I will be posting some of my husband’s fabulous shots of the book events after I do the last one tomorrow (Saturday, 12 May, Theatre Centre, 2pm), but for now, I thought I’d share a couple of links from my trip to Portland.

I visited a mother/daughter book club in Gresham to talk about Restoring Harmony. Click here to see the pictures.  The girls and moms asked some excellent questions, and we chatted for almost two hours! They even had apples in honour of a plot point in Restoring Harmony. Thanks girls and moms! So nice to meet you all.

And here are some pictures and comments from two attendees a the signing I did with Holly Cupala at Powell’s Books. I signed extra books for the store, so if you want a signed copy of The Right & the Real, I think you can still get one here.

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School Library Journal finally reviewed R&R, but it was worth the wait!

ANTHONY, Joëlle. The Right & the Real. 282p. CIP. Putnam. 2012. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-0-399-25525-0. LC 2011013312.

The fast-paced and twisting plot will keep readers up late into the night. The added splashes of romance and intrigue make this title a sure crowd-pleaser.–Patricia N. McClune,ConestogaValleyHigh School,Lancaster,PA

Read the whole thing here, but beware of plot spoilers (it’s written for librarians who don’t have enough time to read everything, so it’s fairly detailed).

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Like many writers, I have a tendency to work things into my books which are important to me. In The Right & the Real, both coffee and chocolate play an important role in the book…coffee, more-so, but chocolate makes an appearance. While I was writing the book, I read an article in the Vancouver Sun about the world chocolate industry (it was Valentines). I was amazed and appalled to learn both how fragile the industry is, and how poor the farmers are who grow chocolate. Most of the world’s supply is grown in the Ivory Coast, a country torn by war and poverty. The chocolate bean plants are old, the young people are leaving the farms because they are tired of working so hard for nothing, and it actually could all go quickly. The good news is, there is a man trying to reform it, first singlehandedly, and now with help of a few of the large chocolate companies.

But that brings us to what can we do? Well, the main thing is to buy organic, fair trade chocolate, which I have done ever since I read this article. I’ve walked away from my stand-by chocolate loves, and found new ones. And one of my absolute favourites is a company called Grounds For Change out of Washington state. They also (or mainly) produce freshly roasted Fair Trade, Orgainic, Shade Grown, Carbon Neutral coffee, which we drink almost exclusively.

When I launch a book, I like to give away gifties at my signings that are built around the themes of my books. When Restoring Harmony came out, Salt Spring Seed company gave me vegetable seeds to give away. Just last week, someone told me they had won the packet of Rainbow Chard seeds and it had inspired them to try gardening and two years later, they have a garden! How cool is that?

A few weeks ago, I emailed Grounds For Change and told them about my book, and my idea for prizes. When I arrived in Portland, there was a box from them at my mum’s – orgainic, fair trade chocolate bars and small sample bags of their wonderful coffee! If you’re looking for the real deal, I highly recommend this company. And yes, this may sound like an advertisement, but honestly, it’s just important to me, and I love their company, so there you go!

Most of these goodies will be given away at my signings (Powell’s Books, Beaverton, Saturday 5 May, 2pm – with Holly Cupala!), but I’m still waiting for someone to send me a picture of my book “in the wild” (i.e. in a bookstore). If that person is you, I’ve just upped the ante from “something chocolatey” to include “something aromatic and coffee-y”!

Believe me, you don’t want to miss out on this chocolate…it’s “agent approved”, right Michael?

Okay, I’ll get off my soap chocolate box now!

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Today is publication day for The Right & the Real in Canada. Thanks to all my Canadian readers & bookstores for your support!

To celebrate the release, the lovely Angelina Hansen did a really fun interview with me, and is giving away a copy of The Right & the Real! Ain’t she cool? Pop on over and leave a comment for an entry!

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I’m a big proponent of reading to/with your kids, but I also think singing is something great to do with them. When I was little, my mum used to play folk songs around the piano and my brother and I would sing with her.

