Boxing, Book Awards, Blessings — My June Schedule Is Already Full

Toward the business end of The Professional, that classic boxing novel by the peerless sports writer W.C. Heinz, the action shifts from a resort in the Hudson River Valley to midtown Manhattan, New York City. The predictable rhythm of training camp shifts into fight week overdrive, as Eddie Brown makes the final preparations for his long-awaited shot at the middleweight title.

As Brown and his team set out from camp, the narrator, a magazine writer named Frank Hughes, notes the imminent, abrupt, irrevocable change in mood.

“That was the last of the quiet days,” he says.

It’s also me, right now, in the final week of May, taking on last big breath before my schedule explodes in June.

It’s not a complaint. Just an observation, and a reminder to myself to get my mind right in advance.

Next week is fight week in Montreal — ESPN+ in the U.S., PunchingGrace.com in Canada. I’m on the mic alongside Corey Erdman, with Arthur Biyarslanov, that standout Canadian amateur turned undefeated pro prospect, in the main event.

The following week, I’m back in downtown Toronto, doing some press ahead of the Trillium Book Awards.

After that?

Awards Week. Winner’s announcements for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and the Trillum Book Awards on back-to-back nights. Then I finish June in Quebec City — my first visit there since 1989 — back at ringside, calling the WBC Interim World Title Fight between Christian Mbilli and Maicej Sulecki.

The word “busy” understates it. I’m doing all that in addition to day-to-day work, plus shuttling my daughter between home, school, gymnastics and soccer.

But I’m also grateful. As a self-employed media professional, those out-of-town assignments mean I’m busy, and those awards ceremonies mean I’m appreciated. It all puts my name and work out there, and helps keep the lights on.

It definitely all came together this past Saturday, during my book signing at Indigo Erin Mills. My first-ever event in Mississauga, so of course some of the folks who attended the Windowless Woodlands School came by to show support. Even sold books to some strangers, too.

That event consumed an entire Saturday, but that’s author life. The 40-hour work week doesn’t exist, and neither do defined weekends. Sometimes I’ll spend Saturday working for 12 hours, and sometimes I’m napping on the couch at 3pm on a Tuesday. Point is, you create your own opportunities when you’re self employed. And even if you’re signed with a major publisher, you’ll probably have to think and act like an indie author if you’re hoping to move the sales needle.

So… book signings with old friends and new fans, assignments, awards ceremonies, trading emails with other authors… it’s time spent abut also time invested. As a teenager I dreamed of Author Life, and now I’m living it. All this is exactly what I asked for, even if I didn’t know it back then.

Complications are inevitable.

Half the inventory for last week’s event got caught up in a shipping delay, which meant a few people who really wanted a signed copy of My Fighting Family went left empty-handed. I texted some other folks and told them to stay home rather than battle Saturday traffic on the 401, only to arrive at a book signing with no books.

But if we were turning people away, that means we sold out, which means we succeeded. And if more copies of My Fighting Family are on their way to Erin Mills, that means we’ll do it all again, sometime this summer, I hope.

Add it to the list of things to do. It’s always growing.

The quiet days?

I’m not sure when they’re coming back.

And I’m thankful for it.

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