Groundtruthing by Paul Grant

https://books2read.com/Notorious-Moose-Jaw “Great storyline, and if you are from Moose Jaw (or wish you were) the story jumps out at you as you recognize the buildings, streets and even people.” Ron Rollie, after reading Notorious Groundtruthing – using information based on real-life obervations – gives stories a verisimilitude that resonates with readers. Saskatchewan is a drama queen when it comes to climate, which is why climate plays a major role in both of my novels. We go from minus 40C in the winter to plus 40C in the summer, the wind is almost always blowing, and we get more than 600,000 lightning strikes a year, plus hail, rain and snow in any given month, even August. On the plus side, the lightning puts on a helluva show, the wind scours the clouds from the bright blue sky, and the extreme temperatures ensure that the province is sparsely populated – just two people per square kilometre, compared to 5.4 in B.C., 15.9 in Ontario and 28,000+ in New York State. And as Ron Rollie says, it makes a great backdrop for a story. Notorious (BWL 2025) is set in present-day Moose Jaw. During the Covid lockdowns there was a massive spike in the use of, and addiction to, methamphetamine. Post-pandemic, the problem persists, along with the money laundering and murder that come with the drug trade. While the cops try to catch the killers, journalist Eleanor Bell follows the money to discover who is behind the meth operation, and how they’re linked to an almost forgotten Balkan war. Astraphobia (BWL 2025) is part of BWL’s Paranormal Canadiana series and set during the formative years of Saskatchewan as a province. It follows three generations of Moose Jaw farmers who are stalked by lightning, which is absolutely capricious, killing some and sparing others without regard to whether they are saints, sinners or somewhere in between. Can the family ever escape the McKenzie Curse?

A New Road to Travel by Jay Lang

My latest book is a psychological thriller, and writing it changed something in me. I have written in other genres before and really explored them, playing with different tones, building all kinds of characters, and experimenting with pacing until I found what worked. But this time it felt less like experimenting and more like arriving somewhere I was meant to be. From the very first chapter, something clicked. Instead of focusing on what was happening around my characters, I became obsessed with what was happening inside them. The fears they would not admit. The lies they told themselves. The quiet justifications that slowly snowball into something much darker. What feels so different now is how deeply I lean into those inner pieces. It is not just about what happens. It is about why it happens. I found myself digging into emotions we all try to hide. Anxiety. Obsession. Guilt. That creeping doubt that maybe we are not as in control as we think we are. Writing in this space forced me to slow down and really sit with discomfort, to stretch out tension until it almost hums under the surface. There is something addictive about creating that kind of atmosphere. It is intimate and unsettling in a way that lingers long after a scene ends. I caught myself thinking about these characters at random times during the day, wondering how far they would go and what would finally push them past the point of no return. That kind of curiosity feels different. Stronger. Somewhere in the middle of drafting, I realized this was not just another project. It felt personal in a creative sense. I am fascinated by the human mind, especially its darker corners, and finally giving myself permission to explore them fully has been both terrifying and exhilarating. I think I may have found exactly where I belong. https://v13.net/author/jay-lang/

Everyone Is a Character by Julie Christen

Click here to purchase Nokota Voices!

 Everyone Is A Character

By Julie Christen

My life is full of people. Every single day, so many people. They come and they go. Some hang on a little while, or a long while, then they ripple away in time. Some stay, always. Some mark the beginning of an era, others mark the end. Some are a blip, others leave a permanent impression. Some are good. Some are not good.

I watch them all. Quietly, from the sidelines. Everyone is a character.

A subtle look, a quirky habit, a predictable reaction, I tuck it inside my mind, saving it for later. From hairstyles to hand gestures. Material. A cadence in gate, a clever comment, an obvious tell. Material. Memorable expressions, weird hobbies, hokie one-liners. Material. Scars, tatts, piercings. Material. Ticks, oddities, obsessions. Material.

Everyone is a character.

Sage advice, words you live by, modeling by example. Material. Bad choices, risky choices, indulgent choices. Material. Weak moments, moral dilemmas, fatal flaws. Material. Youngest child, middle child, oldest child, pedestal child, forgotten child. Material. Troubled background, mysterious origins, silver spoons. Material. Kind, evil, weird. Ornery, timid, benign. Sturdy, frail, oxen. Material.

