Featured on Women in Horror Month

I was featured this past week on Colleen Anderson's Women in Horror Month. 

The mandate of the event, which is sponsored by the Viscera Organization, is to highlight women who are under-represented in the artistic field. You can find their vision and mission statements at the end of the article.

Review: Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World

Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Joan Druett's Island of the Lost is an impeccably researched, well-written, well-presented history of two concurrent wrecks on the Auckland Islands in the late 19th century.

Her easy style balances journalistic integrity with the need to captivate the reader, and holds you from the first paragraph and never lags.

Overall, the stories of these two groups of shipwrecked sailors is a keen contrast between the higher ideals and purposes of humans, and our more base, predatory instincts. In fact, the actions of these real, historical people will both astonish and disgust you.

Oh, and now Auckland Islands is now the second place on earth I would never wish to visit unless I had a death-wish.



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Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Sarah Ettrich was kind enough to tag me in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop, which is a Goodreads promotional enterprise among indie authors and publishers to highlight authors and books which might otherwise slide under the radar of many readers.

We all answer the same 10 questions, which allows readers an opportunity to receive a brief overview of either a published work or a work in progress.

1. What is the working title of the book?

This particular novel is called Shadow Song.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

When I was researching for the book on the Niagara Escarpment my husband and I produced (published by Boston Mills Press), I came across an historical reference to a tragedy in the village of Hornings Mills, which is located at the foot of the Pine River Valley. Several children went missing all at once in the Melancthon Swamp, and their disappearance was blamed on the local natives. That tragedy intrigued me, and became the hook upon which I hung my story.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Historical fantasy.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I've been asked that before, and have been completely stumped. I think if ever Shadow Song were to hit theatres, the characters would best be drawn from relatively unknown actors. I just can't see big names portraying these parts.

5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Vengeance in 1830s Upper Canada.

6. What is the longer synopsis of your book?

Danielle Michele Fleming, 10 year old daughter of a French aristocratic mother, and the second son of English gentry, finds herself caught in the economic ruin that surrounds the failure of the Bourbon Monarchy. She finds herself aboard ship, destined for the Queen’s Bush of Upper Canada and a life with the catalyst of her doom, her uncle, Edgar Fleming. Relentless in his hunt for her, her uncle has her tracked not only by bounty hunters, but in the end through another shaman of evil intent and a blood-debt to settle with Shadow Song.

7. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I self-published Shadow Song in 2008, and as a result founded a publishing house (Five Rivers Publishing) that now features 22 publications and represents 24 authors.

8. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It took about a year to write the first draft, after about two years of research, and about seven years in total to polish it to the point I felt satisfied enough to publish.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

As I wrote earlier, it was the story of a tragedy that occurred in the 1830s in the hamlet of Hornings Mills that formed the inspiration for the novel.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

Shadow Song is rife with minute historical details taken directly from the area and the period; small things like the cost of a stage coach, the name of the captain with whom Danielle sails to Upper Canada, rituals of the Midewiwin and so forth.

The novel is available in both print and eBook versions through online retailers globally, and will shortly be available as an audiobook through Iambik and Audible.

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop bounces over to Michell Plested on January 16, who has written a delightful YA novel, Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero.

From Mountains of Ice audiobook available for pre-order

Just thrilled to let my fans know my fantasy novel, From Mountains of Ice, is now available for pre-order from Iambik Audiobooks.

Diana Majlinger does a wonderful narration, with her delicious accent (at least to these Canadian ears), adding an exotic flavour to this tale of honour, loyalty and betrayal.

Once at Iambik's site you can listen to the first chapter for free, and then decide from there whether you wish to add From Mountains of Ice to your audio collection.

I'm given to understand the audiobook will be available soon from Audible.com as well.

Review: The Palace Job

The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The Palace Job, by Patrick Weekes, is a quick, easy read that doesn't require anything of the reader other than being awake. It's pure fantasy pulp, a sort of Ocean's Eleven meets horny unicorn, sentient war hammer, and butch-bitch disinherited baroness.

