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PRE-2006 PROJECTS
Dominic
Ali
· Todd
Babiak
· Alex
Brett
· Tanya
Chapman
· Yvonne
Collins and Sandy
Rideout
· Estate of Sonia Craddock
· Dede
Crane
· Wilfred
Cude
· Kelli
Deeth
· Norma
Dixon
· Pam
Freir
· Katherine
Gibson
· Leona
Gom
· Andrew
Gray
· Paul
& Audrey Grescoe
·
Taras
Grescoe
· Mike
Harcourt
· Ann
Ireland
· Barbara
Lambert
· Helen
McLean
· Maria
Coletta McLean
· James
McWilliams & R. James
Steel
· Marg
Meikle
· Eric
Nicol
· Noreen
Olson
· Gayla
Reid
· Stanley
Semrau
· Barry
Shell
· Patricia
Van Tighem
Click here for 2008 and future projects
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Dominic
Ali www.domali.com
frequently writes about pop culture for U.S. and
Canadian media. He has worked for TIME magazine's
Canadian edition, and the CBC Radio programs As
it Happens and Definitely Not the Opera.
Dom's radio documentaries have been broadcast on
Outfront, The Sunday Edition, and Studio
360. He is currently writing a memoir about his
first newspaper job in the Caribbean. He lives in
Vancouver, Canada.
MEDIA
MADNESS: An insider's Guide to Media
illustrated by Michael Cho
Rights
sold: Canada, KidsCan Press, 2005
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Todd
Babiak is an entertainment writer and columnist
for the Edmonton Journal. He graduated from
Montreal's Concordia University MFA program in
creative writing in 1999.
CHOKE
HOLD (237 pp) is a coming-of-age first novel
which explores the relationship between masculinity
and ritualized violence. It was nominated for the
Rogers Writers' Trust Prize for Fiction and was the
winner of the Alberta Best First Novel
Award.
Rights
sold: Canada, Turnstone Press,
2000;
Optioned
for film by Velocity Films and Jump
Communications
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Alex
Brett alexbrett.ca
is a science writer who did field work in fisheries
and lab work prior to spending a decade at the
National Research Council. Her first two Morgan
O'Brien Castle Street Mysteries are published in
Canada by the Dundurn Group.
DEAD
WATER CREEK (360 pp) Morgan is sent west to
look into misappropriation of fisheries, research
funds, and uncovers an illicit plan to manipulate
the lucrative sockeye salmon run.
Canada,
Dundurn Group - A Castle Street Mystery,
2003
COLD
DARK MATTER a Canadian astronomer is found
hanging from the secondary mirror of one of the
world's most prestigious international telescopes,
on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. This book will accurately
reflect the tight relationship between academic
astronomy and the military, particularly with
respect to France and the US.
Canada,
Dundurn Group - A Castle Street Mystery,
2005
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Tanya
Chapman is a graduate of the UBC creative
writing program. Her short story, "Spring the
Chick," won This Magazine's Great Canadian
Literary Hunt. She has had two short films produced
and her new manuscript, The Welcoming Place,
has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council.
Tanya has a history of being a bit of a rock chick
but continues to fail miserably at
karaoke.
KING
is a coming of age story about recreating your
life—one small and honest piece at a time.
There's only one thing to do with a picture perfect
existence in the suburbs and that's to exchange it
for a trailer park, a collection of lawn
sprinklers, a liquid eyeliner addiction, and a
whole lot of burn baby burn passion.
Rights
sold: Coach House Books, Canada, fall 2006. All
other rights available.
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Yvonne
Collins (speech writer) & Sandy
Rideout (film industry technician) www.collinsrideout.com
have been friends since they were teen-agers.
TOTALLY
ME: The Teenage Girls Survival Guide (230 pp)
is a lively and witty discussion of friendships,
boyfriends, hormones, gossip, dating, lying,
parents, stepparents, school, drugs and
alcohol.
Rights
sold: USA, Adams Media, 2000; Spain, Amat,
2001
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estate
of Sonia Craddock (1941-1997)
Sonia
was a vibrant and prolific author of children's
literature and a dynamic activist for literacy. She
earned a doctorate in education while raising three
children. Sonia's published books include: THE
SECRET OF THE CARDS, YOU CAN'T TAKE MICKY, THE
TREASURE HUNT, and TV WARS AND
ME.