For your viewing pleasure…this dad and his kids take on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody on the way to school. Enjoy!

By the way, my mum LOVES Queen, but I don’t ever remember doing this in the car with her! Maybe the next time we take a road trip, we should try it.

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Today, I’m back at The Debutante Ball doing a guest post on plotting. The best part? You can enter to win a copy of R&R, just by leaving a comment. Hope you’ll drop in.

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Congrats to Mimi Cross, the winner of the R&R tote bag with surprise goodies! Thanks to all of you for spreading the word about the trailer. I really appreciate it (sadly, the pile of pressies won’t be as big as this picture, though)!

On GoodReads, out of 960 entries, the winner is from British Columbia! How amazing is that?

And for your reading pleasure (well, mine, mostly!), here are a few links to some new and excellent reviews!

Book Page

Emilie’s Book World

The Reclusive Bibliophile

And an interview over at The Divining Wand

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One of the most fun parts of writing a book is doing the acknowledgements. I just love thanking everyone who helped me get it done. And I think launch day is a fabulous time to share them with the world. So here we go.

Acknowledgements for The Right & the Real

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Michael, for your insights, encouragement, and for your lightning quick responses to my never-ending questions. Sometimes you’re so fast I think you must be answering my emails while I’m still pushing the send button. Merci beaucoup!

Stacey Barney – thank you for your faith in me, and thank you for always asking all the right questions so the story comes out better than I could’ve hoped. I’m so happy to count myself as one of your writers.

Thanks to the sales and publicity team at Penguin, especially Penny Mason, Vimala Jeevanandam, and Caroline Sun. And thank you to all the wonderful indie bookstores and the staff at Powell’s who hand-sold my first book with such enthusiasm. When you grow up in Portland, it’s a dream-come-true to see your book in the window at Powell’s Books.

Special thanks to my friends, family, fact checkers, early readers and cheerleaders. Thank you to Linda Anthony, Frank Anthony, Eileen Cook, Nova Ren Suma, Sarah & Cheryl Tradewell, Kelly & Nicole Berthelot, Alyson Beecher, and Reggie & Mavie Cruz. Also, special thanks to The Brouhahas – Kim Thacker and Alexa Barry who read so many versions of this manuscript I’m surprised they can see straight anymore. And Joelle Charbonneau, please take a bow for all your assistance with the musical theatre aspect of the story. I could never really sing! Plus, it’s always better to have two Joelles on the job if you can.

To Ms. Peacock’s Grade 6 & 7 classes, I’d like to say thank you for reminding me it only gets done with, “Less talking, and more writing.” Lots of love, and a big thank you, to Ashly Anthony for promoting her auntie’s first book to her whole third grade class (and beyond). Every writer needs someone like you.

Thanks to Mark Cotter for his expertise, and for keeping me from making up the law to suit my plot, no matter how inconvenient I thought it was at the time.

I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to show my gratitude publicly to writer Arthur Slade for introducing me to the idea of the treadmill desk, and now I’ve got my chance. Thanks, Art! And thanks to Ken Capon for building it for me. Without it, I’d need bigger pants.

As always, thank you to my husband, Victor, for making dinner when I was too tired to think, for growing most of our food, for riding his bike to the store a thousand times for the few items he couldn’t grow, but I had to have to keep writing (yeah, I mean doughnuts – thus the need for the treadmill desk), for a wonderful author picture, and for endless cups of tea. You’re the best. As before, without you, there would be no book at all. I love you, Pea.

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Writing the dedication is a special part of the book. I’ve heard writers say you should never dedicate it to a spouse or friend because things change. Well, that may be true for some people, but over a year ago, when I wrote the dedication for The Right & the Real, I felt confident I was making good, solid choices. And I still am! So, without further ado…

This book is dedicated to:

Linda Anthony – for encouraging both my love of the theatre, and my passion for writing.

The Brouhahas, for walking every step of the way with me on this story.

And Victor – for everything.

