Lovers, Detectives and Serial Killers - a day in the life of ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS

Click To Play

www.movingstories.tv -- JT Ellison is certainly a looker (that smile lit up the whole show floor!) but even more shes a watcher. How else could she write such a deliciously grisly thriller that gets right into the twisted head of her murdering protagonist *and* her empowered Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson at the same time? Not content with just one dichotomy, she throws in a lover for TJ with all that that entails -- FBI Profiler John Baldwin (though I gotta tell ya, *I* want a John Baldwin! Every woman should have a John Baldwin!).

ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS demonstrates that Nashville police are a sharing lot, cause there is lots of realistic detail that keeps the reader engaged in this debut novel. Its another title from Mira, that line out of Harlequin that is expressly devoted to the thriller genre, and so far its a line just as addictive as their brand name would suggest. JT has two more coming down the pike, "14" and "Judas Kiss" and though they may seem far away in time, you can keep on getting JT hits with her columns for Murderati.com every Friday. For more about JT, visit www.jtellison.com.

The music for this interview is a track by PORKBELLY FUTURES called "Lonely Stranger" from their CD called WAY PAST MIDNIGHT availalble at http://www.porkbellys.com/ or from Wildflower Records -- many thanks to the band!

For more BookShort Author Profiles visit http://www.MovingStories.TV. Shot at BookExpo America © 2007 BookShorts.com

Michelle Gagnon Debut Thriller THE TUNNELS Gets Under Your Skin

www.movingstories.tv -- MICHELLE GAGNON is a fresh and confident new voice in crime fiction, and THE TUNNELS marks an auspicious debut. So says John Lescroart, and that guy would certainly be the guy to say so. Having voraciously consumed the thriller myself, I have testify to the fact that Michelle is deceiving. She is just a wee slip of a thing in person, but those pages of hers pack a real punch.

Mira was just launching their first titles at BookExpo America this year, and from the few titles I've read so far, they've hit a strong stride right out of the gate. These are gritty and engrossing mystery thrillers written by women. Yup, its a Harlequin imprint, but that little icon doesn't appear anywhere on the cover (oh come on and read em, they're a *Canadian* publisher!). For those who may have already discovered Michelle, her next book BONEYARD will be out in April.

For more about Michelle, visit http://www.michellegagnon.com. This interview was shot at BookExpo America © 2007 BookShorts.com

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Dave Shields and Saul Raisin Inspire a TOUR DE LIFE

www.movingtories.tv Since we undertook this interview with DAVE SHEILDS, author of TOUR DE LIFE: FROM COMA TO COMPETITION, fantastic things have happened. For one, Daves writing partner and subject of the book, SAUL RAISIN has re-joined competitive racing. Its an awe-inspiring feat when you consider that one short year ago the doctors said he wouldnt even live, let alone tie his shoes, walk or ride. Well, they didnt know Saul.

Often one looks to athletes, their strength and endurance at the top of their game, to lend inspiration in our own everyday lives. Saul Raisin and Dave Sheilds bring us something even more precious -- a brave story of miracles from a stellar athlete at his lowest moment to the heights he is reaching all over again.

TOUR DE LIFE: From Coma to Competition is published by Three Story Press; Interview conducted with the assistance of BookExpo America in New York, NY © 2007 BookShorts. For the more information about Saul and David, visit http://www.tourdelife.com.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Chapters Indigo Makes a Brave Play into Online Social Network

http://www.bookshorts.com/ - September 21, 2007 -- As of Monday morning, visitors to the national retailers home page will see two new green tabs tucked up into the top right hand corner of the home page. Those two little tabs represent a very brave move on the part of Canada's national book retailer. They are the launch point into a robust and amazingly well-thought out nline community forum that Chapters hopes will provide a locus for booklovers that buy.

Self-described as a "retailer that fell into technology" rather than a technology company that sells, the online team has diligently perservered in pulling together a hybrid user experience. It pulls standard blogging features together with the most popular elements of social networking, made facile by close-at-hand content represented by the books in the systems database. After joining the community and creating a Profile, users will be able to personalize lists of books they love, have read, or intend to read; post comments and mini-reviews, and of course most exciting to the cross-over fan like BookShorts, embed videos!!

The Facebook-like Group feature in the new Chapters Community area will allow pretty much all the benefits of that feature, with a particular eye to the needs and rabid desires of book clubs. Artists get special consideration too -- if you are an author, director, actor or creative of any type, you'll be able to create your Profile and start a Group fan club, and identify yourself as the star :)

Kudos for Chapters Indigo for doing in their retail environment what has been sorely lacking in any of the major online news and entertainment portals -- they are giving us Canadian bibliophiles a fantastic place to hype, cajol, educate and convert ourselves into the best supporters of Canadian artists that we can be!

Visit ChaptersIndigo.ca for a Monday morning launch, September 24, and a bunch of cool contests and stuff that we're told will come online in October.

