Round Up Time by Victoria Chatham

 

FOR RELEASE IN FEBRUARY 2026

About this time every year, I look at the calendar and, along with many, many others, think: where has this year gone? What have I done with my time? I write nearly every day, whether it's a work in progress, blogs, or just jottings for the next book, but here's a look back at my highlights for 2025.

January. I took a winter break in Puerto Vallarta. The highlight of that trip was a day of whale watching. We had only just left the harbour when a humpback breached close to the boat. There were several moms and calves, one mom and calf breaching again and again, which was an absolute delight to see. 

Humpback breaching, Banderas Bay, PV, Mexico

February. We celebrated a friend's seventieth birthday in fine style at a local restaurant, which kindly opened two hours early for a drop-in , say-hello, happy-birthday kind of event. There was a great deal of mirth and merriment.

March. Shih Tzu month! First, pet sitting for a fun and sometimes naughty pair of sisters. The next client was a single dog, but equally fun.

April. My daughter and eldest son visited from England. I was happy to tour them around. Apart from places like the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum, Banff, and Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, we had a walking tour of Calgary, which took us to parts of downtown that I had never been to, so I learnt something new about my city.

My daughter and eldest son, Banff

Later in the day, we visited the Chinese Cultural Temple in Calgary's Chinatown, and then returned to the Calgary Tower for supper in the revolving restaurant. The day was clear, so it was easy to point out landmarks. One of the things that so impressed them was the length of the train passing beneath us through Calgary. Just when they thought the last of the cars were coming around a bend, my daughter's excited, "There's more!" left the couple at the table adjacent to ours laughing. We had a wonderful ten days, and it all ended too soon.

May. House and pet sitting and a visit with a friend in Victoria, British Columbia. I love being on the coast, but I still haven't seen all the sights Victoria has to offer. Highlights of that trip were lunch and a tour at the Legislature Building, a textiles exhibition at the Royal BC Museum, but I have to say I loved the quirky teacup tree.

The Teacup Tree, Victoria, BC

June. House and pet sitting in various locations with a variety of pets. Plus a milestone in my life - I parted company with my last pair of high-heeled shoes. My 80+ knees no longer appreciate them!

July. House and pet sitting again, with a splash of research on breweries at The Establishment, a brewhouse in Calgary, courtesy of fellow author A.M. Westerling's son. Of course, we had to taste a brew or two and have lunch on the outside patio in the sunshine. What could be better?

August. Wonders never cease. I spent the whole month at home.

Sitting beneath our shade tree.

September. The release of my first cozy mystery novel, A Murder in the Meadow and a book launch at The Purple Platypus in Castor, Alberta, with many thanks to Lynn for being such a wonderful host, and author Nancy Bell for accommodating me for a couple of days.

October. Mostly at home writing, and then away with writer friends on our annual retreat. This time at Sylvan Lake, Alberta, in glorious weather.

Sylvan Lake

November. Two house sits this month, and a lot more writing. One of the exciting aspects of a new book is seeing your cover for the first time, and I love what BWL's artistic director, Michelle Lee, has produced for my second cozy mystery, A Body in the Brewery, shown at the head of this blog. I hope you agree. 

December is just around the corner. I have one more short house sit with old faithfuls Brandy the greyhound and Ghillie the Scottish Deerhound, and then it will be Christmas. Again. 

Victoria Chatham

AT BWL PUBLISHING INC

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 MY WEBSITE

 

All images in this blog are from the author's collection.

How many characters do you need?

 I co-wrote "Whistling Librarian" with Anne Flagge, featuring the cast of characters from the previous books in the Whistling Pines series. To kick off our collaboration, Anne reread all of the earlier books in the series and created a list of the characters with a short bios. That resulted in an interesting text message, "Do you realize you've named over 250 (she had an exact number) characters in your previous books? There are five Peggy's and three Hazels. How big do you think Whistling Pines Senior Residence is?"

To be honest, I remember a core group of recurring residents' names. Beyond that, I added a new character, or three, in each book as I needed people to fill the plot. Armed with Anne's catalog of resident names, we forged ahead into "Whistling Librarian". Using only people who already exist in the series. 

With a plot molded from suggestions provided by my "Whistling Pines" muse, tuba playing Brian Johnson, Anne, and myself we dove into the draft. The plot opens with a car going over one of the many cliffs overlooking Lake Superior. What follows seems to be a ghostly library event, not unexpected in a one-hundred-year-old building. The event turns out to be someone prying open a long forgotten locked drawer in a library table. All that's left behind are splinters and some dusty evidence that something had been removed. Spin that together with a final reunion of a 1970s rock bank, originally from Two Harbors, but hitting the big time in Las Vegas and LA.

Anne and I spent a week pasting Post-it notes. One door showing the unfolding plot. The other door with the names of the characters. At one point, I drew a family tree to organize my thoughts about DNA evidence. Six months later, Viola! we had a book.

