Wounded Hearts by J. S. Marlo

Wounded Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #2"

is now available  

click here 

 

 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I am delighted to present my newest novel: Wounded Hearts

Faced with the impossible choice of hurting the man she loves, or leaving him forever, Rowan Kendrick flees Iceland for Prince Edward Island, Canada. Heartbroken, and unable to forget him, she finds refuge at The Buccaneer, a bed & breakfast recently willed to her by an estranged aunt.

Haunted by a fatal shooting, Avery Stone seeks his escape in Buccaneer's attic room. Despite himself, he is drawn into the peculiar circumstances behind the previous owner's death and the strange bones exhumed by Rowan. His dislike for the doctor befriending her turns to mistrust as matters unravel.

Rowan struggles to cope with difficult guests, the puzzling Mr. Stone, and her increasingly complicated family secrets. When she unearths a murderer, is she doomed to death like her aunt? Or will the men in her life, including the love she left behind, set aside their own troubles and band together to help her?

Storylines don't usually just pop into my head. In most cases, something in real life sparks an idea, and that idea develops into a storyline.

This is the story behind Wounded Hearts:

Years ago, Hubby and I went on a two-week vacation on Magdalen Islands, a small archipelago in the gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic Coast. We stayed in a Bed & Breakfast on one of the smaller islands. The hosts/owners were as charming as the old school building they had transformed in a Bed & Breakfast.

When they learned I was a writer, they suggested I set my next story in a Bed & Breakfast on the Atlantic Coast. I couldn't resist their wonderful idea. This is the reason Rowan inherits a Bed & Breakfast on Prince Edward Island.

Happy Reading & Stay Safe!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

The Human Library by J. S. Marlo

 

Seasoned Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #1"

is now available  

click here 

 

 

The Red Quilt 

"a sweet & uplifting holiday story"

click here 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I stumbled on a post on Facebook about Human Library. I should have been writing, but the post was intriguing, so I couldn't resist digging deeper.

In a Human Library, you borrow a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes. The tag line is "Unjudge Someone". The goal is to fight prejudice and to remind people not to judge a book, any book, by its cover.

Each human book has a title: "Unemployed", "Cancer Survivor", "Autism", "Wheelchair User", "Refugee"... 

Human books interacts with their readers in a safe place where difficult questions can be asked and honest answers can be given. All human books are volunteers who personally experienced their topics.

The first Human Library event took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2000. Today, human books are available in more than 80 countries, including Canada, USA, Australia, and most European countries.

For more info, visit humanlibrary.org

Happy Reading & Stay safe!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

A writer's hobby by J. S. Marlo

  

Seasoned Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #1"

is now available  

click here 

 

 

The Red Quilt 

"a sweet & uplifting holiday story"

click here 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I have many hobbies, which I indulge between books or when I need to think about a story. One of them is woodworking.

We had a magnificent poplar in our backyard. When Hubby planted the little twig twenty-five years, we never expected it would grow three times the height of our house, but it did. Some of its leaves were bigger than my hand with my fingers outstretched. In the fall, we raked forever, to the delight of my little granddaughter who loved jumping in the huge pile. We filled many orange bags with them, then with a black marker, I drew Jack O'Lantern on them. Easy Halloween decorations!

Unfortunately, the tree got sick and we had to cut it down at the end of last summer before it fell on the roof.  We were left with a giant hole and huge logs in the backyard. We turned the hole into a gravel circle, then bought a portable fire pit. We kept all the wood. When Hubby started chopping it, it occurred to me I could turn some of the bigger logs into stools to put around the fire pit.

I peeled the bark, sanded the logs, carved a design on them, then stained and treated them. For months, my garage smelled like cut wood. Here they are: Owl, Wolf, Bear, Squirrel, and Rabbit. My granddaughter decided the Owl was hers LOL

I don't know how long the stools will last, but hopefully, they will withstand many Canadian winters. In the meantime, they add charm to the backyard -- and they were fun to make.

Stay safe!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

Holidays by J. S. Marlo

 

 

 

Seasoned Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #1"

is now available  

click here

 

 

The Red Quilt

"a sweet & uplifting holiday story"

click here

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

I started a new series titled Fifteen Shades. The series consists of holiday tales inspired by colours. The first book The Red Quilt was released in December 2021. The Red Quilt takes place at Christmas and features fifteen shades of red.

