Are midnight book release parties back? And the TV series Cool Sweepings

What do electricity bills, AI data centers and climate change have to do with the U.S. mid-term elections? Well, quite a bit, actually. Hey, it's Johanna Wackstaff, host of What On Earth, where we help make sense of how people are changing the planet and what we can do about it. This week, Democrats have pulled off some surprising election victories, and while climate change wasn't necessarily on the ballot, the cost of energy certainly was. So what could these results mean for climate action in America, especially with Donald Trump, still president? Find and follow What On Earth, wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Like I remember, back in 2007, the big novels coming out, you got people lined up outside of bookstores at midnight. Well, it is happening again. A new novel from Sarah J. Moss's Accretar Fantasy series, it had the biggest opening day for sales for a book for more than a decade, 1.7 million copies sold in one day, Wild. My name is Alameda Blimamoud. This show is called commotion. Riley Estner's here, Nathan Maharaj's here. Hello to both of you. Hello. Hey, 1.7 million copies of a book sold in one day. I'm we're going to get into it. So also I said Accretar, that is short for Accord of Thorns and Roses. This is a series that's been around for a little while. The new book, Accord of Splinter Harmony, but before we even get there, Riley, would you do the honors of introducing us to what exactly Sarah J. Moss has created with the Accretar series? Absolutely. So about a year ago, I got into a real romanticy kick. And when you Google, like, what are the romanticy series out there? No surprise. Like this was the one that came up. So I have read them all up into this point. And in short, that there are these three mortal sisters that find their way into the northern part of the continent that I believe is pronounced prithian. And there's a bunch of different courts there. And the one sister, Farah, she falls in love with the Lord, if you will, of the Court of Thorn and Roses. And I will. Thank you. Yeah. Lord Tamlin. And then she eventually goes through this journey. Her sisters end up coming into the continent as well. Everybody's becoming fairies or fey as they're called. Has one does? Farah, inevitably or ultimately ends up with the king of the night court rice sand. And he's got a whole cast of characters that are his closest friends as well. And so we're in the world where then all of them start dating. They're trying to fight this outside malevolent force on the continent of high burn. So yeah, they there's a lot going on for them in these many courts of theirs. First of all, that's the quickest summary I've ever heard anybody actually be able to offer of book series is being done off of this long. Thank you so much for doing that. I feel so much better oriented. Thank you for doing this. Absolutely. Nathan, we should say, like, first of all, 1.7 million copies sold in one day. That's nuts. It's also not a thing that happens overnight. No. The first Court of Thorn and Roses book comes out 2015. It does. You've been working in this industry for a minute. Tell me about how we got here with Sarah James. Well, we got here before a Court of Thorns and Roses because she's a childhood prodigy. She was publishing chapters on a, like, a message board where writers publish their stuff. And she was doing it chapter by chapter the way a kid, you know, in their bedroom banging out, you know, what turned what's going to be a bestseller. Blooms were republishing. Yeah. Notable. We'll talk more about them in a bit. Yeah. Picks it up. Picks up this series. They know it is that they've been published on a message where they go, her massive following people love this. Let's let's turn this into a book. And so they publish Throne of Glass. And that's her first series. She is in full stride with that series from 2012 when it's published through to 2015 when we get a Court of Thorns and Roses, the first book in a new series. In the same year, she publishes the fourth Throne of Glass book. So she's wrapped up the first series and she's introducing the first book in this new series. She's, she's not even wrapping it up. Rapping it up. Oh, sorry. My bad. Oh, he precious soft child. Throne of Glass is in full flight while she's launching this new series. And by 2020, both series now have multiple volumes out. Fans have literally no idea what's coming next because she has not gone on hiatus for either 2020 March. I think we remember that was important. Yeah, it was a bit of a turning point in world history. We suddenly all found ourselves in need of reading material and crescent city. A third third series. I knew series. She launches a third series and it lights up book talk because of course, she's got these huge fandoms that are reading these two series. There's not perfect overlap. She's kind of this broad, then diagram. A third series lands. They people get super excited. It lights up book talk. Anybody who's never heard of her now has this one great book to read and goes, oh, there's going to be what else is she got? What else is she got? Three thousand pages is what else she's got. And then from there, she's and she keeps feeding these series. She ties up Throne of Glass. I think we don't know. We don't know. I don't think she has. But a quarter-throwings and roses carries on. And so that's how we get here is she she was juggling flaming something. Then then chain saws and then bowling balls. And it's all she's kept it all in the air. I think the first of all, the notion, we're talking about like a 40-year-old