Meet Doug Cockell, top-ranked author (and UTSC alum) who produces them
Doug Cockell, UTSC grad from the Class of 1969, is an artist and author. After his BA, he completed a Master of Arts degree (1971) at the St. George campus, followed by a Bachelor of Education (1973). He spent thirty years as a teacher of English, Media Studies and Art.
This past November, Doug released the third book in his Requiem series (Requiem for Mary Mac, Dunhill Clare Publishing). These supernatural (ghost story) detective thrillers quickly rose to number one on Kindle Unlimited. The author recently spoke to us about his journey as a novelist – and how U of T figures into his books and career in profound ways.
"Robertston Davies is the prototype of the character A.L. Rouhl"
Tell me about your time at UTSC – what memories stand out for you?
It was an important time for me. I was probably one of the first students to actively use the TV studios at UTSC. The studio had black and white cameras brought up from City TV. I did an adaptation of “The Bacchae,” and directed this video production with my fellow students. They brought in a fellow from CBC to mentor me.
TV was a big deal back then. The school saw it as the future. In a way, UTSC was built around TV. All the classrooms were linked to the electronics. When I was later teaching (I taught for 30 years) I did a lot of media studies.
Did your time at U of T influence your work at all?
Robertston Davies is the prototype of the character A.L. Rouhl, who is a great literary scion in book one (Requiem for Thursday). In fact, the Robertson Davies figure is in all three books.
I did a graduate level course with Robertson Davies at Massey College. He was probably writing Fifth Business when I was there. He was the Master of Massey College, so the class was held in his home. It was a marvelous environment. There were candelabras and a grand piano.
Historically in Canadian fiction, the landscape is depicted as a barren wasteland of wilderness. What is it about the local landscape of the GTA that turns this on its head and inspires supernatural stories for you?
I’m a big fan of James Lee Burke. He’s got a series with a Cajun detective, Dave Robichaux. His novels are set in New Iberia and New Orleans, with the bayou and live oak trees. I was so fascinated by his wonderful stuff I went down there to New Iberia to see it for myself.
I was standing on Main Street looking at a bayou and I had this realization: It was just like any other community. Burke was romanticizing his home town.
I decided to make my own community the base for my stories and romanticize [it]. I realized there was some spectacular atmosphere right here. For instance, the first book takes place around the Art Gallery of Burlington. The second takes place mostly on the (Hamilton) escarpment. The third is set just north, hear the Halton County Radial Railway Museum, which is filled with old streetcars.
The Requiem series revolves around the trope of the detective. What is it about the detective genre that is so enduring for readers?
There’s an attraction to the familiar. The detective story is an enduring but very necessary storytelling tradition. In the Requiem series, the detective protagonist of the books is a Renaissance man, and his assistant is an ‘every man’ character. I have a friend who was a detective and worked as a body guard, and he kept me honest.
Your books are available in paperback and hardcover, but they have been doing very well on Amazon’s Kindle site (Book 1, Requiem for Thursday, reached #1 on Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited platform in five different categories. Requiem for Mary Mac also received a #1 badge). Why is it a good thing to have a top-ranked author on Kindle Unlimited – which lets readers with subscriptions read the books for free?
It’s all about visibility. There are millions of books out there, especially on the U.S. Amazon site. How do you get anybody to notice your books?
When you publish on Amazon, you publish world-wide. We made the books free in the first week of release. They were downloaded in 11 countries. You want to hit the top 100 when they go on the Amazon site. You want to try to keep it there on the hot new releases shelf. Because of the way that Amazon is structured, if a book remains on the bestsellers and hot new releases for two months, it gets double the exposure.
The Requiem series is available on Amazon.
Images: Top: Doug Cockell stands before the Bladen building, circa 1968/69; mid: Doug Cockell (blue sweater, back) stands with several others in UTSC's film studio, circa 1968/69; bottom: Doug Cockell today (All images courtesy of Doug Cockell)