await.

One thing Mike and I discussed was the golden age of blogging, before social media sucked our audiences away with their addictive algorithms. We talked about how some of the great things about the early days of our current Internet are already lost, and apropos of that, I'll draw your attention to changes happening on the Transit Toronto YouTube Channel.

Basically, we're moving, opening up a completely new channel to eventually house our current video library and all new videos. This is not something we particularly want to do, and it comes with the cost of complete demonetization (at least, until we bring over enough subscribers and gather enough views to monetize the new channel). Unfortunately, thanks to decisions made at the dawn of YouTube, we have no choice.

Because the account was built around 2010 on an e-mail that no longer exists, that sat on a domain that is no longer under our control, the current YouTube Channel can ONLY be controlled by my Gmail address. If any of the over half-dozen individuals who currently now help out making videos for the channel want to post, I'd have to give them access to my Gmail account. If something were to happen to me to cause me to lose access to the Gmail account, the YouTube Channel would effectively be locked up.

Can we appeal to YouTube to fix this? No, because I'm not officially the site's owner, I'm just the guy the site's owner appointed as the manager. And since the site owner is no longer reachable (because of the e-mail issues described before), I can't do anything to add partners or participants to the channel, and YouTube simply won't accept my e-mails as proof that they need to do something to fix the problem.

It's hilarious the amount of frustrating bureaucracy you can encounter outside of a government setting.

So, we start over, completely from scratch, and hope that we have enough subscribers willing to make the migration to get us on our feet again. Oh, well. It sucks, but this move ensures the ultimate longevity of Transit Toronto's online video library.

If you want to help, please go to the new Transit Toronto channel and like, share and (most importantly) subscribe. You can also consider becoming a paid supporter of our Patreon account. Either way, enjoy the classic old videos we'll be porting to the new site in the weeks to come, as well as the new videos we'll continue to produce..

The image of the left is a section of a photograph of the No Kings Protest in front of Los Angeles City Hall, snapped by the Wikipedia user ItalianAce. It is used in accordance with their Creative Commons License.

This post is also available for free on my Patreon page. If you'd like my latest posts to be delivered into your inbox, please sign up and help me build my community of readers.

When I was finishing the final draft of The Night Girl, the story was supposed to be set in 2018. Although the year is never mentioned, the dates correspond with 2018. Or 2029, as it turns out.

For the years that I wrote The Night Girl (2003-2016), the story was supposed to be far enough in the near future to feel contemporary, but slightly ahead of its time. Subway lines were finally going to open in Toronto, and there was a new (but somewhat familiar) mayor. Torontonians were going about their business as much as they were when I was writing the story.

Publishing takes longer than people think, but thanks to Kisa Whipkey and REUTS Publications, The Night Girl came out in October 2019, not too far into the near future for the story to clash with reality. (And thanks again to Ed Willett and Shadowpaw Press for giving the story a new lease on life in 2025)

Then 2020 happened.

While the reviews for The Night Girl have been favourable, some have criticized the resolution. One noted, "[it's] too good to be true. With the events of 2020, I admit that I lost a lot of hope in the human race, so I tended to side with the fairies on this one. In the real world, [this story] would have ended in rivers of blood." Others questioned the use of Toronto's homeless statistics as a plot device, with James Davis Nicoll noting that, if 20,000 goblins and trolls were enough to seriously bend the veil in a city with a population of three million, "any fey folk population larger than one percent of the human population is going to wreak havoc on the veil."

When writing The Night Girl and ending the story with the faeries, goblins and trolls coming out from behind the veil and allowing themselves to be seen by the human race, I tried my best to hint that the human reaction was mixed. While the worst of us would act as we'd expect them to, the best of us would open our arms, accept our new neighbours for who they are, and welcome them into society.

Tent encampments for the homeless were already a feature of North American cities by the time my novel came out. Since then, the situation has only gotten worse. We've seen the politicization of the pandemic, the celebration of ignorance and the rise of malicious disinformation. Then there's the ongoing plague of Trump and his fellow travellers, some of whom revel in cruelty, denounce empathy as sin, and wish death on the people I love for being queer.

With all this, I can see how some may see my resolution of The Night Girl as hopelessly optimistic. It's true that I'm an optimist, often a hopeless one, but my children genuinely dread the future, and I can't say "things will be all right" without sounding trite or condescending.

