News from Beagle Bay, Inc.

2008

June 1

Creative Minds Press is pleased to announce The Women’s Daily Irony Supplement by humorist Judy Gruen won

GOLD in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year

SILVER in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs)

BRONZE in the PMA Benjamin Franklin Award

May 29

Context Audio Guides is pleased to announce that Jane’s Smart Art Guide™ Fra Angelico at San Marco won a SILVER medal in the PMA Benjamin Franklin Book Award

May 28

Jacqueline Church Simonds will be speaking at PMA-U, first session: One to Many - Expand Your Product Line and Your Customer Base. She will be at PMA-U and then BEA throughout the week.

May 5-8

Jacqueline and Robin Simonds will have a booth at the International Reading Association's (IRA) Conference in Atlanta Georgia. Stop by and see us at booth 821!

April 22

The Women's Daily Irony Supplement is a finalist for the PMA Benjamin Franklin Book Award (Humor)!

Jane’s Smart Art Guide™ Fra Angelico at San Marco is a finalist for the PMA Benjamin Franklin Book Award (Audio)!

April 12

Jacqueline Church Simonds will be speaking to the Unnamed Writer's Group at Morrison University, 10:30 a.m.

March 30

Jacqueline Church Simonds, co-owner of Beagle Bay, Inc. is featured in a Reno Gazette Journal article about small presses in Reno

March 5

The Women's Daily Irony Supplement is a finalist for the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year (Humor) Award.

February 24

Jacqueline Church Simonds, co-owner of Beagle Bay, Inc. is featured in a major MarketWatch article about health insurance for small companies.

2007

October 4

Jacqueline Church Simonds will be speaking to Irene Watson and Victor Volkman on Author's Access, a podcast entitled "To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish - the BIG Question" at 6 p.m.

September 26

Arabesque, a new imprint of AST Publishers of Russia, has acquired the rights to Gudrun's Tapestry by Joan Schweighardt, to be published sometimes in 2009.

September 20

Beagle Bay, Inc. welcomes AzurAlive Press as our newest distribution client. This company is launching their series of hiking in France guides with their first title, 26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Cote d'Azur, in February, 2008.

September 6

Read Jacqueline Church Simonds article in the Independent Publisher Online concerning the importance of book awards to foreign rights sales.

August 17

The Breezes of Inspire, The Chronicles of Remin Book 2 received an Honorable Mention from the Hollywood Book Festival.

August 13

Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering is honored to be given a Willa Award.

June 27

June 15

The trade paperback edition of the critically praised, multiple award-winning The Dark Dreamweaver: The Remin Chronicles, Book 1, by Nick Ruth arrives. David has always dreamed of being a wizard. But he knows that magic isn't real, so he never imagines that he will meet a real wizard in a most unlikely place. Soon David finds himself traveling to Remin, the land of dreams. A BookSense Pick, Winner: Mom's Choice Award; iParenting Media Award; Parent to Parent Adding Wisdom Award: Top 20 of 2006; Benjamin Franklin Awards Finalist; Hollywood Book Festival Awards Finalist

June 9-10

Lisa Jensen, author of The Witch from the Sea, will speak at the Historical Novel Society Conference at the Desmond Hotel, Albany, New York from 10:30 to 11:30 am, Sunday, June 10. The topic: “Writing Love Scenes: How Much Sex Is too Much?”

Fellow panelists: Diana Gabaldon, Jade Lee, Tasha Alexander, and Chris (C. C.) Humphreys, moderated by Ann Chamberlin.

June 6

Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering is honored to be named the Kansas Notable Book Award Winner for 2007!

June 5

May 29-31

Jacqueline Church Simonds, president of Beagle Bay Books, will be speaking at two workshops at the PMA-U held at the Javits Event Center in New York City, prior to the start of BEA. The seminars are titled "20 Savvy Steps to Starting Your Publishing Company" and "Grrreat Regional Marketing Tips from the Experts."

May 18

Winning Bronzes in the Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book of the Year Award, are Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights (Biography) and  Ursula's Maiden Army (Historical/Military Fiction).

May 3

The Women's Daily Irony Supplement by Judy Gruen will hit the streets, to coincide with the release by Starbucks of a quip from the book on 5 million coffee cups!

April 30

The award-winning Jane’s Smart Art Guide™ series continues with the audiobook guide Fra Angelico at San Marco, which describes the frescoes in that convent and tells of the central role that the artist-friar’s work played in the daily lives of his fellow Observant Dominicans.