I started the second book. It is supposed to take place during Canadian thanksgiving and feature fifteen shades of blue. Now, in the last few weeks, I’ve been rethinking the setting, so I’ve been looking at other holidays celebrated in my home country.

Valentine’s Day (St. Valentine’s Day):

 

Valentine’s Day celebrates romantic love, friendship, and admiration. It is celebrated on 14 February in over 28 countries. In the Philippines, 14 February is the most common wedding anniversary day.

 

St. Patrick’s Day (The Feast of St. Patrick):

 

St. Patrick’s Day is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland. It is celebrated in more than 50 countries.

 

Easter:

 

Easter is both a pagan and a religious holiday. It is referred to a as a moveable feast. Its date varies according to the calendar originally used (Gregorian vs Julian) and the day of the last full moon (either astronomical or Julian). In Western countries, it can fall on any Sunday between 22 March and 25 April, but in some Eastern parts of the world, it can fall on any Sunday between 4 April and May 8. Around 95 countries celebrate Easter, but traditions vary by countries.

 

Canada Day:

 

Canada Day is celebrated on 1 July.

 

Thanksgiving:

 

Thanksgiving celebrates the harvest and blessings of the past year. There are roughly 17 countries that celebrate their own version of
Thanksgiving. The date and traditions varies by countries. In Canada, it is celebrated on the second Monday of October, and in the United States, it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

 

Halloween:

 

Halloween is a combination of pagan and religious rituals, and is believed to be one of the oldest celebrations in the world. It is celebrated toward the end of October/beginning of November (mostly on 31 October and 2 November) in around 40 countries.

 

Remembrance Day:

 

Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed on 11 November throughout the British Commonwealth since the end of WW1. It is also known as Armistice Day or Poppy Day. The day is also marked by war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries.

 

Every year since 1919, on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month, we observe a moment of silence to mark the sacrifice of the many who have fallen in the service of their country, and to acknowledge the courage of those who still serve.

Christmas:

 

Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. More than two billion people in over 160 countries celebrated Christmas. It is the most celebrated holiday in the world, but the day (see map) and the traditions associated with this holiday vary by countries.

 

New Year:

 

The New Year celebration is a global event with different types of celebration. The Pacific Islands of Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati were the first to welcome 1 January 2022 while Baker and Howland Islands were the last.

 

Happy Spring! Happy Easter! Stay safe!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

 

A Traditional Scandinavian Christmas Recipe by A.M.Westerling

 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2022! May you have time today to sit down and relax with loved ones. 

Every family has their favourite traditions and I'd like to share one of ours. My husband is Danish and this is one of the fun little customs we keep going. We eat our turkey dinner on Christmas Eve and serve rice pudding for dessert. 

 ****

Danish Rice Pudding

1 cup pearl rice

5 cups milk

¼ cup sugar

½ cup slivered almonds

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups whipping cream

Cherry Sauce

 Boil rice in milk over low heat 45 minutes. Cool, then add sugar, almonds and almond extract. Whip cream until stiff and fold into rice mixture. Chill. Turn into bowl and top with Cherry Sauce or spoon into individual dessert dishes and top with sauce. Makes about 12 servings.

 Cherry Sauce

1 16 ounce can dark sweet cherries.

1 teaspoon cornstarch

 Reserve about 1 teaspoon cherry liquid. Turn remaining liquid and cherries into saucepan and heat to boiling. Blend cornstarch with reserved liquid and stir into boiling mixture. Cook and stir until well blended, then cool sauce and chill.

**** 

Now here comes the fun part. Place a whole almond in the pudding and whoever gets the whole almond wins a little prize, usually a marzipan pig. As our family has grown, I now use 2 almonds. But everyone wants to win a coveted pig! Good luck!

How about Evelyn's Beau, a Christmas novella to read and enjoy when you have a moment to put up your feet? 

As a favour to the local vicar, Lady Evelyn Kendall agrees to organize a Christmas pageant involving disadvantaged children, never realizing it would lead to disaster for both her and Lord Oliver Harrington, the man she loves.

Available at your favourite online store HERE. Prefer print? Find that on Amazon.