HAL,
THE THIRD CLASS HERO is a very funny novel
about a hero trainee who can't quite make the
grade. HarperCollins Canada sold 5,000
copies.
Rights
have reverted.
ROSEMARY
FOR REMEMBRANCE (132 pp) When Rosy's
grandmother keeps vanishing she enlists the help of
her unusual family members to solve the puzzle in
this funny and off-beat mystery. This middle-grade
novel is a popular resource guide for Alzheimer's
families.
Rights
sold: Canada, James Lorimer & Company,
1996, Republished Streetlights, 2008
SLEEPING
BOY, a picture book, illustrated by Leonid Gore
(32 pp) A remarkable modern, allegorical re-telling
of the Sleeping Beauty tale, set against the
backdrop of the Berlin Wall.
Rights
sold: USA, Atheneum, a division of Simon &
Schuster, 1999
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Dede
Crane is a former ballerina who has recently
turned to writing. Several of her short stories
have been accepted for publication in literary
magazines.
SYMPATHY
a literary novel framed within Dr. Michael Myatt's
sympathy-based therapy. The book makes us
reconsider the relationship between mind and body
and just how permeable the boundaries between self
and other are as we follow a cast of broken
characters on their poignant, often humorous
journeys inside and outside the the Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder wing of Rosewood Clinic. As Michael
works to uncover the startling cause of patient and
former ballet dancer, Kerry Taylor's catatonia, he
will discover his own vulnerability and a family
secret long repressed. This sympathy he shares with
Kerry ultimately serves to put more than just his
job at risk.
Rights
sold: Canada, Raincoast, 2006
THE 25 PAINS OF KENNEDY BAINES is a teen novel, in which a Jane
Austen-loving high school girl and her friends
experience a summer of firsts in which everything
seems to be changing, including a Mom who smokes
dope to cope while Dad is away. A modern day
Pride and Prejudice.
Rights
sold: Canada, Polestar Books, 2006
Rights to both books will revert in 2008 due to discontinuation of Raincoast's publishing program.
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Wilfred
Cude www.phdtrap.com
wrote a monograph in 1987, recounting the problems
which he and many others endured in their quest to
complete graduate studies. The paper expanded and
became something of an underground success. Now he
has written a fully revised and updated
book
THE
PH.D. TRAP REVISITED (333 pp) is a
fascinating expose of university graduate schools'
savage exploitation and obstacles to intellectual
inquiry and careers.
Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn Group, 2001
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Kelli
Deeth is a 1998 graduate of UBC's MFA program
in creative writing where she received a fellowship
and an award for her one-act play. Her short
fiction has been published in Dalhousie Review
and The Antigonish Review.
THE
GIRL WITHOUT ANYONE (166 pp) is a dazzling
debut collection of linked stories about Leah, the
girl without anyone, full of funny and poignant
insecurities, struggling to grow up in the
suburbs.
Right
sold: Canada, HarperCollins, 2001; Denmark,
Gylndenal, 2002
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Norma
Dixon has been writing for children for many
years, with articles in such publications as
Ranger Rick and books, including WALTER
THE PIGEON and JUST RIGHT FOR
CATS.
THE
LOWDOWN ON EARTHWORMS (2004), FLIES
(2005), SEASHELL SECRETS (2004)
Rights
sold: Canada, Fitzhenry & Whiteside
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Pam
Freir has been writing a weekly food column,
Pleasures of the Table, for seven
years.
LAUGHING
WITH MY MOUTH FULL: Tales from a Gulf Islands
Kitchen, a gently comic narrative of the
author's adventures eating and preparing food at
her gulf island home and while
travelling.
Rights
sold: HarperCollins Canada, 2005
Winner: Best Special Interest Food and Beverage Book, Canadian Culinary Book Awards
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Katherine
Gibson's www.katherinegibson.com
articles have appeared in Reader's
Digest (U.S., Canada, and Australia),
Homemaker's Magazine, Toronto Star, Globe and
Mail, Northwest Palate, Seattle Times, Airlines,
Via, and Victoria Times Colonist. She
has also ghostwritten two privately commissioned
books. Formerly the owner of a public relations
business, Katherine is an experienced publicist,
public speaker, and seminar presenter.
