Book Marks: Edmonton author Richard Van Camp offers pair of supernatural books

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The timing couldn’t be more perfect – a pair of books about the spiritual and supernatural coming weeks before Halloween from local author Richard Van Camp.

The most anticipated is Wheetago War: ROTH, a graphic novel set in Alberta where ancient creatures called wheetago are dug up by industry and greed and terrorize the world. ROTH was released on Oct. 18 by Alberta publisher Renegade Arts Entertainment.

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A group of convicts come across a wheetago and the creature is holding some powerful medicine when he starts to turn so he still maintains a connection to his humanity. The half-man, half-creature is a former child finder named Ross, who was trying to get back to his family when he was turned.

“The challenge of the story is he has to trust these convicts. They are saying they are being escorted as free men. They can go into Edmonton and get your family and get them back out here.”

Can Ross trust the convicts? Can the convicts trust the half-turned Ross?

The artwork for the graphic novel is incredible, with hauntingly beautiful illustrations done by famed artist Christopher Shy, who is well known for working in the horror and science fiction genres. ROTH features dark blues and muted earth tones, a beautiful book with a terrifying and enticing story.

“I’ve been wanting to work with Christopher Shy for 15 years,” says Van Camp.

ROTH is only the first volume in the Wheetago Wars series. Van Camp says he’s currently working on the second and third book.

Van Camp also wrote a young adult novel out this month that leans into the spiritual and the mystical. Beast, published by Douglas & McIntyre and released on Oct. 12, features the young teen Lawson as he tries to uphold the treaty between his Dogrib friends and family and their Chipewyan neighbours. But Silver, fresh out of prison, is set on destroying the treaty and has called on an evil spirit to help him.

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Like any great book set in the ‘80s, the musical references play a big part in the book. While Van Camp admits young readers might miss some of the references, there’s a lot for older readers to pick up.

“The 1986 graduate who was in high school will be able to go back and say of course that’s the song that packed the gym dances at the time,” says Van Camp.

Music is so important to the novel that each chapter is titled with a song from the period.

Van Camp will be celebrating the launch of both of his new books at a book launch at Audreys on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.

For more information bout the author, visit his website

The spice of love

An Edmonton author with rural roots has released a romance novel.

Sunshine and Spice, out Sept. 17 from Penguin Random House Canada, is the newest book from Aurora Palit. Naomi Kelly is working hard to make her new brand consulting business work, and that might involve faking a relationship with a client’s son, Dev Mukherjee, himself hoping to get his mother off his back about getting married.

Palit is a first-generation Bengali Canadian who fell in love with the Romance genre in high school. While pursuing her master’s degree in English literature, she was drawn to the discussions on identity, racism and the multi-generational immigrant experience. She grew up in Red Deer and is now a communications professional in Edmonton.

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For more information, visit her website 

Another nod for award-winning author

An Edmonton poet and author has been named as a finalist for a major Canadian literary award.

Jordan Abel was named as one of the five finalists for the fiction category of the Governor General’s Literary Awards. His book, Empty Spaces, was published last August and reimagines The Last of the Mohicans from an urban Nisga’a person’s perspective, with their relationship to land and traditional knowledge severed by colonial violence.

Abel is won the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in poetry. He works as a professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of English and Film Studies

There are seven categories for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, in both English and French. The winner will receive a cash prize of $25,000, to be announced on Nov. 13.

To see a full list of finalists, visit the awards website

Cooking with garlic

Garlic lovers rejoice, for there’s a new cookbook featuring the odiferous herb.

The Garlic Companion, released Sept. 17, features 36 recipes featuring everyone’s favourite earthy flavour bomb, including the black garlic cheesecake. But it’s more than just a cookbook, also featuring floral arrangements, growing instructions and inspiration for entire garlic-themed dinners.

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The book is the brainchild of author and garlic producer Kristin Graves, who is a fifth-generation farmer from the Wetaskiwin area. She had started a career in healthcare as an X-ray technician but decided to return to farming. Graves started a garlic club subscription in the area near her farm, which provided fodder for her full book about garlic.

For more information about Graves and the book, visit her website

A book of poetry

Local poet Erina Harris has a new book of poems out this month.

Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead is the newest book from Harris, released Oct. 15 from publisher Wolsak & Wynn. The book looks at the role of art, women’s writing and misogyny, working with fairy tales, children’s literature and mythology to ask important questions about gender and queerness.

Harris is an assistant lecturer at the University of Alberta, and this is her second book. The Stag Head Spoke, her first book, was released in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry.

Harris will be speaking at a book launch for Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead at Audreys Books on Nov. 2, starting at 3 p.m.

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For more information about the author, visit her website 

Top Alberta publisher

A small Edmonton company has been named Alberta’s top publisher by the provincial publishers’ association.

Laberinto Press was awarded the Mel Hurtig Publisher of the Year by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. Laberinto is a small publisher focused on publishing the work of writers from under-represented groups and for whom English is a second language. Luciana Erregue-Sacchi owns the company.

It’s a big recognition for a company that only started putting out books in early 2020 with Beyond the Food Court, an anthology of creative non-fiction about ethnic cuisines. Their newest book, Beyond Touch Sites, is an anthology about physical touch edited by Edmonton poet Wendy McGrath.

The University of Alberta Press was also recognized at the BPAA awards with the Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year with An Anthology of Monsters by Cherie Dimaline. Athabasca University Press won Book Design of the Year for their release Indigiqueerness.

For a full list of winners, visit the BPAA website

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