“We’re a productive bunch!” said Claire Eamer when she was asked to attend the Yukon Authors book-signing bash at Mac’s Fireweed Books this Saturday, Dec. 5, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Eamer, who had Super Crocs & Monster Wings and Spiked Scorpions & Walking Whales released by Annick Press, this year, was the featured writer in Ontario for Children’s Book Week. Her books of paleogeology, for kids nine to 12 years old, feature the ancient ancestors of creatures on Earth today and have been nominated for Alberta’s Rocky Mountain Book Prize.
Joining her for signing, prizes and refreshments are Keith Halliday, Steve Parker, Jessica Simon, Gus Karpes and Michael Reynolds.
Keith Halliday writes for young readers. He’ll be presenting his fourth book, the popular Game On Yukon! that was published in the MacBride Museum Yukon Kids Series. It’s 1905 and a series of mysterious mishaps sidelines one Dawson Nuggets hockey star after another until it’s up to Joe Boyle and the Yukon Kids to suit up for the game of their lives. One Halliday son appears on the cover and two others selected the illustrations.
Steve Parker’s book, Skrelsaga (Trafford Press), also features local cover art by Delwyn Klassen on his book. Parker’s first novel is a science-fiction fantasy set in the land of Fenrys where the Skrel are a race with a special knowledge that allows them to combat a group of humans and elves attempting to gain complete control of the realm.
For Jessica Simon (umm, me), From Ice to Ashes (NeWest Press) is the first Markus Fanger adventure crime. The thriller pits Fanger against a terrorist with plans to use the Yukon Arctic Ultra to infiltrate the United States and sabotage Alaskan military sites. Mystery author Lou Allin says, “Jessica Simon makes not only a unique contribution to crime fiction, but a stellar addition to the Arctic canon.”
Gus Karpes, who has produced numerous river guidebooks, presents his first adventure novel, Footsteps on the Livingstone Trail (Kugh Enterprises). When Sam Jeager has a chance meeting in 1958 with a witness of the 1918 murder of Peter Cranston, it sets him on a search along the Livingstone Trail from Lake Laberge, through the Mount Laurier valley, to the eventual recovery of Cranston’s gold. Karpes’ knowledge of the outdoors informs his fiction.
Michael Reynolds, the poet among us, will be signing his first book-length poetry collection, Slant Room (Porcupine’s Quill). Reynolds expands on the themes presented in his chapbook, Migrations, and his work is gaining national recognition for its arresting imagery and a spare, dense language that is rare in contemporary Canadian poetry.
Juggling Fire (Orca Books) by Dawson author Joanne Bell; Katherine Gibson’s biography of Ted Harrison, Painting Paradise (Crown Publications) and Captain Dick Stevenson’s self-published Au’toe’biography will round out your winter reading.
