WOW! The International Festival of Authors Ontario came to Sudbury Nov. 4. The event was a huge success. About 200 people attended the evening session with Tom McCarthy (C), Miguel Syjuco (Illustrado) and Charles Foran (Mordecai: The Life).

The discussion about the new age of writing and literature was enlightening. McCarthy and Syjuco, both young writers spoke about their writing like young people talk about music using terms such “sampling” (using the one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song); and remixing (In a remix, it's possible to change the style, feel, even the emotional meaning of the track by changing the context of sections, reharmonizing melodies, adding additional elements.)

Syjuco created a wikipedia entry for Crispin Salvadore, the main character in his book, Illustrado. described the book as a layering of letters, newspaper articles, excerpts of short stories his fictional character wrote and text messages.

Syjuco is currently writing a book about a fake celebrity and has created a Facebook site for her.

Ray Robertson, the author of David, who visited Sudbury last week, also layers his work of fiction with verse and poetry by classic writers and Walt Whitman. A previous book, What Happened Later, borrows the title of Jack Kerouac's proposed sequel to On the Road, and links the story of a young man coming of age in a small southern Ontario town discovering Kerouac, and the story of Kerouac's final years.

On behalf Laurentian Media, Northern Life and Sudbury Living, I was happy to be part of these authors' events.

Chris and Roger Nash and Laurence Steven played a large role in the success of the International Writers Evening.