STORYWORLD

The publishing date for The Savage Instinct has been moved to May 18th .  I never realized how much promotional work is done in the months before a book is launched. Here's a quick rundown: Once all the line edits and copyedits are done (and they're exhausting), the book goes onto Net Galley. That's the online site where numerous reviewers from media to librarians to educators and book bloggers apply to read an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of your book and provide a review, which is usually shared to Goodreads. This is a nail-biting time for authors, waiting to discover how your book will be received by people in the biz. You find yourself checking back numerous times a day to see if someone else has left a review and what they have to say. With The Savage Instinct it's been a great experience. So far the book has garnered over 83 amazing reviews. There's such an active community of Instagram book bloggers. I'm amazed at how many of these people are dedicated to pr...

Canelo set to publish two dark and twisty suspense novels by M. M. DeLuca. Commissioning Editor Leodora Darlington has acquired WEL rights to new standalone suspense novels by M. M. DeLuca in a two-book deal.  The Secret Sister  is a gripping suspense novel with a twist that will leave readers reeling. We follow our protagonist, Anna, on her whirlwind romance that ends in her marrying almost-too-perfect Guy. But how much does Anna know about the man she has married? And how much does Guy know about his new wife? She’s certainly keeping her share of secrets, and the biggest one of all is the identity of the sister she lost many years ago, the sister she is still searching for now.  M. M. DeLuca studied psychology at the University of London and now resides in Canada. She studied Advanced Creative writing with Pulitzer prizewinning author, Carol Shields. Her first novel,  The Pitman's Daughter  was shortlisted for the Chapters Robertson Davies first novel in Canad...

TAKE IT BACK, an explosive and riveting drama. Kia Abdullah has written a bold and compelling novel that deals head-on with difficult and divisive issues. This page-turning novel explores the conflict between justice and pursuit of the truth versus family and cultural loyalty; rape and the sexualization of women; women's rights versus cultural  misogyny. If that's not enough, then there are also thematic threads related to substance abuse and bullying. The main story centres around Jodie, a genetically disfigured 16-year-old who reports that she's been raped by four young Muslim boys from her school. Main character, Zara, ex-hotshot barrister, now a sexual violence legal advocate, takes the case and is immediately thrown into an explosive and highly publicized courtroom drama where the focus immediately switches to race rather than rape. Pitted against her estranged Muslim family and her community, Zara is branded a traitor to her race and nothing more than an "Uncle T...

  On first appearances, this novel by Grainne Murphy appears to be a suspenseful, disaster story centred around the lives of a group of innocent people trapped in a bus teetering on the edge of a massive sinkhole. While the central catastrophe does play an important part in the novel, the story really becomes an in-depth study of human love and loss and grief and our fragility and strength in the face of tragedy. Hence the title and the bus disaster becomes a metaphor for the knife-edge we vulnerable humans tread as we struggle to overcome adversity and survive.   The story begins when a road in rural Ireland collapses and swallows a bus carrying eight passengers. As the bus threatens to fall deeper into the sinkhole, the authorities scramble to set a rescue plan in place. What follows is partly the poignant story of some of the victims inside the bus, but mostly the novel focuses on the people involved in the rescue, mainly Nina, a news reporter on the scene, and her ex-husba...

  Now the evenings are cooler and summer is drawing to a close, it's time to reflect back on some of the other local trips we took and wonder how I ever complained about the endless sunshine and heat! Here are some of the highlights of our wanderings.                                                DELTA BEACH and FORT LA REINE MUSEUM Fort La Reine, on the outskirts of Portage la Prairie, is an interactive museum where you can wander through completely furnished houses and shops from every era in Manitoba's history from an authentic trapper's hut to a 1920's house to a fully functioning local newspaper office complete with printing press. Every detail is lovingly preserved. Set aside a few hours to get through every intricately furnished room. Delta Beach on Lake Manitoba is a wild and windswept place next to Delta Marsh - a favourite spot for hunting lodges since ...

The Beauty of Your Face  by Safar Mustafah is a compelling and authentic novel that not only explores the complex struggles of a culturally conflicted daughter of Palestinian immigrants, but also touches on universal themes such as identity, loss and the pain of a middle child rejected by her mentally fragile mother. The book follows dual storylines of Afaf , principal of a Muslim school for girls just outside Chicago, opening with the shocking arrival of a  xenophobic shooter who kills girls at random. The eventual tense standoff between Afaf and the shooter frames the more in-depth story of her earlier life leading to this point.   A bright, intelligent teenager, Afaf negotiates the difficulties of life as the daughter of secularized parents in a town where she faces casual but cruel racism on a daily basis. When a tragic loss causes major family upheaval, she struggles to find a place to belong when she’s spurned by all her classmates and even her own mother ...

Though the summer of 2020 has kept us close to home, for many of us it's offered a golden opportunity to explore places we may have taken for granted in our mad dash to fly around the globe. Summer here in Manitoba, Canada, has turned out to be a glorious one despite the occasional thunderstorms so I decided to take advantage of the incredible weather and explore some of the beautiful sights of my home province. Manitoba's staggering size of 647,797 sq.km (101,593 sq. km of that is water) and relatively small population of 1.38 million people makes it easy to find remote, unspoiled areas by driving only a short distance. With a widely varying landscape from arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline in the north, to dense boreal forest, prairie farmland, and white sandy lakeside beaches in the central and south regions, you can take your pick of amazing sights and experiences for even a short day trip. Here's a few highlights of some of our day trips: THE WHITESHELL ...