author who has been doing this for such a long time that you say like childhood project. Like she started such a long time ago, that she's already has thousands of thousands of thousands of pages of established history. You can go to that Riley crushed in less than a year it seems. But talk to me about like the way that she interacts with fans. The way that this fan was built around her excitement because I feel like the excitement for this is not normal. You don't see this for a lot of other series. No, you really don't. It is it is a thing that goes back to I mean it reminds me of the olden times of a gather round children. I feel like every time you have me on, I have to I have to introduce some like archival and you know people have heard of Harry Potter, okay? It was Harry Potter. And that was kind of the beginning of that of that midnight launch phenomenon. Before then we accepted that books would be in the store when they get there. But you know you'll wake up in the morning and go get the book start, right? But you know that was that was a big thing but that was like 20 some odd years ago. And in the intervening time, those kids who are excited about Harry Potter have grown up. They've got they've they've grown into adults who have kids of their own. They're disposable income and disposable income to some extent. Yeah. And and there's a normal sea around being this excited about books. There's a normal sea around like if we all are into a thing, I think we can keep the bookstore open, I think we can flick the lights on and give people what they want exactly. I do want, okay, I want to play you guys a bit of a clip of one of these midnight release parties. Have a listen to this. I've actually never been to a midnight release of anything. I only really got into reading a few years ago. So this was very new to me and also so exciting. They had so many activities. They had a spot for everyone like put their theories. There was trivia. Obviously a bunch of merch. There was also specialty drinks. And then 10 minutes before midnight, we also lining up to get our books and the books pulled up. We did a big countdown. It felt like New Year's and I officially have a guitar six in my possession. I am disgustingly excited to dive in. Well, let's say I watched that video kind of go I would like to be there also. That's it. She made a very good, you know, she created a lovely reflection of the atmosphere. I was like, oh this sounds like a great time. But also some of these midnight parties, there were there were there were fire breathers. There were people getting tattooed. There were bands of playing a guitar inspired music. And then everyone was like, okay, now let's go home and go read this book. Riley, you attended midnight releases back in the day as someone who's, you know, read these books. What was your reaction to seeing that? Like you look at that and go like, yeah, that's justifies it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think that they're it's really hard to replicate something like a guitar because it has the fantasy world of something like a Harry Potter, but the romance of something like Twilight and also the sexiness of something like 50 shades of gray, like they're bringing together so many things that already had the basis for people to be insatiable about those types of books and put them all in one with like, again, infinite pages to read. So it makes sense to me that people have become as obsessed with this as they have. I think romanticy as a genre, I want to say there's so moss is great. There is much more than Sarah J. Moss. There's a lot of great fantasy and romanticy books over there. You can't prove that. The only thing I know is Sarah J. Moss. All right, lies. Anyways, but I think that anything that's going to get people out to read to get excited about getting together and reading is incredible. So people going out to this midnight book. I hope that then they get obsessed with the genre like I did last summer. And then they find themselves also venturing off into other authors who have incredible works out there as well that I think tickle that that itch. Can I just say like sometimes people talk about romanticy as some kind of like fad and then you see it kind of progressing year after year after year go like I don't it's not always it does not feel like a fad to me. It feels like it's just going to become like a cornerstone of what sells books like and for for a long time. Like that's that's my reaction as I watch some of these events kind of unfold. Do you feel the same way? Yeah, I do think that romanticy and and generally fantasy is like, you know, what people are aching for right now. Why is it world bad or something? You know, I've heard. I got the sense that sometimes it's bad. I'm thinking about like Eden Robinson's The Sorcerer's Sky Serpent, you know, like this is bringing in Bobby right over here. Oh, you mean my personal actor. I've got to come you right over here. I just think that yeah, this is an example of also authors who maybe weren't necessarily in that genre before. Yeah. Being able to take their unique perspective and voices and bringing it to your right this place where people I think want to stay at least for the time being. And so it's a it's a it's a big it's a big thing. You should check out the next midnight release party. But I was going to say, like, the return of the idea that romanticist says books this many times. maybe not surprised a lot of people, but Nathan, you worked midnight releases back in the day. - I did. - What feels different than this time around? Gather round children. - Gather round children, yeah. - Well, I