Constance Kellough
Constance Kellough is the president of Namaste Publishing, the publisher that brought us Eckhart Tolle. In her book The Leap, she proposes that consciousness is a reality anyone can enter at any time. The key is stillness, not silence. The Leap promises to help you stay present with the physical realm in a profoundly deep way. As the Zen masters say: Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
“This is a book of crystalline vibration…The Leap assists humanity to purposefully, passionately and compassionately support our leap into a new reality.” Ann, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Author Kate Inglis is one of those people who you meet and never want to leave. I’d move in next door if she didn’t live on the opposite coast. But aside from being lovely, she’s a great author.
Her first book, The Dread Crew is an imaginative tale of filth, friendships and backwoods pirates. It’s the story of a boy, a crew of dirty, warty, natty, rude, pugnacious, revolting, disgusting pirates who show up demanding things from the villagers that they hoard.
The Dread Crew is one of those tales that starts in the woods when a mother is walking with her restless tot, home is still a ways away, and there’s nothing fueling the walk expect whatever story she can pull from the air. Anyone who’s a mom knows how this works, but few of those stories actually find their way to the published page.
As Kate says, “it occurred to me that writing something silly was highly speculative, a debatable spend of martial and mothering time. I shrugged. I kept it to myself because I thrive in the pressureless void of low expectations. I hadd 15,000 words before telling my husband—with my mouth full, behind my hand—that I was writing a novel. A three-year spell of insomnia was my groundswell. Getting published was an accident.”
Listen to my audio preview of the book: (MP3 6 MB should play with Google Reader)
I’ll make the draw on December 16 and promptly mail you the calendar. I have 2 calendars to give away, 1 for the Twitter followers and 1 for the Facebook fans. So yes, you could get more than one chance to win.
The 2010 Reading Is Sexy Calendar promotes literacy and raises funds to help kids and adults with dyslexia. Proceeds go to the Canadian Branch of The International Dyslexia Association.
Our goal is to promote literacy and raise funds to support those with dyslexia.
What was the impetus behind the idea?
Back in the spring, Ian Martin (http://www.twitter.com/IanAMartin) was starting up his publishing house, Atomic Fez Publishing, and was trying to goad me into saying “Reading Is Sexy” as often as possible on twitter. This sparked the idea for doing a “Reading Is Sexy” calendar promoting literacy.
Initially the calendar was supposed to be shot “calendar girl” style, like the one Bryne Pen did on Salt Spring to raise funds and awareness for The Land Conservancy. Alas not all our models understood what I meant by that, so it will likely be our theme for next year.
We chose the International Association of Dyslexia as our charity because they interact with Emme online (@onbida) and Emme is dyslexic. That said, she is one of the lucky kids who had access to help, so she has never treated her dyslexia as a crutch, but rather as her secret superpower. It is why she looks at the world in a different way, is not limited to typical rules dictating how things work, and has approached life with perseverance, hard work and problem solving.
Who is Emme?
Emme is the girl next door. You know the one. She was the Tomboy who always out climbed the boys to reach the most precarious limits of the tree in the yard. The one who you just gave the ball or the puck to on the soccer field or hockey rink for fear of her side tackle or crosscheck. The one who loved making mud pies, but wouldn’t be caught dead at a tea party. You know the one. The one whose Mom couldn’t watch what she was up to for fear that she’d have a heart attack. That girl. The one whose friends you didn’t mess with, not because she was manipulative, but because she hated injustices and wasn’t afraid to say so. Just ask the boy next door. Maybe he’ll pull out the photo of the black eye he was sporting the day he was a ring bearer.
We’ll Emme’s all grown up now and she’s no longer “Leo the Late Bloomer.” A homosexual drama teacher has taught her how to put on makeup. Somewhere along the lines she lost her fear that her bum is too big and she wears fitted clothes now. And, if wonders will ever cease, she actually likes to put on a party dress, minus the runners and hockey jacket.
