Guest Post: On Creating A Series by Pat Amsden

Have you ever wondered how Janet Evanovich came up with the idea of doing a series based around Stephanie Plum, someone who loses a job selling lingerie and decides to take a job working for her uncle, who's a bail bondsman? Or J.K. Rowling decided to write a series on a boy wizard?

Better yet have you ever wondered how you'd come up with a series like that? I'm guessing a fertile imagination would help. And then something in your background. Janet Evanovich comes from the area her Stephanie Plum character inhabits. J.K. Rowling went to a British private school and knew what it was like to be a student in one. But I suspect they probably just wanted to write one book to start with. I may be wrong but I don't think either of them really envisioned the success they would have with the characters or the number of books they would write about these characters when they started out.

Now, you can't talk to an editor without them asking if you have an idea for more books based on the book you're pitching them. So far they've yet to FIRMLY commit to the book I'm pitching to them although they've wanted to see more. But just in case they do they'd like me to come up with ideas for several more based on characters from the original book.

This time I'm started out with the idea of a series. But on what? Ok. I like chocolate. I like mysteries and I live in Victoria. What better than a mystery series based on an amateur sleuth who has a chocolate shop and catering business? I started noodling around the type of person I wanted the main character to be. Smart, sassy and too nosy to keep her nose out of other people's business. Really, have you ever known anyone to create a series around someone too stupid to live? On purpose? Especially if they're going to have to figure out who just killed someone else?

Then I came up with a side kick, Heath. Part of it was practicality. Catering requires a lot of heavy lifting so her side-kick Heath is 6'2' and a recent graduate of cooking school. Young, enthusiastic, works for cheap and can do the heavy lifting. I gave her an on again/off again love interest who was a policeman. There's more, but that's the backbone of it.

I started writing it but I can't even keep all the details straight for one book. I can't imagine doing it through a whole series. I started making some notes. I read an article where one writer talked about using Castle's murder board in reverse to figure out what she was doing in her books. And then I saw a course through the Margie Lawson Academy of Writing to develop a series bible. OK. I'm not overly religious but this was really a way to develop and write a series. Perfect!

I signed up for it. So far I've learned what I want to do is a stand alone series which is the writer's equivalent to a subdivision filled with houses compared to a big book which would be more like a huge mansion. I decided to use Power Point for my bible. Someone else is using Pinterest. I like the idea and I'm issuing Pinterest to create a board for my book (secret) it's like a compost heap of ideas for me which ferment around in my brain hopefully creating an interesting book.

And I'm seriously thinking about self-publishing it. I know a few people who are self-publishing and they're doing pretty well at it. I’m planning for later this year. Wish me luck!

Book Review Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt

Hildegard von Bingen is an admirable character. At the tender age of eight, she is walled up in a church and her own mother turns her back on her. Many (most) would give up, roll over and die. Yet, Hildegard grabs hold of life. She has plants brought into her cell and when she's not performing her duties--singing hymns and making scared garments--she educates herself. And, later, when two other girls join her Hildegard sees it as her responsibility to share this love of life with them.
There is more to Hildegard's story. But I don't wish to spoil the adventure. You need to read this book.
However horrific the conditions... However hopeless the life... This is a moving story; told tenderly and with great respect for the woman behind the legend.
Illuminations speak of the power of woman--together; separate--external; internal--endless.
Thank you, Mary Sharratt, for another fine read. 

Buy Link

Hummingbird Garden Vest (free knitting pattern) by Leanne Dyck

A collared vest designed to be knit by beginner-level knitters and beyond...

This pattern, which I designed, was published in Knit Together (May 2008) Owner/Editor:  Cynthia MacDougall

Skill level:  Beginner

Materials:
Hummingbird Fibre Arts Falkland Superwash Merino double knitting or any suitable worsted weight yarn
1,240 yards [1134 metres] per 454 gram skein 1[1, 1, 1, 2, 2] skeins
1 pair 4.5 mm/7 US/7 UK straight needles or the size necessary to obtain tension

Tension: 22 stitches = 4 inches/10 centimeters over stocking stitch

Size:  Finished sweater:
Chest:  XS-36 [S-40, M-44, L-48, XL-52, XXL-56] inches
91 [100, 112, 122, 132, 142] centimeters
Length:  23 [23, 24, 24, 26, 26]
58 [58, 61, 61, 66, 66] centimeters

Instructions are given for smallest size with instructions for larger sizes place in square brackets []. When only one instruction is given, work it for all sizes. Beginning knitters my wish to place a stitch holder between the 2-Stitch Rib 1 and 2 x 2 rib stitch sections.

