Last Wednesday found me at Harbourfront Center in Toronto to hear three authors read from their latest books. I was there officially for Emma Forrest, who is in Canada promoting her memoir, Your Voice in My Head. But how could I help but be eager to hear all the authors on this bill? James Bartleman read from his first novel, As Long as the Rivers Flow. He read about Native teenage suicides on reserves in Northern Ontario in the late 80s. It was heartbreaking, powerful, moving. Joy Fielding read the first chapter from her 23rd book (amazing!!!) called Now You See Her. It was an inspired reading and I was competely swept up in it and by the time she was finished, I was a believer! I can’t wait to read the rest of the book.

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Publicists have very clean cars. This observation may score low on the profundity scale, but it did make me realize that I could never do what they do. Not only could I not keep my car that clean, but I also lack the grace, patience and persistence required to trot authors around all day.

I have just finished the first leg of the Moolala media tour and I loved it. It was like spending three weeks at Disney World, in large part thanks to these great publicists. All I had to do was show up and I was escorted around, fed, watered, entertained, introduced and protected. I’m usually a very independent traveller and didn’t think I’d appreciate that level of service. But I did. To a seasoned book tour veteran I’m sure I sound completely naive, even deluded. But for now I’ll relish in the newness of seeing the book in an airport, hearing its title mangled by TV hosts, and being chauffeured around in a nice clear car.

[editor's note: If you missed Bruce Sellery on tour, check out these great videos featuring tips from Moolala.]

British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction - Canada’s largest non-fiction prize - was awarded in Vancouver yesterday to John Vaillant for his book, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. The jury cited The Tiger as as “a page-turner that in the end brings us to understand the tiger, probably the most intelligent super-predator in the world. Superbly written and highly enlightening, this is a gripping story about man in conflict with nature.”

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Last Monday I was on television for the first time in my life.

I’m a magazine editor by day, crafter by night, and I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I’d be sitting on the set of CityTV’s Breakfast Television, waiting to tell the world about the brand-new craft book I’d co-edited, Create, Update, Remake.

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Oh the life of a publicist. Booking hotel rooms, arranging flights, juggling media schedules, the early mornings, late nights… Not so glamorous. But when you’re asked to do these things for Hollywood royalty like Suzanne Somers, somehow it seems a little better. What’s not to love about Suzanne? She read poetry to Johnny Carson, sang on a Vegas stage with Frank Sinatra, and starred in one of the most loved TV shows of all time. She has done it all.

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The Publicity Department is responsible for getting early copies of books into the hands of the “talkers”: those people who will read a book in its early stages and then tell all their friends about how great it is. Our hope is that word of mouth will cause such excitement that people will be bursting at the seams wanting a copy of their very own as soon as books hit store shelves. When that happens, life is great.

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In one of the most far-reaching multi-national and multi-language book-publishing deals by one publisher for a single title, Random House has acquired rights to publish a memoir by Salman Rushdie in each of its territories across the world. Knopf Canada, Mr. Rushdie’s long-time Canadian publishing house, will publish in Canada. (Other territories included in this deal are the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, in English; Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, in German; and Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay, in Spanish.)

Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s most revered and honoured writers. His memoir will be an evocation of his public and personal life: his outsider’s experience at British public school and Cambridge; his evolution as a writer; his relationships as a husband and a father; and his years in hiding following the fatwah issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. Mr. Rushdie currently is working on the film version of his classic novel Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981, co-written and to be directed by the Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta.

Louise Dennys, Executive Publisher of the Knopf Random Canada Publishing Group, said: “It’s been both a huge privilege and a pleasure to have published Salman in Canada since 1992. He is a writer of extraordinary power and a mesmerizing storyteller — and in his own memoir he has a truly remarkable tale to tell. It is one of the most riveting memoirs I’ve ever read, and beautifully written. I know the thoughtfulness with which Salman has undertaken this book, and am overwhelmed by the insight, honesty, and humanity he is bringing to it. We’re looking forward to publishing it with equal passion and commitment.” MORE…

We are pleased to share the news of our authors’ nominations for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, announced Wednesday, October 13, 2010 in Toronto.

It is not everyday I get the opportunity to write about an author, especially one that I now truly admire. I have finished John Valliant’s The Tiger and I would like to tell you that I was truly overwhelmed by it. It is an essential book for anyone who wants to feel the spirit of the tiger, understand the relationship between poachers, rangers and tigers and to gain an insight into the people and history of the Russian Far East. The final chapter is the best expression of the importance of this year that I have read.

Personally I love books that mix an intense, powerful, emotional and absorbing story with a lesson in history so I loved every page of this book and learnt a great deal on the way. I am itching to get back to the Far East now!

Many thanks to John Vaillant for writing what should become a classic, and for enriching my life. This work has given me even further inspiration to ensure that WWF and others finds the solutions for the tiger that it so desperately needs at this time.

Michael Baltzer
Leader, WWF Tiger Network Initiative