Celticfrog Publishing is a small local publisher run by Alex McGilvery as a one frog operation.

He started the imprint to publish his own books and now has more than twenty titles available in print and e-book. 

Last year Christine Sanregret came to him for help putting together and printing her book “After my Friend was Murdered.” The slim volume helps the reader work through the grief process with her own stories and simple teachings from the medicine wheel. She has since put on several workshops centred on her book.

Eileen Bell brought out “The Keeper of the Shell” last spring, a middle grade fairytale/fantasy book about a girl, alone on a lonely island who finds a magical shell. It is beautifully illustrated by Norma Hoyle. Eileen grew up in Kamloops and after wandering a bit, came back to live here. She’s a talented poet, writer and artist.

This spring Eileen is publishing a book of poetry, “Riverland and other Poems.” The book is a collection of poems, some older and some new along with encaustic art by Eileen and two acrylic paintings by her daughter, Rachel Anderson.

Working on a book of poetry demands more than just putting poems on the page. Even after choosing the poems to print, one must consider the order and how they look on the page. Eileen worked hard to get everything as close to perfect as possible.

The cover has yet to be finalized, but the newest Interior Authors’ Group anthology will be coming out this spring. Written by members of the group, it is memoir, poetry, and story centred on the theme of Kamloops.

This project has been almost a year in the making with the editorial committee working very hard on decisions about the format to ensuring each work has been through two levels of editing. It is in proofreading now and will be a terrific addition to the IAG’s earlier anthologies.

June Powell is known as a viola player with Kamloops orchestras and groups. It isn’t surprising that her novel is set in the world of music.

This is “The Second Ending” revised version. The initial print ran into problems with viruses and wrong files leaving a book June wasn’t happy with. 

Celticfrog Publishing is delighted to release this freshly edited and updated book. Dana Ramstedt did the editing work. She has also worked on the IAG anthology.

Jack Jones has the privilege of being Kamloops’ only Poet Laureate. He retired from teaching here in Kamloops. He has several collections of poetry, but Dodo is a children’s book. It is a collaboration with his granddaughter Hannah Sutton, who presently is studying art in Florence, Italy.  

The story is of twins, Cleo and Nicolas who meet their L’Oncle Jacques and learn about the Dodo. They build a life-sized replica of the Dodo, but then it becomes a whodunit!

The story of the replica Dodo is inspired by the actual construction of a paper mache Dodo by a group of students some years ago. 

Three more books are on the spring list, but don’t have finalized covers at this time. They are:

Mythical Girls, a collection of fantasy stories bringing girls and mythical objects together to change the girls’ world. Four local authors, are in the collection: Alex McGilvery, Eileen Bell, Byrne Montgomery and Blazej Szpakowicz. It is being illustrated by Lucy Harnett, a young artist with a connection to Kamloops. The publication of the book was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Tranquille Dark is the first of Alex’s latest crime novel series – ‘Blue in Kamloops.’ It is set on the streets of Kamloops, mostly the North Shore in this volume, but sequels already in production will take place on Columbia and the Sahali area, and a third is slated tentatively for Aberdeen. 

Space Pug, a middle grade and up science fiction story of a man, his dog, and the moon. Illustrated by Mike Teichreb

Learn more about Celticfrog Publishing at celticfrogpublishing.com

All these books and more will be available in May or June 2020