Sunday, February 18, 2007

Living East TV appearance

I was interviewed at the Halifax Boat Show by the CBC-TV program "The Living East." The show is broadcast weekdays at 1:00, and the interview will be broadcast Friday, March 9.

Thanks to Bijan for linking the earlier post to Haliditto, a website I hadn't seen before.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Appearances at the Halifax International Boat Show

Just a reminder that I'm doing three presentations at the Halifax International Boat Show (today, Feb 16 at 5:30; tomorrow, Feb 17 at 1:30; and Sunday, Feb 18 at 1:00) and a brief talk at the Atlantic Provinces Booksellers Association dinner, also on Feb 18.

Atlantic Boating News

The current issue of Atlantic Boating News is bound together with the program for the Halifax International Boat Show, and the publication is saturated with Sailing Away from Winter and Silver Donald Cameron.

The Boat Show program includes several references (with photos) to the seminars I'm giving at the Show, plus a fine interview by Tom Mason, with several illustrations.

Flip it over and you're looking at Atlantic Boating News, with a reference to the book on its cover, and an enthusiastic review by Lloyd Corkum inside. (The book is "the next best thing to doing it yourself, with Silver Donald's wit and charm only enhancing the experience.")

When I thanked the editor, Joanne Elliott, for this terrific coverage, she said, "Atlantic Boating News -- the Silver Donald Cameron edition!" And that's what it looks like.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Toronto Star mini-review

Back in November, before the book was officially out, The Toronto Star briefly noticed it. Here's the note, published on November 26:

For those less inclined to welcome the chill, we suggest Silver Donald Cameron's Sailing Away from Winter: A Cruise from Nova Scotia to Florida and Beyond. It's the armchair-friendly yarn of how Cameron, who turns 70 next year, set sail in 2004 with wife Marjorie Simmins and Leo the Wonder Whippet in a 33-year-old Norwegian-built ketch named Magnus, bound for Pete's Pub in Little Harbour, the Bahamas. Some 236 days and 3000-plus nautical miles later, the "distinctly trepid crew" rowed ashore and headed up to the palm-thatched tiki bar for a well-deserved splash or two. This is familiar stuff for the B.C.-raised Cameron, author of 13 previous books, a bunch of them ocean-themed, including "the Nova Scotia cruising classic Wind, Whales and Whisky."

For those with the smell of salt air twitching their own nostrils, perhaps Cameron should be paired with Farley Mowat's memoir of marital cruising, albeit around Newfoundland in the '50s, Bay of Spirits: A Love Story.

To which I say a hearty Amen. Farley's new book is poignant and delightful, and the two books will probably appeal to a very similar readership.

BC trip cancelled; new schedule

On January 31, Marjorie and I flew to Calgary, accompanied by MacTavish the Super-Sheltie. We were going to visit family in Alberta before flying on to BC on February 5.

Alas, while in Calgary we were both felled by head colds -- and mine in particular was an industrial-strength stinker which took away my voice. We postponed our BC flight to February 7, but when the situation hadn't much improved by then, we flew back to Halifax instead. I was bitterly disappointed, but there isn't much point in continuing a speaking tour when you can't speak.

So we're back in Halifax, and the next public appearances are three presentations at the Halifax International Boat Show (Feb 16 at 5:30; Feb 17 at 1:30; Feb 18 at 1:00) and a brief talk at the Atlantic Provinces Booksellers Association dinner, also on Feb 18.

Interviews coming up on CBC Television's The Living East (to be recorded at the Boat Show on Feb 16, but I'm not sure when it will be broadcast) and on Furled Sails (www.furledsails.com), the world's first sailing podcast, out of Florida.