Author: Hilary

Come by the store on Thursday, June 6 to meet local author Gene Bodzin. He will be here from 6:30pm to 8:30pm to launch his new book Making Your Life into a Work of Art: The Techniques of Memoir Writing.

About the book:

This comprehensive guide explores the issues facing writers of life stories. It draws on the author’s experience and observations as he wrote his memoir.

In readily accessible language, Bodzin’s new work focuses on two key elements – memory and the writing process – with topics ranging from neuroscience to moral and legal issues. It does not shy away from discussing false memories, family myths, and the use of fiction in memoir.

The cross-country all female book tour, The FictionKNITstas, will be making a stop at our store on Monday, June 3 at 6:00pm. The three authors who will be here signing and chatting about their books are:

Faith Johnston, author of The Only Man in the World

“Heather York is trying to find balance in her life. Sure, her son Jeff is every parent’s dream, but Winn, headstrong and independent, makes being a single mom a real struggle. When a guilty conscience calls Heather to the side of her dying uncle, wheels are set in motion that will change her life forever. The Only Man in the World is an understated story of what if means to be a woman and how to live a life of integrity and grace amid the changing fortunes of love.”

 Stella Harvey, author of Nicolai’s Daughters

“Compelled to fulfill her father’s dying wish to find the half-sister he kept from her, Alexia arrives in her father’s village of Diakofto on the edge of the Peloponnese. There she discovers a culture she knows nothing about, a country in financial crisis and an extended family with too many secrets.

Told in the alternating voices of Alexia and Nicolai, who each return to Greece to mourn a loss and find solace, Nicolai’s Daughters uncovers the secret shame that festers in a family, refusing to heal until the truth is revealed.”

 Sheila Fischman, translator of Christine Eddie’s The Douglas Notebooks

“On the same fateful day, two adolescents escape destinies that would scar them for the rest of their lives. Romain, awkward and contemplative, resolves to abandon a lineage of wealth. Elena, resourceful and single-minded, flees a home of blood and thunder.

From the initial meeting of these two wounded souls, Christine Eddie weaves a fable for all times.”

The event will be hosted by local author Mary Hagey, the author of Castles in the Air.

We look forward to seeing you all come out on Monday evening for this great event!

For more info visit: http://fictionistascanada.wordpress.com/fictionknitstas/

Local author Judith Love will be in the store on Sunday, June 2 from noon to 2:00pm signing copies of her new book Perhaps, With Luck….

From the jacket:

“Judith is a gifted storyteller. In this compelling and thought-provoking novel with its skillfully interwoven plots, she takes the reader on journeys within Canada, Britain and Southern Africa. The author’s acute sense of time and place and well-drawn characters, combine to make this a book that is hard to put down.”

-Rosalind Halvorsen. Montreal, 2012

 

“It is the Fall of 2008. Maggie Stanton, a widowed mother with a part-time job at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, finds herself at a watershed in her life. Earlier, her husband’s profession had taken the family around the world, with repercussions for Maggie’s career and the upbringing of their children. While now contemplating her own future she is  unexpectedly caught up in the complex relationships of her son and daughter, both in their mid-twenties.

Events transpire to take Maggie to the African continent. When she returns home and watches her son and daughter leave to follow their own paths she finally confronts her future.”

Visit her on Twitter: @JudithLove19

Local mystery author, Michael J. McCann will be in the store signing copies of his newest Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel, The Fregoli Delusion. He will be here from 11:00am to 1:00pm.
From the jacket:
“When the only eyewitness to the murder of a billionaire suffers from a rare psychotic disorder that causes a delusional misidentification of people, Lieutenant Hank Donaghue must search for evidence of the killer among the wealthiest members of Glendale’s social class, including close friends of his own mother.”

We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

Come by Books on Beechwood on Saturday, May 11 to meet local author, Linda Morin. She will be here from noon to 2:00pm signing copies of her book The Courage to Look Beyond, the story of her brave fight against (and defeat of) cancer.

From the jacket:
“Three years. Not really a long time, but when one’s life is turned upside down, over and over again, when one battles a life-threatening disease, cancer, undergoes several surgeries, experiences loss, pain, conflict and much more, one wonders if the three years is more like an eternity. For Linda Morin, those three years were the most traumatic and life-sapping years of her life. And yet, she came through it all with great courage. She fought her battle with cancer, her battle with difficult relationships, her battle with custody issues, her battle against her son’s medical problems. Linda is a strong person. She had to be to survive; and she is a survivor. Follow Linda’s journey to wellness in her heartrending story, The Courage to Look Beyond. Learn, with Linda, how a woman can accept herself with or without breasts. Learn too, that breasts do not make the woman.”

