One of Canadian Attractions--The Bay of Fundy by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

https://books2read.com/Road-Tripping-Southern-Alberta

Amazon US: https://us.amazon.com/Road-Tripping.../dp/B0GNJFDZMF

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Road-Tripping.../dp/0228639352

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/.../road.../1149544339...

 Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/1968339

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/.../road-tripping-southern-alberta...

I began my writing career as a travel writer, switched to fiction writing for many years and am now back to being a travel writer again. All of my articles and books have been set in Canada, which is where I live. Roadtripping Southern Alberta is my latest travel book and, as its title suggests, is about what there is to see and do in Southern Albera. But I have travelled across Canada and learned much about its exciting and varied history and have seen many of its attractions.

Today I’d like to describe my husband's and my visit to the Bay of Fundy situated between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Bay has the highest tides in the world and was formally designated one of North America’s seven wonders of nature in February, 2014. (The others are Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Mount McKinley, the Everglades, and Yosemite National Park).

       From Moncton, New Brunswick, we drove south on Route 114 to Hopewell Cape and the Hopewell Rocks, arriving in the afternoon. It was low tide so after we paid, Mike accepted the cart ride offered while I decided to walk the trail to the Rocks. I arrived at a viewpoint overlooking the ocean floor and the reddish rock structures.  Mike and I took the stairway down to the floor and wandered out among the tall formations. The ground was surprisingly solid with a few muddy areas.

       The Hopewell Rocks were originally a massive mountain range that was older than the Appalachians in the United States and bigger than the Rocky Mountains in Canada. Over millions of years the range wore down and after the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age, water seeping through cracks in the cliffs eroded the sedimentary and sandstone and separated the Rocks from the cliffs. The incoming and outgoing tides have eroded the base of the rocks at a faster rate than the tops and that has caused their unusual shapes. Those shapes and the vegetation growing on top have given the formations their nickname of the Flowerpot Rocks.

       Due to the tides, the Rocks are covered in water twice a day. Some visitors are able to see the high and low tides in one day but since the next high tide would be at night, Mike and I found a place to camp and returned to the Rocks the next morning. There is approximately six hours between low and high tide and the entrance fee covers a return visit to enable visitors to see the Rocks during both tides.

       Again, Mike took his ride and I walked. I reached the viewpoint and the change was astonishing. Just the tops of some of the rocks showed, the rest being under water. The tides can reach a height of 16 metres (52ft), which is as high as a four-storey building, twice a day. I walked down part of the stairs but the rest was blocked off to the public because they were under water. High tide is a good time to take a kayak tour and three kayakers were paddling around the formations.

       After seeing all the water and the partial formations, it was hard to believe that just the day before I had walked on the floor of the bay. It was an amazing experience.

The Minnesota Mystery Night by Dean Hovey

Last night I was the guest of honor at the Minnesota Mystery Night September celebration. It's a truly humbling experience to be interviewed in front of eighty mystery fans. Some were old friends, others were a regular crowd who also showed up when William Kent Krueger (author of the Cork O'Connor series) and Craig Johnson (author of the Longmire series) were interviewed earlier this year. My interviewer, author Brian Lutterman, is an old friend and we had a comfortable discussion about books, characters, plots, writing, editors, and publishers. I love talking about books. A lot of our time was spent discussing "Death in Darkness", its setting in Jewel Cave National Monument, and the series which involves my US National Park Service investigators flying around the country to solve suspicious deaths on Park Service properties. Brian" "You dress in khaki pants and a golf shirt just like your main character. Are you Doug Fletcher?" Dean: "Absolutely not! Doug is younger, smarter, and better looking." Brian: "But Doug's a bit cynical, irreverent, and uses dialogue that sounds like you." Dean: "Let's say that Doug and I share a lot of views about policing, people, horses, poisonous snakes, and politics. We are both from the Twin Cities. so our voices sound midwestern with a touch of Fargo-esque accent." And the interview went on for an hour. As an author, this tops my list of fun and enriching experiences. It always amazes me that people enjoy my books and can relate to my somewhat scarred protagonists. Many thanks to Bob Junghans, Brian Lutterman, and the staff at Lucky's Pub. It was an honor and privilege to be your guest.

