Songs for the Songs of Birds by Don McKay now available on iTunes

Songs for the Songs of Birds by award winning Canadian poet Don McKay is now available on iTunes.

Of course it's still available from rattlingbooks.com but if you prefer to shop at iTunes - you can now get it there as well.

The work of a much loved Canadian birding poet Songs for the Songs of Birds celebrates the way birds "articulate the air" and considers what the world would be without them. Narrated by the Author, the soundtrack features bird song recordings identified to species.

Don McKay

Two time winner of the Governor General's Award for Poetry (1991, 2000), Don McKay is also fondly known as an avid birder. For Songs of the Songs of Birds, his Rattling Books project, Don selected poems relating to birds, birding and flight. In 2007 Don McKay was awarded the Griffin Prize for Poetry for his book of poems Strike / Slip (McClelland & Stewart, 2006).

Dead Author Digital Download Sale: Half Rotten Half Price!

Dead Author Digital Download Special!
Half Rotten Half Price

October 27 - 31

Captain Bob Bartlett
The Last Voyage of the Karluk
Regular Download Price: $19.95
Hallowe'en Price: $9.95

Wilfred Grenfell
Adrift on an Ice Pan
Regular Download Price: $9.95
Hallowe'en Price: $4.95

Dillon Wallace
The Lure of the Labrador Wild
Regular Download Price: $19.95
Hallowe'en Price: $9.95

Burning issue: N.L. struggles to close ancient garbage incinerators like the one that author Michael Winter fell in

Burning issue: N.L. struggles to close ancient garbage incinerators

Oct 26, 2008
The Canadian Press
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/10/26/nfld-incinerators.html

The teepee incinerator in the eastern Newfoundland town of Old Perlican exhales a potentially toxic mix into the air, one of more than 20 that will continue to do so next year despite a government promise to close them before Dec. 31.For years, the conical steel structures have been the only means of waste disposal for thousands of residents in the province's rural communities. In that time they've burned all manner of garbage and emit potentially hazardous dioxins and furans.

Author Michael Winter, who accidentally fell into the Old Perlican incinerator and survived, says he's surprised the province continues to use them."It sort of feels like the Industrial Age," Winter said."I really hope something gets done. Pretty much nothing has changed since I fell in."

Winter slid down the gaping maw of the incinerator two years ago after he lost his footing while dumping roofing shingles off the back of a pickup truck.He landed on a "burning pyre of everything" before leaping away from the fire and grabbing a plastic tub that hadn't melted yet to shield himself from the heat.He crawled to nearby ventilation slits to breathe before men at the site broke open the cast-iron back door using a boulder. He estimates he was inside the oven for about five minutes."I wasn't going to burn to death. I was going to cook," he said.

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Michael Winter's novel The Big Why is available as an unabridged audio book from Rattling Books.

Globe and Mail review of new collection of Birth stories edited by Dede Crane and Lisa Moore

Birth writes
ZSUZSI GARTNER
October 25, 2008
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Twenty-Four True Stories About Childbirth
Edited by Dede Crane
and Lisa Moore

The cover belies the bloody, Gothic comedy of childbirth. An infant sleeps serenely, small spidery fingers curved to cheeks, efficiently wrapped in a cone of white blanket like a little amuse gueule - or a Communion wafer - ready to be plucked up and savoured. But inside Great Expectations there is blood aplenty (and copious other fluids, including tears), thundering pain, death and near-death experiences. The final month of pregnancy is Waiting for Godot, then suddenly the curtain rises on Act IV, Scene III of Macbeth.

Editors Dede Crane and Lisa Moore have assembled a hot pot of two dozen Canadian fiction writers and journalists, women and men, to reflect on the childbirth experience from the trenches. (Two of the contributors are close friends and another half a dozen I'm friendly with to various degrees, including the editor of this book section. It's from this outwardly compromised position that I'm writing.)

Read the rest of this Globe review here.

Final Excerpt (#24 of 24) from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #24 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell


(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt



THE RESCUERS' STORY CONTINUED



"As soon as 'twas light us went to th' cliff wi' th' spy-glass to see
if us could see un, but thar warn't nothin' in sight. Us know by the
wind whar t' look fur un, an' us launched th' boat. George Read an'
'is two sons, an' George Davis, what seen un first, an' me, was th'
crew. George Read was skipper-man an' th' rest was just youngsters.
The sun was warm,--you mind 'twas a fine mornin',--an' us started in
our shirt an' braces fur us knowed thar'd be hard work to do. I knowed
thar was a chance o' not comin' back at all, but it didn' make no
difference. I knowed I'd as good a chance as any, _an' 'twa' for th'
doctor, an' 'is life's worth many_, an' somehow I couldn' let a man go
out like dat wi'out tryin' fur un, an' I think us all felt th' same.

