A flurry of book related stuff...

So the past few days I've been doing stuff related to the book. I registered my book for Access Copyright, which means that if someone photocopies my book and claims it, I get some money. I've also registered the book for the Public Lending Right, which means that if a certain number of people take it out of a certain number of libraries, I get some financial compensation.

My publisher sent us a long list of publications where our books will be sent for review. I'm encouraged to think of a few other places where I should send the book for review or to try to get into festivals.

Plane tickets for Toronto will be booked in the next week or so.

Whew!

Oscar watch 2007

For some reason, I've been watching a lot of Oscar related movies, but I haven't written about any of them. Granted, my participation is somewhat limited because of my location this year, but I've still managed to see a few of the nominees.
( movies under the cut, no spoilers )

In other movie news, I watched "Shanghai Triad" which is an old gangster film by Zhang Yimou. It was pretty good, but he has definitely made better films. I'm trying to watch more Asian cinema and more Canadian cinema. I'll continue to write about these movies as I watch them.

Diversity in Grande Prairie

One thing I've noticed is that there seem to be a lot of black children here who have been adopted by white couples. I saw about 3 or 4 of them last week. I mentioned it at work, and someone suggested that it would be a good idea for a story.

The first black man came to Grande Prairie in the early 1900s from St. Kitts. He was a peony grower and most of the peonies that grow in the area were originally planted by him. He is also responsible for the peonies on the U of A campus.

Grande Prairie is the second place where I've encountered a decent sized black population. The first time I encountered a black population was in my neighbourhood in Montreal, which had a large Caribbean population. There was a hair extension store at the end of my street and all the black dudes used to hang out and yell out, "Hey girl!" whenever I walked home.