UNCLUTTER
YOUR LIFE: Transforming Your Physical, Mental
and Emotional Space. UNCLUTTER YOUR LIFE
exposes the clutter we see -- a messy desk,
junk under the bed, stuff in closets or jammed in
the attic -- while expanding the notion of clutter
to include unseen obstacles that pack the mental
and emotional in-basket of life. The author reveals
how a calm, beautiful, or spiritually-enhancing
environment fosters a productive and joyful life.
Rights
sold: Beyond Words, Inc. US, 2004. Rights have also
been sold for Korea, Japan, Germany, India, French Canada, Turkey and
Indonesia.
PAUSE:
Putting the Brakes on a Runaway Life
puts the hurried life on notice. Rather than analyze the chaos that churns within our complex society, Pause provides gentle suggestions to inject moments of fun, adventure, self-care and serenity into each day. Pause will convince you that life dramatically improves when we replace meaningless activities, back-to-back commitments, and unfulfilling obligations with all that gives life zest.
Through sparkling anecdotes and solid research, Katherine Gibson calms our physical, emotional and spiritual angst with practical and inspirational down-home wisdom.
Rights
sold: Insomniac Press, Canada, fall
2006
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Leona
Gom is the award-winning author of eleven
published books of poetry and fiction, including
ZERO AVENUE, HOUSEBROKEN, THE Y
CHROMOSONE and three Vikki Bauer
mysteries. Leona won the CAA Award and was
shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award. Her novel
HOUSEBROKEN was awarded the Ethel Wilson
Prize for Fiction. She has also had two full-length
radio plays, produced by CBC.
HATING
GLADYS (272 pp) is a darkly funny literary
novel set in a remote Yukon Lodge in the early
1960s, where two teenage girls work all summer to
earn their university tuition. The ill-treatment
the girls receive at the hands of evil Gladys and
her husband are recalled when they're re-united in
the city 35 years later.
Rights
sold: Canada, Sumach Press, 2002
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Andrew
Gray is a 1996 UBC MFA grad, with an impressive
list of awards and poetry and fiction publication
credits. A web site designer and arts program
coordinator, he is at work on a novel involving art
and WW II.
SMALL
ACCIDENTS a collection of 12 stories (198 pp)
brought favourable reviews from The Globe and
Mail, Publishers' Weekly, and the New York
Times Book Review. SMALL ACCIDENTS was
nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and
the IPPY Award for short fiction.
Rights
sold: Canada Raincoast Books, 2001. Rights have reverted.
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Taras
Grescoe is a young travel writer of
extraordinary talent who has contributed to
National Geographic Travelle, enRoute, New York
Times and many others.
SACRE
BLUES: an Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec
(304 pp) won fans and favourable reviews, as well
as the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-fiction
and the Quebec Writers' Federation awards of the
Mavis Gallant Prize for non-fiction, and Best First
Book Prize.
Rights
sold: Canada (English) Macfarlane, Walter &
Ross, 2000; French VLB editeur, 2002
THE
END OF ELSEWHERE: Travels Among the Tourists
(309 pp) is an on-the-road odyssey and a
brilliant history of tourism. It has been
short-listed for the Mavis Gallant Prize for
non-fiction.
Rights
sold: Canada, Macfarlane Walter & Ross (now
McClelland & Stewart) 2003, UK & US rights
to Serpent's Tail, French Language rights to
VLB.
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Paul
Grescoe & Audrey Grescoe are veteran
editors, journalists and authors of books on
business, trees, and cruise ship travel.
THE
BOOK OF LETTERS: 150 Years of Private Canadian
Correspondence (330 pp), has won rave reviews
and is a popular gift book.
