B.R. Myers

B.R. Myers

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Girl on the Run is a YA contemporary coming of age novel.

Quick description: Haunted by her father’s death, seventeen-year-old, track and field star, Jesse Collins turns her back on an athletic scholarship and small town whispers to spend the summer as a camp counselor—only she didn’t plan on a cabin full of delinquents, or an unlikely source to inspire her to run again.

Brief biography:
B.R. Myers spent most of her teen years behind the covers of Stephen King, Lois Duncan, and Ray Bradbury. She collects vintage jewelry, appreciates a design in her cappuccino, and believes bacon makes everything better. When she’s not putting her characters in awkward situations she works as a registered nurse. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia with her husband and their two children.

Links to buy B.R. Myers’s book:
Chapters/Indigo
Amazon Canada
Amazon US
Barnes & Noble

B.R. Myers’s promo links:
Website
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Wattpad
Goodreads

What are you working on now?
I’m excited to be launching a new YA paranormal mystery. Night Shift, the first book in the trilogy, will be available early next year. I also have the sequel to Asp of Ascention coming out. Diadem of Death, the second book in the Nefertari Hughes Mystery Series, is due for publication July 2016. It’s available for pre-order now.

B.R. Myers’s reading recommendation:
I was able to read an advance copy of Natalie Corbett Sampson’s It Should Have Been a Good Day (February 2016).

Told through the voices of four distinct students, the book showcases how the events of a regular day at school lead to an unpredictable tragedy, proving everyone has their own reality, and no one is who they really seem to be.

Tackling a difficult subject, Sampson excels at dissecting the struggles of today’s teens with a writing style that is raw, but genuine and straight forward. With an authentic tone grounded in gritty realism, the novel shies away from morbid voyeurism and instead invites the reader to consider the negative consequences of being labeled in our society, and whether any of us has the right to judge each other.

Steven Mayoff

Steven Mayoff

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Our Lady Of Steerage. It is a novel, literary fiction.

Quick description: It is the story of the friendship between two women, Mariasse and Dora, who are a generation apart in age. It covers a period of 4 decades (1923-1962) in Montreal.

Brief biography:
I was born and raised in Montreal, lived and worked in Toronto for 17 years, and moved to Prince Edward Island in 2001, where I write full time. My first book, the story collection Fatted Calf Blues, won a PEI Book Award, was short listed for a ReLit Award and was a Top 5 Finalist for the CBC Cross-Country Bookshelf (Maritime Division).

Links to buy Steven’s book:
Nimbus Publishing
Amazon
Indigo

Steven’s promo links:
Web site
Facebook Page
Twitter
LinkedIn

What are you working on now?
I’m juggling three different writing projects: my first full-length poetry collection, Red Planet Postcards, the second draft of a new novel, The Crack In Everything, and a collection of connected short stories, Visions Of Gehenna.

Steven’s reading recommendation:
Sad Peninsula by Mark Sampson is a novel that tells the parallel stories of a Korean girl, who in World War II was abducted by the Japanese to be a “comfort girl”, and a failed Canadian journalist, who goes to Korea in the 1990s to teach ESL. Meticulously researched, the story merges the two narratives in subtle and surprising ways.

Lesley Crewe

Lesley Crewe

What is your latest release and what genre is it? Chloe Sparrow is Fiction

Quick description: Chloe  Sparrow  is  25  and  a  television  producer. She   somehow  becomes  involved  with  a  television  series  she  doesn’t  want  and  has  a   terrible  time  trying  to  adjust  to  The  Single  Guy.  Mayhem  ensues  with  her  Gramps   and  Aunt  Ollie,  while  her  best  friend  insists  she  find  a  man.  She’s  ready  to  kill   everyone.    

Brief biography:
Born in Montreal. Lives in Cape Breton. My eighth novel, Amazing Grace, will be published in September, 2015. I am one of the screenwriters for Relative Happiness, a movie based on my first novel. It’s risen to #2 at the box office for Canadian films, entering its fourth week commercially.  

Links to buy Lesley’s book:
Nimbus Publishing
Amazon

Lesley’s promo links:
Facebook
Twitter

What are you working on now?
Nothing at the moment. Too busy with film adventures!
 
