TV series stars Pitt author

It’s been two years and sixty-one days since production wrapped on a very unusual TV series starring Pitt Meadows’ Gordon Kirkland and 11 other Canadian authors.

The Three-Day Novel Contest finally hit the air Tuesday on Canada’s BookTelevision and will run for seven episodes.

The show features 12 authors who were locked inside a large bookstore in Edmonton for 72 hours over the Labor Day long weekend in 2007. During that time, they were assigned the task of completing a full novel, amid the distractions of store customers, sleepless nights, and an ever present camera crew filming their every move, ranging from working on the computer to brushing their teeth.

“It’s a reality-TV series for writers,” Kirkland said. “I saw that as a sort of poetic justice, because reality series have made life difficult for so many of my friends writing for television in the United States. Writers are rarely needed for those shows.”

The series was delayed after the sale of BookTelevison to CTV.

“The cast had pretty much given up hope of seeing the series air,” Kirkland added.

Called one of North America’s premier humorists, the novel Kirkland wrote during the show is a dark comedy/mystery about two deputies in a small mid-Western sheriff’s department searching for a serial killer.

Next book

Holly Jolly Frivolity, Kirkland’s sixth book of short humorous essays, will be launched at the ACT in December.

The evening will feature two of Kirkland’s holiday-themed comedy monologues, selected readings from the new book and carolers singing his modernized words for familiar holiday songs.

• For tickets, call the ACT box office at 604- 476-2787.

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