"Darlene Madott weaves an intricate web in the connected short stories of Closing Ceremonies exploring the complex messy lives of the lovable Francesca, her friends and enemies. Very often laugh-out-loud funny! Always intelligent and full of heart."- Laurie Gough, author of Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, Kiss the Sunset Pig, and Stolen Child

"Madott’s short stories remind me of why I love the genre. They need to be read and reread. So many left me breathless in admiration."- Caterina Edwards, author of Finding Rosa, The Sicilian Wife, The Lion’s Mouth, Island of the Nightingales

"Madott’s short stories are haunting meditations by a fine artist blessed with a scrupulous intelligence."- Guy Vanderhaeghe, author of Man Descending, The Englishman’s Boy, The Last Crossing

"Darlene Madott is snared in a spiderweb of rivalry, resentment and grief in this wise and compelling meditation on death, loss and forgiveness. Written in a frank and crisp style, Dying Times offers compelling life lessons for the young as well as the aged. I couldn’t put it down."- Sandra Martin, author of A Good Death and Working the Dead Beat and contributing writer for the Globe and Mail

I now feel less alone in the world. You are talking about your family but you are also talking about every family. You see the value of parsing the human mind instead of merely cataloguing it, of looking closely at the behaviours, emotions, twists of thought that drive us all forward in our quest to find our meaning and place in the world—beyond career; beyond family, somewhere in the centre of yourself. You have a rare and wonderful capacity for abstraction, for weaving threads together to find the deeper meanings."- Emma Pivato, author of the nine-volume Claire Burke mystery series, and…and along came Alexis

"This is writing to delight in—it floats small illuminations of lyrical intelligence in the narrative, in the careful unfolding of characters and events, ideas and feelings, at ease with each other in that clear voice. So much life in Dying Times!"- George Amabile, internationally acclaimed and award-winning author of dozens of books

"I have been meaning to let you know how much I enjoyed Dying Times. You have written one of the best works of fiction (faction?) on the subject of dying and loss and done so with humour and poignancy. At times, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...Or both! The story continues to resonate with me. It is so full of truth about family and the business of loss, rarely found in writing...I could not help thinking of how Helen would have responded — approvingly, I think and maybe with some recognition."- Daniel Weinzweig, son of the late Helen Weinzweig

"Dying Times by Darlene Madott is a meditation on death, viewed through the eyes of a lawyer who is losing her mother and mentor to cancer. The novel is populated by various characters and emotional ties: the two sisters, whose hatred for one another has no bounds; the protagonist’s mentor who has supported and befriended her to the chagrin of others in the law firm; the beloved artist father whose insights into painting function as metaphor: “The first time you take a crack at a painting, you try to cover the whole canvas so you have a feeling of where everything is, finding the darkest things. Snow isn't just white. Snow, when you really see it, can look like it has a bruise.” Indeed, his perception about painting encompasses everyone in this novel, whose characters are not black-and-white, and show their bruises readily, and it extends to the perspective we take on our own lives and those of others. It is a call to delve deeply into what we think we see or know, to search those depths. The relationships in Dying Times are fully alive, and the love between these characters shines through."- Genni Gunn Author of Solitaria 

- Pitching to local media in Toronto and bigger Canadian media, feminist magazines, etc., and Canadian festivals, as well as submitting the book for relevant awards. 

- The author will be part of the St. Lawrence Writers Festival in Brockville, ON, on Saturday September 12th from 4 - 5pm. She will be part of a Contemporary Fiction Panel (Title: Chapter 13 - Word Shakers & Story Makers) followed by a book signing. Event details can be found here: https://www.stlawrencewritersfestival.ca/festival-events 

- The author has secured a speaking engagement arranged for September 19th with editor Randall Perry at WEN (Writers'/Editors' Network)

- The author will be joining Guernica's Toronto launch.

- Will be promoting the book and featuring the author on Guernica's social media.