Walsh, who has kept Canada laughing for decades, was at the Festival to promote her first novel, Crying for the Moon. In fact, she noted that Rose, the female protagonist in the book, is essentially a cross between a 1930s gangster and Simone de Beauvoir. Her novel, which is set mostly between World War I and World War II, is infused with the spirit of those bedtime stories. He had missed his calling, but he did have lots of bedtime stories for O’Neill that were filled with 1930s gangsters. Since those boys came of age during the Great Depression, “they, naturally, turned to crime.” Her dad was rather talented in the field of crime, as it turned out, and he lamented the fact that he didn’t pursue it as an adult.

If you haven’t read her books yet, fix that immediately.) She noted that her inspiration for writing The Lonely Hearts Hotel came partly from her dad, who was one of nine (!) boys raised in Montreal single-handedly by her grandmother after his father passed away. (I’m not kidding about the brain-tickling gorgeousness, by the way. O’Neill, known for her brain-ticklingly gorgeous writing, is a veteran of the Ottawa International Writers Festival and easily warmed up the crowd with a few anecdotes before her reading. It was a packed house on Friday night to see Heather O’Neill and Mary Walsh at the Christ Church Cathedral-and well worth the short wait in line.

Crying for the moon mary walsh