Guest Post: Author Robert N. Friedland

Why I Write

It only sounds like a question.

Let’s assume for a moment that there is a choice: to write; or, not to write.

I write to express my self. 

In 1992, in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, I thought I had lost a Sabre pocketknife that I had found more than a decade before on the banks of the North Platte in Wyoming.

The sense of loss seemed overwhelming and disproportionate to all of the other loss I had experienced in life.  I sat down at the keyboard and wrote, “The Lost Knife”, my best story, in a white rush.  If I had not, what then?

About The Second Wedding of Doctor Geneva Song

Doctor Geneva Song's Chinese wedding ceremony is traditional, but she marries outside of her race and culture. This ancient ritual sets in motion a fateful journey from the light to the dark for Geneva, her Spirit Sister, and the men who love them.

A beautiful family physician, Geneva Song is pious, religious, highly educated, independent, dangerous, unforgiving, sexually expressive, adulterous, and strong-willed.

Sister Deri, Geneva's Spirit Sister, her living incarnation, starts life as a country bumpkin in the remote countryside of Northeast China, becomes a deeply committed and ordained Buddhist nun, a sexual concubine, and the most powerful woman of finance in Canada.

Along the way, the man who loved Geneva first is murdered, and her fist husband is betrayed. Discover why one critic says that Doctor Geneva Song is destined become one of fiction's legendary women.

Available from www.libroslibertad.ca

About the Author

A two-term City Councillor in Victoria, Robert N. Friedland currently practices human rights and administrative law in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is widely published in commentator on Canadian, international and British Columbia political scene.

Guest Post: Manolis Aligizakis owner and publisher of Libros Libertad

Manolis Aligizakis (owner and publisher) writes...

Libros Libertad is a new independent publisher in Western Canada. Our literary tastes are trans-generic, our cultural concerns are global. At Libros, we believe that as media converge and tongues mingle, so publishing becomes a new entity, omni-national, polyglot, as polymorphous as its potential readers – and writers. You could be writing in Mandarin or German, you could be living in the suburbs of Seoul or the wilds of Alaska. If you feel you have something distinctive to say, then feel free to contact us. We're looking for the gold in the melting-pot. Across the whole Earth.
         Of course, the diverse roots of Canadians are a rich resource of creative energy and renewal. So we're also interested in discovering new talents who explore the cultural complexity and linguistic diversity of the twenty-first century Canadian experience. As well as established writers, older forms, voices from beyond… At Libros, we consider poetry, fiction, drama, and short stories from Canadian authors. We know that not every book gets published, but we also know that there are those who deserve to get published but don't. That is why we are here.
         Libros Libertad is free. Free from corporate pressures; free from interference from the suits in accounting; free from marketing gurus; free from the agendas of arts bureaucrats and their funding criteria. So, Libros Libertad can take risks with new or unfashionable talents, voices from across the whole range of world culture – be they avant garde or traditional. Genres and genders don't matter. Vision and voice do.

         At Libros Libertad, we are as flexible as you want us to be. We accept complete submissions as well as samples of your work, whether it's a couple of poems or a complete chapter of prose

         Libros is now releasing e-books on the Amazon Kindle platform and Smashwords at www.smashwords.com

         Here is a recent article about Libros’ last books by Carolyn Cooke of The NOW newspaper:

“Surrey publisher Libros Libertad seems to have kicked into high gear recently. The last three titles are all from right here.

The Second Wedding of Doctor Geneva Song, by Robert N. Friedland, is a novel about a woman who marries outside of her culture, and pays a heavy price for it. This book has earned rave reviews so far, and for a good reason.

George Amabile's Small Change is a collection of short stories and an excerpt of a novel in progress. The stories explore the reality of growing up in an inner city environment, but with humour and a sensitivity to the going concerns of boys reaching for adulthood. Like Friedland, Amabile's work has been published in many countries and in many literary magazines.

In a different vein, Manolis, owner and publisher of Libros Libertad, has just released his latest tome of poetry. Vortex is in both Greek and English and, as the name implies, takes readers into the turbulent waters of life. His work has a lovely classical lyricism to it.”

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 And I asked...

Who pays the publishing costs--the author or the publisher?

Libros pays the expenses of the publications from editing to formatting, lay out, print, promotion, etc.

Do you pay royalities?

We pay 10% royalities every January.

Do you publish ebooks, print or both

We have started turning some of our old books into e-books and of course every new one is done automatically. Yes we do both print and e-books.