2 x 2 Rib stitch
Row 1 (right side facing):  knit 2, purl 2 --repeat to end of row
Repeat row for pattern

2-Stitch Rib 1 stitch (over multiple of 4 stitches)
Row 1:  knit 2, purl 2 --repeat to end of row
Row 2:  purl 2, knit 2 --repeat to end of row
Repeat row 1 and 2 for pattern

Back
Cast on 108 [120, 132, 144, 156, 168] stitches.
Work in 2 x 2 rib for 14 [14, 15, 15, 17, 17] inches
35.5 [35.5, 38, 38, 43, 43] centimeters

Style tip:  For neat side seams, cast on 2 extra stitches so that every right side row begins and ends with knit 2. This will also centre a wale down the back. Remember to add 2 stitches to stitch count throughout. 

Armhole shaping:  At the beginning of the next two rows, cast off 12 stitches.

Style tip:  On the first armhole, cast off stitches knitwise, and on the second armhole cast off stitches purlwise.

84 [96, 108, 120, 132, 144] stitches remain.
Continue in 2 x 2 Rib stitch for 9 inches (23 cm)

Shoulder shaping:  Cast off 12 [10, 10, 12, 20, 22] stitches at the beginning of next 4 [6, 6, 6, 4, 4] rows. 
36 [36, 48, 48, 52, 56] stitches remain.
Work in 2-Stitch Rib I for 4 inches (10 centimeters)
Cast off

Right Front
Cast on 54 [60, 66, 72, 78, 84] stitches

Style Tip:  Add 2 stitches to 2 x 2 Rib panel for sizes S, L, and XXL and end all right-side rows with knit two. This will place 4 knits stitches at the side seams (2 front and 2 back) for a neat mattress stitch seam.

Style Tip:  The row tension for the 2-Stitch Rib I is more per inch than the 2 x 2 Rib. To compensate, work a short row on the front panel stitches every inch or so.

Establish pattern:  2-Stitch Rib I stitch for 12 stitches, 2 x 2 Rib stitches for 42 [48, 54, 60, 66, 72] stitches
Work for 14 [14, 15, 15, 17, 17] inches 
35.5 [35.5, 38, 38, 43, 43] centimeters
End with work side facing for next row.

Armhole Shaping:  Cast off 12 stitches  
42 [48, 54, 60, 66, 72] stitches remaining
Continue in pattern as established for 9 inches (23 centimeters)
End with wrong side facing for next row.

Shoulder Shaping
Cast off 12 [10, 10, 12, 20, 22] stitches at the beginning of next and following alternate 1 [2, 2, 2, 1, 1] row(s)
18 [18, 24, 24, 26, 28] stitches remaining
Work in 2-Stitch Rib I for 4 inches (10 centimeters)
Cast off

Left Front
Cast on 54 [60, 66, 72, 78, 84] stitches
Style Tip:  To make the left front mirror right front, cast on purlwise, then establish pattern, begin with Row 2 of the 2-Stitch Rib I followed by the 2 x 2 Rib, beginning with purl 2. 
Establish pattern:  2 x 2 Rib stitch for 42 [48, 54, 60, 66, 72] stitches, 2-Stitch Rib I stitch for 12 stitches
Work for 14 [14, 15, 15, 17, 17] inches
35.5 [35.5, 38, 38, 43, 43] centimeters
End with right side facing for next row.

Armhole Shaping:  Cast off 12 stitches 
42 [48, 54, 60, 66, 72] stitches remaining
Continue in pattern as established for 9 inches (23 centimeters)
End with right side facing for next row.

Shoulder Shaping:  Cast off 12 [10, 10, 12, 20, 22] stitches at the beginning of this and following alternate 1 [2, 2, 2, 1, 1] row(s) 
18 [18, 24, 24, 26, 28] stitches remaining
Work in 2-Stitch Rib I for 4 inches (10 centimeters)
Cast off

Finishing:  Block pieces for measurements. Sew collar and shoulder seams. Sew side seams. Weave in ends. Attach frog closure, if desired.
***
Okay, so, now here's a really treat. Lean back and listen to the dramatic, melodic tones of Heitha Forsyth singing At Last and then singing my new favourite song

Guest Post: Author Alison Bruce

How/why did you start to write?

