Montreal, October 2022 – drops the puck on October 29 with David Sherman’s Crossing the Line, a breakaway novel that exposes the seamier side of our national obsession: a love story, a story of uneasy stardom, and of tawdry truths beneath Canada’s preoccupation with hockey. The book is as riveting as overtime in a Stanley Cup final. This is the inaugural release from INDYPress, with more to come this spring by the two other co-founders, Guy Sprung and Susan Kastner. Join INDYPress for readings, a Q&A and wine at the launch of Crossing the Line on Oct. 29, 2pm,at the Morin Heights Public Library.
For dazzling up-and-comer Blake Fowler, hockey has been his life and his escape, scoring sublimely through the bruising and bone-breaking. Traded to his native Montreal, where the fans expect, even demand, he lead the team to the Stanley Cup, he confronts the ghosts of his childhood and the racism, sexism and inequities inherent in pro sports, as well as the balm of true love.
The novel offers a deeper look into a sport often seen as just a game, “The story running through Crossing the Line is an absorbing way to discuss the joys and struggles of real life,” said Sherman. “It reveals the obsession and dedication of pro sports as well as the physical and mental toll it takes on those who earn a king’s riches to play 15-25 minutes a few times a week, while society can’t cope with the unhoused and the hungry.”
“This is an NHL insider as you’ve never imagined. In Crossing the Line, David Sherman captures the harsh underbelly of pro hockey, the language and humour of the game – and tells a charming love story at the same time.”– Roy MacGregor – author, member of the Order of Canada, Dean of Canadian hockey writers
There is no adult fiction using hockey as a motif; Sherman’s social realism with hockey as a backdrop is unique. He elaborates on themes that make Crossing the Line different, “The book is a tale of struggling working people and a young star athlete now back in his home town. Here, his consciousness is raised by all the poverty he sees. He battles with himself about making so much money to play when so many are fighting to survive, including his own extended family.”
“The best stories in the world of pro hockey are usually from off the ice as players deal with fame, fortune, friends and love, while trying to stay focused on the game on the ice to keep that lifestyle going. David Sherman has captured the life of a pro hockey player that fans don’t normally get to see.”–Stu Cowan, Montreal Gazette sports columnist
INDYPress Editorial Board
Guy Sprung explains what inspired the authors to start the new press, “Our addiction to screens has changed the world. Old models aren’t working anymore. INDYPress is our way to take control of our own work, a way to give writers a forum to express themselves.” Added writer Susan Kastner, “We have created an independent small publishing house exploring the work of eclectic artists; each of them INDY.”
David Sherman is a playwright, singer/songwriter, filmmaker, journalist and author. His novel about an aging, struggling singer and her daughter, Momma’s got the Blues, was released by Guernica Editions in May. His play, The Daily Miracle, produced by Montreal’s Infinithéâtre, will be published this fall by infiniPRESS. Crossing the Line is his third novel. He also created and edited Fish Wrapped: True Confessions of Newsrooms Past (Guernica, 2020), a collection of essays from notable Canadian journalists on days gone by. David founded and contributes to an eclectic blog for several writers to explore the world and the written word, You’re Going to Die. Live with It.
Susan Kastner is a former columnist and feature writer with Agence France-Presse, New York Post, and Toronto Star, author of two biographies, and an essayist who appeared in David Sherman’s anthology of newspaper memorabilia, Fish Wrapped: True Confessions of Newsrooms Past. She freelances for the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, and blogs regularly on You’re Going to Die; Live With It.
Guy Sprung is an esteemed artistic director, theatre director, playwright, filmmaker, and the founder of Toronto’s Canadian Stage and Montreal’s Infinithéâtre. He also has a serious track record as a literary columnist and social and political commentator in a wide variety of journals and newspapers across the country. Hot Ice, his observations on Russia while directing Shakespeare at the Pushkin Theatre in Moscow, was released by Blizzard Publishing. His plays Fight On! and Death and Taxes will be published by infiniPRESS this fall.
Reisa Manus had a successful career as manager and part owner of one of Canada’s most celebrated restaurants, and then parlayed her love of books into helping a gathering of some of her favourite writers.
More INDYPress Coming in Spring 2023
Twisted humour gleaned from her experiences in journalism and advertising, along with multiple marriages, is at the heart of Susan Kastner’s twin memoirs. Whatever Happened to Peterboy? A fallen star, a family fable, an obsessive love highlights the Kastner clan, their offbeat lives, their contributions to the country’s film and arts community, and their embattled fallen-star son. How to Get a Husband in 30 Days: How Mom’s magnum opus shaped my lives is a meditation on loves and marriages and the soft, warm, jagged edges of each.
Guy Sprung’sThe Game of Gods, a novel set in the Ottawa Valley, follows the lives of two brothers as the era of the Lumber Barons is waning, the great game of hockey is born and the human idiocy of the First World War unavoidable. With After Truth: Explorations In Life Sense by Mervyn Sprung, Guy Sprung revises a distinctive volume of Canadian epistemology; an original and far-reaching philosophic journey that sources both Eastern and Western thinking, originally published by his father in 1994.
Click to read an excerpt from Crossing the Line
Books available direct from publisher for $30 ($20 for book/$10 postage & handling), eBook $12.95, at www.indypub.ca/order-form and on Amazon.
Book launch: Sat. Oct. 29, 2pm, Morin Heights Public Library, 823 Village Road, J0R 1H0
