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Vinyl Cafe Diaries

National treasure, radio genius, bestselling author: Stuart McLean has earned all three titles with books selling upwards of 100,000 copies and nearly one million listeners on his radio show each week. In his latest release, Vinyl Cafe Diaries, McLean takes fans deep into the lives of our favourite flawed family. Read on for more details — plus check out an exclusive Q&A with Dave, our VC trivia quiz and more!

We've witnessed Dave master the art of the turkey. We've peeked in on Morley's triumph over men's sporting gear. We've watched as Sam and Stephanie survive their growing pains — and their parents. Now get even closer to the Vinyl Cafe gang. In McLean's new book, readers get up close and personal with Dave, Morley, Sam and Stephanie. We find out just what grade six is doing to Sam's culinary sensibility. We discover what Stephanie is doing smooching with a university boy. We follow Dave on a mission near-impossible with a duck in Halifax. We even get the inside story on Morley and her book club. Find out more here.

Q: In Mr. McLean's book, your family members get to respond to how they feel about having stories written about them. You didn't quite finish your thoughts. How do you feel about having your innermost feelings — and sometimes very embarrassing moments — revealed to thousands of people?

A: To be quite frank, I can't remember exactly what I was going to tell you right at the end of my essay. I know it seemed really important at the time; like, I mean it was a really interesting thought and I was very excited about it, so when that courier guy ripped the page out of the typewriter I had a few choice things to say to him. I remember I was really upset because the idea was supposed to be the whole cornerstone of my essay, and I hadn't even gotten to it yet. But then when I said those things to the courier, he got this funny look on his face, like he was going to cry or something, and then I felt really bad, and we had to spend some time talking so he could calm down enough to drive.

Turns out that it was his first day on the job and everything had gone wrong and he was scared he was going to be fired. He was about nineteen years old and he had to drive his own car for the deliveries, but it was a real clunker, and his brother had taken it out the night before and driven down some bumpy gravel roads in the country and now it wasn't working so well. We went out to look at it, and I fiddled with a few things, and then we realized that he was so low on oil he was going to fry his motor. So I told him to go get the oil, and I would take the essay over to Penguin. Which I did, which turned out to be a great thing, because on the way I passed my all-time favourite Italian restaurant, and I stopped and got the family pizza for dinner (which I had been craving every since that guy came into the shop), so it all turned out to be kind of a nice day.

I hope that answers your question.

Q: You and Morley have had a long and happy marriage. What do you think your secret is to staying together through thick, thin and even the odd duck-in-a-hotel-room incident (and we're not even touching on your famous turkey-in-a-hotel fiasco)?

A: You know I don't really like to give advice about that kind of thing. I mean, all those rules you read about how to "fight fair" and how to work your way through a family discussion and how to keep romance in your life, well, they just sound like the kind of thing that people say when they are angling to get their own cheesy self-help talk show or something. Like that one about not going to bed angry. I mean if you have a conversation with your wife at 11:30 and she says something you don't agree with, and that ticks you off a bit, do you really want to go and have a big long conversation about it right then? Do you really have the energy to "clearly and rationally state your objections" or "work calmly and fairly towards a resolution" when your soft, fluffy, goose-down pillow is calling? And anyhow, I don't know how it is for you, but for me, I'm not doing my best thinking at midnight or 1:00 in the morning. If I get started in an argument at 11:30 at night, it could just go on and on and on, with me insisting on God's knows what. Sometimes Morley and I just go to bed and promise each other that we'll start the argument again in the morning when we are both feeling a bit more awake. But then once we've gotten up, had a cup of coffee, a little something to eat and brushed our teeth, neither of us can quite remember what got us so cranked up the night before.

I guess the only piece of advice I might give is to keep your marriage full of surprises. But then again, I'm not sure Morley would agree with me.

Q: You have a very close family. What are some of your hopes for Sam and Stephanie as they grow older?

A: Once, when Stephanie was really little and we were skating together down at the local arena, and she was fooling around, trying to do a little turn on her new skates, I called out to her, "There's my little Olympic skater." What a mistake. She immediately threw herself down on the ice and lay on her back in the middle of the crowded rink and refused to budge. She was just lying there sulking, all these people having to do big loops around her, until I promised her as much hot chocolate as she could drink and as many miniature marshmallows as she could stuff in her pockets. But we couldn't get her back onto skates for another two winters. So you can see why I try not to speak too often of "hopes" or anything like that, in hearing distance of the kids (and the Olympic skater comment was just one of those things parents say — I didn't mean I wanted her to be a competitive athlete or anything).

You know, I guess I would just say that I want what every other parent wants for their kids — to be happy and healthy and enjoy life.

(I also hope that neither of them decides to invest in an emu farm. But I don't really want to get into that.)

Q: Not everyone has a passion that sustains them. You have been lucky to continue your obsession with music — and even share your thoughts on the subject with a class of university students. What advice would you offer those students (once you got over looking at your hands and trying to make sense of your speaking notes) about finding a fulfilling career path?

A: Here we are again with this advice business. You guys are making me a bit uncomfortable. I understand that there are some quite decent self-help books out there already. Maybe you even publish a few. And I bet that Dr. Phil guy would be quite happy to come in here and tell everyone what he thinks about everything. But that kind of thing isn't really what I like to do. What if I said something like "follow your dreams" and it was some guy's dream to swim across the English Channel, but he wasn't really a very good swimmer and all his friends had been telling him not to do it, but then he read what I said, and thought, 'To hell with them,' and then he got in the water and drowned. I wouldn't want to be responsible for something like that.

Listen, I'm beginning to wonder, all these questions about having a happy marriage, hopes and dreams, career direction — I'm just wondering, are you guys okay? I mean, maybe you should talk to someone. Like I said, I'm not too good about giving advice, but maybe we could find you a good doctor or something. Just a thought.