October 16, 23, 30.  The signing of a new book by an Aylmer author:  A Book of Kells: Growing Up in an Ego Void.  Margaret Kell Virany , a former editor of the newspaper The Aylmer Bulletin, has written a book describing her origins.  Her father, a sailor in the Royal Navy in World War I, became a Methodist minister, and began his married life with her English mother at Oxford House in northern Manitoba.  The arrival of their three children led them to move to other pastoral charges.   Mrs. Virany recounts their courtship -  using preserved letters – their life at Oxford House and elsewhere,  her early experiences and the perplexities which her parents’ religious attitudes caused her, and her eventual reconciliation with a mother from whom she had long felt estranged.  She tells of the influence of the late Northrop Frye, the distinguished literary scholar at the University of Toronto, on the shaping of her own view of life.
The original Book of Kells is a celebrated illuminated gospel manuscript, produced by Irish monks in the ninth century.  Mrs. Virany remarks, at the end of the book, “It would be a stretch for me to claim lineage from them, but my family did try to illuminate the gospels by the way they lived their lives.”  Her own family name is Kell, and she has chosen the title of her book accordingly.
Mrs. Virany will be at the Galeries d’Aylmer to sign copies of her book on the dates given above.  She can be found in front of Papeterie Thibo from 9 am to 5 pm.
Price: $22.50.  Available from the author – call (819) 684-9911  or e-mail margv@canoemail.com -  or from Papeterie Thibo, in the Galeries d’Aylmer – call (819)  684-8284 – or Tea ‘N Tole,  1055 chemin d’Aylmer – call (819)  778-6742.   

L is for LIBRARY.  The Library at Kazabazua is celebrating Québec Libraries Week, October 16-23, with the offer of four prizes, in the form of gift certificates worth $1000.00 each redeemable at any Renoud-Bray bookstore. Every visitor to the Library will receive a ticket which may make them one of the four prize winners.  In addition, there will be 27 prizes of $100.00 each.

Besides this event, there will be a special Hallowe’en contest: young people aged 9 to 17 are invited to draw (on an 8½ x 11 page) a comic strip on the theme ‘A Hallowe’en Night at my Library’.  Participants should write their name, address and phone number on the back of their submissions and send them to the following address before October 31, 2004:

Rendez-vous de la Bande dessinée de Gatineau, 100 rue Gamelin, Gatineau, Québec, J8Y 1V9 or drop them off at the Kazabazua Library at 30 Begley Road, Kazabazua, during opening hours, which are: Wednesday, 4 - 8 pm, and Sunday, 1 - 3 pm. Interesting prizes to be won!

For the day of Hallowe'en, October 31, the Library is organizing an afternoon of Tales to Make You Quiver, with ghost stories in French and English.  Everyone welcome.  Time: 1.00 -3.00 pm.  For information call (819) 467-2580.