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A Long Ways from Home by Mike Martin

On Thursday 13 October 2016, I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Martin at Books on Beechwood in Ottawa for the launch of the fifth installment in the Sgt. Windflower series, A Long Ways from Home. He graciously offered to sign my books and urged me to eat the food that was spread out on a table nearby. It was really nice meeting him in person after reviewing several of his books!

His latest novel finds Sergeant Winston Windflower leading an investigation into a double murder in the city of Grand Falls, Newfoundland. The victims were members of rival motorcycle gangs particularly active in this area of the island. Facing budget cuts from the government and having to deal with the media, Windflower is under a lot of pressure to solve this case rapidly. Meanwhile, his fiancee Sheila is running for re-election as Mayor of Grand Bank and preparing their impeding wedding.

#mike martin

Paradise Lost by Azzedine Kechroud

The following is a guest post by Azzedine Kechroud, author of Paradise Lost.

This novel tells the life of a young child during the Algerian war of national liberation under occupation of French colonialism. The eyes of an innocent child describe how he and his family lived the horrors of that war. This child did not understand why adults were conducting an absurd war that touched all families without exception, from both sides. War is an atrocious and cruel thing for this child who rebels inwardly against those who make war.

#azzedine kechroud

The Enigmatologist by Ben Adams

The following is a guest post by Ben Adams, author of The Enigmatologist.

John Abernathy is a disillusioned twenty-something. His job as a private investigator is unfulfilling. And he can’t find work in his chosen field, Enigmatology, the study and design of puzzles. He is about to quit his job when he gets a call from the National Enquirer. Someone sent them a photo of a man who’s supposed to have died 35 years ago, Elvis Aaron Presley. John agrees to travel to Las Vegas, NM and investigate.

John’s hotel door is kicked in, hitting him in the head and knocking him out. When he wakes, he is interrogated by Colonel Alvin Hollister. Colonel Hollister has also been looking for the man in the photo and hires John to help him find him.

The next day, John is approached by Sheriff Lee Masters III, saying he’s received some calls about someone asking questions around town. John asks the sheriff about the man in the photo. Sheriff Masters identifies him as Al Leadbelly and agrees to take John to him, but after lunch, wanting to appraise John. They eat at Rosa’s, a local Mexican restaurant. John meets Rosa Jimenez, the owner, and instantly falls in love with her. After lunch, John confronts Leadbelly. Leadbelly tells John that he’s a former Elvis impersonator who owes the Slot Machine Repairman’s Union money. John tells him the Enquirer plans to publish the photo. Leadbelly, afraid the Union will find him, agrees to leave Las Vegas. That night, John invites Rosa for a drink. She goes back to John’s hotel and spends the night with him.

#ben adams

Alexandre Trudeau in Ottawa

Last night, Alexandre Trudeau was in town to promote his new book Barbarian Lost. The event took place at Library and Archives Canada during the Ottawa International Writers Festival. The author first read an excerpt and then was interviewed by Adrian Harewood.

Alexandre Trudeau has always been fascinated by China and attracted to its people, history and culture. It all started when his father, late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, came back from a trip there, bringing back captivating tales and exotic souvenirs. The author’s own first journey to China was during a formal trip with his father when Alexandre was 16. Since then, he has been there a dozen times. His last trip lasted 6 weeks and is the basis of the book. He was accompanied by a translator, Vivien, who prefers to remain anonymous, even though she doesn’t live in China anymore. She helped him tremendously, and he praised her candor and courage.

#alexandre trudeau

The Truth Is No Excuse

The following is a guest post by Gino Bardi, author of The Cow in the Doorway.

Every now and then, a reader will approach me and pay me a gigantic compliment.

“You have a terrific imagination,” he or she will say. I will nod appreciatively, and thank them profusely. I love compliments. Even when they are dead wrong. My imagination is probably no better than their own, and possibly much worse. What I have is a good memory.

My wife and kids, of course would not only disagree with that statement, they would still be laughing about it a week later. I’ll stand in front of the open refrigerator for five minutes staring blankly into the shelves, with no idea whatever of why I opened the thing in the first place. When my kids were younger we spent fifteen minutes searching for a child’s hairbrush before we could all get in the car and leave. Now everyone has to help look for Dad’s car keys…then his wallet…then his sunglasses. Assuming I remember where I left the car! Normally, this behavior would send me scurrying to the doctor or shrink, but all my writer friends suffer from the same condition. (And without my writer friends I wouldn’t have no friends at all.)

#gino bardi

The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger

Charlotte (Charlie) Silver is a professional tennis player on the rise who dreams of winning a Grand Slam. After a disastrous game at Wimbledon, she decides to hire a new coach, Todd Feltner, a living legend in the tennis world even though his methods are borderline abusive. Thus begin a rigorous training, a strict diet and an image makeover. Soon, Charlie ranks among the best in the world, goes to exciting parties, and starts dating a sexy Spanish player. Everything seems to be going according to plan, but will Charlie be able to achieve her dream? And at what price?

