November Update

Sunday November 29, 2009
Goose Lane Editions lists Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music as its #2 bestseller. Nicholas Guitard’s Waterfalls of New Brunswick is in first.


Friday November 27, 2009
We headed to Cuba to visit friends and get some sun. During our week there we were fortunate to visit the World Heritage Site city of Trinidad, and then headed to Santa Clara, and Pina, where we celebrated both my and Rosa’s birthday with a roast pork (roasted for five hours in a barrel encased in cement). Dessert was a guava cake and Cuban espresso. We were again humbled by the generosity of Rosa and her husband Ernesto, and hope that at some point we will be able to host them at our home in Canada.
On my birthday, I went paragliding and was involved in the first ever paraglide/kite surfer collision at Cayo Guillermo. Both I and the surfer came out of it ok, but the kite’s lines were ruined.


Wednesday November 25, 2009
The Olympic Torch Relay reaches Fredericton, NB. I am a true Olympic Junkie and have been one for as long as I can remember. Having a daughter who has competed in the Olympics has cemented that devotion and I was tremendously excited to watch the Olympic torch make its way down Queen Street in Fredericton. The city put on good entertainment, but I was interested in only one thing – getting my photo taken with the torch in the Royal Bank kiosk.


Saturday November 21, 2009
“New Brunswick’s Reading” in the Telegraph Journal’s Salon lists Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music in 4th place in the non-fiction paperback category. Goose Lane’s Waterfalls of New Brunswick by Nicholas Guitard is in first.
Goose Lane Editions list of company bestsellers shows us in first and second place for this week.


Thursday November 19, 2009
Wordsworth Books, Waterloo, Ontario puts out its Christmas shopping organizer and Don Messer is pictured adjacent to Sean Connery. Now who would ever have thought to see those two on the same page? You have to love the independent book stores – they put in the effort to market books and produce wonderful catalogues every year.


Sunday November 15, 2009
Signings at Coles McAllister Place and Indigo Saint John, NB.Pouring rain marked this day but I had a blast talking to people at both malls. It’s hard to know the best place to sit at a signing. Mall stores like to put you out in the hall but then you look like a flea marker vendor and people seem unsure as to whether they should pay you or the cashier.
I tried to bring along a Don Messer CD to play to attract people, but apparently Chapters has a rule that the stores are only allowed to play the music that is programmed by head office. The Don Messer CD was not on their list unfortunately, so I sat in silence.


Friday November 13, 2009
Bruce Pendrel wins international award in China.Bruce is my long suffering husband, without whom I could never have finished the Don Messer book on deadline. But, he is pretty cool in his own right and was one of ten international scientists to receive the Changbai Mountain Friendship Award, one of the “Excellent Foreign Expert Awards” from the Province of Jilin, China for his work in restoring the forests of China. This is not a shabby deal – more than one thousand people were nominated for the Excellence awards.


Tuesday November 10, 2009
Canadian bookseller – Volume 4 2009 reports that “The blood sucking and attention starved have worn out their welcome with booksellers this year, as vampire themes and celebrity bios top the least wanted list.” Oops! But they do go on to list Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music as one of the “best books about (or from) your local community”.
They state that publishers are “looking for more books about Canada – Canadian history, culture/folklore, environment and even technical topics.”


Sunday November 8, 2009
Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music ranked #277 on Amazon.ca Sales. The Snowbird review has paid off in spades if the ranking on Amazon is any indication. I am constantly reminded that this number goes up and down by huge increments, but can still take pleasure in seeing it at such a high number. The 277 also means that the book is ranked #5 in Composers and Musicians and #5 in Biographies – Music.


Saturday November 7, 2009
Signing at Chapters Fredericton.I love doing signings at this store as so many of the people that shop here are acquaintances. Signings can seem endless if no one you know drops by to fill in the time between purchases of your book.
One lady picked up the book for her mum and then phoned her brother and found out he had already bought it for her for a Christmas present. She promised to tell me if her mum enjoys it. A gentleman came by to commiserate about the sale of NB Power. He once worked for the organization and distrusts both the deal and the spin put on the deal. Stanton Friedman, UFO specialist came by to talk about his upcoming book Science was Wrong, due out in June 2010.


Thursday November 5, 2009
Online review of Don Messer: the Man Behind the Music on the Canadian Snowbird Association Webpage www.snowbirds.org Issue 72. A lengthy telling of the contents of the book and some annoying misquotes, but the review will be read by a large number of people and for that I am grateful. She does slam me a bit for the amount of research i.e. “occasionally Bertin goes overboard with the extensive research”, but I pride myself on my research and it was very important to me that the book be credible. No comments about the book have pleased me as much as those that refer to the “meticulous research”.


Monday November 2, 2009
Letter to Shelagh Rogers, The Next Chapter. I took the bull by the horn and wrote a letter to Shelagh Rogers. One of the people I had interviewed for the book had told me a funny story about her and Charlie Chamberlain and I was hoping to entice her to interview me for her show. I’ll let you know if I get a response – even a negative one. Shelagh has always been such a promoter of all things Canadian, and there are not many people more Canadian than Don Messer and his troupe. Don never got the accolade that he merited for his work in recording and preserving Canadian music. Shelagh Rogers is someone who could help him get that recognition.


Sunday November 1, 2009
Don Messer: The Man Behind the Music ranked third in Goose Lane Editions sales behind #1 Reading by Lightning and #2 Ideas on the Nature of Science.

Much of my time over the next two weeks will be taken up with organizing a fund raiser for a co-worker who is ill. Someone suggested asking for donations of “gently used jewellery” and I am amazed at the quality and quantity of the rings, brooches, necklaces, and bracelets that we are receiving.
P.S. In a four hour period we raised more than $2300, enough to cover travel expenses for treatment.