2025 has been an epic year, and there’s still a few more weeks to go that I suspect will be super busy! While I’m mindful that some of the promotion activities for Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: a history of badass women skateboarders have been distracting me from my regular research and the writing of bios, I know it’s temporary.
In the meantime, a big thank you to these individuals and publications for seeking me out for interviews and features. I’ve been tracking the activity on a separate personal site so that I don’t forget!
Photo: Pam Judge (PJ McKenzie) – Canada’s first National champion
I had a nice surprise thanks to the publicist at ECW Press with The Walrus editors reaching out for an article, which I learned is a magazine sometimes considered the Canadian version of The New Yorker! On November 29th, a series of excerpts from the book was published called “Meet the Librarian Resurrecting the Lost Women of Skateboarding.” Very cool. While their readers may not be my target audience, it’s certainly validating to be included, and my parents were impressed.
Another Canadian outlet was the radio show North by Northwest on CBC with Margaret Gallagher. We had a great chat on November 23rd, and while I avoid listening to myself banter away, I had some positive feedback, including a local 82-year-old library patron who vowed that she would’ve taken up skateboarding after hearing me speak, if only she was a few years younger! We’re going to go for tea sometime so she can tell me about her years as a backcountry snowboard guide, and all her adventures. Gallagher also followed up the conversation with a BC book list for winter reading (above). Thank you, CBC!!
I had a super fun time with Heather Jennier and Paula MacDonald, based out of Florida, for their podcast Carving It Out: Women’s Skate Stories, released on November 30th. It was an honour to be included considering some of their previous guests, whom I deeply admire like Anita Tessensohn (from the cover of the book!!) and Cindy Whitehead of GirlisNOTa4LetterWord. It was obvious that the hosts had taken some time to explore the book and they even shared some of their favourite quotes which meant so much to me! I think this was the most relaxed I’ve ever felt being interviewed, although I still got pretty hyped up.
Hoping to appeal to the literary crowd, I agreed to an interview for the New Books Network on November 27th with the sports book specialist, Craig Gill, who happened to be based in Vancouver. He said I was the first Canadian author that he was able to interview since sports book authors tend to be south of the border (maybe with the exception of hockey?). Again, I felt really welcomed by Craig since it was obvious that he had put some thought into his questions.
Finally, my friends over at With It Girls provided an in-depth book review as a follow-up to my post on their site in the fall before the book launched, and I believe there will be a book draw coming soon for three signed copies. Check out their Instagram account here for the announcement.
With all this activity, I’ve got my fingers crossed that the book might appear on a few people’s Christmas wish lists this December! ECW Press included the book in their 2025 Holiday Guide, with other titles appropriate for “the person who always stops when they pass their local Little Free Library, is an activist for causes that matter to them, and loves trying a new hiking trail.” Hey, that’s me!!
Thanks so much everyone for the support.
Womxn Skateboard History 