Writing...Just because!

We are keeping on our roll these days of historical fiction titles releasing with Carolyn J. Nicholson's new historical novel, Isabel: The Quest for Freedom , coming out on September 11.  The fictional main character in Carolyn's latest book that has resulted from years of research into her own ancestry is Isabel Morton, the daughter of a prominent Nova Scotia family that wants the best for their twenty-four-year-old daughter—a suitable marriage—but Isabel will have none of it. She wants to be free, even if it means she must live as an “old maid” in a garret. Then she meets William Wishart, who offers her the freedom to follow her own stars if she marries him. But how does a woman follow her own stars in a culture where women are the property of their fathers, or if married, their husbands, and are to be meek, pious, and subservient? With no access to representative government, no right to vote, how can women be free? Isabel tries to find a way through many twists and turns of...

If you're looking for a great beach read for this summer, I highly recommend Acadian Shorelines by Patrick d'Entremont releasing on July 11 (I am a bit biased but I really do think it should be on the top of your beach TBR pile).  Acadian Shorelines relays the hijinks and heartaches of teenager Tommy Breau growing up in the late 1960s in a small Acadian fishing village in Nova Scotia, where American radio broadcasts of pop music, world news, and baseball come in more clearly than the Habs games from Montreal. Hilarious and heart-breaking in equal measure and featuring a rich cast of smart but clueless friends, wished-for girlfriends, and a loving if strict family, Acadian Shorelines has the adult Tommy looking back and wondering whether the French Catholic upbringing he was so eager to escape may have been the best years of his life.   “A delightful novel, bittersweet, comical, and immersive, where calamities—small and large—occur to beloved characters in a distinctly C...

  With less than a month to the launch of J. D. Grant's debut novel, Flowers for Gaia , we are lining up reviews and author interviews. If you are a book reviewer and love YA/speculative fiction, send me a message to request a review copy! Here's a bit about the book: Call her Earth, or call her Gaia, years from now, our planet is almost uninhabitable as a result of worldwide environmental chaos and war. In the middle of the ocean, two small, conjoined islands still thrive and serve as home to a unique population of survivors, the Wiconi. These peaceful, agrarian-based islanders have genetically evolved affinities that allow them to influence earth, water, air, and fire, talents they use to protect and aid the Earth Mother. They are her Guardians. When three Terran ships from the dying, outer “civilized” world land on the Wiconi islands, cultures collide. The newcomers, with their advanced technologies and cultural arrogance, subjugate the peaceful islanders and build industrie...

It gives me great pleasure to share that we have our first dystopian YA coming out with J. D. Grant's debut novel, Flowers for Gaia, on May 9th. Call her Earth, or call her Gaia, years from now, our planet is almost uninhabitable as a result of worldwide environmental chaos and war. In the middle of the ocean, two small, conjoined islands still thrive and serve as home to a unique population of survivors, the Wiconi. These peaceful, agrarian-based islanders have genetically evolved affinities that allow them to influence earth, water, air, and fire, talents they use to protect and aid the Earth Mother. They are her Guardians. “Flowers for Gaia is a needed book that will entertain and educate youth with its engaging tale of superpowered people literally moving the earth. Grant's story respects young readers' capacity for nuanced and complex realities. This tale, set in the future, parallels our own timeline—its colonial and neo-colonial destruction of the environment—yet is...