Timothy L. Phillips – a new print edition of a travel/memoir
November 27, 2017 islandeditions	Author promotion, Book Recommendations, memoir, print books, promotion, reading, self-publishing, traditional publishing, travel	Tags: author promotion, Canadian author, memoir, My Camino Walk, print, promotion, reading, self-publishing, Timothy L. Phillips, traditional publishing, writing	1 Comment
Timothy L. Phillips was previously featured on Reading Recommendations when the eBook version of this book was first published in June, 2016. The print version has just been published. (I'm very proud to have published this book as well as many more through IslandCatEditions. smt)
My Camino Walk: A Way to Healing
Published by IslandCatEditions
Print edition includes photos
Available to purchase here and here
Timothy Phillips celebrated his sixtieth birthday by hiking Spain's Camino de Santiago. The almost eight hundred kilometer trek became a month-long test of physical stamina, with weather extremes, a range of fellow pilgrims, and hours of introspection that caused him to question his childhood, his life, and many long-held ideas and beliefs. These challenges shook loose the very foundations of his being. Timothy brings a photographer's eye to detailed descriptions of the trek that appeal to all the senses and invites the reader to join him on his healing journey.
"The record of a journey through a mythic landscape is a staple of world literature. In My Camino Walk Timothy L. Phillips describes his personal journey across the rugged terrain between France and Spain. Along the trail, he meets an international cast of characters, each drawn with the same precision as his exquisite landscape writing. My Camino Walk is a journey his readers will share and treasure forever."
~ J. Michael Fay, author of Passion, The Healer and Tenderness
My Camino Walk recently received a favourable review on Kevin Brennan's blog. (Kevin has been previously featured a number of times on Reading Recommendations.)
For more information about the book and Timothy, or for updates and more photos by the author, please go to his blog, Camino De Tim.
Margaret Mackey
May 29, 2017 islandeditions	Author promotion, Book Recommendations, memoir, non-fiction, print books, promotion, reading, scholarly, traditional publishing	Tags: author promotion, Canadian author, Margaret Mackey, memoir, non-fiction, One Child Reading, print, promotion, reading, traditional publishing, University of Alberta Press, writing	3 Comments
What is your latest release and what genre is it? One Child Reading: My Auto-Bibliography / nonfiction
Quick description: "The miracle of the preserved word, in whatever medium—print, audio text, video recording, digital exchange—means that it may transfer into new times and new places." — From the Introduction
Margaret Mackey draws together memory, textual criticism, social analysis, and reading theory in an extraordinary act of self-study. In One Child Reading, she makes a singular contribution to our understanding of reading and literacy development. Seeking a deeper sense of what happens when we read, Mackey revisited the texts she read, viewed, listened to, and wrote as she became literate in the 1950s and 1960s in St. John's, Newfoundland. This tremendous sweep of reading included school texts, knitting patterns, musical scores, and games, as well as hundreds of books. The result is not a memoir, but rather a deftly theorized exploration of how a reader is constructed. One Child Reading is an essential book for librarians, classroom teachers, those involved in literacy development in both scholarly and practical ways, and all serious readers.
Margaret Mackey is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta. She has published widely on the subject of young people's reading and their multimedia and digital literacies. A voracious reader, she lives in Edmonton.
Links to buy Margaret's book:
Margaret's promo links:
At this moment (apart from moving house and closing my office), I'm just getting started on a project that has the potential to be very intriguing. In the fall I will be recruiting some undergraduates to create a digital map for me of a place that was very important to their early literacy. It can be a real-life landscape or a fictional one (acknowledging that some urban children don't spend much time out of doors). I will invite them to annotate their map with any kind of records they can come up with – written comments, photographs, videos, audio, interactive ways to "travel" around the landscape, and anything else they can think of. I'll interview them about the map: why they chose this landscape, what makes the annotations meaningful to them, what they remember more broadly about their literate lives at the time this map was meaningful to them. Pilot work has established that this method of approach can bring out expanded memories of an important stage in developing literacy; and while it is a tool to help articulate these memories, it also allows for some very eloquent forms of expression in its own right. I'm excited to get going on the full-stage project. The idea arose from the work I did for One Child Reading; I was very surprised to re-discover how important my own landscape had been to me and I began to wonder if it was the same for other readers. The pilot work suggests that the answer is yes.
