Canada's Coastline by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

 

https://books2read.com/Romancing-the-Klondike

 

https://books2read.com/Rushing-the-Klondike 

https://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

 

Canada’s Coastline

I am a Canadian and all my mystery, historical, romance, and young adult novels are set in Canada. Canada is the second largest country in the world and has the world’s longest coastline. It is 243,792 km (151,485.326 mi in length and borders on the North Pacific, Arctic, and North Atlantic Oceans and includes the coasts of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton island, as well as, thousands of off-shore islands. The next closest country is Indonesia with 54,716 km (33,999 mi). The sovereign country of Monaco has 5.6 km (3.5 mi) of coastline.

Part of Canada’s coastline encompasses Hudson Bay which, even though it is saltwater, is sometimes considered a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. While politically it is considered part of Nunavut, it borders on Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec, and Nunavut. Hudson Bay is famous for the fur trade between Europeans and Indigenous peoples from the 1600s to the 1900s.

Canada has ten provinces and three territories. Two of the provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, are land locked. The others plus the territories all have some part of their coast on saltwater. The province of British Columbia has the most with 25,725 km (15,985 mi) on the Pacific Ocean, while the Yukon Territory has only 343 km (213 mi) along the Arctic Ocean.

The government of Canada has set aside five key ecosystems of Canada’s coastline as Large Ocean Management Areas (LOMA) for conservation, planning, and management. The Pacific North Coast comprises one-quarter of the Canadian Pacific ocean waters. This area is home to sea lions, dolphins, seals, porpoises, and twenty-seven different whale species. It is also the habitat of 80% of the global population of Cassin’s Auklet plus a number of other seabirds. The glass sponge reef along the coast dates back 9,000 years.

The people around the Eastern Scotian shelf rely on fishing and petroleum exploration for their livelihood to the detriment of the region and the number of marine animals that live there. LOMA is trying to improve the area. Although, shore around the Placentia Bay area off the coast of Newfound and Labrador  is degrading due to economic development, it is still the habitat for 49 bird species, 14 marine animal species, and 23 fish species. There are also a number of plant species.

The Beaufort Sea is a marginal sea (a division of water separated from an ocean by islands, peninsulas, or archipelagos) in the Arctic Ocean off the shore of the Yukon and Northwest Territories. This LOMA is a complex a marine system because of the short summer free of ice, the freshwater flowing into the sea during the spring and summer and the increased dropping of sediment. It has been an important area for humans who have hunted and fished for centuries. Six communities oversea the management of the LOMA and by doing so are able to pass on their harvesting skills to future generations.

The fifth LOMA protected area is the Gulf of St Lawrence which sits at the mouth of the St Lawrence River and covers 155,000 sq km (60,000 sq mi). Some of the species that inhabit the waters are Greenland shark, the St. Lawrence beluga, giant whales, seals, tiny pink crustaceans called krill that are near the bottom of the food chain, sea ducks, and geese. It is a very productive and diverse estuary along the coasts of Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfound land and Labrador.

 

Colour in Winter by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

I am not a winter person. Never have been, never will be. When my children were small, and an English winter produced enough snow, their dad took them sledding and snowballing. I stayed home making cookies and hot chocolate for when they returned. Jump forward many years, and here I am in Canada, a move my children still cannot fathom as there is so much winter here. What can I say? It was all for love.

But it’s snowing again. Rather than ponder on the bleak view beyond the window, I have happy memories of sunshine and colour in Mexico. Here are a few photographs which I hope brighten up your day too.

Most of my Mexican vacations have been in and around Puerto Vallarta.  I'm fascinated by the wonderful sculptures along the Malecon, especially these surreal figures found on the corner of Aldama and the Malecon. The dozen or so sculptures form The Rotunda of the Sea by Alejandro Colunga from Guadalajara. The bronze chairs have been worn smooth by the many tourists who either take a rest or pose to have their photograph taken.

 

Farther along the coast from Puerto Vallarta is the village of La Penita, with its colourful and crowded market.The first thing that caught my eye were these beautiful rugs. I would have been very happy to have brought one home, but thought if I ever had one I would want to go to Oaxaca where they were produced and buy it there. Oaxaca is well known for its lively arts and crafts scene but was too far away for us to fit into this particular trip.

It wasn't just the rugs that caught my eye, but this very busy ceramics shop. There was so much to look at, the vibrant colours alone made me smile.  Mindful of what I had to pack in my suitcase, I bought only one small piece, a dish which now holds paperclips.

Many of the buildings were as colourful as the wares they housed, but no one could miss this striking apartment building in Rincon de Guayabitos.

