.: Reading, writing, and really good times :.
FRIDAY @ 7: The award-winning author of "The Great Karoo."
Maggie SigginsFRIDAY @ 9: Prolific author of "Marie-Anne: The Extraordinary Life of Louis Riel's Grandmother."
Joan ThomasSATURDAY @ 7: The Manitoban author of "Reading by Lightning."
Daria SalamonSATURDAY @ 9: Author of the popular new novel, "The Prairie Bridesmaid."
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Remember to sign up for our 24-hour short story writing contest. Test your mettle again Brandon's most exhausted writers, as you battle for the title of Caffeine King or Queen. One winner will be published in the Brandon Sun and in the official program of Words Alive. To be held overnight, Oct. 25-26.
Sign up here!Thanks to generous support from the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, we're proud to offer Words Alive completely free of charge this year!
DARIA SALAMON is a freelance writer whose work has been published by the Globe and Mail, the Winnipeg Free Press and Uptown Magazine. Her short fiction and creative non-fiction has been shortlisted for the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Emerging Writer Short Fiction Award, the Larry Turner Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and the Canadian Authors Association’s North of 55 Writing Contest. In 2005, she wrote a monthly humour column on wedding planning for the Winnipeg Free Press called “The Wedding Diaries.” She lives in Winnipeg.
Spectacularly fun and rich with wit and savvy, her new book, "The Prairie Bridesmaid," is a delicious debut novel about the bonds that break and make family, friendship, and love.
A brief synopsis: Just cresting her thirties, Anna Lasko is a frustrated high school teacher whose almost ex-boyfriend, Adam, is away on temporary assignment in Europe. She finds herself tricked into a break-up-with-the-bad-boyfriend intervention by her supportive but meddling girlfriends. To cope with it all, Anna starts smoking again, keeps nightly counsel with her backyard squirrel, Buddy, and starts sessions with a caring but fashion-challenged therapist. Her well-intentioned family adds to the emotional workload when her beautiful and free-spirited sister decides to move to the Middle East with her boyfriend. Luckily, Anna has her devoted grandmother who constantly says it like it is, refuses to conform to anyone’s requests, and continues to live on her prairie farm half-blind, happy, and alone.
The Winnipeg Free Press says: Salamon's talent shines in her lively and authentically depicted characters. But the true highlight of the novel is the wit, cynicism and insight that Salamon gives Anna. In fact, Salamon's sharp prose and wicked wit imbue the novel with a tone similar to that of "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing," the bestselling 1999 short story collection by American Melissa Bank -- still one of the best in the chick-lit genre.
The Globe and Mail says: This subversive ChickLit title raises some intriguing questions about marriage, friendship, commitment and the modern gal's perpetual quest for independence. Domestic novels are often overlooked due to their sole focus on cloying topics like relationships, shopping and girlfriends. The cutesy pink covers don't help, either. Yet there's no shame in producing great ChickLit. Daria Salamon has written a funny, dark, quirky take on one woman's epic struggle with the harsh realities of adult life: angry boyfriends, dull colleagues and meddling girlfriends.
Reviewers and blogger are also intrigued by Salamon's "downloadable soundtrack" idea. Included with every book is a unique code that allows readers to download music that is connected to the themes and ideas of the book. Artists like Sarah Slean, Jill Barber and Greg Macpherson have contributed. Read (and hear) more.