If you’ve read or watched The Girl on the Train, you’ll know how Paula Hawkins likes to mess with her character’s minds. Published in 2021, the slow fire that’s burning could refer to any of them, as all of these characters carry emotional wounds from past traumas.
There’s “The Girl Who Got Away,” but not unscathed, when she and her friend skipped school one day and accepted a ride with a predator.
The woman who was struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run at age ten and bears more than physical scars.
The woman married to the story-stealing writer who lost her little boy and never recovered. And her sister with her own troubled son.
The old woman who no one sees but who sees it all.
Hawkins connects them all and situates them in the same community. She even provides a map. At its core, this is a murder mystery that begins with a vicious killing on a canal boat in London. Intelligently crafted, the author keeps us guessing as she skips between scenes from her characters’ pasts that reveal possible motivation, flaws, and ferocity.
Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing fiction. This training is evident in the structuring of her novels; as well as her fascination with people, their humanity, and their personal stories. She grew up in Zimbabwe but has spent the past thirty years in London. A Slow Fire Burning is a quick read, excellent for summer, and likely available at your local library. That’s where I found it … on the “Hawk” fiction shelf.
I am a Spring. I was also born in the spring. Perhaps that’s why I awaken at this time of year when birds call to their mates, creeks overflow their banks, and buds burst from branches.
Years ago, when Carole Jackson first published Colour Me Beautiful, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I’m surprised to find this book is still in print and available. I had the colour chart taped up in my closet for years. Have you ever had your colours done? I think it actually works.
Colour theory is based, not on colours you like, but on skin tones. I’m going to use my sister as an example. She is a Summer because she has more of a blueish skin tone. This means she can wear pastels. While I, with my yellowish skin tone, wash out in pastels. As a spring, I need warm, vibrant colours: orangy reds rather than blue-reds; coral, clear violet, turquoise, royal blue. I shouldn’t wear black; though if you know me at all, you know it’s my go-to. What colour palette works best for you?
It’s unfortunate that stores usually only offer seasonal colours. For example, in fall and winter, it’s all russets, dark greens, and wine tones, all of which don’t work for me. Thrift stores are the exception because there you can always find a rainbow.
As a child, I cocooned all winter in Ontario. As soon as spring came, I was out in the bush in my rubber boots, wading through creeks and searching for sprouts. Yellow dogtooth violets. Purple violets. The first trilliums. I still love to wade in ditches and creeks. Here in B.C. skunk cabbage is our first woodsy shoot and I saw some last week.
I’m desperate for spring as the last month, I’ve been sick more than I’ve been well. I lost a month of time and energy. I caught one cold from my grandson and we’d just barely recovered when he gave me a second virus from hell that’s hung on. After three solid weeks, I’m still coughing. Skaha and I went for our normal hour walk in the woods last week, and I needed a rest after. The last two nights I’ve been able to sleep all night without Buckley’s! Yay! How did you fare this flu season?
Bring on the sun. I want to dig in the dirt, rake leaves, play in the stream, walk the beaches, and plant.
If you’re curious about Spring Equinox (March 20th) We’Moon offers this beautiful page of facts and suggestions. Saturday, in the bright sunshine, I cleared the leaves from my garlic. Then put up my mini greenhouse and planted seeds. It feels so good to dig in the dirt.
Meet Barry Bear!
Skaha has a new housemate. Barry arrived on March 9th by plane from a shelter in Regina. He’s about six months old, a sweet gentle giant, wearing a full Canadian winter coat. We think it’s part Great Pyrenees. Right now, he’s about the same size as Skaha (around 60 pounds) but time will tell. The two of them are having a great old time together!
1) Many contests are bogus. They pocket entry fees and no one reads the entries. They randomly choose a winner. If you’re looking for vetted contests, Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) posts a lists of reputable awards.
2) Many awards are not open to Indies, or are open but traditional publishers with big bucks throw money at the books they choose to win.
3) Some contests have a zillion categories so you basically make up some random award and win it.
4) Some Indie award contests and some book reviewers, both whom I will not name, look down on genre-writers and only cater to what they call “literary” works, as if authors who write in a genre like mystery or romance or fantasy can’t also be literary.
5) At Wishing Shelf, two teams of real readers (one in London and one in Stockholm) actually read the books and make the decisions. There is one category for Adult Fiction so it’s competitive. For your entry fee, they do significant marketing for you, and they support Blind Children UK.
*This is the audio book cover for LURE. All of my books are now available on Google Play and on Kobo in audio. WhooHoo! I had a ball listening to my old British man read my stories as I corrected his pronunciation.
News and Musings
To Dance with Destiny. I wrote the first draft of Hollystone Book 5 faster than I’ve ever written a book before. I started in November and finished around mid-February. I left it for a full month (mostly because I was so darn sick) and just finished the first series of revisions. It’s always a blast to read your book again for the first time all the way through. Did I write that?
Yasaman has the paragraph about the tattoo and is starting her magic tattoo cover! Yes, someone will be getting a new tattoo in this book!
Ghostlight. I just spoke with the editor of Ghostlight and will be starting revisions soon. A couple of the teens I sent it to for a beta read said it needed a better title. Scary. Funny. Weird. Unique. Attention grabbing.
