We Sign Author Tanah Haney! Clive Cussler Meets Arthur Black, and a look at Literary Press Group
Under every stone lurks a subtitle
Being the 27th edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press Inc.
Tanah Haney Signs with DSP Inc.
I’m thrilled to announce that author Tanah Haney has signed with Donovan Street Press Inc. to publish her first novel, a thriller entitled A Peculiar Symmetry. Tanah becomes the third author officially signed with us. A Peculiar Symmetry will be available this coming Fall 2024.
I’ve known Tanah personally for many years. In fact, we first came across one another as members of a writing group which eventually came to be called The Saturday Night Scribes (see the video below!). We’d read our work aloud to one another during what we called Reading Nights, often in a comfy old farmhouse in Omemee, Ontario, so I’d already heard bits and pieces of A Peculiar Symmetry over the years. It’s great (and high time!) to finally get it out to a wider audience. And fitting that Tanah should become one of the first crop of authors in our fledging publishing enterprise. Welcome aboard Tanah!
A little about our latest author: When not writing, Tanah divides her time between playing the Celtic harp, teaching music, gardening and cat wrangling. A published poet, she is co-author of Where the World Bleeds Through with her husband, photographer and digital artist Mark A. Harrison. Tanah lives in Peterborough, Ontario, with Mark and a small but vocal menagerie.
Here’s the back cover blurb of A Peculiar Symmetry:
You could say that Aiden and Minnie were two ordinary people caught up in a series of extraordinary events, but let’s be honest—they’re about the least ordinary people you’re likely to meet. Aiden’s lifelong status as misunderstood recluse is only made worse by the arrival in her apartment of an entire division of British Intelligence, while Minnie’s unique and often inconvenient ability to see people’s emotions (in vivid colour, no less), is complicated by Aiden, who seems at first glance to be a black-and- white enigma: someone with no emotions at all.
From an allegedly chance meeting in a café to a gunshot ringing out in a crowded square, they soon find their lives, and all their preconceptions, turned inside out as they become caught up in a baffling game of international subterfuge. As the bodies pile up and the mystery deepens, it falls to Aiden, Minnie, and Aiden’s new-found half-brother, Talbot, to unravel the trail of clues, and save an unknowing population from a mysterious drug that could redefine everything we know about the human psyche.
Here’s the video I referred to above, a little featurette on our writing group the Saturday Night Scribes. It’s Yours Truly narrating. You’ll see author Tanah Haney and several of our writer friends:
Clive Cussler
This is a little anecdote, slightly abridged, that didn’t make it into Adventures in the Radio Trade. I actually just found it, handwritten, tucked away in a folder with some unrelated CBC photographs (which maybe I’ll post another time). It’s not the most earth-shaking anecdote ever; just another of those little behind-the-scene glimpses that I thought worthy of jotting down at the time. Memory sure erodes over time; I remember meeting Cussler, but I did not remember the little verbal exchanges until reading this.
I have no idea when this took place, but it would have been in the Toronto Broadcast Centre many years after the two week stint I did on Basic Black back on Jarvis Street, the one I mention in my book. Basic Black, hosted by Arthur Black, ran from 1983 until June 29th, 2002, so this would have been sometime between 1995 and 2002. Arthur hosted the show remotely from British Columbia during that time (he lived on Salt Spring Island), but many elements were recorded and assembled in Toronto.
***
Just met Clive Cussler, the author of the Dirk Pitt books. Cussler was being interviewed by Arthur Black of Basic Black fame. Arthur was in Vancouver. John Stinchcombe produced on this end, in Toronto. A woman I presume was a publicist led Cussler in with Stinchcombe.
I spoke with the technician in Vancouver, saying everything was more or less ready, and Arthur came on trying to speak with Cussler. I went in the booth to help him with his headset and adjust his mic. When his mic was ready, I turned it on and said, “You can talk to Arthur now.”
He instantly said, “Screw you, Arthur,” loudly and clearly.
I said, “He might not want to talk to you now!”
At this point I did not know that he was Clive Cussler. I thought he was a timid, older gentleman, not anyone of much reknown. I don’t know if he realized that Arthur could conceivably have been able to hear him. He laughed at my remark, which was probably more laughing at his remark.
The publicist was laughing when I returned to the control room. She asked if Arthur had heard what Cussler had said.
I said, “Probably.” Then I looked closer at the console and saw that I hadn’t yet punched Cussler through to Vancouver.
The interview concerned Cussler searching for and finding old ships beneath parking lots and such. It was entertaining.
Afterward Cussler asked down the line if Arthur was four hundred pounds and four foot two.
Arthur replied he was only 398.
Mini Book Review: Something Sweet by Christopher Sweet
I’m impressed. At 73 pages, this indie novella is expertly constructed, tightly written and boasts a pitch perfect ending. It isn’t for the faint of heart, though. It contains adult situations and the author himself calls it a “gross little story” (it’s only gross at the end though). It would make an excellent X Files episode and is reminiscent of the work of Stephen King (in the best possible sense).
