Bio Douglas Coupland is Canadian, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he continues to live and work. Coupland has studied art and design in Vancouver, Canada, Milan, Italy and Sapporo, Japan. His first novel, Generation X, was published in March of 1991. Since then he has published nine novels and several non-fiction books in 35 languages and most countries on earth. He has written and performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England, and in 2001 resumed his practice as a visual artist, with exhibitions in spaces in North America, Europe and Asia. 2006 marks the premiere of the feature film Everything's Gone Green, his first story written specifically for the screen and not adapted from any previous work. A TV series (13 one-hour episodes) based on his novel, "jPod" premieres on the CBC in January, 2008. His most recent novel is, "The Gum Thief." Notes The Canadian Air Force was merged into the Canadian Armed Forces in 1966. The Canadian Armed Forces Base in Baden-Sollingen was decommissioned in 1996. Comments Sometimes I'll be introduced onstage at book events by a speaker saying, "Mr Coupland is German and once did an advertisement for Smirnoff vodka. He collects meteorites and lives in Scotland in a house with no furniture." Sometimes the bios are so weird that I'm frozen and have to take a second before I can walk. Actually, this sort of intro actually used to be much more common than it is now, so I think Google and the rest are getting far more accurate. Nonetheless, all sorts of mis-data still exists out there. Please consider the info presented here as fully accurate. The Books Because my writing comes from a different place (art school) than most other fiction, it tends to not fit into too many molds, and each book tends to be quite different than the one preceding it - which is, after a dozen books, my own pattern. "Life After God," say, is radically different from "jPod," and as a consequence I have frequently received polarized responses from readers who love/hate books in comparison with each other. The most fascinating reviews are from people who've read just two books, which seems to bring out their "Inner Simpsons Comic Book Man." If I had to read just two of my books, I'd read "Hey Nostradamus!" and "jPod." One regret I have is that I'll never be able to read my own books out of sequence. I wonder what it might be like to read "Miss Wyoming" and then "Generation X" and then "Eleanor Rigby" - I wonder what the books would feel like without the aid of chronology. The meteorite thing Since 1992 there have been bizarre and persistent rumors that I collect meteorites, live in Scotland, don't own furniture or art, and live in a house designed by someone named 'Ron Thon.' Huh? The weird thing is, after a decade of being falsely told I collect meteorites, I thought about it and realized, 'that's not actually a bad idea.' So now I really do collect meteorites. But I don't live in Scotland - never did. I own a fair amount of furniture and art (I make the stuff) and the house I live in was designed by Canadian modernist master Ron ThoM. I live in Vancouver, and recommend that others do the same. The vodka thing In 1998 I did a fundraiser ad for Absolut that raised $10,000 for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. I wish I'd taken a photo of me handing over a novelty oversized check for that amount but I didn't. Consequently people think I did it just to do it. It was in small print at the ad's bottom, but few people bothered to read it. Live and learn. In November 2006 I did a promotion for the Blackberry Pearl. Some people think this was weird but I dont. My fee was a terrific way to raise money for the Contemporary Art Gallery in downtown Vancouver. People can forget that as a writer your ways of fundraising for charity are extremely limited. Painters can donate paintings to auctions, but writers? Donating books is one option, but it won't raise much. To raise a meaningful sum I think you really have to put yourself out there.