Richard Cumyn, Viking Brides (Oberon) $31.95(hc), $15.95(sc) ISBN 0-7780-1179-1 (hc) 0-7780-11798 (sc)

       The stories in Viking Brides all revolve around the fictional town of Clayton, Ontario. Richard Cumyn says of this book: "If no-one is an island then I think he or she must be a small town. In each of us are the grotesques of a Winesburg, Ohio, the gothic mysteries of a Deptford, and the quirky passions of a Clayton roiling just under the surface. These stories are concerned with the point at which a certain path in a life ends or is interrupted. The way a person confronts such a terminus says much about character. We choose, condemn, make amends, blunder into the unknown, forgive. We see clearly for the first time."
        Richard Cumyn is the author of three short-story collections. His essays, articles and book reviews have appeared in many newspapers and magazines. Richard Cumyn lives with his wife and two daughters in Halifax, and is an associate fiction editor of the Antigonish Review

Brad Kelln, Lost Sanity (Insomniac Press) $19.95 ISBN 1-894663-07-1

       Edward Carter is a psychotic serial rapist whose violent crimes leave his victims insane and suicidal. When Carter is sent to a maximum security psychiatric facility, one by one the staff start to lose their sanity! Carter makes a violent escape and police efforts to recapture him rest on two men: Dr. Michael Wenton, a morally bankrupt forensic psychologist, and Tim Dalton, a suicidal ex-detective. Can they stand face to face with evil and still evade lost sanity?
        Brad Kelln, Ph.D., C.Psych is a forensic psychologist with the East Coast Forensic Hospital and a special consultant to the Halifax Regional Police Emergency Response Team. He lives with his wife and son in the secluded countryside outside Halifax.

Allan Lynch, All in the Family, Inc.: Insights from the Corporate Boardrooms and Kitchen Tables of Canadian Family Businesses (Macmillan) $34.99 ISBN 1-55335-001-4

        All in the Family, Inc. is the story of the whole experience of Canadian families and their businesses: the self-taught and those who have learned at their parents' knees. The book examines the key issues facing modern family businesses, including disaster and divorce; recruiting and retaining outside talent; the problems of nepotism; and all the issues around succession, from easing the next generation in, to easing the older one out.
        Allan Lynch has been in the publishing industry since 1973. The author of three books, Lynch works as a freelance business and travel writer. His work has been published in Harrowsmith, Canadian Geographic, Chatelaine, Profit, the Regina Leader-Post and the Globe & Mail. He lives in Nova Scotia.

Lise A. Robichaud , Le diable et le cordonnier: Vie et légende de Cy à Mateur (Les Éditions de la Piquine) $21.95 ISBN 0-9689402-0-X

       Cordonnier de métier, cet homme plutôt ordinaire s'est forgé une réputation de sorcier aux pouvoirs surnaturels. Mais qui était-il réellement? Ce livre vous invite à suivre le parcours de vie de Cy à Mateur et vous propose un voyage dans le patrimoine acadien des plus inédits.        Lise Robichaud est née à la Pointe Noire, petit village acadien qui longe les côtes pittoresques de la Baie Sainte-Marie. Elle obtint son Baccalauréat ès Arts avec spécialisation en français de l'Université Acadia, en Nouvelle-Écosse, au mois de mai 2000. L'anneé dernière, elle était lectrice ` l'Université de Poitiers, en France.

Marjorie Speed, From Washdays to Watercolours: A Guide to Creativity for Teachers (Blue Egg Press) $15.00 ISBN 0-9689368-0-6

       Marjorie Speed draws from a childhood firmly rooted in creativity, her former life as an elementary school teacher and her present life as an artist, piano teacher and writer to explore how creativity can be nurtured in teachers and students alike. This book is designed for teachers at any point on the creativity spectrum: from those who swear they do not have one iota of creativity to those whose classrooms are already incubators for the inventors and innovators of tomorrow.
        Marjorie Speed lives and works in an inspiring Victorian house in Liverpool with her scientific son, Alexander, and her sociable dog and cats, Molly, Eli and Shelby. Speed's first book, Alexander's Sky Blue Eggs was published in 1995.

Budge Wilson, A Fiddle for Angus, illustrated by Susan Tooke (Tundra) 18.99 ISBN 0-88776-500-9

       In the evenings, when family members gather together, everyone takes up an instrument to play the songs that seem to be in the very air of Cape Breton: songs, joyful and sad, ancient and new. Angus is the youngest and he adds his hum to the family orchestra. But the day comes when humming is not good enough for Angus, he wants to play his own instrument. He chooses the fiddle, but the fiddle is not an easy instrument to learn. Will he ever be able to master it and make the music his own?
        Budge Wilson began writing later in life, after teaching and working as a commercial artist and photographer and a fitness instructor. Since publishing her first book in 1984, Budge has published more than 20 books in Canada, the United States, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Australia. She lives in a fishing village on the South Shore.
        Susan Tooke's illustrations are based on real-life images and scenes that she sets up for her pictures. A multi-talented artist, Tooke creates murals, landscapes, portraits, as well as digital imaging. Born in New Jersey, Susan has had many exhibits across North America. She now lives in Halifax.