Book Distributors
Regular readers (maybe even irregular readers by now) know that I’ve been exploring book distributors to understand how that side of the business works. So far we have looked at: American Books West (defunct), Ampersand, Asterism Books, BCH Small Press Distribution Program, Bella Distribution, Canada Book Distributors, Consortium, Heritage Group Distribution, Independent Publishers Group, Small Press Distribution (defunct), Small Press United, Raincoast Books, Sandhill Books, and Itasca/Bookmobile.
There are still a few to explore, including Publishers Storing and Shipping, Publishers Group West, Prologue Inc., Nimbus Distribution, and Morning Dove Press.
Who knew there were so many book distributors out there? You did? Oh. Well, good for you (I didn’t). :-)
Today we look at these guys:
Literary Press Group (LPG)
The first thing you see when you go to their website is, “Supporting Canadian literary publishers since 1975.” So they’ve been around a while.
What are literary publishers? They attempt to elaborate: They propose to give readers access to “diverse voices that have not been well represented in mainstream publishing.”
They are not for profit, funded in part by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
Here is what they do:
advocate for members and for Canadian literary culture
manage a collective sales force
offer distribution services
operate the online book retailer All Lit Up
provide professional development and knowledge-sharing opportunities
represent member publishers at national and international events
They maintain an up-to-date “news” page, the most recent item of which (as of this writing) is “The Most Borrowed Independent Books” (sadly, no DSP Inc. books are on this list).
They envision “a vibrant, sustainable Canadian literary publishing ecosystem.”
I counted 67 current publishers associated with LPG.
They have strict membership criteria, which includes:
publishes original Canadian books as a primary not an occasional or peripheral part of its business function, 50% of which are deemed to be “literary,” i.e. the content of which falls into one or more of the following categories: poetry, fiction, drama, literary criticism, belles lettres or creative nonfiction;
is at least 80% beneficially owned by persons who are Canadian citizens
is effectively controlled as to its managerial, editorial and financial decisions by persons who are resident in Canada, and are Canadian citizens
has been recommended for membership in the Group by at least two active members in good standing in the Group
has not published fewer than five (5) original Canadian titles and has an ongoing program of at least two original Canadian titles per year, no more than 25% of which are authored by principals, directors or employees of the applicant firm
has been in operation for at least two years from the date of publication of its first title.
Promising? Perhaps.
They are best contacted via email.
Re-Creative: the Podcast
Season 3 of Re-Creative, a podcast about creativity and the works that inspire it, launched this past July 3rd.
Our first episode of Season 3 featured an engaging conversation with Ben Fox, the brains behind Shepherd, a book discovery site, and very much a fan of books.
Our second episode of Season 3 featured a terrific conversation with Candas Jane Dorsey.
Future episodes will feature John Scalzi, Michael Antman, Catherine Fitzsimmons, Candas Jane Dorsey, Ira Nayman, Blair Young, Bruce Sterling, Tom Bradley, Hugh Spencer, Jenn Thorson, with plenty more guests on the way.
You can already listen to the first 2 seasons, over 40 conversations with creative people from all walks of life about the art stoking their imaginative fires. From Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Beethoven, the movies Aliens and The Thing, pottery, a map of Paris and so much more, our often humorous chats with actors, writers, scholars, musicians, journalists (the list goes on) cover a wide range of territory.
Featured Book
A Time and a Place
“ENTERTAINING, CHAOTIC ADVENTURE.” ~ Publishers Weekly.
An unlikely hero travels to other worlds and times to save a boy who does not want to be saved in this unique and imaginative adventure, by turns comic and tragic:
I beat my wings and the horizon stabilized before me. I glided for a while, trying to get my bearings. My wings? I angled my head to see. Air rushed past me with a whoosh that only now registered on my consciousness. Wings… I had wings! Complete with feathers. Were they mine? I lifted the right one up to see. It was my wing all right, upholstered in white feathers with a smattering of grey. The manoeuvre together with the shock of discovering that I was a bird threw me into a stall, and I plummeted earthward.
This was not good.
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
Summer and Fall starting to fill up!
Greater Moncton Riverview and Dieppe Book Fair Saturday July 27th from 10am until 6pm
Book Signing with Partridge Island Publishing in the Area 506 Container Market in Saint John, NB Monday Aug 5th, 2024
Book Signing with Partridge Island Publishing in the Area 506 Container Market in Saint John, NBFriday Sept 27th, 2024
Donovan Street Press Inc. will be at a Pitch the Publisher Event Area 506 Container Market Saint John, NB. Saturday Sept 21st 2024
I will also be at three Athena’s Touch Craft Fairs this fall, dates yet to be determined, at the Riverview Lion’s Club in Riverview
Follow Joe Mahoney and Donovan Street Press Inc. on: Goodreads, Bluesky, Threads, Mastadon, Facebook, and Instagram
This has been the twenty-seventh edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press Inc.
Wow, that Cussler could sure…cuss…
RIP Arthur Black. His kind of show is sorely needed on the current CBC Radio lineup...
When Ben Fox started Shepherd, he head-hunted me to write a list of animation books that had influenced my non-fiction writing. Hopefully, it's still there...