Margaret's reading recommendation:
I am very happy to recommend a wonderful book called Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada. It's by Allan Casey and was published in 2009. Casey talks about the huge significance of lakes to many, many Canadian psyches. He begins with his "own" lake in Saskatchewan and visits at least one lake in every province except PEI. Some of these are working lakes, others are cottage country lakes, and some are just wild. I haven't been to every lake he mentions but I've been to a number of them, and I've also driven across Canada three times, which certainly gives anyone a strong sense of what a lake-bound country this is. I don't think you would need this level of experience to enjoy the book, but it would certainly help a reader if they loved at least one lake, wherever it is.
Bruce Meyer – update on a new anthology
May 1, 2017 islandeditions	anthology, Author promotion, Book Recommendations, eco literature, fiction, Literary Fiction, print books, promotion, reading, science, series, traditional publishing	Tags: anthology, author promotion, Bruce Meyer, Canadian author, Cli-fi, Exile Editions, fiction, literary fiction, print, promotion, reading, short fiction, short stories, writing	Leave a comment
Bruce Meyer has previously been featured on Reading Recommendations promoting his own book of poetry and with a guest post about writing on my main blog. He's back now with news of an anthology he has edited for Exile Editions that I believe is an important publication.
CLI-FI: Canadian Tales of Climate Change
The Exile Book of Anthology Series: Number Fourteen
Edited by Bruce Meyer
Published by Exile Editions
With the world facing the greatest global crisis of all time – climate change – personal and political indifference has wrought a series of unfolding complications that are altering our planet, and threatening our very existence. Reacting to the warnings sounded by scientists and thinkers, writers are responding imaginatively to the seriousness of changing ocean conditions, the widening disappearance of species, genetically modified organisms, increasing food shortages, mass migrations of refugees, and the hubris behind our provoking Mother Earth herself. These stories of Climate Fiction (Cli-fi) feature perspectives by culturally diverse Canadian writers of short fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and futurist works, and transcend traditional doomsday stories by inspiring us to overcome the bleak forecasted results of our current indifference.
Authors: George McWhirter, Richard Van Camp, Holly Schofield, Linda Rogers, Sean Virgo, Rati Mehrotra, Geoffrey W. Cole, Phil Dwyer, Kate Story, Leslie Goodreid, Nina Munteanu, Halli Villegas, John Oughton, Frank Westcott, Wendy Bone, Peter Timmerman, Lynn Hutchinson Lee, with an afterword by internationally acclaimed writer and filmmaker, Dan Bloom.
Where to purchase Cli-fi
And if you are in Toronto on May 7th, the book will be launched …
Sunday, May 7, at the SUPERMARKET Restaurant & Bar
268 Augusta Avenue (Kennsington Market) 3:00–5:30
Readings start at 3:30
Featuring: Geoffrey W. Cole, Rati Mehrotra, Peter Timmerman, Leslie Goodreid, Halli Villegas,
John Oughton, Nina Munteanu, Lynn Hutchinson-Lee
Bob Van Laerhoven – Stories of Inspiration anthology
April 24, 2017 April 23, 2017 islandeditions	anthology, Author promotion, Book Recommendations, mystery, non-fiction, print books, promotion, reading, series, traditional publishing	Tags: anthology, author promotion, Bob Van Laerhoven, non-fiction, print, promotion, reading, series, Stories of Inspiration, traditional publishing, writing	Leave a comment
Bob Van Laerhoven has been previously featured several times on Reading Recommendations. He's here now to tell us of him inclusion in a new anthology of mystery writers.
Stories of Inspiration: Mystery Fiction Edition
mystery fiction writers trace their journeys from starting point to finished work
edited by Suzanne Fox
Published by Stories of You Books
Genre: Anthology of non-fiction
Where do works of mystery fiction find their starting points? How are those seeds, sources and inspirations transformed into a well crafted, compelling story? Why is murder such an enduring starting point for fiction? How do elements such as setting, period and milieu help drive and define mystery writers?
Collecting insights from both established authors and new voices and reflecting mystery moods from the cozy to the chilling, Stories of Inspiration: Mystery Fiction Edition charts the often surprising journey from an original point of departure to a finished mystery novel.
Illuminating the writing of exceptional authors, celebrating one of fiction's most long- and deeply loved genres, and illuminating the nature of the creative process itself, Stories of Inspiration: Mystery Fiction Edition will appeal to readers of literature and fiction, lovers of mystery, and writers seeking inspiration for their own work.