"Us 'ad a good strong boat an' four oars, an' took a hot kettle o' tea
an' food for a week, for us thought u'd 'ave t' go far an' p'rhaps
lose th' boat an' 'ave t' walk ashore un th' ice. I din' 'ope to find
the doctor alive an' kept lookin' for a sign of un on th' pans. 'Twa'
no' easy gettin' to th' pans wi' a big sea runnin'! Th' big pans 'ud
sometimes heave together an' near crush th' boat, an' sometimes us 'ad
t' git out an' haul her over th' ice t' th' water again. Then us come
t' th' slob ice where th' pan 'ad ground together, an' 'twas all
thick, an' that was worse'n any. Us saw th' doctor about twenty
minutes afore us got t' un. 'E was wavin' 'is flag an' I seen 'im. 'E
was on a pan no bigger'n this flor, an' I dunno what ever kep' un fro'
goin' abroad, for 'twasn't ice, 'twas packed snow. Th' pan was away
from even th' slob, floatin' by hisself, an' th' open water all roun',
an' 'twas just across fro' Goose Cove, an' outside o' that there'd
been no hope. I think th' way th' pan held together was on account o'
th' dogs' bodies meltin' it an' 't froze hard durin' th' night. 'E
was level with th' water an' th' sea washin' over us all th' time.

"When us got near un, it didn' seem like 'twas th' doctor. 'E looked
so old an' 'is face such a queer color. 'E was very solemn-like when
us took un an' th' dogs on th' boat. No un felt like sayin' much, an'
'e 'ardly said nothin' till us gave un some tea an' loaf an' then 'e
talked. I s'pose e was sort o' faint-like. Th' first thing 'e said
was, how wonderfu' sorry 'e was o' gettin' into such a mess an' givin'
we th' trouble o' comin' out for un. Us tol' un not to think o' that;
us was glad to do it for un, an' 'e'd done it for any one o' we, many
times over if 'e 'ad th' chance;--an' so 'e would. An' then 'e
fretted about th' b'y 'e was goin' to see, it bein' too late to reach
un, an' us tol' un 'is life was worth so much more 'n th' b'y, fur 'e
could save others an' th' b'y couldn'. But 'e still fretted.

"'E 'ad ripped th' dog-harnesses an' stuffed th' oakum in th' legs o'
'is pants to keep un warm. 'E showed it to we. An' 'e cut off th' tops
o' 'is boots to keep th' draught from 'is back. 'E must 'a' worked
'ard all night. 'E said 'e droled off once or twice, but th' night
seemed wonderfu' long.

"Us took un off th' pan at about half-past seven, an' 'ad a 'ard fight
gettin' in, th' sea still runnin' 'igh. 'E said 'e was proud to see us
comin' for un, and so 'e might, for it grew wonderfu' cold in th' day
and th' sea so 'igh the pan couldn' 'a' lived outside. 'E wouldn'
stop when us got ashore, but must go right on, an' when 'e 'ad dry
clothes an' was a bit warm, us sent un to St. Anthony with a team.

"Th' next night, an' for nights after, I couldn' sleep. I'd keep
seein' that man standin' on th' ice, an' I'd be sorter half-awake
like, sayin', 'But not th' doctor. Sure _not_ th' _doctor_.'"

There was silence for a few moments, and George Andrews looked out
across the blue harbor to the sea.

"'E sent us watches an' spy-glasses," said he, "an' pictures o'
hisself that one o' you took o' un, made large an' in a frame. George
Read an' me 'ad th' watches an' th' others 'ad th' spy-glasses. 'Ere's
th' watch. It 'as 'In memory o' April 21st' on it, but us don't need
th' things to make we remember it, tho' we 're wonderful glad t' 'ave
'em from th' doctor."







THE END.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.

New short fiction by Carmelita McGrath available as a digital download from Rattling Books

The Fat Years by Carmelita McGrath, narrated by the author is now available as a digital download short fiction single from Rattling Books.

The Fat Years is one of several short stories forthcoming in EarLit Shorts 1, the first in a new series of audio short fiction anthologies produced by Rattling Books.

Digital Dilemmas of Publishers discussed at Frankfurt Book Fair

Digital dilemmas at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Is Paulo Coelho right when he says publishers don't understand the web?

