Andrew Pyper 🇺🇦
@andrewpyper
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ANDREW PYPER is a novelist. His next books, under his sci-fi/thriller pen name Mason Coile, are WILLIAM (2024) and EXILES (2025).
Toronto, Canada
Joined November 2010
WILLIAM is coming. He can't wait to meet you. My debut as Mason Coile drops in September. but a pre-order will make sure a copy has your name on it. @PutnamBooks
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Thinking of the little girl (maybe 6) who came to the door last night and paused to consider Bonesy, our necklace-wearing skeleton. “He died wearing that,” she said, her voice full of grief, then she looked at me. “He loved that necklace,” she said.
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My niece’s birthday card to me. Maybe I’ve gone too far as the uncle who tells scary stories?
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Wrote a letter to the Attorney General of Ontario @douglasdowney reminding him of his duties as the minister responsible for the administration of justice and asking him to refer an investigation into recent questionable Greenbelt land purchases to the OPP.
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So @branksomehall, a $40k/year private school, got far more free (taxpayer paid) rapid tests — and far sooner — than public schools. This is @fordnation and Ontario Conservative kleptocracy. Posture to the “little guy” while filling the pockets of the rich.
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Before Christmas, I dropped off two of my shirts in a charity bin. Today my wife and daughter went out thrift-shopping and returned with something they thought I’d like. It was the same two shirts.
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Son, 10, just now after watching Trump interview: “If he was around in medieval times they would’ve put holes in his head to release the demons.”.
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Homeschooling moment where I used book royalty rates to demonstrate percentages and son's response was "How can people who write books make a living?" and that's when my math lesson turned into Cultural Studies.
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A treasure. 19 year-old me was star-struck. RIP Alice Munro.
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Brian Mulroney RIP. His passing prompts nostalgia for when Canadian conservatism had policy based on something other than hate and/or pocket-filling, (some) fundamental decency, and a degree of shame/honour. Compared to PP? Ford? The Alberta lunatic? The truckers? Quite a fall.
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To those making “A few bad apples” defences for those flying Nazi and racist flags in Ottawa, it’s not the number of visible bad apples that’s the problem, it’s that they calculated waving those symbols among that crowd wouldn’t be met with any resistance. And they were right.
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Problem with the “personal choice, personal risk” framing for pandemic decision-making is that individual actions aren’t limited to individual impacts. It’s like saying driving 90km/h through a school zone is a personal choice, bearing only personal risk. It’s. Not. About. You.
I know this is really, really difficult for some people to comprehend, but maybe people have considered the risk, the danger, read the data and have come to a decision that for themselves enjoying life is an acceptable risk. Let’s not be condescending but understanding #onpoli.
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Imagine listening to the CEO of Deutsche Bank about anything other than a criminal confession.
Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing joins the growing list of German executives and politicians warning of dire economic consequences if Russian energy supplies are cut off
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Excited to come home to find the Brazilian edition of The Only Child (A Criatura) waiting for me. My publisher there, @DarkSideBooks, always do amazing design work. I’m lucky.
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Just learned that the middle daughter of the Syrian refugee family we sponsored a few years ago was named valedictorian of her high school graduating class and there, I give you joyously good news.
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You only have to have a mouse jump out of a toaster after pushing a slice down once to expect it to happen again for the rest of your life.
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Mooney’s second walk of her lifetime. Lots of sitting and occasional bounces.
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Shouted “I love you!” out the front door after my daughter and the woman who collects bottles in a shopping cart thought I was speaking to her and she smiled and waved at me and I guess we’re close now.
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I Got News!. My forthcoming novel, THE RESIDENCE, a ghost story based on true events set in the White House, is being developed as a hybrid documentary-fiction series for TV with Robert Kirkman's (The Walking Dead) company @Skybound and @RadicalMedia.
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ORACLE, my audio-only thriller, is out now!. Here's a vid of its performer, Joshua Jackson, doing his thing. @audible_ca @audible_com @audibleuk
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After our parents died a few years ago, my siblings and I set up a scholarship fund for young people with sight loss. Every year me and my brother go through the applicants, and every year I have a good cry at their astonishing accomplishments and grit.
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My publisher just emailed to say THE HOMECOMING is going into a second printing and it isn’t even out yet. Don’t know how all that works but I’m pouring a glass of wine.
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When this is all over I’m buying all the drinks for every nurse I meet anytime anywhere forever.
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Son, 11, not the biggest reader, is reading one of my books for the first time and enjoying it and I don’t want to jinx it and yet I must declare this Life’s Most Rewarding Achievement.
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Houdini died of internal bleeding after inviting people to punch him as hard as they could in the gut which, for writers, is just a visit to Goodreads.
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Is there any way putting the glisteningly insincere and stomach-flippingly condescending profiteer Galen Weston Jr into those Loblaws ads makes marketing sense?.
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Had my first book launch here. At the time, reading in the back room at the Riv was the young writers’ equivalent to playing Carnegie Hall.