One of my favourite places to visit is the Botanical Gardens a handy bus ride south of Puerto Vallarta. It is easy to spend the day browsing through the tropical gardens and lush jungle, take the walk down to the river, and enjoy the restaurant when you return. The bright spot for me is the orchid house, but these massive datura blooms also caught my eye.

 

So now, after having whined about the wintery view beyond my window, it has stopped snowing, the cloud cover has cleared, and the sun is shining. As it is only twenty-eight days to spring, I guess I can handle it.

Victoria Chatham

  AT BOOKS WE LOVE

 

Writing for Goldilocks

 

At the conclusion of a book club meeting, a woman stopped the discussion. "Dean, you struck the right balance when describing the scenes and characters. I finished another author's bestseller in one evening. The author spent so much time describing meaningless details that I skipped over pages to find the story's meat. I don't care what shape a cloud is or what shade green a room has been painted. I want the plot to move ahead."

Another reader added, "Yes, you give us enough description so we can form an image of the characters and place in our minds without putting us to sleep. You hit the Goldilocks spot."

Those comments made me reflect a couple of things. Twenty years ago, I contacted a literary agent about representing me. I send her a manuscript. It came back a week later with the first twenty pages marked up with red ink like a term paper. She said, "I quit after twenty pages because you aren't giving me enough character and place description. You need to open every scene with at least one page describing the scene, the characters, and how they're dressed. Send this back after you've done that."

I declined her advice. and we parted ways. I'm sure she's representing some best-selling author who fills his/her books with flowery descriptions. I'm very plot driven. After some minimalist description, I want the readers to create their own images of the characters and locations. Jill Fletcher is slender, doesn't wear makeup, and is hung up about her figure. Doug is middle-aged and ruggedly handsome.

That approach has led to some interesting discussions. A reader approached me after a book event and said, "I know just what the killer looks like. He's Garrison Keillor's twin brother."

I've read authors who spend a great deal of the book painting verbal images for the readers. I started reading a book by famous British author. She spent the first three pages of a book describing a dingy dormitory hallway as her protagonist walked to her room. It was wonderfully detailed, right down to the description of the different shades of lipstick on the cigarette butts in the sand outside the doorway. The problem was, I didn't care. I wanted a hook to pull me into the story.

At a recent Mystery Writers of America conference, a famous author spoke about the process of his best-selling book becoming a movie. He sold the movie rights to a film studio. The studio hired a screenwriter (a whole different skillset than writing a mystery). The book's author received a copy of the screenplay (for his approval). He was appalled that the opening scene, a man walking into a room where his wife was decorating their Christmas tree, had been boiled down from three pages to "Man enters room where wife is decorating Christmas tree." He called the producer, who explained that they had set and costume designers who would create the room and dress the characters. It was at that point that the book's author realized that he'd sold the rights to his characters and a rough plot. The screenwriter, producer, director, and actors would modify it as they saw fit. His input was neither wanted nor appreciated.

Back to Goldilocks. I try to walk a fine line. I got two conflicting bits of feedback on Dead End Trail. A female friend, who attended Catholic schools in a small town where all the children were immaculately conceived because no one in her town had ever had sex, called. "Dean (sigh) I was disappointed by the extreme amount of sex in your recent book." I seized up, trying to recall ANY sex in the book. Eventually, I replied, "My characters went into their motel room and closed the door a few times. I moved to another scene once the door closed." She replied, "But I KNEW what they were doing, Dean!"

A different reader spoke to me about the same topic, in the same book. "Dean, you break away from the romance scenes just when they're getting interesting." After a deep sigh, I replied, "I leave what happens next to your imagination." After a pause the reader replied, "My imagination might not be as good as yours. Keep the scene going next time."

Having decided NOT to write erotica, I prefer to leave Jill and Doug's romance scenes behind a closed door. Use your imagination. They're married and in love. I'm sure that's how Goldilocks would want it. Not too little. Not too much. Just right.

Check out "The Last Rodeo" and my other Doug Fletcher books at: 

Hovey, Dean - BWL Publishing Inc. (bookswelove.com)

I hope I hit the Goldilocks spot for you.

Apple Peels and Snails to Snare a Husband in the Eighteenth Century, by Diane Scott Lewis

 

To purchase my historical novels, click HERE

To celebrate February, the month of love, with Valentine's Day, I delved into the superstitions of the past when a village lass searched for her one true love.

Folklore abounds in the villages of England around the single girl’s search for a husband—as in the eighteenth century marriage was what most young women had to look forward to, or they’d be ridiculed and regulated to spinsters, farmed out as governesses, or forced to live on the charity of their family.