mean, listen, in the old days, the first big midnight release was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was the fourth Harry Potter book, published by Bloomsbury. I said we'd bring them back. Bloomsbury knows the thing or two about this, but it was part of what was important about that was we didn't have mobile internet. We didn't have e-books. I mean, I worked for Kobo. Every, today's Monday, tonight's a midnight release party for whatever book you're excited about coming out on Tuesday, because you can be in your jammies and some of my favorite customers are not dressed to leave the house. (laughing) - That's where it's got it. - Got it, right? So the idea of availability is kind of solved. We've even, last mile logistics have progressed substantially in the last 20 years. - Last mile logistics, I mean, how you get the book in the hands of a person. - They've actually put it in your hand and make sure it lands on the special time. It was a whole thing for Harry Potter. Today, it's kind of a solved problem. So the midnight release party is not doing a thing that's like a concrete, like hard problem. It's a social service. It's a thing, if people are getting together, the thing it does for you is it puts you amidst other people who are super into this thing you're into, who are reaching peak into itness. (laughing) Exactly this moment. And you're counting down together to enjoy this amazing thing. So I think that is not going away. We do not have a digital version of losing your chill. (laughing) - I know, do I want one of those? I feel like that losing your chill should be sort of an in-person experience. Deeply analog. - I gave a bunch of people in a store counting down of someone's wheels and a cart of books. They're like, "Now, you can buy this." That sounds both the nerdiest thing possible. And also, it's exactly what you say. It's really, really heartening. We should talk about the specific people who are doing this, 'cause I feel bad is worth talking about this, because just with Acrotar, it seems to be sort of drawing a very specific crowd. It's mostly millennial and Gen Z women. And a lot of these people have been attending those similar events back in the day. We talked about Harry Potter, but also I feel like the same thing happened for Hunger Games. What do you make of that? What do you make of that being the population that's like books bring them to me? I'm ready. (laughing) - Yeah, I mean, it makes sense to me again, as somebody who attended these midnight release parties when I was younger. And when I say younger, I mean middle school to high school. So, it really is reminding me of a time where reading was just such a joy. And even when I was working at McDonald's and had was making $11 an hour or something, I could afford to buy the new book. And that was something that I was a luxury and an indulgence. And you're right, that it was something that my friends and I could bond about after we read, and have you gotten to this chapter yet? Have you gotten to this chapter yet? And so, I think now especially, and in a post lockdown world, where I think people are craving social connection and social connection as adults is so hard to find. If you, A, don't work together, B, don't have kids, or C, don't wanna go out and eat and drink every single day of the week. And so, something like a book launch party is a nice way to build a meaningful community that we have a template from our formative teenage years, that's Millennial Gen Zers. And I think that, it makes sense that we're like, back at it, we're here again. (laughing) - I'll tell you what this reminds me, it reminds me of a period of time, the very specific YouTube video, I don't know if you guys have seen this YouTube video, from the early days of YouTube, right? Of the Midnight Release Party of one of the Harry Potter books. And some of like went to the end and kind of like read a few pages. And then as people are in line at Midnight Release Party, yells out, "Snap girls, Dumbledore." And then you see the crowd go, "No!" (laughing) And so this, I feel like that kind of potential for shenanigans was, I was waiting for some of those videos, that did not happen. Which kind of felt a little bit disappointing to me. This kind of crowd. (laughing) It's a more civil crowd in a bunch of different ways. Nathan was interesting to me is like, when you look back at the sort of heyday of Midnight releases, whether it's books or movies or video games, video games have had Midnight releases for a long time, it's all genre dreams. - Yeah. - You're right. And what is it about the genre fiction in general that creates this effect where mixed people go, like, this is my whole personality? And I will be there when you tell me to be there. - Yeah, well, I think that's what Riley said earlier, that there are pieces, it's almost like a Lego set or playing a board game. And the pieces are out and we know what to do with them. We're like, oh, are those people who are gonna be in love? Okay, I wanna play the game of where they're in love. I wanna see where these go. - What will the obstacles be? I kinda know what I'm gonna get and I wanna see if you can do it artfully. It's a little bit like different genres of popular music. Like, if a band says, "We are a metal band." You're like, "I know what I'm getting." (laughing) - I'm gonna see. - I know the offer here. - I know what's on offer. Let's see if I like your version of it, but like, I kinda know what I'm getting. And I think that's one of the things that propels it is genre does a little bit of shorthand for you to tell you what you're gonna get when you open it up. - It's an in-group already. This is why, look, there will be a midnight release party for the next Donna Tart book. But like, you know, Chad Harbach. - Let's go. - It didn't happen for Chad Harbach. And as much as I was excited about his new book, it wasn't a thing. 