Posted by: Tan Light - Coordinator, Digital Sales and Marketing

Book launches are often low-key affairs: authors read or speak to a captive audience about their latest book, and then there is a bit of schmoozing and signing before the night wraps up. We drink wine, we eat nibblies, and we’re home in bed by midnight.

This was not the scene at the Drake Hotel last week in Toronto, where Wes Williams, better known on the Hip Hop scene as Maestro Fresh Wes , launched his first book, Stick to Your Vision. With Start from Scratch on the tables to keep the retro beats playing into the wee hours of the night, Wes’s friends and fans packed the Drake Underground to toast the Scarborough native and his new venture.

View more photos on Facebook | Read more coverage of the launch from HipHopCanada.com

In Stick to Your Vision, Wes shows young people how to define their vision, how to achieve it, and what to do once they’re there. He offers useful tips and advice, inspirational stories and quotes, and exercises that will keep them moving towards their own vision. In this video, Wes explains Stick to your Vision in his own words.

It is no wonder that he is an inspiration to young urban Canadians. Wes is an inductee to the Scarborough Walk of Fame, a Gemini-nominated actor, recipient of the 2003 Reel World Film Festival Trailblazer Award and two Juno Awards, and his albums have reached gold and platinum status. Wes’s first album, Symphony in Effect, was the first Canadian rap album to receive platinum certification and made Wes the first hip hop artist to go platinum in Canada. More than 20 years after release, Symphony in Effect remains the best selling Canadian rap album of all time. Wes has performed for former Canadian prime ministers Chretien and Mulroney, as well as royalty such as Queen Elizabeth II. He continues to support several charitable organizations, such as Toronto Plays For Haiti, War Child, Save the Children, Covenant House, Special Olympics, Battered Women’s Support Services, and the African AIDS Society.

Personally, I love to see celebrities give back to their community and really try and make a difference. Especially when they can throw a great party!

You can connect with Wes Williams on Twitter and Facebook.

Posted by: Cassandra Sadek - Marketing Manager, Digital Specialist

Writers can be mysterious creatures. Some of them go into hiding with their typewriter and bag of cheezies. Others wax poetic from their favourite local café while sipping a venti non-fat latte.

We wanted to know more about the secret lives and habits of our fiction authors, so we’ve started playing a game of 20 questions with them. 20 Writerly Questions, that is.

- Which author wants Robert Pattinson to star in a movie version of her book?
- How long did it really take Justin Cronin to write The Passage?
- Does Yann Martel have a guilty pleasure read?

Jump into our 20 Writerly Questions, to find out! And hey, you can even submit your own questions. We’ll change ‘em up now and then, and just might include yours.

Posted by: Catherine Whiteside - Publicist

Once you’ve been working as a Random House of Canada publicist for a while, it would only make sense that you stop being quite so star-struck and nervous around authors. You still appreciate them for their incredible talents, but you also learn to separate that from the job you have to do — mainly keeping those authors happy, relaxed, and above all prepared and on time for their media inteviews and events.

But all publishing folks have a couple of authors whose works have so touched their lives that this separation becomes difficult. We are, after all, book lovers first. I know of an editorial veteran who burst into tears the first time she met Alice Munro in person. When at McClelland & Stewart, I used to have to let Rohinton Mistry’s phonecalls go to voicemail, so I could compose myself before calling him back; such was my nervousness and awe.

And so my cool, calm and collected publicist veneer was in danger last week - I would spend two days with my favourite author of all, David Mitchell. My brother (also now an RHC employee, as fate would have it) sent me a copy of Cloud Atlas when I was a bit of a disillusioned English Lit majoir at McGill. I’d fallen into a theory-laden funk, which had sapped the true joy of reading out of picking up a book. With this attitude I picked up Cloud Atlas… only to fall through Mitchell’s rabbit hole, barely sleeping or eating over the next two days as with bliss and rapture I ate up every single word. He brought me back to books, and I will forever carry that gratitude inside me. I’ve read everything he’s written before and since, and have never been disappointed.

Mitchell was in Toronto promoting his newest brilliant novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet” (pronounced “zoot.”). I was in charge of things running smoothly while he was here, and was both excited and terrified. What if I suddenly lost my ability to speak intelligently? What if I got us lost, or forgot an important detail? What if he hated me? And, perhaps most frightening, what if I hated him?

All fears were put to rest when he walked towards me at the hotel, bypassed my proffered hand, and gave me a hug. I didn’t think a thousand-watt smirk was possible, but I suppose that’s the British for you. He was charming, funny, animated and amiable, despite having just spent hours on a plane with very little sleep beforehand. He travels with his own tea bags. He tries to buy his own lunch. He says please and thank you and sorry more than any Canadian. He has a love of both crisp green apples and rich desserts (Portuguese custard tarts from St. Lawrence Market being a new fave). He’s utterly delightful.

I soon realized that I am only one in a large army of “Mitchell geeks.” Every interviewer had that same look of panic as I had before meeting him, and every one left beaming. We held a bookseller reception at our offices, with one woman traveling from as far as Halifax. He took time with every single person hoping to speak with him, as he did at his public event later that evening.

I met David when he visited Toronto about 5 years ago for Cloud Atlas. He’s such a sweet, considered and deeply grateful author. He’s exactly the kind of guy for whom you want good things to happen. Fingers crossed for The Man Booker Prize this year for The Thousand Autumns … - third time has got to be the charm, right? - Mike Fuhr, Director, National Accounts Marketing

The next day, an interviewer admitted that his girlfriend had tried to ask a question at the public event, only to be told there was no more time. So Mitchell asked if he could call her. From the middle of the interview. And he did. “Hi, this is David Mitchell. I hear you had a question for me?” The interviewer and his girlfriend were both shocked, and tickled.

