Toronto Public Library Sets World Record for Digital Downloads

A recent CTV Toronto news update shared that Toronto Public Library (with 100 branches) has broken a world record with 8 million digital downloads in the last year.

“Toronto Public Library for the 8th year in a row is the largest consumer of e-content in the world, so it's quite a large system," said Shawn Mitchell to reporter Pat Foran, in the aforementioned article.

Did you know that you can get virtually ANY of my books from the Toronto Public Library (or your own local libary?)

I have sold plenty of print, eBook, and Audiobooks to libraries around the world. But a quick check of TPL's online listing for eBooks and Audiobooks shows that, while they do have my non-fiction books from Dundurn...

 

...they don't appear to have any of my other eBooks or Audiobooks.

But did you know that you can request virtually any of my eBooks or Audiobooks (or print books for that matter) from Toronto Public Library, or wherever your local library happens to be?

Here's a look at some of the titles of mine available (in eBook and Audiobook format - most of these are also available in Print) via OverDrive.

• Fiction and Non-Fiction "Ghost/Paranormal" books (under Mark Leslie)

 

 

• Non-Fiction Books for Writers (under Mark Leslie Lefebvre)

 

If there's a book you'd like from your local library and they don't have it, most libraries allow local patrons to be able to request them.

OverDrive currently has 69 books that I've written or edited available in eBook and Audiobook format. That you can read for free using their handy Libby App. Or, if you have one of the new Kobo eBook readers from the last 5 years, there's a way to have those library books available to read on your Kobo eReader.

 

Spirits in Audio - Read by Eric Bryan Moore

Rob and Sally are having a relationship crisis, and need some time alone together. Where better to do that than the old abandoned Phoenix movie theater? Things don’t go as planned. What should have been a wonderfully romantic night, will end up changing the course of their lives forever.

That's the setup that Eric Bryan Moore, professional audiobook narrator and podcaster, shares for my short story "Spirits" which was released in Episode 7 of his new podcast: Pocket Pulp.

You can find the podcast on virtually any pod-catcher out there.

Here's a link to it on Podbean.

Don't Go Into The Woods

On Saturday March 13 I'm going to be participating in a live virtual storytelling event with the folks from The Haunted Walks.

Eerie & unexplainable tales from Northern Ontario, isolated spots, and haunted locales! Beyond the safety of our city streetlights, and the flickering of our warm and comforting campfire, the darkness is always waiting.

Join paranormal author and raconteur Mark Leslie as he shares a combination of hair-raising true tales of ghosts, spectres, and other unexplainable phenomenon alongside a pair of tales written specifically to be shared around a campfire. If you go into the woods with us, you’re sure of a big surprise.

Fear and Longing in Los Angeles

Today is the release day for the latest full length novel in the Canadian Werewolf series.

It all started back in 2006 when I attempted to turn the short story "This Time Around" into a novel called A Canadian Werewolf in New York. It took me almost ten years to finish writing the book, which was originally published in 2016.

But in the summer of 2020, after spending a few years working on the characters and considering the other adventures that Michael Andrews, the main character and werewolf in the story, might get into, I decided to invest in the Canadian Werewolf  brand as a series with new covers.

In August 2020 I launched Stowe Away an approximately 20,000 word novella adventure.

And, on Feb 23, 2021, Fear and Longing in Los Angeles, the second novel in the series.

Fear and Longing in Los Angeles takes Michael Andrews to Hollywood where he is working as a script consultant on the set of one of his books that is being turned into a movie.

He is using the trip as a chance to clear his head and get away from his frustrating love-life. The only woman he has ever loved, Gail, has made it clear that there's no chance of ever returning to the previous relationship. That, at best, they would only be friends.

When in LA, Michael encounters a mysterious woman he is compelled to get to know, and she turns out to be the perfect distraction for him. But while he's there, he also encounters some a nefarious hate group cult that is growing and threatening innocent people. And the woman he is getting involved with seems to have ties to that group.