CANOE -- JAM! Books: Talking to Lemony Snicket

Notorious recluse Lemony Snicket caught on film by Meridith Heuer.

Lemony Snicket loves doom and gloom. But the seemingly never-ending slide of the world economy has even him worried.

"I think there�s going to be another film," his representative Daniel Handler says cautiously. Hollywood executives are planning a sequel to the 2004 adaptation of his "Series of Unfortunate Events" books, he reveals. But as layoffs blaze across North America, neither Handler or Lemony have any idea when � or if � Jim Carrey will suit up to play Count Olaf again.

In the meantime, Handler, who was fired from the first film, is riding out this economic storm by helping Lemony focus his attention on more kids� books, dropping first the tongue-in-cheek "Lump of Coal" last Christmas, and more recently his humourous skewering of classical music, "The Composer is Dead."

Packaged with a CD of orchestral compositions conducted by Snicket�s childhood friend, Nathaniel Stookey, this latest harbinger of doom is aimed at getting younger readers, er, interested in the symphony, Handler says.

"Well, Lemony and I share the same musical memories," Handler chuckles as strains of Robert Drasnin�s eclectic jazz play in his Vancouver hotel room. "When I was about nine, I got a hold of Beethoven�s 3rd Symphony on cassette. That was a gateway drug for me. I really like to blame that first symphony as being the first sip of beer that leads to the heroin addict wandering around alleys.

"So I thought, why not spread that to other children?"

Set up as a murder-mystery � a composer has died under somewhat dubious circumstances � the inspector/ narrator maintains that there are killer instruments in the orchestra, and he intends to bring them to justice.

"Prokofiev�s music is gorgeous," says Handler, referring to perhaps the most famous piece for narrator and orchestra � "Peter and the Wolf." "But the story is really�insipid and kind of insulting. I saw an opportunity to write a story that might speak more directly about the instruments.

"Then I came up with an idea," he continues with a laugh. "Since orchestras are known for butchering the work of composers, why shouldn�t they be known for butchering a composer actually?"

Part Agatha Christie, part "Clue" board game ("I�ve seen that movie nine times, but none of them have been until after I was after 30," Handler says), the inspector points fingers at the cellos and basses in hopes of finding his killer.

"On the contrary," they reply. "We don�t feel the need to show off like certain stringed instruments we could mention."

Paired with Carson Ellis� illustrations, �The Composer� is a mere appetizer of bigger things to come, according to Handler.

�(Lemony) likes to think of it as being part of a more ambitious work,� he says. �This is almost like the story at the end of the newscast that starts with, �The cat was incinerated when��

Don�t ask him what the tales will be about though.

"I never like to make promises, particularly while travelling, because if I�m run over, then no, there won�t be any more."

The same goes for any future movies based on the "Series of Unfortunate Events."

"I wrote eight drafts of the screenplay for the first movie and I was fired. So far, I�ve written two drafts for the new movie so I anticipate that I will be fired in years to come. But given the state of the economy, I guess we might all be fired in years to come."

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