Just one more Joy of Aging by Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor Aging #Joy

 Lately, I've had no incidents when people questioned my age and my ability to be independent. Then my granddaughter reminded me of an incident from a few months ago when I left the hospital and went to a rehab center for a few days.

She went to the nurse's desk to ask a question and suddenly found herself being asked questions about her grandmother. She told them to go ask Gran. The nurse smiled. "You're ehre so you can answer. We wouldn't want to confuse your grandmother."

My granddaughter answered as best as she could since there are things she doesn't know. The nurse assurred ehr she would come and find the answers from me if they were needed. She never came and she never asked me any questions.

So once again, there are unanswered questions. The only good thing was that I was able toleave rehab almost a week before they predicted I should stay.

What these Joy of Aging posts have shown me is what I'll write about next. Actually, I have four projects waiting. One is to finish Keltoi,the last installment of the Moon Rising series. I may have to publish it on my own but that's all right.

There is a new, I'm not sure if it's a series since there are only two mysteries that have appeared in my thoughts. The heroine is Valentina Hartly and she thinks with her name she should write a romance. She attends a session put on by published authors and as she's leaving, she stumbles over a body. She learns this is the Horror Writer who had been coming to be one of the speakers. A second idea for this heroine involves stolen snuff boxes.

The third idea involves a nurse practitioner who specializes in the aging population. She has joined the practice of two young, handsome doctors. Suddenly, the elderly start dying and she begins to suspect one or both of her partners. She lives with three friends, who are also nurses with different specialties.

The fourth thing on my plate is something I found in my files. The outline for a Regency novel. "Silks is the second book in the series that began with Gemstones. Who knows why I was diverted from writing this back then. Most likely, I had a dozen other books wanting to  be told.

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How to get lost in Toronto, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

Audio book cover of the award-winning YA novel, The Twisted Climb

https://www.bookswelove.net/kavanagh-j-c/

Last month, I wrote about transitioning from being a country gal to acclimatizing to life in a bustling city. Though we're living on our sailboat till the end of the month, we spend a wee bit of time in our rental condo. It's located in the heart of Toronto, and I mean the 'heart' of downtown Toronto: between the CN Tower; Rogers Centre (think Blue Jays); Ripley's Aquarium; Union Station; Harbourfront, and the Scotiabank Arena (Toronto Maple Leafs - NHL hockey) and Raptors (NBA basketball). This is the view from the 45th floor of our unit.

CN Tower, soaring 555.3 metres (1,815.3 feet)
It is the tallest free-standing tower in the Western Hemisphere and the 10th tallest in the world.

Roundhouse Park (surrounding the Canadian flag and home to the Toronto Railway Museum),
Ripley's Aquarium at the base of the CN Tower,
Rogers Centre (with retractable dome), and upper left, the Western Gap of Lake Ontario.

As a country gal, I know the time of day by the position of the sun. It also helps me determine which direction I'm travelling. Not so much in downtown Toronto. When I'm walking the street (and gawking like a tourist), I know it's daytime because there's a brightness, but I don't know the time of day because the sun is hidden by the multitude of tall buildings. Hundreds of them. To make it worse, I can't tell if I'm heading north, south, east or west. I know Yonge Street aligns north and south. 

That's it. 

When I exit a subway station, all sense of direction is lost. Should I turn left, or right? Where's the sun? Where's the CN Tower? Everyone is walking with purpose. And me, I have no idea how to get 'home.'

Yup, I'm a country hick. Living in a rural setting for almost 40 years will do that. Don't get me wrong - I was happy to live in the fresh air, know all my neighbours, know every migrating bird that came to my bird feeder, observe the millions of stars in the milky way, and even know the smelly difference between cow and horse manure.

The sights and smells in Toronto are quite different (insert UNDERSTATEMENT here :) So if you want to know how to get lost in Toronto, just step out of the subway station, or a store, or even an underground parking lot. Gets me every time.

However, if you want to get lost in an exciting, action-packed story, just pick up The Twisted Climb series, available by request at your favourite bookstore, or online here:  https://www.bookswelove.net/kavanagh-j-c/  Don't forget - the audio version of Book 1 in the series, The Twisted Climb, is now available!

Stay safe everyone and remember to tell those you love that you love them :)

J.C. Kavanagh, author of
The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3)
and
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, 2021
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

Why Salem?