March 23

Beagle Bay, Inc. welcomes Imaginator Press as our newest distribution client. Their award-winning line of YA fantasies includes The Dark Dreamweaver: The Chronicles of Remin, Book 1 (the hardback edition of which will soon be out of print), The Breezes of Inspire, The Chronicles of Remin Book 2 will be joined by the paperback edition of The Dark Dreamweaver which will debut in June. Imaginator also offers an excellent Martial Arts title: Hanbo: The Aiki Way.

2006

December 11

Congratulations to Aeonix Publishing Group author Pete Masterson for winning the Bay Area Independent Publisher's Association's (BAIPA) 2006 Best Book of  the Year Award for Book Design and Production

October 30

Beagle Bay, Inc. welcomes Context Audio Guides, LLC. and their Jane’s Smart Art Guide™--audio travel books focusing on great art in Europe. Their first three are Our Lady Cathedral of Antwerp, Belgium; St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy (which won a Communicator's Award) and Sta. Maria del Popolo in Rome (which won a USA Book News award for best travel book).

October 16

Ursula's Maiden Army was a finalist in the USA Book News Awards, historical fiction! Congratulations to author Phil Griffin!

September 18

Beagle Bay, Inc. welcomes Aeonix Publishing Group to our fold! We will be representing Pete Masterson's excellent book on publishing Book Design and Production.

August 29

Jacqueline Church Simonds, author of Captain Mary, Buccaneer, is quoted regarding self-publishing novels in The Wall Street Journal, which may be found on the "Start-up" website August 30.

July 5

Jacqueline Church Simonds, author of Captain Mary, Buccaneer, talks about women pirates on SPIN 103.8  of Belfast, Ireland and Canberra, Australia's 2CC, "The Mike Jeffrey's Breakfast Show."

July 3

Hear the Jacqueline Church Simonds, author of Captain Mary, Buccaneer, talk about women pirates of the Caribbean on Montreal's CJAD. Note: this is a 1/2 hour MP3.

June 30 Press release:

Women Pirates of the Caribbean

As movie-goers prepare to head to the theater to see Johnny Depp ratchet around the screen in Pirates of the Caribbean II, many would be surprised to discover there were two women who were far tougher than the fictional Captain Jack Sparrow.

Anne Bonny and Mary Reade were arrested and tried for piracy in 1721. The women were captured from a pirate ship they defended with such ferocity, the British never suspected they were females—until they “pled their bellies,” meaning, they were both pregnant. A doctor’s examination confirmed their sex and their conditions. Because of their pregnancies, the women were jailed, while the rest of the pirates were hanged and left to rot within sight of their cells.

“What is fascinating to contemplate is how these two women from two different parts of the world came to end up on the same ship,” says Jacqueline Church Simonds, 47, the author of Captain Mary, Buccaneer, a novel for adults, loosely based on the lives of Bonny and Reade.

Anne Bonny came to be on the ship, William, because she was Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham’s lover. Anne was born the illegitimate child of a married Cork, Ireland lawyer and his maid, who moved to Carolina and started a plantation. Anne ran away from home with a sailor named Bonny and wound up in the pirate den of New Providence, Bahamas. It was there she met Jack Rackham and joined him at sea, leaving her husband behind. She donned men’s clothing and took to the pirates life with apparent ease.

Mary Reade lived most of her life pretending to be a male. From an early age, her mother dressed her as a boy in order to get money from her deceased husband’s parents (none would have been forthcoming for a girl) in England. From that start, Mary served as a footman on a French frigate. Then she fought with a battalion of Flemish troops until she fell in love with a fellow soldier. After he got over the shock of her revealed sex, they were married and opened up a tavern in what is now Breda, Belgium. He died after only a couple of years and Mary went to sea again—dressed as a man. When pirates boarded her ship, it happened to be the very one carrying Anne Bonny. As usually happened, captured crews were pressed into service as pirates.

Legend has it that Anne propositioned the new “handsome sailor” and Mary had to reveal herself. The crew apparently accepted both women. Mary was the fiercer fighter of the two: she is said to have fought two duels to save her less skilled lover. But it may have been he, in the end, who testified against her to the British authorities on Spanishtown, Jamaica.

Simonds notes: “Mary Reade, along with her unborn child, died of fever in her cell. Ann Bonny disappeared. Possibly she was ransomed by her father. It is only recently that claims by one of her descendants have gained credence, that Anne lived to a very old age in South Carolina.”

