#EBookGifts -- a small press book event

 Author Paula Johanson and Doublejoy Books are making plans for a small press book event with other authors and publishers. On Saturday, November 30 we'll all be promoting our ebooks on social media with the hashtag #EBookGifts.

This is a time of year when people are looking for gifts -- and ebooks make terrific gifts! The downloads happen right away. There's no wrapping paper to wrap properly or dispose of afterwards. Ebooks fit on a dedicated reading device or a smartphone or tablet, and especially on a computer's big screen. Look on social media for the hashtag #EBookGifts, for the ebooks you need for affordable gifts this year.

Short books here!

 Looking for something short to read? And nonfiction, not a short story? Try these two books from Doublejoy Books -- biographies of active men who were Canadian prime ministers.

Pierre Trudeau was famous (and still is, now that his grown son has also become prime minister). There are over two dozen biographies of this controversial man -- but you'll find that our book Pierre Elliott Trudeau: Child of Nature is the only one that focuses this much on his interests in canoeing and national parks. It's a safe bet that in his life, he paddled more miles than all the other members of Parliament put together.

By contrast, Charles Tupper is no longer a household name. But when Canada was forming its Confederation, Tupper was a mover and shaker who got things done. He served as a cabinet minister for many years, and as prime minister for only a few weeks. This biography Charles Tupper: Warhorse doesn't shy away from rumours that followed him for years, or the policies he put in place that were disastrous for First Nations people. 

Catch up on Canadian history with these quick reads!

Summer Reading!

 Time to get your summer reading ready!

If you're looking for affordable ebooks, there's always Paula's books at books2read.com/paulaj -- click on any book's cover image to read more about the book and "get it now" to get a copy from any of over a dozen vendors.

All titles from Doublejoy Books are available as free ebooks from Smashwords till the end of August!

Woolgathering

 It's wonderful to be able to announce that there is a new cover for the book based on my master's essay. Woolgathering: Awareness of the Foreign in Published Works About Cowichan Woodworking is a slim monograph with references, but still of interest for knitters and fibre artists who are not academics. Both the ebook and paperback editions are now available from Doublejoy Books with the new cover art, shown below. Click on this link to learn more about this book and where to find it.

2020 Giftmas Blog Tour

 On the 2020 Giftmas Blog Tour, this website is one of several websites supporting a fundraiser collecting donations for the Edmonton Food Bank. You can click here to find out more about the 2020 Giftmas fundraiser, and make a donation. It's really a good idea to click so you can read what organizer Rhonda Parrish has written about how food banks and food hampers can make a difference for families and individuals. Because of the Edmonton Food Bank's purchasing power, each dollar donated here is enough to provide three meals.

The 2020 Giftmas Blog Tour is happening during the coronavirus pandemic, so "emergency" has pretty much become "ordinary" over the course of this year. Here in this fundraiser is one way to cope with one part of the ongoing emergency: contribute at this link to a program supporting those of us who are vulnerable.

As someone who lived near Edmonton for 15 years, who has family and friends there, I can confirm that when vulnerable in Edmonton, any help and support are needed and appreciated. Rhonda Parrish has set up a fundraiser with achievable goals, that supports a needed service. You can read more about Rhonda at her website at this link.

In the history of the Giftmas fundraisers, there's been a steady climb in the amounts raised by donations for the Edmonton Food Bank.

2016 -- $521 raised out of a $500 goal

2017 -- $1,094 raised out of a $522 goal

2018 -- $1,127 raised out of a $750 goal

2019 -- $1,355 raised out of a $1000 goal

2020 -- with two days to go, we've already passed the $1000 goal. That's 3,000 meals!

Click on this link to donate today. Thank you!

Group Book Launch at When Words Collide

 

 On Friday, August 14 at 2:00pm MDT, Paula Johanson's newest title from Doublejoy Books will be launched at When Words Collide literary festival. Look there for info on Island Views, a short novel with elements of romance and mystery. 