Linda Anthony is my wonderful mum. I’ve been waiting for the right book to be published to dedicate to her, and this one seems like it’s it because it has so much theatre in it. But honestly, I could dedicate every book to Mum because she’s the one who introduced me to books.

The Brouhahas are my critique group. I have additional readers sometimes too, but these three are my core first readers. They include: Kim Harris Thacker, who is all over my grammar and commas, plus she’s great at phrasing and pointing out what should be obvious to me, but often isn’t. Alexa Barry makes sure the the boys are swoon-worthy, and the boring bits are cut out. She is also a fantastic cheerleader. Eileen Cook helps me with the tricky plotting, but her biggest job is often talking me off the ledge. As an author who’s been through it all many times before, her perspective on the business is invaluable. Thank you, Brouhahas! You all would not believe how many drafts of R&R they actually read. I can’t even count that high.

And then there’s Victor. My husband & pea. Like I say in the dedication…this book is dedicated to him for everything. He is everything.

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Break out the champagne, it’s launch week! The official release dates for The Right & the Real are this Thursday, April 26th, in the U.S. and 1 May in Canada.

I have two big events coming up (and some smaller ones – you can see them all under events).

The first is my launch at Powell’s Books in Beaverton on 5th May, 2pm. I’m very excited because not only will I be launching my book, but the wonderful Seattle author, Holly Cupala will be there too! She’s going to present first, then I’ll do something, and then we’ll do a Q&A together. There may even be a game or two and when there are games, there are prizes!

Holly’s new book is called Don’t Breathe a Word, and I highly recommend it. I read it straight through without stopping. We will both have books available and do a signing after the event. A note for those of you interested in Restoring Harmony, or Holly’s first book (also excellent), Tell Me a Secret, Powell’s will NOT have stock of these two books. If you want us to sign either of them, you will have to order it in (ASAP) or bring a copy you got somewhere else. Amazon does have RH cheap as chips right now, but I can’t guarantee it doesn’t have a discount mark, so if you want a pristine copy, have Powell’s get it for you.

Don’t forget to enter the contest for a R&R tote bag stuffed with goodies. All you have to do is leave a comment on the post below this one with the book trailer. You can get extra entries if you post the trailer on your own site or FB and leave me a link, too.

Goodreads is giving away a signed copy of R&R also, but you have to enter to win by Thursday!

And for the first person who sees The Right & the Real in the wild (i.e. a bookstore) and sends me a photo and your address, I’ll slip a little chocolatey surprise in the mail to you.

I’m doing several interviews this week, and I’ll add them to this post as they show up online. And then on Wednesday and Thursday, I have special release posts scheduled. If you missed it, Mandy asked me ten compelling questions on her site on Friday.

I’m also over at Chick Loves Lit for an interview.

And here’s a very lovely review! Thanks, Hannah!

Have a great week, everyone! I know I will!

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Hi All, I’m very excited to share with you the book trailer for The Right & the Real. Below are a list of all the bloggers & friends who are helping me celebrate both my birthday and the launch of the trailer by posting it on their blog or FB page.

And because it’s my birthday, I’m giving away an R&R totebag full of surprises! Leave a comment to be entered to win. If you want to join in by posting the trailer on your own site, leave a comment telling me where you posted it, and I’ll give you five entries! I’ll announce the winner on the 27th.

Before you hit play, TURN UP THE VOLUME! This is one of those that’s best with the music loud!

Here’s a list of all the participants. Thank you to you all. You are stars!

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It is tradition on my blog to list things I’m grateful for on my birthday each year. I do a random list that corresponds to my age, this year 44, as I think of things, and there are often repeats, year to year. Tomorrow, I have something special planned for the blog (make sure you come back!), so I am posting my list a day early. Leave what you’re grateful for in the comments, if you like.