'Cause you don't have a name for Donna Tart fans. - Tart heads, Tart. (laughing) - We'll work something. - We'll work something. - Yeah, we're getting Tarted up for the next book, so yeah. We need to figure out some kind of solution to make this happen. Nathan, are we so back with midnight releases or does this kinda feel like, "Ah, actually, this is a one-off situation. "We're not really gonna see a lot of this." - He'd look, it's not gonna happen every time. I know as a bookseller, you can't predict when lightning will strike. You just walk around in thunder, waving, and umbrella-hoving. (laughing) - But it's gonna keep happening. Nobody's having a bad time at these things. - No. - Unless you show up and those are spoiling stuff. I'm not gonna do that. I just was like, wow, everybody's so civil of these things, which is genuinely shocking to me. I will say, Riley, it's worth noting that Sarah J. Moss made people wait a little while for this book, book six. People are not going to be waiting as long for book seven. It's already, we know it's coming out in January. She wrote two books at the same time that are coming out at the same time. Will there be midnight release parties also in January? 'Cause I gotta tell you, it can be much colder. - True, yes, I think that might even be draw people more, they will praise the warmth of the Indigo community at this place. I think that they will absolutely see it. I hope we can start seeing it for other book releases as well. And I think that Sarah J. Moss, I don't know for her, especially, I don't know where the ceiling is for her, because she unto herself is also like an entity. She is girl boss. She's on the ColorDaddy podcast. - I was gonna say she was on ColorDaddy recently. - Totally, she has an individual also has, I think, a fan base that makes this series, even something for more for readers. And I don't know when we'll see that again other than maybe past January. (laughing) - I'll see you guys back here again in January where we go. Sarah J. Moss has kind of broken her own record and maybe leave 1.8 million copies sold in one day. We'll find out, we'll find out what happens. I really appreciate your time, you guys. This has been wonderful. Thank you so much again. - Yeah, thank you. - I promise not to spoil any books. I promise, I'm sorry. - Really yes, though. It's an Irish Navi Scholar and Romantic reader from the Babet Tongue First Nation. Nathan Maharaj is a director of content marketing at Racket and Kobo, a Canadian e-book seller. They were both right here with me in our studio. - In a world where the news feels bigger, louder, and harder to make sense of, Canadians need more than headlines. Hi, I'm Karen C. Olin, news reporter and host of The Big Story Podcast from world shaping events to the everyday stories that spark debate. My team and I will explain what matters and why it matters to you. We're here to help you make sense of the news and give you the context you need for those kitchen table conversations. Trusted, Canadian focused, curious. Listen to The Big Story, wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - I'm Let Me Up Do My Mood. And this is commotion. Look, Cool Sweepings is a new limited comedy series set in Winnipeg. You got Chris, he's a Jamaican Canadian kid whose family's curling club is on the brink of foreclosure, but Chris and his friends have a solution. They're gonna enter a local curling championship. They're gonna win the prize money. They're gonna save the curling club. The problem Chris has never curled in his life. The show is a brainchild of black film space, Manitoba. It's a part of bell fives roll out of all these regional community programming. Marlon Palmer has watched Cool Sweepings. He's with me now. Marlon is good to see you, pal. - Oh, I'm going popcorn. - I'll tell you this, Marlon Palmer. I should tell the people who are watching, what we're listening to this on the radio is that the video experience of this conversation is I can't see a video of you, but what I can't see is an image that you have created of me curling. And I have never curled in my life. So I just want to thank you for that labor, just to start. Before we even get into the show. - I was feeling inspired, man. I was inspired after this one. - Yeah, you really did something there. Okay, let's talk about the show. But tell the Cool Sweepings, obviously a nod to the 90s comedy film Cool Runnings. That is loosely inspired by Jamaica's first Olympic Bob's lead team. What did you think of the premise of this series when you first heard of it? - I mean, the premise is exactly what Jamaicans just are. I don't think you could have Jamaicans be the center of a movie and the premise not be Audacity. (laughing) It's just what we, she don't even mean like we just, no experience whatsoever. We're gonna win 50,000. Let's do it. Like if you want to talk about manifestation, movie The Secret. We could talk to Jamaicans, all right? - Yeah. - Just start there. - Do it 'cause can they do this? We're gonna find out. Also, I really wanna emphasize how difficult it is for me to have a conversation with you while I'm looking at a picture, presumably an AI picture of me on a curling ring. - Oh, I did this myself, I love water. - Thank you, thank you again. It's just, it's an impossible task to just keep looking at me curling. We don't get a lot of portrayals of the Black Winterfrog experience. What