The Uncomfortable, Awkward Crinoline, (what women put up with), by Diane Scott Lewis

 

Allure of the Crystal Palace will be available in November.    

My books are also available at Barnes and Noble. Scroll down for Amazon.

Writing about a woman thrust back in time to 1851, I needed to describe the clothing she would have to wear. Clothing totally foreign to her. In 1851, women's dresses were pushed out to unbelievable widths by an undergarment called a crinoline. How would any of us manage such a change?

My time-traveler, Keely, cringes at going from short clingy skirts to huge bell-shaped gowns. The gown bounces around her, bumping into everything. She feels like a ship swaying on the sea as she walks. 

It was invented to rid women from wearing heavy layers of petticoats. Why not just reduce the number of petticoats, I wonder? Keely decides to cut hers down, alter her gowns, and risk being ridiculed.

The first crinolines were made of horsehair, then wood, and in 1856, steel. Keely must figure out how to sit in them, and in her case, run.

The steel hoops were flexible, suspended by fabric tapes. But the fashion was awkward. Women in their homes put their knick-knacks up high to protect them from the billowing skirts. The garments certainly kept any suitors at bay.

Working women sometimes caught theirs on fire and were burned to death.

Magazine and newspaper writers mocked the style. One such article said women had to remove their crinolines and hang them on the side of the omnibuses before boarding. No proper Victorian woman would have done this, thus showing her underwear in public.

By the end of the 1860s, the fashion declined, to be replaced by the bustle in the 1870s.

The bustle only pushed out the skirt in back. Still not very practical.

To find out more about me and my books.

                    

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with one naughty dachshund.

How do you celebrate birthdays? ...by Sheila Claydon

 Find my books here

It's my husband's birthday today and, when asked what he wanted, he said he didn't want anything.  Of course he didn't get away with that because I had already decided that a few of his clothes needed updating! Our children, somewhat at a loss, have opted for a celebratory restaurant meal and a bottle of wine, while grandchildren have sent biscuits and chocolate and messages. 

Why didn't he want anything? At 85 he still has his health, good friends, a close knit family and enough money for a comfortable life, so doesn't want anything else. Having travelled a great deal both for work and, after retirement, for pleasure, he no longer wants the experience of airport queues, long flights and  unfamiliar beds. His pleasure now is a countryside dog walk, an evening with friends or family, a game of cards, sport on TV or a good film. Many of our slightly younger friends are also veering towards this way of thinking even if some of them haven't quite got there yet. A reduced life maybe, but contentment is a priceless gift.

Today has made me think about birthdays however. With a Chinese daughter-in-law and therefore an Eurasian granddaughter, I already knew other cultures celebrated differently. Whereas we give her a birthday card and presents, and help with birthday parties, her Chinese grandparents and other relatives give her red envelopes. These contain crisp new notes and are a symbol of good luck for the year to come. Another Chinese tradition is to slurp down longevity long noodles without breaking them, as a symbol of a long life.

Because of our travels we have also experienced birthday celebrations in other cultures. In Australia small children eat fairy bread. This is white bread spread with butter and topped with coloured sprinkles. Not the healthiest, but greatly enjoyed.

In Denmark the 'cake' is a pastry shaped as a person. It is decorated with candy, icing and liquorice, and known as the cake lady. She comes to a rather traumatic end when the birthday boy/girl decapitates her while the guests all scream at the top of their voices. As the Danes regard their national flag as a symbol of happiness and celebration, cakes, party tables and even front doors are also often festooned with replica flags.

In Mexico there is a long history behind the birthday tradition of splitting the piñata. This is a brightly coloured shape, traditionally seven-sided, but nowadays also made in many different shapes, that is hung up, often on a tree branch but sometimes indoors. Formed variously from cardboard, foil, clay, or papier-mache it is filled with candies, lollipops chocolates and small plastic toys. At the party it is attacked by blindfolded children who take turns to swing at it with a stick. This happens immediately before cutting the cake while guests sing traditional songs. When the piñata splits the contents scatter across the floor and are scooped up by the excited children.

