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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ly 26 ,2 01 8 | 32323 © 2017 MNA(C)I. All rights reserved. The Michelin Man is a registered trademark owned by Michelin North America, Inc. JENSENTIRE SALES 928Winston Churchill Blvd, Oakville 905-338-9919 • jensentire.ca MICHELIN® PILOT® Sport 4 S tire GENUINE PASSION. EXCEPTIONAL DRIVES. OSC Smile Moment of the Week Week 10 Photo Contest Winner Photographer: Leucio Palozzi Sponsored by: The Oakville Beaver Age Division: U8 ADP Presented by: Despite what his fan- tastical prose might indi- cate, Oakville author Mi- chael Mirolla wants you to know that his day-to-day life is normal: "Very, very normal." The widely lauded Oak- ville author often writes what he describes as "magical realism," fiction that starts with a normal- seeming situation, but evolves into one that "falls off into this other world, this other reality. It looks like an ordinary group of situations, then some- thing weird happens." The result is serious and dark, as in the case of his latest release, The Photographer in Search of Death. Published by Exile Editions near the end of last year, the collection of short stories combines magical realism with speculative fiction. Most of the stories have been previously published in magazines and journals, but the book gives them a permanent home among other birds of a feather. "Houses have rooms that appear and disap- pear. Very real objects, in- vaded by an unbelievable force, become believably unreal," says the book's online description. Mirolla - who has writ- ten more than a dozen published books, includ- ing novels, short stories and poetry - says he sees magical realism as a way to force the reader to think more deeply. "The thing about litera- ture is (that) it has to get you into those dark places, or places you don't nor- mally go, so you experi- ence something that makes you think," he ex- plained. "My personal life and habits are very, very normal." Mirolla was born in Ita- ly and immigrated to Mon- treal as a child. He first moved to Ontario in 1993, first to Mount Forest in Wellington County. The town, built on a hill, boasts the motto "High, Healthy, Happy," and about 5,000 residents. Af- ter the bustling cityscape of Montreal, it "took a lot of getting used to." He and his wife Jackie moved from Toronto to Oakville in 2012 after his son asked if they would like to live with him when he was planning to buy a home. "It's more peaceful, def- initely, than Toronto," said Mirolla, also a book publisher who works out of a home office. When he needs to meet a client, he heads over to his local: Symposium Cafe at Upper Middle Road West and Third Line. Mirolla bought the pub- lishing company, Guerni- ca Editions, with a partner in 2009. The publishing house will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Oct. 27 with a party at Toron- to's Harbourfront Centre, held during the Interna- tional Festival of Authors. In his role as editor-in- chief, he reads up to 200 submitted manuscripts a year. With 40 years of edit- ing experience, previous- ly for newspapers before getting into the book world, he says it's easy to go from 200 submissions to 30 when deciding which to publish. "The first thing you look for is the writing," Mirolla said. "Fifty per cent (of the time) you can tell after the first couple pages that they're not go- ing to make the grade, usually because of the writing." Halving that to the 15 books Guernica will print each year is a much hard- er task. It often depends on how much the material differs from what was published last year, or what other publishers have released. "The one thing we don't do, which Penguin and Random House do, is show a manuscript to our mar- keting department (to see how well it will sell)," he said, adding he takes much joy in helping choose, refine and release good writing. "You're helping to cre- ate ... Helping to put out that voice." LOCAL AUTHOR MICHAEL MIROLLA TALKS NORMAL LIFE, ABNORMAL FICTION Oakville author Michael Mirolla's recent book is a collection of short stories called 'The Photographer in Search of Death.' Supplied photo SAIRA PEESKER sairapeesker @metroland.com BOOKS HIS LATEST BOOK, 'THE PHOTOGRAPHER IN SEARCH OF DEATH' IS A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES HE DESCRIBES AS 'MAGICAL REALISM.' Get ready to be futuristi- cally entertained, Oak- ville. That's a pretty safe bet for those visiting Moon- shine Café this Sunday (Ju- ly 29), when Oakville Im- prov is joined by Illusio- noid in a joint perfor- mance. A biweekly improvised comedy podcast in the style of old-time radio shows like Inner Sanctum and X Mi- nus One, Illusionoid - set in the distant future where humanity has its last stand against a tyrant computer - is performed by Paul Bates (CTV's Dan For Mayor, Sec- ond City), Lee Smart (Com- edy Network's 5th Quad- rant, Second City) and Nug Nahrgang (Dark Rising: Summer Strikes Back, Sy- Fy's Scare Tactics). Sunday's performance kicks off at 7:30 p.m. with Oakville Improv taking the stage and Illusionoid set to follow. Admission is $5. Moonshine Café is locat- ed at 137 Kerr St. COMEDY PODCAST TRIO TO JOIN OAKVILLE IMPROV IN JOINT PERFORMANCE SUNDAY COMMUNITY