During the coronavirus pandemic, everyone is re-inventing social events like book launches and writers conventions. This August, When Words Collide literary festival is a free and virtual event with all-online activities at no charge. One of these activities is a Group Book Launch, taking place not in a hotel conference hall but as a Zoom meeting with nine different authors and their new books. You can learn about the When Words Collide festival at their website http:whenwordscollide.org On the page's Menu the link What's Happening takes you to the festival program, where the Group Book Launch is listed on Friday August 14 at 2pm Mountain Daylight time.

Among the books being launched at this Group Book Launch is Island Views, the newest title to be released from Doublejoy Books! It's available now as an ebook from many online vendors. Check it out now, and on Friday August 14 we'll see you at the launch.

Group Book Launch during When Words Collide, http://whenwordscollide.org

on Friday August 14 at 2pm MDT

Twitter #GroupBookLaunchWWC

Twitter moment https://twitter.com/i/moments/1292900948319248384

Susan Forest

Flights of Marigold, second in the series Addicted to Heaven, is launching Saturday at 2pm.

http://speculative-fiction.ca

Jane Glatt

Sailors & Spies book 3 of the Intelligencers series

Dagrun and Calder are leading the desperate mission to replenish the food stores of Tarklee before winter sets in. On the journey, they run into Calder’s father, a man with many secrets and knowledge of the plots against the Fair Seas Treaty Alliance.

Meanwhile, Nadez assumes leadership of the remaining Intelligencers. Schemes against the Alliance are still in motion, and her small trusted cadre of Intelligencers are running ragged trying to protect the new Grand Freeholder.

But the forces united against the Alliance are deeply entrenched and have considerable power. To counter the threat, the Intelligencers must forge alliances of their own: with the countries of the Sapphire Seas, with their own citizens, and with each other.

https://tychebooks.com/jane-glatt https://tychebooks.com/sailors-spies

Sandra A. Hunter

Daughter of Earth and Fire, The Fledgling book one of the Dragon's Heir series

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1999102924?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Paula Johanson

New this month from Doublejoy Books is a short novel, Plum Tree, a ranobe with time travel. http://books2read.com/b/plumtree

Doublejoy Books is also launching at WWC a short novel of romantic intrigue, Island Views http://books2read.com/b/islandviews This mystery is made lighter with a little sweet romance and a real-life setting on Saltspring Island!

Rounding out the season is Small Rain, a story collection of ecogothic fiction that “Reads like a spec fic Raymond Carver,” according to Ira Nayman. http://books2read.com/b/smallrain

Susan Mayse

winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for True Crime and the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

re-release of her acclaimed 1990 book, Ginger: The Life and Death of Albert Goodwin

https://harbourpublishing.com/products/9781550178913

Awen (hardcover EWU Press 1997; re-released as an ebook by Holdfast Books, 2020)

https://www.amazon.ca/Awen-Susan-Mayse-ebook/dp/B08DH81W2D/

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/awen-2

https://susanmayse.ca/books/

Luke R.J. Meynard

The Season of the Plough, Travalaith Saga Book 1

Coming of age as the supposed Chosen One was hard enough for Aewyn when she believed the prophecy checked out. The sleepy frontier town of Widowvale was founded to be a safe haven far from the civil war and the ancient Horrors lurking in the dreamlike woods. It was a wonderfully dull place, and a hard town to grow up in as a fairy-blooded foundling of mysterious birth.

But when her ancient mentor stands accused of treason and his dubious reading of the prophecy begins to fall through, the formerly supposed Chosen One faces a choice of her own: will she flee to fulfill the destiny she's been given, or sacrifice it all for one chance to save her village and her friends?

The Season of the Cerulyn, Travalaith Saga Book 2

The women of the Mages' Uprising were never known to take civil war lying down. But Catrine and her fellow war-widows are determined to do just that, avenging their lost husbands, lives, and innocence by engaging in a sustained campaign of seduction and espionage against the Travalaithi Empire that could change the course of the war.