So in essence, Emme represents that secret hidden voice in many of us women—the things that go through the heads of our mothers, girlfriends and ourselves—the only difference is that she says these things aloud, and rather then be embarrassed about these thoughts or insecurities she screams them aloud for all the world to hear.
And yes, she’s a total character and given her tomboy past finds it totally hilarious that she is now seen as Vancouver’s / Canada’s gal-about-town and go to girl on all that is hot and sexy in this lovely world of ours.
And if you’d like your calendar signed by the men and women of “Reading Is Sexy”, please come out to the Launch Party and Literary Celebration on Thursday.
Local: Gudrun Wine & Cheese Bistro (150-3500 Moncton Street, Steveston, BC) Date: Thursday December 3, 2009 Time: 7 pm until late
Stop by for author readings, calendar signings by the models, and the auctioning of some of Robert Shaer’s photos from the shoot. Plus Gudrun goodies, wine and beer will be on sale.
1. Ossuaries by Dionne Brand (poetry)
“Dionne Brand’s mesmerizing new collection of poems is about human zoos; bones, culture, the fabric of our times.”
Brand is awesome, I’m sure to love this one.
2. Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen (poetry)
“Leonard Cohen’s classic book of contemporary psalms is repackaged. As lovely as the first publication 25 years ago.”
It’s a beautiful package.
3. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built: Book 10 by Alexander Mccall Smith
“The 10th Precious Ramotswe novel is as adorable as the first.”
Precious is precious. I love this series.
4. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
“Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this bestselling tale of a family haunted by the past - and perhaps more - has received ecstatic reviews around the world: Waters is exceptional!”
I really, really liked Fingersmith and have been meaning to read more Sarah Waters. This is it!
5. Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health by Rick Smith
“How the toxic soup of our lives is killing us.”
Do I need a book to tell me this? No, but it would be interesting to know how to better navigate the world.
6. Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces by Gayla Trail
“Good food grown in small spaces.”
I have herbs on the balcony and am ready for more.
7. Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd
“A heart-in-mouth conspiracy novel about the fragility of social identity, the corruption at the heart of big busunderbelly of the everyday city.”
A dark, twisted book with quirks that are sure to be my style.
8. The Waterproof Bible by Andrew Kaufman
“Kaufman can’t be missed.” All My Friends Are Superheroes is a brilliant book. I must read this one.
9. Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
“Angels are big this year. A book to watch.”
Monique’s prediction: angels, oil an religion. We’ll be as fascinated by these things in 2010 as we were by vampires in 2009.
10. The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag: A novel by Alan Bradley
“Flavia is back.”
For Sweetness at the bottom of the pie, this young detective is by to thrill me with her fascination of poisons.
11. Dahanu Road: A novel by Anosh Irani
“Anosh is dark humored but one of my favs.”
Gawd, I love him.
12. Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
“Taxidermy!” Life of Pi guy gets every stranger with taxidermy in this novel. Yes, please.
13. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath
“Nobody likes change but a wet baby—and even then.”
From Made to Stick comes Switch. I won’t switch. I’ll stick.
14. I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
“The internationally bestselling true story of the remarkable ten-year-old Yemeni girl who dared to defy her country’s most archaic traditions byfighting for a divorce.”
This story just seems unbelievable!
15. Boom! by Mark Haddon (young adult)
“I’ll have whatever Mark’s having. Love his work.”
Positioned for young adults, I think this will be a killer hit with adults too.
The winner of this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize, the most coveted Canadian fiction award, was announced last night in Toronto. And the winner is ... Linden MacIntyre.
The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre is a story of crimes and cover-up in a Cape Breton Catholic church.
“The Bishop’s Man centres on a sensitive topic - the sexual abuses perpetrated by Catholic priests on the innocent children in their care. Father Duncan, the first person narrator, has been his bishop’s dutiful enforcer, employed to check the excesses of priests and, crucially, to suppress the evidence. But as events veer out of control, he is forced into painful self-knowledge as family, community and friendship are torn apart under the strain of suspicion, obsession and guilt. A brave novel, conceived and written with impressive delicacy and understanding.”
