Our fall cover - and maybe your prize

This gorgeous image is what we'll be mailing out September 4 - and it is the latest donation from the talented, not to mention extremely generous, Jean Claude Roy. Could be yours if you take or give a subscription, pretty nice prize if we say so ourselves.

Back from Woody Point, and what a great experience. The festival itself is a top-notch affair, of course, with readings (Lisa Moore, Greg Malone) and performances (Anita Best & Sandy Morris, Ron Hynes), on-stage interviews (Sheilagh Rogers & Michael Crummey), firehall breakfasts and wrap parties and everything in between. Not to mention that the weather was so gorgeous people were swimming in the ocean. I think my own personal highlight was on the last evening, as Duane Andrews was playing. I quietly left during his last song, to arrange myself near the door of the bookstore/craftshop/bar, all the better to greet patrons with a smile and a complimentary NQ - and there was a flash of lightening and a crash of thunder and the lights went out. "They're gone all around the sound," a man said, looking out the window. Duane Andrews kept playing. He didn't miss a beat.

(Image: radio3.cbc.ca.)

NQ to Woody Point

We're off on another exciting road trip - this time to the Writers at Woody Point Festival. Heard nothing but great things about this 'do. We'll be operating as a kind of mobile subscription booth, with lots of complimentary magazines to give away, and we'll be hitting all the main venues. So, as they say, we've got places to meet, and people to go, and we'll be back here next Tuesday.

(image: seeya-downtheroad.com.)

Winterset Connections

Among the readings, sightings, and performances the NQ caught at the Winterset in Summer fete, we had a moment with Elizabeth Murphy, author of An Imperfect Librarian. She mentioned her

webpage, which includes lots of fun stuff, even alternative endings. (Please note: I am hardly unbiased on this matter, having provided a 'blurb' for the book's cover.)

(Image: breakwaterbooks.)

Winterset in Summer

The NQ is off to this prestigious literary festival, where organizers have generously offered us space for a subscription booth. We'll be giving away some complimentary issues, and maybe drawing for a prize (lovely artwork by Brian Ricks, anyone?). So if anyone else is lucky enough to find themselves in fabulous Eastport, please drop by!

(Image: doctors-inn.nf.ca.)

If you ever think some music I'm listening to sounds good, guaranteed it was leant to me by my friend Neil Butler. His latest recommendation: Beirut; original, offbeat and really cool.

(image: melbomusic.wordpress.com.)

Like a lot of readers, I love to discover an author and then rush off to read everything they've published. My latest binge is

Jonathan Coe. His writing is deft, dynamically contemporary, often hilarious, and appropriately vicious regarding Thatcherite Britain. And really, how can you resist a title like The Dwarves of Death?

(Image: fantasticfiction.co.uk.)