Leprechauns in Leinster, by J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - DarknessDescends 

Short-listed for Best Young Adult Book 2018,

The Word Guild

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

The rolling hills and mountains around County Leinster are home to Ireland's famous attraction: the leprechaun. The wee fellows, and there are only fellows, stand about two feet tall and are known for their mischievous shenanigans. According to folklore, the leprechauns live in 'faery mounds' found under solitary trees. 

They are talented shoe-makers (only the Irish would conjure up a tradesman fairy) and love to dance so much that they wear out the soles of their shoes. True! If you are able to outsmart a leprechaun and catch him, you may be able to find his pot of gold. He will grant you three wishes in order to be released but since he has magical powers and can disappear in an instant, the chances of having your wishes granted are slim.

If you scoff at the idea of actual leprechauns dancing around the Irish countryside, scoff no more. Under European Law, leprechauns are an endangered species. Don't laugh, it's true, I'm not uttering a single dollop of Blarney. In 1992, the European Commission declared that a forested area in County Carlingford be officially protected land for the estimated 200+ leprechauns that live there. This land is under the European Habitats Directive.

Oh, those Irish! My own Kavanagh clan hail back to the Kings and Queens of County Leinster in the 11th century, well before England invaded the Emerald Isle. Hmmm, I think there may be an historical story brewing...

If you love a good tale, then you'll love my books, The Twisted Climb and the sequel, The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends. Find out for yourself why both books were voted Best Young Adult Book in 2016 and 2018. Enjoy!

J.C. Kavanagh, author of

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

Don't blame the pangolin, by J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends 

Short-listed for Best Young Adult Book 2018,

The Word Guild

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

As Sheila Craydon wrote in her BWL blog on Valentine's Day, effects of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19 as it's now named ('COVI' from coronavirus and 'D' meaning disease, and '19' representing the year the first cases were reported), is being felt world-wide. Scientists and doctors are combining their research efforts to determine the source of the deadly virus. According to the Medical News Today website, Chinese-based researchers believe the virus 'host' is not a bat, which is the mammal that typically carries a coronavirus. No, they suggest that the harmless, most-poached and critically endangered pangolin is to blame. It is their belief that bats are unable to directly transmit the virus to humans and that an "intermediate animal is usually the one responsible."

You've probably said, "Pangolin? What is a pangolin?"

Pangolins are the only scale-covered mammal in the world and sadly, they are being poached to extinction. Pangolins mainly eat ants and termites, and in fact, help reduce the termite population in countries like the Philippines, China, Vietnam and Malaysia. Pangolins have no teeth and use their long sticky tongue to slurp out termites and ants from their nests. Pangolins are typically nocturnal and use their scales as a defense against predatory animals. When frightened, the pangolin will roll into a ball, using their scales as a type of armour.

A pangolin rolled in a self-defensive ball.

A baby pangolin's first outing from its nesting burrow, typically at 30 days.

A tree pangolin capturing termites from a branch.

Baby pangolins will remain with their mother for up to two years.

In many Asian countries, the scales of the pangolin are sought for alleged 'medicinal' purposes, though there is no medical support for these traditions. In addition, the pangolin meat is considered a delicacy in some countries and this spurs the illegal, black-market trade. Unfortunately, the wholesale slaughter of pangolins continues in spite of the fact that the pangolin has been described as "the most poached and trafficked mammal in the world." All species of the pangolin are on the endangered list, and many are on the road to extinction. All because of illegal trafficking.

In China and many other countries, laws have been instituted to protect the pangolin. These laws prohibit the capture, sale and/or transport of the animals. In fact, those caught selling pangolins could face up to 10 years in prison.

This, however, has not deterred the black market pangolin trade. 

In the city of Wuhan, China, where COVID-19 originated in a seafood and wild animal market, it is believed that the virus transmitted from a host animal to humans. Researchers are still investigating if the source was a bat which transmitted to a pangolin and then to humans. However, since the first human case was treated late December 2019, the virus has been transmitted directly from human to human. What researches haven't proved, though, is if there were pangolins sold illegally at the Wuhan market. No one has (yet) come forward to admit they sold live/dead pangolins. Doing so, though, would be of significant benefit to determining if the pangolin was the virus' intermediate 'host.'