Most of these search-for-true-love customs revolved around the seasons.

 
At the ruined Abbey of Cerne Abbas in Dorsetshire, girls flocked around the wishing-well in all seasons. To obtain their heart’s desire, they’d pluck a leaf from a nearby laurel bush, make a cup of it, dip this in the well, then turn and face the church. The girl would then “wish” for presumably a man she already has in mind, but must keep this wish a secret or it wouldn’t come true.

Other customs included, in Somersetshire on May Day Eve or St. John’s Eve, a lass putting a snail on a pewter plate. As the snail slithered across the plate it would mark out the future husband’s initials.

On another ritual to this end, writer Daniel Defoe remarked by saying: “I hope that the next twenty-ninth of June, which is St. John the Baptist’s Day, I shall not see the pastures adjacent to the metropolis thronged as they were the last year with well-dressed young ladies crawling up and down upon their knees as if they were a parcel of weeders, when all the business is to hunt superstitiously after a coal under the root of a plantain to put under their heads that night that they may dream who should be their husbands.”

Throwing an apple peel over the left shoulder was also employed in the hopes the paring would fall into the shape of the future husband’s initials. When done on St. Simon and St. Jude’s Day, the girls would recite the following rhyme as they tossed the peel: St. Simon and St. Jude, on you I intrude, By this paring I hold to discover, without any delay please tell me this day, the first letter of him, my true lover.

On St. John’s Eve, his flower, the St. John’s Wort, would be hung over doors and windows to keep off evil spirits, and the girls who weren’t off searching for snails in the pastures, would be preparing the dumb cake. Two girls made the cake, two baked it, and two broke it. A third person would put the cake pieces under the pillows of the other six. This entire ritual must be performed in dead silence-or it would fail. The girls would then go to bed to dream of their future husbands.

On the eve of St. Mary Magdalene’s Day, a spring of rosemary would be dipped into a mixture of wine, rum, gin, vinegar, and water. The girls, who must be under twenty-one, fastened the sprigs to their gowns, drink three sips of the concoction, then would go to sleep in silence and dream of future husbands.



On Halloween, a girl going out alone might meet her true lover. One tale has it that a young servant-maid who went out for this purpose encountered her master coming home from market instead of a single boy. She ran home to tell her mistress, who was already ill. The mistress implored the maid to be kind to her children, then this wife died. Later on, the master did marry his serving-maid.

Myths and customs were long a part of village life when it came to match-making.


Source: English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century, by Rosamond Bayne-Powell, 1935.

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty dachshund. 

Growing old is...lucky! by Sheila Claydon

Find my books here

I know this book cover doesn't seem to match the title of my blog, but bear with me!

A couple of weeks ago my cousin was 80, so I called him to wish him a happy special birthday. Our whole life we have teased one another so I knew our conversation wouldn't be emotional nor full of the cliches often used on such occasions. What I wasn't expecting when I laughingly asked him how he had got to be so old, however, was his answer.

"It's because I'm lucky." he said.

Wow!

Then, on 9 Feb, I read fellow author Barbara Baker's BWL blogpost 'He's determined to Ski again' about her 90 year old father, and I clicked on the link to her YouTube video of him doing just that Dad Skiing Again - 90 years young - YouTube . He was amazing. So graceful and determined.

Double wow!

That video together with my cousin's words, were so uplifting. And my cousin is right. To achieve a very old age relatively healthy in both mind and body is not just lucky, it's a privilege. A privilege not granted to everyone. Like many people, I have lost friends in their forties and fifties. I also know two children who lost their mothers while they were still in reception class and another girl who died from a brain tumour when she was barely in her teens. The unlucky ones.

So old age needs to be celebrated. Medication, even operations, might be needed to keep some aches and pains at bay but they need to be celebrated too because, even as recently as the mid twentieth century, very little of it was available.  We are the lucky ones, which is something we should never forget, which brings me on to my book Saving Katy Gray the final book of my When Paths Meet trilogy.

It is a romance but behind the romance is the story of a bright and intelligent woman gradually succumbing to dementia and how, with Katy Gray's help, she found herself again. Not completely but enough. Enough to live a fulfilling life. Enough to use the skills she never forgot even on her worse days. The hero, the heroine, the romance are still there but I hope that readers will take from it the wider lessons. The ones that make growing older just part of life's story. 

I have two favourite sayings about ageing. The first is a slick throwaway, attributed to the film star Bette Davis.  And there is a lot of truth in it for even the healthiest of us as we grow older.

