2014

Starting February 1 through 8, Fantastical Reads is hosting their first Facebook event. Games will give book lovers chances to win an array of prizes.  Join the fun all week on Fantastical Read’s Facebook Event page.  And visit their blog for a chance to win the paperback of Tolomay’s World and the Pool of Light by […]

Cover reveal: Revenge — Tube Riders, Book 3

Now this is a striking cover! Book 3 in Chris Ward’s Tube Riders trilogy launches this month, only a couple of months after Ward released the second volume, Exile.   The Tube Riders trilogy is an original idea, set in a decidedly dystopian futuristic, dictatorial society. In Mega Britain’s inner cities, gangs of youths seek […]

Tilting against the biggest books of all time: the Bible and Quran

I’m taking a huge chance here. Last week, the news media were full of the story about York University in Toronto accommodating a male student’s request not to be put in a study group with women, on religious grounds. The identity and specific religion of the student are protected under Canada’s privacy laws. Whatever religion […]

Photo: Satiray in Flickr. Creative Commons License While I post book reviews regularly on this blog, I decided years ago not to publish a negative review of a book by an independent author. I also promised never to publish a positive review unless I really meant it. My reviews are candid, and while I hope […]

Book launch: The Darkness Comes by Bruce Blake

Am I ready to kill? A cloud of swirling mist sighed out between Kuneprius’ lips, rising into the night to smear the glow of the winter moon. He watched it dissipate, then exhaled another long plume, blowing it out the way he’d seen the Brothers do when they smoked their pipes filled with sweetweed. Instead […]

New Year’s Day, 2014

The new year came to Ottawa with a high, clear sky, a pale winter sun refracting off smooth expanses of pristine white snow. With the temperature around minus 30 C in the morning, the packed snow on the pavements squeaked.  By afternoon, the temperature has warmed to the minus 20 C range. The radio meteorologists […]