Celebrating World Book Day with Book of Revels!
Unleash Your Inner Bookworm
Happy World Book Day! Every year on April 23rd, the world unites to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day, an initiative by UNESCO.
Although reading to acquire knowledge is certainly valuable, it’s not the only reason to pick up a book today. Reading for pleasure ignites our imaginations, expands our empathy, and strengthens our critical thinking skills. Today also recognizes the importance of copyright. Copyright protects the rights of authors and creators, ensuring they are fairly compensated for their work. This, in turn, encourages the creation of new and diverse books.
UNESCO works alongside authors, publishers, and libraries to ensure a healthy and sustainable book industry that benefits everyone involved. This day transcends geographical and cultural boundaries, recognizing the immense power of books to:
Foster a love of reading: UNESCO emphasizes the importance of reading for pleasure, not just as an academic pursuit. Reading unlocks imagination, expands knowledge, and fosters empathy.
Bridge cultures and generations: Books act as bridges, connecting people across cultures and fostering understanding. Stories transcend time, allowing us to learn from the past and connect with future generations.
Promote literacy: World Book Day highlights the importance of literacy and access to books for all. UNESCO works to ensure everyone, regardless of background or location, can experience the joy of reading.
“Books are invitations to travel and to encountering others: with each new page turned, another world appears before our eyes. On World Book and Copyright Day 2024, we wish to celebrate the power and beauty of books. Books, in all their forms, allow us to learn and to keep ourselves informed. They also entertain us and help us to understand the world, while offering a window into otherness.”
World Book Day for Everyone: Activities and Inspiration
While many schools and libraries host events specifically geared towards younger readers, there are plenty of ways for adults to celebrate and make reading a more permanent part of their daily lives. Here are some tips to nurture a love of reading that lasts a lifetime:
Dust off an old favorite: Is there a book you loved as a child that you haven't revisited in years? World Book Day is the perfect excuse to dive back in and see how it resonates with you now. You might be surprised at the new insights you glean from a familiar story. Who cares if it’s a picture book, have fun and enjoy!
Host a book club: Gather friends and family to discuss a book you've all read. This is a fantastic way to share your thoughts and gain new perspectives on the story.
Organize a book swap: Encourage your community to participate in a book exchange. This allows everyone to discover new reads and declutter their shelves at the same time!
Volunteer at your local library: Libraries are treasure troves of knowledge and stories waiting to be explored. Volunteering your time helps this vital community resource thrive.
Make reading accessible: Surround yourself with books! Keep a bookshelf stocked with a variety of genres and take advantage of free online resources like Project Gutenberg, which offers a vast collection of free ebooks.
Read aloud: Reading aloud is a fantastic way to bond with children and instill a love of stories in them from a young age. Even if your children are older, consider taking turns reading chapters aloud together.
Lead by example: Children learn by observing the adults around them. If you see them reading regularly, they're more likely to follow suit. If you’re able, set aside dedicated reading time each day, even if it's just for a few minutes, and let your kid see how much fun it can be to get lost inside a good book.
Celebrating the Storytellers
World Book Day isn't just about reading; it's also about celebrating the incredible minds who bring these stories to life. With each carefully chosen word, authors craft stories that move us, inspire us, and challenge us.
Take some time today to explore the works of a beloved author or discover a new one, like our very own Sapha Burnell! Sapha is preparing for the new release of the third book in the Judge of Mystics series, Book of Revels. New to the series? No problem! Jump right in with Char & Ash, the bewitching start to Caleb Mauthisen’s story filled with a rich cast of characters and beautiful worldbuilding.
