I’m a big Margaret Atwood fan. Even if I didn’t love her writing (which I do), I would still be a fan. For a Canadian woman writer not to admire Margaret Atwood would be like a female downtown law partner claiming not to be a feminist. You have to give credit where it’s due.

Plus, how nice was it that Margaret named her most recent blockbuster after our Kyi family disaster? Yes, The Year of the Flood. I was actually halfway through the book before I realized the significance of the title. Thanks, M.

The book was fabulous, of course. But the first page got me thinking… only as Margaret Atwood could you write a book that opened with kitschy poetry, before anything else. The rest of us are doing everything possible to get an agent to read past the first page of a query. We’re busy trying to capture attention and prove we’re not raving lunatics. But no, Margaret Atwood can be a raving lunatic on page one and be proud of it, knowing we’ll all happily move on to page two.