Yes I do visit book clubs. Please write me and we can set up a date. If you are out of the Toronto area, let’s get three or four books together. Or we can Skype for half an hour. In the event I am not there the publishers have put together some great book club questions questions.
1. Many readers want to know what happens after Coming Ashore. What came next? I finished my Ph.D. on Darwin’s Influence on Freud, and after I got my doctorate in psychology, I went into private practice as a psychologist in downtown Toronto...
1. Summarize your book in a tweet—ie. less than 140 characters. COMING ASHORE is about my life in the 60’s. It takes place in England while I was a student at Oxford, and Toronto where I moved into Rochdale, a major drug centre in Canada. ( 141)...
Discussion Questions 1. At certain points in the memoir (p. 30, 166), Cathy’s childhood confidante, Roy, appears to her to offer guidance and a sympathetic ear. How do you interpret these moments—as a literary device or as a spiritual visitation?...
Author Interview Q. Do you think your father’s illness brought you and your mother closer together, or did it actually allow you to separate yourself from your family? My mother and I were always close. I think that my father’s illness made us...
Author Interview 1.) How does a clinical psychologist suddenly become a bestselling author? Tell us about this metamorphosis. I was a psychologist in private practice for 25 years until one day when I was at a dinner party, someone said that...
Author Interview Can you tell us how you became a writer? I was a psychologist in private practice for twenty-five years. For fun, I once wrote an unsolicited column for Facts and Arguments in The Globe and Mail and just faxed it in one day. To...
Discussion Questions 1. Discuss Kate’s role as the narrator of this story. What effect does her perspective have on your reading? How much do you trust her to be true to the facts? 2. Was Kate correct to suspect Dr. Gardonne’s motives right from...
Discussion Questions 1. Discuss what makes a good memoir. How does Too Close to the Falls incorporate these qualities? 2. How did you feel about Catherine’s childhood “career”? Did it place her in situations that were...
Author Interview 1. At what age, or stage of life, did you decide that you wanted to write a memoir, and what triggered the actual writing? How long did it take to write the book? I was a psychologist for 25 years and running out of empathy, and...
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