 In our research for our upcoming Canadian Mystery Spectral Evidence, co-writer Jude Pittman and I faced a confounding question:

Why did the witch hunt hysteria of 1692 take over Salem and the New England colonies and not their neighbors and trading partners in Newfoundland?

find Eileen's novels here

Newfoundland of the seventeenth century a multicultural society of indentured servants, planters (year-round settlers), merchants and their servants (some of whom were enslaved Africans) and seasonal fisherfolk from England's west country, Ireland, France the Basque region of Spain, and the Netherlands. Joining them were the Mi'kmaq and Beothuk people who had been living on Newfoundland for hundreds of years. All of these cultures had traditions of witchcraft.

Seventeenth century New England was dominated by a society of puritans. Their religion dominated government, ministry, education. The "other" was suspect, whether it be Quakers or Catholics, another country of origin, or another culture. Both Native Americans and the French were looked upon as "devils," especially after devastating raids that were the result of English incursions into lands claimed by the French or Wabanacki Confederacy.

Mix this with territorial disputes among neighbors, children suffering from the trauma of warfare violence, a bad harvest's hunger. The match was lit for neighbors accusing neighbors of witchcraft. Spectral evidence (actions and torments only the accusers could see) was used to hang devout grandmothers, homeless women, neighboring farmers, even one of Salem's former ministers. The accused included a four year old child.

Only when the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony's wife was accused, did the fever that was the Salem Witch hunt break. 

Why Salem? It's a question that's been asked ever since. Jude and I hope to contribute to the debate in our storytelling. 

Hosting a Book Launch Party

 

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Last month I held my first in-person book launch in 4 1/2 years. Fifty people gathered in The Treehouse at cSpace, which is located in Calgary's former King Edward Junior High School. I had toured the renovated building when cSpace opened in 2017 as an arts and community hub and fell in love with the Treehouse meeting room. Its top floor setting, three walls of windows, and outside deck offer panoramic views of the city. On September 21st the weather was perfect for an evening event.      

View from the Treehouse deck

Prior to the launch, I often wondered if the effort was worth it. After I settled on the venue and date, the first step was sending out invitations. I created a Facebook Event page, invited my Facebook friends who live in Calgary, and kept the page active with comments to stimulate interest and discussion. In one comment I talked about cSpace and urged people to come to the launch to see what this unique building is like. In addition to numerous artist studios, cSpace houses community groups for seniors, indigenous peoples, writers, and those interested in speaking French. 

 

cSpace: The Treehouse is the top floor of the extension on the left-hand side

For friends not on Facebook, I created an invitation, which I emailed to each person. I started out wondering if anyone would come. But eventually enough people said "yes" that I realized I'd get a good crowd. Then new worries set in. Would they enjoy themselves and be glad they came?

During the week before the event, I purchased wine, juice, and snack food: cheese, crackers, vegetables and dip, and desserts.  

I developed a PowerPoint presentation, which focused on Calgary locations that inspired my story. I combined these with readings from the novel interspersed through the presentation. My first reading featured my protagonist Paula Savard in her office in Inglewood, Calgary's oldest suburb. In my mind, Paula works in this four-story brick building on Inglewood's main street. My added touch: the building is rumoured to be haunted.   

 

At this point in the presentation, I discuss my research visit to Calgary Police Headquarters-Westwinds  

For fun, at the end of my talk, I added a trivia quiz. Since the novel takes place in spring 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown, the ten trivia questions all related to COVID-19. I took my questions from the COVID timeline that I'd made for the novel to remind me of what was happening in the world on the story's dates. To test your memory, here are my first two trivia questions:

• On what date did WHO (World Health Organization) declare COVID-19 a pandemic? Month, day, year required.
• Shortly after this declaration, what celebrity couple announced in Australia they'd tested positive for COVID-19?   

The questions turned out to be too hard. The winner only got three right and received her prizes, which were priceless during the lockdown: hand sanitizer and a roll of toilet paper. 

I wrapped up the presentation with random draw prizes: two mystery puzzle books and two sets of playing cards because a character in the novel has a gambling addiction that affects the plot. 

Then everyone gathered for conversation, wine, food and drink. I signed books and talked with as many guests as I could. From the buzz in the room and comments afterward, I think people enjoyed the event. 

Was the work and strain I put into launch preparations worth it? I don't know. It's fun to to host a party to celebrate something good in life and now I have these wonderful pictures with friends who made the effort to attend and cheer on my writing. 