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Visitors to Toronto should know that it’s customary, if a car or truck nearly kills you or your child and you point out that the vehicle did so as a result of running a red or stop sign or crosswalk, the driver will shout “Fuck you!!” in reply. Welcome!.
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Wow. My COUNTRY quoted me. You can’t say that every day. Thank you, @Canada.
“Sometimes people close a door because they're trying to figure out a way to get you to knock.” ― The Demonologist by Canadian author Andrew Pyper #TuesdayThoughts
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Speaking of vaccines, I've never been more grateful for an education in literature and the Humanities. The critical thinking that comes with study in the arts provides (at least some) protection against naked misinformation and rhetorical bullshit.
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Me and my kids have a Christmas tradition (8 years strong!) of having lunch at the same restaurant, shopping for their mother together then catching a movie and today was that day. The best day.
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Son's definition of religion as "a book club with only one book" provided a welcome morning lol.
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It’s my birthday. This is the card my family made for me. I am KING FOR THE DAY!!!
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Rebuke from a reader for my “letting” a character do something “inappropriate.” Sorry, I make these people up but I don’t parent them.
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Happy 10th Anniversary to @DarkSideBooks ! So grateful for all you’ve done bringing my books to Brazil! And it all started with this bad boy.
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It’s here. A finished copy. This moment NEVER gets old. @SimonSchusterCA @simonschusterUK
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Years ago I sofa-surfed at my publicist’s flat in London and the only thing in her fridge was a bottle of Champagne. When I asked her why she said “You must always be ready to celebrate, even when things are bad” and I never forgot it.
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Any definition of genre fiction that turns on its (poor) quality of writing presumes that literary fiction is uniformly marked by its (high) quality of writing which, for anyone who reads without prejudice knows, is laughably untrue.
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It’s my birthday and my daughter told me I’m a good dad so I think that’ll give me just enough Hope Fuel to get me through another year.
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@nytimes My family (among others) sponsored a Syrian family last year in Toronto. Now flourishing, opening a business. Good people.
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NEWS!!. I have a new novel coming in September. THE RESIDENCE is a ghost story set in the Pierce Administration's White House of the 1850s and is based on true events. THE RESIDENCE is being published by @simonschuster @Skybound @GalleryBooks @SimonSchusterCA (world English).
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As anyone who has driven it - let alone run it on one leg while terminally ill - knows, the northern spine of Lake Superior is five thousand severe inclines and switchbacks and goes on forever. Terry Fox was pure courage.
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This isn't about saving money. This is about the @fordnation "vision": gleefully cruel, fearful of community, culturally impoverished. That people can see these priorities in action and think "Yeah, this is cool" reveals a heartbreaking ugliness.
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RIP Alice Munro. In my opinion, the greatest Canadian writer in English by far. One of my earliest and lasting literary heroes.
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Still the most thrilling use of money I’ve made was from my first advance when I bought a train ticket for my mom to come into the city, putting her up at the Royal York and taking her out for a fancy dinner. Wishing I could do it again.
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I’m at that point in the novel-in-progress when I’m past This Will Never Work and hitting This Is Great Don’t Blow It, which means You Were Wrong From The Start is just around the corner.
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Is there a section in NAFTA that compensates Canada for all the emotional labour it has to do on behalf of US?.
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My evening just went from “Maybe a second glass of wine?” to “We’ve still got some of that good whisky, right?”.
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Daughter wrote story for school that’s creepy as hell about a dentist who steals the teeth of his patients and I get the parenting award this month.
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COVER REVEAL!. Meet Mason Coile’s debut, WILLIAM. Coming September 3. @PutnamBooks @PenguinCanada . Come on inside…
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So saddened by the loss of Steven Heighton. A brilliant writer, kind soul. I’m personally indebted to him for launching my publishing career by forwarding my early stories to his editor — without me knowing. A glass of good whisky raised to you tonight, my friend.
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Back in December I saw a card face-down on the sidewalk. Before I picked it up I guessed it was a “red 4” and it turned out to be the 4 of diamonds. This morning I found this, face-up, directly in my path. No other cards or anything around it.
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Five Days After Receiving Editorial Notes:. 1) Idiots! [crumples notes].2) [uncrumples notes] Fine, I'll take a look. But I'm not changing anything!.3) That one scene may need a bit of work. 4) Might have to re-jig this first half. And the second. 5) Much better! I'm a genius!.
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ARCs are here. I repeat: ARCs are here!. @GalleryBooks @Skybound @SimonSchusterCA . #theresidence #whitehouse
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So I found this place on the trail and there was a weird book in the cellar with a cover made of some sort of skin. Should I read it aloud?
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Guy went by my window shouting into his phone "Eccentric? You want eccentric? I'll show you eccentric!" and now I'm out of my chair, looking out at him, hoping he'll show me eccentric.
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Got moth pheromone on my skin (don’t ask) which I learned doesn’t easily wash off (too late) and now I’m walking around in the woods being EXTREMELY attractive to moths and I can tell you, friends, I’m not lonely.
