Great Plug for A FEW KINDS OF WRONG, and a Fun Contest on Tina’s Blog, ”To Celebrate Women in Non-traditional Work,” Open to Everyone!

Visit Tina’s blog to participate and  win a free copy of the novel, or just to read some of the answers.

Though it wasn’t Tina’s intention, the fact that the main character is a female mechanic will stand out for many readers. In the words of the author, “In my new novel,  Jennifer is a mechanic … Although the book isn’t trying to make any political statements, and Jennifer’s job is not the main focus of the novel, by making Jennifer a mechanic I’ve called some attention to how unusual it is to find women in some fields … So, I’m having a contest to celebrate women in non-traditional work and I want to hear from you!”

Also: Congratulations to Tina for her novel landing a spot in Belletrista’s “New and Noteworthy” North American book list, along side Mavis Gallant, Marina Endicott, and more! See the list here: http://www.belletrista.com/2009/issue2/nandn_5_us.phphttp://www.belletrista.com/2009/issue2/nandn_5_us.php

Chad Pelley Talks to CBC’s Angela Antle About AWAY FROM EVERYWHERE … and His Self-promotional Efforts.

 

Click the link below to listen to the interview: http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/nlwamgaloot_20091114_23074.mp3

Breakwater Author Chad Pelley Wins the 2009 Cuffer Prize!

Telegram publisher Charlie Stacey (left) chats with 2009 Cuffer Prize winner Chad Pelley of St. John's. Pelley won the $2,000 award for his short story "Holes to China."- Photo by Gary Hebbard/The Telegram

 

Click here to read the article in The Telegram

Click here to read Salty Ink’s feature article, and Chad’s “Holes to China.”

Click here to read all about Chad’s new novel Away from Everywhere

 

KNOWN UNTO GOD Launch: Great Turn Out and Possibly Record-breaking Sales

Authors Morgan MacDonald and Frank Gogos signing books

Known unto God Book launch, Chapters in St. John's

Editor Annamarie Beckel Introducing the Authors

Authors Frank Gogos (middle left) and Morgan MacDonald (far right) with Guests

Breakwater Releases KNOWN UNTO GOD: A Pictorial Memorial to Newfoundland’s Missing During the Great War

The Newfoundland armed forces suffered devastating losses during World War I. Known unto God is a memorial to the men in these forces who died during the war and who have no known graves. The book is also a companion guide to the Memorial Bronze Tablets that list their names. The tablets were first unveiled at the Newfoundland Memorial Park in Beaumont-Hamel, France, in 1925. Replicas of the tablets were erected in 2009 in Bowring Park in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Known unto God celebrates these men’s contributions and includes period memorabilia and photographs from private and public collections, some of which have never been published.

Click here to buy or read more about Know unto God

Chad Pelley’s AWAY FROM EVERYWHERE “Does Not Let Up” From Its Opening Page.

 

 

“It opens up in the aftermath of a car crash, and does not let up from that brutal, mid-crisis opening. Away from Everywhere is dotted with slamming phones, speeches regretted after-the-fact, and the pain of silences.”

- Ashley Fitzpatrick, The Telegram

Click here to buy or read more about Away from Everywhere

French Rights for Annamarie Beckel’s SILENCE OF STONE Sold !!!

Breakwater Books is pleased to announce that the French World Rights to the novel Silence of Stone have been sold to Guy Saint-Jean Éditeur Inc., a Quebec-based publisher.

Silence of Stone, the third novel from author Annamarie Beckel, is a critically acclaimed re-imagining of the true story of a young French noblewoman, Marguerite de Roberval, who was abandoned by her guardian on the Isle of Demons, a small island near Newfoundland and Labrador in 1542.  Critics have described the novel as “a deeply emotional tale” (Downhome), “well-written and stylistically distinctive” (Current Magazine) and “succinct, graphic, and lyrical” (The Telegram).

Formerly an ecologist and science writer and then a newsletter editor on an Ojibwe Indian reserve, Annamarie Beckel now lives in Kelligrews, NL. Her first novel, All Gone Widdun, won the first place fiction prize from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and was acclaimed as “richly imagined, beautifully structured… a captivating story, very well told.” (Globe and Mail). Her second novel, Dancing in the Palm of His Hand, was hailed by critics as “remarkably well researched” (Atlantic Books Today) and “powerful, thought-provoking, highly recommended” (Hi-Rise).