The Judge of Mystics Saga
A Mythpunk punch across mythic realms, featuring the adventures of Caleb Mauthisen, Ares Olympia and Icarus & Lou Areides
The Judge of Mystics Saga is the story of mystic Judge, Executioner and single dad Caleb Mauthisen. Bathed in world mythology and magic realism, Caleb travels the realms to keep the mystic world from combusting. The Outsider Judge, he negotiates between Realms to keep the peace, without humanity becoming collateral damage. A series of magical jaunts into contemporary mythological fantasy, with the most dysfunctional family since Loki got Hodr to throw the Mistletoe dart at Baldr.
The Book of Knowledge is gone and someone is trying to kill gods.
The Mystic Realms keep a tenuous peace after centuries of war. Forged into the Realms’ only Judge, demi-god Caleb Mauthisen is both peace maker and executioner of the Mystic Truce. When Caleb is called to the charred remains of a scorched Sacred Grove outside Dover, rumours reignite tensions as Ares warns of war’s whisper. High Queen Selyka is hiding something in the roots and petals of her Fae Courts, and it smells of char and ash.
The entire cosmos hiccups around Finnegan the Fae. Mystic Judge Caleb Mauthisen desperately clings to the journals of a 7th Century Catholic Cardinal, obsessed with a magical tattoo that threatens to crumble the Mystic Realms to wrath and war.
A place they know and fear too well.
Spiralling with only his scheming ex Delilah to 'help', Caleb searches for the elusive way out of the Truce, as he descends through the essence of grief into layers of hell on earth.
Judge of Mystics Saga 3: Book of Revels
“You’re the Judge! The Oh Holy Banhammer! Why did she send you!?”
When Delilah does one last con on Caleb and coerces him into picking her daughter up from a Swiss boarding school, he thinks it’s a chance to clear the air between exes and take a few hours of mundane calm.
Enter Lilith, the teal-headed teacher-punching delinquent who got expelled. Three seconds was all it took for Caleb to realize the mystic marks on Lilith’s soul and thrust them both into a journey to confront the woman who stole Lilith’s true name. Oh, and keep the Truce from crumbling. Oh, and stop his now raging uncle from taking over the human world. Oh, and figure out this emergency parenting thing.
It’s high time Stana got her due.
Book of Revels hits shelves in 2024.
Other Work from the Hosts of We Aren’t Dead Yet
Macabre and Monstrous
Engage in eldricht horror, monster terror and a forest of fright with short stories by the trio of We Aren't Dead Yet.
In Emily Armstrong's debut tale Fell Plumes, space truckers Lark and Mech think they've scored the payday of a lifetime when they agree to transport mysterious crates to a remote facility at the edge of the known cosmos. Veteran salvager Corven decides to make one last scrapping run when he boards a derelict starship deep in uncharted space, but he soon discovers the ghostly void-lost vessel is caught in a nightmare outside of time in Salvager's Loop.
KS Bishoff frightens with a malevolent demon tree hungering for souls in Harvest of Horror, replacing its victims with eerie doppelgangers nurtured in the old gourd patch. As paranoia sweeps the community, fingers point at a lurking bogeyman. Tenya, burdened by mounting suspicions, races against time to unveil the truth hidden beneath the boughs of the sinister tree. Can she uncover the horrifying secret before the imposters usurp every last soul?
Bestselling author Sapha Burnell hits as hard as a road flare and liquor bottle with The Lamia, and Whiskey and Sinners Blood, two bone chilling stories based in the mythpunk Judge of Mystics universe. Caleb Mauthisen runs magic-less and wounded through the streets of Vancouver from a terrifying Lamia, a woman cursed as a half snake, half human monster with a lust and hunger of the damned. Descend into madness with Carolee, the Fae Queen's assassin in an origin story twice as twisted as the obsidian knives Carolee inflicts on the unworthy in the Judge of Mystics Saga. How did Carolee go from mother of one to murderer?
Macabre and Monstrous: A Horror Anthology of Eldricht Space, Myth Monsters & Forest Frights is a science-fiction, fantasy and mythpunk collection of short fiction which will unsettle, frighten and terrify… then lead you through the darkest part of the night to early dawn.
