My First Book Launch: Chinkstar by Jon Chan Simpson

It came upon summoning up my courage, working with my social anxiety and a little bit of luck that I came to attend my very first industry event last week. Me and a friend of mine from Brock University drove into the heart of Toronto (at least compared to the location of my dorm in Etobicoke) after I found out that a new Coach House title was being celebrated at a bar in the city.

The event was hosted at a bar with a great name, No One Writes For The Colonel, on June 22nd. Our program had recently been granted a tour of Coach House Books and we got to see the printing press at work. I even bought up a couple books for my fellow Geek Girl Brunch officers all about brunch and the class system that I thought they might find interesting. For a copy writing assignment we'd been given in our marketing assignment, assigned by our teacher Evan Munday from ECW Press, we'd been given a copy of Coach House's recent catalog, and one of the books that caught my eye while I was flipping through it for reference was Chinkstar by Jon Chan Simpson, a novel about chinkstar rap set in Red Deer, Alberta. With my interest in the book, and my hope to maybe see a few familiar faces from Coach House again, I clicked the "Join" button on the Facebook Event page and made arrangements with my friend.

Dragon's Loyalty Award

Here's something different! :) I've been nominated for the Dragon's Loyalty Award by my good friend and pen pal ShelbyFromThTwp - mucho thanks for the nomination, Shelby!

The Rules

1. Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and a link back.

3. You must share 7 things other bloggers may not know about you.

4. Nominate up to 15 bloggers for the Dragon's Loyalty Award.
5. Copy and paste the award somewhere on your blog.

7 Random Facts About Me
1. I am terrified of skunks. I'm not joking, if I have anything close to a pathological fear, it would be of skunks. We get skunks regularly wandering through out back yard during the fall, and both my dad and our dog has been sprayed by them, and for whatever reason I am just plain terrified of the same thing happening to me. Whenever I go outside around that time of year, I can't take one step out the door without doing a sniff check to make sure none of the buggers are anywhere nearby.

Review: Boring Girls by Sara Taylor

I asked somebody recently what the best kind of book is, and after a moment of enjoying how much I had stumped my friend, I grinned and answered with, "The free kind!" From picking 4 as a number between 1 and 10 in my Book Production class, I happened to win a physical copy of Boring Girls by Sara Taylor, published by ECW Press.

We've had quite a few employees of ECW come to visit us Creative Book Publishing students since the beginning of this program in May. In fact, I think the majority of the staff at ECW have either appeared as our instructors or as guest speakers in various courses (I believe they currently have a staff of 16 members). This is my first experience with one of ECW's works, and if Boring Girls is an example of the kind of high-quality, quirky, addictive literature that is included on their lists, then I'm sure I'll be picking up some more ECW titles in the future - ones that I will be more than happy to pay for.

Boring Girls is narrated by Rachel, a high school student that has never fit in with the idiotic bitches and misogynistic morons that populate her world. The majority of the novel is Rachel reflecting on the events that have brought her to be described by others as either a murderer or a serial killer - when in reality she is both. From her humble beginnings as a target of relentless 9th grade bullying, she is introduced to heavy metal music and a whole world of opportunities open up for her. While her parents never fully learn to understand her tastes, and are always skeptical because they want what's best for their daughter, their concern for her lessens when Rachel finally begins to make friends at school. One of these friends is Fern, who shares in Rachel's new-found love for metal music.