My Next Book! Coming Spring 2012!
I'm currently writing and researching (along with best friend Barb Thompson) my next book. Its working title is The Life and Times of a Haunted Girl: Behind the Great Amherst Mystery, and it is slated to be published by Nimbus Publishing, Halifax, Nova Scotia, in spring 2012.
The book tells the story of Esther Cox (1860–1912), a young Amherst, Nova Scotia, girl famous for having been haunted by poltergeists. Published books and articles recounting Esther's story focus on the year and a half of her life (1878–79) during which the hauntings supposedly took place. Our book, however, will give Esther her due as a whole human being with a life of her own.
Look for updates on The Life and Times of a Haunted Girl: Behind the Great Amherst Mystery.
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Recent feature articles:
"Craving the Chaleur," Saint John Telegraph-Journal,
April 30, 2011
An exhibition of works by sculptor Yvon Boudreau and his
students pays tribute to the Chaleur region.
"A bounty of beautiful baskets," Saint John Telegraph-Journal,
March 26, 2011
Kings Landing Historical Settlement displays some of its collection of pristine 19th-century Maliseet baskets.
"Canada's glorious parks," Saint John Telegraph-Journal,
February 12, 2011
In 1911 the Dominion Parks Branch, the world's first system of national parks, was established. Today, 100 years, Parks Canada boasts 42 parks, each with its own distinct flavour and landscape.
"Romance in a medieval time," Saint John Telegraph-Journal,
February 5, 2011
Falling in love with the majestic castles of Scotland is easy to do in this fairy-tale land of wind-swept beaches, knights and ladies-in-waiting.
"Literary excursion," Saint John Telegraph-Journal,
January 8, 2011
At every turn in Scotland, one is reminded of the rich legacy of writers such as Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.
My book reviews:
I Feel Great about My Hands and Other Unexpected Joys of
Aging, edited by Shari Graydon (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011), in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal
The Woefield Poultry Collective, by Susan Juby (HarperCollinsCanada, 2011), in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal
Early Voices: Portraits of Canada by Women Writers,
1639-1914 (Dundurn Books, 2010), in the Saint John
Telegraph-Journal
The Fetch, by Nico Rogers (Brick Books, 2010), in the
Saint John Telegraph-Journal
Strange Heaven, by Lynn Coady (Anchor Canada, 2002),
in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner
The Work of Her Hands: A Prairie Woman's Life
in Remembrances and Recipes, by Plynn Gutman (Poplar Press, 2009), in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal
Between Books (The Writer's Time), by Monique LaRue
(Goose Lane Editions, 2010), in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner
What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past, by James Fitzgerald (Random House Canada, 2010),
in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal
The STU Reader, edited by Douglas Vipond and Russell A. Hunt (Goose Lane Editions, 2010), in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner
The Blyths Are Quoted, by L.M. Montgomery (Viking Canada, 2009), in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal
New Brunswick Place Names: Attractions, Legends,
Characters, NB Firsts, by David E. Scott (David E. Scott Publishing, 2009), in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner
Grace Helen Mowat and the Making of Cottage Craft,
by Diana Rees with Ronald Rees (Goose Lane Editions, 2009),
in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner
Know New Brunswick: The Essential History, by Dan Soucoup
(Dan Soucoup, 2009), in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner
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My Favourite Books
- Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
- Persuasion, by Jane Austen
- Latitudes of Melt, by Joan Clarke
- Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, by Sarah Ban Breathnach
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Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
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Random Passage, by Bernice Morgan
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Anne of the Island, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
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The Wind Seller, by Rachael Preston
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The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams
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Bettina Bear's Bus, by Marion Coombes
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The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
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What I'm reading right now
May 18, 2011
Right now I’m in the middle of The Chrome Suite, a novel by Sandra Birdsell published in 1992. I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first, but now I can’t put it down. Birdsell has such a way with description — she describes things the way I have seen them or tasted them, heard them or smelled them. It’s quite fantastic — her ability to do that. She’s better at it than Margaret Atwood — at least in this book. The Chrome Suite does remind me of Atwood’s Cat’s Eye to some degree.
It’s about Amy Barber, her growing up in rural Manitoba and how she deals with the death of her sister and a friend. Amy is always the survivor — at least so far in the book. Others succumb while she lives on — perhaps because she was struck by lightening as a little girl? Good book. Oh, to be able to write like that.
Sandra Birdsell’s daughter Angela lives in Fredericton. We worked together for a time at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Angela told me that her Mum and I share the same birthday: Earth Day, one day before National Book Day and Shakespeare’s birthday. It worked for Birdsell. Perhaps it will work for me as well.
I recommend The Chrome Suite, a good Canadian novel of growing up in the mid-twentieth century, as all we baby boomers did.
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My First Book!
Cumberland County Facts and Folklore
(Nimbus Publishing)
141 pp.; $12.95
ISBN 978-1-55109-731-2
Available at any bookstore
What could
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Oscar Wilde and a triploid blue-spotted salamander;
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Leon Trotsky and the Joggins Fossil Cliffs;
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Alex Colville and lobster claw pipes;
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Feist and Buckley's Mixture
possibly all have in common?
Cumberland County, of course!
It's one of Nova Scotia's oldest and largest counties and its personalities, history, geography, natural life and legends are second to none. It's the birthplace of Anne Murray and Feist, and in 1995 its charming village of Pugwash had a hand in winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Its shores are touched by the majestic Bay of Fundy and the beautiful Northumberland Strait, its landscape was carved by glaciers and its prehistoric climate created and preserved fossils that today are worthy of World Heritage Site designation. From
Amherst to Advocate, Minudie to
Malagash, Port Howe to Port Greville,
the beauty of its forests, crystal clear
lakes and rivers and its pastoral
scenery are a delight.
Cumberland County is a Nova Scotian treasure for visitors and locals alike.
So sit back and discover Cumberland County through the amusing anecdotes, fun facts, and incredible trivia on this area's rich history and culture in Cumberland County Facts and Folklore.
Reviews of
Cumberland County Facts
and Folklore
"Remarkably well done"
— Anne-Marie Hood,
Fredericton Daily Gleaner
"I strongly recommend this book to everyone in and from Cumberland.
In fact, it should be included as mandatory reading...in the public school system."
— Morris J. Haugg,
Amherst Daily News
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See also my essay,
“Family Comes First,” in:
Breaking the Word Barrier:
Stories of Adults Learning to Read,
edited by Marilyn Lerch and
Angela Ranson
(Goose Lane Editions)
128 pp., ISBN 978-0-86492-547-3
Available at any bookstore
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My other publications:
Anthony Flower: The Life and Art of a Country Painter (co-author,
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 2006)
"The International Collection," in The Beaverbrook Art Gallery Collection: Selected Works (Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 2000)
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