I'm Canadian by J. S. Marlo

  

Undeniable Trait

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J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

As many of you know, I'm a Canadian author. I love my four seasons. I can't imagine living without snow in the winter, but I'll admit I could live without the excessive heat and mosquitoes in the summer.

When it comes to set my stories, I favour fall or winter in Canada. I've lived or spent lots of time in 9 of our 10 provinces (the 10th one and the 3 territories are on my bucket list, but I know people who live/lived there), so the possibilities are endless when it comes to choose a setting that I'm familiar with. I also like to add that Canadian vibe to my book covers when I can.

My latest novel takes place in Ojibson, a fictional small town in northern Ontario. Many people don't realise how large Ontario is until they drive from Ottawa to the Manitoba/Ontario border. That's roughly 2000 km (1250 miles) along the northern shores of the great lakes and through magnificent forests where you drive by some towns and many villages that are far and few between. Some services are limited, many are only available hours away, and snow storms can wreak havoc with driving anywhere.

This is the setting I chose for my latest novel "Undeniable Trait". There's a rural hospital where the old town doctor had buried secrets. For years after his death, temporary doctors (in my neck of the woods, we call them fly-in fly-out doctors) had come to provide services, but they'd only stayed for days or weeks at a time, none of them settling down. Everything changes the day Dr. Zachary arrives in Ojibson. For reason he won't share until later in the novel, Zachary is looking for a place to settle down and start afresh. The residents are thrilled, but when Zachary starts digging out his predecessor's old files, he inadvertently stumbles onto secrets worth killing or dying for.

Personally I think the only way for two people to keep a secret is for one of them to be dead. And the only way to prevent someone from digging up a secret is to destroy it, not bury it. Eventually, it will rise to the surface and someone will talk, but hey, I'm just the writer. The old doctor didn't ask for my opinion.

When I send my suggestions for a book cover, I try to come up with a visual clue that will tell my readers where my story takes place.

In "Undeniable Trait", it's the money in the six-fingered hand. This isn't colourful Monopoly money. These are real Canadian bills. That's the "Canadian" clue.

In "Voted Out", it's the ball in the middle of the compass pointing toward VOTE. It depicts the Canadian flag.

Enjoy Fall & Happy Reading!

J. S. 

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

THE BLIND DATE - MARGARET TANNER

TRUE CONFESSIONS – MARGARET TANNER

 

In my late teens in the 1960’s, I worked for a large government department in a typing pool with about twenty girls in it. Yes, I am that old.  I started off with a manual typewriter and we had to type up an original and four carbon copies of every report or letter we did. I used to arrive home every night with black carbon marks on my sleeve. And don’t get me started on the woes of changing a typewriter ribbon.  But I digress.

 In those times in the typing pool, a blind date was a thing of ridicule. You were looked upon as desperate because you couldn’t find a man of your own, and had to rely on some other girl’s generosity to introduce you to her brother, her boyfriend’s mate etc.

 Anyway, every year there was an annual ball, and if you didn’t attend, you were socially ruined. It was then public knowledge that you couldn’t get yourself a man.

 My girlfriend and I cringed when everyone else was discussing their ball gown etc. and we hadn’t even been asked. Well, our fear of missing out on the ball and the subsequent humiliation led us to contemplate a desperate plan - the blind date. She lined me up with the guy living across the road from her, and I lined her up with my cousin who had just broken up with his girlfriend.

 We had a great time at the ball, and no-one ever knew our dark and deadly secret. We had attended the ball in the company of our blind dates.

 My cousin ended up going back to his girlfriend, and I ended up marrying my blind date.

 

I have written two novels set during the 1960’s, Make Love Not War which is published by BWL and a soon to be published BWL novel, Daddy Dilemma. These are called Vintage novels by some people. I knew I was getting fairly long in the tooth but I didn’t think my heyday would be considered Vintage. I would rather be called antique, I mean, that does put you in mind of something desirable and expensive, so I could live with that.

 

BLURB:  MAKE LOVE NOT WAR

Make love, not war was the catch cry of the 1960’s. Against a background of anti-war demonstrations, hippies and free love, Caroline’s life is in turmoil. Her soldier brother is on his way to the jungles of Vietnam. She discovers she is pregnant with her wealthy boss’ baby, and her draft dodger friend is on the run and needs her help. 

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094WQOPU/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

 

 

MARGARET TANNER - SECRETS

SECRETS - WE ALL HAVE THEM

How many of us have secrets?

I doubt if there would be many people who don’t have at least one secret. I don’t mean of the dark, dangerous variety, but some of us may well have a secret that could place us in danger. Fortunately, I am not one of those.

My secret – I am a chocoholic. How many times have I told my hubby that I no longer eat chocolates, then I sneak off to my several hiding places (not to be divulged on pain of death), where my secret stash is hidden. You should always have more than one hideout for your illicit goodies just in case one of them is discovered. I don’t want to be like Old Mother Hubbard – who went to the cupboard to get her dog a bone, and when she got there the cupboard was bare and the poor doggie had none. Change that to and when Margaret got to her secret stash, the chokkies were gone and she had none. A disaster of that proportion could not be allowed to happen, hence a few hiding places. I call it my insurance policy.

In many families there are secrets that will never see the light of day, except if someone in the family is into Geneology. My sister has unearthed some shocking scandals as she undertook research into our family tree. I swear, I could write a book about it. One of the most shocking secrets was the fact that my grandmother had a baby when she was unmarried and only eighteen years old. The baby died when he was only 6 days old. A couple of years later she married my grandfather. No-one knew that, it remained hidden for 120 years, until my sister unearthed the information during her research.

Another relative spent time in jail in the 1880’s for aiding and abetting Ned Kelly, a famous Australian bushranger (outlaw). Then there were all the “premature” babies that were born to aunts and great aunts. Not to mention one great uncle who had two wives. Then there was a cousin who ran off with a man who was older than her father. That caused a stir. Especially as the man had a wife and 4 children. Still, can’t be all bad, thirty years later, and the couple are still together.

In my experience, and I do have to quantify this by saying I mainly read historical romance because that is what I write, there are often dark secrets lurking in the background. Some of these could be life threatening, in any case at the very least they threaten the hero and heroine’s chance of getting their happily ever after ending.

In my novel, Allison’s War, the heroine’s secret is that the baby she is expecting does not belong to her husband.

 

In Daring Masquerade, my heroine pretends she is a boy so she can gain employment with the hero. Then, of course, she falls in love with the hero. I mean, what can she do about it?

In my novel, Haunted Hearts, (the only contemporary I have published), the heroine discovers that her father-in-law has been going through her cupboard drawers and stealing her panties.

 

So, you can see that secrets abound in my novels, and I am sure I am not alone in this regard. A secret can drive our stories along, add passion and drama, and keep the reader wondering what is this secret? How can it be resolved? Will the hero and heroine get their HEA?

 Margaret Tanner writes historical romance for Books We Love.

http://www.margarettanner.com

 

http://www.bookswelove.net/tanner.php