And Everything Nice is a novelette (short novel) from Orca Book Publishers’ Rapid Reads series of easy-read fiction for adults. It is narrated by twenty-four-year-old Steph, a mall store manager, who still lives with her mother in the townhouse where she grew up. Her life isn’t in a rut, exactly, but at her mother’s suggestion, she joins a community rock choir to change things up. Soon, she’s singing rock songs in four-part harmony, and has met new people from all walks of life, including Anna Rai, a local TV personality.
Anna confides in Steph that she’s worried when a notebook that she uses as her personal journal goes missing at choir practice. What if it falls into the wrong hands, and her secrets are made public? When a blackmailer gets in touch, demanding cash in exchange for the notebook, Anna asks street-smart Steph for help. Together, the two women lay a trap for the crook. And in solving the mystery of the missing notebook, Steph learns some life lessons about truth, lies and honesty.
Available March 2011.
In The Restoration of Emily, architect and single mother Emily Harada has structured a well-ordered existence around her work restoring historic houses, and the parenting of her teenage son Jesse. But her carefully laid foundation cracks when she develops an nagging ache in her shoulder, has her architectural integrity questioned, and feels shut out by Jesse’s assertions of independence. What she doesn’t need right now – or does she? – are the romantic attentions of a former student, an attractive but much younger man. Or for an old acquaintance to resurface with questions about a Bronze Age artifact that Emily might have stolen, once upon a time, in her youth.
Emily, her son, and the two-thousand-year-old artifact all come of age in this funny and moving novel about motherhood, middle age, and one woman’s attempt to restore herself to a state of grace that combines the best elements of past and present, old and new.
Serialized on CBC Radio’s Between the Covers.
Historic homes, ravines, and family secrets all figure in The Glenwood Treasure, a curl-up and enjoy work of literary fiction that updates and honours the traditions of such suspense classics as Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar and Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca.
The plot concerns shy schoolteacher Blithe Morrison, who takes refuge for the summer with her affluent parents after the breakdown of her marriage. Blithe’s return home evokes memories of a lifelong sibling rivalry with her golden boy older brother, now a diplomat posted in England. But when she befriends a lonely eleven-year-old girl, and takes on a local history research project, Blithe uncovers truths about a rumoured buried treasure that forever alter her perceptions of her family, her friends, and herself.
Shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel.
Serialized in 15 parts on CBC Radio’s Between the Covers.
Old Flames is a comic and touching tale about the choices women make, about finding your dreams in the everyday, and about the unexpected friendship that grows between two women: a stay-at-home mom and an ambitious advertising executive. It’s also a homage to Broadway musicals!
“Delightful … it sings … the first person narrative creates an intimacy between the reader and the characters, who lift off the page and become old friends.”
– The Globe and Mail
“Like her protagonists, Moritsugu’s writing style is neighbourly and clever … a breezy enjoyable read … a poignant reflection about the choices we make.”
– Montreal Gazette
“Kim Moritsugu is the Tom Wolfe of midtown Toronto. With spot-on accuracy, she captures the mores and motions of life in a middle class neighbourhood, creating a sharply comic yet affectionate picture.”
– Toronto Star
Looks Perfect is a fast-paced romantic comedy about the deceptive nature of appearances, set at a women’s magazine and narrated by fashion editor Rosemary McKinnon. The single and irreverent Rosemary is half-French and half-Vietnamese, was adopted and raised by WASP parents, and longs for the day when no one asks her where she’s from, exactly.
Shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award.
“One of the most appealing heroines in current Canadian fiction.” – Toronto Star
“Highly entertaining—a romantic comedy with an edge.” – Books in Canada
“Comedic and clever, Looks Perfect is an impressive debut.” – Calgary’s FFWD
An excerpt from The Glenwood Treasure appears in City of Words, a book about Toronto as it’s been depicted by writers.
Kim’s short story “A Taste of Honey” in the Toronto Noir crime story anthology, published by Akashic Books, was adapted into a theatre piece by Heather Davies and produced at the 2009 Summerworks festival.
Kim’s comic essay “When in Doubt, Scream,” appears in First Writes, a collection of essays about writers’ first times being published.