Some 30% of the exhibited products at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year are digital, but that didn't stop Paulo Coelho from castigating the world's publishers for their attitude to the net. In a forthright speech at the opening conference, Coelho told publishers that they were as bad as copyist monks bewailing the arrival of printed books back in the 16th century. According to Coelho there is "a lack of understanding of the web on the part of the industry", which could mean they end up travelling the same path as the film and music industries.

Read the article on the Gaurdian Books Blog

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Rattling Books may not have been at the Frankfurt Book Fair but we are here on the internet and we are one Canadian publisher that gets the digital thing.

Unabridged downloadable audio books for your ipod or mp3 player.

Support the CAPE Artists Fund by buying a download of Joel Thomas Hynes' "God Help Thee: A Manifesto"

The text of God Help Thee: A Manifesto , a performance by Joel Thomas Hynes appears in the current edition of Riddle Fence: a Journal of Arts & Culture.

The audio download is available online from Rattling Books as a fund raising effort for the Cultural Assistance Plan for Emergencies (CAPE) fund.

The CAPE fund is an emergency fund for Newfoundland and Labrador artists facing times of financial need due to severe illness or accident. For more information, please consult the website of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council , which administers the fund.

To support the CAPE fund by purchasing a download of God Help Thee: A Manifesto by Joel Thomas Hynes visit rattlingbooks.com and put it in your shopping cart.

If you just want to hear it for free you can do that there as well but jeez, what's five bucks for a good cause. 100% of any revenue goes to the CAPE fund.

Word of the Week over at REDEFiNE iT (Oct 19-25)) laddie-sucker

Word of the Week over at our REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English Blog (Oct 19-25):

laddie-sucker

Excerpt #23 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #23 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell



(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt

APPENDIX

One of Dr. Grenfell's volunteer helpers, Miss Luther of Providence,
R.I., contributes the following account of the rescue as recited in
the Newfoundland vernacular by one of the rescuing party.

"One day, about a week after Dr. Grenfell's return," says Miss Luther,
"two men came in from Griquet, fifteen miles away. They had walked all
that distance, though the trail was heavy with soft snow and they
often sank to their waists and waded through brooks and ponds. 'We
just felt we must see the doctor and tell him what 't would 'a' meant
to us, if he'd been lost.' Perhaps nothing but the doctor's own tale
could be more graphic than what was told by George Andrews, one of the
crew who rescued him."

THE RESCUERS' STORY

"It was wonderfu' bad weather that Monday mornin'. Th' doctor was to
Lock's Cove. None o' we thought o' 'is startin' out. I don't think th'
doctor hisself thought o' goin' at first an' then 'e sent th' two men
on ahead for to meet us at th' tilt an' said like 's 'e was goin'
after all.



"'Twas even' when us knew 'e was on th' ice. George Davis seen un
first. 'E went to th' cliff to look for seal. It was after sunset an'
half dark, but 'e thought 'e saw somethin' on th' ice an' 'e ran for
George Read an' 'e got 'is spy-glass an' made out a man an' dogs on a
pan an' knowed it war th' doctor.



"It was too dark fur we t' go t' un, but us never slept at all, all
night. I couldn' sleep. Us watched th' wind an' knew if it didn' blow
too hard us could get un,--though 'e was then three mile off a'ready.
So us waited for th' daylight. No one said who was goin' out in th'
boat. Un 'ud say, 'Is you goin'?' An' another, 'Is you?' I didn' say,
but I knowed what I'd do.

To be continued.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.

Announcing our Alternative Thanksgiving Dinner menu & the winners of our Recipe Redux Contest

ANNOUNCING

The Winners

RECIPE REDUX
aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest
AND
our selection for an alternative Thanksgiving Dinner

MENU

Thanksgiving Eve

Rabbit Dinner ala Nellie Strowbridge's Basket Soup Recipe

Thanksgiving Day Dinner

Hors d'œuvre

Nellie Strowbridge's Basket Soup

Entrée

Bonnie Morgan’s Stuffed Cod
with
Nicky Hawkins' Bottle Arse Squid On a Bed of Cavalance Pummy Garnished With Saddiesuckers
and Leslie Davis' sautéed horse farts

Dessert

Suzuki Talent Education Program's (STEP's) Galloped Gob of Golly

**********

The Winners

The Grand prize winner

of a Dictionary of Newfoundland English

is Leslie Davis.
Each of the contributors to our menu above win their choice

of three Rattling Books each.

Thank-you to everyone who sent recipes in

to Rattling Books and CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine.