Is the pangolin really to blame for COVID-19? Or is it the greed of black-marketers, combined with human indifference to the potential extinction of a mild-mannered, toothless, ant-eating animal. Would there be human transmission of the virus if the pangolin was not used as bush meat and nonsensical medicine? I'm not a scientist, so I don't know. But maybe this is nature's way of saying, to paraphrase Pink Floyd, "Hey, people, Leave the pangolins alone!"

The eight species of Pangolin, found from Asia to Africa and the Philippines.

February 17 is World Pangolin Day. According to Wikipedia, pangolin populations have decreased by up to 75 per cent in some countries. In 2017, almost 12 tons of pangolin SCALES were confiscated from a ship in China. The year before, a ship grounded near the Philippines was found to have 10,000 kilograms of pangolin meat rotting in its cargo hold.

I have been fascinated by pangolins since 2014 when I first read a CNN article about their potential extinction. In the meantime, I've written five children's picture books and a movie script about the adventures of Mama Pangolin and her wee son Foleydota. (These books have not yet found a publisher as BWL publishes text, not pictures!) However, to promote knowledge of the pangolin, I've included it in my Twisted Climb series of books. Young Georgia's favourite stuffed animal is a baby pangolin that she cradles in her arms each night before bed. Of course, the stuffie is made with a velvety outer fabric that is perfect for caressing and holding so tenderly.

I'll finish this blog by paraphrasing an old Coca-Cola commercial: Let's live in harmony.

 J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

Bump, set, spike, by J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends 

Short-listed for Best Young Adult Book 2018,

The Word Guild Canada

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

I am very much a sports-loving person. Since Grade 3 and into high school, I participated in track and field (100m, 200m and 400m relay). I wasn't the fastest but I wasn't the slowest, either. Since becoming an adult sometime in the last century, my sport selection widened. I've played ball hockey, baseball, volleyball and martial arts kickboxing. Today, I'm still playing volleyball and working on purple belt in kickboxing.

I've been in the same volleyball league for 35 years and the competitiveness of the league has grown in leaps and bounds - to the the point that players on the eight teams are switched every two years.

In the sport of volleyball, there are six players on each team and the goal is to 'ground' the ball on the other team's court. A point is awarded to the team who 'grounds' the ball in the opponent's court and likewise, a point is awarded if a team is unable to volley / spike the ball over the net. The team can 'touch' the ball a maximum of three times before sending it over the net. Usually the first 'touch' is a player bumping a serve up to the centre-net player. That player then sets or volleys the ball to a side player for a spike, thus the term: Bump, set, spike. The rally continues on both sides until the ball is 'grounded' either in the court or out-of-play.

There are lots of rules, too. You can't touch the ball consecutively; you can't touch the net during play; you can't step over the midline during play; you can't play the ball more than three times in your court, and game / set ends after 25 points. We play five games / sets every Wednesday during Autumn, Winter and Spring.

I just discovered the origins of volleyball. An American YMCA physical education teacher by the name of William Morgan invented the game in 1895 in Massachusetts. He based it on the rules of badminton, tennis and handball and called it Mintonette. It wasn't until 1896 that the name was changed to volleyball, denoting the volleying aspect of the game. As an aside, another new indoor game was just becoming popular - basketball.

The inventor of volleyball, William Morgan

My team, 'The Royals,' ready to return the serve

Five of seven team mates celebrating the annual year-end banquet.

... and from volleyball info to creative writing.... make sure to check out my award-winning Twisted Climb series. You won't be disappointed!

J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

Old money, by J.C. Kavanagh

Short-listed for Best Young Adult Book 2018, The Word Guild

Money. Who doesn't love it... want it.... need it? How about old money? I don't mean 'old' as in family wealth passed from generation to generation. I mean old money. 100-years-old money.

My Irish dad (RIP), encouraged me to save coins that were minted for specific events, ie the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Or Canada's 100-year celebration of Confederation in 1967. He kindly gave me some old coins before he passed and I have many of them to this day.

One of them is a Canadian 50-cent silver coin, minted in 1872. One side has laurel-type wreaths and the other is the bust of Queen Victoria. The words "VICTORIA DEI  GRATIA REGINA" are captioned above the Queen's bust, and "NEWFOUNDLAND" is stamped at the bottom. This coin was minted after Canada's Confederation in 1867 but well before Newfoundland embraced the concept of Canada as a unified country. (It wasn't until 1949 that Newfoundland officially became a province of Canada.)

