“…But I’m a first-time novelist. I’m basically unknown, and I haven’t published a lot of stuff other than this novel. And then you look at the fellows I was up against”— including CBC radio host Jonathan Goldstein and previous Leacock winner Terry Fallis — “and it’s like, ‘Oof.’ They’re really happening guys.”

So who is this lucky first-time novelist? Why, Cassie Stocks of course! None other than the author of DANCE, GLADYS, DANCE, published by small publishing house NeWest Press — which was on a Saima blog tour last year.

I loved how Stock takes Fine Art, domestic craft and feminism and stirs them all into a story that, despite its darker moments, sadnesses and soul-searching, ends up being uplifting and life affirming — the Indextrious Reader blog.

The Leacock Medal, established in honor of the late author Stephen Leacock, is awarded annually for the best book of humor by a Canadian. Read more in the National Post here. Stocks is only the sixth woman to have won the award in its 66-year history.

…and that’s not all in awards by Saima authors. ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN by Mary Sharratt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2012) has just won the 2013 Nautilus Gold Aware in the category of “Women’s Interests”. Nautilus Awards represent “Better Books for a Better World” and seek out exceptional literary contributions to spiritual growth, conscious living, high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership, and positive social change.  Read more here.

ILLUMINATIONS was on an extensive blog tour with the Saima Agency in Fall 2012. We’re thrilled for both authors!

This very exciting news from author Sandra Gulland:

“A television mini-series based on The Josephine B. Trilogy has been in the works for some time. I’ve had to keep quiet about it, which has been hard!

Anything to do with film is never for sure until cameras roll, but what’s signed in ink at this point is very exciting as well as extremely promising:

—Michael Hirst is the screenwriter! This is over-the-top fantastic. He was the screenwriter of, among other things, the TV series The Tudors and the movie Elizabeth. You can see his CV here. (Note the listing for Josephine B. “in development.”)

—Kelsey Grammar (of Frasier fame) has signed on as the producer.

I’d like to thank the team at Halifax Film for their vision, faith, devotion and dogged efforts over all these many years. Bravo!”

Congratulations, Sandra! We at Saima Agency cannot wait.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s review of Illuminations reveals:

The masterful skill Sharratt displays in “Illuminations” is to create a real and accessible Hildegard who rises above the legends, projections and reinventions, thus allowing readers to understand Hildegard’s spirituality as the nun herself may have experienced it. In beautiful language that dances on the ledge between secular and not, Sharratt not only tells the life story of one of history’s most intriguing women, she also realistically invokes the internal sensation of deep religious experience.

The itinerary for the blog tour is:

October 9: Jenn’s Bookshelves
October 10: The Burton Review
October 11 and 12: Historical Novels
October 12: Kris Waldherr blog
October 15 Her Circle Ezine
October 15 and 16: Passages to the Past
October 17 and 18: Beyond the Fields We Know
October 19: Gaian Soul blog
October 22 and 23: Literate Housewife blog
October 24 and 25: Booking Mama
October 29 and 30: Peeking Between the Pages
October 31 Goddess in a Teapot
November 5 and 6: Devourer of Books

Follow along and join us for reviews, guest posts, q&a’s and book giveaways!

So, in response to reader requests, the author decided to remedy the situation by creating her own e-book publishing company: Sandra Gulland INK. Now, all four of her novels are available to readers worldwide.

“I am fourteen today and unmarried still.”

With that short but poignant sentence, the Joséphine B. Trilogy begins with The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Joséphine B. There, the reader meets Josephine Bonaparte in the exotic and lush Caribbean island of Martinique, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. It’s a prediction that not only proves to be true, but one which Gulland discovered was actually told to the young Joséphine.

By way of fictionalized diary entries, the reader follows Joséphine’s early years, shares in her heartbreak, and watches as this resilient woman, the original queen of reinvention, catapults herself into the heart of society where she will meet Napoleon — whose destiny will prove to be irrevocably intertwined with that of her own.

And that’s just the beginning of the extraordinary life of a truly remarkable woman. The novels Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe and The Last Great Dance on Earth follow. “It’s extremely satisfying to be able to make these novels available to readers everywhere. Technologically, this would not have been possible even five years ago.”

Gulland, a prolific author and obsessive researcher, followed upon the success of the trilogy with her “dangerously seductive” (Montreal Gazette) Mistress of the Sun, the story of the Sun King’s lover Louise de la Vallière, set in the decadent and creatively lush 17th-century French court of Louis XIV. This internationally bestselling novel is also now available worldwide for the first time through Sandra Gulland INK.

“The creative potential in e-book publishing is tremendously exciting,” Gulland says. “I have a number of future INK titles in mind.”

About Sandra Gulland: An American-Canadian, Sandra Gulland was born in Miami, Florida, and lived in Rio de Janeiro, Berkeley and Chicago before immigrating to Canada in 1970 to teach in an Inuit village in northern Labrador. Settling in Toronto, she worked as a book editor for a decade before moving with her husband and two children to a log house in northern Ontario, where, in 1985, she began writing full-time. She and her husband now live half the year in Ontario, and half in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She has just completed another historical novel set in mid-17th century France. It will be published in 2014 by HarperCollins in Canada, Doubleday in the US — and INK everywhere else. A self-confessed Net Nerd, Sandra writes a blog on The Writing Life (“Well, actually, it’s on surviving the writing life”) and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads as well as Pinterest. For more on Sandra Gulland INK publications, see her website, http://www.SandraGulland.com.

THIS JUST IN: In Search of Josephine, the DVD in English is now available! This is the documentary of Josephine Bonaparte that historical novelist Sandra Gulland was interviewed for. Coincidentally, news of Sandra’s e-publishing venture, Sandra Gulland INK, was just announced. See trailer below: