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Blue Light author speaks at library

One of Canada’s most riveting fiction writers is coming to St. Albert Public Library next Wednesday. Timothy Taylor, whose 2001 debut novel Stanley Park was an instant bestseller, arrives to talk about his latest book The Blue Light Project.

One of Canada’s most riveting fiction writers is coming to St. Albert Public Library next Wednesday.

Timothy Taylor, whose 2001 debut novel Stanley Park was an instant bestseller, arrives to talk about his latest book The Blue Light Project.

Set in an unnamed city, its focus is a three-day hostage taking at the studio of a controversial children’s reality TV show. It explores celebrity and fame alongside street art and terrorism.

“Three lives intersect in the crisis but the time is now. What was fiction in the creative process is no longer fiction at all. All the stresses are real. They are happening right now,” Taylor said.

A man charges into a studio and takes more than 100 hostages. His only demand is an interview with journalist Thom Pegg, a disgraced reporter caught fabricating sources.

Outside the studio, the world has tuned in to this drama wondering how it will play out. Two people meet and develop a special connection. One is Eve, a former Olympic gold medallist haunted by the disappearance of her brother.

“She admired him and looked up to him. He disappeared seven years ago and she believes he is still alive.”

The third main character is Rabbit, a man with a peculiar backstory. He used to work for a secret company developing phone software with illegal eavesdropping capabilities.

No longer a software developer, Rabbit is now a mysterious street artist working to complete a huge project that involves installations on rooftops of hundreds of buildings throughout the city.

“The city is his canvas and he’s seen it being torn apart by the hostage taking. He feels he needs to do something.”

For The Blue Light Project, Taylor followed two main streams of research. Immersing himself on the Internet, he explored the secretive system of clandestine prisons scattered across the world – prisons like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

“I wanted to explore not the rightness or wrongness, but the personal sense of guilt a person would have. I tried to imagine those working inside as translators. I researched torture and the treatment of prisoners. There was even a large body of press material on black sites, an international network of prisons.”

For Taylor it was emotionally disturbing.

“It’s very gritty and it makes me feel guilty that on my watch I let it happen.”

But he also had the opportunity to meet a cluster of secretive street artists in Vancouver that mysteriously put up art across the city.

“The work goes up all over. It’s often very beautiful paintings and photographs. It’s still illegal. It’s an anarchic art that is beautiful and mysterious in a positive way.”

The Blue Light Project is also a finalist for the CBC 2012 Bookie Awards. Readers may cast their vote at/www.cbc.ca/books/2012/03/the-second-annual-cbc-bookie-awards.html. Polls close March 31. The winner is revealed on April 5.

“It’s a very light-hearted reader’s choice award. But I’m very pleased the CBC recognized the book.”

Edmonton writer Curtis Gillespie, a close friend from their University of Alberta days, will open the library reading at 7 p.m. The event is free, but visitors are asked to preregister at 780-459-1682.

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