Gerard Whelan

Actor Gerard Whelan (a.k.a. Gerard Neil) narrates David Macfarlane's The Danger Tree, coming soon from Rattling Books.

Don McKay

Click here to read a poem ("Midnight Dip") by Canadian poet Don McKay, accompanied by music from the film Lord of the Rings.

Listen to an excerpt from Rattling Books' unabridged audio book edition of McKay's poetry collection Songs for the Songs of Birds, available as an audio CD or an MP3 download.

Rattling Books produces Canadian audiobooks in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Ron Hynes' "Stealing Genius"

Canadian musician Ron Hynes' 2010 CD, Stealing Genius, was inspired by the work of Newfoundland authors.

To read a review of Stealing Genius on the American alternative country music site NoDepression.com, click here.

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

Listen to Ron Hynes read a poem from Rattling Books' unabridged audio edition of Newfoundland writer Michael Crummey's Hard Light: 32 Little Stories. Rattling Books' unabridged audio books are available as audio or MP3 CDs, and also as MP3 downloads.

Chris Benjamin Reports On "Environmental Racism"

Click here to read an article on "environmental racism" by Chris Benjamin, published in Halifax's The Coast.

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

Listen to an excerpt from Chris Benjamin's short story "Delia and Phil," narrated by Charlie Tomlinson. "Delia and Phil" is available from Rattling Books as an individual MP3 download, and it's also featured on EarLit Shorts 4, an audio book collection of short fiction featuring Benjamin, Michael Collins, Robin McGrath, Rebecca Rosenblum, J. J. Steinfeld and Leslie Vryenhoek.

Beverly Akerman

After over two decades in molecular genetics research, Beverly Akerman realized she’d been learning more and more about less and less. Skittish at the prospect of knowing everything about nothing, she turned, for solace, to writing.
To read a short story by this award-winning Montreal writer, click here.

To visit her blog, follow this link.

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

Beverly Akerman's short story "Tumbalalaika" will soon be available from Rattling Books, as part of the short fiction collection EarLit 5 and also as an individual MP3 download.

Canadian Author Rebecca Rosenblum's New Short Story Collection

Canadian publisher Biblioasis is about to publish a second short story collection by Rebecca Rosenblum. Read the publisher's comments on her new collection, The Big Dream.

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

Listen to excerpts from Rebecca Rosenblum's short stories, "The Weatherboy" (narrated by Gerard Whalen) and "Christmas with My Mother" (narrated by Janet Russell). These stories are available from Rattling Books as individual MP3 downloads, and they are also featured on EarLit Shorts 4, an audio book collection of short fiction by Rosenblum, Chris Benjamin, Michael Collins, Robin McGrath, J.J. Steinfeld and Leslie Vryenhoek.

"Rumpus" Review of Kathleen Winter's "Annabel"

Canadian writer Kathleen Winter's debut novel Annabel has made a fine splash in the literary pool, and the ripples are still spreading.

Click here to read the latest review, in The Rumpus, of Annabel, which was short-listed for three major Canadian literary prizes, the Governor General's Literary Award, the Giller Prize and the Writer's Trust Prize.

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

Listen to excerpts from short stories by Kathleen Winter: The Destination, His Brown Face Through the Flowers and Sleep, Little Baby. These stories are available from Rattling Books as individual MP3 downloads, and they are also featured on EarLit Shorts 1, an anthology of short fiction by Joel Thomas Hynes, Carmelita McGrath and Kathleen Winter.

Today In Meteorological History . . .

On January 20, 1943, Lead, South Dakota, recorded a temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same day, Deadwood, South Dakota, a mile and a half away from Lead, recorded -16 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here in Newfoundland, we know how they felt. Sort of, anyway. But there are a few things that can distract us from being consumed heart and soul by aberrant weather patterns. Small children and good literature are pretty effective at focusing the heart and soul, and Rattling Books "talking books" - unabridged audio books available as CDs or downloads - allow you to watch your children gambol, say, in the kitchen, while, with your back to whatever is happening against the window, you listen to great writing from some of Canada's finest authors and narrators.

Take that, Jack Frost and Jill Flood.

January 19 Is Edgar Allan Poe's Birthday

On January 19, 1809, poet Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston. A major American poet, Poe was, apparently, one of the first writers to try to make a living solely from writing. This may, or may not, have led to his rather depressing choice of subjects and early death.

Mary Dalton is one of Newfoundland's major poets. And although her poetry examines many facets of the human experience, including crawly things, she is not likely to come to a premature end. One reason is that she is also a professor of English at Memorial University, having had the good sense not to try to make a living at poetry.

Listen to an excerpt from Mary Dalton's Merrybegot, narrated by Anita Best. This unabridged audio book is available from Rattling Books as an audio CD or an MP3 download.

Today In History . . .

On January 18, 1912, English explorer Robert F. Scott and his expedition reached the South Pole.
Exciting stuff, but there was one problem. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had gotten there before him.

