Archive for May, 2007

Publicizing a book can be hard work. When you’re on a national tour, you get up at 5 a.m., do two-or-three pre-breakfast broadcast interviews, then another half-dozen during the day, before heading on to the next city for an overnight in another hotel and then a repeat of the previous day.

Those who conduct the interviews are usually flying blind. Just before you go on air the host invariably drops his or her voice and says, “I’m sorry, I haven’t read your book. We get so many, you know.” I always nod and smile sympathetically as if this is the first time this travesty has ever happened.

Such was not the case yesterday on CH Morning Live in Hamilton, with co-host Annette Hamm, who had not only read “Fantasy in Florence” thoroughly but also brought in from her home library “The Eatons,” which she’d also read, for me to autograph. What an unusual treat it was to talk to her and hear her praise for the book.

Of course, you never know who’s going to be on these early morning shows with you. Yesterday I followed two young models who were demonstrating summer make-up tips, but on other occasions I’ve appeared with chefs, animals up for adoption, steel bands, macrame instructors and magicians, all the folks that comprise local news and public affairs.

Highlight of the day, however, was speaking about our time in Florence to Guelph Rotary at that most perfect of locations, the Italian-Canadian Club. Sandy and I were both at the head table and it felt like old home week in the city where we were high school sweethearts. Among the familiar faces in the gathering of 120 were local real estate broker Murray Taylor, former teachers Bill Scott and Keith Conrad, former Member of Parliament Bill Weingard and Anne and Paul Pennock of St. Andrew’s Church. Mayor Karen Farbridge was also on hand. The Bookshelf had a table of books available and we sold 27 copies, all autographed, of course.

I never eat much before giving a speech, so afterwards we stopped at Rocky’s for a hotdog. The original Rocky is now dead and the place is run by the next generation, but it could have been 1963 as we sat outside on the deck with our soft drinks, fries and twelve-inch hotdogs with the works. All of which proves you can go home again.

The toughest part about being a newly published author is the lure of the bookstore, the irresistible desire to go in and see your latest book on display. Of course, that’s a big mistake.

When my first book, “The Moneyspinners,” about the CEOs who ran Canada’s Big Five banks, came out in 1983, my publisher Doug Gibson gave me some wonderful advice that - for the most part - I have carefully followed.

First, he said, don’t ever go into a bookstore looking for your book.

Second, if you break rule number one, and then can’t find your book, walk out.

If you can’t walk out, don’t ask for your book, because the staffer you speak to will never have heard of it. And even if they do happen to know the book, they won’t be able to find a copy.

Author Martin O’Malley tells about the time he broke all the rules, went into a store, found his book, and then watched with excitement as someone actually pulled a copy off the shelf and began looking through it. He was about to introduce himself and offer to sign the book when the buyer became a browser, put the book back and left, followed a few minutes later by a disconsolate O’Malley.

In the modern era, Doug Gibson’s good advice remains even more difficult to obey. It’s so easy to check amazon.ca where they even give your book’s ranking. (It has bounced around between 800 and 8,000, not bad out of a cajillion titles.)

And Chapters, I’m told, is featuring “Fantasy in Florence” on its front tables in the run-up to Father’s Day and through the July 1 holiday. A quick peek at a few stores to check out such prime placement wouldn’t hurt me, would it?

More than forty friends joined Sandy and I for our book launch last night at the Nicholas Hoare bookstore on Front Street East in downtown Toronto. One of the guests, Jim Cullen, told us about the good fortune that smiles upon visitors to Rome who are greeted by thunder and lighting. It was a reassuring tale to hear, given what was going on outside.

Some of food was the same as at the farewell reception described in the book when we said thank you to our many Florentine friends: platters of Genoa salami, Prosciutto di Parma, veggies and dip. The wine was the same, too: Prosecco Villa Sandi, the house wine at Via Roma 3.

Among the attendees were four of the students from Sandy’s class in Florence: Sarah Cullen, Bill Kreznarich, Andrew Waite and Raf Zawistowski, all of them talented artists. One of the instructors in Florence, sculptor David Pellettier, was the first to arrive.

Other honored guests were our son Mark and his wife Andrea who brought along our two grandchildren. Andrea’s parents, Donna and David Whiting, drove in from Erin to celebrate the occasion with us. Our daughter Alison, an art history professor at McMaster University, is on sabbatical in Paris but sent an email saying she was on hand in spirit.

Of those involved in producing the book, present were our agent Linda McKnight, copy editor Pamela Erlichman, and Janet Harron who represented publisher McArthur & Co. Toronto Star columnist David Olive, who was unable to come, sent along for display the flag of Florence from his large collection.