I was born into a storytelling family. I could visualize the tales my mother told me about World War II so vividly, I had nightmares about being bombed. When I was about eleven or twelve years old, I wrote a story about the apocalypse that scared my teacher. I was hooked.

How did you become an author?

I decided that was going to be an author when I was eighteen years old. That’s when I sent my first story off to a professional publication. After a handful of rejections, I decided I wasn’t good enough, so I gave up. Gave up trying to get published, not writing.

Twenty years later, I was still writing, and still entertaining family and friends. I was also a freelance copy writer and editor. My success writing and editing for clients gave me the confidence to put my fiction out there again. Before I had the time but not the courage; now I had the courage but not the time.

When I was taking care of my terminally ill sister, she insisted that I write the novel I had been telling her as a story. She arranged respite and babysitting for me so I could have a couple of hours every day. When someone gives you that kind of gift, you don’t throw it away.

What was your first published piece?

I had a couple of pieces of poetry published in Scarborough College’s literary anthology - which was cool since I never went to Scarborough College. That was my earliest publication.

My first published short story was in Women’s Work 2000 - a day planner with stories that I edited for a publisher I partly owned.

My first novel was published in 2011 by Imajin Books. I was applying for a editing job when I found out they had a call for new authors. The day after I sent my ms, I got an email telling me that I wouldn’t be getting the editing job because Imajin wanted me as an author instead.

After thirty years, I was an author overnight.

What did you do before embarking on your writing career? Was it an asset to your writing? How?

What have I done? What haven’t I done? I guess the answer to both questions is “plenty”.

I did a double major in history and philosophy at University of Guelph - but first I did a year at Ryerson, was in Katimavik, hitchhiked halfway across Canada and worked at a variety of jobs. After university I worked as a lab tech for an optical company and then managed a comic book store for a few years. It was with the comic book store that I started writing marketing copy and designing display ads. Then, between jobs, my cousin asked what I was writing. I responded: “What do you want written?”

Later, in addition to writing, editing and layout, I went into partnership with my sister and an artist friend to create Women’s Work - which we published for five years - until my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Everything I’ve done, every story I’ve told, every project I’ve researched, every step I’ve taken is grist for the mill. Being a professional writer has hardened my shell and enabled me to work well with my editors. Having been a publisher - albeit micro-publisher - I also have a good understanding of the business end of books and marketing.

What inspires you?

Six months before she died, my sister was working on designing promotional materials for the Guelph Jazz Festival and editing the first draft of my fantasy novel. She did this flat on her back with her desktop computer set up on a rolling microwave tray.

That memory inspires me.

The way that Terry Pratchett writes, so that I can read his books multiple times and still laugh, cry and find something new, is my model for writing. The fact that he continues to write while under the Damocles sword of Alzheimer’s Disease reminds me to keep going.

Most of all, my children inspire me. If I keep doing what is important to me, no matter how challenging it gets, they’ll be more likely to pursue their own dreams.

Website: http://www.alisonbruce.ca/

Blog: http://alisonebruce.blogspot.ca/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/alisonbruce.books

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/alisonebruce

Do all your stories end? by Leanne Dyck

Do you always write to completion or do you leave some stories without an ending?

Confession

Sometimes I stop working on writing projects. This could be a slight pause or a complete halt.

Why pause?

It gives me time to solve a plot problem.

It gives me time to improve my craft so that I may complete the story.

Another--more interesting or promising--writing project has caught my eye.

Why halt?

I’ve lost interest in the story for some reason. There are many decisions to be made while I write. What point of view will I use—first or third person? Whose story is this? What plot will I follow? My lack of interest may be the result of a wrong decision.

I'm struggling to answer the question: How will I market this manuscript and to whom? I'm focused on building a career, and if a project doesn't contribute to that, I will stop working on it.

Am I disappointed when I have to abandon a project?

Yes, somewhat. However, I firmly believe that no writing time is wasted. Each sentence, paragraph, and scene I write develops my skills. And the words aren't lost; I have mined unfinished projects to assemble new ones.

Guest Post: Author Micki Peluso

How/why did you start to write?

