We’re moving servers! We just wanted to let everyone know in advance that there may be an interruption in service on Friday, May 30th, 2008 as we take the massive Dundurn website over to a new server. Funny thing is that this blog has already been moved — have you noticed any difference?

Why are we moving? Well, simply put — we want to deliver more to you. Whether it may be bringing out our authors or introducing some neat content, we hope to provide a smooth and more enjoyable experience. This is a mere first step.

These aren’t our books, but you get the idea. Photo by Ateo Fiel

Fans and keen visitors need not worry, if there are any problems that arise during the server change, you’ll find out about them here.

Keep visiting us! There are lots of changes coming this way…

A Sharp Intake of Breath is the story of Herman “Toshy” Wolfman, who grows up in a left-wing Jewish family in Toronto during the 1930s. Born with a split lip and cleft palate, Toshy’s life is an uphill battle and despite having seemingly overcome his obstacles, an aging Toshy stuns his nephew by asking for his assistance in committing suicide. Toshy won’t fully explain his decision. Nor will he fully explain why, at this late stage in life, he is obsessed with making a journey to France.

If you’re in the Hamilton area on Monday June 9th at 7pm you’re in for a treat since John will be reading from A Sharp Intake of Breath at Gallery on the Bay (231 Bay Street North), alongside Emma Donoghue (The Sealed Letter) and R.M. Vaughan (Troubled), as part of the Hamilton Pride Festival. Tickets are $5 and refreshments will be served. Contact Bryan Prince Bookseller for more information.

The Arthur Ellis Awards are presented in six categories - Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Non-Fiction, Best Juvenile, Best Short-Story, and Best Crime Writing in French – for the best in Canadian crime and mystery writing. Marc Strange received a nomination in the Best First Novel category for his novel Sucker Punch  and Robert J. Hoshowsky is nominated in the Best Non-Fiction category for his book The Last to Die: Ronald Turpin, Arthur Lucas, and the End of Capital Punishment in Canada.

The winners will be announced at the Arthur Ellis Awards dinner on Thursday, June 5, at the Downtown Marriott Eaton Centre Hotel in Toronto. Best of luck to all the nominees!

We originally formed the blog as a way that we could communicate with the public and our authors while our website was being redeveloped. What we discovered was that the blog was as much of an entity as was the website — they co-exist. Personally, I love to see people comment on our blog — telling us what they think (giving us a piece of their mind).

Maple Leaf Mosaic by Chris Darling

A Look at the Past Year

After a year, we’ve blogged over 400 different posts — not bad for a first year. Let’s take a look at ten posts from Dundurn that changed the way we blog — starting from the earliest.

1. No this wasn’t our first blog post, this was our second one! We announced a chat that took place last year with Maureen Jennings about her first Christine Morris mystery, Does Your Mother Know?

2. We tried to introduce new books that came in hot off the press, but it didn’t work out so well. But we did learn a lot in the process — especially when it came to playing with photography. Take Don Easton’s second Jack Taggart mystery as an example — Above Ground worked brilliantly for the photo shoot — and the book is awesome for those who love gritty mystery novels involving undercover mounties. Stay tuned for a third book in the series.

3. There’s (almost) nothing better than posting up great reviews on a consistent basis of the books you publish. This was one of our first round ups. It just so happened to also be another staffer’s earlier blog postings.

4. It’s always fun to get to listen to audio interviews online. Especially when you don’t have the opportunity to tune in on the radio. Robert Hoshowsky, author of The Last to Die, had the opportunity to chat with Peter Anthony Holder. Peter provided us with the audio file and we posted it up right away! You can still listen to it… thanks again Peter.

5. If you can remember when the first CD-ROM encyclopedia first arrived in the early 90s, then you can remember how amazing it was to be able to view tiny movie clips direct from your computer. Fast forward to 2007 and we’ve got YouTube. Lance Goddard, author of Hell and High Water, provided us with some amazing video interviews with the Canadian veterans who fought in the Italian Campaign of World War II — YouTube let us share the first of many videos here.

