Filidh publishing January 2026 Newsletter

January 23, 2026

Volume 3, Issue 01

January, 2026

Welcome to the January Newsletter and A Brand New Year!

Your gateway to stories, events, and creative community.

New & Noteworthy

Amazon Change Alert

Amazon has rolled out a new Kindle feature called Ask This Book.

It lets readers type questions about the book they’re reading and get AI-generated answers right inside the Kindle app.

Not a search, not a highlight, not a bookmark, but an explanation.

And yes, it’s already live.

Here’s what it does. If a reader forgets who a character is, what just happened, or why something matters, they can now just ask. The system answers in its own words, right there inside the book. It doesn’t send them back to the page or quote the author.

In other words, this isn’t a reference tool. It’s not helping you find something you already read. It’s telling you what it thinks that thing means. And it’s doing that inside the book, not next to it, not outside it, not as some separate app.

That means it’s shaping how the text is understood, which is why some authors are nervous about it.

Because there is no opt-out.

If your book is on Kindle, this feature can explain it, summarize it, and interpret it. You don’t get to see the answers. You can’t fix mistakes. You don’t get a say in how your work is framed.

That’s a big shift in who controls the experience of a book.

The Authors Guild has already pushed back on this, and I think they’re right to. Their argument is pretty straightforward: when you add a layer like this, you’ve turned the book into a different kind of product. Something closer to an annotated or enhanced edition. And that kind of thing normally comes with new rights, new terms, and new negotiations.

None of that happened here.

Amazon just turned it on.

Copyright exists to give creators some control over how their work is reused, repackaged, and reshaped. This puts a machine between the author and the reader, right inside the book. Even if it’s accurate (which, based on our initial tests, it is), the author is no longer the only voice shaping how the book is understood.

This is the kind of thing that, once it becomes normal, doesn’t roll back.

Explanations turn into summaries. Summaries turn into condensed versions. Condensed versions turn into rewrites. And every step puts a little more distance between the reader and the original work.

Read more here

(by Kevin Duncan, Kindlepreneur)

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Robbie Burns Gung Haggis Fat Choy

– Feb 1, 2026

What do you get when you mix Robbie Burns Day, Lunar New Year, haggis, dim sum, kilts, and dragon dances? You get the one-and-only Robbie Burns Gung Hagg

is Fat Choy Celebration, galloping back in 2026 — the Year of the Fire Horse!

Part Scottish, part Chinese, all Canadian — Gung Haggis Fat Choy is Vancouver’s quirkiest, tastiest, most musical cultural mashup. Founded by local legend Todd Wong (aka Toddish McWong), the celebration has been defying cultural boundaries since 1998, proving that bagpipes and chopsticks really do belong at the same table.

This year, we’re adding an extra spark with the Year of the Fire Horse — a zodiac sign famous for boldness, creativity, and a little bit of mischief. (Sound familiar? That’s pretty much this event’s spirit animal.)

The celebration kicks off at Pink Pearl Chinese Seafood Restaurant (1132 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC) on February 1, 2026. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

Registration https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gung-haggis-fat-choy-2026-tickets-1976977227105?mc_cid=d4b2dd6aec&mc_eid=72eba3e631

Single tickets are $80.

Offers of the Month –

VIP Book Club Discount

Buy 4 or more copies of any Filidh title and get 25% off plus a FREE Book Club Discussion Guide. Enter code at checkout VIPBOOKCLU

BOGO on 2025 Releases

Buy One from our 2025 New Releases and Get One Free. Enter code BOGO2025 at checkout. Share your love of reading or find a new favourite author. Filidhbooks.com/New

In the Spotlight –

Author of the Month: Edeana Malcolm

Edeana Malcolm is a history nerd. She has published nine historical fiction novels, six of which are based on the lives of her settler ancestors. Her latest book Maid of Gold tells the story of her great-great-grandparents who left Quebec (or Lower Canada as it was then called) in 1852 to try their luck at the Australian Gold Rush.

She is currently writing a memoir of the neighbourhood where she grew up in Victoria, BC. Its working title is Fernwood: A Memoir. Please visit her website for more information: www.edeana.com

Read a Page

Excerpt of the Month (Maid of Gold, by Edeana Malcolm)

“Can you fix it?” Jane asked the young man in the blacksmith’s shop.

He held the bowl of the spoon in one hand and the handle in the other, scrutinizing them with his lips pursed and a concentrated frown on his wide brow. His blue eyes peered through long dark lashes. Jane was so drawn to his appearance that she had to struggle to keep her mind on the business at hand.

“Of course,” he stated. “But it will always be weak where it’s been broken.” He put the parts of her spoon on the counter and turned to the array of shiny new tools hanging on hooks behind him. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer a new one?” He unhooked a long-handled spoon and handed it to her.

She turned it over, admiring it for a moment, imagining herself stirring soup in a great cast-iron pot on the stove. “How much?” she asked.

“Five pence,” he replied.

She flinched, knowing Mrs. Hall would refuse the expense. She could hear her saying, “Why would I pay five pence for a new spoon, when the old one can be repaired?” Mrs. Hall could well afford it, but she would far rather spend the money on jewellery for herself than something to make her maid’s life easier.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll repair yours. Come back tomorrow afternoon to pick it up.”