44 Things I’m Grateful For (in no particular order except that’s how they came to me):

1. Victor
2. Mum & Dad
3. All my family
4. My agent
5. My editor
6. My friends
7. Books
8. David’s Tea (all tea, really)
9. Sleep
10. My writing cabin
11. The generosity that surrounds me
12. The kitty cats
13. My critique group
14. Sunday Soup
15. Victor’s gorgeous photography
16. Our lovely home
17. The woodstove
18. Memories of Kelly
19. Good knives
20. A stocked pantry
21. Safe travels
22. British movies
23. Avocadoes
24. My bicycle
25. My treadmill desk
26. The big blue chair for reading
27. The Chicago Cubs
28. Basil
29. The Brouhahas
30. I saw whales this year!
31. Internet radio – the BBC in particular
32. Health care
33. Live music
34. Book bloggers
35. Eileen’s husband, Bob, who keeps my website going
36. Dual citizenship
37. Twitter
38. Video cameras/youtube
39. Candlelight suppers
40. Betsy & Tacy
41. My mentor and friend, John Rowe Townsend
42. Sunshine in the spring
43. Daffodils
44. Birthdays

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If you’re lucky enough to have Kim Harris Thacker in your critique group, you’re lucky enough.

I am doubly blessed though because she is also my good friend.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie Pie!

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Over the next few weeks, interviews I’ve done recently will start popping up on excellent blogger sites. I am going to add links to this post as they show up. Drop by, leave a comment, make me look popular!

Books(l)ot Reviews - Interview, review & a giveaway…win an ARC from the host, or some swag from me.

Soumi - Interview

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Barbara McWalters of 20-40 investigates.

You decide.

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Over on Janet Reid’s site, along with author Elizabeth Norris, she’s been running her Pay it Forward contest…more like a very intense competition, which you can read all about here. As she nears the big decision, she has posted questions that the finalists will have to answer. I am always a sucker for a meme or a form, and if no one asks me to answer questions or fill something out, I’m not above just doing it anyway.*

So…from Janet’s blog:

EACH ANSWER HAS TO BE 25 words or less.**

Tell us about your book:
The Right & the Real is about a teen whose father is in a cult. She won’t join and gets kicked out on the street.

Why do you want to attend Backspace?
Do I get docked if I’m not sure what Backspace is (other than I know it’s the prize in Janet’s contest)?

Are you afraid to eat lunch with a Shark? It depends on what we’re having. I’ve heard she likes sushi, in that case, yes. Soup we can share, though.

West Side Story: Jets or Sharks? When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way. From your first cigarette to your last dyin’ day.

If you could save the life of any one fictional character who would it be and why? (thanks to blog reader FeakySnucker for this one) Juliet comes to mind, but she’d be kind of whiny without her Romeo. I’m going with Dobby. Who wouldn’t want to save him?

Is there a book that makes you think “If I could write one thing like that, I’d die happy.” (stolen from a Jeff Somers blog post) The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. This book really moved me. And then it gave me solace when I needed it.

What’s the most terrifying thing you’ve lived through?  (thanks to blog reader NotAWarriorPrincess for this one) I was going to say a certain administration, but I’m wary of being political on my blog, so I’ll say tornadoes in Tennessee.

When you’re published, what will you do to Pay It Forward? (thanks to blog reader Charley for this one) While I am published, I’m unfortunately not rich. But I now buy books. It might not sound like much, but I think it helps.

*The real reason I’m doing this is because I love the pay it forward idea…or sending the elevator back down to the ground floor from the penthouse, which is my personal favourite analogy for this idea.

**I especially love contests and forms that have limited word counts. The challenge is dorkily fun! Play along in the comments if you like.

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Earlier this week, I was on the CBC. I am one of two authors participating in Literary Smackdown! Here’s the press release:

Joëlle Anthony will be a guest on Shelagh Rogers’ show The Next Chapter on March 26^th. She will face off with author Rabindranath Maharaj for a segment of Literary Smackdown. In what Rogers deems “the most civilized smackdown ever,” Maharaj takes the side of writing in cafés, while Anthony argues creativity requires solitude.

However, you can listen to it right now, if you want!

And this link will take you to my written essay that I did for Canada Writes as part of the smackdown (also Rabindranath’s essay).