Recipes will be posted on our

REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English Blog

Bon Appétit

Give thanks for each glutch and guttle!

Excerpt #22 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Sir Wilfred Grenfell

Excerpt #22 from Adrift on an Ice Pan by Wilfred Thomasen Grenfell



(N.B. It was in 1908 that Grenfell, a medical missionary in northern Newfoundland was traveling by dog team to treat a patient, became stranded on an ice pan and came close to perishing. The following excerpt is from Grenfell's account of this adventure.)



Excerpt

It is time to bring this egotistic narrative to an end. "Jack" lies
curled up by my feet while I write this short account. "Brin" is once
again leading and lording it over his fellows. "Doc" and the other
survivors are not forgotten, now that we have again returned to the
less romantic episodes of a mission hospital life. There stands in our
hallway a bronze tablet to the memory of three noble dogs, Moody,
Watch, and Spy, whose lives were given for mine on the ice. In my
home in England my brother has placed a duplicate tablet, and has
added these words, "Not one of them is forgotten before your Father
which is in heaven." And this I most fully believe to be true. The boy
whose life I was intent on saving was brought to the hospital a day or
two later in a boat, the ice having cleared off the coast not to
return for that season. He was operated on successfully, and is even
now on the high road to recovery. We all love life. I was glad to be
back once more with possibly a new lease of it before me. I had
learned on the pan many things, but chiefly that the one cause for
regret, when we look back on a life which we think is closed forever,
will be the fact that we have wasted its opportunities. As I went to
sleep that first night there still rang in my ears the same verse of
the old hymn which had been my companion on the ice, "Thy will, not
mine, O Lord."


To be continued.



**************



The above excerpt is from Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. A true account of Grenfell's near death experience, the story was first published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Company.



The unabridged audio edition, narrated by Chris Brookes, Jay Roberts and Janis Spence, is available from Rattling Books.

Recipe Redux (aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick) recipe contest deadline extended to October 8

For details see the REDEFiNE iT Blog.

Uncle Val in Toronto, Theatre Passe Muraille

An Evening With Uncle Val

Eye Weekly - Toronto,ON,Canada

BY Gord McLaughlin October 02, 2008 14:10

Written and performed by Andy Jones. Directed by Lois Brown. Presented by Theatre Passe Muraille. To Oct 19.

Uncle Val a master storyteller

Toronto Star - Ontario, CanadaWritten and performed by Andy Jones. Directed by Lois Brown. Until Oct. 19 at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave. 416-504-7529.

What's On: Stage

Toronto Star - Ontario, CanadaRoyal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W. mirvish.com An Evening with Uncle Val, written and performed by Andy Jones, features two characters who use their ...

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Letters from Uncle Val, written and performed by Andy Jones is available as an Audio CD or Digital Download from rattlingbooks.com.

Russell Wangersky's Burning Down the House makes short list for The Writers' Trust Non-fiction Prize

Russell Wangersky's recent book, Burning Down the House: Fighting Fire and Losing Myself (Thomas Allen Publishers) is on the short list for the 2008 Writers' Trust Non-fiction Prize.

The Complete set of Short Lists:

The Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize ($25,000):
Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances (HarperCollins Canada)
Rawi Hage, Cockroach (House of Anansi Press)
Lee Henderson, The Man Game (Viking Canada)
Patrick Lane, Red Dog, Red Dog (McClelland & Stewart)
Miriam Toews, The Flying Troutmans (Knopf Canada)
(Jurors: Lawrence Hill, Annabel Lyon, Heather O'Neill)

The Writers' Trust Non-fiction Prize ($25,000):
Taras Grescoe, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood (HarperCollins Canada)
Carl Honoré, Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting (Knopf Canada)
Mark Kingwell, Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City (Viking Canada)
Margaret Visser, The Gift of Thanks: The Roots, Persistence and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual (HarperCollins Canada)
Russell Wangersky, Burning Down the House: Fighting Fire and Losing Myself (Thomas Allen Publishers)
(Jurors: Derek Lundy, Darren Wershler-Henry, Jan Wong)

The Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize ($10,000):
Dana Mills, “Steaming for Godthab,” published in Geist
Saleema Nawaz, “My Three Girls,” published in Prairie Review
Clea Young, “Chaperone,” published in Grain Magazine
(Jurors: Lynn Coady, Heather O'Neill, Neil Smith)

The Writers' Trust Awards take place on Nov. 17 at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto.

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Two short stories by Russell Wangersky are forthcoming with Rattling Books in a new series of audio short fiction anthologies entitled EarLit Shorts.