To celebrate the Canada Reads 2008 winning book King Leary, we asked you to send in your questions for author Paul Quarrington, and he chose 10 to answer. Those whose questions were picked received a copy of King Leary signed by Paul and defending panelist Dave Bidini, a signed Canada Reads 2008 poster, and a gift certificate for the CBC Shop. Thanks to all who entered the contest. Without further ado, here is Paul Quarrington’s candid online Q&A session, as directed by you!

1. There was so much sensitivity on the subject of elder care, and an increasingly “spiralling” aged mind, in your novel. All of this rang true with me and the final months of my own father’s life, and this is what endeared me to your book. What, if any, personal experiences, should you care to share, enabled you to write with this much intuitiveness on the subject of an elderly gentleman in the twilight of his life?
Gail Nally
Seven Sisters Falls, Manitoba

First of all, thanks for your kind words. I was going to say that I relied mostly on imagination, the fiction writer’s greatest tool, but then I remembered that my maternal grandmother had what was likely Alzheimer’s Disease, although in those benighted days we simply used the word “senility.” At any rate, I can remember as a little boy being fascinated with the way my grandmother would come in and out of what I considered “reality” and the notion that she might have been in contact with ghosts from her past—in the most literal sense, as is Percival Leary—occurred to me then.

2. If Shakespeare had played hockey, which position would he have played, what team (and in what year) would he have played for, and what would have been his most memorable game?
Susan MacRae

Great question, Susan. First of all: he would have been a defenceman. A stay-at-home defenceman. He would have quietly watched the goings-on and kept his own counsel. (Most writers have this voyeuristic tendency.) Now, when I think of Shakespeare in terms of hockey (which is, in fact, what I did when I wrote King Leary) I think of the historical plays, and the theme of the throne and pretension to it. So I immediately think of an era when the mantle of “Greatest Player” was up for grabs. And I think of the late ‘80s. Who was the King of the Ice? Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux? And what was the great dramatic moment of their rivalry? Why, when they played together on the 1987 Canada Cup team and scored that most beautiful goal that won the series. So, what we need is a workmanlike defenceman from that team, so the answer to your question is: Shakespeare would have been Craig Hartsburg.