SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER

It's back to school time and we're having a 25% off sale to mark the occasion! If you're a kid, console yourself with some great kids or young adult books, including our forthcoming novel Suliewey (ages 12 and up). If you're a parent, celebrate with that novel or book of short stories (like the about to be released Soft Serve!) or a non-fiction or art book you've been meaning to read (like the newly released book of fine art photos from renowned photographer Ting Ting Chen! If you're a teacher, well, we're sorry... You're probably too busy until next summer, but we appreciate why and love you for it. Regardless, Breakwater has your reading covered, whatever your feelings about the month are!

In this issue:

  • News (our authors making and breaking waves) 
  • Upcoming Events (join Breakwater to celebrate books)
  • Fall 2023 Preview (see what's about to appear on shelves near you)
  • Followfest (follow Breakwater's communications channels and never miss a thing) 

WHAT'S IN THE NEWS?

            
 
Also newsworthy is the release of our foreign rights sales to Germany, with Kevin Major's detective series beginning with One for the Rock (and coming to book 5 this Fall with Five for Forteau) and Melissa Barbeau's The Luminous Sea both getting their German releases with Pendragon (PRH).
 

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF BREAKWATER IN WOODY POINT 

O, what a night! The hall at the Writers at Woody Point festival was packed to the rafters to celebrate the 50 years of Breakwater Books. We've been part of the festival from day one and the good folks there helped us create quite the event. Speakers included literary friend and appointed Breakwater historian Paul Dean, the lastest Winterset winner Shelly Kawaja, and the incomparable Andy Jones. Music was provided by Des Walsh and the original line up of Tickle Harbour. Stories were told, songs were sung and hilarity ensued.  

Photo L-R of Nancy Charleton, Breakwater founder Clyde Rose, and Breakwater President Rebecca Rose   The crowd at Woody Point Heritage Theatre for the Breakwater 50th Anniversary celebration
Andy Jones by the Breakwater banner.   Two generations of Breakwater Books: President and owner Rebecca Rose with founder Clyde Rose
   
   
   
      

UPCOMING EVENTS

September is such a busy month! All the better for you to find our authors out and about.

  • Back to School Sale 25% off all books (excluding forthcoming and discount titles), Sept 1 - 15, online at BreakwaterBooks.com or at our shop at 1 Stamp's Lane, in St. John's
  • Author signings at Coles Avalon Mall
  • Pumpkin Spice Market at the St. John's Farmer's Market, Sunday, Sept 10, all day
    • Author appearances during the day
  • Book Fair at the St. John's Farmer's Market, Sunday, Sept 17, all day 
    • Author appearances during the day
  • Double Book Launch! Allison Graves and Meghan Greeley launch new books Soft Serve and Jawbone at Christina Parker Gallery in St. John's, Thursday, Sept 21, 7-9pm (Facebook event page)
  • Chief Mi'sel Joe and Sheila O'Neill bring Suliewey: The Sequel to My Indian to The Rooms, Saturday, Sept 30, 2:30pm (more details to follow)

FALL BOOKS


Soft Serve
Allison Graves
(Coming in September)

Allison Graves’ edgy debut collection of short fiction scrutinizes unconventional and confused attachments between people and the reasons they last. The extraordinary becomes the ordinary as people navigate the weird, the quirky, and the sad aspects of everyday life.

Through encounters in retail and fast food chains, on highways and dating apps, the characters in this collection wander through the non-places of our modern lives. The stories connect readers to the spaces that ultimately make them feel lost—zones for reconsideration. Delving into the confusion and boredom of everyday life, Graves’ fiction documents the emotional experiences and disillusionment of middle-class millennials seeking a meaningful life in both the isolating and the ordinary.  


Sulieway: The Sequel to My Indian
Mi'sel Joe and Sheila O'Neill 
(Coming in September)

Suliewey: The Sequel to My Indian continues the story of Mi’kmaq guide Sylvester Joe, whose traditional name is Suliewey, as he seeks out the last remaining Beothuk community.

In My Indian, Sylvester was hired by William Cormack in 1822 to guide him across Newfoundland in search of Beothuk encampments. In fact, he followed the advice of his Elders and guided Cormack away from the Beothuk. In this sequel, having parted ways with Cormack at St. George’s Bay, Sylvester decides to go out on his own, in search of the winter camp of the last of the remaining Beothuk. 

Written as fiction, by two Mi’kmaq authors, Suliewey: The Sequel to My Indian supports Mi’kmaq oral history of friendly relationships with the Beothuk. The novel reclaims the settler narrative that the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq of Newfoundland were enemies and represents an existing kinship between the Mi’kmaq and the Beothuk.

Rich in oral history, the descriptions of traditional ceremonies and sacred medicines, the use of Mi’kmaw language, and the teachings of two-spirit place readers on the land and embed them in the strong relationships described throughout the book.


A Company of Rogues
Trudy J. Morgan Cole
(Coming in October)

This dramatic conclusion to a trilogy foregrounds the experiences of women settlers in North America as they grapple with notions of homeland, colonization, and sense of belonging.

A Company of Rogues completes the Cupids trilogy, moving the action back to the New Found Land seven years after John Guy’s colonists first settled Cupids Cove. After their wanderings across the ocean, Ned and Nancy are united—but will the shores of New Found Land provide a permanent home? Kathryn and Nicholas Guy join the effort to found a second colony at Bristol’s Hope, but their work is threatened by a shadowy enemy who holds a dangerous power over Kathryn. And a newcomer to the colony, the Wampanoag traveller Tisquantum, settles among the English colonists, challenging their beliefs about the New World they have come to settle and the people who call it home.


Five for Forteau
Kevin Major
(Coming in October)

The fifth book in the Sebastian Synard mystery series takes our intrepid tour guide/private detective on a jaunt across Newfoundland and into Labrador, in pursuit of those towers of intrigue—lighthouses!

The final stop on Synard’s lighthouse tour is the one at L’Anse Amour, Labrador, the highest in all Atlantic Canada. It’s a long climb into the lantern room, and a long fall from its catwalk to the ground below. Dead is photographer Amanda Thomson. Who is the scoundrel that nudged her past the railing? The RCMP in Forteau are pointing to one of the tour groups, but Sebastian and his partner Mae have other ideas. They retrace the excursions of Amanda and her vagabond boyfriend back to a section of northern Newfoundland called the French Shore. Could the recent bizarre vandalism at its historic sites hold a clue? What is it about the French Shore that leads them back to murder at L’Anse Amour?  


Field Guide to Newfoundland and Labrador
Michael Collins, ed. 
(Coming in November) 

A rich and informative guide to the common—and uncommon—beauty of the province.

The most comprehensive guide of its kind on the market today, the Field Guide to Newfoundland and Labrador features more than 900 photographs and illustrations: from flora and fauna to icebergs and weather, no stone is left unturned in this perfect introduction to the province’s life and landscape.

Compiled and edited by Memorial University biologist Michael Collins, with contributions from over twenty renowned experts, the guide is accessible, durable, perfectly sized, and indexed for ease of use in the field. You’re ready. Now explore.

KEEP CONNECTED 

Check out Breakwater's social media channels lately? Follow all our channels to make sure you don't miss out on any crucial book news. Be the first to get event and book announcements, author signing times, reels and videos, and more! (Note the TIkTok! Our latest new channel! Check it out.)