Rock Plaza Central's Chris Eaton Working On New Book... About Chris Eatons

The Weakerthans, The National and The Decemberists might constitute rock 'n' roll's literati — perhaps rightfully so.

But while the Weakerthans frontman John K. Sampson has been a panelist on CBC's Canada Reads, he's got nothing on the literary career of his recent tourmate Chris Eaton, a member of Rock Plaza Central.

Not to slight Samson, who's an excellent poet in his own right, but Eaton actually has a literary career. He's the author of The Inactivist and The Grammar Architect, novels that have appeared on three different college syllabi in America, and he's working on a new book, tentatively titled Chris Eaton: A Biography.

Despite its title, it's not just about Chris Eaton, Canadian rock personality. Rather, it's about 25 different Chris Eatons, and is supposedly inspired by doppelgangers he's met in other parts of the world.

His characters never meet, but their lives are intertwined by coincidence and similarities — a statement about the commonalities people encounter living their lives in disparate places. Eaton hasn't released any further details about the book.

Rock Plaza Central concluded a U.S. tour with The Weakerthans in September in support of this year's mellow ...At The Moment Of Our Most Needing. But don't expect them to be hitting the road anytime soon.

Eaton says he's taking time off to focus on Chris Eaton: A Biography, a book he started long ago.

"I actually started the book while I was living in Panama four years ago, right before recording [2006's] Are We Not Horses, and then immediately got caught up in all these requests for us to come tour," he says.

"But being on the road can be horrible on the kind of writing that I do, where I need my complete focus at all times.”