If you are interested in interviewing Annamarie Beckel or receiving a book for review purposes, or using the above images in an article, contact Breakwater.

Click HERE to buy or read more about Silence of Stone

Chad Pelley’s AWAY FROM EVERYWHERE Was the Second Most Requested Title at Chapters in St. John’s Last Week

Breakwater & Bernice Morgan place in Top Ten of “Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books”

The top-10 titles are:

1. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
2. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
3. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
4. The Mountain and the Valley by Ernest Buckler
5. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
6. Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan
7. Random Passage by Bernice Morgan
8. The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod
9. Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
10. Rockbound by Frank Parker Day

Also in the top 100: Percy Janes’s classic, House of Hate, cited by famed authors Michael Winter and Joel Thomas Hynes a book that really got them into writing.

Click the title to read more about or buy Random Passage or House of Hate

Christopher Pratt’s booklaunch, ORDINARY THINGS, Tonight! October 21, 2009

(Click on image to blow up detail)

“A Fascinating New Memoir … An Accessible, Revealing and Honest Book.” The Western Star on Christpher Pratt’s ORDINARY THINGS

“A fascinating new memoir by the renowned Canadian artist provides new insight into his mind, work, and influences. Pratt’s journal entries on his creative process, from the 1950s to 2007, reveal many of his thoughts and artistic beliefs, and they say quite a bit about his attitudes and feelings about his home province — and about his work within that context. Without so much defending his style and subjects in this book, Pratt clearly feels the need to explain his realist beliefs.

“The subject matter is important to me,” he says. “I am not immersed in the world or philosophies of art; I am not concerned with movements, isms or manifestos, or their small and big ‘p’ politics. “Ordinary Things” by Christopher Pratt, one of Canada’s greatest living artists, is an accessible, revealing and honest book.”

Click here to buy or read more about this book.

Double Book Launch, Tonight!: Chad Pelley & Tina Chaulk

“This Self-portrait of Christopher Pratt is Bound for the Bookshelf, not the Wall” The Telegram Write a Great Article on Pratt’s ORDINARY THINGS

“Pratt’s history can be read and his thoughts heard through the works … The entries reflect time spent by Pratt all over the province – in Placentia, Salmonier, Carbonear, Gambo, the coasts of Labrador and dozens of other regions, inland towns and outport communities.

The entries also make mention of occassions in Halifax and Ottawa; London and Glasgow (where Pratt attended the Glasgow School of Art).

The notes provide Pratt’s thoughts, at certain points in his own history, on everything from the Newfoundland Railway, the Burgeo highway, an artist’s use of colour and the place of Atlantic Canada in the art world.”

Read the Full article here!: http://www.thetelegram.com/index.cfm?sid=292882&sc=84

Click here to buy or read more about Ordinary Things

Breakwater at 2009 Word on the Street, Halifax

Reps from Newfoundland publishers, left to right: Garry Cranford (Flanker Press), Donna Francis (Creative Books), Gavin Will (Boulder), Rebecca Rose and Anna Kate MacDonald (Breakwater Books)

Authors present from these publishers included: Nellie Strowbridge (Flanker), Trudy Morgan-Cole, Christopher Pratt, Syr Ruus, and Kirby Walsh (Breakwater), Mike Heffernan and Robin McGrath (Creative).

Breakwater's Anna Kate MacDonald (Publicist), Trudy Morgan-Cole (author of By the Rivers of Brooklyn), and Rebecca Rose (President)

Donna Francis (Creative Books), TLA agents Shaun Bradley and Don Sedgwick, Rebecca Rose (Breakwater)

Don and Shaun graciously helped in decorating the Newfoundland publishers’ booth at Word on the Street:

Newfoundland Publishers' Booth at Word on the Street

Breakwater author Chad Pelley Shortlisted for the 2009 Cuffer Prize

Breakwater author Chad Pelley’s short story “Holes to China” made the 2009 Cuffer Prize shortlist the same week his debut novel, Away from Everywhere, was released. Chad was also a finalist for last year’s Cuffer Prize, taking third place with his story “Subtle Difference.”

Click here to buy or read more about Chad’s new novel, Away from Everywhere