Craig Davidson

Thursday, November 30th

Shout out to Penguin Publicity

Hi All,

I got this a few days ago, sent on by a reader---well, okay, not a reader, a buddy of mine who conceivably is a reader but I don't recall him ever saying he's read a book of mine. He sent it on because it mentions me and he knows I'm a sick little twist who can't get enough of hearing his name spoken, even in dubious circumstances---which, in this case, it sort of is. But the article has less to do with me than with the new publicity strategies being cooked up at Penguin Canada, spearheaded by Stephen Myers and David Leonard, amongst others.

The article is here:
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1164456970803&call_pageid=1011789353817&col=1011789353403

Of course, Stephen was the fine fellow who got the ball rolling on the event, and since I'm always halfway worried that the people who are closely connected to me by way of my writing---my agent, my editor, my publicist---since I'm always worried I don't let them know how much I value them and realize how instrumental they've been to anything I've accomplished in this whole dizzy book-publishing thing, I thought I would take this opportunity to single out Stephen (I'll single out Sarah and Helen in future blog posts, I'm sure) and thank him for all his hard work on that project. And it's great to see that he's lining up other cool, un-literati events: man, I can't believe I missed that drinking contest. I would have been SO there, even though I've lost so much weight my tolerance now equals that of a five-year old boy with an inner ear infection and I'd've ended up face-down on the bar floor amidst the peanut shells and crumpled coasters.

Please find following a collection of imagined phone conversations between Stephen Myers and various writers of fame, as he asks them to participate in book promotions he is devising. For the sake of the bit, he might be doing some time-travelling, going back into the murky past. And of course, neither Steve nor any of the authors speak or act the way I envision it. Shits n' giggles, folks.

He'll be talking to:

MARGARET ATWOOD
JERRY SEINFELD

Craig Davidson on 11.30.06 @ 04:48 PM EST [more..]

Friday, November 24th

Contest Results and Winners

Hi All,

As some may recall, I announced a contest last month---send me your best "fight" story. I'm sorry it's taken some time to tabulate and announce the writing contest winners. Thanks to all the entrants. My father, the de facto judge, has come to his decision. We ended up deciding on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, along with 2 honorable mentions. This means the winners will all get something from my vast library of free book copies, but only the winner will get my bloodied fight pinney (is that really a top prize?) The 1st-3rd place entries are posted following the judges statement in this same post. They are posted as entered, so if there are minor spelling/grammatical errors I'm sure you'll all be able to put up with them, just as you do my frequent errors of the same nature.

So, I hand it over to my father, for his selections.

FROM THE DESK OF DON DAVIDSON, ESQ:

First let me extend my appreciation to all submitters for baring their souls and sharing their stories. In many cases I could literally feel the pain being inflicted and received, much like the Oct. 5, 2006 night I watched my son Craig grapple with Michael Knox. Additionally the tenaciousness, unwillingness to give up or in, intensity, humor and yes, self deprecation of that night also winds through a number of the stories and gives them that ring of authenticity.

In no particular order, I will pass along some brief thoughts on the stories which made the final cut:

Veronique Pelletier

An 8 page story revolving around masochism between Jim and Jade, husband and wife, with the bulk of the activities being part of a film directed by Jim. Starts off very well and instantly hooks the reader in the first paragraph.There are numerous powerful visuals throughout created by excellent use of very descriptive words / phrases. Great and frequent use of analogies and in particular "She sat there wounded, tired, looking like she does after a phone conversation with her mother ". Lastly and most importantly, it keeps the reader hooked to the end.

Ryan Ross

The story of a slightly out of shape university student and wannabee boxer entering into a sparing session with a well experienced 14 year old . Several portions of this story bring to mind the night of Oct. 5th, including a paragraph dealing with jock strap issues. It starts out quickly grabbing the reader with a foreboding opening paragraph. Humor is used liberally and had me chuckling more than once. Most importantly it has a real ring of authenticity as a first person boxing experience.

Paul Lazenby

Actually an excerpt from his book detailing a sparing session at a Japanese Dojo. A good opening, followed by an unrelentingly graphic and highly descriptive depiction of Paul being beaten unmercifully by one of the top submission grapplers in all of Japan. It certainly is a story of tenaciousness in an un-winnable situation, with great intensity and finishes with a "feel good" ending.

