Heather Haley reading June 18th

I don't know why I kind of like Heather Haley. I think it might just be her aura - she's a striking, charismatic figure, whom I've seen at a few events (last sighted at the Railway at the Dishrags' record release party). I don't really know her poetry, and I never got to see either of her bands, the Zellots or the .45's, who were on the scene when I was still a bit too young for punk rock  - pretty much my earliest involvement with punk was around when DOA's War on 45 came out, in 1982; I was 14, then, so when the Zellots were around, in 1979, I was 11. You can actually hear one Zellots song on Youtube, with photos of the band back in the day; it's pretty much everything you could ask of a vintage all-girl punk band - but I only heard it for the first time now. There's very little audio evidence of the band out there, in fact. Haley told me at a Chapel Arts show of bev.davies photos - some of which are used to illustrate that video - that there are actually aging cassettes of one or both of those bands around, practice tapes or live tapes or such, and there was some discussion about releasing those to the world, depending on their quality, but I have no updates on that. I ask her every time I see her if there's news...

However, Haley's novel, The Town Slut's Daughter, is something I've been meaning to pick up for awhile now, and I can think of no better time to buy it than at her reading on June 18th, at the Storm Crow Tavern on Commercial Drive. Here's her press release, cut-and-pasted verbatim from my email. If you can't be at the Storm Crow, you can order the book here.

THE TOWN SLUT’S DAUGHTER
Heather Haley Author Reading
The Storm Crow Tavern, Vancouver, BC
Thurs, June 18, 7:00 pm

June 2, 2015, Vancouver--Get down and nerdy with highly regarded BC poet Heather Haley who will share excerpts from her "brash, incendiary debut novel," The Town Slut’s Daughter at the Storm Crow Tavern Reading Series, 1305 Commercial Dr, curated and hosted by Sean Cranbury of Books on the Radio and the Real Vancouver Writers' Series on Thurs, June 18 at 7 PM. Come and get your signed copy!

Fiona Larochelle flees a harrowing home life only to land in Vancouver's violently blazing punk rock underground. Music provides a catalyst when she mines a talent for singing and songwriting to form an all-girl band, the Virgin Marries. After the group breaks up, Fiona is stranded in New York City and forced to navigate a minefield of vice, drug abuse, jealous lovers and predatory record producers as she works to rebuild her dream. She discovers that although rage may have facilitated her quest in the beginning, it cannot deliver her. Amid the tumult of the LA Riots, Fiona bolts from her cocaine-fueled marriage to a modern-day Bluebeard. Throughout it all, a fierce, indomitable spirit prevails.

"Haley has the gift of writing to suit her subject in all its raddled variety, from wired and jarring to lyrical and tragic."-Vancouver Sun

“Haley chronicles the punk scene with insight gleaned from the mosh pit, backstage and onstage fronting her band the Zellots. It was a grimy few years when poverty was a style and anyone with the guts to get onstage could be a star. Haley has written a coming-of-age-novel in which Holden Caulfield is a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm.”-Les Wiseman

"This is Punk Literature at its unique and original best, with a Cinderella-like heroine running into the flames of her making."

CONTACT:
Howe Sound Publishing
778 868-5845
howesoundpublishing@gmail.com

Author headshots and book cover images at:
http://www.heatherhaley.com