#lauren weisberger

Last Year’s Resolution by Robert Lampros

The following is a guest post by Robert Lampros, author of Last Year’s Resolution.

About the book

Last Year’s Resolution is a novel about Edmund Stovender, a famous author who falls in love with Marie, a journalist who calls him for an interview just before the performance of his hit play. Their lives accelerate through an epic adventure testing their faith, strength, and love for each other, as they discover that their story might pivotally influence the fate of the world.

Excerpt

Eddie spent the majority of his childhood as most children do, divided between mandatory school work and outdoor adventures with the other kids in his neighborhood. He loved sports, but that love quickly faded at age thirteen when he took up smoking cigarettes, at which time he turned his attention to skateboarding and playing guitar. Proving successful at neither one of those activities, he spent more and more time reading books, watching films, and writing both fiction and nonfiction stories of his own. By the time he graduated high school his writing had been published by a number of literary journals and featured in various newsletters, making his parents very proud. After attending Illinois State University for two years, he dropped out to pursue his career full time, and moved to New York, because that’s what writers do. Eight years later, Edmund Stovender was the author of three bestselling novels and a National Book Award-winning play, The Hopeful Sigh, then in its third year on Broadway.

This is where Eddie’s story begins: He sits in a coffee shop, drinking a beer, a mile down the street from the theater where his play will soon start. His phone rings.

“Hello?”

#robert lampros

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

Arthur Pepper has lost his wife Miriam a year earlier, and his grief is still very raw. He rarely goes out and spends his days vigorously cleaning every corner of his house, talking to his plant and avoiding his well-meaning neighbor Bernadette. When he finds a mysterious charm bracelet in his wife’s wardrobe, his curiosity is picked, and he sets out to discover the stories behind each charm. His quest will take him from France to India and will lead to his meeting all sorts of quirky characters. But will he find the answers he is looking for?

#phaedra patrick

But You Are in France, Madame by Catherine Berry

The following is a guest post by Catherine Berry, author of But You Are in France, Madame.

There was no doubt that it was tough. Not in a life or death way – that was to come later. But, we had no right to complain, as it was personal choice that had led us to where we were, living in the beautiful French Alps.

Our newly set-up blog pages quickly became filled with smiling faces, stunning backdrops, mouth-watering recipes and intimate dining experiences, making it look like we were to be envied, far away from the asphyxiating repetitiveness of our pre-France life in Melbourne, Australia. But it was an exercise in well-crafted design and unintentional deception as our family of five struggled on a daily basis with isolation and constant cultural differences.

“You don’t eat sushi outside Paris” joked our French-born, perfectly tri-lingual friend one balmy summer’s evening ten months or so into our adventure, squinting down at the distant lights of the Arno River working its way through Florence, and over a plate of spaghetti linguini served on the terrace of his Art Deco house. He had not been fooled in the slightest by our attempts to downplay the difficulties that we were encountering in our efforts to infiltrate the French administrative system. He knew from long years of experience that the French way of life was a complex layering of rules, lived with pride and unconscious application to detail. But, it was what it was and his words were a gentle reminder that the sooner we relaxed and let ourselves go with the French flow, the easier living there would be.

#catherine berry

Resolution by Andrew Joyce

My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. Cécile has been kind enough to allow me a little space on her blog to promote my new novel Resolution: Huck Finn’s Greatest Adventure. I think it’s a good book, but what do I know? Anyway, I’m kinda shy about tooting my own horn. So I think I’ll turn things over to my dog Danny—Danny the Dog. He always has an attitude and usually does not speak highly of me. But please understand that we co-exist as the old Soviet Union and the United States once co-existed. We tolerate each other. So without further ado, here’s Danny.

Andrew took me away from watching reruns of Lassie to help him out here. For a person that works with words for a living, he has very little to say in real life. He wants me to tout his book for him, but I don’t think I will. Instead, I think I’ll tell you about our latest adventure. We’re always having adventures. I like to write about them and what I write is 100% true.

To run or not to run, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? . . . to paraphrase Billy Shakespeare.

#andrew joyce

Fairfield’s Auction by Betty Jean Craige

The following is a guest post by Betty Jean Craige, author of Fairfield’s Auction.

Fairfield’s Auction is the second in the Witherston Murder Mysteries (published by Black Opal Books) set in the fictive town of Witherston in the southern Appalachian mountains of north Georgia. The first was Downstream, which came out in 2014, and the third is Dam Witherston, which will come out in 2017.

Witherston is situated twenty miles north of Dahlonega, center of the 1828-29 Georgia Gold Rush in the heart of Cherokee country, that is, the region the Cherokees occupied for a thousand years, before the white settlers sent them on the “trail of tears” to present-day Oklahoma.

#betty jean craige

Reinvention

The following is a guest post by Nancy Cole Silverman, author of Without a Doubt, a Carol Childs Mystery.

