I’m excited to announce, for those who haven’t already heard, that my second poetry manuscript, titled Kissing Keeps Us Afloat, will be published next September by Frontenac House as part of their annual four-pack, Quartet 2014. I hope those of you who liked White Shirt (Dektet 2010) will enjoy this book as well. The official launches will be next fall, likely in Calgary and Toronto, with some more intimate reading events in the Edmonton area. I’m very excited about this new publishing adventure and will keep you posted as more details emerge.

Right now we’re in the early stages, kicking around cover design ideas, zoning in on the final edit, smoking cigars … and I’ve just sent three copies out into the universe to writers who have generously and graciously agreed to write blurbs for the back of the book.

This book charts much of the same volatile territory as White Shirt – lust, family, secrets, lies. I can confirm that there’s a lot of kissing in this book, and a lot of water. It’s a wet, wet book. From joyous pillow lips to night swimming, first love to last rites, Kissing Keeps Us Afloat is awash in things that buoy us and things that nearly destroy us.

“MacFayden’s poems are bright, colorful splashes of language … boisterous,
roughhousing, tomboyish poems. But for all of their energy
and muscle-flexing, they have a wonderful, carefully crafted artistry
that contains and balances their zesty play on words, zany metaphors
and sexual exuberance. … Poetry and humanity both need her lusty,
never-give-up, never-stay-down spirit wrapped in masterfully executed poems.”
(Rob Jacques, poet and technical writer)