Thailand has a very different take on birthdays, regarding them as a time to give not to receive. Wishing to gather good karma for the coming year they give out alms, buy birds and fish captured for slaughter and release them back into the wild, and also honour their parents with gifts for the sacrifices they have made. They also traditionally wear their birth day colour, which is associated with whichever day of the week they were born.

India is similar in that, with the birthday boy or girl dressed in new clothes, the whole family might visit a temple with offerings of prayers and flowers. Other religious rituals are part of the day, including honouring parents and warding off the evil eye. However, western style birthday cake is also eaten but in a very different way. The first bite is fed directly into the mother or father's mouth by hand. The parents then feed a bite back and this hand-feeding ritual continues with close family and friends.

Unsurprisingly, Italian birthdays are a time of great family celebration. Particularly important is the traditional dessert of a fruit-topped tart or layers of puff pastry with cream. Equally important is the tradition of immediately opening gifts rather than waiting until the end of the party. And then there is the ear pulling, where family and friends pull the birthday person's ear lobe once for every year of their life. Hard on the ear but a wish for a long and prosperous life.

So many different traditions, such different food, and yet I imagine that every small and not so small child experiences the same level of excitement when they wake up on their birthday morning. 

The cover of my book Double Fault does not look very celebratory but with two-year old twins helping celebrate an almost forgotten birthday that culminates in the big showdown that is integral to the happy ending, it's another sort of celebration. Birthdays can be many things. 

A Wonderful End to Summer - by Bonny Beswick

 

A Wonderful End to Summer 

Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park in SE Alberta 

Available Now! 

While fireworks fill the sky on the last night of The Greatest  

Show on Earth, also known as The Calgary Stampede, a man  

with a past is shot on his front doorstep. Love has many forms,  

but which one led to an innocent man’s death? 

As far as police work goes, Homicide Detective Janice  

Maidstone can’t imagine working with a better partner than  

fellow detective Scott Amble, but there’s a problem. It’s a race  

against time, as one or both of them may soon follow their  

hearts and seek new lives outside of the city. 

Amazon link: https://a.co/d/01fwe4ey 

Follow me on Facebook to stay up to date on locations where you can pick up a signed  copy!*

Available Now! 

The Aquamarine Necklace: A Janice Maidstone Mystery, by Bonny  

Beswick — Books We Love Publishing Inc. 

The Aquamarine Necklace: Beswick, Bonny: 9780228634737: Books - Amazon.ca 

The Last Lazy (?) Days of Summer 

This will be the summer that I went back to my early thirties, when I looked forward to  long weekends and tent camping. Things have changed! I can’t believe how much stuff I  accumulated to go camping. Decades ago, I could fit everything I needed in a back-pack,  and carry it up and down mountains. Now, the stack of gear almost fills my CR-V. It’s a good  thing I don’t have a passenger because they’d share the front seat with my writing stuff,  electronics, my indulgent pillow, and the last-minute groceries. 

My first campsite was at Beauvais Lake Provincial Park in SW Alberta, only a few  minutes from my sister and brother-in-law’s cabin (just in case I needed to bail in the middle  of the night). 

I picked a spot as far from the table (where food smells might be strongest) as  possible. To my relief, the fancy tent mechanism on my Reactive  

3 Second tent https://ca.reactiveoutdoor.com worked like a  

dream.  

The ground was hard and rocky so I had to pull out my  

mallet (sure glad I remembered to pack it) to put tent pegs in the  

ground. I took a chance after checking the forecast and didn’t  

put up a tarp. Good decision because it neither rained nor was  

hot enough to need the shade. 

The Monstabed mattress, tested for a few nights at home on the floor, is incredibly  comfortable, and though it's actually a little too big, pushing out the sides of the tent, I don't 

care! It's height reduces the headroom in the tent, but I don't have to haul myself up off the  ground and my knees are much happier.  

In the good old days, squirming out of a tent, hunched over, wasn’t a problem. But  this new tent has a 6” lip to step over. Great, because it will help prevent bugs from crawling  in, but it’s going to take some practice stepping over it without tripping. I’ll get better, but that  first weekend, I tumbled gracelessly on my face about 40% of the time. 