Price wars typically hurt the retailers involved, and often times their suppliers, especially if the cost cutting is shared by the two parties. The Amazon and Wal-Mart recent decision to deeply discount a key group of titles just seems like a race to the bottom. What are they really trying to achieve with this? The suggestion in the New Yorker article is that deeply discounting a select group of things brings people to the store, and then you can sell them more stuff once they’re there. This has been the Wal-Mart model for years. Appear to be “the lowest price is the law” (on a lot of things) and you get people there for the discount, but once they’re there, they aren’t going to price compare, they’ll just purchase the non-discounted products as well.
What the two companies appear to be fighting over is a selection of bestsellers, but James Surowiecki argues that it’s really customers.
So you might wonder why Wal-Mart recently decided to start its own price war, taking on Amazon in the online book market. Wal-Mart began by marking down the prices of ten best-sellers—including the new Stephen King and the upcoming Sarah Palin—to ten bucks. When Amazon, predictably, matched that price, Wal-Mart went to nine dollars, and, when Amazon matched again, Wal-Mart went to $8.99, at which point Amazon rested. (Target, too, jumped in, leading Wal-Mart to drop to $8.98.) Since wholesale book prices are traditionally around fifty per cent off the cover price, and these books are now marked down sixty per cent or more, Amazon and Wal-Mart are surely losing money every time they sell one of the discounted titles. The more they sell, the less they make. That doesn’t sound like good business.
Not good business, if you’re involved in selling books and you’re not Amazon or Wal-Mart. For the two behemoths, they’re only taking a hit on about 10 titles and the impact on revenue is minimal, if they can bring in other sales. The price war is also worth the publicity. Wal-Mart certainly wasn’t top of mind yesterday but I’m thinking about them today. (Nasty thoughts, but thoughts nonetheless.)
Chris Labonté, Douglas & McIntyre’s Assistant Publisher & Acquiring Editor, imagines a fiction program that features extraordinary writers. “Extraordinary writers willing to push the bounds of literature; to mess around with form and content and style; to bend genre and explore new ways of telling good stories.”
The result is the Fall 2009 “Imagine That” campaign and the Speak Easy podcast, hosted by John Burns.
Featured in my press kit are the following books.
Daniel O’Thunder: a Novel by Ian Weir
Heading South: a Novel by Dany Laferriere, translated by Wayne Grady
Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Also in my kit was a reminder that Douglas & McIntyre has been publishing Quebecois and French-Canadian literature in translation for nearly two decades. Included on the list are several works by Monique Proulx (I want to read Invisible Man at the Window) and works by Daniel Poliquin.
I’m looking forward to more podcasts and great fiction. Thanks for keeping me in the loop D&M.
My friend Rachael Ashe brings photo canvases from imagination to life. She is currently working on a portrait series and recently I was in the camera light. But what really caught my eye was the altered books that she’s been working on.
If you like my photo, check out other work by Rachael.
Author Alain de Botton was installed at Heathrow Airport as its writer in residence for a week. And, the book he wrote at Heathrow was launched yesterday in the airport’s Terminal 5.
Where: In front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street
When: Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at noon
Wear Gray – the colour of life without art
Bring your family, friends, board members, audiences – anyone who feels that the cultural life of BC is important.
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British Columbia’s arts and culture sector is being decimated by a government that is clearly contemptuous of one of the province’s most productive economic sectors.
Arts funding has and is being cut despite recent headlines telling us it has been “restored” - This is only for a few and only temporarily. Despite what we are being told, the figures we have at present tell us that our sector will be cut by up to 92% by the end of this government’s mandate. This while their own studies show that for every $1 they invest, they receive a return of $1.38 in taxes.
We ask you to consider the ways that arts and culture touch your daily lives at home, in the streets, your children in schools, on TV, your music, on the internet, in videogames and in theatres. We ask you to think about culture as part of our individual and community identities, a way to connect with our origins with who we are today, and with what we care about.
Our world would be a gray place without our art and culture. Art is not a frill. Culture matters.
Please join.
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