To see my characters come alive was a kick. It’s like my story was suddenly in 3-­D. The entire process has been a gigantic learning curve and I have great admiration for the film industry. Our collaboration has been a blast and I have traveled far and wide for the film in the last seven months. Having my movie shown in my own local theatre is something I’ll never forget.

Listing On IMDB
Trailer for Relative Happiness

Relative Happiness Movie Tie-In edition

Lesley’s reading recommendation:
Hyperbole  and  a  Half  by  Allie  Brosh

Denise Adams

Denise Adams

What is your latest release and what genre is it? The Little Book of Sea & Soul is a small gift book.

Quick description: It contains 70 ocean-inspired reflections that are paired with my photos of sea themes.

Brief biography:
Author of Atlantic Coastal Gardening (recently shortlisted for the Best Atlantic-Published Book Award!) I hold a Master in Art and Art Education from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. I am presently with Salt Spray Holdings Inc. as a landscaping consultant and as a partner in designing custom coastal homes.

Links to buy Denise’s book:
Amazon
Chapters/Indigo
Nimbus

Denice’s promo links:
Facebook

What are you working on now?
I’m writing a folksy book about lobsters and the fishery.

Denice’s reading recommendation:
A New Leaf: Growing with my Garden by Marilyn Simonds

Paul Butler – an update on a re-release

I read Paul Butler’s novel, Hero, when it was first published in 2010 and I was the Alberta sales rep for Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press. I enjoyed reading this book so much that I “hand-sold” it not only to my bookstore and library customers, but also other reader friends I knew would enjoy it just as much. I was so pleased when Paul announced that this earlier novel was being re-released by the same publisher that I just had to invite him back to Reading Recommendations to tell us about Hero! It probably goes without saying that I highly recommend this book and its author. (Paul was previously featured here in Sept. 2014, and has been a welcome supporter since that time, so much so that I’ve listed him as one of my All-Star Authors.)

Hero
Paul Butler
published by Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press
literary fiction/historical novel

In a St. John’s hospital in 1945, Elsa Evans keeps a furtive vigil over the deathbed of Abram Kean, the renowned sealing captain. Remembering her first husband and her two brothers killed in the trenches thirty years before, and another young friend, Noah, frozen on the ice during the sealing disaster of 1914, Elsa contemplates a hideous revenge. The shock of her own bitterness forces her to retrace part of her life which is interwoven with those of her former employers, Simon and Sarah Jenson.

On the morning of July 1916, officer Lt. Simon Jenson, severely shell-shocked and demoralized after a year and a half in the trenches, fails in leadership, hanging behind his men as they march through into no-man’s-land. When a figure emerges from the drifting smoke, he thrusts the blade of his bayonet forward not into the enemy but into the body of Charles Baxter, a comrade and the brother of his fiancée, Sarah. Surviving against the odds, and with his battlefield actions misinterpreted, Simon is feted as a hero. But when Simon returns from the war, Sarah finds him emotionally fragile and prone to violent rages – not even their young daughter Lucy can cheer him. Worse, their lives are soon overtaken by the shadow of blackmail, and Sarah and Elsa, Lucy’s governess, are forced to reconsider everything they once believed about loyalty, valour, and responsibility.

“[A] brilliant new novel . . . Butler uses imaginative, textured language to convey the emotional contradictions of his characters. . .” Atlantic Books Today on Hero

Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press

Where to purchase Hero:
eBook and paperback available
Amazon Canada
Amazon US
Barnes and Noble
Chapters/Indigo
Kobo
and Independent Bookstores throughout Canada
See on Goodreads

Laura Best

In December, I stumbled upon Laura Best’s blog and realized that I had been her sales rep (for Nimbus Publishing) when her first novel Bitter, Sweet was published. I remembered that being an enjoyable book, so I invited Laura to Reading Recommendations to tell us about her latest novel.

Laura Best

What is your latest release and what genre is it? My latest release is Flying With a Broken Wing and it’s a historical YA novel.

Quick description: Cammie Deveau began life with a few strikes against her. She’s visually impaired, abandoned by her mother at birth, her father was a casualty of the Second World War—and if all that isn’t enough, she’s being raised by her bootlegging aunt. No wonder she dreams of starting a brand new life.

When Cammie learns about a school for blind and visually impaired children she becomes convinced a new life is waiting for her in Halifax, but how will she ever convince her aunt to let her go? With the help of her best friend, they devise a plan to blow up the local moonshiner’s still. But Cammie has not managed to change her luck, and things get worse than she ever imagined.