Macfarlane,
Walter & Ross (now McClelland & Stewart)
2002
THE
BOOK OF WAR LETTERS: a Century of Private Canadian
Correspondence (McClelland & Stewart,
2003);
THE
BOOK OF LOVE LETTERS: Canadian Kinship, Friendship
and Romance (McClelland & Stewart,
February 2005)
FLIGHT
PATH: How Westjet is Flying High by Paul
Grescoe (Canada, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2004)
NORTHERN TIGERS:
Building Ethical Canadian Corporate Champions, A Memoir and a Manifesto by Dick Haskyne
With Paul Grescoe (Canada, Key Porter,
2007)
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Mike
Harcourt served as British Columbia's Premier
from 1991 to 1996, and as Mayor of Vancouver, three
terms from 1980 to 1986. Mr. Harcourt is Chair of
the International Centre for Sustainable Cities,
Senior Associate of the Liu Centre (UBC) for the
Studies of Global Issues. He works at the Rick
Hansen Man in Motion Foundation on International
Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (I-CORD) and
chairs the Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life
Advisory Group. He speaks and advises
internationally on sustainability solutions. In
November 1996 he was appointed by the Prime
Minister to the National Round Table on the
Environment and the Economy where he serves on the
Executive Committee and Chairs the Urban
Sustainability Program. In May of 2003, he was
appointed Federal Commissioner on The B.C. Treaty
Commission. December 2003, he was appointed by
Prime Minister Paul Martin to Chair an advisory
committee on cities.
He
is the author, with John Lekich, of MIKE
HARCOURT'S PLAN B: ONE MAN'S JOURNEY FROM
TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH
Rights
sold: North American, John Wiley & Son, Ltd.
Fall 2004
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Ann
Ireland is a widely traveled writing instructor
and past president of Pen Canada.
EXILE
(298 pp) is a smart and sly novel in which Carlos,
a Latin American dissident poet is "rescued" by a
group of Canadian idealists. For Carlos, a spoiled
Latino, his refugee status is a new kind of
imprisonment. Shortlisted for the
Governor-General's Award for Fiction and the
Writers' Trust Prize for Fiction.
Rights
sold: Canada, The Dundurn Group,
2002
THE
INSTRUCTOR (208 pp) probes the nature of power
shifts between man and woman, teacher and student,
when a young woman goes to Mexico with her art
instructor. Short-listed for for the Trillium Book
Award. Published: Canada, Doubleday, 1996; US, Ecco
Press, 1997.
Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn Group, 2004
A
CERTAIN MR. TAKAHASHI (206 pp) When pianist
Yoshi Takahshi moves next door to adolescent
sisters, Jean and Colette, infatuation and sexual
tensions threaten the balance of their lives.
Winner of the 1985 Seal/Bantam First Novel Award.
The 1991 feature film The Pianist, directed
by Claude Gagnon, was based on this novel.
Published: Canada, McClelland & Stewart; US,
Vanguard; UK, Bantam.
Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn Group, 2005
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Barbara
Lambert is a textile artist and orchardist. She
is at work on a new novel set in
Tuscany.
THE
ALLEGRA SERIES (200 pp) is a charming
contemporary first novel which brilliantly recasts
the traditional love triangle, in which three
artists find their way in the heart of genius and
darkness. Like her mythological predecessors,
Philomela, Ariadne, and Athena, Allegra encircles
lovers and entraps enemies.
Rights
sold: Canada, Beach Holme, 1999
A
MESSAGE FOR MR. LAZARUS (214 pp) short stories
and a novella, which won The Malahat Review
Novella Prize. The book won the Danuta Gleed
Prize for Best First Fiction Collection and was
shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Prize.
Rights
sold: Canada, Cormorant Books, 2000
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Helen
McLean is an acclaimed artist and
memoirist.
SIGNIFICANT
THINGS (260 pp) is a richly-textured literary
novel in which Edward lives an intimate and
impoverished childhood with his feckless mother in
Toronto, until her marriage to a rich manufacturer
takes them to London, where his life of loneliness
begins. Unable to distinguish between loving and
owning, he fills the void with art and antiquities.
Short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize
for Best Book (Canada/Caribbean region).
Rights
sold: Canada, Simon & Pierre,
2003
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Maria
Coletta McLean www.mariacoletta.com
is a Canadian-born writer of Italian ancestory. She
collected and contributed to MAMA MIA! Good
Italian Girls Talk Back (ECW, 2004).
MY
FATHER CAME FROM ITALY (176 pp) is a daughter's
loving account of reclaiming her aged father's
dignity by returning to his home village of
Supino.
Rights
sold: Canada, Raincoast Books, 2000. Rights have reverted.
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James
McWilliams & R. James Steel
(pictured at right, top) have both written military
histories as well as co-authoring THE SUICIDE
BATTALION (WW I).
