I'm so happy that my new novel in the Canadian Mystery series with my co-author Jude Pittman is coming out next month! What do you think of the cover? I think this series is a fine way to learn more about Canadian history, province by province, while engaging in great stories and tacky mysteries to solve, along with resourceful amateur and professional detectives.
Our assignment was Newfoundland-- an island I've admired since seeing the enchanting musical "Come From Away." Since I'm a New Englander, a place with historic ties to Newfoundland in the colonial period, Jude and I decided to link the province's vibrant cod fishing trade to that of Salem, Massachusetts. And what was happening in 1692-93 Salem? You know it-- a witch hunt.
That got our creative juices flowing!
Then of course, came research and lots of it. I have not set a novel this far back in time, so I thought I share some of our research that I found fascinating...
Did you know....
* That most witch hunts took place, not in the so called "Dark Ages" or medieval times, but in the period of the Renaissance?
*That there was a secret alliance between England and France that left Newfoundland's settlements vulnerable to attack during King William's War?
*That the delightful puffins of Newfoundland did not get their name until 1760? So in Spectral Evidence we needed Newfoundlanders to call them sea parrots!
*That the First Peoples of Newfoundland, the Beothuk, were declared "extinct" by the 1820s, but their friends the Mi'kmaq disputed the claim. Genetic evidence have proven them right.
Puffin (Sea Parrot)
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| The Beothuk of Newfoundland |
*That there are "easter eggs" in Spectral Evidence that fans of Star Trek might enjoy?
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| What??? Oh, yes, make it so! |
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