I was thrilled to see that A Family By Any Other Name was mentioned in Quill & Quire’s preview of the Spring ’14 book season, alongside Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Esi Edugyan’s forthcoming book, based on her 2013 Henry Keisel Memorial Lecture, and Kerry Clare’s The M-Word, an anthology of essays about motherhood.

Snagging a mention in Q&Q is always good, as it is arguably the country’s most important and best-read magazine about books and the publishing industry. As such, it’s great exposure for any book, but especially for a non-fiction book and an essay collection at that — the type of book that doesn’t tend to garner the same sort of buzz that novels do.

But being mentioned in Q&Q is special to me for another reason. Back in 2002, when I left my relatively stable, full-time job as a staff writer at a personal finance magazine to become a freelancer, Q&Q was the first magazine to take me on, even though I’d never written about books or publishing before (apart from my student newspaper days at Carleton University). Scott Anderson and Derek Weiler (who died suddenly in 2009) gave me a steady stream of decently paying and interesting assignments that kept me afloat and provided a solid foundation on which to build my new career. And for that, I’ll always be thankful.

It’s been a long time since my byline has appeared in Q&Q, so it’s a special treat to see my name back in the magazine’s pages this week.