This past summer, amid literary events and kitchen renos, I had a visit from two talented musicians, SarahRose Black and Andrew Ascenzo. Together they make up the wonderful duo, Arosa Star. I’d met them last fall while I was on tour in Ontario with the publication of The Virgin Cure. They’d introduced themselves to me after a reading, and said they had some news to share. Imagine my surprise when they told me that they’d been so inspired by Dora’s tale in The Birth House, that they were writing a collection of songs based on the landscape and themes portrayed …
Category: The Birth House
Dear J. K. Rowling, “They say it’s your Pub Day, (insert guitar riff) It’s my Pub Day too, yeah! We’re gonna have a good time… I’m glad it’s your Pub Day, Happy Pub Day to you.” – with apologies to the Beatles. It’s September 27, 2012 and it’s a big day for Ms. Rowling since her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy is now on bookstore shelves. It’s a big day for me as well, since my second novel, The Virgin Cure has just been published in the UK. I guess that makes us “Publication Day Buddies” of a …
Family and friends near and far keep me grounded, centered and sane. Then there are the people I’ve never met, (sometimes halfway around the world) who also reside in my heart. Their stories, their work, their dreams, remind me that we are all connected. In 2010 a message came to me via facebook from a woman who had read The Birth House. She’d picked up the book at Box of Delights in Wolfville while on a trip to visit family in Nova Scotia. Her name is Kristen Porter. “I did not know then that a few months later I would …
Thanks so much to those who left comments on last weeks post! Here are the names of the winners from the draw for the signed mass market paperbacks of The Birth House (with prologue and chapter one from The Virgin Cure included in the back.) Blair Renee Meuse Bishara Kim Boswell Please email me at: ami(at)amimckay(dot)com with your mailing address so I can pop your prize in the post! Congratulations to the winners, and if you didn’t win this time, stick around, I’ll have a few other goodies to give away soon.
Not long ago I received an auto-generated email from Amazon saying, Are you looking for something in our Mystery & Thriller Books department? If so, you might be interested in these items. The first item shown was a book called, The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom. (Of course I had to go the author’s website to find out more.) The first thing I saw was this ominous message: The only thing more terrifying than death…IS BIRTH. No, seriously, I’m not kidding… 😉 In 2004, Mr. Ransom and his wife moved to a “140-year-old former birthing house in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.” …