There’s a lighthouse, a family mystery, and a young woman who can’t tell the difference between ghosts and real people. Any ideas?
Craft Market. The first public market of 2023 is coming up on Saturday April 2nd at Union Bay Community Club. If you live mid-Island, do come by the say hello.
Kelley Armstrong is a wickedly voracious writer who often pens two series simultaneously, sometimes while writing or editing other projects as well. Still, she manages all with equal enthusiasm, detail, and creativity. I honestly don’t know how she does it. The woman must never sleep.
After Rockton’s demise, she followed the characters to a new, wild Yukon city: Haven’s Rock. Now, she’s flown across the sea and back through time to give us another new series that blends fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction.
A Rip Through Time, the first book in this series, introduces a brand new, eclectic cast of characters. Like Rockton’s Casey Duncan, Mallory Atkinson is a strong, clever thirty-year-old homicide detective. On May 20, 2019, she’s in Edinburgh, Scotland caring for her dying grandmother. When she goes out for coffee, she bumps into a man in the shop, and apologizes—she is, after all, Canadian. On her way back to the hospital, she hears a woman cry out in a shadowy alley and goes to investigate. There, she glimpses the woman and her attacker; then feels a coarse rope around her neck. Mallory passes out and when she awakens, finds herself in the body of the other victim, Catriona Mitchell, a nineteen-year-old maid who lives and works in the home of an undertaker. The date? May 20, 1869.
Timeslip is fascinating to read and write. It takes tremendous research as you’re effectively writing historical fiction mixed with sci-fi/fantasy, and in this case, crime. Armstrong has taken the time to, not only do an enormous amount of research on Victorian Scotland, but provide a “Selected & Complete Research Bibliography” on her website. Armstrong says, “It’s not just knowing whether an item was invented by that time (or out of fashion by that time.) It’s the language, the customs, the concepts, the ideas…”
Mallory Atkinson (wearing Catriona’s body) is as cerebral as Sherlock Holmes, and we process these timeslip issues along with her. She slips in and out of Victorian English and contemporary casual speech as we move from her thoughts to her encounters with the handsome Dr. Duncan Gray and his independent sister, Isla. Catriona’s miraculous personality change gains her a position as, not just Gray’s housemaid, but his forensic assistant. Yes, Gray is a little dense when it comes to women, and accepts that his maid has changed dramatically due to a bump on the head. Then the bodies start to fall, and Mallory realizes she didn’t slip through this time rip alone.
The close first-person point-of-view draws the reader into the mind of the analytical protagonist as she struggles to, not only understand her predicament, but survive and overcome it, then find a way home.
Reminiscent of Outlander, Armstrong’s newest series is Intelligent, detailed, and original; definitely a series to watch. Will Mallory return to her time? Or will she win the heart of Dr. Gray and decide to stay? Will they catch the serial killer who eludes them? Or will other criminals fall through the rip in time as well?
Occasionally, a book can surprise you, and every so often an old book can become new. The girl on the cover, Miss Sarah, with her Children of the Corn stare, makes me decidedly uncomfortable—enough to keep the poor wench face down on my shelf when my nose wasn’t in the book. But as I began to read, the author’s grasp of language, and ability to spin a tale like the story weavers of old, drew me into this page-turner with its delicious descriptions.
The Legend of Sarah is a science fiction novel reminiscent of John Wyndham’s, The Chrysalids. Set in the not-too-distant future following an unexplained apocalypse, we discover divergent societies separated by knowledge and technology. It took me several chapters to understand the reason behind these names: Philes and the Phobes, so I’ll tell you. The Technophiles live in a high-tech enclave somewhere in the American Midwest, but their resources are dwindling. The Technophobes are an old-time agrarian culture living in the City of Monn (Montana? Minnesota?) ruled by a genteel governor and a fire and brimstone preacher.
When the legendary Sarah takes a shine to a handsome Phile archaeologist named Reese, who’s come looking for answers among the Phobes, societal differences magnify into a xenophobic frenzy. Using her ingenuity and what little magic she can muster from an old crone named Cat Anna, Sarah takes it upon herself to free her wounded crush from the Phobe prison.
What intrigues me about this novel is that it’s a reprint. Alberta author, Leslie Gadallah, originally published it with Del Rey in 1988 as The Loremasters (that paperback is still available.) But Shadowpaw Press is republishing it now, thirty-four years later, to the delight of a new generation of Sci-Fi and Fantasy lovers. With its strong, female, teen protagonist—Sarah is competition for Katniss Everdeen—I recommend it to Young Adult plus readers, and also middle and secondary teachers and librarians.
The deep theme is one of Identity and Difference. Current examples run rampant from topics of Truth and Reconciliation to American politics and religion, so there’s plenty of room for discussion.
Gadallah is a chemist by profession and has written popular science for newspapers and radio. In the late 80s, she authored four Sci-Fi novels and several short stories. Gadallah’s grasp of language both captured and comforted me as I sank into this treasure. Descriptive phrases charm and impress: “the whuffling grumble of a horse” or Sarah sitting “on the stone wall like a ragged pixie” evading a redheaded boy and smiling “a crumb-laden smile.” Warning: magical literary language lurks throughout and, like Reese, you too will be captured.
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