I mostly read fiction, memoirs, and poetry--preferences that are reflected in my night table choices. I've selected books that have been published relatively recently, because I believe it's important to support new works. (I've allowed myself one exception, The Smoking Diaries, by Simon Gray, which I excuse on the grounds that it's new to me.)

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McNally Robinson has acquired a machine that manufactures a quality paperback book every 4 minutes or so. The machine is part of the bookstore, standing in the front window, and customers can watch books being printed and bound.

The finished book is hard to distinguish from books printed by publishers except for the fact that the paper used for print-on-demand is better quality.

The print-on-demand machine (called the Espresso Book Machine by its manufacturer, On Demand Books, because you can custom order like a specialty coffee and in about the same time), immediately addresses three niche markets.

First, self published authors can now print, launch and distribute through McNally Robinson, avoiding the difficult decision to print many copies without knowing how many will sell.

Second, readers and researchers can buy physical copies of out-of-edition titles, of which there are millions available to McNally Robinson through print-on-demand databases like Google Books and Lightning Source.

Third, teachers and professors can customize textbooks and print only as many as they have students enrolled.

In future, print-on-demand will meet mainstream demand. Negotiations are in progress to make publisher catalogues available for print-on-demand in independent bookstores, which would help shore up the physical supply chain.

The store can now print a book faster than anyone can deliver it from a distant warehouse, with no shipping and handling fees.

Self publishers can email enquiries to bookmachine[AT]grant.mcnallyrobinson.ca.

For more information contact Liz Treidler (453 0424 extension 242) or Paul McNally (955 1937)

The concept of father memoirs is a fascinating one. Confronting fathers directly and publicly is not, and never has been, easy: the patriarch should judge and not be judged. To write about the father is to sit in judgement upon him, and for most cultures this was a taboo too strong to be overcome. The Greeks, despite their searingly perceptive stories about father child interactions, did not attempt to do so-nor did the Romans, the Italians of the Renaissance, the Elizabethans, or even the Romantics. Paradoxically--but not surprisingly, given the rigid paternalism of the age and the attendant psychological pressures--personal father writing, like radical feminism, is a product of the Victorian era.

In 1907, six years after the death of Queen Victoria, Edmund Gosse published Father and Son. Once the taboo was broken, writers were quick to take advantage of the new possibilities. The 20th century saw a steady increase in the number of father memoirs, and, now that the boomers are aging and seeking to immortalize themselves, such memoirs are becoming as ubiquitous as tattoos. And, as with tattoos, some are visceral works of art. The six books described below give an idea of how poignant, rich and rewarding father memoirs can be.

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We at McNally Robinson are thrilled to host one of the most unique new voices in dark fantasy fiction here at the store this evening. Michael Rowe is an award-winning journalist, and literary nonfiction writer whose essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in many publications including the Globe & Mail, The Advocate, and The Huffington Post, as well as CFQ, The Scream Factory, All-Hallows, among many others. For 17 years he was the first-tier Canadian correspondent for Fangoria.

He has won the Lambda Literary Award, the Randy Shilts Award, and the Spectrum Award, and has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award, the Associated Church Press Award, and the International Horror Guild Award. As the creator and editor of the critically acclaimed horror anthologies Queer Fear and Queer Fear 2, he was hailed by Clive Barker in 2002 as having "changed forever the shape of horror fiction." He is married and lives in Toronto.

His first novel, Enter, Night is another triumph from independent publisher ChiZine Publications and is being launched in Winnipeg tonight at 7:30 pm at an event hosted by Winnipeg's own horror maestra Susie Moloney. This event is a homecoming of sorts, as Rowe attended St. John's Cathedral Boys' School in Selkirk from 1977 to 1981. More coverage of his time here and the book itself can be found in articles at the Winnipeg Free Press ("Enter, Anti-Twilight) and Outwords ("A vampire story from the heart").

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