For more information about Linda, her story, or her book, visit her website: www.thecouragetolookbeyond.ca.

We hope to see you all here on Saturday!

Be sure to swing by Books on Beechwood on Tuesday, May 7 to meet local author Benny Beattie. He will be here signing copies of his book Questions, Quizzes and Quotations: A Brain-Challenging Book of Trivia and General Knowledge from 3:00pm to 5:00pm.

To learn more about Benny, you can follow him on Twitter @Questquizzquote.

We hope to see you all on Tuesday!

ECW Press and Books on Beechwood would like to invite you to the launch of Death’s Last Run by Robin Spano and The Drowned Man by David Whellams.

David Whellams is a local mystery author whose newest mystery novel, The Drowned Man, features the return of Chief Inspector Peter Cammon of Scotland Yard. After first appearing in Walking Into the Ocean, Cammon is once again called out of retirement for what appears to be a simple assignment. But what starts out as the simple retrieval of the body of a murdered Scotland Yard, turns into a much more puzzling case. With the return of characters from the first Peter Cammon book, as well as the introduction of Cammon’s daughter-in-law in a pivotal role, it is no doubt that Whellams has brought us yet another thrilling, clever whodunnit.

Robin Spano is a Vancouver-based author whose newest book, Death’s Last Run, is the third book in the Clare Vengel Undercover series. When a young snowboarder is found dead on Blackcomb Glacier in Whistler, local police want to close the case as suicide. However, the victim’s mother, a U.S. Senator, is so adamant that her daughter would never end her own life that the FBI sends in an undercover agent to ferret out the truth. Surrounded by partying ski bums and snow bunnies, Clare Vengel soon discovers that not only was the young snowboarder involved in a possible drug smuggling ring, but that some of the local police might also be involved. Death’s Last Run is another intriguing, entertaining mystery from a fantastic author! Her two previous Clare Vengel novels are Dead Politician Society and Death Plays Poker.

For more information on these great authors and their books, visit www.ecwpress.com.
We hope to see you all here for this great launch! Snacks and refreshments will be served.

Be sure to come by the bookstore on Thursday evening to meet and chat to local mystery author Mike Martin. He will be here from 7:00pm to 9:00pm launching his new mystery novel, The Body on the T. This is the second book in the mystery series featuring RCMP Sgt. Winston Windflower and his trusty sidekick, Corporal Eddie Tizzard. After making their debut in Walker on the Cape, Windflower and Tizzard are back to solve yet another mystery in Grand Bank, Newfoundland.

About the book:
“The story begins when a body washes up on a beach near Grand Bank, Newfoundland. There is no identification on the body and few clues to identify who the person was or where they came from.
There is also a devastating accident on the highway and another suspicious death to deal with. Throw in a rogue police officer and an international drug ring operating in the waters off the coast and Windflower’s peaceful world is turned upside down. This time Windflower’s adventures take him to the scenic town of Burin where Captain Cook once patrolled the waters looking for French mercenaries. And to historic St. John’s where he faces down an armed suspect on a parking garage rooftop in the midst of a busy downtown evening.”

Filled with traditional Newfoundland food and culture, The Body on the T is another fantastic, mysterious treat from a wonderful local author.

We hope to see you all here on Thursday evening!
Snacks and drinks will be served.

Come by the store and meet CTV meteorologist Cindy Day on Saturday, April 20. She will be here signing her new book Grandma Says from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. Grandma Says is a book about weather lore and the scientific explanations behind some of the most common weather sayings: “Rain before seven, fine by eleven;” “When chimney smoke descends, the fair weather ends;” “When swallows fly high, the weather will be dry; when birds fly low, expect rain and a blow.” It’s a beautifully illustrated book – the perfect gift for young and old. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this book will go to the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

From the jacket:
“On Cindy Day’s grandmother’s farm, the weather wasn’t predicted with a computer or official forecast, but by accumulated wisdom and careful observation. Cindy’s grandmother was a constant prognosticator, making predictions about the weather that more often than not proved correct!
Grandma Says is a collection of eighty weather-related sayings and prognostications based on traditional knowledge and experience. Now a meteorologist at CTV Atlantic, Cindy explains the origins and the science behind this weather lore, so that readers young and old can better understand the world around them.”

Cindy Day grew up on a dairy farm in Bainsville, Ontario and has been a meteorologist for over twenty-five years.

For more information about Cindy’s book, visit Nimbus Publishing at http://www.nimbus.ca/Grandma-Says-P6531.aspx

We look forward to seeing you all here on Saturday!