I saw Rhea Tregebov last night at the Vancouver Public Library -- she was reading from her novel The Knife Sharpener's Bell and, as usual, she was fabulous. Not only did she read some gripping passages from her novel, she also explained the story behind her writing the book -- why the story was important to her, how she took a real life event from her family's past and then pondered a big what if to create something that almost happened (but very luckily didn't).

However, in being the super-kind and generous person that she is, Rhea ended up creating some strife between my wife and I last night: in our copy of the book, she dedicated it to both of us (something no one has done before). So while both my wife and I think it's cool, we're now arguing about who gets to read the book first -- both of us with seemingly valid arguments over who has the greater right (my name appears first, but Alison Acheson -- this other writer I know and respect an awful lot -- stepped in on my wife's side). Not sure who's going to win the argument -- I think we're both equally looking forward to reading Rhea's book.