I began writing as a catharsis for my deep grief over the loss of my 14 year old daughter in a DWI vehicular homicide. It was poems at first, then a short story version of the tragedy which was published in “Victimology: an International Journal”. I also did editorials which were read on TV stations, and wrote petitions to the judge as the trial of the drunk driver arrived. This led to a staff journalist career for an award winning bi-weekly newspaper, The Staten Island Register, as well as freelance journalism. My daily newspaper published my slice of life humor and pathos stories, mostly centered on my lost daughter and my other five children and then grandchildren. I taught myself to write in all genres except screen writing to find which I liked best. Almost all of my stories have been published in print magazines, won contests and published in e-zines.

How did you become an author?

After the accident, when none in my large family were able to speak about Noelle, I again turned to expressing my feelings through writing. I began a memoir which would become a celebration of her life rather than a eulogy of her death. I had it half written when I ran into a severe memory block concerning the five years before her death, even though I could remember each detail of the actual event. Life interrupted me as well and I was too busy working as a freelancer, and doing inventory work at home, while helping my oldest daughter raise her young sons. Three heart attacks, and two open heart surgeries later, I was finally able to break through the block caused by the trauma and continue the book within a year.

What was your first published piece?

My first published short non-fiction story was “And Then There Were Five”, a story relating the reactions of my other five children, my husband and myself over the loss of Noelle.This story dealt with the reactions of my five children after losing Noelle, and how we came to terms with her loss.

Where was it published?

It was published in Victimology: An International Journal, followed in the next two issues by two related poems.

How long ago?

It was published in 1986

What did you do before embarking on your writing career? Was it an asset to your writing? How?

I was a home Mom, loving the wonderful job of raising six, bright, beautiful, funny, rambunctious kids. They were/are my love, my life; my treasures. They were later the inspiration for my short slice of life stories, and of course they were mortified when I published funny stories of their antics in my daily newspaper. I have an ‘Erma Bombeck’ style of humor writing and none of them--including their father, who was like the father in “Sound of Music”, whistling for the kids when it was dinner time—were spared in my hysterical stories about our lives. Our pets were fodder for my stories as well. I realized while finishing the memoir of Noelle’s life, that it had to reflect all the comedic escapades she shared with us—the funniest child in the family.

What inspires you?

Everything inspires me: life, especially the birth of a child, God and my relationship with him which has kept me sane, this beautiful earth we’ve been privileged to live on, the miracles I’ve witnessed, each time I awake to a new and different day, and amidst all the sorrows we face, the indomitable spirit we all have to get up and move forward with hope for a better future.

Please share one of your successful author platform building technique

My publisher taught me many useful marketing skills, the most effective for me being working with community affairs and groups like The Red Hatters, The Grandmother Clubs, The New York Professional Women’s Groups, and MADD (Mothers against Drunk Driving). I also used my local TV cable station, as a guest promoting my book and speaking about victims of drunk driving. I’ve spoken and sold books at PTA meetings, Church meetings and carry my books wherever I go. When I was in the hospital my books were in the window waiting for the nurses to buy them. I’ve even sold books to telemarketers trying to sell me somethingJ. Online marketing keeps me busy as I try to do what works best—sell myself and then the books sell themselves. This is a pleasure as I love people and have met long-time friends marketing my books—yes they all bought the book.

Parting words

. . . And the Whippoorwill Sang is a true story written as a death bed promise to my dying child. Many paranormal events happened as I finished the book and afterward, so I know that Noelle had a hand in writing this along with me. The book is dedicated not only to her, but to all the children and young adults whose lives were cut short by drunk or drugged drivers. Each one has a story to tell and I have tried to tell mine for all of them.

Tagline: Happy times, a summer day, a driving drunk, eight lives forever changed

The elusive whippoorwill swoops down the mountains.

Through night into dawn it's song mourns summer's loss--

as I cry mine.

AND THE WHIPPOORWILL SANG, a 300 page memoir, opens with eloping teenagers, Micki and Butch, in a bizarre double wedding ceremony with Micki’s mother. The couple share comical escapades, spanning decades. A terrible accident occurs in a placid valley nestled in the Susquehanna Mountains. Micki narrates happier days while confronting an uncertain future. One of her six children is fighting for life in the hospital. The family embarks upon its unbearable journey to the other side of sorrow . . .

And so in the throes of grief, a writing career was born.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBqEUid2lq0

http://www.amazon.com/Whippoorwill-Sang-Micki-Peluso/dp/1466497076/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347680072&sr=1-1&keywords=Micki+Peluso

http://mallie1025.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AndTheWhippoorwillSang?ref=hl

Still Life with Cats (short story) (humour) by Leanne Dyck

There was a time I shared my home with three (loveable and well-loved) cats. Sometimes I miss them, but sometimes I.... Read this...

