My New Book! Coming May 2012!
In page proofs now is my new book, written with my best friend Barb Thompson. It's called Haunted Girl: Esther Cox and the Great Amherst Mystery, and will be published by Nimbus Publishing, Halifax, Nova Scotia, in May 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, gives Esther her due as a whole human being with a life of her own.
Look for more information on the launch date of Haunted Girl.
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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.
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My book reviews:
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal
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
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Random Passage, by Bernice Morgan
Anne of the Island, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Wind Seller, by Rachael Preston
The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams
Bettina Bear's Bus, by Marion Coombes
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
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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 in “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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