And what is the value of this old money? According to the website CoinsandCanada.com, it's worth a measly $10. Canadian. That's about $3 American. Well, not really, but it's not much. If the coin were in 'mint' condition, it would be worth approximately $1,000. My coin is in very poor condition, thus the $10 value.

My dad also gave me a British five-shilling (one Crown) cupro-nickel coin, minted in 1965. (According to Wikipedia, cupro-nickel (CuNi) is an alloy of copper that contains nickel. It may also contain other elements such as iron and manganese.) The five-shilling coin commemorates the death of Sir Winston Churchill. Dad told me to hold on to the coin, as it would surely increase in value.

There were nearly 19 million of these coins minted. Which is why the coin is valued at.... five shillings. 25 pence. Yah, that's about 43 cents Canadian.

So I continued checking out the CoinsandCanada.com website for more values. I have a ziploc-bag encasing a 1967 Centennial Confederation $1 bill. Surely, I'm thinking, that must be worth something.

Maybe not. My lovely dollar bill is worth perhaps $4 Canadian. That money tree is not within grasp at all.

One last check on the site. I have a 1976 Canadian Olympic $100 commemorative coin. The city of Montreal, Quebec played host that year to more than 6,000 athletes representing 92 countries. The coin is 14-karat gold and the Bank of Canada minted 650,000.

It's in excellent condition, in the original commemorative holder, never opened, and since 1976, encased in a trusty ziploc bag. The value? $430. NOW we're talking.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these coins. Sell them, or bestow them to my children or grandchildren? But really, who wants old money these days?

J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

Floods at the Annapolis Boat Show, by J.C. Kavanagh

Darkness Descends,

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

My partner Ian and I are avid sailors. We own a 36' Catalina sailboat named Escape Route II that we sail all over Georgian Bay and also the North Channel, which, by the way, has been voted the best fresh-water sailing destination in the world. We're both adventurous souls when it comes to sailing and we've decided that in the next few years, we're going to upgrade to a bigger boat and sail to the Caribbean and points further south. And maybe even cross the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.
So we've been checking out all kinds of boat manufacturers on the Internet, trying to decide which type and size to buy. It's difficult to gauge 'online' if a certain type of sailboat meets your needs because the best way is to actually board the boat. When it comes to checking out multiple sailboats, there's no better place than the Annapolis boat show in Maryland, U.S.A. It's the largest in-water sailboat show in North America, with more than 400 sailboats of all sizes and makes on display, just waiting for you to board. Annapolis is about a 10-hour drive from our home north of Toronto, Ontario so we made plans to stay for four days.
What a fantastic four days.

The weather couldn't have been nicer for mid-October: sunny and a very warm 22 degrees Celsius (that's about 72 degrees Fahrenheit). For Canadians, that's delightful 'summer' weather.

And then on Friday morning I received this notification on my cell phone.

And then we noticed this.

See the dock beside the boat on the right?

Yeah, that's underwater.

We kept walking, and saw this.

And this.

That's the Annapolis Waterfront Hotel. Except now it has water in the front and in the back.

We were told that the high tide, combined with the full moon and the after effects of Tropical Storm Melissa, were causing the flood waters. We felt uneasy but the locals all shrugged and said it was 'normal.'

We headed back the next day, Saturday, October 12. By noon, water levels had risen more than two feet above normal. Seawater laps over the docks, inch by inch. People start taking off their socks and shoes and walking through the cold, salt water. 

Water flows into a vendor tent as a little girl 

waits for her dad to save her.

I receive more weather alerts on my cell phone.

At 3:30, all power to the show is shut down. Imagine the voltage used by hundreds of boats all hooked up to mobile electric posts, all on docks that are 'fixed' to the seabed floor. Imagine the thousands of vendors losing power to their debit/credit card machines and all lighting in the vendor tents shut off. Imagine the level of fear in the tens of thousands of visitors when docks adjoining docks suddenly become submerged and exit routes to dry land become limited. Finding accessible exit routes is like finding your way out of a boat-lined maze.

