December Update

Saturday December 26, 2009
“New Brunswick’s Reading” in the Saint John Telegraph Journal “Salon”, lists Don Messer: the Man Behind the Music in third in the Paperback, Non-fiction category.


Sunday December 13, 2009
Goose Lane Editions list Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music in #2, behind Nicholas Guitard’s Waterfalls of New Brunswick. This is kind of fun, jostling for position. Reading by Lightning is in third spot.


Saturday December 12, 2009
Book signing at “Inprint Bookstore”, on King Street in Saint John, NB. What a wonderful book store this is. It’s got character, fabulous windows, and a great selection of books which allowed me to do my entire Christmas book shopping before I left. I had arrived an hour early and took myself off to Java Moose with The Cellist of Sarajevo and feasted on Mocha Coffee and chocolate/banana waffles. I mean, I know it’s fattening but what is a girl to do when she has almost an hour to kill?
Brian Atkinson (Miramichi: River of Character), Nicholas Guitard (Waterfalls of New Brunswick), and Lorrie Bell Hawkins (Jolicure Cats) were also at the book store and we swapped humorous and painful stories of signings and launches while we drank hot cider to ward off the chill of an offshore wind whistling up King Street.


Tuesday December 8, 2009
Lake Superior News book reviewer Elle Andra Warner says of Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music, “Bertin’s extensive research coupled with a wonderful storytelling style of writing has created a first-class biography of Messer.”


Monday December 7, 2009
The NB Country Music Hall of Fame web page refers to Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music as “the wonderful new book about Don Messer” and suggests Don Messer fans check it out. I had met the author of the web page at the Chapters Moncton signing many months before and it was one of those times when signings pay off in ways other than book sales.


Sunday December 6, 2009
Goose Lane Editions lists Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music as #1 in sales.


Tuesday December 1, 2009
The Canadian Historical Review, Volume 90, Number 4 lists Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music in its “Recent Publications Relating to Canada”. It’s so gratifying to see the book get recognition as a serious academic work.