If polar exploration is your thing, listen to an excerpt from Rattling Books' The Last Voyage of the Karluk, Captain Robert Bartlett's account of being stranded in the far north during an early twentieth-century polar expedition. Narrated by Frank Holden, it's a spine-tingling story with many and various elements, including small children, dogs and Chopin's "Funeral March."


This unabridged audio book is available as an MP3 CD or an MP3 digital download.

Rattling Books publishes Canadian audiobooks from Newfoundland and Labrador.

TNQ's Nick Blatchford Poetry Contest

It's that time of year again: almost-deadline time for Canadian literary journal The New Quarterly's annual Nick Blatchford poetry contest. The contest is for "poems written in response to an occasion, personal or public - poems of gratitude or grief, poems that celebrate or berate, poems that make of something an occasion or simply mark one."

For details about the contest, click on the TNQ cover image.

To read Amanda Jernigan's charming essay on poems and occasions, click here.

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

Listen to excerpts from the poetry of some of Canada's best poets, presented to you by Rattling Books. Available as audio book CDs and MP3 digital downloads.

Andy Jones At The Eastern Edge Gallery In St. John's, Newfoundland

Andy Jones, one of Newfoundland's most well-known actors and writers, will have a month-long (January 17 to February 19) residency at the Eastern Edge Gallery in St. John's, during which he will
continue to develop The Abbie Table Project, a collaborative work started in 2006.

The centerpiece of the project is a 10' x 4' table inscribed with a story of the life of a Newfoundland family engaged in the salt fishery from the 1920s to the 1950s, which has been "illuminated" by several dozen contributors. Jones' residency at Eastern Edge will include "performances" of the table in the form of public readings and interpretive theatre pieces.

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

Listen to an excerpt from Rattling Books' audio book edition of Andy Jones' Letters from Uncle Val. This audio book is available as an audio CD or an MP3 digital download.

Author Bernice Morgan Gives "Below The Bridge" Two Thumbs Up

Bernice Morgan, author of Random Passage, said she cried when she listened to Rattling Books' unabridged audio book edition of Helen Fogwill Porter's memoir of growing up on the South Side of St. John's in the 1930s and '40s, Below the Bridge.

Lucky for us, this wasn't because of bad production values. "I thoroughly enjoyed it," Morgan said. "No one knows old St. John's the way Helen does."

Listen to an excerpt from Below the Bridge, available from Rattling Books as an MP3 audio book CD or an audio book digital download.

Rattling Books At SPARKS Literary Festival, St. John's, January 23

The Memorial University of Newfoundland's Faculty of Arts will be holding its 2011 SPARKS literary festival from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, January 23, at the Petro-Canada Hall in the School of Music.

Professor Mary Dalton, the festival’s founder and director, has once again assembled a stellar group of writers to entertain and enlighten audiences during a day-long festival of readings, talks, and book and journal displays. To find out which authors will be reading, click here.
**************
Rattling Books will have a display at the SPARKS Festival. Follow this link to listen to excerpts from Rattling Books audio book CDs and digital downloads.

David Weale Book Added To Curriculum Of Indiana University

Prince Edward Island author David Weale's Chasing the Shore: Little Stories of Spirit and Landscape has recently been adopted as a core textbook at Notre Dame University in Indiana. It will be used in a course entitled Place and Voice.

The author of more then a dozen books, Weale is best known for his children’s literature, particularly The True Meaning of Crumbfest.

***************
Listen to an excerpt from Rattling Books' unabridged audio book edition of The True Meaning of Crumbfest, which won an AudioFile Earphones Award.

Lisa Moore To Conduct Writing Workshop In Winnipeg, January 23rd

Short-story writer and novelist Lisa Moore will be leading a fiction workshop in Winnipeg on
Sunday, January 23. Writers should submit up to ten pages of work, and two or three questions they'd like answered, about the work or writing in general. These will be sent to other workshop participants a week before the workshop, and discussed during the workshop.

The deadline for applying is January 14. Submissions go to venns@mts.net.

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

To hear an excerpt from a short story by Lisa Moore, click here. Rattling Books' unabridged audio book edition of Moore's short story collection Open is available as an MP3 CD or an MP3 digital download. Several of the stories can be downloaded individually.

Farewell to Christmas!

Time to put the antlers away for another year. 

Best wishes for the meantime.



Rattling Books

Redefining New Year's Resolutions #5: Rattling Books

I resolve:

firstly: to shive all lewardly pishogues yaffled into this drung of a world by hangishores believing in boo darbies

secondly: to juggle four waddocks on the bawn and teach my merrybegot to do the same before

thirdly and lastly: I quit this droke peopled by nuzzle tripes, marl on out to the blue drop and hang with the bawks and guds.