Another interviewer asked Mitchell what he hoped people would take away from The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. He said “the conviction that I haven’t wasted their time.” I can attest to the fact that there’s no better way one could spend it, whether with Mitchell’s words, or with the man himself.

Click here to start reading from The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.

Posted by: Michelle MacAleese - Assistant Editor, Knopf Random Canada Group

Corduroy Mansions is now in stores and I think it’s worth pointing out that it begins a brand new series! The novel is set in a building in London, England, populated by various wacky residents who live in each apartment and whose interactions are full of Sandy’s signature humour, kindness and an eye for human nature. Reading this book is like watching a sitcom!

Every new book from Sandy is good news to all his fans, but especially for readers like me, who’ve read a book here and there (and loved them) have but never connected with any of his series in particular. Corduroy Mansions, book one in a new series, offers a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor, so to speak.

What’s more, this is a special kind of novel because of the way Sandy wrote it. It was serialized, like works by Dickens or Tolstoy, but in the most modern of ways: online. The Telegraph.co.uk published it throughout the fall of 2008; as each chapter was posted, readers were able to listen to audio clips, learn more about his (very many) other novels, and even write in to Sandy himself to make suggestions about what should happen next. Corduroy Mansions, was Sandy’s first digital serial novel, which, he said, “hook the writer as much as they hook the reader.” I really like knowing that Sandy’s interaction with his readers influenced the way he conceived Corduroy Mansions, , and I’m so glad that now I can get the whole story at once in a handy hardcover with a puppy on the cover.

Posted by: Tan Light - Coordinator, Digital Sales & Marketing

There are many reasons why I think my job is amazing - being able to watch the World Cup kick-off game on a Friday morning with authors, coworkers and the media is one of them.

South African crime writer Deon Meyer has been in Canada for the last few weeks, speaking at the Bloody Words Conference at the end of May and again this past weekend at Luminato, Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Culture (read his guest blog post). We were thrilled to have him join us at our downtown office to watch the first game of the World Cup - one that featured his home team! We were even more thrilled to have John Doyle, author of The World is a Ball join us as well. Doyle has traveled the globe during the build-up to the World Cup. In between the drunken fans, crazed taxi drivers, leprechauns and lederhosen, John Doyle has been musing on the evolution of soccer as a global phenomenon - a perfect game-time companion, I’d say.

Just before the game started, we were all gathered in our boardroom, and John raised a toast to South Africa and to Deon Meyer as his national anthem played. It was an emotional moment for Deon - this is Africa’s first time hosting the World Cup. The display of national pride at Soccer City was overwhelming. The announcers belive there are about 80,000 people in the stadium and most are wearing yellow. The sound of the vuvuzelas nearly drowned out the commentary.

And then the game is on.

There were a few tense moments in the first half, but no score. My colleagues wandered in and out of the room, getting a quick update on the game and introducing themselves to John and Deon before dashing off to their next meeting.

But when the second half begins, you can see the South African team is more confident. Deon mused that the coach has said something profound during half-time. And it pays off in no time with South Africa scoring the first goal! John Doyle and Deon Meyer lept from their chairs, leading a raucous cheer that has editors and publicists dashing down the hall to see the replay. FIFA fever was spreading through Random House of Canada!

South Africa fought hard to maintain their lead, but Mexico managed to land a goal. Deon conceded that they might have earned it, but our Special Promotions & Deputy Publicity Director, Cathy Paine, offered to hex them anyway. The lone Mexico fan in the room cheered. When the tie was called, Deon shook hands with his lone opponent and thanked us all for watching the game with him. He is such a nice guy!

For me, this was a wonderful introduction to The Beautiful Game.

Posted by: Frances Bedford - Publicity Manager

For the first time in its 104-year book-publishing history, McClelland & Stewart will debut a book in serialized podcast format.

Free audio episodes from The High Road by Terry Fallis will be posted weekly starting June 1, 2010, with the finale airing October 12, 2010. A print and e-book edition will be available for sale beginning September 7, 2010.

The High Road is the highly anticipated sequel to Terry Fallis’s award-winning novel, The Best Laid Plans. The High Road podcast will be read by the author and available, chapter by chapter, in its entirety, in audio download format from www.terryfallis.com and iTunes, among other podcast directories.

This unconventional publishing strategy has already proven successful for Mr. Fallis. His first novel, The Best Laid Plans, began as a podcast, then was self-published, won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, and was re-published in print and e-book format to great reviews by McClelland & Stewart. The Best Laid Plans podcast has drawn 3500 subscribers from all over the world.

In a statement posted to his website, Mr. Fallis says:
“I’ve always been a firm believer in the power of podcasting to build an audience, even for literature. I also believe that if listeners like what they hear, even if it’s free, a good portion of them will go out and buy the book. …This decision reflects enlightened thinking by a traditional publisher and a willingness to test the social media waters and explore how it can help drive interest in, and sales of, a book. In this case, my book. Think of it as new media supporting old media.”

Doug Pepper, President and Publisher of McClelland & Stewart Ltd. says:
“For 104 years M&S has been staying on top of new trends and looking ahead for new ways to market books. We are excited about this opportunity to partner with a savvy author and be adventurous with a bold new idea to build an audience for our books. We expect that, as with the success of The Best Laid Plans, the free podcast will encourage pre-publication word of mouth and ultimately drive sales of the print and e-book editions that follow.”

The High Road by Terry Fallis (Emblem Editions, $19.99, original trade paperback) will be published in print and e-book format on September 7, 2010. This deeply funny satire continues the story of Angus McLintock, an amateur politician who dares to do the unthinkable: tell the truth.

Click here to listen now to the first chapter of The High Road by Terry Fallis.