The Author's Show

Recently, I was a guest on The Author's Show, an internet radio program that broadcasts from Scottsdale, Arizona with host Linda Thompson, and features writers from all over the globe. It was a wonderful opportunity that enabled me to provide background to our excursion and read a short excerpt from Chapter 15: "Cruising to Santa Cruz". To listen to the interview, please click on The Author's Show, scroll down and select the underlined book title. 
The interview will be available today.

Enjoy!

Tapes from California book! 5 Free Amazon Giveaways!

Check out this limited time offer for a chance to win a free copy of the paperback at Amazon!  This contest is limited to our American readers and friends: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/11715f7d9d7ecf16?ref_=pe_1771210_134854370#ts-ln

Tapes from California visits CHCH Morning Live

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and looking forward to a new and exciting year ahead!  Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to guest on an Ontario TV program, CHCH Morning Live with host Bob Cowan. It was a wonderful experience that enabled me to share brief anecdotes of our journey, as well as select photos from the memoir.  Watch the CHCH interview here.

Media Spotlight on Tapes From California Memoir

The past month leading up to the impending holidays has been busy with book promotion and lining up interviews and a few in-store events for the first part of 2018. 

   Within the past weeks, Tapes from California has been on the receiving end of love and attention from some fine local news stations and publications. Late November, Inside Halton anchor and videographer, Kristin Demeny filmed an interview with me which will be available to watch online soon.
   The Hamilton Spectator's Go Section editor, Aviva Boxer, selected the memoir to be included under Hamilton Writes as one of six recommended novels to add to the holiday reading list.
   Additionally, esteemed editor John Best at The Bay Observer highlighted the book in its monthly Arts & Culture section. Both pieces are available in print and in the online editions. 
   The Burlington Post included a feature piece in its online edition last week written by reporter Kathy Yanchus, and plans a print story later this week.
   Looking to the year ahead, plans for three local book signings and TV appearances are in the works, for January, February, and March with more to come. 
   .

To receive recognition and support from local media and friends after 4 1/2 years of tedious work and countless rewrites feels unbelievably good.
I can't thank everybody enough.  ❣

TAPES FROM CALIFORNIA: Teenage Road Tripping, 1976 -- Ebook Ready!

Just in time for the holidays, Tapes from California is now available in Ebook format at worldwide Amazon distributors.  What's really nice, is the photos are crisp and in colour. But the best part of all, the kindle/Ebook format of TAPES is being offered at a very attractive price point -- $7.00 in the U.S. and just under $9.00 in Canada.

From the back cover, friend and author Heather Drain writes: "Journeys have many shapes and forms in this life. The one that Jill Nelson takes us on in Tapes From California is poetic, spiritual, intense, and most importantly of all, real. Engaging from word one, Tapes is a coming-of-age tale that is like a sweet song you heard in your childhood that wrapped itself around your brain and heart and never ever let go." 

-- Heather Drain, film writer @ mondoheather.com

 Check it out! 

TAPES FROM CALIFORNIA: Teenage Road Tripping, 1976 -- Available Now!

 
I am proud and pleased to announce that TAPES FROM CALIFORNIA: Teenage Road Tripping, 1976 is now available for purchase through my publisher BearManor Media, and at Amazon retail outlets. The book is currently in Hardback and Softcover formats, with an eBook coming soon. The following is the synopsis as it appears on the back cover:

   February 1976, two friends set out on a six-month hostelling, and hitchhiking road adventure beginning in Canada's West Coast, and continuing down the Pacific Coast of the United States. While living at the YWCA in Vancouver, Ontario teens Jill and Jan found short-term employment as chambermaids, enabling them to travel south of the border through Washington and Oregon, to California, where they spent several months before returning home across Western Canada.

   Derived from journals faithfully depicting the girls' daily experiences and encounters between February and August 1976, brought to life is an enriched narrative characterized by an assorted cast including hippies, outlaws, New Age visionaries, sages, witches, mystics, medicine men, Vietnam Vets, lonely hearts, and more.

    Set against the matchless beauty of Canada's Rocky Mountains, California's majestic coastline, its exotic desert landscape and the diversity of its three major cities, in the spirit of Jacks Kerouac's On the Road, Tapes from California: Teenage Road Tripping, 1976 offers a personal and refreshing portrait that treads a delicate path between vulnerability and courage experienced during the unfettered, less restrictive 1970s era.

   Please stay tuned for coming details on how to win a free copy of TAPES, and other related news!

Chapter 49 excerpt: Loopy in Kamloops

 These last couple of months have been busy preparing for the imminent publication of Tapes from California. Progress has been going very well, as we eagerly anticipate a late autumn release. Presently, the book is in the capable hands of BearManor's expert layout man/ typesetter Brian Pearce (John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches, Golden Goddesses:25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985) who is crafting the final work. Please stay posted for news about the book's release date, pre-orders, and review copies. In the interim, I hope you enjoy the following excerpt from chapter 49: Loopy in Kamloops. Peace

 

We could hardly believe our good fortune when André, the crazy Frenchman from the Kamloops hostel, drove past in a dusty Chevy riding shotgun, one of the first vehicles to emerge after more than a one hour wait. Having almost given up hope of leaving Golden that afternoon, Jan and I’d started to suspect we’d fallen under the Wawa curse. Already beyond our location, the Chevy pulled a quick U-turn and eased toward us, slowing to a stop next to our packs. Motioning to pull the handle to get into the car, I was shocked to discover the burly individual behind the wheel who introduced himself as Tim, had a broken left leg. Stretching from his left hip all the way down to his ankle, a cast revealed swollen toes sticking out through a jagged plaster opening. It was the required foot if you’re driving a stick.

   Tim was driving a stick.

   Eyeing Jan warily, I was unsure what to do. Reading our concern, Tim threw back his head and started to laugh uproariously. “I was in a car accident a few weeks ago,” he mused. “Don’t worry though. The accident wasn’t my fault.”

   Boasting about his competency as a driver, Tim told us he’d cruised all the way from Vancouver with the broken leg. No trouble.

   It wasn’t much of an assurance, but the afternoon was wearing on. We didn’t want to be stuck in Golden forever. Sensing our reluctance, André suddenly went overboard in praise of Tim’s “crackerjack driving skills,” and stressed how safe he felt under the big man’s command. As if it would clinch the deal, André threw in a lone “Jesus Christ!” followed by more laughter. Convinced of having pulled off an affecting sell job, leaning into the back seat, André rearranged his and Tim’s packs next to a gargantuan tent, obviously stuffed into the vehicle in a pinch. To make room for our gear, gathering a handful of strewn-about clothes, he went about redistributing the items, and tossed some camping paraphernalia into the trunk.

   Nervous about the fucked up situation we might be getting ourselves into, aversely, Jan and I climbed inside the Chevy and yanked on the weighty passenger door. Behind my back, two fingers were crossed.

   Sometimes you gnash your teeth. Abolish all reservation.

   True to his word, André’s friend was anything but cavalier about helming the road. Notwithstanding his temporary disability, Tim proved to be an exceptional driver. Reminiscent of the fictitious character, Luke Moriarty, the unofficial ‘driver’ in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road inspired by Kerouac’s real life pal, wild man Neal Cassady, Tim handled his automobile like a pro, as if gliding a precious vessel over glass. Not once did he compromise the safety of his baby or his cargo.

                                                                        ***

1976: Tapes from California © 2017 Jill C. Nelson