Ghosts

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Taking a cue from the season of All Hallow's Eve, and my fellow author Eileen O'Finlan's great post about visiting the graveyards of her mom's youth, here's a ghost story from where I was raised...

Deep in the Northern Catskills in New York State is a tiny chapel and graveyard dating from the 1830s.... Regular services are no longer available in the chapel, however the door is left unlocked for visitors.  

 My dad and I used to visit there and it's from him I learned the story of the Irish Colleens.  It seems 13 nameless and faceless immigrant Irish women who worked the local cotton mills as weavers died in a fire and were buried in the church graveyard...

...but without markers or remembrance for generations, until their story reached the ears of Robert W. Boughter (1896-1983) who was so bothered by the ghosts of these women that he left this granite marker...

and this poem...

The Irish Colleens

In the lovely Catskill Mountains

And high upon a hill

There stands a little church-yard

Lies a story now quite old

For it tells of Irish Colleens

And their story should be told

They came from far old Ireland

And with them brought their skills

They worked as expert weavers

In the local cotton mills

But the bitter winters took their toll

And long before their time

They died penniless and friendless

In that land of mountain pine

Within that little church-yard

Stands granite great and tall

To plainly mark the resting place

Of those who had it all

And nearby those who had no wealth

And for which they must atone

For their lack of worldly treasure

With a chip of native stone

But when they stand there proudly

Up high before the throne

I am sure they will be welcomed

And no longer be alone

I think that in that church-yard

A marker should be placed

To honor those courageous girls

In their final resting place

We have statues by the millions

And they need not atone

I think we can do better

Than a chip of native stone

Setting a Novel in Canada -- or Not?

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Does setting a novel in Canada limit your readership to Canadians? Over the years, I've heard this question at Canadian writing conferences and other places where aspiring writers gather. Invariably, someone comments that he sent a query to an agent or publisher in the USA and was told Canadian stories don't sell. The implication is that Canada holds little interest for readers outside our country. 

Even Canadians might prefer reading about far away locations. I've been guilty of this, especially when I travel and want to learn about the country I'm visiting. A novel set in my destination gives me a flavour for the place and its history better than a guidebook.

I also recall hearing that a common feature of blockbuster novels is a variety of international settings. Author Dan Brown nailed that formula.  

But others argue that Canada might be exotic to those who live far from here. They cite writers who have found great success with their stories set in Canada. Louise Penny has a US publisher and an international audience for her mysteries that take place in a Quebec village. L.M. Montgomery's classic Anne of Green Gables is beloved across the world. Japanese tourists trek to modest Prince Edward Island to visit Anne sites. 

Readers of Britain's Rough Guide travel guidebooks and tours voted Canada the second most beautiful country in the world for 2019. Wouldn't that mean they'd want to read about people in this beautiful land? If Anne and PEI can charm the world, why not my home province of Alberta?  

Japanese movie poster

I went ahead and set my first novel, Deadly Fall, in Calgary, where I live. This made setting research easy.  My mystery sleuth Paula's drives the route pictured below in the book's opening chapter. I've driven and walked across this bridge numerous times. 

Paula works out in a former church converted to a gym in Calgary's inner city suburb Kensington. In the real world it's a sporting goods store. 

Book #2 of my Paula series, Ten Days in Summer, continued with my Calgary setting. This time Paula investigates a murder against a backdrop of The Calgary Stampede. My research included attending our annual Stampede parade. 

I was really sneaking peeks at the police offers present, since Paula's homicide contact, Mike Vincelli, is on crowd control duty during the parade scene in the book. 

My third novel, To Catch a Fox, is a departure from my mystery series and single Canadian setting. Julie Fox, a Calgary engineer, must travel to a new location, to search for her mother who took off when Julie was a child and hasn't been heard from since. I settled on southern California for the novel's alternate location because it was far enough from Calgary for Julie's mother to get lost in, yet convenient as well as enjoyable for me to visit twice to research. 

Santa Monica beach - Julie jogs along this boardwalk

In some ways, I find it easier to write about less familiar settings since I'm seeing the place with new eyes and am more likely to come up with fresh descriptions. 

At the San Diego zoo, bird of paradise plants are on the lookout, like Julie the pursuing and pursued fox

While I like writing about different places, I'm back to Calgary for my current novel-in-progress, the third book in my Paula series. I love travel, but lean toward writing about places I know well and deeply.   

And for those curious about the other countries that made the Rough Guide readers' list of the world's most beautiful countries for 2019, here they are:

1. Scotland
2. Canada
3. New Zealand
4. Italy
5. South Africa
6. Indonesia
7. England (UK regions were judged as countries) 
8. Iceland
9. United States
10. Wales (Do the British love their country's beauty best, or have not many travelled elsewhere?)

Calgary in winter - beautiful, eh?

When Memories Come Back to Haunt You by Karla Stover

Murder in Tacoma, Wa.

        

Historical/Gothic Mystery

Murder on Hood Canal

When a product probably not known to many Americans was mentioned in a novel I just finished reading, memories of forty-odd years ago sprouted up like mushrooms after a September rain. The product was Bird's Custard, a necessary ingredient in Nanaimo Bars. And so, I take a historical walk.

According to "foodnetwork.ca," the first recipe for the pastry appeared in the 1952 edition of the Women’s Auxiliary, of the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook. Some fifteen or so years later, they made an appearance in Tacoma, where I live. The problem was, the recipe going around called for Bird's Custard, not something available here. 

British chemist Alfred Bird created the egg less product in his laboratory because custard calls for eggs to which his wife was allergic. His custard powder became so popular, Bird and his sons went into business, eventually producing blancmange powder, jelly powder, and egg substitute. British soldiers took the custard with them during World War I.

Back to my conundrum; in order to make the trendy new cookie, Mom and I had to find someone going to Canada who would bring a box of Bird's Custard back.

When I saw the custard mentioned in a British novel, it brought back so many memories of Mom and me sharing the recipe and struggling to make our cookies as pretty as the pictures we'd seen.

I'm not sure if women cook much anymore or, if they do, if they have recipe files. When Mom died, I kept hers. Someday, an executor will have to get rid of them, and mine, as well.