Author Annabel Lyon is shown on 4th Ave in Vancouver, October 15, 2009.Lyle Stafford
Lyon was called "shy" and "introverted" as she blinked hesitantly in the sudden glare of national publicity this summer, named a finalist in all three of the literary contests that dictate success or failure in publishing. But the myth of the stage-struck ingénue evaporated as her novel, The Golden Mean , experienced exponential sales increases and went on to win the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. In its place emerged a serious practitioner of great skill and poise, with deals in hand from nine foreign publishers, including kingmaker Sonny Mehta at Knopf in New York. How could a writer willing to devote eight years to the fictional recreation of the life of Aristotle, while giving birth to and nurturing two children, possibly be timid? Lyon is no mouse, and her roar will not soon subside.