Rah Rah SIS BOOM RAH! by J.C. Kavanagh

 

Darkness Descends 

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

A few weeks ago, I was able to attend a Cheer (Cheerleading) competition in Ottawa, Canada. My granddaughter, Elise, has participated in this sport for about a year and this was my very first time to see her team, and other teams, in full-out action. And my-oh-my, was there action.

I sat on a bleacher close to the stage and watched in awe as the first cheer team came on stage. 'Came on stage' does not do justice to what transpired. These young girls lit up the stage with so much energy and verbal cheering that I nearly came to my feet to cheer them on. The joy and delight on their smiling faces and the incredible, immense energy that surrounded them, well - quite honestly - I was overwhelmed. I was no longer part of the audience. Instead, I felt myself transported and connected to their positive vibe in such a way that it brought tears to my eyes. Their uplifting enthusiasm evoked the sweetest emotion - they literally melted my heart. My tears were happy tears, a joy so deep I couldn't help but cry. This was team-work like nothing I've ever witnessed before. Their boundless joy and energy stirred me as only a spiritual awakening could.  

Wow.

If I had known that Cheer was so intensely fun and so key on teamwork, I would have placed my daughter in Cheer classes when she was a little girl. But alas, Cheer in Canada was almost non-existent back then. It has risen in popularity and now there are multiple, accredited organizations across Canada.

Rah Rah SIS BOOM RAH!
Cheer squad, Pointe Levy ACE Senior High School

Cheer squad, Pointe Levy ACE Senior High

Pictures courtesy SmugMug, Canadian Cheer Big East Blast Event

My granddaughter's team:
Pyjama Sharks, U12, Level 1

My photo: me and my delightful granddaughter, Elise.

Air Force Mavericks Sergeants squad, U12, Level 2

Air Force Mavericks Sergeants squad, U12, Level 2

Pictures above sourced from SmugMug, 

official photographer of the Canadian Cheer Big East Blast Event, May 2022 

I love history so of course I had to research the origins of 'Cheer.' Way back in the day, about 1860, the British introduced 'yellers:' men who would 'yell' out words of encouragement to the sports teams. These 'yellers' were always men as it was unbecoming for ladies to be loud and boisterous. This form of cheering proved to be quite acceptable to the crowds and also the sports teams and soon, the ritual of cheering and chanting-in-unison came to the Americas. The idea of repeating what the 'yeller' yelled, was wholeheartedly embraced. 

Cheer squad Montreal high school, Canada, circa 1943 

Cheer squad University of Wisconsin - Madison, circa 1948

Universities in the U.S. introduced organized cheerleading in 1869 for intercollegiate football games. Why the term 'Cheer Leader?' Because the men were cheer-leaders. Get it? 

Female participation in cheer leading was poor until World War II, because many college-aged men were fighting overseas. Since then, the inclusion of girls has caused the sport to increase by, literally, leaps and bounds. Cheerleading became so popular that in the 1950s, some National Football League (NFL) teams in the U.S. introduced their own professional cheerleaders. In 1965, a former cheerleader by the name of Fred Gastoff, invented and patented the vinyl pom-pom. Even now, the pom-pom is widely used in competitions and sports arenas. With the advent of the pom-pom, skimpy outfits and daring gymnastic moves, cheerleading squads became even more popular, particularly after the 1976 Super Bowl game featuring the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. 

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader squad

Today, Cheer competitions are held in countries across the globe. They are meticulously orchestrated, strenuously practiced and well known for not only the 'cheer' aspect, but for the high-calibre gymnastic routines. 

Here are a few Cheer terms you may not be familiar with: 
    Stunting - the formation of a human pyramid; 
    Flyer - the person at the top of the pyramid; 
    Base - the people at the bottom of the pyramid holding the flyer(s); 
    Spotters - those at the front and back of the pyramid ready to assist the flyer.

In Book 3 of The Twisted Climb series, to be published in November, it's up to the Reader to decide if they should cheer for Jayden, Connor and Max, or cheer for the villains, Patty and Dick. What? Is Dick still a bad guy? What's happening in the dream world. But wait - what is the 'un-world' and why are they in it?

Stay safe everyone!

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

Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2022
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)
Instagram @authorjckavanagh

Canadian Historical Brides collection from BWL Publishing Inc. now released in audio-book

 

We are thrilled to announce that all of our Canadian Historical Brides novels have been released as fully Accessible Audio Books.  They are available from all major audiobook retailers, including ACX Audible, Findaway Voices, Kobo, Apple.  

Visit our Brides webpage for more information and to purchase in Digital, Print or Audio formats.

https://bookswelove.net/authors/canadian-historical-brides-collection/

A Ticket to Romance...by Sheila Claydon

 

Find my books here

Since the final book of my Mapleby Trilogy, Many a Moon, was published at the beginning of June I have had to answer a number of questions. They have fascinated me.

The first once concerns Mapleby itself. Convinced that it is a real place, a number of readers have put forward their own suggestions as to where it might be. So far they have all been wrong. They are right, however, at assuming it is based on a real village, although I doubt they would recognise it as I have taken a few liberties with the geography and the history. There really is a derelict watermill though and it was discovering that, quite by accident, that prompted me to write the story.

