St. John's (Again!)

"Quaerite Prime Regnum Dei"

Sep 14, 2024

Being the 36th edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press Inc.

St. John’s

There is a reason I call this newsletter Assorted Nonsense. Several reasons, actually. One is that I can’t focus on just one thing. I would find that boring. Another is that you never know what you’ll get. Me included!

Today it’s basically St. John’s Newfoundland, which is where I spent all of last week with my wife Lynda. Wait! Some of you cry. Weren’t you just there?

It’s true, I was there in June moving my daughter Keira in from Toronto. But Lynda and I wanted to go back and visit her and see how she’s doing. And she’s doing just fine.

Also, the last time I was there I couldn’t see a thing. It was all fog and drizzle. This time it was (with the exception of half a day) absolutely beautiful. You wouldn’t even think it was the same place.

We lucked out on the first day and stumbled upon members the Royal Canadian Navy giving free boat rides in the St. John’s harbour. They were just young guys obviously having a grand old time touring tourists around the harbour on their big speed boat.

We spent most of our time in St. John’s proper as there’s plenty to keep you occupied. The shot immediate below of St. John’s harbour is one I took from the top of The Rooms, which is “Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest public cultural space and home to its most extensive collection of artifacts, art and archival records.” We could easily have spent an entire day in The Rooms. As it was, we spent a good three hours. Much of that time was spent touring their exhibit on Newfoundland’s participation in the first world war. It is quite a moving and well done exhibit. Soldiers from Newfoundland were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Ridiculed if they didn’t sign up to help fight for Great Britain, yet a great many that did sign up died or were seriously injured during the fighting. And then, having fought and sacrificed for democracy, wound up losing their dominion status in 1934 (after 79 years of self-government) because of a financial crisis in 1932, due no doubt, at least in part, to the amount of able-bodied young men they’d lost in the war. Some personal stories on exhibit moved me close to tears.

On a happier note, below is a shot of George Street, two solid blocks of bars, pubs and restaurants. We spent part of two evenings there. The food was excellent. And we got “Screeched In” by Skipper Lukey at Christian’s Pub (see video below). I know some locals decry this practice but I found Skipper Lukey quite amusing and informative and it’s all in good fun. (He also memorized most of the 50 participants’ names, quite an impressive feat in itself.)

A video of Yours Truly getting Screeched In:

We stayed at the Alt Hotel in downtown St. John’s which we quite liked. Outside there was always a wide variety of unique and interesting ships such as this cruise ship which had just arrived after five days traversing the Atlantic from Great Britain. Here it is off to Saint John New Brunswick for its next stop.

We took a boat tour out of nearby Bay Bulls one day, ostensibly to see whales and puffins, though it’s past the season for those, really. We did see many puffins, though not the hordes one usually sees, apparently. Puffins are much smaller than I realized, but neat, tough little birds. In an attempt to make the most out of not much, the tour operators made a big deal out of every tiny thing: “Look over here! A bird! It’s a bird, everyone. Oh, and a fish!” Still, it was a pleasant boat ride.

We sent a good ten minutes circling this sun fish, which circled us in turn. I never saw anything other than this fin.

This is the doorknob to the bathroom of our hotel room. Who invented this kind of doorknob? It’s dumb. Why not a proper doorknob that it easy to grasp and everyone knows how to use to open the door? It was my only complaint about the Alt Hotel. Well, that and the high tech lighting system, which I never quite mastered.

We spent about four hours at nearby Cape Spear, “Canada’s most easterly point of land” featuring “the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador.” There are also old army bunkers and the remains of two ten inch cannons, used (but never used) to defend St. John’s during the second world war. The guns were actually 1890’s technology, purchased from the US by the Canadian government (never mind that Newfoundland wasn’t even a part of Canada yet); incredible that they would have been used in the 1940s. (Presumably they were in much better shape than pictured here.)

Another cool boat outside our hotel; the National Geographic Explorer. I’d love to sail on this one day!

Pitch the Publisher

Donovan Street Press has partnered with Patridge Island Press, CSG Publishing House, OC Publishing, and Merlin Star Press to present Pitch the Publisher.

(Well, to be a little more accurate, Patridge Island Press invited Donovan Street Press and the others to partner with them. Which we are happy to do!)

Here’s Patridge Island Press’s summation of the event:

The Pitch the Publisher event will occur this coming Saturday, September 21, 2024 (Rain or Shine) from 1 – 3 pm in the Area 506 Community Space at 85 Water Street, Saint John, NB.
Pitch the Publisher is a no-fee event open to all authors with completed, ready-to-submit manuscripts.
The publishers are interested in completed manuscripts in genre fiction, literary fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and children’s books.
Each participant will have 5 minutes to pitch their story to the publishers, followed by a question-and-answer period. We have space for 12 participants; if there is additional time at the end, we will accept additional participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
To register or for additional information, email amanda@partridgeislandpublishing.ca with a synopsis of your manuscript, including genre, word count, comparable, story outline, and a sample of up to 10 pages of the story.
Each participant will receive an email before the event to give them their order in the line-up and the expected time they will present.

Advance Readers Wanted

Donovan Street Press Inc. is looking for advance readers for upcoming books. If you’re interested, drop us a line at contact@donovanstreetpress.com

Podcast

Re-Creative: a podcast about creativity and the works that inspire it.

This week Mark and I were joined by Blair Young a working stage, screen and voice actor, who also happens to be the president of ACTRA Alberta, the acting union for screen and voice performers.

Blair shares some fun acting stories and explains how various actors pursue their art before talking about the play that still inspires him, Little Shop of Horrors.

Blair got to see the play at the age of 17 on the West End. That version starred Ellen Greene, the original Audrey on Broadway. (She also plays the character in the 1986 movie version of the show.) Blair loved the characters, the songs, the puppet that is the alien, and the chorus, which sings do-wop songs. At the end of the show, tentacles dropped from the ceiling into the audience. The whole thing blew his mind.

"This is what I want to do," he said after seeing the show.

For pure fun and laughs, this is an episode not to be missed!

Blair Young on Re-Creative

Future episodes of Re-Creative will feature Tom Bradley, Hugh Spencer, Lisa Brandt, Tony Schwartz, and Robert Runte, with plenty more guests on the way.

All previous episodes are available online, comprising the first 2 seasons, over 40 conversations with creative people from all walks of life about the art stoking their imaginative fires.

Coming Soon from Donovan Street Press Inc.

The Gates of Polished Horn by Mark A. Rayner.

Huey and the Wasteland by Matt Watts

A Peculiar Symmetry by Tanah Haney

Appearances

Coming up:

Donovan Street Press Inc. will be at a Pitch the Publisher Event Area 506 Container Market Saint John, NB. Saturday Sept 21st 2024
I’ll be doing another signing with Partridge Island Publishing in the Area 506 Container Market in Saint John, NB Friday Sept 27th
Saturday October 19th I’ll be at the Athena’s Touch Hallowe’en Craft Fair at the Lion’s Club in Riverview, quite possibly in costume. We’ll see!

Thanks for reading!

Assorted Nonsense