The next hurdle was the cover. We focused on the seminal event of the car over the cliff when communicating with the cover designer. She found the attached ominous nighttime depiction of a scary road. After we'd agreed on a design and forwarded it to the publisher (who has the final say on cover art). I got a humorous email reply. "You're really planning to release a book about a librarian without a picture of a book on the cover?" Well, I guess we are.

Not that the library, librarian, and staff don't play an important role in the book. The burglary occurs in the library and there's a library seance to contact the ghost of the original librarian. In the tradition of the zany Whistling Pines cozy series, we have the residents of the senior residence recalling events from the past and helping to link 1970s' events with the burglary.

***One other library connection: The winner of the Two Harbors Library 2025 summer reading challenge, Paula Pettit, is named as the assistant librarian!

Anne and I put on a program at the Two Harbors Library last month. At the end, we mentioned the theme of the next book will be Viking runes. To our amazement, one of the attendees announced that she was somewhat of a rune (Viking writing) expert, having grown up in Kensington, Minnesota. In the 1800s, a stone was unearthed. After untangling it from the roots of a tree, it was discovered that there were runes carved into the stone. The translation said "We are 8 Goths and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey from Vinland to the west. We had camp by two skerries one day’s journey north from this stone. We were out to fish one day. After we came home, we found ten men red with blood and dead. Ave Maria, save us from evil. We have ten men by the sea to look after our ships, fourteen days’ travel from this island. Year 1362.".

Hmm. I wonder how that will show up in our next book?

Check out "Whistling Librarian" at the BWL site or from Amazon, or your own library.

Dean Hovey - Books We Love Publishing Inc.

Whistling Librarian: Whistling Pines Book 10, by Dean L. Hovey — Books We Love Publishing Inc.

Alaska, adventure in my fiftieth state, by Diane Scott Lewis

 

To purchase, please click HERE

Five stars from Long and Short Reviews
"I enjoyed guessing what may happen next and then comparing my assumptions with what I actually read. Paying close attention is key to getting the most out of Sage’s adventures.
Secrets of Lakeluster House thrilled me."

But today's post is about my trip to Alaska, a mysterious land to the far north. I didn't know if I could do it, I'd recently lost my husband and have mobility issues, but my best friend was a huge help-I couldn't have done it without her-and we had the adventure of a lifetime. I'd been through forty-nine states, I just needed Alaska.

Our cruise began in Seattle, Washington. Neither of us had cruised before.

The ship was huge, with over eleven decks. On our second day out, the sea became rough, and my friend seasick. I'm surprised I wasn't sick at all. A good sailor's wife, I guess. Though I couldn't walk anywhere without being bumped against a wall.

Juneau was our first port, a town tucked in among glaciers. You can't access it by road; plane and sea only, because of the miles of surrounding glaciers. The reason it remained the capital is that millions of dollars of gold was discovered here. 

It rained, heavily at times, so I got no picture of the town. Here is the port. 

It's a beautiful frontier town with friendly people. I splurged and bought myself a ruby ring for my birthday.

Our next stop was Sitka, on an island, and where Russia handed over Alaska to the U.S. in 1867.

Russian church in Sitka. Another beautiful town. We also visited a cannery where salmon is processed. Sitka calls itself the Salmon capital of the world.

We were supposed to see black bears, but they were obviously in hiding. That's okay; I've seen black bears in my front yard in Pennsylvania.

Our last port was Ketchikan. We visited a totem pole park, and learned about Alaska's indigenous people.

Later in the cruise, we anchored in Glacier Bay National Park, an amazing sight and site.

Here we are at Glacier Bay.

Along with the service on the ship, the delicious food, I recommend this cruise to anyone. Ask for a cabin with a veranda. It doesn't cost that much more and it lets so much light into your cabin. Plus, you can sit out if you dress warmly.

Now I'll get to work on my paranormal set in California.

                     

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with one naughty dachshund.

Time travelling backwards...by Sheila Claydon

Find my books here

Many a Moon was my last book. It was also the final book in my Mapleby Memories trilogy. For a lot of reasons I haven't written anything since then, so when I said I had an idea and was ready to start again, my BWL publisher was very supportive. And when I explained that actually I wanted to edit and rejig an old, unpublished manuscript, which shouldn't take too long, she offered me two dates for publication: February or December 2026. 

I've written a lot of books and as this one just needed editing, I chose February. Far better to work to a deadline I told myself. If you say December you'll let it drift, thinking you have all the time in the world to finish it. Besides, in the summer family will be visiting from overseas, the garden will need attention, and, if it is as hot as last summer, you'll want to sit in the shade, not sit indoors with your nose in a manuscript. Far better to work through the cold, wet winter months. So far, so good.

Now, however, at two-thirds of the way through retyping the manuscript, I find I have given myself something of a challenge. The story is fine. The facts are fine. It's just that it is set in the 1980s when times were very different.  So I have had to make a decision. Do I update it or do I add it to my 4 Retro books already republished by BWL?