Find all my books on my page at the BWL Publishing website.

A Regency Christmas by A.M. Westerling

 First off, I would like to wish all our American friends a Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful turkey dinner with loved ones with perhaps a dish of NFL football on the side. 

And what comes after Thanksgiving? Christmas! During the Regency era, Christmas was referred to as Christmastide. It spanned the period from Christmas Eve to January 6, or Twelfth Night, which marked the official end of Christmastide.

On Christmas Eve, families brought greenery indoors, but not before then as it was considered bad luck. Traditional decorations included holly, rosemary, bay, laurel and mistletoe. Evergreens were considered either symbols of eternal life or fertility symbols. Also brought in was the Yule log. It was kept burning as long as possible, at least to the end of Christmas Day and perhaps even until Twelfth Night. Splinters were set aside and used to light the log the following year.

The decorations were taken down and burned once Twelfth Night was over as leaving them up past that date might bring bad luck. Even today, some people take down their decorations before January 6. We do that although I never knew that was the reason!

Christmas Day was a national holiday. It was mostly a religious festival and included charity to the poor. Gifts weren’t usually exchanged although small gifts might be given to children. People went to church and returned home for a splendid Christmas dinner with friends.  Personally, I love decorating the dinner table for Christmas dinner. (As an aside, Christmas trees did not become popular until later in the 19th century so were not part of the Regency era.)

Usually a goose or turkey was served, or for the gentry, venison. Another popular dish was boar’s head, a kid of potted meat dish. This was followed by plum pudding, so called because one of the main ingredients were plums or prunes. These puddings were doused with brandy and set aflame, a key entertainment of the season.

Food played an important part throughout the season as there were a lot of parties and dishes that could be prepared ahead of time and served cold were popular. The wassail bowl was a common drink. Similar to punch, or mulled wine, it was prepared from spiced and sweetened wine or brandy. Apples garnished the bowl from which it was served. Mince meat pies, made from dried fruit, chopped meat, sugar and spices, were also considered staples of a Christmas feast.

St. Stephen’s Day, the day after Christmas, was a day for charity. The gentry gave their servants “Christmas Boxes” which might contain food, old clothing and other castoff items. Often, the staff would be given the day off. Churches collected money and distributed it to those in need. This is how the term “Boxing Day” originated. Also, this was a traditional day for fox hunting and the start of festivities for the remainder of Christmastide.

From the ceiling hung kissing balls and boughs made from twigs, greenery and decorated with seasonal fruit such as apples and of course, mistle toe. No lady could refuse a kiss beneath these. A mistletoe berry was picked for every stolen kiss and once the berries were gone, the practice was over. During the Regency, Christmas carols weren’t popular other than hymns sung in church.

Twelfth Night signaled the end of the season and was marked by another party. Activities during these parties included games such as hoodman blind, hot cockles, snap dragon and bob apple as well as more drinking, eating and dancing. Sugared cakes were part of Twelfth Night and these were the precursor to today’s Christmas cake. Traditionally a slice was given to all household members.  

Sadly, this extended Christmas season came to an end shortly after the Regency period due to the disappearance of the rural way of life and also the Industrial Revolution and the need for workers to continue working through out that season.

It seems only proper to give the closing words to Jane Austen: “I wish you a cheerful and at times even a Merry Christmas”.

*****

You might enjoy my Regency era Christmas novella, Evelyn's Beau:

 As a favour to the local vicar, Lady Evelyn Kendall agrees to organize a Christmas pageant involving disadvantaged children, never realizing it would lead to disaster for both her and Lord Oliver Harrington, the man she loves. 

The ebook is available at your favourite online store HERE. A print version would make an ideal gift! Available on Amazon in both the United States and Canada. 

Find all my books on the BWL Publishing website HERE.

Beyond Barkerville by A.M. Westerling

 Those of you who know me know that I am an avid camper and that one of my favorite camping vacation destinations is northern British Columbia. Words cannot begin to describe the beauty of this area. Imagine towering, thick forests, tumbling white water rivers and soaring mountain peaks and you get the idea. If you like the wilderness and outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing and camping, this is the destination for you.

We usually set up a base camp just outside of Terrace on Lakelse Lake. 