AMIENS:
THE DAWN OF VICTORY (250 pp, 30 illustrations)
is the first study of this historic and decisive
battle of WW I, in France. Long ago, the authors
interviewed survivors and their families and
acquired first-hand accounts of the
event.
Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn, 2001; UK, Tempus,
2003
GAS!
THE BATTLES FOR YPRES, 1915 ( 243 pp).
Published by in Canada by Vanwell in 1985, rights
have now reverted.
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Marg
Meikle www.dearanswerlady.com
is the Queen of Trivia and a West Coast author of
six books for adults. She has written several
Question & Answer books for kids.
FUNNY
YOU SHOULD ASK (Scholastic Books,
1998)
YOU
ASKED FOR IT! (Scholastic Books,
2000)
ASK
ME ANYTHING! (Scholastic Books,
2004)
Rights
for various titles have been sold to the U.S.,
Croatia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Lithuania and Korea
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Eric
Nicol the grand old man of Canadian humour, is
the author of 36 books, radio plays, stage plays
and television musicals. He is a three time winner
of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. He has
received the Order of Canada, the UBC Alumni Merit
Award, and the BC Gas Lifetime Achievement
Award.
CANADIAN
POLITICS UNPLUGGED illustrated by Peter
Whalley, with Introduction by Stuart MacLean, is
classic Nicol nonsense.
Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn Group, 2003; Doubleday
Book-of-the-Month Club
OLD
IS IN: Baby Boomers' Guide to Aging
Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn Group, 2004
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Noreen
Olson is a popular Alberta farmer, marriage
commissioner and public speaker. Her six books of
essays have been best-sellers for many
years.
THE
SCHOOL BUS DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE: Essays of
Family, Community and Transitions with
introduction by Will Ferguson
Rights
sold: Canada, Douglas & McIntyre, 2004
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Gayla
Reid www.gaylareid.com
was born in Australia, coming to Canada to do
graduate work. Her short stories and articles
received many awards. Her first collection, TO BE
THERE WITH YOU, (Douglas & McIntyre, Allan
& Unwin), won the Ethel Wilson Prize for
fiction.
*ALL
THE SEAS OF THE WORLD (303 pp) is a sweeping,
finely calibrated saga of two women whose intense
connection is forged during their childhood in
rural Australia. Through their lives they
experience Saigon at Tet and the Dirty War in
Argentina.
*CLOSER
APART: The Ardara Variations (248) depicts the
lives of women in the McGinty family in Australia
during the years 1901 &emdash; 2001, as the
century's wars drum ceaselessly in the
background.
These
two books were published to high critical acclaim,
just before Stoddart (Canada) declared bankruptcy.
All rights in them have reverted to the author.
Both were shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Prize
for fiction.
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Dr.
Stanley Semrau is a forensic psychiatrist who
has treated and testified about his assessments of
the mad and the bad on trial.
MURDEROUS
MINDS ON TRIAL: Terrible Tales From A Forensic
Psychiatrist's Casebook (323 pp), with
co-author Judy Gale.
Rights
sold: Canada, Dundurn, 2003
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BARRY
SHELL www.science.ca
has made a career of making science comprehensible
to the layperson. His first book, GREAT CANADIAN
SCIENTISTS, was published by Polestar Books in
1997.
SENSATIONAL
SCIENTISTS profiles dozens of scientists and
their work. What does it mean to be a scientist?
Where and how do scientists work? What outstanding
contributions have they made. Barry has interviewed
all of the scientists profiled. Raincoast Books
(fall 2005, Canada and the US). Rights have reverted.
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Patricia
Van Tighem was a newly married young nurse when
she and her husband were attacked by a grizzly
bear. Patricia died December 14, 2005.
THE
BEAR'S EMBRACE (256 pp) is the true story of
not only surviving the attack, but of how she and
her husband survived the transformation from being
beautiful and strong, to being disfigured, wracked
with pain, enduring years of multiple surgeries. In
a culture which values beauty and good looks, this
memoir offers insight, courage and hope. It was
nominated for several major awards, and earned the
editor, Barbara Pulling, the Tom Fairley
award.
Rights
sold: Canada, Greystone Books, 2000,
2001;
USA,
Anchor/Pantheon, 2001,
2002;
Germany,
btb Verlag, 2003
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