Posted by: Nita Pronovost - Senior Editor, Doubleday Canada

In one of the stranger moments in my publishing career, a few weeks ago I found myself in a morgue with one of my authors. Fortunately, neither of us was performing an autopsy. Fortunately, neither of us was dead.

In Nicholas Ruddock’s brilliant debut novel, The Parabolist, a group of earnest young med students in the seventies dissects a body—through skin, tendon, flesh and bone they slice, as layer by layer, they unravel the mystery of a murder and the truth about their own lives. So, when it came time to drum up some promotional ideas, Nick, a family physician and an incredible writer (yes, some people have way too much talent), thought it might be neat to shoot a short video in a morgue. I had to agree: that did sound neat.

So that’s what we did.

I didn’t think much more about this—about the reality of this—until we actually arrived at the site. We were escorted through fluorescent hospital halls to those ominous stainless steel doors, and then it suddenly set in with a shock: this was not a movie set. Our plans were delayed because there was an actual autopsy in progress.

We returned a few hours later to learn that the “job” had been completed, and that “the crew” had cleaned up the morgue. We were ready to enter.

As we walked in, I couldn’t help but notice the small details: the chemical smell of disinfectant in the air, the line of rubber boots along a wall, the clipboard that read: “Processed Limb: For Disposal” … and in the centre of the room, that cold metal table, where a short time before, a person had been unravelled—skin, tendon, flesh, bone.

Here’s the thing: those are my toes in the video. I had volunteered to be the body in our shoot, proving that I will do just about anything for the love of book. I soon found myself lying on that freezing table with a white sheet draped over me, toes exposed and tagged. I’ll admit it: my heart was racing, and I was feeling more than a little spooked, but as we progressed, I started to relax into the role. I mean, how many times in my life would I get to play dead?

Fortunately for me, Nick’s a great reader and a lot of fun. The shoot was fast-paced; Nick’s gallows humour quelled my jitters; and my resurrection came mercifully quickly. As the shoot rounded to a close, we needed just one more shot. Nick asked the videographer, “Where do you want me this time?”

I knew the answer, and I couldn’t help myself. “Over my dead body,” I said.

Posted by: Beth Powning - author of The Sea Captain's Wife

On the evening of January 15, 2010, the Sussex Royal Legion in Sussex, New Brunswick, was transformed into an 1860s sailing ship for the launching of my new novel, The Sea Captain’s Wife.

Angelika Glover, my editor at Knopf Canada, came from Toronto. I had obtained a costume for her from Kings Landing Historical Settlement. We helped each other into vast crinolines, long dresses, detachable sleeves. In our 1870s house, I was struck by the sight of Angelika as she stood in the hallway adjusting her collar in the mirror. And then again as I saw her coming through the back door into the winter dusk, and as she and I rustled our long skirts over the snow in the deep country quiet. This is what literature is about, I thought; the thrill of entering another time, another world.

Perhaps it was this feeling that gripped every visitor to the Legion that night. People were greeted by high school students in costume, a six-foot-tall lighthouse, the sound of a fog horn and a cloud of fog. The room’s lighting was low, with pools of light illuminating photos and paintings of nineteenth century sailing ships and shipyards, and tables covered with objects gleaned from attics, or on loan from museums: ship’s logs, sextants, tools, even a captain’s sea chest. The Sea Captain’s Wife spilled from a leather trunk on the Indigo table; the manager and her assistant had travelled an hour from Saint John. There was the swish of long skirts, the half-giddy pleasure of women dressed in period costume. One woman wore a wedding dress from the 1840s. My son was resplendent in a brown beaver top hat and silk ruffled vest. A pirate appeared wearing a hoop earring and eye patch. The room smelled of chowder that simmered on the kitchen’s big stoves, attended by many volunteer cooks. Hundreds of biscuits were baked. A sea shanty group, “Before the Mast,” sat in a boat at the front of the room next to the stage - and the stage itself was a ship’s prow, with a life-sized figurehead made for the occasion, a huge canvas jib hung from a spar, and a ship’s wheel.

At seven o’clock, people began pouring in. They came and came. People reported that three adjacent parking lots were filled and that a line stretched far down the snowy sidewalk. The sea shanty group began to sing as the chairs filled and people jostled for space along walls. My neighbour and friend Kevin, dressed in a period captain’s outfit, was the emcee. I was introduced by the event’s organizer, Patricia, the high school librarian who had worked tirelessly, serving as the hub of a wheel of about 25 volunteers. As I read, I experienced the palpable energy of 500 utterly silent people. Afterwards, I thanked people in the crowd who had helped with the book in diverse ways: the veterinarian who told me how horses were disposed of in the 1860s, the doctor who had researched nineteenth century medicine. The sea shanty group sang again. People milled about, chatting with the women who had made the chowder, swapping yarns at the artifact tables, buying beer at the Legion bar, meeting old friends.

And they waited patiently in line to buy books. I signed and signed, for two hours. One man said to me, “I heard about this event on CBC. I told my wife we were going to go to it. ‘Harry, you don’t read!’ she said. ‘I’m going to read THIS book, I told her.’” To my astonishment, a couple told me they had come from Nova Scotia. And others from Fredericton, Saint John, Sackville.

It was a success beyond the wildest expectations of SLICE, Sussex Literary Initiatives and Cultural Events. We will all be talking about it in years to come, a warm, vibrant outpouring of community pride and support - just as we still tell tales of the Age of Sail.