From there, we’ll take day trips and for today’s post, I’ll share one of our more interesting tours and that was up the Nass Valley. As you drive north of Terrace, you follow the Nisga’a Highway which borders Kitsumkalum Lake. You can drive for miles in pristine wilderness, with the lake on one side and forests and mountains on the other and you’ll rarely see another vehicle or any signs of habitation.

Eventually you’ll reach Nisga’s Mem’l Lava Beds Provincial Park. The Nass Valley is the site of Canada’s most recent volcanic eruption, around 1750 and lava flows cover a large area.

 

From there, it’s up to New Ayiansh, which replaces the original town that was destroyed in the volcano. No one knows for sure but it’s estimated about 2000 people died during the eruption.

If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can head over to Kincolith, which until recently was only accessible by boat or plane.

 I was fortunate enough to be included in BWL Publishing's Canadian Historical Brides Collection. My contribution was Barkerville Beginnings, the story of Rose and Harrison set in the historic gold rush town of Barkerville, B.C.. On this particular trip, we stopped in at Barkerville on our way home which of course helped immensely with my research!

 

You can find Barkerville Beginnings and all my books HERE on the BWL Publishing website. 

*****

Websites I visited to write this post: 

www.nisgaanation.ca/volcano

https://nassvalleyeruption.weebly.com/

A (very!) Brief History of Mining in Cornwall by A.M.Westerling

 Cornwall is known for its wild, craggy shorelines, its history of smuggling, as the location of Daphne du Maruier’s Jamaica Inn and of course Cornish pasties. It’s also known for its landscape which is rich in metallic mineral deposits, particularly tin and copper. In Catherine’s Passion, Book 3 of The Ladies of Harrington House, the hero is in the process of reviving an old tin mine that had flooded. Therefore this blog post will focus on tin mining although copper mining also played a great role in Cornwall’s history.

Mining activity in Cornwall dates back to the Bronze age, where tin was taken out of river valleys or by open cast mining. It was obviously a valuable commodity for there is evidence of trade between Cornwall and northern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. It was also of great value to Britain as Cornwall (and Devon) were the only local sources of tin.

By medieval times, Cornish tinners were renowned. Because of the valuable resource they provided, they were subject to special taxes, with unique privileges granted by Royal Charter. Cornish stannaries, or the areas where tin was mined, had their own laws and own parliament.  These stannaries were organized to manage the collection of tin coinage, which was the duty payable on the tin mined in that particular area. In my story, the tin ore will be sent to Truro, one of Cornwall’s ‘stannary’ towns. Locally mined tin (and copper) was brought there twice a year for assaying and stamping before shipment. Tinners had special rights, even to the extent of ignoring some of the laws of the land.

As the surface resources faded, tinners dug deeper to follow the lodes. The tin lodes were found in near vertical sheets in the rock. Hard rock mining and draining water from shafts produced skills and machinery that eventually were exported around the world. For example, Cornishman Richard Trevithick invented the Cornish high pressure steam engine, using them to pump water from the mines, lift ore to the surface and crush ore. Once numbering around 3000, Cornish beam engine houses are truly iconic landmarks. (This book about Richard Trevithick and his inventions is available on Amazon.)

Around 25 percent of the Cornish population worked in mines, from the mineral lords and investors to working families. Even the women were involved as bal maidens (bal is Cornish for mine) working “at grass” (above ground), crushing ore into fragments by hammer on anvil with only big hats called gooks to protect them from bad weather and rock debris. The men worked underground in hot dusty tunnels, running the constant risks of drowning, rock falls, and explosions.

The courage and skills of Cornish hard rock miners provided many a miner with a good living abroad, from the California Gold Rush to Australia, South Africa and beyond. A local who made this journey became known in Cornwall as a Cousin Jack. One theory that these men were called Cousin Jack is because they were always asking for a job for their cousin “Jack” back home. Another theory is that it’s because miners always used to greet each other by cousin and Jack was the most popular name in Cornwall at that time.

It's always an interesting challenge as a writer to include historical detail into works of fiction. I find any research I do always gives me story ideas! Read about Julian Fitzgerald and his tin mine in Catherine's Passion, coming soon from BWL Publishing. 😀

 

*****

You can find all my books on the BWL Publishing website HERE.