Old age ain't no place for sissies 

The second, by Albert Einstein, is the one I want to live by though.

Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious 

children before the great mystery into which we were born.

If I can do that right to the end, then I will indeed be lucky, and privileged. I hope you will too.

Other books in my When Paths Meet series deal with autism, childhood trauma, adoption, desperation and death. Not subjects that are usually associated with romance you say! Don't be fooled, these books are contemporary romance with a capital R. It is romance that is embedded in real life, however, because very few of us tread a smooth path where love is concerned. If you decide to read them, I hope you enjoy them.

More Than Romance by Helen Henderson

Fire and Amulet by Helen Henderson
Click the title for purchase information

February - the month of romance. For couples who didn't get engaged on New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day is an alternative. Then a June wedding is held. However, there is more to the month than the one event. Before the heart-shaped boxes of chocolate come out, there is Groundhog Day, celebrated on February 2nd.

What could be the most well-known event celebrating Groundhog Day is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. People gather in Gobbler’s Knob to see Punxsutawney Phil predict the weather for the rest of the winter. According to legend, if Phil sees his shadow (meaning the Sun is shining), winter will not end early, and we’ll have another 6 weeks left of it. However, what many wish for is a cloudy day. For if Phil doesn't see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

Pennsylvania is not the only place which claims a weather prognosticator. Among the other furry marmots which join the activity are Jimmy the Groundhog, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; Sir Walter Wally, Raleigh, N.C.; Shubenacadie Sam, Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada; and my favorite, Staten Island Chuck, New York City.

The Ivy Hill woodchucks loved
to eat the tall grasses in the field and
along the lane.

According to the Farmers' Almanac, "Groundhogs prefer to eat wild grasses, leaves, berries, and, as any gardener who’s ever had one around knows, food crops." In some parts of the country, a sign of approaching spring is when the groundhogs, also known as wood chucks, leave hibernation to eat their fill of grasses alongside the interstate or country lanes.

The average groundhog can move approximately 700 pounds of dirt When digging its burrow. Burrows can be up to 46 feet long and up to 5 feet underground. On my family farm, they liked to burrow beneath the corner of buildings. Especially the wooden-floored shed where saddles, bikes, and gardening equipment were stored or the corn crib.

 

When snow covers the ground, the woodchucks
hibernate below ground in their burrow.

 

One canny groundhog had an entrance at the front corner of the shed and another at the back. He would come up see if anyone was sitting on the porch, before popping back into his burrow and coming out at the back of the shed to munch on whatever caught his fancy. To discourage using our garden as a buffet, the kitchen garden was on the other side of house to put the structure between it and the groundhog. We had to walk around the entire house to get to the garden, but the would-be thief had to go even further.

 

 I hope you enjoyed these memories.

~Until next month, stay safe and read.   Helen

 

To purchase the Fire and Amulet: BWL

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. Find out more about her and her novels on her BWL author page.

I'm excited by Nancy M Bell

 

To learn more about Nancy and her books please click on Kayla's cover.

I'm excited because I am about to embark on my very first author tour! Jude Pittman, publisher of BWL Publishing and I will just be back from a whirlwind tour of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick when you read this. Currently, the date is February 7, 2023 and I am in the middle of preparing for the departure.

I've only been to Nova Scotia before and it was a quick visit, although I did get to Peggy's Cove and the best lobster roll ever! This time, we will be promoting the new audio books of the Canadian Historical Brides collection. SInce Jude is the co-author of Pillars of Avalon (Newfoundland) and I'm co-author of On a Stormy Primeval Shore (New Brunswick) we are covering as much of the Maritimes as possible in a short period of time. We will also be meeting with some BWL authors who live in the area, so doing double duty in that respect.  It will be so great to meet with everyone and enjoy talking about books and writing.  

Hopefully, the weather will co-operate as we're busing it and taking an overnight ferry from North Sydney, NS to Port aux Basques NFLD and then returning the same day via overnight ferry to North Sydney. Should be quite the adventure.

See you next month, until then stay safe, stay warm.

 

Dirty laundry challenge, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

A Bright Darkness,
Book 3 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

Valentine's Day is now behind us, but I still believe that love should be celebrated all year round. Your special person should be told every day that they are special; your family should be told regularly that they are special, in fact, if you are blessed with pets, they love to hear it too (though the act of feeding/petting/playing is really an act of love).

So one way I demonstrate the love for my partner is to wash his dirty clothes. I am the Master Launderer. To help me fulfill this chore, all I ask of him is three things:

1. to place dirty clothes in the hamper

2. to ensure socks are separated as he like to wear double socks in his work boots

3. to empty all pockets.