The further I have been working through the manuscript, the more Retro has won out. Firstly, I'm old enough to remember what life was like in the 1980s and I have to admit I'm enjoying the trip down memory lane. Secondly, the story is about a composer and her journey towards writing music for film.  Of course, because this is a romance, there is also a music arranger who works with her. In the 1980s, however, they worked very differently.

When I wrote the book I researched it thoroughly (the hard way, pre Internet) and I'm glad to say, having checked it out all over again, that the facts have held up. What makes it almost impossible to update, however, is how much the music and film scene has changed since then. It's almost as if it's an entirely new industry. Digital audio workstations, virtual instruments, sample libraries, remote collaboration - even the language is different from the days when tape machines, live orchestras, hardware synthesizers and handwritten scores were the order of the day,

Today, film directors can hear near final versions early in the process, whereas in the 1980s music was mainly composed on paper so they often had to imagine the final result via piano demos or rough tapes. This was a time devoid of cell phones let alone iPhones and computers. A time before dating sites when meeting someone outside your immediate circle and falling in love was a happenstance. A time when letters were written, and when landline phone numbers were dialled on heavy handsets. A time when gender roles were more traditional and miscommunication more common. Truly a different age.

Joanne, the heroine, has to fight to escape society's expectations before she finds success. Something that wouldn't happen nowadays. She also has to negotiate falling in and out of love when everything has to be face to face. No ghosting. No texts. She has to be brave.

When it is published, I hope you will read it and enjoy it. 1980 is probably too recent to be considered an historical novel but it sure is different from the modern day. Travelling back in time can be challenging but it can also be interesting and fun.

AND THE SURVEY SAYS … by Renee Duke

  

                          https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/p/the-tangled-rose

Writing for teens requires an ability to remember how the adolescent mind works. One example: their attitude towards adult ‘probes’ into their inner feelings disguised as school surveys. High schools sometimes get students to complete questionnaires about individual learning styles, and while some questions might have relevance, most fill kids with an urge to answer them something like this:

Q. Before starting an unfamiliar task, do you prefer to have someone tell you the proper way to do it?

A. As opposed to wading in without the vaguest notion and doing it all wrong, yes.

Q. Do you think it’s important that a teacher understand the subject he or she is teaching?

A. Now there’s a plan.

Q. Do you frequently like to have the significance and interdependency of supplemental graphs and diagrams as they relate to concepts addressed in the corresponding texts or lectures explained to you?

A. I think I’d like to have the above question explained to me.

Q. Do you write out your notes in paragraph form, or make graphs and charts, to help you understand concepts better, even if the teacher doesn’t require you to do so?

A. You’ve got to be kidding.

Q. Would you rather copy notes off the board or work with hand-outs?

A. Photocopy machines were a wonderful invention. So were highlighters.

Q. What do you think it means if you doodle in your notebook during class?

A. It usually means I’m bored.

Q. Are your notes covered with circles, arrows and other symbols?

A. Yes. Even though, by the following day, I have no idea what they mean.

Q. If you sit near a classroom window, can you be distracted by what’s going on outside?

A. Depends if watching two crows square off over a walnut is more riveting than Pythagoras’s Theorem. (Answer: yes.)

Q. Do you find it easier to think when you have the freedom to move around?

A. The school rather frowns on students wandering the halls because they’re ‘thinking’.

Q. Do you often tap your foot or pencil when you’re thinking?

A. Doesn’t everyone?

Q. Do you get restless if you have to sit still for an extended period of time?

A. Doesn’t everyone?

Q. Do you enjoy studying English literature? A. The operative word is ‘English’. Things like, “Bifil that in that seson, on a day,” no longer qualify as English.

Q. Do you read for enjoyment?

A. I don’t have time to read for enjoyment. I’m too busy reading assigned downers like Wuthering Heights and wicked wastes of paper like The Metamorphosis.

Q. Do you have trouble spelling unknown words when writing an essay?

A. If they’re unknown, how would I know to use them?

Q. How much do you enjoy giving presentations in class?

A. I wasn’t aware it was supposed to be enjoyable.

Q. Do you find it difficult to accept views opposite to your own?

A. No. The world is full of ignorant people. One has to have tolerance.

Q. Do your parents have to nag you to do your homework?

A. I don’t know if they have to. I think it’s pretty much automatic.

Q. Do you resent it when teachers who have taught your older brothers and sisters have high expectations of you?

A. Having taught my older siblings, they generally don’t have high expectations of me.

Q. Do you find it difficult to set goals during teacher/parent/student conferences?

A. My parents have usually made it pretty clear what ‘my’ goals are going to be.

They don’t–or at least, shouldn’t–answer that way of course. They’d be put down as maladjusted and made to do six more questionnaires designed to figure out why.