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

The above resolution was made by Rattling Books back when we were kicking off our 2008 New Year's Resolution Contest which originated from the Rattling Books facebook group/game REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

REDEFiNE iT was inspired in part by Mary Dalton's collection of poems entitled Merrybegot. The unabridged audiobook edition is available as an audio CD or Digital Download from Rattling Books.

Redefining New Year's Resolutions #4: Kathleen Winter

Kathleen Winter

By every gud and bawk marling over drung, bawn and blue drop, I resolve to shive four hours off the night and keep writing long past midnight, no matter what lewerdly boo wants to whisper pishogues in my ear or pelt me with guilty waddocks, this angishore is sick of early to bed and early to rise just because she's mothered a brood of merrybegot nuzzle-tripes wailing all day long at her that they're hungry and she's supposed to find a fish in the droke and fry it up for them when what she should be doing is getting her yaffle of stories ready for the next bloody Pulitzer.

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

The above resolution was an entry from Kathleen Winter to our 2008 New Year's Resolution Contest which originated from the Rattling Books facebook group/game REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

REDEFiNE iT was a tangent indulgence of Rattling Books' which was inspired in part by Mary Dalton's collection of poems entitled Merrybegot. The unabridged audio edition is available as an audio CD or Digital Download from Rattling Books. It is performed by Anita Best with Patrick Boyle on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Redefining New Year's Resolutions #3: Sigurbjörg Þrastardóttir

Sigurbjörg Þrastardóttir

I promise and lewardly bawn to myself and my whole waddock of friends to yaffle, marl and bawk with more intensity and beauty in 2008 than ever before, in order to shive my angishore and crank up the nuzzle tripe of those around me, be it plainly in the blue drop, out on the drung or high up in the pishogue. This does not, of course, in any way gud my orderly mid-January droke, to stab the merrybegot though the heart with a sleek and slightly bent boo.

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

The above resolution is from 2008 when Rattling Books was running a  New Year's Resolution Contest which originated from the Rattling Books facebook group/game REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English.





REDEFiNE iT was a tangent indulgence of Rattling Books' which was inspired in part by Mary Dalton's collection of poems entitled Merrybegot. The unabridged audio edition is available as an audio CD or Digital Download from Rattling Books. It is performed by Anita Best with Patrick Boyle on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Redefining New Year's Resolutions #2: Don McKay

Here is Don McKay's entry too ur  New Year's Resolution Contest which originated from the Rattling Books facebook group/game REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English.from back in 2008. The contest required entries to use words from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English that had appeared as "words of the week" during the previous year.

Don McKay

January 2nd and your head still feels like a waddock that's been bashed up and down the field by size thirteen spaugs, and no wonder, you're after being a slinger randying all Christmas, guzzling the screech and stuffing your gob, telling your old cuffers filled with all that pishogue, how you were forever grassing in the bawn like the rawny merrybegot you are, how you'd marl up the droke with a joke and a bottle and all the girls waiting to kiss you in the drung behind the church hall, way back when you were but a lewardly nuzzle tripe of a angishore before the blue drop got in your blood and you were out jiggering for cod with the bawks and guds whirling overhead, the gillies, turrs and tickleaces skimming the surface, the swiles sculling and diving, now here you are so hung over you can hardly stand to shive the goowiddy off your fousty face, yes my son, you say to the boo in the mirror, you've been a jeezly seeny-sawny long enough, it's time for a whole yaffle of resolutions, if only you could figure out where to start.

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

REDEFiNE iT was a tangent indulgence of Rattling Books' which was inspired in part by Mary Dalton's collection of poems entitled Merrybegot. The unabridged audio edition is available as an audio CD or Digital Download from Rattling Books. It is performed by Anita Best with Patrick Boyle on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Revisiting Redefining New Year's Resolutions: #1 Andreae Prozesky

If you find yourself entering 2011 without any resolutions, watch this space.

Time passes. At the dawning of the year 2008 Rattling Books was running a  New Year's Resolution Contest which originated from the Rattling Books facebook group/game REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

Over the next few days we will be re-posting some of those redefining resolutions from 2008. We'll start with the entry that won the contest.

Andreae Prozesky

My merrybegot, who may be a moss-child, but who is surely no nuzzle-tripe, wakes herself at night with boo-darby dreams; I, from this snowy droke (which was, not long ago a grassy bawn), I, drung-dweller, city marler, resolve to shive these horrors from her (and to expose them as a yaffle of pishogue and foolishness); there's not much more I can do to toughen her up - though I'm no angashore, I'm lewerdly with a waddock and would as soon find myself diving into the blue drop with the guds and bawks as getting up at five in the morning for hockey.




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

REDEFiNE iT was a tangent indulgence of Rattling Books' which was inspired in part by Mary Dalton's collection of poems entitled Merrybegot. The unabridged audio edition is available as an audio CD or Digital Download from Rattling Books. It is performed by Anita Best with Patrick Boyle on trumpet and flugelhorn.