There isn't much here to grab your attention, no remarkable writing, no ingenious plotting. Weekes' attempt to write book from a black perspective is a bit laughable, with a very white-centric focus. There is a social structure and several institutions which are never fully explained or fleshed out so that this reader was unable identify with the fantasy world Weekes' attempts to build. Mostly it's just a lot of fight scenes and reads a bit like a script for an online game, complete with sexual innuendo and adolescent fulfilment.

Based upon this example, I won't be looking for any further works from Weekes, and likely not from Tyche Books either.





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Turkey Mango Curry

So the great roasted beast (turkey) happened for Christmas Day, and with only two of us that means a lot of leftovers. I don't mind leftovers. Leftovers means lots of creativity in the kitchen. I also had a mango that needed to be used, and leftover cranberry chutney. After skimming a few recipes for chicken mango curry, I decided to wing it (please pardon the pun), and voilà, this is what I came up with.

Turkey Mango Curry

Turkey Mango Curry

olive oil for cooking

1 medium onion peeled and roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic finely minced

1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger

4 teaspoons good quality curry powder

1 teaspoon cumin seed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 red pepper, seeded and sliced thinly

1 mango peeled, seeded and cubed

1 cup leftover spicy cranberry relish (from Stonehouse Cooks, with 1 chilli pepper added, or just use about 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cranberries, 1/2 orange peeled and chopped, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 small chilli pepper finely minced)

1/4 cup mango chutney (India House and Patak's make very good versions)

2-3 cups diced leftover turkey meat

1 cup coconut milk

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 pint whipping cream

green onions or fresh cilantro chopped for garnish

In a large skillet heat the olive oil and sauté the first six ingredients until the onions begin to develop a little colour. Add the pepper, mango, relish, chutney and turkey, and sauté for another five minutes. Add the coconut milk and lemon juice and zest. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid reduces by about half (about 10 minutes). Add whipping cream and simmer for another five minutes.

Remove from heat. Spoon into bowls and garnish with green onions or cilantro.

Can also be served over steamed rice.

Serves 4.

Every day miracles

If there is one profound lesson I will carry forward from 2012, it is the knowledge that miracles still do exist and occur every day. Perhaps we just don't recognize them as such because we have become blinded by the abundance of amazing (yes, I'm using amazing as a noun) in mundane and expected events.

Today this knowledge created a profound and happy two hours. Our son, Adam Stephens, lives and works in Calgary, Alberta with his wonderful girlfriend, Crystal Andrushko. Our daughter, Kelly Stephens, lives and works in Toronto with her gentle man, Ulysses Viello. We are separated by 2700 kilometres. 

And yet today, through the free and amazing technology provided by Google+ Hangouts, all six of us were able to gather over coffee, spinach shakes and assorted beverages as though we were sitting together under one roof. Cats came into and out of each others' living-rooms. Porch decorations were revealed, dracena Christmas trees shared, giggles and news, thoughts and hopes all passed back and forth. 

And somehow the distance closed. It was as though we were together, and it wasn't until it was time to say our farewells and go our own ways that the ache of not being physically together became obvious. There were virtual hugs, no shared warmth of bodies. And yet for that absence a poignant and significant reminder that because of modern technologies this family, separated by enormous distances, was able to come together for a sizeable period of time in a real and tangible manner.

No longer the long wait for letters to cross countries. No longer the uncertainty of facial expression while chatting on a phone. We were together, laughing, watching silly actions while men-folk poked women-folks' noses. 

And the miracle of this technology today has become profound.

It makes me wonder what marvels there will be 30 years hence, when I am 87. Will our son and daughter's families be able to be with us as holographic images, or will some sort of animatronic temporary clone be able to press flesh? Will the globe truly shrink so that distance and time are no longer relevant?

I cannot wait. It's like being a kid again, waiting for a legendary figure in red to find his way into your home with an unimagined gift of wonder.

But for today, Google+ Hangout gave this family a gift beyond value. There are miracles. You just need to know how to see them.