The list goes on. 

Endless material. Maybe from you. And for that, I thank you.

Everyone is a character.

Click here to view my website.

Click here to purchase Echoes of the Nokota!

Click here to purchase Sparkslingers!

A missing woman, a chatty dead girl, and a detective who’s running out of time by donalee Moulton

 

Cardinal has landed. 

This is my newest book, and the most recent in BWL’s Paranormal Canadiana Collection. Set in Nova Scotia, Cardinal follows private detective Em Montgomery as she hunts for a missing woman. She expected dead ends. She did not expect a dead girl who refuses to stay buried. The detective finds herself knee-deep in fog, small-town secrets, and the uneasy sense she’s being watched by more than wildlife. 

I thought I’d share the opening pages with you.

 

ORDER HERE

 PROLOGUE

Thorburn Exchange, Pictou County, Nova Scotia

Tuesday, April 23, 1889

 

Catherine McIntosh kicks off her blankets. Again. She’s hot, and in the whirl of a restless sleep, her body seeks cool air. Any relief from the overwhelming heat. The eight-year-old doesn’t understand why it is so hot. Why she is so hot.

Her mother gently pulls the blankets back over her daughter’s feverish body. Catherine is sick, has been sick for days and days now. This started so simply, so normally. A sore throat, a mild fever. Catherine is long past that. Now her entire body aches and a red rash has spread across her little arms, legs, torso. Her fever fills the room with an anguished heat.

 

No one is saying the words every parent dreads to hear, but in her heart, this mother knows those words to be true. Scarlet fever.

Catherine’s mother refuses to hear the whispers consuming her daughter’s bedroom. Defiantly, she makes plans for Catherine’s ninth birthday a month from now. There will be cake. There will be games and songs and a present. Something special. Perhaps they can afford a doll. Catherine loves dolls.

At some unknown hour, Catherine’s mother falls into a fitful sleep. When she wakes, she faces the cruelest of realities. Her daughter will never turn nine.

 

Catherine has stopped tossing and turning. Her fever has vanished. The red sandpaper that covered her body has disappeared. Soft white skin remains. A smile spreads across Catherine’s face. Then she sees her mother crying. Catherine goes to comfort her. To hug her.

There is no hug. There is no comfort. Catherine does not understand what is happening. She is, after all, only eight years and eleven months old. Catherine sits beside her mother. Sees the rumpled quilt on her bed. Sees someone lying in her bed. Catherine wonders who it might be. Tries to hug her mother. Again.

She hears someone calling her name. It must be her father, but it doesn't sound like her father. It doesn’t matter. Catherine is not leaving her mother.

Ever.

 

Greenvale Road, Pictou County, Nova Scotia

Thursday, April 23, 2026

 

Yellow birch trees bend a welcome in the wind. Balsam firs wave a needled hello. There is a lilt in Nell Gillis’s step, a half-smile on her face, a lightness in her being. Nell feels at home. She is not sure why. This is not her home.

The granite headstone looks its age, and ageless. Moss has nestled in the carved letters and ridges that give the memorial its foundation. Nell stretches out her hand to caress the stone, a prayer ready on her lips. Her hand stops inches from the stone. There is a brightness to the mossy granite as if somehow sunshine emanates from within.

Nell withdraws her hand. She reaches instead to the ground and gently places a ragdoll at the base of the headstone. It settles alongside dozens of other offerings: a stuffed elephant and a cuddly teddy bear, bouquets of artificial flowers, dolls of all hairstyles and attire. Someone has cut a small spray of mayflowers. The sweet, spicy scent tickles Nell’s nostrils. Nell made her gift back in Halifax more than one hundred and seventy kilometers away. She wanted to replicate what a doll might have looked like when plastic and assembly lines didn’t exist. When Catherine McIntosh was a little girl.

This is Nell’s fourth visit. It will be her last. Nell raises her head from the gifts spread on the earth before her. She realizes she has not been paying attention. She has been inside her head. She has forgotten that where there is sunshine, there are shadows.

The last thing Nell Gillis remembers is a loud, unearthly growl.

Catherine McIntosh's grave in Nova Scotia today. 