You can also find the podcasts here after the show (listen to a bunch of them…it’s a GREAT show!).

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I think it’s probably best not to read reviews. Bad ones make you feel bad, good ones distract you from the writing you’re doing and possibly make you feel all proud and big-headed. And yet, they’re like junk food…so irresistible! My editor posted a link to this one at Alluring Reads on FB today, and I rationalized, “Well, my editor practically told me to read it.” So I did. And it’s pretty awesome! Now I just need to shrink my head back to normal size and get to work on this new book. Nothing like actual writing to minimize the ego!

Do you read your reviews? If not, how do you resist?

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Today is my wonderful friend Eileen Cook’s birthday. You should celebrate and buy yourself a present. How about one of her fabulous books?

Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!

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Speaking of other people doing publicity for me…the fabulous and fun blogger, James over at Book Chic is hosting a double giveaway. Enter to win by leaving a comment and you could win one of two advance readers copies of The Right & the Real! Isn’t he a star?

You have until next Saturday to enter, but why wait? Enter here. The contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents.

Thanks, James!

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I’ve had a headache all week. This has made writing my new novel challenging, but I was sick with a cold four of my five writing days last week, so I have made myself carry on in spite of the headache. Since drugs don’t usually work for me, I don’t bother taking them anymore. Instead, I try coffee (most painkillers for tension headaches are loaded with caffeine, so coffee gives me a fix without the other drugs). Usually it works, but this week it only sort of helped.

Generally, I only get headaches for two reasons. One is (look away male readers) hormones, and the other is me stressing over something stupid! I knew it wasn’t the first reason, so the quest for what is Joelle stressing over this week began. Which, of course, doesn’t actually help the headache. I came up with some reasons, but they were mostly fake ones…I’m good at avoiding the real answer!

1. It’s a residual headache from my cold.

2. Scrolling while editing.

3. Too much tweeting (probably…so I signed off)

But then, last night, I sat down with my husband to hash out ideas for my book trailer and I got my answer. And it’s one I have to deal with for many reasons.

Publicity.

What? Let me start with the good news. This week, I got my first review and it is pretty great. And then I heard from a journalist who is going to do a feature on me for a big magazine (it’s a secret which one for now) as well as a book review that will run separately, and he liked my book. On Tuesday, I recorded a segment for the CBC radio program The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers, which was terribly exciting and will air on March 26th. All good news, right? Actually, excellent news! So what’s the problem?

Well, when I started writing this new novel, I had hoped to have a draft done by the end of February and then spend all of March doing publicity for The Right & the Real while the novel sat and gestated. The problem came when I did not even come close to finishing the draft. For the last nine days, I have been fighting an internal battle with myself – I need to get my butt in gear and do my share of the publicity for The R&R, but I only want to write. And so I have forced myself to write through the headache in the morning, but by the afternoon, I’m spent and so I have done very little publicity, which apparently has been making the headache worse.

Now, you may be thinking, “Ooookay…this is one crazy writer!” But the truth is that while I have a background in publicity, it was always for other people. I have a very hard time promoting myself. My husband has the same problem with his music, and I tell him, “You’re publicizing your songs, not yourself.” Good advice, if I can remember it…it’s the book, not me, I’m talking about all the time…still, it starts to sound a bit self-serving after a while.

And then I got a BRILLIANT idea. All of you can do my publicity for me! No? Oh, well….

The point of this post, and it actually does have one, is I’m wondering how do you other writers handle this? Does it stress you out to talk about yourself and your work? Or do you love it? And for you non-writers, what do you do when you have to do something that makes you uncomfortable? I love the actual readings and signings, but asking bloggers to interview me, or do giveaways, or write reviews on Amazon and Goodreads just seems so…well…weird. Do you know that I have NEVER once given away a copy of my book on my website (but you can enter to win a signed copy on Goodreads right now!). I’m afraid no one will enter to win!