She could hear the muffled clang of a hammer hitting metal on the other side of the wall and knew a blacksmith must be at work. “Can’t the blacksmith do it now?”

“My father’s very busy today with important orders. I’ll do it myself later, but I can’t leave the shop in case there are customers.”

So, he was the blacksmith’s son. That was interesting. Not only was he handsome, but his father had a thriving business he might one day inherit. She was glad she had to come back to pick up the spoon. She would like to get to know him better.

“Don’t worry,” he said, smiling. “I won’t charge you a penny for the work.”

Then it’ll be worthless. “I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon,” she said, hoping that her first thought would not prove true.

The bell above the shop door tinkled as she went out into the cool, crisp air of late September. It was refreshing after the heat of the shop, a muggy reminder of a summer’s day here in Quebec City. Jane hurried the two blocks to St. Vallier Street where she was a maid-of-all-work in the home of Mr. Hall, a clerk employed in the timber industry. Two years before, at the age of fifteen, she’d left Montreal, the city of her birth, to come here because her stepmother had forced her to do all the housework in her father’s house. She’d made up her mind that, if she was going to do all the work in a household, she should at least be paid for her labour.

Quebec City was the capital of the Province of Canada, which united the British colonies of Upper and Lower Canada. Though the majority of the population from the beginning of the city had been of French descent, in this year of 1852, forty per cent were English-speaking. Many, like her employer, were engaged in timber production.

Just as Canada was divided into two parts, Upper and Lower, so too was Quebec City. The Upper Town was situated on Cape Diamond overlooking the great St-Lawrence River. Hundreds of years ago, the French had enclosed their settlement within walls at the top of the cape. Now the burgeoning city had burst beyond its walls and most of the English lived outside of them, as did Jane herself. She lived in her employer’s house on St. Vallier in the Lower Town just a short distance from the blacksmith’s business on St. Joachim. Jane hurried back to the house now to prepare supper.

She entered by the back door and hung her coat on a hook in the back kitchen. Taking some meat and vegetables from the ice box, she went into the kitchen where she lay them on the counter. As she chopped carrots for soup, she could hear the family gathered in the parlour making a fuss over their eldest and only son, just back from school in Montreal. Jane didn’t think much of the young man. He was as uppity as his mother and three sisters and not at all handsome like the blacksmith’s son. He looked like his father but with his mother’s prominent teeth. And he was rather too well-fed.

Jane put the carrots into the pot of boiling broth on the fire. Mrs. Hall had married beneath herself. Her father was a timber baron, and she’d been used to having many servants. She expected the same level of service from only one and Jane was run off her feet most days. But Jane gritted her teeth and did not complain. Instead, she worked hard, hoping to impress the missus, who had contacts in a higher level of society. With any luck, her efforts might lead to a position in a more affluent household where she wouldn’t have to do all the work.

A little while later, as she was checking that the roast was done, she heard Mrs. Hall ringing the bell in the dining room, calling for the first course. Jane hurried to pour the soup from the pot into the tureen. The bell rang again. A quiet curse escaped Jane’s lips as she burned a finger on the iron pot. She composed herself, put on a fresh pinafore, and then picked up the tureen to carry it into the dining room.

She hated ladling out the soup. It was so easy to drip on the tablecloth and incite the ire of the mistress. As she stood beside young Master Hall, dipping the ladle into the pot, he placed his hand firmly on her behind, cupping her bottom.

Shocked, she jerked upright.

(Want to read more? Purchase Maid of Gold at https://books.by/edeana or https://draft2digital.com/book/)

Come Say Hi

Friendly Authors Networking Socials (F.A.N.S.)

February 14, 2026, 10:30 am – Noon

Quality Foods, the Upper level café, and board rooms

in Eagle Creek Mall on Helmcken Road in View Royal.

info@filidhbooks.com

Just the Deets

The January FANS meeting focused on printing options for Self-published authors, local ongoing vendor fairs (Moss Street, James Bay, etc.), and trends in successful vendor table displays and opportunities. Some details on the 2026 Book Fair planning were shared, with more details to follow at the February meeting. We are looking at Tillicum Mall for the beginning of March, Buccaneer Days in May, Pride in July, Pearkes in November and two other community centre stand-alone Book/Craft Fairs.

Explore These Literary Events

I. Vancouver Writers Fest - https://writersfest.bc.ca

II. Gibsons Art and Words Festival 2025 - https://gibsonspublicmarket.com/event/art-words-festival-2024-august-22-25/

III. Surrey International Writers Conference - https://www.siwc.ca

IV. Victoria Festival of Authors - https://victoriafestivalofauthors.ca

V. Federation of BC Writers - https://www.bcwriters.ca

VI. Canadian Authors Association - https://canadianauthors.org

VII. Victoria Writers’ Society – http://victoriawriters.ca

VIII. Pride In The Word - https://victoriapridesociety.org/pride-2024/literary/

IX. Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival - https://denmanislandwritersfestival.com/festival-2025/

X. Elephant Mountain Lit Fest – Nelson, BC - https://www.emlfestival.com

XI. Word Vancouver - https://www.wordvancouver.ca