But does that change the need for people like the faeries, goblins and trolls to step out from behind the veil and demand respect for their existence, and for the angels among us to welcome them? I don't think so. Instead, the events of 2025 only demonstrate their courage in doing so. The question now becomes, how do we react?

A few weeks ago, millions of Americans took to the streets, from Los Angeles to New York and in over 2000 centres in between. They came out in some of the reddest of red states of America to stand up for the rule of law, to stand up against authoritarianism, and to demand respect for the human rights of all people. Yes, this is only the beginning of the struggle, but it shows that the best angels of our nature are still with us and within us.

There is a lot of work to do to fight back the fascists and win an optimistic world for our future. But it starts with standing up and, more importantly, never sitting down again.

And who knows? Maybe The Night Girl is set in 2029 after all.

I had a great time (re)launching The Night Girl at Words Worth Books today. This bookstore has been a tireless champion of local writers and is truly a boon to the community. For today's celebration, they gave me a table with an excellent display of my books, while I brought in a very nice cake from the Cake Box in Kitchener. I gave my reading, cut the cake, and stayed on for a while to engage other customers. It's amazing how the presence of free cake makes that easier.

A lot of people complimented the book on its cover (thanks Bibliofic!), and the reading went over very well. Thanks to Ed Willett at Shadowpaw for taking this book on, giving it Canadian spelling and a new lease on life, thanks to Words Worth Books for making me feel welcome and giving my launch a great boost, and thanks to everybody who came out and shared time with me.

Next up is Toronto. Look for me at Bakka-Phoenix Books at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 18, and I'll be bringing more cake!

This post is also available on my Patreon Page. If you want to support my writing, or simply receive these posts in your e-mail, rather than schlepping your way to my blog, https://www.patreon.com/posts/first-patreon-137201704. It's free!

This photo, incidentally, was taken earlier this month at the Route 401 Diner, at the intersection of Kipling Avenue and Robson Drive in Etobicoke. It is possibly in the most cursed commercial location that could exist in Toronto, tucked up against Highway 401, almost beneath the Kipling Avenue bridge, in the midst of a sprawling industrial park, with planes overhead coming in for a landing at Pearson Airport.

And yet it's been here and functioning as a diner since at least 1969. So, yes, the food and interior ambiance were excellent.

Anyway, let's see if this Patreon gig works...

As a writer, I want to be read. It's been my privilege to write well enough to be read for over thirty-five years, including fan fiction, professional fiction, non-fiction for kids, business journalism, freelance communications pieces and more. And, since 2002, I've been blogging.

Of course, the biggest challenge to writing is finding and keeping your audience. I watched blogging grow into a revolution of engagement before fading into history thanks to corporate social media and their pervasive algorithms. Through it all, I have kept blogging because I keep control over my writing, and it remains all in one place for review and discovery. But with everybody sticking to social media, it seems the challenge of having your audience find you remains.

I've suggested that people search out still-active blogs outside of corporate control, like Blogography and Daring Fireball, and download RSS feed readers like NetNewsWire to keep in touch, but with limited success. Some writers, like Arthur Slade and J.M. Frey, have successfully engaged their readers through newsletters, and I think if I want to engage more readers, it's time I invest in getting my writing out through newsletters as well.

After cancelling an attempt at using Substack due to issues with it platforming Nazis, I've decided to try using my Patreon account. Creators like David Gerrold and Jessie Gender have built successful paying platforms, but I'm nowhere near as popular. However, I can still offer free memberships to encourage people to stay in touch, and receive my posts in their mailbox.

I plan to write regularly, trying to keep a schedule of at least one post each week. I'll update you about my writing projects, and I may repost older posts and fiction (like the Dream King's Daughter) while also unleashing some new stuff, and I'll probably be talking politics (Canadian and urban transit-related) when the mood takes me or I need the therapeutic release. Whatever happens, I hope you'll find my work interesting and enjoyable and, if so, that you'll support my work by signing up for a free membership.

I flew in to Calgary early Friday morning (and I mean really early; I got up at 3:45 a.m. to grab a taxi into Region of Waterloo International Airport, and the line-up for the WestJet, FlairAir and Air Canada flights out were huge!) to attend When Words Collide.