At some point in life, most of us will need to reinvent ourselves. The job market, like some of us grew up with, no longer offers a gold watch after twenty-five years of service. And once out the door, it’s more a matter of reaching for that brass ring and hoping for the best.

Growing up as a sixties chick, I never gave it much thought. The year 2000 seemed impossibly far off. Like most young people anyone into their sixties seemed ancient. I never thought I would live long enough to see the new millennium. That in itself seemed like an impossibility. Although I wasn’t alone. Remember Y-2K? Fears that planes would fall out the sky and our computers would stop working?

Fortunately, the doomsayers were wrong and none of it happened.

But, once 2001 rolled around, things changed. While planes weren’t falling from the sky, the job market – for those of us pushing fifty plus anyway – was in a definite downward spiral spin. Nobody dared called it ageism, but we all knew what it was. It was then it dawned on me that I was going to have to have to reinvent myself.

#nancy cole silverman

The Girls by Emma Cline

It’s the summer of 1969. Evie Boyd is 14 and lives in Northern California. Her parents have recently divorced, and she feels lonely and abandoned. When she meets a group of young women in a park, she envies their apparent happiness and freedom. She is instantly drawn to Suzanne Parker, a glamorous and mesmerizing girl. Evie spends more and more time at the group’s commune, a dilapidated ranch run by their charismatic leader, Russell Hadrick. These young people appear to be peaceful and harmless, taking drugs and drinking all day long. But disturbing elements slowly come to light until everything starts to unravel, and three adults and one child are brutally murdered.

#emma cline

What Oh What Shall I Write?

The following is a guest post by Judy Alter, author of The Gilded Cage.

I sort of slid sideways into a career as a writer. In college, I had no thought of a career—I was going to get married and some man would support me, while I read Silver Screen and ate bonbons—or maybe while I read To Kill a Mockingbird and ate raw veggies. It was the typical late ‘50s mentality. So I majored in English and spent happy hours reading much of the body of American literature.

My first jobs were as a lay person in the medical field and involved proofreading, editing, writing and even some layout work. I kept going to graduate school even while working—it was easier and more fun than looking for a full-time career. One fine day I found myself with a Ph.D. in English, with a special interest in the literature of the American West, and no idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up.

#judy alter

My Signed Book Collection

The following is a guest post by Dane Cobain, author of No Rest For the Wicked.

A signed book is a special thing – it’s imbued with the spirit of its author, and it can remind you of where you were and what you were doing when you first got hold of it. At other times, you pick up a signed book second hand, and you’re left to wonder how it came to be signed, and who it was signed for.

Today, I’m here to talk to you about some of the signed books that I own. I have almost 1,000 books in my collection, on bookcases that span two rooms, so there are plenty of signed books to choose from! Let’s get started.

#dane cobain

My Sister’s Mother by Donna Urbikas

The following is a guest post by Donna Urbikas, author of My Sister’s Mother: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Stalin’s Siberia.

A couple of years ago I took myself on a cross-country tour of writers’ conferences where I could pitch my newly finished manuscript, My Sister’s Mother: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Stalin’s Siberia. Reception was great except that I am not famous, so who would care? Fortunately, the University of Wisconsin Press did and picked it up quickly—so much so for the image of university presses only being interested in “academic” works. Nevertheless, intertwined within the story of my mother and sister’s deportation and enslavement in Siberia at the start of World War II and my growing up hearing that story way too many times, there is an easy history lesson, a lesson that is not generally taught in American schools, one that was not taught during the Communist era in Poland after the war ended in 1945 up until the Communist government was ousted in 1989—a long time to be left ignorant of such monumental facts! Of course those of us in America and in Poland who had families who survived those ordeals, knew all too well about it—my family in Poland could’ve been arrested for such talk during those Communist times while my parents and other Poles who immigrated to America spoke of it as often as they could, often to unbelieving souls—during the war, America did not want to upset Stalin and the Soviet Union while fighting Hitler and Germany. After the war, we were embroiled in the Cold War, so our Polish family stories were overshadowed.

#donna urbikas

Soft Target by John Beyer

The following is a guest post by John Beyer, author of Soft Target.

The idea for the novel Soft Target came to me as I sat listening to terrorist experts during a conference in 2012. Colonel David Grossman was the main speaker and discussed the idea of Wolves attacking Sheep and the only ones to protect the Sheep were the Sheep Dogs. He asked the crowd of nearly 1,000 attendees who amongst us were those Sheep Dogs. I was sitting next to police officers, public school administrators, military personnel, and many others whose main duty was to protect those who could not always protect themselves.

We all raised our hands.

My job at the time dealt with a medium sized public school district and was as the Director of Student Welfare. The welfare of the students and staff within that district was my responsibility. I took to heart what Grossman said and dwelt on it – were we all doing enough for the Sheep?

He spoke of the Beslan massacre in 2004 in North Caucus which resulted in the deaths of nearly 400 children and adults. The elementary school which was taken over on the first day of school by Islamic terrorists left nothing but carnage and misery behind.

#john beyer

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