It took less than 90 minutes to set up camp, from the time I pulled into the campsite,  to when everything was set up (bed made with sheets, blanket and pillow), tablecloth  clamped to the picnic table, fire crackling in the grate, and wine opened. Not bad for my first  effort! 

My second camping experience was at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in the  southeastern part of the province. 

August is a toasty time of year in Alberta’s southeastern corner. Unfortunately, my campsite  had very little shade, and I couldn’t make the tarp work to give me more shade. I’ll have to  practice before my next camping trip. 

The night sounds at Beauvais Lake are far different from those at Writing-on-Stone  Provincial Park. The sound of breeze through the towering spruce and fir at Beauvais contrast  with the wind across dry grass and cotton wood trees in the southeastern part of the  province. I tuned my ear for the snuffling of bears in one place, and the slithering of snakes  in the other (yes, I know I likely couldn’t hear a snake!). 

By the way, this is one of the first signs I saw in the park when I drove in. Who knew I'd  pick the time of year when snakes are migrating? YIKES! I know some of you are used to  snakes – maybe even blasé about them, but for me – not so much!

In neither place were there noisy parties or annoying generators running. Instead,  there was the quiet of forest and prairie, happy children tearing around after each other,  people walking dogs, and murmuring voices from neighbouring campsites. 

At Beauvais, large predators – bear and cougar lurked (I didn’t see any of those,  although a moose wandered through the back of the campground one evening.)  

At Writing-on -Stone, there were smaller creatures. At the crack of dawn, twin fawns,  still with faint spots, and a little rock rabbit picked their way through the tall grass behind my  tent. They made for “aww” moments. On the other hand, I got surprised by a rattlesnake on  my walk back from the vault toilets one evening—an “eeek!” event. It was a feisty one – even  from about 8 feet away, it rattled and struck out at me. Alas, since I didn’t want to get close  enough to take a good photo in the low light, you’ll have to take my word for it. 

Since these were my first camping trips in many decades, I thought I may not enjoy it.  I’m thrilled to say, though, that even packing and unpacking gear hasn’t damped my  enthusiasm and I’m already checking out campgrounds and sites for my next outing. 

In between my outdoor experiences was the When Words Collide Festival. This multi genre literary festival is one of the largest in Canada and for good reason. With three days of  amazing lectures, workshops, panel discussions, special Masterclasses, and opportunities  to pitch to agents, there’s something for every stage of writer and every fiction afficionado. 

The Aquamarine Necklace at Author Alley

There was even an opportunity to show off “The Aquamarine Necklace”, the first in  the Janice Maidstone mystery series. It was available on Author Alley in the Merchant Room  at the festival. “What Love Made Us Do” will sit next to it in 2027! 

You can already get your tickets for next year! 

When Words Collide 2027 - Canada's Most Fun Multi-Genre Literary Festival Tickets,  Friday, August 27-Sunday, August 29, 2027 • 9 AM-5 PM | Eventbrite 

*** 

What’s happening with book signings and talks? 

On September 24, I will be doing a talk on the “experience of writing and publishing  “at the Millarville Public Library at 7:00. I’ll have copies of both “The Aquamarine Necklace”  and “What Love Made Us Do” available. 

Here is a list of the book signings I have scheduled for “What Love Made Us Do”. Other  locations will be added as they are confirmed. 

Schedule of Book Signings 

Saturday, Sept 26 1 – 3 PM: Owl’s Nest, Britannia Shopping, 815A 49 Avenue SW, Calgary Saturday, October 10, 1:30 – 3:30 PM: Analog Books, 322 6 Street S., Lethbridge Time and Dates still TBD: 

November: Found Books and Shop, 206 1st St W, Cochrane 

December: Mountain Goat Books, Farmers' Market West (Greenwich Village), Calgary February 2027: Tuesdays Bookshop, 2462 213 Street Bellevue, Alberta

Summer 2026 is already a blur. Every day had something special to offer and I hope  you felt the same. As much as summer was rewarding, we’re heading into my hands-down  favourite time of year, and I can hardly wait to see what it brings.