I hadn't expected it, but When Words Collide was much more of a writers' craft and connection convention than something related to an appreciation of science fiction and fantasy. Those elements were there (and there was a strong SFF contingent, including Robert J. Sawyer, Candas Jane Dorsey, R. Graeme Cameron and more), but the seminars were more about how to improve yourself as a writer, tropes to avoid, and marketing skills to use rather than a study and appreciation of science fiction and fantasy books, movies or television series. Fortunately, When Words Collide is a conference that rewards people who jump in with both feet, which I did.

One of the things I took part in was a Live Action Slush event. That's where people submitted the first 250 words of their story (be it short fiction, mystery, romance, sff, YA -- there were separate sessions for each genre) and that submission would be read anonymously in front of three judges (often editors of various publications or publishing houses). The reader would read the submission until two of the judges raised their hand, indicating the point where they'd stop reading. The judges would then comment on the things they liked, and what pushed them out of the story.

That sounds terrifying, and it is, except that everybody makes a point of noting how brave people are to submit themselves to such scruitiny, and there's something to be said about pushing outside your comfort zone. My own submission got about halfway before getting two hands raised, and the comments that I received were fair and useful.

One reason I was able to attend was I pitched a seminar of my own, entitled The Names of Things, talking about how we go about naming our people, places and things in our stories, and how that can impact what we write. They accepted the submission, and brought me on as a panelist alongside authors Konn Lavery and Onyx Shelton, with Erik D'Souza moderating. Publisher R. Graeme Cameron showed up, initially thinking that this was a session he was supposed to attend (it was scheduled for the hour after us), but we welcomed him in, and he added some great flavour to the discussion. I'll talk a bit more about The Names of Things at a later date.

I was also attending When Words Collide as a sort of soft re-launch of my urban fantasy novel The Night Girl. It was complicated when my publisher unfortunately broke his ankle (get well soon, Ed!) and couldn't attend, but he gave me enough warning so that I could contact the convention and ask to be allowed onto the Shared Author Table. I'm grateful that the organizers were able to accommodate me, in return for volunteering about an hour of my time to staff the table, which I was more than happy to do.

The presence of people eager to write, from all ages, all walks of life, and all stages of their writing careers, was a invigorating and reenergizing experience. I came away there newly eager to sit down and write, and do what I can to promote my writing so that more people can read it.

Thank you all for your time and attention. Let's see where this thing goes...

So, this is the first post of my Substack. I'll be running it concurrently with this blog, but this way you can have entries e-mailed to your address. Please subscribe, and I'll add some extra fiction along the way...

I flew in to Calgary early Friday morning (and I mean really early; I got up at 3:45 a.m. to grab a taxi into Region of Waterloo International Airport, and the line-up for the WestJet, FlairAir and Air Canada flights out were huge!) to attend When Words Collide.

I hadn't expected it, but When Words Collide was much more of a writers' craft and connection convention than something related to an appreciation of science fiction and fantasy. Those elements were there (and there was a strong SFF contingent, including Robert J. Sawyer, Candas Jane Dorsey, R. Graeme Cameron and more), but the seminars were more about how to improve yourself as a writer, tropes to avoid, and marketing skills to use rather than a study and appreciation of science fiction and fantasy books, movies or television series. Fortunately, When Words Collide is a conference that rewards people who jump in with both feet, which I did.

One of the things I took part in was a Live Action Slush event. That's where people submitted the first 250 words of their story (be it short fiction, mystery, romance, sff, YA -- there were separate sessions for each genre) and that submission would be read anonymously in front of three judges (often editors of various publications or publishing houses). The reader would read the submission until two of the judges raised their hand, indicating the point where they'd stop reading. The judges would then comment on the things they liked, and what pushed them out of the story.

That sounds terrifying, and it is, except that everybody makes a point of noting how brave people are to submit themselves to such scruitiny, and there's something to be said about pushing outside your comfort zone. My own submission got about halfway before getting two hands raised, and the comments that I received were fair and useful.

One reason I was able to attend was I pitched a seminar of my own, entitled The Names of Things, talking about how we go about naming our people, places and things in our stories, and how that can impact what we write. They accepted the submission, and brought me on as a panelist alongside authors Konn Lavery and Onyx Shelton, with Erik D'Souza moderating. Publisher R. Graeme Cameron showed up, initially thinking that this was a session he was supposed to attend (it was scheduled for the hour after us), but we welcomed him in, and he added some great flavour to the discussion. I'll talk a bit more about The Names of Things at a later date.