do you watch us though? What stood out for you about Chris and the other Black people that you do meet in this series? - Well, one, no matter where you go, the Reds is too damn high. The Reds is too high. - Yes. - There will always be a friend that thinks he can freestyle his way out of the situation. And there's gonna be a lot of hail Mary. We can get rich quick schemes that will pop up amongst the friends and that's just a universal Black experience. I love that. I love that for us. - Wherever you go, Black people go, we can do this and the whole problem will be solved. Listen, let's hear, I want to just play a moment from Cool Sweepings now. This is Chris and his friends. They're out in the cold, doing whatever they can to make some cash to save their beloved curling club when their actions are picked up by a slightly suspicious local news reporter. - I've heard there's a group of teens slinging thirpies and a snow storm. - Yo, man. Yo, you're not just slinging, man. We ought to you're trying to save our family rig with frozen sugar water and blind optimism, man. Come on. - What's going on with me? - Well, that's got to be the most winnipe thing that I've ever heard. I'm Zachary Kitchen and this has been CBN News. - That is a clip from the new Winnipeg-based comedy series, Cool Sweepings. This is a limited run series. It's got four episodes, each one about 20 minutes long. Marlon overall, how did you feel about the arc of this curling comedy caper situation? - Well, I mean, every great black classic has the theme and arc of, we need to get this money and we need it quick. And I love that. I love that for us. We're always in debt somehow. (laughing) Every movie, what's the premise? They go into the room. We got to get this green lid. How we get this green lid? We're in debt. (laughing) There we go. We got it all solved. And I will buy in every single time. I will buy in every single time. 'Cause the adventure is what we love. It's very relatable, especially in these economic times. You know what I mean? - Yeah, but so you watch this arc and you're like, "Of course, this is the quintessential "black experience, rep rendered, and television." We should talk about how this show looks. We should talk about how this show is received by you. Because Cool Sweepings was created and produced by Black Film Space Meditoba. There's a probably his first Black O and Film and TV production company. This is a show that airs on Bill Fibes TV, one community network, which is to say, it is not a high end production. It's not a show that looks like it's a high end production. But you've cut your teeth doing sort of, sort of some big and also small budget stuff. When you watch this thing, how do you see it fitting into the general arc of indie filmmaking? - I think it's important, man. I think you gotta start somewhere. And I think especially when we're talking about Black stories in Canada, we've all been to elementary and high school here. We don't get talked about as much as the fur trade and the rest of the stuff. So I think it's important for those stories to be covered in like you're only gonna get a lot of those times, those stories told by independent filmmakers. And I think that, you know, like I said, you gotta start somewhere and this only allows for other people to watch it and be inspired to tell other stories. And for other people to think that, listen, I don't need a huge budget 'cause we've seen huge budget movies that are horrible. I watched him. Him was huge budget, horrible movies, horrible movies. So it's like, we're not gonna put budgets anonymous with good, you know what I mean? I think if you love movies, you know that that's not true. So we've seen some of the greatest movies of our time, of all time, with very small budget. I don't think 12 angry men was a huge budget at all, you know what I mean? But one of the greatest movies of all time. So yeah, I think you gotta start somewhere. I don't think this is a bad start. - Yeah, I was gonna say like when you watch something like this, do you kind of immediately begin to imagine what they can do next, not even with a much bigger budget, but just like the next iteration of this. Still keeping it in these, still keeping a small budget. Do you immediately kind of go like, oh, I want them to sort of explore doing something else like this? - I immediately wanted black Canadian mighty ducks. (laughing) I need black, I need black, I need black brush, I need that story to be told, because I know it's in there, I know it's in there. - I'm now a little bit invested in you making a black mighty ducks, a black Canadian mighty ducks. I feel like that might be a project, but you want to take on a certain point, Marley. - Oh yeah, that's, I will be a Emilio. I will be a Emilio if that's what it takes. (laughing) - Marley Palmer, I really appreciate you, man. I really appreciate your time. This has been really wonderful. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. - Thanks for having me, man. - You're the best. Marley Palmer is a comedian in the House of the Extra Gravy Podcast on the Flow 987. You can catch Cool Sweepings on Bell Five TV One. That is it for the show today, but I just wanted to acknowledge that there has been an outpouring of accolades for Patrick Stewart, of course, after his death. We will be talking about him tomorrow on the show, so pay attention to our tribute to Patrick Stewart, that is tomorrow's show. In the meantime, my name is Alamine, and I'm glad with my mood. This show is called "Comotion." We'll be back tomorrow, we'll see you then. (upbeat music) For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca/podcasts.