Merry meet all,

I am so thrilled that Twisted Dreams Press is publishing my novel, The Mourning Tide, in October. October is already my most fave magical month of the year and now I have one more reason to love that magical month of death made beautiful.

I came up with the idea for the novel via a flash of inspiration years ago. I’m so happy it’s being published now. I could not get an agent for the book, but it is still being published and I am over the moon happy. Twisted Dreams Press is an indie publisher. 

Everyone loves a good ghost story. My novel The Mourning Tide rejects all tropes and exhausted expectations and old ideas of ghost stories. Yes ok the idea of a woman all alone in a haunted house has probably been done before. In my story, Rosemary Bell has to heal her own broken, grieving heart while dodging danger and a creepy house that disturbs and unsettles the reader. I created a ghost trapped in his own cursed darkness, and may enslave a hapless soul or two into the ghost’s seaweed mired darkness for eternity. That and a town that tries its very best to reject a dark, cursed secret they will do anything to keep hidden. They ostracize anyone steers from their oppresive sense of normal. That outcast happens to be Rosemary. It’s Jonathan Fraser, the ghost who motivates Rosemary to save him and heal her own heart. 

The small town of Windswept Bay, (town name changed for the story), is a character of the story on its own. The icy ocean waves, creaking trees, haunted woods and the endless misty fog may give an unwary reader the chills. I love my story and I hope new readers will love it too. 

The story is based on an actual historical event that happened decades ago yet has left a lasting impact on the residents of the town of Pleasant Bay. Two campers forgot to put out their campfire. Since Pleasant Bay has a milion trees and it was hot summer, the fire spread like crazy. A young woman did drown in her efforts to escape the fire. I researched that in the Nova Scotia Public Archives. Pleasant Bay is the town I used for the story. It’s stunningly beautiful there. My grandfather was born there, Alfred Timmons, and the two room schoolhouse that my mother attended when she was young is still there. The village has never changed, it’s as if time stands still. There is a Buddhist colony there, but I love the wild, untamed beauty of the cliffs, trees and the restless ocean. It’s paradise for sure.

I hope to visit Pleasant Bay soon, maybe in late spring. That will really help me perhaps get inspired to write a new horror story. I haven’t been there in years and I do look forward to visiting there again. Pleasant Bay is 450 kilometres from Halifax. But the long drive is sure worth it. Moose, eagles, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, bears, rabbits, and pheasants roam there freely. The nature and wildlife are sure to capture your imagination. I very much look forward to editing my novel with the team at Twisted Dreams Press! I can’t wait to hold the author copy in my hands. It’s been ten years in the creation of this story. 

I just wish my grandparents were still alive to see the book and hold it in their hands. Maybe they are watching over me and are proud of me. I certainly hope so. I’m dedicating the book to them. The photos that you see in this post were taken in Pleasant Bay. For me, the most worrisome part of visiting there is not the blind spots on the winding road through the mountains, being swept out to sea, being attacked by a bear or eaten alive by mosquitoes- it’s the moose. They are very imposing and huge and smelly and just … huge… especially the bull moose, who climb over a guardrail as if it is not even there, roam the woods and roads at night and could kill you if they wanted to. 

Blessed Be, Spiderwitch