How do you get from Betty White to a bestseller? No, it’s not a question in Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon; it’s what I’m hoping to achieve through my Author Effect project on Facebook.

I Have My Mother’s Eyes is special for numerous reasons. Not only does it tell the story of Zosia Hoffenberg’s escape out of Poland (and Europe) during World War II, but it does so using three voices: Zosia herself (as told by daughter Barbara), the author (Zosia’s daughter), and Danielle, Barbara’s daughter, who took over the project and ensured its publication after the author died from cancer.

As a woman in her thirties who has no intentions of ever having kids, I was very excited when I heard about this book. Actually, I was over-the-moon thrilled. Finally I no longer had to mumble with head down when asked that wonderfully awkward and personal question: “So, when are you guys going to have a baby?”

When I requested a review copy of Cathy Buchanan’s The Day the Falls Stood Still, my publishing contact asked me if I wanted to be part of Cathy’s Blog Tour. Now I had a vague notion of what a blog tour was, but this was the first time I ever had the opportunity to partake in one. I of course said yes.

Last time I said I was planning on reading The Book of Negroes and Fruit, and honestly I had every intention of reading them. But I haven’t. Not yet. I even have The Book of Negroes sitting on one of my book cases, all ready to be read.
So, what happened, you ask? Did I get [...]

The Dream
Oh, to become a published author. For the past year, this had been my goal. My dream. And in three, deliriously naive months spent slaving away in the cool dankness of my basement, I managed to pound out an astounding 102,000 words! From beginning to end, I did it. I completed the first draft [...]

For Canadian book lovers everywhere, CBC’s Canada Reads is like the Grammys.  Or Oscars.  We eagerly await each year for March to see what will be chosen as Canada’s book of the year to read.  This year’s selections are as varied as their defenders: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (defended by Avi Lewis), [...]