Still Life with Cats

I work from home, so some might think that I'm my own boss--but they'd be wrong. I'm just a servant. 

Let me tell you how I woke up this morning. There was a stampede right outside my bedroom door. 

This pounding of paws was accompanied by a siren, Merow, Meow, Merow, Meow.

A glance at my alarm clock and I roared, “It’s too early to wake up!”  

   

 But I’m merely a humble servant, four paws—two on my chest, two on my stomach—persuaded me to get up. I swung my legs off my bed and my big toe hit something furry. It was a mouse—headless, but otherwise intact.

Down the hall to get my garden gloves, back to my bedroom to collect my gift—the dead mouse—back down the hall to take it outside, all the while skirting my cats’ paws, tails, and heads. I swear sometimes it feels like they want to trip and kill their human. Maybe they dream of replacing me with a newer model—one that springs out of bed.    

     

The doorknob felt loose and heavy in my hand. I failed to note the significance of this, stepped out onto the porch, closed the door and the doorknob fell into my hand. Doorknob in one hand--dead mouse in the other.

"I can't use that door and the front door's locked," I muttered under my breath, as I took the mouse to the tall grass.

           

I keep a window open so my long tail masters can come and go as they please. They circled around me jumped inside and then they start to howl. And I knew what they were saying. 

"Come inside, you silly human. It's breakfast time."

I was pulling my left leg through the window when I saw my neighbour out of the corner of my eye.

"Good morning, Leanne," she said.

I answered, "Meow"--because at that point it seemed like the most appropriate thing to say. 

Revised on August 24, 2020

Guest Post: Sweaters for my characters by Kenneth Weene

(written on December 31st)

It’s a chilly day here in Phoenix, at least chilly by Arizona standards. I’m not one for being cold; that’s a major reason I live in “The Valley of the Sun.” But I do like chilly. That’s when I get to wear a sweater, and I love my sweaters.

Strangely I seldom dress a character in one – not in my short stories and not in my novels. I frequently describe their clothes, but they don’t wear sweaters.

For me sweaters are personal, preferably knitted for me by somebody who wants me to be warm and comfortable. A good sweater gives me the happy fuzzies. Wearing one is comparable to eating macaroni and cheese or a big piece of chocolate cake; it is comfort food without the calories.

It isn’t that I don’t want my characters to be comfortable. Of course, I need them to be uncomfortable and stressed enough to create a story, but I do want them to have the happy, comfy times, too. It’s just that I can’t figure out who knitted that sweater for them. Who in their back-story loves them that much?

Sure, people buy sweaters in stores. I have to admit that I have a couple of store-bought sweaters. One I had to buy when, while we were on vacation, the weather turned unexpectedly cool and I needed something warmer to wear. Another was a gift, and I didn’t want to refuse it; besides it really is comfortable and warm even if t lacks personal connection. Mostly, however, I wear the sweaters my mother-in-law knitted for me.

I know she didn’t love me that much. She did love to knit, and I was a willing recipient. So there are lots of sweaters in my closet, especially considering the few times I wear one each year.

She knitted those sweaters for me, and I have that back-story, but who would have knitted them for my characters. Since I write primarily about people who are trying to survive, people who are lonely and hurting, it is unlikely that they would have a hand-made sweater. Perhaps they picked one up at Goodwill or the Salvation Army, one that was donated. Then the sweater would have its tale to tell, but that’s something else.

Funny thing, I spend more time obsessing about how to dress a character than I do dressing myself. I throw on a pair of kakis, a tee shirt, and sometimes one of those sweaters, and I’m ready to take on the world. It is seldom that easy for the people in my stories; picking out their clothes is no simple task. 

About the Author

Sometimes Ken Weene writes to exorcise demons. Sometimes he writes because the characters in his head demand to be heard. Sometimes he writes because he thinks what he have to say might amuse or even on occasion inform. Mostly, however, he writes because it is a cheaper addiction than drugs, an easier exercise than going to the gym, and a more sociable outlet than sitting at McDonald's drinking coffee with other old farts: in brief because it keeps him just a bit younger and more alive. 