David Goodner

The story of a sparing match between David, a boxer for almost two years and Emily Klinefelter, a female international boxing champion. In reading this one it appeared totally authentic that this bout actually happened, with the unrelenting Emily, 70 lbs. lighter and 9 inches shorter, inflicting a great deal of pain on David and absorbing a considerable degree of punishment for her hard fought win. David uses humor and self deprecation throughout and finishes well with " I just laughed and started telling people about the day I got beat up by a girl ".

Christine Spadaccini

The story is a conversation between Christine, Doctor Davidson and Christine's inner-self simply referred to as "K". The fight, if one can it that, is "K" wrestling with bringing words to paper as a writer. It is the shortest of all stories, taking up just one page. In this limited space Christine, whose mother tongue is French, uses humor to good effect and I did enjoy the concept of treating virtually the whole story as a running 3 way conversation. Kudos' for tackling the challenges of writing in English.

Now for the judging. It is important to first refer back to the criteria outlined in Craig's blog entry of 10/28/2006 and specifically "Something to do with a fight you've been in,whether winner, loser,abused or abuser. That's the only requirement."

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Christine Spadaccini
Veronique Pelletier

3rd place: Paul Lazenby

2nd place: David Goodner

1st place: Ryan Ross

Once again congratulations to all the participants and good luck in all your future writing endeavors.....Don Davidson.

I add my own congratulations to my father's. And again, to all who entered: writing is a very strange, very selective, very luck-oriented enterprise a lot of the time. Some other judge may have ranked the stories differently, or selected from amongst those that did not make the cut. But the we Davidsons appreciate everyone for entering. I'll be heading to the post office soon to mail out the prizes.

Following are the 1st-3rd place stories.
Craig Davidson on 11.24.06 @ 05:05 PM EST [more..] [No Comments]

Wednesday, November 15th

A Cornucopia of Musings

Hi All,

I don't have anything happening that I could craft into a "real"—ie: hefty/substantial—blog post, but I do have a surprising amount of minutia that I can cobble together into something resembling a blog post, and since it's been awhile since I've posted anything I feel it’s time to go ahead with that. So, let the cobbling begin.

RANDOM CULTURAL OBSERVATION #1: Americans drink an inordinate amount of soda. [Jerry Seinfeld voice: What is the deal with that?] Or, I should say, they drink soda where Canadians drink coffee. In Canada, the convenience store fountain drink station rarely gets much action before lunch time—and in the winter, I'm not sure it gets much action at all. We’re all drinking coffee. But in America, that soda fountain gets a workout all day long. It's bizarre to me, seeing these truckers and construction workers and receptionists and, oh I don't know, court stenographers and whoever else buying these honkin' huge 100-ounce buckets of Mountain Dew and A&W rootbeer at 8 o'clock in the morning when there's snow on the ground. Yesterday morning I was grabbing a cup of joe at the closest gas station, standing in line shivering with my cup of gas station coffee (really, not all shiddly-tasting; pretty good, actually. Got Tim Horton's beat all over) and this guy in front of me in a reflective work jacket, like a highway work crew guy, was paying for his bucket of Orange Fanta—I think they call the largest size the "Bladder Rupturer"—and about 27 Almond Joy bars. I'm no health nut, but I'm thinking, "My good God in heaven, that’s about 3 pounds of food and I don’t think there’s ANY nutritional value to be found therein!" And he packed his pockets full of candy bars like some diabetic squirrel, hugged that giant tub of soda to his chest like a precious infant and barreled on out of the store.

What is the deal with that?
Craig Davidson on 11.15.06 @ 12:17 PM EST [more..]

Friday, November 10th

Torontoist Interview

Hi All,

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. Lots of teaching duties, thesis preparation duties, coupled with a distinct lack of much happening. The writing contest is still open for about another week, so if anyone's got something feel free to send it on in. In the meantime, here's an interview I did for THE TORONTOIST. My thanks to Mark Medley for the review and the great interview questions.

www.torontoist.com/archives/2006/11/torontoist_read_22.php#more

All best, Craig.
Craig Davidson on 11.10.06 @ 11:53 AM EST [link]