 

 

BWL Publishing New Releases March, 2026

https://sharonmcinnes.com/ Few things can change a mother-daughter relationship as quickly and profoundly as a diagnosis of dementia. Walking Each Other Home is the true story of how one daughter’s life was changed—and ultimately enriched—when her mother was hit with vascular dementia. Editorial Review by S. Peters Davis, What a heartfelt, interesting, and informational story of personal caring for a parent with Vascular Dementia. Sharon McInnes shares her experiences and care through all the stages of her mother’s dementia. She explains much of her research and where she went to find it. The honest feelings when dealing with and caring for each stage of this illness really offer good guidance on healthcare, the places available for that care, and how to provide care and safety to a family member living with you. Few things can change a mother-daughter relationship as quickly and profoundly as a diagnosis of dementia. Walking Each Other Home is the true story of how one daughter’s life was changed—and ultimately enriched—when her mother was hit with vascular dementia.

https://www.amazon.ca/Road-Tripping-Southern-Alberta-Donaldson-Yarmey/dp/0228639352 Many people think of Alberta as mountains, Calgary Stampede, and West Edmonton Mall. They don’t realize there is so much more to see and do in the province, so many adventures to be had. Road Tripping Southern Alberta will: take you to out of the way hamlets, villages, and towns; get you exploring hidden gems of the province; and tell you about the history, the people, and the sights of this portion of the province. It covers the area from Edmonton south to the USA border and from British Columbia to Saskatchewan and you can do day tours, weekend jaunts, or spend as much of the summer as you wish on these roads. And while active travellers will enjoy the journey, armchair travellers will also relish the creative imageries and colourful observations of the author. Come, discover, and experience this unique part of the world.

https://www.amazon.ca/Cardinal-Nova-Scotia-donalee-Moulton/dp/0228639425 Private detective Em Montgomery is hunting for a missing woman. She expected dead ends. She did not expect a dead girl who refuses stay buried. Now Em is knee-deep in fog, small-town secrets, and the uneasy sense she’s being watched by more than wildlife. Cardinal mixes a sharp wit with sharper danger to get under your skin. And follow you home. Vernon Oickle, author of Ghost Stories of Nova Scotia and the award-winning Crow series Wrapped up in a popular ghost story, donalee Moulton has crafted a breathtaking mystery full of suspense and intrigue that takes you to the rural reaches of the province. Real or ethereal, the story steeped in a Nova Scotia legend involving the apparition of a little girl who died more than a century earlier, moves forward at a riveting pace as, layer by layer, it peels back the secrets until the compelling and satisfying conclusion. Moulton is a master storyteller who captures the small-town mores that are the “real” Nova Scotia, and Cardinal is truly a unique ghost story that will keep you eagerly turning pages until the end.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Wide-Mark-Indomitable-Spirit-Book-ebook/dp/B0GM2CZFCZ Assisting with the capture of a military doctor who kept a dead woman in his house is a thorn in Colonel Amelia Matheson’s side compared to the devastating news of her daughter Hope’s disappearance. On the hunt for the perpetrators who kidnapped her deaf daughter from the groomed trails during a solo biathlon training session, Amelia enlists the help of Morgan Anchor, a local sheriff who once sold her out. To find Hope, Amelia and Morgan must untangle a web of secrets, including their own, and trust each other again. Held captive in a remote cabin in the mountains, Hope fights the storm of her life using her wits and her skills. Scared but unafraid, she sets out to escape and save the man that her mother sent to rescue her – a man who is not who he appears to be. EDITORIAL REVIEW by Victoria Chatham Teenage biathlete Hope Matheson, known as Quest, does not return from her solo training run. Her mother, Colonel Amelia Matheson, joins forces with Sheriff Morgan Anchor in a frantic search for her. As clues emerge, more questions arise, particularly about how a dangerous kidnapper and an unsavoury senator are linked to Hope. Throw into that mix a pregnant deputy, a coach with his own agenda, old wounds and new revelations. This fast-paced story unfolds against the backdrop of magnificent mountains, blizzard-blown snow, and killing cold. The characters are engaging, the descriptions vivid, and the narrative cannot fail to catch the reader’s attention from start to finish.