But when Catrine falls in love with her hapless mark, and both of them are thrown into a deadly conflict involving Aewyn and her roguish band of outriders, the lovestruck spy must choose once and for all where her true allegiance lies—and decide whether her heart belongs to the living or the dead.

http://www.cynehelm.com

Ursula Pflug

Seeds and Other Stories

In these stories seers and vagabonds, addicts and gardeners succeed and sometimes fail at creating new kinds of community against apocalyptic backdrops. They build gardens in the ruins, transport seeds and songs from one world to another and from dreams to waking life. Where do you plant a seed someone gave you in a dream? How do you build a world more free of trauma when it’s all you’ve ever known? Sometimes the seed you wake up holding in your hand is the seed of a new world

http://www.inanna.ca/product/seeds-and-other-stories

Marie Powell

the YA Fantasy series Last of the Gifted. Spirit Sight and Water Sight will be released this summer and fall, thanks to funding from Creative Saskatchewan.

https://mariepowell.ca/young-adult-2/last-of-the-gifted/

L.A. Smith

Bound, second title in The Traveller's Path trilogy

The story begun in Wilding: Book One of The Traveller's Path continues!

Seventh century Northumbria is a long way from home for 20-year-old Thomas McCadden. Having travelled through time and discovered that he is a Fey Traveller with wild and untamed powers, Thomas must now deal with an even more unexpected surprise: his father has returned to his life.

http://lasmithwriter.com/books/bound

Suzy Vadori

Wall of Wishes

Save the fountain or risk being erased. Hidden deep in the woods is a fountain that has granted St. Augustus students' wishes for nearly a century, including the wish responsible for Ava's very existence. When she learns that the woods will soon be destroyed to make way for a new road, Ava must do whatever it takes to save the fountain, or risk her own life being erased. New girl Courtney knows more about the school's magic than she's letting on and has something to gain from the fountain's destruction. Joining forces with Courtney seems the only way to stop the road, but Ava and Coutney share a thorny past. Trusting her is impossible, but if she doesn't, Ava could disappear forever.

http://books2read.com/wallofwishes

https://bookmanager.com/1675575/?searchtype=keyword&qs=vadori&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Interview in Sooke News Mirror

The Sooke News Mirror ran an interview with me about my newest book, Small Rain. Check it out below or on the newspaper's website at this link.

Sooke author launches science fiction novel

Paula Johanson draws inspiration through ordinary life, science and technology

• Dawn Gibson
• Jun. 19, 2020 10:00 p.m.
• Community

Science fiction admirers are in for a literary delight.

Sooke author Paula Johanson is releasing a book, Small Rain and Other Nightmares, at the end of June. The science fiction book is comprised of a collection of short stories, with a running “eco-gothic, fantasy” theme throughout.

“The stories are all a bit darker than much of my other fiction, but they all fit well together because they were inspired from nightmares,” Johanson said. “I woke up and had to write it.”

Johanson will publish two other books this summer as well, one is titled Island Views, a novel with elements of mystery and romance.

The third book, Plum Tree, is more of a subtle science fiction novel. Johanson described it as a coming of age story about a depressed teenager, who while on a drive to her aunt’s house, goes through an internal change.

“It’s all about being in transition instead of having arrived,” said Johanson, noting the girl in the story experiences a form of time travel.

Johanson has published about 42 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and has worked as a professional writer for 35 years. She teaches writing workshops, has freelanced and worked for newspapers, as well as worked on various personal projects, such as a small magazine she made with her spouse and friends.

Ordinary life is where Johanson draws her inspiration from, whether it be out walking her dog, or in line at the grocery store, ideas for stories are all around. The author said she loves to learn about science and technology, and to see the way knowledge is put to action in the world by people.

“I don’t work as a professional biologist, or rocket engineer, but when I learn a little interesting fact about nature or science, I blend that together with what people get up in the morning to do,” said Johanson.

“Science is fascinating, technology is interesting, but what people do with it, is what inspires me.”

The three books will be published as e-books, and she expects the first book to be printed in hard copy by October, depending on the distributor. The e-books can be found on Books2read.com/b/4Xnok7.

Johanson said her goal is to have 10 books published in the next three years, and is on track to achieve it. She isn’t particularly concerned with selling an outrageous number of copies, rather than feeling good about her products, and finding success in reaching her target audience.

“I think the world would be a better place if anyone who thinks they would like to write a book, gives it a try,” said Johanson. “Don’t get too negative if you are not Margaret Atwood, and allow yourself to be the best darn person at writing the book that is yours.”