I grab hold of the backpack on Ian's shoulder and hang on as he leads me through the maze and we weave our way through hundreds of boat-gawkers. Everyone is pretty calm, considering the docks are literally sinking beneath us. We head alongside the Passport sailboats - my fave!

 Cream-puff pics from the Passport yacht website

If I had an extra few million dollars lying around, this would be my next sailboat. A Passport 54.5. 

Triple spreader, two staterooms, two heads, linear galley and gigantic main salon. 

Finally, we're on dry-ish land and the show organizers decide, for safety reasons, to close the show early. We look behind and see the swell of people scrambling to get 'out' of the show area. 

 

Roads around the show have been closed and we watched the water's progress while waiting in line for our bus to take us to the parking area at the Naval Academy. Cars were prohibited from accessing the show and we were thankful that we decided to take advantage of the show's parking bus. What an adventure! It was our first time at the boat show and I know for certain it won't be our last.

Author event November 2

I'll be promoting my books at the Chapters store in Kanata, Ontario on Saturday, November 2. Come on by!

Till next time...

J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

The Beetle Battle, by J.C. Kavanagh

Award-winning sequel, The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends

I often use personal experience when writing - if it's something I've heard or empathized with, or witnessed with my own eyes, my own heart, then I can write about it from my perspective. Personal experience often lends a more credible telling of the tale and hopefully lead to a closer connection with the reader. I use my home and sailing experiences in both The Twisted Climb and Darkness Descends. For example, shortly after we bought our property, we discovered 20-year-old vines twisted around many of our pine trees. They had slowly died a 'strangled' death. I used that twisted vine experience in the 'Drunk on a Slinky' chapter of Darkness Descends. Another example is from my sailing vacations. We sail to a gorgeous place called The Bad River, home to the Devil's Door Rapids, and I used these places as dream world locations in Darkness Descends.
 
My home is in a rural area surrounded by thousands of trees and nature in all its forms - birds, deer, racoons, porcupines, skunks and our neighbour's Guinea Hens, chickens and geese. So when I came home from our August sailing vacation, I was saddened to see a good number of our pine trees in distress. The needles were reddish-brown and the bark was splitting. My partner and I were walking around the property, wine glass in hand, when we stopped to listen to an unusual sound. It was a crunching sound and the source was one of the pine trees beside the man-cave/shop.
 
My heart wrenched.
 
I'd heard about this sound.


Adult pine bark beetle


This munching sound. The sound of hungry mouths chewing and chewing and destroying.
 
It was the sound of ten thousand hungry pine bark beetles.
 
These are voracious little fother-muckers that destroy swaths of trees. From Mexico all the way to British Columbia and now, Ontario, these pests are destroying pine trees wherever they fly and lay eggs.
 
We live near a provincial forest and are also surrounded by Christmas tree farms. Many of the tree farm properties have been decimated by these pests and, until now, I felt badly for them but never once thought that the trees on my property would be subject to the horrible critters. The provincial forest had a controlled burn this past spring in an attempt to halt the pests from spreading.
 
Yeah, well, that didn't help me or my trees.
 
I'm researching ways to halt the spread of these destructive insects and save the healthy trees. This is what I've learned from the 'Net:

Bark beetles kill the host tree when the adults bore holes through the tree’s outer bark and

into the inner bark layer of the tree. The adult beetles then

excavate tunnels where the female beetle lays eggs.

When the eggs hatch, the grub stage (larvae) further damages

 the inner bark layer as they construct feeding galleries.

Eventually, the combined excavation by adults and larvae will

girdle  or encircle the tree’s inner bark and cause death.

 
Further to the above, it seems that the best way to eliminate the beetle is to cut the tree down in the winter. And then 'chop and burn.'
 
My partner and I are on a new mission: Beat the Beetle. And take care of our forest.
 
This is a battle we don't want to lose. Our trees are counting on us :(

Several of the pines along our driveway are plagued with the beetle.
Note the reddish-brown needles.

My favourite twisted pine is also infested.

Looking upward, this pine tree is 'home' to thousands of the beetles.
It's where we first heard the 'munching' sound.

Note the tiny entry/exit holes in the bark. The crystalized insect (centre) appears to be a June bug.
When the tree is first attacked by the beetle, it exudes sap in a defensive effort. This June bug is a casualty.

 Mother nature...

J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb,
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)