Last week Joseph Planta of The Commentary (www.thecommentary.ca) interviewed Alan Twigg about his new book Tibetans in Exile: The Dalai Lama and the Woodcocks and about the recent sudden and total funding cuts to BC Bookworld. It’s a really interesting interview. You can listen to it here.

I’ve just learned that Ronsdale author and music enthusiast David Gordon Duke, co-author of Jean Coulthard: A Life in Music, writes a blog on classical music in the Vancouver Sun called Musical Notes. Read it here!

On Saturday, November 14th Wayne Norton will be at the UBC women’s hockey game, starting at 7:30 pm. There will be an announcement about his new book, Women on Ice, and a book giveaway in between periods, and Wayne will be signing books. Go see some action-packed women’s hockey (the home team are playing Saskatchewan) at the Thunderbird Sports Centre at the University of British Columbia and buy — or win — a book about the pioneers of the sport in western Canada and get it signed by the author. What a great outing!

This is a wonderful clip of Barbara Ann Scott (who features in Norma Charles’ new YA historical novel Chasing a Star) figure skating in the 1948 Winter Olympics.
Barbara Ann Scott in the 1948 Winter Olympics

November 10th, and the Green Book Campaign reviews are up! Here is the list of Ronsdale Press books, along with the links to the reviews:

From Green to Gold: reviewed by Bookstore People.
River of Gold: reviewed by Greenfudge.org.
I Have My Mother’s Eyes: reviewed by Bermudaonion.
From a Speaking Place: reviewed (or previewed) by Lavender Lines.
Journey to Atlantis: reviewed by The Neverending Shelf.
Chasing a Star: review not up at this time, but it should soon be up on Eat Sleep Dance Read.

Please check out the reviews (they’re good, of course!), and support this initiative to promote books that have been printed in a sustainable manner.

On November 10th, bloggers from all over the world will post their reviews of “green” books — books that were printed in an eco-friendly manner. For some time now Ronsdale Press has printed books on FSC paper — recycled paper that is ancient forest friendly and (with very few exceptions) 100% post-consumer. Several of our titles (From Green to Gold, River of Gold, I Have My Mother’s Eyes, From a Speaking Place, The Dead Can’t Dance, Chasing a Star and Journey to Atlantis) will be reviewed by bloggers and posted on November 10th. The full list of books and bloggers is available here. Congratulations to Eco-Libris for organizing this event.

Susan Dobbie (When Eagles Call, River of Gold) will be reading at the R.E. Mountain Secondary School, 7755 202A Street, Langley BC, as part of the school’s Literacy Day celebrations on November 12th, 12.30 pm.

On Saturday, November 14, Jean Rae Baxter (The Way Lies North), will be signing books and chatting about The Way Lies North and other Loyalist-related topics at the United Empire Loyalist display at the Waterdown Historic Book Fair, St. James Church, Parkside Drive, Waterdown, Ontario. She’ll be there from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Norma Charles (The Girl in the Backseat, Chasing a Star) has been invited to give the keynote talk at the CCBC/Roundtable/Cwill event at Hycroft on November 10th, 6:30 pm-9:00 pm. She will talking mainly about writing Chasing a Star, which was released in August 2009.

Susan Dobbie (River of Gold, When Eagles Call) will be appearing at the Langley Authors’ Day Event at the Langley City Library on Saturday November 7th at 1.30 pm. She will be reading from her 2009 novel, River of Gold (the sequel to When Eagles Call), at 2.30 pm. For more details click here.