 

 

          

 

The Forgotten Romanov by Karla Stover

 

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The Forgotten Romanov

    When my great-grandmother was expecting my grandmother, she told her two older daughters that if it was a girl, they could name the new baby. It was and she was named Zenaida after Zenaida Yusupov, one of Russia's most beautiful princesses. Thus began my life-long fascination with Romanov history. And let me just add that most of my family, including this great-grandmother came from Cornwall but my DNA test does show a trace of Russian blood. 

    Over the years I have amassed a large collection of histories and memoirs about Russia and the Romanovs so I was thrilled when, in 1990, I learned about a book called The Grand Dukes by Prince David Chavchavadze. (His mother was Princess Nina Georgiyevna Romanov.) I could go on about his family, but suffice it to say, I couldn't find the book here and since phone numbers were easy to find back then, I looked his up and called him. The prince was charming and offered to send me a book. I said I'd send a check, and I now have an autographed copy addressed to me.

    Over many years of reading, I've come to the conclusion that there isn't much to distinguish one Grand Duke from another with the exception of Nicholas Konstantinovich who may or may not have been insane but who was definitely interesting.

   Nicholas was born in 1850. As a young man he wrote a poem so risque that it offended his tutor and the fellow quit. Nevertheless, the Grand Duke was considered a "gifted military officer,  a competent engineer and irrigator, good musician, brilliant scholar, and a patron of the arts." His downfall was said to be an obsession with sex. In fact, Nicholas's doctor warned him that his overindulgence might lead to insanity. After countless numbers of forgettable conquests came and went, in 1872 Nicholas met the American woman Hattie Blackford but who, in Europe, went by the name, Fannie Lear.

It happened during a masquerade at St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater. She was a piquant blonde with a good brain, he a twenty-two year old man who stood 6 feet tall and who had a dimpled chin and "full, sensual red lips." What started as a fling became, naturally, an obsession, not to mention a headache for his family. So, Nicholas was sent away on a military expedition. Existing correspondence shows the intensity of their feelings for each other and as soon as he returned, the Grand Duke and Fannie, by then his "fiancee", took off on a European journey during which time they attempted to marry. However, Nicholas's father showed up and foiled their attempt. Nevertheless, during their sojourn, the infatuated young man spent enormous sums of money on her. "Grand Dukes and Duchesses had their own private incomes: at their births, their parents traditionally invested a certain amount in securities with the earned interest replenishing the personal capital of the royal offspring. In addition, they were given significant sums for their private expenses. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for the spendthrift Nicholas. Once he was home, and using his teeth, he extracted (good pun, huh) and pawned three large diamonds from his mother's icon of the Virgin Mary. An investigation ensued. Though the Grand Duke had his best friend, Count Verpochovsky pawn the diamonds and swore on the Bible that he was innocent, the truth came out. And through it all, "he remained in a disgustingly good mood," his father Konstantin Nikolayevich wrote in a journal, adding, “No remorse, no confession, except when denial was no longer possible, and even then you had to pull it out of him." 

    

    Nicholas's mother had already been declared insane, the result of her holding endless seances. Thus, when a group of doctors met, it was easy to claim the Grand Duke suffered from some sort of inherited insanity. Hearing this, Nicholas said, no doubt cheerfully, "I am not to blame, it is in my blood." The Tsar took charge and banished the Grand Duke. At first he roamed around, living in 10 different places, including Samara, Crimea, Vladimir province, Uman (near Kiev), near Vinnitsa in Podol province, then Orenburg." He eventually settled and lived for many years under supervision in Tashkent where Russian officials felt he wasn't quite sane. His younger brother, Grand Duke Constantine felt the same way. During a visit he said the first day Nicholas was fine but by the third day he was decidedly peculiar. Whether insane or not, Grand Duke Nicolas built a theater and an aqueduct, worked on irrigation projects and raised cotton. He was an honorary member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and wrote research papers on Central Asia. He married the daughter of a police prefect and had two children. In 1918 he was either murdered by the Bolsheviks or died of starvation.

    Meanwhile, back in St. Petersburg, during the diamonds theft, Fanny managed to stash her ill-gotten gains and her lover's "incriminating letters" at the American Legation before being arrested. The crown bought the letters and kicked her out of the country. The memoir she wrote, first in English and later French became an instant bestseller. Fanny spent the rest of her life in European high society, and remained a prominent figure throughout the 1870s and 1880s. According to the Evansville Journal, she died sometime around 1900 in London having spent all her money.