Fairly simple requests, don't you think? Well...

Five minutes before I bring the clothes hamper to the laundry room, I give him a heads-up.

"Is your laundry in the hamper?"

"Yup," he replies.

I peek into the spare room he uses as his 4 a.m. dressing room. Sure enough, there's dirty t-shirts strewn on the bed and on the floor there's dirty, doubled-up socks and gitch. 

I check his bathroom. Hanging on the hooks behind the door are three pj bottoms, two t-shirts and a pair of gitch. Missing is the partridge in a pear tree.

I gather the dirty specimens and proceed to the laundry room.

"You did empty your pockets, right?"

"Yup," he replies again.

By now I'm convinced he's forgotten (on purpose) the three simple requests from the Master Launderer. I pull out a pair of his jeans and check the pockets.

Good grief.

The 'empty' pocket contains two quarters, one loonie, one previously washed unused band aid, two echinacea capsules, one drywall screw and one lip balm.

Does he deserve a good old-fashioned scolding? Probably. Will I? Nah. I'm the Master Launderer and he is not.

Besides, I'm a buck-fifty richer.

Update on the P&E Awards

The final book in the Twisted Climb trilogy, A Bright Darkness, placed third in the Best Young Adult book category! You need to get your hands on a copy... the action doesn't stop as Jayden, Connor and Max are tasked with releasing the lost souls trapped in a world below the dream world: the Un-world. In my totally biased opinion, the conclusion is truly epic. 

Stay safe everyone and remember to tell the ones 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

Weaving a Little Love into Every Story By BC Deeks, Paranormal Mystery Fiction Author

 

Visit B.C. Deeks' BWL Author Page for Book and Purchase Information

 

http://bookswelove.net/deeks-bc/

I write heartwarming stories of mystery and magic. But I learned most of what I know about writing craft when I joined a romance writing group. Do you know the most important lesson my mentors taught me? LOVE is part of every story. I’m not talking romance necessarily; but the development of an intense feeling of deep connection and caring. Your story won’t come alive for your reader unless your characters resonate with each other.

At its foundation, my Beyond the Magic series is a story of family ties - three siblings who have a strong bond with each other because their mother died in childbirth and their father is a harsh disciplinarian. The Otherland is a society that is desperate to preserve its hereditary magic and so is relying on genetic matching for their mating practices. The realm’s leaders don’t account for love matches and when one occurs, it could destroy their world. In the series, each of the three siblings set out on an adventure and, in turn, form a bond with another ally who they need to fight off dark forces. Ultimately, they all — mythics and mortals - must fight together to defeat an ancient prophecy. Each plot evolves around the emotional development or arc of the primary characters as they grow to trust their skills and inner emotional strength so that they can do what they must to meet their goal.

Isn’t that what life is all about? Perhaps modern advertising around Valentine’s Day focuses too much on romantic love. We can choose to expand it to recognize our own emotional attachment to our family and friends. Who do you care about? Let’s come up with a way to show them.

·         Help your child make a handmade Valentine's card for their favorite teacher.

·         Pick up a book as a gift for a friend who’s always there for you.

·         Wrap up cookies and drop them over to a neighbor who always waves and makes you feel part of the neighborhood.

·         Mail cards to family who live far away just to say you care.

·         Tell a friend how important they are to you.

Life is full of relationships and our books must accurately reflect the depth of those connections. It doesn’t matter whether the book is a mystery, a romance, science fiction or any other genre; to be successful, a story has to weave all the emotional complexity of life through our characters.

Shall We Dance?

 

                                                   more about my books here!

I was delighted when this image was chosen for the cover of my latest novel from BWL because of the dynamic dancing feet of a Cherokee Fancy Shawl dancer.  Here's one in motion at a pow wow...

I love featuring dance in my stories for many reasons.  A dance can prove a vibrant setting for a scene. It can illuminate character.  Who wouldn't be charmed when a confident dancer urges a shy partner out onto the dance floor?

It can be a springboard to romance. I grew up delighting in Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers musicals of the 1930s that were playing on television in my childhood a generation later. Wow, I was transported into another world of glamor and spectacular dancing!

My parents met on the dance floor in those 1930s and were champion Peabody dancers well into their 80s. Their complementary moves and in syncopation were, to me, a symbol of their 66 year marriage. 

When we invite readers into our stories it's much like being asked to dance... to trust the elements of our writing moves to bring us both to a place we've never been. I'm eternally grateful to readers who have accepted my offers of...shall we dance?