Letters With Smokie

Leave it to a dog to put the “human” back in “humanities” In September 2020, Rod Michalko wrote to friend and colleague Dan Goodley, congratulating him on the release of his latest book, Disability and Other Human Questions. Joking that his late guide dog, Smokie, had taken offense to the suggestion that disability was purely a human question, Michalko shared a few thoughts on behalf of his dog. When Goodley wrote back—to Smokie—so began an epistolic exchange that would continue for the next seven months. As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world and the realities of lockdown-imposed isolation set in, the Smokie letters provided the friends a space in which to come together in a lively exploration of human-animal relationships and to interrogate disability as disruption, disturbance, and art. Just as he did in life, Smokie guides. In these pages, he offers wisdom about the world, love, friendship, and even The Beatles. His canine observations of human experience provide an avenue into some of the ways blindness might be reconceptualized and “befriended.” Uninhibited by the trappings of traditional academic inquiry, Michalko and Goodley are unleashed, free to wander, to wonder, and to provoke within the bonds of trust and respect. Funny and thoughtful, the result is a refreshing exploration and re-evaluation of learned cultural misunderstandings of disability.

Ian Whitcomb, One Hit Wonder British Invader of the 1960s and teen heart-throb, never went home. Instead he tried to settle down in Los Angeles County where, over the years, he produced a Grammy-winning CD, wrote songs for movies, auditioned for butler roles in TV commercials, had and lost dogs, married successfully, and continued to play his ukulele as the ship went down. Now the entire soap opera (1996--2008), roped together in hard copy with appropriate photos, can be relished as a roller coaster of self-pity, vaunting and failed ambition, jealousy, bathos and pathos, culminating in a Big Dream. In other words, this is a comedy book. Mainline Show Biz may have passed Whitcomb by but here in these precious pages he creates his own world of heroes and villains with himself as King in order to get sweet revenge through the twisted lingo of his India rubber sword.

Originally published in hardcover in 2013.

“They did not mean to hurt the boy, much less kill him. They only wanted to teach him a lesson.” A stunning family saga set in Ireland and Italy, Lucina’s Letters is a gripping character study that explores the deep, dark repercussions of one long-ago deed. Family has always been of the utmost importance to Lucina, but when she learns the truth about an event that almost ripped the family apart, she sets about mending the familial bond even if her efforts are from beyond the grave. One well-timed letter allows her to bring the family together and drag not just one secret but many into the light. But what will the consequences be; will the now-grown-up girls come to terms with their actions on that fateful day and subsequently their own struggles in life? Were the messenger’s intentions just honourable and will the truth set them free and restore the family unit once again?