Upcoming ARCA Events for Rumi and the Red Handbag

First up is an author panel hosted by Marty Chan on Tuesday, August 2nd at the Strathcona Branch of Edmonton Public Library at 7pm. Please see EPL's website for more information. 

The library is also hosting book clubs for all of the Alberta Readers Choice finalists. I've been invited to facilitate the pop-up book club on Thursday, August 25th, at Steeps Tea Lounge. To learn more, visit EPL's site. 

Lastly, I'm going to end with a bit of a brag. Wayne Arthurson, EPL's writer in residence for 2016, has included Rumi and the Red Handbag on a list titled, "Top Picks with Edmonton Settings." Having your book called 'a small and wonderful work of art' is a really lovely thing. Also, the book continues to have oodles of holds on it! Cool, yes? One doesn't become a millionaire with such a book as mine, but these are the moments that make sense of the writing life for me, and I'm grateful for them. 

Alberta Readers' Choice Award Voting - Now Open

Voting for the Alberta Readers' Choice Award opened yesterday and goes all this summer. If you've read Rumi and the Red Handbag and enjoyed it, I'd really appreciate a vote. Only a day in and already a pretty huge underdog, as predicted. That said, this is an amazing list to be on, and I'm so pleased to be part of this fun award. Anyone from anywhere can cast a vote! Thanks for your click. 

Alberta Readers' Choice Award 2016 Finalist

Rumi and the Red Handbag has made the list of finalists for the Alberta Readers' Choice Award. Voting begins on July 4. 

It's amazing company to be in. Couldn't be happier to see this odd little book of mine on the list. 

New Trail Bookshelf

Rumi and the Red Handbag is in the Spring 2016 issue of New Trail, the alumni magazine for University of Alberta. Always nice to get some love from one's alma mater. 

Long List for 2016 Alberta Readers' Choice Award

And would you just look at who made the long list for ARCA 2016? How lovely is that? I'm in some pretty amazing company. Read more about the award and how it works here. 

As my writing friends and I have often discussed, just having a book published is like winning a prize. So anything after that is just gravy. 

Toronto Launch

A bit of an early warning that I'll be launching Rumi and the Red Handbag in Toronto this coming April 5th. Please feel free to share the poster or this post with Toronto friends! Looking forward to reading with and meeting Mark Sampson and John Nyman. 

Avenue Magazine - #YEG Series

Not long ago, I was asked to write a short piece for Avenue Magazine's #YEG series. It was a pleasure to write about my own little corner of Edmonton. My piece is titled, "Symphony of the Suburbs" and can be found in the March, 2016 issue - which also happens to contain the very popular Best Restaurants Directory for this year. 

The Entitled Interview on Open Book Toronto

I was recently invited to answer some questions about titles on the Open Book Toronto site. I talk about titling Rumi and the Red Handbag, as well as revealing the working title for my work in progress. 

Featured in the Edmonton Journal

Although I keep telling friends that this is it, the last you'll hear about Rumi and the Red Handbag, I continue to be (happily) quite wrong about that. Earlier this past week, I received an email from Brent Wittmeier from the Edmonton Journal asking me if we could sit down and chat about the book. We met at a downtown coffee shop and talked about the book, purses (of course), philosophy, and the writing process. 

You can read the article online: "Edmonton author dives deep into purses and philosophy."

As you can see in the photo above, my mug was not only used for the article, but also appeared on the front page, and on the front of the section page. So I got to feel all fancy and famous for the day, which was a bit of fun.