Contributors include:
Diana Bretherick, Frances Brody, Elizabeth Buhmann, Nancy J. Cohen, Christine Goff, Steven Gore, Erin Hart, Linda Hengerer, James Tate Hill. Andrew Hughes, D.E. Ireland, J. Sydney Jones, M.R.C. Kasasian, Jennifer Kincheloe, Mary Lawrence, John Mackie, ​Edith Maxwell, Grant McKenzie, Camille Minichino, Joe Moore & Lynn Sholes, Toby Neal, Chris Nickson, Ann Parker, Eliot Pattison, Michael Ransom, Holly Robinson, Barbara Ross, Joanna Campbell Slan, Maggie Toussaint, Wendy Tyson, Bob van Laerhoven, Tina Whittle, Michael Wiley, Max Wirestone, Michael Zolezzi.
Bob Van Laerhoven says: I'm honored to have been invited to contribute, as the only Belgian author, to this American anthology of essays on writing mysteries, from inspiration to the final result.
Where to purchase:
Stories of You Books
Michael Kelly – an update on a new anthology
April 24, 2017 April 23, 2017 islandeditions	anthology, Author promotion, Book Recommendations, dark fiction, fiction, Horror, Literary Fiction, print books, promotion, reading, series, Short Story, traditional publishing	Tags: author promotion, Canadian author, fiction, literary fiction, Michael Kelly, print, promotion, reading, Shadows & Tall Trees, short fiction, short stories, short story, traditional publishing, Undertow Books, writing	Leave a comment
Michael Kelly has been previously featured on Reading Recommendations. He's back now with news of a new anthology of fiction he has edited and published.
edited by Michael Kelly
Published by Undertow Books
Genre: Anthology of Weird Fiction
The acclaimed literary anthology Shadows & Tall Trees has featured authors short-listed for the Man Booker Award, and World Fantasy Award winners. Several of our stories have been reprinted in "Year's Best" anthologies and have garnered numerous award nominations. The premiere anthology of weird fiction.
Shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award!
Shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award!
"Shadows and Tall Trees is a smart, soulful, illuminating investigation of the many forms and tactics available to those writers involved in one of our moment's most interesting and necessary projects, that of opening up horror literature to every sort of formal interrogation. It is a beautiful and courageous series."
– Peter Straub
ALL NEW STRANGE TALES FROM:
Brian Evenson, Malcolm Devlin, Rebecca Kuder, V.H. Leslie, Robert Levy, Laura Mauro, Manish Melwani, Alison Moore, Harmony Neal, Rosalie Parker, M. Rickert, Nicholas Royle, Robert Shearman, Christopher Slatsky, Simon Strantzas, Steve Rasnic Tem, Michael Wehunt, Charles Wilkinson, and Conrad Williams
Michael Kelly is the Series Editor for the Year's Best Weird Fiction. He has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the British Fantasy Society Award. His fiction has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Black Static, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 21 & 24, Supernatural Tales, Postscripts, Weird Fiction Review, and has been collected in Scratching the Surface, and Undertow & Other Laments. He owns and runs Undertow Publications. Undertow Publications is home to two acclaimed series' of anthologies: Year's Best Weird Fiction, and Shadows & Tall Trees.
Undertow Books
Roy Dimond – update on a new novel
April 24, 2017 April 23, 2017 islandeditions	Author promotion, Book Recommendations, fiction, novel, print books, promotion, reading, self-help, traditional publishing, YA Novel, Young Readers/Adult	Tags: author promotion, Canadian author, fiction, I Bully, Motivational Press, novel, print, promotion, reading, Roy Dimond, self-help, traditional publishing, YA fiction, YA novel	Leave a comment
Roy Dimond has be featured previously on Reading Recommendations here and here. He's back now to tell us about a new novel.
I, Bully
by Roy Dimond
Published by Motivational Press
I, Bully addresses the serious issue of cyber bullying. What makes this story unique is that it is told from the perspective of both the bully and the victim.
The two main characters, the victim, Hannah, and the bully, Eric, learn from each other in ways they could never have imagined.
Hannah is a typical young girl in grade 8. She's completely focused on friends and feels her family doesn't understand. Hannah also feels invisible and her perception is that her older sister gets all the attention. It's a good, middle-class family, but struggling. Eric is also in grade 8, but his family is dysfunctional. Dad drinks and mom is barely keeping it together. Eric is filled with rage and takes it out on everyone.
Eventually, spirit quests and restorative justice help build relationships that lead to enlightenment and reconciliation.
Roy Dimond's exciting new novel I, Bully will empower and touch all who read it.
Where to purchase Roy's book:
Motivational Press