The second question has been about the heroine, Ellie. Is she based on a real person? Is she someone I know who has told me about her work as a Housekeeper? The answer to that is no. Instead it is based on my observations of how holiday sites have worked when I have been on holiday. They are like miniature villages with all mod cons, including small shops and restaurants, and a dedicated staff team that make sure their guests have an enjoyable and trouble free visit.

The same question has been asked about Will, the hero. As I don't play golf, how do I know about greenskeepers and golf clubs? Well all I can say about that is thank goodness for the Internet, and thanks, too, to the people I know who do play golf and have entertained me at their club in the past.

There have been questions, as well, about the castle, and the remains of the friary. Have I visited them? Are they in Mapleby or have I imported them from elsewhere? The answer is both yes and no. I have visited them.They are in my Mapleby. But anyone searching wouldn't find them because the geography has changed a bit in 800 years! 

Many a Moon has garnered more questions than any other book I've written, and I love it that readers have invested so much of themselves into the story. It has also prompted me to revisit all my other books because nearly every one of them is set in a place I've visited. Once, a long time ago, someone told me my books were like a ticket to romance. It was a lovely phrase which I have often adopted when promoting them, but it is only now that I realise it really is true. Because the chaos in airports around the world is making it is so difficult to travel anywhere at the moment, I am staying at home, but a quick look at all the covers of my books has taken me back to many of the places I have visited, places and experiences which have given me so much pleasure as well as real inspiration: New Zealand, Australia, Italy, America, France,  the Canary Islands, Russia, and then all those places in the UK from London to the Home Counties, from the North West coast to the South, to Wales and Scotland, to villages and towns and cities. It really has been a journey and one that I can take again any time I look at one of my books. Readers can as well if they want to buy a ticket to romance. 

Website

Happy Book Birthday!

find my books here

Release days are big evens for authors, editors and publishers...a lovely combination of Birthday (yay, we pushed another one out into the world!), 

Graduation (from a dream, to a seed of an idea, to a storyline with vibrant characters leading the way, and all along, research and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite!)

and Mother's Day, as we, proud mamas. rest and reflect on our accomplishment: this lovely artifact of our storytelling imagination. 

Thank you to all who support the adventures of my Eastern Cherokee Nancy Drew. Oh, the power of a diverse book--you can change everything for one kid and create empathy in 100 more.

Growing a Short Story to a Novel

 

 Please click this link for author and book information

Last fall I wrote a historical mystery short story and showed the first four pages to a local Writer-in-Residence. The WIR's main advice was to turn the story into a novel. I had no clue how I'd do this and she didn't offer suggestions, but I was intrigued by the idea. 

Then this spring BWL decided to publish a collection of Canadian Historical Mysteries. They assigned thirteen of their authors to write a novel set in a specific Canadian province or territory. The collection will have twelve books -- British Columbia is co-authored and Nunavut/Northwest Territories will be reunited in one of the books. I'm delighted to represent my home province of Alberta. 

BWL asked us to provide a working title and novel blurb, which they'll publish in a free guidebook as advance promotion. This got me mulling ways to expand my short story, which was set in Calgary during the 1918 influenza pandemic and told through the viewpoint of a police detective. The WIR's other suggestion was to change the protagonist to a character who was present at the victim's death, to make that aspect of the story more immediate. One of the suspects appealed to me as a point-of-view narrator, but if I let readers enter his thoughts I'd lose him as a suspect. Also, while I like experimenting with male protagonists in short stories, I prefer to write female protagonists for novel-length works. This led to my idea for a new character and protagonist, the sister of that suspect. She will be motivated to solve the crime to know if her brother or someone close to him is guilty of murder. 

I plan to keep my detective as a secondary narrator. His investigations and personal story will add many pages to the book. In the short story, he had a romantic interest in a co-worker. For the novel I'll shift his interest to my heroine to enhance their relationship. She's married, but her husband has been overseas for four years, fighting in The Great War, and she's changed during that time. Her feelings for the detective will create lots of conflict for them both. 

My other idea is to create a new suspect for this longer story; a man who opposes the war. The victim and my heroine's brother are injured veterans, who received early discharges. WWI officially ended November 11, 1918, in the middle of the second and deadliest wave of the influenza pandemic, but most of the Canadian troops didn't return until the following spring. I'd like to make the war more present in the novel than it was in the short story, from the perspectives of those on the home front. 

I'm satisfied these additions and changes will be enough to expand my 4,500 word short story to a 75,000 word novel, the median length of the books in the collection. More importantly, I'm eager to write the larger story to develop these characters and find out what happens to them in the new version. 

In effect, the short story is my novel outline. I'm sure much will change in the process of writing the book. Even whodunnit and why the person done it and how he or she done it are up for grabs. So if you read the short story, don't worry about spoilers.  After I showed the WIR those first pages, the short story was accepted for publication. It appears in the recently released Cold Canadian Crime Anthology, available on Amazon, Kobo, and other sites.

 

A new title will be one definite change for the novel. My short story title "A Deadly Flu" was a wink at my first novel, A Deadly Fall. Two similar novel titles would create confusion. 

Here's the cover for the Canadian Historical Mysteries guidebook, which you will soon be able to download for free to read the twelve novel descriptions. 

                For updates, check out the BWL Canadian Historical Mysteries Page