6. After the Quill and Quire posted an article about the future of bookchat, I decided to run our own internal poll. This was vital blog post as it quantified and provided a visual manner of interpreting how people really felt about different mediums and their impact on our individual daily lives. To this day, it still fascinates me how people regard newspapers and blogs. Perhaps we’ll do a follow up study — another time.

7. The first author to start blogging on Defining Canada. J.D. Carpenter, author of mystery novel 74 Miles Away, and forthcoming Twelve Trees — went on a one month tour around the United States to do research on a book he is working on. While J.D. was initially a little hesistant, he turned out to be a brilliant blogger. He blogged daily about his adventures and provides some interesting side stories. This one was a favourite of mine. Make sure you check out his American Odyssey (you may need to work your way backwards).

8. Believe it or not, the Amazon Kindle ebook reader continues to be of interest to many many Canadians. They just keep searching for it and they arrive here. Sorry folks, but the Kindle just hasn’t arrived yet in Canada.

9. Just for fun around the time of the holidays. We polled ourselves and the public about whether or not they enjoyed fruitcake. By no means is this an accurate poll but — the no side wins — for now…

10. This may seem like a normal post and it is. It was a great review of Caroline Rennie Pattison’s The Law of Three. However it was also the beginning of you hearing less from me and more from others here at Dundurn.

Mind you there are so many notable posts that I can’t list them all (it is over 400 after all), so I encourage you to explore.

Just to give you a brief idea of how we’ve been doing — this is a graph of the number of posts we make per month from beginning to the present.

Now what? The future!

Look out for some upcoming changes to our blog. Some big and some small. We hope to serve up a nice new and fresh platter of variety to suit your taste buds. More voices and more interesting tales to tell.

Thanks for visiting us over and over again for the first year — let us know if there’s something you want to see more of!

Winners will be announced at the Atlantic Book Awards Ceremony on May 12 at Alderney Landing, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. We here at the Dundurn would like to send our heartfelt congratulations to Valerie and wish her the best of luck!

How well do you know Maureen Jennings, author of The K Handshape? Find out by going to Open Book Toronto’s website where they’ve posted a Q&A with Maureen Jennings. You’ll discover which book Maureen thinks everyone should read and the most memorable response she’s received from a reader.

Today, unfortunately, we are bombarded with muscles and phallic weapons of war. And instead of intellectuals using reason to solve problems, we just blow things up. However, thanks to Caroline Rennie Pattison, my Nancy Drew days are, like stirrup pants, back!

The Sarah Martin series features the sleuthing skills of grade 9 student Sarah Martin. In the first book, The Whole, Entire, Complete Truth, Sarah moves to a new town and is quickly involved with a mysterious secret about an old stable. In the highly anticipated second book, The Law of Three, Rennie Patison has Sarah involved with a family that practices Wicca. The young detective attempts to get to the bottom of the nasty rumors surrounding the family but along the way she is wrapped up in an old murder case.

I am thankful for writers like Renie Pattison and the stories she creates. It’s not often we think about the power that authors wield, especially YA authors. However, when I finished those Nancy Drew books I felt empowered and every time I close the cover for the final time, I knew exactly what I wanted to do; I wanted to solve crimes.

Ok, so I don’t solve crimes. (Heck, I barely commit crimes) But what those books taught me has lived with me forever: constantly challenge yourself and everything around in order to become the best person you can possibly be.

 To read a feature on Caroline Rennie Pattison click here

To read about Super Sleuths including Sarah Martin click here

In The Law of Three, Sarah Martin moves to a small Muskoka town only to find out she’s not the only outsider around. When she teams up with Byron Hopper she vowes to get to the bottom of the rumors circulating about his family. Are they mobsters?  murders? Or worse!?! As she gets closer to Byron she learns that his family is Wiccan and in doing so,  she cuts through the misconceptions of Wicca and the learns about the values they hold dear.

To read the full article click here