Greetings Quill fans. We have to thank you all for making May such a fantastic and fun-filled month! We kicked off May with another great Toronto Comic Arts Festival, with George Walker, Alec Dempster, Marta Chudolinska and Stefan Berg participating in the annual festivities. JonArno Lawson’s tour of Quebec during TD Canadian Children’s Book Week was a great success, and Nicole Dixon criss-crossed Canada with an appearance at the Atlantic Book Awards in Halifax before jetting off to Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Montreal with the FictionKNITstas tour.

Our authors have been busy in the media, as well. Nicole Dixon’s High-Water Mark was featured on Steven W. Beattie’s blog, That Shakespearean Rag, as part of his 31 Days of Stories. George A. Walker was featured as part of Whazamo!, OpenBook Toronto’s celebration of Ontario Graphic Novel Month. A student review of Mark Lavorato’s Wayworn Wooden Floors appeared on Salty Ink and we found out that Anita Doron will direct the film adaptation of Sheree-Lee Olson’s Sailor Girl.

With that much going on, it’s amazing we had time to get to anything new. But of course we have!

Sleep. I used to do that until I discovered the sleep substitute known as coffee.

What’s Happening This Month?

At PQL.

Tim and Elke are hard at work preparing the highly anticipated Love and all that jazz, Laurie Lewis’ follow up to her acclaimed memoir, Little Comrades. Look for first copies to be available at the beginning of July.

In Sudbury.

Featured at the Art Gallery of Sudbury, Book of Hours and The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson.

George A. Walker will be featured in an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Sudbury, curated by another PQL author, Tom Smart. You can expect that selections from Book of Hours and The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson will make an appearance.

The exhibition will run from June to September, but there will be a opening event in June.

When: Friday, June 21, 2013
Where: Art Gallery of Sudbury, 251 John St., Sudbury
Event Starts: TBA

For more information, contact the gallery at 705-675-4871 or email gallery@artsudbury.org.

In Mexico.

These guys look like they're having some good old fandango fun!

Alec Dempster will be in Mexico promoting his book Loteria Jarocha with two great events. If you’re planning a trip, stop by the ¡Que viva el son! festival in Xalapa, Veracruz for readings, lectures, round-table discussions, photography exhibitions, workshops and fandagos.

When: Saturday, June 22
Where: Casa del Lago, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
Event Starts: 1:30 p.m.
Admission: Free!

If Mexico City is more your style, visit the Casa de Cultura de Tamaulipas. You’ll be treated to a reading of Lotería Jarocha, and you’ll have the opportunity to play his two lotería games, Lotería Jarocha and Lotería Huasteca as well as music to accompany the games.

(Cool points: The Canadian embassy in Mexico posted this on their events page! Check under Literatura.)

When: Saturday, June 29
Where: Casa de Cultura de Tamaulipas, Ernesto Pugibet No. 73, Mexico City, Mexico
Event Starts: 4:00 p.m.

In the World.

Go outside and enjoy nature! These boys are either going fishing or trying to catch a butterfly in a net. Possibly to give to Dad. Either way, they're getting a nice, healthy dose of Vitamin D.

It’s Father’s day on June 16, so don’t forget to tell the father figure in your life how much you care. (FYI—books are always a good gift.)

With the warm weather starting up with a vengeance, it’s also festival season. Art festivals, outdoor concerts, cultural events—so much to see and do. Check your local listings, slather on some sunscreen and have some outdoor fun!

From the Intern’s Corner.

A new development at PQL—we’ve joined Pinterest. We’re starting to put up boards for upcoming titles, event photos and snaps from around the shop. Follow us so you don’t miss any great glimpses into PQL life.

In other news, it’s grant season again. Only it’s no so much a season in the regular sense of the word—those come and go, at least, with a few months in between extremes. Grant applications are more like … annoying house guests that eat, sleep and breathe with you for weeks. They do nice things for us, so we like to keep them happy, but they’re generally high-maintenance watching you go on with other tasks and sulking unless you give them all your attention. They might take day trips here and there to give you a break, but always lurking in the back of your mind is the fact that they will inevitably return at the end of the day.

We love them, but we’d love them more from a distance.

Out! Out I say! Go on. Get!