###

To interview Jacqueline Church Simonds, or for more information, please call 775.827.8654, fax 775.827.8633 or e-mail info@beaglebay.com

May 20

Women in Shadow and Light: Journeys from Abuse to Healing by Jan Goff-LaFontaine, won the Independent Publisher's Book of the Year Award (Women's Issues). We congratulate Jan!

May 17

Jacqueline Church Simonds, president of Beagle Bay Books, will be one of the speakers for the workshop "How to Sell Your Wildest Dreams by Creating a Fiction Marketing Plan" at the PMA-U at the Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C., prior to the start of BEA. Read Jacqueline's blog about it.

May 9

Jacqueline Church Simonds, president of Beagle Bay Books, will be talking to the Unnamed Writers Group at the Reno Barnes & Noble (south Virginia Street) about the ins and out of publishing.

April 26

Women in Shadow and Light: Journeys from Abuse to Healing by Jan Goff-LaFontaine, is a finalist for the Independent Publisher's Book of the Year Award (Women's Issues). We congratulate Jan!

April 20

HELP of Door County (WI) honored Jan Goff LaFontaine with their annual "Friend of Victims Award" for her work assisting abused women via her photo exhibit "Out of the Shadows" and the resulting book Women in Shadow and Light: Journeys from Abuse to Healing. “These projects are more than another abuse story, Jan has been instrumental in bringing attention to the healing process of victims of abuse,” says Barb Maskell, Program Director for HELP.

April 10

Ursula's Maiden Army by Philip Griffin received a strong review from Library Journal, which said in part: "Historical fantasy at its best!"

March 20

Food and Drink in Argentina: A Guide for Tourists and Residents by Buenos Aires Herald food and wine columnist Dereck Foster and gourmand Dick Tripp rolled out with a recommendation from Library Journal and PBS travel host Rudy Maxa.

March 15

Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights by Diane Eickhoff via Quindaro Press debuted and was reviewed very favorably by Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and ForeWord Magazine.

January 20

Illustrata Press will now be distributing their very successful books for actors via Beagle Bay. The Actor's Guide for Kids and The Actor's Guide Southeast will be available immediately.

October 21-22

Beagle Bay Books is proud to announce that publisher Quindaro Press will be joining us as a distribution client with their debut biography Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights by Diane Eickhoff, which will be released in March 2006.

October 21-22

Beagle Bay Books is delighted to attend the Truckee Meadows Soroptimist Annual Arts, Authors and Autos Festival in the fascinating National Automobile Museum in beautiful downtown Reno, Nevada. Read Jacqueline's blog about it.

October 14, 2005

Beagle Bay Books is pleased to announce that Piemme Edizioni, one of Italy's finest literary publishers, has purchased the rights to the award-winning Gudrun's Tapestry, by Joan Schweighardt.

October 7-8, 2005

Beagle Bay Books is delighted to announce that we will be attending the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show in the Oakland Marriot Convention Center. We look forward to seeing our Northern California book store friends again! Look for Beagle Bay Books' booth near the Information stand. Read Jacqueline's blog about it.

June 22, 2005

Beagle Bay Books is proud to announce that publisher Aromas y Sabores, formerly of Buenos Aires, Argentina and now in El Paso, Texas, will become a distribution client. Their title, Food and Drink in Argentina: A Guide for Tourists and Residents, successful in Argentina, will be updated for an American Edition to be released in March 2006.

April 25, 2005

Beagle Bay Books is happy to announce that publisher Stone Pine Press will be joining our distribution clients for the release of They Reached for the Stars: Women Astronomers by Mabel Armstrong, in August 2007. This is the first in a planned series of "Women in Science" books for Young Adults.

April 11, 2005

Beagle Bay Books is pleased to announce that EKSMO Publishers of Russia have purchased rights to publish How to Love the Job You Hate: Job Satisfaction for the 21st Century by Jane Boucher.

March 28, 2005

Beagle Bay Books is pleased to announce that Taiwan's Shy Mau Publishing Company has purchased rights to publish How to Love the Job You Hate: Job Satisfaction for the 21st Century by Jane Boucher, in that country.
 

March 7, 2005

Creative Minds Press is delighted to announce the release of Jan Goff-LaFontaine's Women in Shadow and Light: Journeys from Abuse to Healing. This extraordinary book depicts the joy of 40 women--ages 19 to 95--who threw off the shame of abuse and reconnect with their sense of beauty.