Ken’s short stories and poetry have appeared in numerous publications including Sol, Spirits, Palo Verde Pages, Vox Poetica, Clutching at Straws, The Word Place, Legendary, Sex and Murder Magazine, The New Flesh Magazine, The Santa Fe Literary Review, Daily Flashes of Erotica Quarterly, Bewildering Stories, A Word With You Press, Mirror Dance, The Aurorean, Stymie, Empirical and ConNotations.

Three of Ken’s novels, Widow’s Walk, Memoirs From the Asylum, and Tales From the Dew Drop Inne, are published by All Things That Matter Press.

Please visit Kenneth Weene's website

Book Review: Dr. Brinkley's Tower by Robert Hough

Robert Hough's vivid, lusty, and wildly imaginative new novel takes us to 1931 Mexico and Corazon de la Fuente, a war-ravaged border twon where the only enterprise is a brothel in which every girl is named Maria. Enter Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, inventor of a miraculous "goat gland operation" said to cure male impotence. When Brinkley decides to build a gargantuan new radio tower to broadcast his services, he chooses none other than Corazon de la Fuente for its site.
The town's fortunes change over night, though not all to the good -- word of the new prosperity spreads, and Corazon is overrun with desperadoes and mercenaries itching to reopen old wounds, Worst of all, Dr. Brinkley has attracted the affections of the town's most beautiful citizen, Violeta Cruz. But with the help of a motley but impassioned band of allies, including an octogenarian Casanova, a brooding Spanish nobelman, and th much-despised village witch, Violeta's spurned finace, Franciso, decides to fight back.

What attracted me to this book...

-I want to learn how to write humour.
Dr. Brinkley's Tower was a Governor General's literary awards finalist

-I enjoy reading books written by authors whose authors' voices are markedly different than my own.

-As a resident of a small community, I was intrigued by the blurb.

Favourite Quotes...

'the sky above were losing patience with the sun and on the verge of telling it to go warm some other planet.' (p. 216)

Robert Hough taught me how to use 'and' effectively
'Volita stepped out before a huge pink stucco mansion with turrets and fountains and rose gardens and tennis courts and marble Roman columns and a swimming pool the size of a Corazon de la Fuente city block' (p. 24 - 25)

Reading experience...

As a fan of old-time music, I chuckled at the conclusion of Chapter 18.

I, as a reader, felt removed from the story by the storyteller voice and the use of some Mexican words. As someone who has little knowledge of the Mexican language, I would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of a Mexican to English language glossary.

I enjoyed how the reader is led mouthful by mouthful to the conclusion of page 299. Excellent use of suspense. 

I appreciated the inclusion of thought-provoking questions at the end of the book.



Dr. Brinkley's Tower reminded me of Animal Farm.

Themes...
At what price progress...
How easily the weak can be victimized by the powerful...
You don't know what you've got until it's gone...



Author Robert Hough's interview

Guest Post: Author Robert N. Friedland

Why I Write

It only sounds like a question.

Let’s assume for a moment that there is a choice: to write; or, not to write.

I write to express my self. 

In 1992, in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, I thought I had lost a Sabre pocketknife that I had found more than a decade before on the banks of the North Platte in Wyoming.

The sense of loss seemed overwhelming and disproportionate to all of the other loss I had experienced in life.  I sat down at the keyboard and wrote, “The Lost Knife”, my best story, in a white rush.  If I had not, what then?

About The Second Wedding of Doctor Geneva Song

Doctor Geneva Song's Chinese wedding ceremony is traditional, but she marries outside of her race and culture. This ancient ritual sets in motion a fateful journey from the light to the dark for Geneva, her Spirit Sister, and the men who love them.

A beautiful family physician, Geneva Song is pious, religious, highly educated, independent, dangerous, unforgiving, sexually expressive, adulterous, and strong-willed.

Sister Deri, Geneva's Spirit Sister, her living incarnation, starts life as a country bumpkin in the remote countryside of Northeast China, becomes a deeply committed and ordained Buddhist nun, a sexual concubine, and the most powerful woman of finance in Canada.

Along the way, the man who loved Geneva first is murdered, and her fist husband is betrayed. Discover why one critic says that Doctor Geneva Song is destined become one of fiction's legendary women.

Available from www.libroslibertad.ca

About the Author

A two-term City Councillor in Victoria, Robert N. Friedland currently practices human rights and administrative law in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is widely published in commentator on Canadian, international and British Columbia political scene.