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Son has jumped onto his first virtual session with his school classmates and it's a bunch of people shouting "I can't hear you!" and "You're frozen!" and "What? WHAT?" and he's all grown-up now.
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Snuck off to play golf on my own today. Was put in a group with an elderly gent who spontaneously called me “son” a couple times. He seemed to miss saying it. I know I missed hearing it.
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Daughter just declared Jaws 2 superior to Jaws and now every aspect of my parenting has been called into question.
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Son said he’s ready for this and truth be told I shed a little tear.
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Bragging, yes, but I’m the absolute best person to watch a movie with. I keep my mouth shut through the whole thing — will deliver snacks if asked — and am always ready to talk about it at the end.
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Good morning, peoples!. It's the publication day of my novel, The Residence, and while it's the weirdest (and most difficult) time to be publishing a book in my career, I'm so grateful for the privilege to be doing so. @SimonSchusterCA .@GalleryBooks .@SagaSFF .@Skybound
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I'd like to share the title of my new novel. It's called THE HOMECOMING. And it's out in February. (I'm not using exclamation points because I'm trying to cut back but trust me, I'm excited as hell). More soon! (whoops). @SimonSchusterCA @simonschusterUK @CookeMcDermid.
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Was at the IKEA automated cashier and when FINISH AND PAY came up on the window I said “Shouldn’t that say SWEDISH AND PAY?” and got nothin.
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Advance notice that more political (re)tweets will be coming from this desk for the foreseeable. Wish I didn't feel it necessary, but it's one super-small thing I can do to oppose disinformation that supports anti-democratic interests and fascism in Canada, the US, the world.
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Editing is basically asking yourself “Are you sure about this?” over and over and over.
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Hey! My novel, The Homecoming, is the New York Public Library’s Book of the Day! What a lovely thing to wake up to. Thanks @nypl.
After the death of their absentee father, the two brothers in @andrewpyper's The Homecoming must stay at the family estate for 30 days to claim their inheritance—no contact with the outside world allowed. Sign up for our #BookoftheDay newsletter:
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We don’t talk much about “character” in people anymore, but we should. The “Back to normal!” position re: COVID is advanced by impatience, cowardice, ignorance, selfishness. To embrace it is to demonstrate poor character.
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Out for walk with the dog. Guy outside condo stops me, accuses me of stealing a shrub. “I’ve got you on tape!” I told him no, he fucking doesn’t, because I didn’t steal his fucking shrub. “Don’t do it again,” he says. “Don’t be a fucking lunatic,” I say. Merry Christmas!.
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We had carolers come by the house and we all went outside and sang in the night and it's great to be alive.
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Here it is! The cover for my new novel, THE HOMECOMING!. It's out February 26, 2019. But pre-ordering totally allowed. Wise, in fact. @SimonSchusterCA @simonschusterUK @CookeMcDermid @cookeintl
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Hi @TorontoPolice I witnessed a man uttering threats and racial hatred on TTC. I have video of the offence. Called 911, they transferred me to 14 Division, who sent me back to 911, who sent me to Communications, who hung up.
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Oh no you don't, side project short story, you do NOT get to decide you want to be a novel all on your own.
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What am I doing to my kids? Last night it was The Silence of the Lambs and tonight it’s Seven.
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WILLIAM is in The New York Times! A career-first standalone rave for me. Mason Coile will be impossible to live with now…. @PutnamBooks
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Dear @IreneGentle — I’m extremely disappointed to hear of the recent cuts to arts and books coverage @TorontoStar. I know it’s a tough biz, but these are areas that define a paper. And the only reason I subscribe.
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It remains surprising to me how one can think about a book for months, research the idea, outline the story, write the book every day for many more months, and still only discover what it’s about right at the end.
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Great review of THE RESIDENCE in @globeandmail!. "Pyper retells a historical narrative, weaving it with imagined possibilities and a thick layer of creepy. But underneath the ghostly apparitions, Pyper is telling us. the moral behind the American Dream.".
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So it's emerging that if we all just wore masks while in public the virus would be crushed and our collective response is "Fuck that.".
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I've written at least three novels that disprove this.
"True Detective" commingling genres: mystery/crime/detection with horror/gothic/surreal. this merging is always to the detriment of the detective story since a police investigation depends upon scientific principles; once you introduce the supernatural, the story is in free fall.
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Just at the bank and deposited a royalty cheque and the teller looked at the amount and said “Oh that’s very small!” and I had to stop myself from blurting “Hey! I earned out on that one!”.
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Some may find the smallness of royalty cheques on old editions disheartening, but I celebrate them by declaring aloud the pleasures they bring. "Six pack of Stella!" "Movie ticket!" "Pack of tube socks!".
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What did Mr. Rogers do for a living? Someone who stayed at home as much as possible, performed daily rituals of changing into the same comfy sweater and slippers, talked to himself all the time and waited excitedly for the postman to arrive? C'mon, people. Rogers was a writer.
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Saw one of my books in the neighbourhood share library box for the first time. I signed it.
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