I was also attending When Words Collide as a sort of soft re-launch of my urban fantasy novel The Night Girl. It was complicated when my publisher unfortunately broke his ankle (get well soon, Ed!) and couldn't attend, but he gave me enough warning so that I could contact the convention and ask to be allowed onto the Shared Author Table. I'm grateful that the organizers were able to accommodate me, in return for volunteering about an hour of my time to staff the table, which I was more than happy to do.

The presence of people eager to write, from all ages, all walks of life, and all stages of their writing careers, was a invigorating and reenergizing experience. I came away there newly eager to sit down and write, and do what I can to promote my writing so that more people can read it.

With that in mind, I hope you enjoy my new Substack. I've seen a few of my fellow writers, such as J.M. Frey and Arthur Slade, take on this medium to good effect. The writing for it has a similar feel to writing on a blog, and more than a few authors are writing on their Substacks and blogs simultaneously. So, my blog's not going to go away. But if you want my writing sent to your e-mail, rather than having you step over to visit, please join the list. I'll be adding some stray fiction, updates about my writing process, and discussion about Canadian and transit politics.

Thank you all for your time and attention. Let's see where this thing goes...

The image to the right, entitled Skyline of Calgary, is courtesy Wikipedia and is used in accordance with their Creative Commons license.

With the re-release of The Night Girl, there comes promotion, and I'm excited to get working on giving this book the best re-launch it can have. I've already invited you all to the afternoon mingle (with cake!) at Words Worth Books on Saturday, August 30. Next Friday (the 15th), I'll be flying into Calgary to attend the When Words Collide science fiction and fantasy convention.

Look for my books at the Shadowpaw Press booth, and I may be along to sign copies, and I have an autograph session of my own, and I will be a panellist at a presentation. I'll be speaking alongside Konn Lavery and Onyx Shelton in a panel moderated by Erik D'Souza entitled The Names of Things.

As is stated on the panel promotion: "You have a story idea, you have a plot, you have characters, but what are their names? What's the name of the street they live on or their hometown? Or the neighbouring town? Or the other continent in their fantasy world? Names are important. They suggest a history and a unique set of characteristics that add spice and background to your tales. Learn about different approaches, benefits and potential pitfalls." So, if you want to hear our thoughts on how we name things, whether we explore the languages behind the names, or just wing it, come on out at 9 a.m., Mountain Time on Saturday, August 16. We'll be in the Sheraton East room.

While at When Words Collide, I'll be supporting Edmonton's bid to host WorldCon in 2030. I'll be taking part in their bid party, reading alongside Brendan Myers and Regina M. Hansen online in the Daspletosaurus Zoom Room, 5 p.m. Mountain Time on Saturday, August 16. For more information, check out Edmonton's Virtual Bid Party page here. I must say, I love the dinosaur theme of the online party.

Finally, on Sunday, August 17, starting at 2 p.m. Mountain Time, I will be signing copies of my books alongside author Kelly Siskind, so if you're at When Words Collide, I hope you'll stop by and say hello.

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to checking out the other panels and activities at the convention, and exploring Calgary a little. It's been a while since I've visited this fair city, and I'm looking forward to the camaraderie and creative atmosphere that conventions like When Words Collide provide.

If you are reading this before Saturday, August 30, you are all invited to come out for cake and conversation at Words Worth Books. We're celebrating the re-release of my Toronto-based urban fantasy entitled The Night Girl, and Words Worth Books has kindly agreed to be our venue. They're a fantastic bookstore who has been serving Waterloo Region for decades, and they've been fantastic supporters of Erin and myself in promoting our books.

Our get-together will happen between 2 and 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 30 and will be an informal affair. I will do a reading, but this is about mingling and conversing and enjoying each other's company. There will be snacks, and (no lie!) I will be bringing a cake.

I'm biased, but there are few better things I enjoy doing than spending an afternoon in a bookstore and, if you're in any way similarly inclined, I invite you out to do the same. Come welcome Perpetua and her friends back into publication, and enjoy the cake!

Further details can be found at the Facebook event page here.