Others celebrants included Michael Benedict, long-time Maclean’s editor, now doing communications consulting; Michael Cooksey, regional sales director, BMO Bank of Montreal; Blanche and Don Cockburn, neighbors who became friends; Paul Crosby and Elizabeth Betsch, also neighbors and friends; Joanne De Laurentiis of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada and her lookalike daughter Julia; artist Mitch Fenton, one of Sandy’s colleagues from the Ontario College of Art and Design; Doug Gibson, who has his own imprint at McClelland and Stewart; Mary and Tom Hockin, who are thinking about their own fantasy in Florence, Tom as an artist, and Mary to study Italian; an old friend from our days in Ottawa, Les Horswill, who is writing his own book; Fraser Kelly, founder of CorpWorld Group; dentist Jim Kiproff, his wife Shirley and their daughter Jaimie; Anne and Allan Fotheringham, the latter freshly returned from covering the Conrad Black trial; Bruce Peer of the Canadian Management Centre, his wife Catherine, and their son David; Dalton Robertson, former executive editor at The Financial Post and Brian Wilks, another author in his own right; Aldo and Nancy Violi, neighbors and friends; Ron Wilkinson, who has worked for the United Nations in Vienna and the Middle East; Priscilla Wright, the youngest Canadian ever to have an international hit record; Louise and Burle Yolles, another pair of former neighbors who became friends; and Peter Zvanitajs, a rising young star at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The CBC has suffered through numerous budget cuts, but it still takes a lot of people to get something on air. My appearance early this morning on The Current, Radio One’s national public affairs show, began yesterday afternoon with a call from the “chaser” who tracks down possible participants, checks their availability and picks their brains a bit. We spoke three times over a one-hour period. Today I talked to three more people before finally chatting with host Jane Hawton, sitting in for Anna Maria Tremonti.

The topic was boards of directors, how the world of corporate governance has changed, and what about those Hollinger directors who testified that they had “missed” certain items in their reading material. The other two guests were Patrice Pratt, chair of Vancity, and former finance minister John Manley who is now a director at Nortel and CIBC.

I told a few war stories about the bad old days not so long ago when CIBC had sixty directors, some of whom were so far down the table that they couldn’t even hear what was being discussed, let alone participate. Compare that unwieldy bunch to today’s fifteen-member CIBC board, only one of whom is a member of management, the rest being independent.

We all agreed that progress had been made. Directors sit on fewer boards, work harder, run the risk of being sued, and trust management to tell the truth. In return, directors are well paid. Last year, for example, Manley’s compensation to attend about thirty meetings was $145,000.

Why do people want to be on boards? Well, beyond the money, the prestige is a powerful aphrodisiac, as is being in the thick of things and just hearing what’s happening. Directors who sit on numerous boards of public companies gather information as easily as a boy walking through a field collects burrs on his corduroy pants.

Of course, everybody wants something in return for anything they do. That’s human nature, isn’t it? After all, I was not just on The Current to hold forth about corporate governance; I was aboard so they’d mention my new book, Fantasy in Florence, which they kindly did. As hidden agendas go, that’s not too explosive, but it does come freighted with a certain irony.

Our new life in Florence had its beginnings after the death of Sandy’s mother in 2000. Sandy had been her mother’s major caregiver for many months so she knew she would need something to fill the void and help her deal with her grief. Art had always tugged at the hem of her life but there never seemed to be enough time available to nourish her talent.

Sandy had taken some lessons from watercolorist Pat Fairhead who praised her natural ability and urged her to enroll at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in order to improve her drawing skills. The week after her mother’s funeral, Sandy presented herself at OCAD.

Entrance standards are high; you don’t just sign up and start. The rigorous process required five courses over two semesters followed by an appearance before a panel where Sandy’s portfolio passed muster. She was admitted to the four-year drawing and painting program that she planned to take over a more leisurely six or seven years. That way she could enjoy the journey, rather than just dash to the destination of a degree.

After a few years at OCAD Sandy heard about a program in which a small group of students spend the fall and winter semesters in Florence, Italy. Among the many applicants, she was one of nineteen picked to attend, beginning in September 2004. For me, the timing was perfect. I was just completing my book about Edgar Bronfman Jr., “The Icarus Factor,” for publication that fall. My next projects were eminently portable so we decided that the time was right for both of us to enjoy this fantasy adventure together.

But there were other reasons we decided to step outside our ordinary lives. We felt we had become possessed by our possessions, that it was time to cast off some material items, and travel more lightly. We sold our house in Toronto, banked the proceeds, and put our furniture in storage.

There was one final propellant. Bob and Heather, our oldest friends as a couple, went on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. Two days out, Bob suffered a heart attack. He was airlifted to New Orleans but died in hospital before they could operate. He was sixty. One of the last things we did before leaving Canada was to attend Bob’s funeral in Ancaster, Ont. “Florence,” announced Sandy, “is the now or never plan.”

Two years after returning home from in Florence, Italy, our book about our time there has finally been published. “Fantasy in Florence: Leaving Home and Loving It,” is very different than anything I’ve ever written before. My wife Sandy has long been by muse, but this time she is a collaborator. The words are mine, the illustrations are hers.

The result is part travel book, part celebration of artisans we met, and part sheer joy at the ability to step outside our normal lives. If you take risks, there are rewards.

The appearance of the book in stores during the past few days has included the usual round of publicity interviews on radio and TV. As well, The Toronto Star ran an excerpt on Sunday May 7, complete with pictures of the two of us enjoying cafe life. You can read the excerpt here.

Or better yet, buy the book.