Posted by: Adria Iwasutiak - Senior Publicist

Last week I had the special privilege of attending a “sneak peak” screening party in honour of the television adaptation of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam. The event was hosted at Toronto East General Hospital, where Dr. Lam works in the ER, making the entire evening a unique and memorable experience! We started off in the TEGH’s new Emergency Ward, which has not yet been used by patients. The crowd attire ran the gamut from suits to scrubs, as Dr. Lam’s colleagues, friends, booksellers, media, hospital board members and donors enjoyed a tour of the new space with wine in hand. After a warm welcome from Dr. Lam (at the hospital they call him Vince!) we headed upstairs to the E2 Lecture Hall, a lovely space for a screening.

The Neal Brothers provided us with delicious popcorn and seventy-five of us laughed, gasped and sat on the edges of our seats as the first in the HBO Canada original eight-part series played. Shawn Ashmore, perhaps better known to most of us as Ice Man from X-Men, was outstanding as Fitz and drew all of us in as the flashbacks to his romantic affair with Ming and the love triangle with Chen unfolded. Everyone had their copies of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures signed by Vincent Lam at the end of the night, and many shared how eager they are to revisit this outstanding collection of stories and share with new readers!

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures airs on HBO Canada Sunday nights at 8 pm. Visit www.bloodletting.tv for episode guides, bonus features and more.

Posted by: Brad Martin - President and CEO, Random House of Canada

McNally Robinson is one of Canada’s finest independent bookstores and all of us at Random House are saddened to hear of their difficulties. McNally Robinson is well known for its extensive events program and has always been a great supporter of Canadian authors. We are confident their two stores will remain cornerstones of their communities and we hope for the chain’s swift recovery.

Posted by: Cassandra Sadek - Marketing Manager, Digital Specialist, Random House of Canada

Have you ever taken a cooking class? It’s something that I would totally love to do some day - when I’m not working, reading, chasing a toddler, etc.

My super brilliant colleague Sheila Kay dropped off Bonnie Stern’s School of Cooking brochure for Winter 2010 this morning, and what to our wondering eyes should appear? A Winterlicious - Julialicious class! We thought this was so fun:

If you loved the film Julie & Julia, you must have been inspired to head right home, don your pearls and prepare Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon. After taking this delicious class, you’ll be ready to do just that, as well as create other dishes for which Julia was famous.

Take home gifts include a copy of Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France and a pound of Gay Lea butter.

Instructor: Bonnie Stern
Dates & Times: Thurs, Feb 4/10, 6:30pm to 9pm
Or Sat, Feb 6/10, 11:30am to 2pm
Or Mon, Feb 8/10, 6:30pm to 9pm
Fee: $99

Visit BonnieStern.com for more details, and bon appétit!

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

On Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Jian Ghomeshi announced the 5 books and their defenders for Canada Reads 2010. Congratulations to Ann-Marie MacDonald, Nicolas Dickner, Douglas Coupland and Wayson Choy! (And Marina Endicott, who rounds out the list)

We don’t want you to miss any of the action. Here is a round-up of links to CBC’s Canada Reads content:

• Read The Canada Reads Blog and the CBC Book Club which is all about Canada Reads this month!
• You can find the CBC Book Club on Twitter too, @cbcbookclub. More twitter coverage can be found by searching #canadareads.
• Canada Reads also has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Canada-Reads/37300206075
• Learn more about the panelists defending our books.
• And finally, be sure to enter the CBC’s weekly Canada Reads Contests

But of course, you want to know more about the books and authors being defended this year. Check out these links for interviews, excerpts and more.

Ann-Marie MacDonald
Photo © Gabor Jurina

About the Author

Interview #1

Interview #2

Canada Reads selection: Fall on Your Knees

Excerpt | Reader’s Guide

Attention Bloggers! You can include this widget for Fall on Your Knees in your Canada Reads post. Just copy and paste this code:

<script type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://insight.randomhouse.com/widget/viewer.js’></script>
<script type=’text/javascript’>new InsightBookReader(‘preview’, ‘9780394281780’, ‘Fall%20on%20Your%20Knees’, ‘Ann-Marie%20MacDonald’, ‘0’, ”, ‘http://www.booklounge.ca/cgi-bin/buy_landing.php?isbn=9780394281780’);</script>

Also by Ann-Marie MacDonald
The Way The Crow Flies Excerpt | Reader’s Guide
Her Plays, Belle Moral and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Nicolas Dickner
Photo © Antoine Tanguay

About the Author

Video Interview

Canada Reads Selection: Nikolski

Excerpt | Reader’s Guide

Attention Bloggers! You can include this widget for Nikolski in your Canada Reads post. Just copy and paste this code:

<script type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://insight.randomhouse.com/widget/viewer.js’></script>
<script type=’text/javascript’>new InsightBookReader(‘preview’, ‘9780676978803’, ‘Nikolski’, ‘Nicolas%20Dickner’, ‘0’, ”, ‘http://www.booklounge.ca/cgi-bin/buy_landing.php?isbn=9780676978803’);</script>

Douglas Coupland
Photo © D.J. Weir

About the Author

Author Interview

Douglas Coupland’s Youtube Channel

Douglas Coupland’s latest book, Generation A is a kind of response/rethinking of Canada Reads selection, Generation X. It explores new ways of looking at the act of reading and storytelling in a digital world. Click here to read an excerpt

Also by Douglas Coupland
The Gum Thief
JPod
Eleanor Rigby
Hey Nostradamus!
All Families are Psychotic
Miss Wyoming

Wayson Choy
Photo © Robert Mills

About the Author

Audio Interview

In 2001, six years after publishing The Jade Peony, Wayson Choy suffered a combined asthma-heart attack. When his heart failed him a second time, four years later, it was the strength of his bonds with the people in his life, forged through countless acts of kindness, that pulled Choy back to his life. Framed by Wayson Choy’s two brushes with death, Not Yet is an intimate and insightful study of one man’s reasons for living.
Read from Wayson Choy’s memoir Not Yet.

Also by Wayson Choy
All That Matters - Excerpt | Reader’s Guide