I actually have a TON of ideas for publicity because I am an idea machine. And I even have the know-how for pulling them off. This morning, I decided that I will sit down for two hours and create a plan this afternoon. I will break everything down into small bits to do each day. And the headache will probably go away (it actually already has…since I made this decision!). Essentially, I am going to embrace the publicity because I honestly love this book, The Right & the Real, and I want people to know about it. I can’t change the fact that I have to talk about myself for a while, but I can change my attitude and embrace it. After all, being published is a blessing, and it is always a good idea to be grateful for your blessings, don’t you think?

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I’m pretty excited to share with you all my first review for The Right & the Real!

From Publisher’s Weekly: Fast pacing and a strong first-person narrative voice combine to make this coming-of-age story a harrowing page-turner.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read the whole thing here!

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The following video includes some exciting stuff (at least for me), but I forgot to include one really, really cool thing.

Went to the Poetry Festival all day yesterday. They have these little cabins without electricity surrounding the lodge where it was held and for Sat and Sun afternoon, Hilary (artistic director extraordinaire) hired artists/poets/actors/performers to each take a cabin and then the audience went from one to the next experiencing “live art.” I did one yesterday where I had a big roll of paper and I started a story and then each person that came added to it. Some people wrote, others (kids) drew pictures. It was quite fun.  But the most exciting part of the day was…we saw whales!

There was a workshop going on downstairs in the lodge, and people sleeping upstairs but I was just hanging out, so I went outside to get something and a girl I know was running for the cliff. She told me she’d seen a whale. I went with her and quite far away, we could see a pod of maybe 4-5. Then they started coming toward us and there was another pod behind them. And then, I heard one blow and looked down, and another pod was right below us! Right there!!! We started screaming…well, Kathleen did, “WHALES!!! WHALES!” and all the people streamed out of the lodge, maybe thirty of us standing there (some with no shoes on because they were napping) on the cliff screaming and laughing and yelling. There was not just one or two, but twenty! Or more. Orcas! And some of them were as close as 40 feet away! Blowing and breaching and showing off. It was the coolest thing ever! Killer whales! One of the poets was actually out in the water in a kayak and they’d gone right past him. Someone did make a video, so if I get a link, I’ll post a link here later, although, I’ve seen it and it’s mostly a lot of people screaming with joy and exuberance.

And now for the other exciting stuff!

Thanks for dropping by!

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I’m very excited to be participating in the Poetry Gabriola Festival next weekend. I’ll be performing on Thursday, February 16th. Here’s the blurby thing that explains it. If you’re in the area, I hope you come. And not just to my event. The entire festival is ALWAYS great fun.

photo © Victor Anthony 2012

Batter Up! Baseball stories with Joëlle Anthony and George Bowering

Host: Barbara Adler

Mainstage Theatre. Tix $16. 

Join two of our favourite heavy hitters on opening night for a double header that’s all about writing and baseball. Your host for the evening will be  rock-star accordionist Barbara Adler.

Joëlle Anthony  Women in the Line-Up

Through a series of fictional characters, true stories, and a blending of both, writer and performer Joëlle Anthony explores women’s roles in baseball. From true-blue hardcore fans to scorekeepers, Little League moms, baseball wives, and the ladies who run the concession stand, women participate in a sport played by, run by, and announced by men. Why do women love something that excludes them so wholeheartedly from the actual game? And how could baseball function without them? These are some of the themes in Joëlle’s collection, Women in the Line-up.

George Bowering The Diamond Alphabet Book

George Bowering is fond of baseball, and he likes the alphabet. Having written a few baseball books and a few alphabet books over the years, he decided to write a baseball alphabet book. The Diamond Alphabet is made up of 130 between-innings takes, five for each letter. You probably expected “Mays”, but were you ready for “Uzbekistan”? Tall tales, memories, facts, and opinions are interwoven in this delightful collection of short takes on the gentleman’s game that demonstrates the full potential of the relationship between baseball and literature.

Note: Mingle! Wine Bar opens at 6:30 p.m. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. – sharp!

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