Lorina Stephens's Blog, page 95

Canada's Shame

I don't often get political on this blog. Today, however, I feel I must.

I am proud to be a Canadian. Proud of our peaceable nature, our multi-cultural society, our tolerance.

I am also deeply shamed and humbled by our government's historical and continued refusal to embrace our First Nations. Frankly, the conditions in which they live every day of their lives is like unto a war zone in some third world country.

Watch this You Tube video and you'll see why, today, I've decided I can no longer sit

Paul Lima to Appear at Canadian Authors Assocation

Itching to write a non-fiction book? Successful freelance writer and trainer Paul Lima explains How To Write A Non-fiction Book In 60 Days. No matter what you want to write about, you’ll learn how to take your book from inspiration to completion in days, not years.

Complete with practical writing exercises, Lima helps you define your purpose and spells out the process required to move from idea to a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline to a solid first draft — in 60 days. The seminar is based on

A Journey of the Heart & Mind

Dreams From My Father is both an internal and external journey that is eloquently and sensitively written, a journey that questions cause, motive and effect. From the first moment you are captivated by Obama's narrative voice and what he has to say.

This is a life-changing book. You will never think the same way about race, humanity or American society ever again. Not since reading Black Like Me when I was an adolescent has a book had such a profound effect upon my social consciousness.[image error]

Easier to Purchase Five Rivers Books

In order to make purchasing Five Rivers' books easier for you, I've set up a series of Buy Direct links in the sidebar to the right. These links will take you directly to Chapters in Canada, and Barnes & Noble in the U.S., thereby allowing you the opportunity of not only purchasing directly from Five Rivers, but also from two of your favourite booksellers using your membership reward cards if you have them.

If you do purchase any of Five Rivers books, why not consider writing a review and posting

Buying New v.s. Renovation Costs

The economy isn’t wonderful, but your living space is threatening explosion, little say your temper because you’re falling over your kids’ toys, or your kids are threatening revolt because there’s nowhere they can retreat with friends. Worse, you’re expecting an addition to your numbers, or need that extra bathroom to solve morning revolts.

So you start scouting out homes with that extra bedroom and bathroom, upgrading from three bedrooms to four, and two baths instead of one. You have equity in

The Other Side of Five Rivers

You've read all about my writing and publishing adventures here on the blog, but you don't often read about the other half of Five Rivers, the glass and mirror division of our wee business.

Gary, my husband and best friend of 35 years, has been a glazier most of his adult life. His favourite line is: I don't do windows.

What Gary does do is some of the finest, fussiest glass and mirror architectural applications in South/Central Ontario. His work can be found in the elegant homes of Forest Hill

Five Rivers Books Coming to Shortcovers

As I write I'm working on converting all of Five Rivers' books for Indigo's new Shortcovers feature, 'a new digital destination where you can discover and experience your next great read on any mobile device,' according to press information.

Unlike other eBook retailers and eBook readers like Amazon's Kindle, Shortcovers is an application you download to a variety of readers, even smart phones like iPhone and Blackberry. You can choose to preview a limited portion of a book, just as you would wi

Two DVD Reviews: Australia, Twilight

To be honest I wasn't expecting much from this film; and that's exactly what I received. Not much.

Unfortunately I found the film in want of a story. It was allegedly to be an exploration of the Lost Generation, Aboriginal children who had been taken off to mission schools (sound like Canada?) where they suffered degradation, assimilation and abuse. What Australia delivered was an overly-long almost farce, almost Australian Western, almost war film, almost serious drama -- in short, a confused

Rewards

As a counter to my insight into rejection, I thought I'd present the yin to yesterday's yang, that is, the reviews Shadow Song has received from media and readers. I've made my own conclusions. I leave you to form your own.

Lorina Stephens has proven herself an engaging author.
The (Hanover) Post

The book, Shadow Song is as diverse as the woman who wrote it.
Susan Doolan
The Barrie Examiner

It is often the case with contemporary Canadian authors that they have a tendency to punctuate their novels wit

Rejections

Every writer gets them, those dreaded letters, forms, slips of paper or, more currently, emails that either cryptically or in detail describe why it is their work won't be appearing on that publisher's list.

Given the reviews and success I'm meeting as a self-published author, who grew weary with excuses and the ritual of the publishing world, I thought I'd post five of many rejections I received for my novel, Shadow Song . You may, or may not, find them of interest.

You write well, and you've obvi