First episode of Music in Motion Features Singer Songwriter Jessica Rhaye at TIFF© Music Café

Click to Play BookShort

MovingStories.tv ... Singer songwriter Jessica Rhaye speaks to us upstairs at the Rivoli, having that moment come offstage from her performance at the Toronto International Film Festival(c) Music Cafe. Only 12 acts were chosen for this exclusive presentation to film music supervisors from around the world. BookShorts is privileged to have two of Jessica's music amazing songs for two different BookShort Author Profiles weve just produced -- Anne Stone's DELIBLE and MY MOTHER'S DAUGHTER by Rona Maynard. Jessicas two tracks, Crazy Jayne and Beautiful respectively, are both featured on her own newest release, a recording called Jessica Rhaye-Short Stories, available in all the same stores as the books!

In this our very first Music in Motion video, a new series that get behind the scenes with the musical artists who make films sing, literally! Also, watch BookShort Author Profiles at http://www.MovingStories.TV ;

Find out how musicians can work with upcoming BookShort productions at http://www.bookshorts.com/authors.htm

Michael Winter included in Giller Longlist 2007

The 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury today announced its longlist of books in the running for this year's prize. The jury selected 15 titles out of a record 108 books, submitted by 46 publishers from every region of Canada.

Author and 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner David Bergen, author Camilla Gibb and author, poet and artist Lorna Goodison comprised the 2007 jury. The 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist is as follows:

From Independent Canadian Publishers:
* Sharon English for her collection of short stories Zero Gravity - The Porcupine's Quill
* Daniel Poliquin for his novel A Secret Between Us, translated by Donald Winkler - Douglas & McIntyre
* David Chariandy for his novel Soucouyant - Arsenal Pulp Press
* Claire Mulligan for her novel The Reckoning of Boston Jim -
Brindle & Glass Publishing

From Penguin Books Canada
* Michael Winter for his novel The Architects Are Here - Watch his BookShort Interview Here!

From HarperCollins
* Barbara Gowdy for her novel Helpless
* Lawrence Hill for his novel The Book of Negroes
* Paulette Jiles for her novel Stormy Weather
* D.R. MacDonald for his novel Lauchlin of the Bad Heart
* Richard Wright for his novel October - A Phyllis Bruce Book


From Random House of Canada
* Mary Novik for her novel Conceit - Doubleday Canada
* Alissa York for her novel Effigy - Random House Canada
* M.G. Vassanji for his novel The Assassin's Song - Doubleday Canada
* Elizabeth Hay for her novel Late Nights on Air - McClelland & Stewart
* Michael Ondaatje for his novel Divisadero - McClelland & Stewart


The shortlist for this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize will be announced at a news conference on Tuesday, October 9 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. The finalists will be honoured and a winner announced at a gala black tie dinner and awards ceremony to be held on November 6th, 2007.

Watch the BookShort coverage of last year's Giller Prize here!

Ray Zahab's RUNNING FOR MY LIFE will have you out of your seat

Click To Play

http://www.bookshorts.com/ -- Winner of some of the worlds most difficult and challenging ultra-distance foot races, to say that Ray Zahab is motivated by challenge, distance and discovery is more than an understatement. In Running for My Life (Insomniac Press, Sep 2007) he documents in words the incredible journeys he has set himself upon, leaving behind a previous lifetime of unhealthy choices. His is an infectious and indefatigable energy that inspires anyone to take on our own life feats.

Ray will be touring across Canada (in the rather more conventional style!) -- check out http://www.rayzahab.com/ for details; visit Insomniac Press to but the book now!

BookShort Author Profile CoProduced with BookExpo Canada "Script to Screen" Program (c) BookShorts 2007; more at http://www.movingstories.tv/

Anne Stone's DELIBLE is a seductive and spooky tome

Click to Play

bookshorts.com -- Reading the new novel DELIBLE by Anne Stone counts as one of the amazing perks of this job -- it was haunting, and mezmerizing, and immediately conjured all kinds of visual images that would make for a really fantastic short film adaptation. Anne herself is featured in our video profile here, and tells the equally poignant story of how she came to write about the fictional Lora Sprague, a fifteen year old whose sister Mel has gone missing, inspired by real life tragedy. In the book, through Lora's eyes, we come to witness one family's experience of sustained uncertainty and how our identities also exist in the traces we leave behind. "...a seductive meditation on the ways young women mythologize, cling to, enrapture, and lose one another." Heather O'Neill

Jessica Rhaye's song Crazy Jayne provides a rich subtext to the profile, and we are super-lucky to have the support of one of the most forward-thinking music publishers, Pangaea Music House. Thanks Tony! The track is from her most recent recording "Jessica Rhaye-Short Stories" more of which viewers can find at http://www.jessicarhaye.com/ .

The novel is now available from Insomniac Press; CoProduced with BookExpo Canada at Script to Screen (c) BookShorts 2007; Visit MovingStories.TV for more tales behind the stories!