w w w .i n si d eH A LT O N .c o m O A K V IL LE B EA V ER W ed ne sd ay , S ep te m be r 14 , 2 01 1 2 2 Artscene TASTE OF OAKVILLE: A Taste of Downtown held its launch this Saturday with a Culinary Mash-Up, featuring a compe- tition of local restaurateurs trying to serve up the best dish. Pictured on left is celebrity chef Massimo Capra as judge. On the right, Chef Harminder from Coriander Green and his partner Sam Karnaz (not pictured) from Kleopatra Mediterranean cuisine compete in the contest. PHOTOS BY DANIEL HO / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER It's a culinary celebration at A Taste of Downtown The bi-annual A Taste of Downtown event is returning to Oakville. Running Sept. 16 to 30, the downtown Oakville event will fea- ture a culinary celebration with world-class cuisine, prepared by 15 local restaurants. The menus will offer a variety of tastes with special Prix Fixe menus. This years focus will be on embrac- ing local farmers and producers with the 100 Mile Taste, using ingredients grown within 100 miles. Participating restaurants this year include 3 Ss Restaurant, Cafe Galleria, Colossus of Oakville, Coriander Green, Jam Martini Bar, Jonathans of Oakville, Kleopatras, Nzyme, OFinns Irish Temper, Olivers, Paradiso, Ristorante Julia, Seasons and The Crepe Kitchen. A Taste of Downtown is put on by the businesses of the Downtown Oakville BIA. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit www. oakvilledowntown.com. Author's comedy work goes no. 2 on Amazon.ca best-seller list By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Despite doing little to promote the product herself, Melodie Campbells first novel seems to be selling itself. The long-time Oakville resi- dents novel, Rowena Through the Wall, went number two on the Amazon.ca best-seller list for the category Fantasy, Futuristic, Ghost. It was quite a shock, she said. I dont know who promoted it beyond myself because I havent really done a lot of promotion yet. Im just starting now because I wanted to wait until the paper- back was out in Canada before I did a lot of promotion. The paperback came out at the end of July whereas the e-book was available since mid-June. It stayed up there for a couple days and its dropping now, she added. Though the book cover looks a lot like it's a romance novel, Campbell says its not. Its a comic time-travel. Some people say its a spoof of the whole time-travel, bodice ripper thing. That may be true, she said. Its not a sweet romance. Its actually a sword and sorcery type of thing and its quite sexy. She said fans of both comic and fantasy books will find something worth reading in her novel. The novel is about a college instructor, Rowena, who one day goes through a wall, which sends her through time. I was sitting at my desk at work one day and I was totally over- whelmed, she said of her inspira- tion. I looked at the wall and said if I could walk through that wall right now I would, into another world. I went home that night and started writing. This is her first novel, which she decided to write after someone had asked her to do so, when she was a visitor at the Toronto Press Club. Growing up in Vancouver, Campbell came to Ontario to attend Queens University for com- merce. She has worked in the marketing field through her career life, and is currently the general manager of the Crime Writers of Canada. Most of her work also deals with crime, so fantasy is a bit of a departure from her usual work. Most of my work has been comic crime, she said. I have another novel coming out in the spring called The God Daughter. Its really wacky. It takes place in Hamilton and its a mob-caper. She began writing comedy in the 90s, writing humour columns, which became syndicated and she It's a comic time-travel. Some people say it's a spoof on the whole time-travel, bodice ripper thing. That may be true. Melodie Campbell, author See Writing page 25