Brief biography:
I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. In 2010, my first YA novel, Bitter, Sweet was short listed for The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and made the 2011 Best Books for Kids & Teens list. I also write short fiction for adults and my work has appeared in numerous literary magazines across Canada as well as several anthologies. My short story Alexander the Great was nominated for the Journey Prize.

Links to buy Laura’s book:
Amazon Canada – eBook and paperback
Amazon US – eBook and paperback
Chapters/Indigo – paperback
Kobo – eBook
Nimbus Publishing website
Laura’s promo links:
My blog
Facebook
Twitter

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on an adult novel about a woman’s life-long journey through mental illness and the effects of the disease, not only on herself, but those closest to her.

Laura’s reading recommendation:
I enjoy the writing of Syr Ruus. Her books, Lovesongs of Emmanuel Taggart, Devil’s Hump and The Story of Gar inspire to me strive for more in my own writing.

Paul Bowdring

Paul Bowdring

What is your latest release and what genre is it? The Strangers’ Gallery, a novel.

Quick description: An “historical” novel set in present-day St. John’s , Newfoundland.

St. John’s archivist Michael Lowe’s life is turned on its head when a Dutch acquaintance, Anton Aalders, arrives on his doorstep in 1995. Anton is searching for a father he never met, ostensibly a Newfoundland soldier who was part of the Allied forces that liberated the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War. Anton’s visit stretches from a few days to a few months, reluctant as he is to go in search of his father, and keen to learn as much as he can about Newfoundland, its history, and its people. Rabble-rouser and ardent Newfoundland patriot Brendan “Miles” Harnett, Michael’s friend and sometime bugbear, is obsessed with his own search for the lost “fatherland” of Newfoundland, which relinquished its political independence in 1934. Miles is only too eager to teach Anton—and Michael—the shameful, forgotten history (as he sees it) of the lost country of Newfoundland.

Brief biography:
Paul Bowdring is the author of three novels: The Roncesvalles Pass, The Night Season, and The Strangers’ Gallery, which won the 2013 Winterset Award, the 2014 Nfld. Heritage & History Award, has been nominated for the 2015 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and is on the Long Shortlist for the 2014 ReLit Awards. He lives in St. John’s.

Links to buy Paul’s book:
Nimbus Publishing
Chapters-Indigo – paperback
Kobo – eBook
Amazon – eBook & paperback
and bookstores across Canada

Paul’s promo links:
Nimbus Publishing
Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC)
Writers’ Alliance of NL (WANL)

What are you working on now?
Finished a fourth novel tentatively scheduled to be published by Nimbus in fall 2015.

Paul’s reading recommendation:
Just finished re-reading (every year!) my very favourite novel: Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day (1989), remarkable in so many ways, but for me, as a writer, its outstanding control of voice and tone is second to none. And I am always reminded of Ezra Pound’s remark: “Literature is news that stays news.”

Pam Chamberlain

Pam Chamberlain

What is your latest release and what genre is it? In the Company of Animals: Stories of Extraordinary Encounters – Nonfiction (memoir), edited by Pam Chamberlain

Quick description: In In the Company of Animals, 37 writers from across Canada tell thought-provoking stories of extraordinary encounters with animals. From tributes to a beloved cat or dog to tales of a chance encounter with a moose or a bear, these stories are sure to entertain and enlighten. The writers — including Farley Mowat, Richard Wagamese, David Weale, Linda Johns, Anny Scoones, and David Adams Richards — are people who spend time in the company of animals, paying close attention to them and the lessons they can teach us.

Brief biography:
Pam Chamberlain grew up on a mixed farm in east-central Alberta and studied English at Augustana University College and the University of Alberta. She’s been teaching English literature, composition, and creative writing for twenty years. In 2010, she edited and published published Country Roads: Memoirs from Rural Canada (Nimbus Publishing), a collection of stories about life in rural Canada. She lives in Calgary.

Links to buy Pam’s book:
Nimbus Publishing
McNally Robinson
Chapters

Pam’s promo links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter

What are you working on now?
A book-length memoir about growing up in a small agricultural community

Pam’s reading recommendation:
Richard Wagamese’s For Joshua and One Native Life