R.J. Harlick's Blog

Canada, eh?

Continuing along the theme of travelling vicariously via books, when I started the Meg Harris mystery series, I decided I wanted my readers to travel to my country so they too could enjoy its natural treasures. I gave Meg a setting I know and love well, the forests of West Quebec, where I spend much of my time hiking through the woods or paddling the many lakes and rivers.

I wanted my readers to experience the chilling howl of a wolf on a cold winter's night or the haunting laugh of a loon on a still summer night, to feel the hiss of skis gliding through deep snow or the crunch of leaves from boots scuffing through the colour of fall. And I mustn't forget the frisson of fear at a sudden movement within the forest shadows. Is it a bear? A wolf? Or only a squirrel?

I also thought these woods were the perfect spot for murder....

With the fourth book, Arctic Blue Death, I thought it time to explore other parts of Canada, so off Meg and I flew to Baffin Island, I place I'd always wanted to visit. I found it a wild, rocky land with a stark and lonely beauty. It also proved a good place for murder.

So I decided that in every other book, I, Meg and my readers would travel to other wild places in Canada.

In the sixth book, Silver Totem of Shame, we travel to British Columbia, to Vancouver, the city of my birth, and onto Haida Gwaii, the mystical islands of the Haida, another place I'd always wanted to visit. I was overwhelmed by the mountainous islands whose tree crowded slopes tumble into the cold, yet rich waters of the Pacific.

And now I am writing the eighth Meg Harris mystery, as yet untitled. This time Meg and I are going to the Northwest Territories, a flat rocky land riddled with lakes and rivers and short stumpy trees. It too is a good place for murder.

Travelling for the cost of a book

I don't know whether you are like me, but I often read a book, particularly mysteries, so I can travel. Once a big fan of John D. MacDonald, I loved nothing better than on a cold blustery winter day to transport myself to the sun and warmth of his Florida. I decided to visit the American southwest after reading Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee series. Whenever I want the British experience I pick up a book by some of my favourite British authors, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James and authors like Peter Robinson or Elizabeth George who also set their series in the U.K. I mustn't forget Scandinavia, which I have come to know very well through books by such authors as Camilla Lackberg, Henning Mankell or Jo Nesbo.

If I want to explore my own country, Canada, I will read Peter Kirby, John Farrow and John McFetridge for a true Montreal experience. Barbara Fradkin and Brenda Chapman bring alive a place I know very well, Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. Retracing my steps to the Maritimes, Anne Emery's Father Brannigan Burke series will immerse you in the seamy side of Halifax. A stop in Quebec is a must with Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series. To get to know Canada's largest city better, Robert Rotenberg and Howard Shrier are experts at bringing Toronto alive.

On the way to the west coast, check out Saskatchewan with Gail Bowen's Joanne Kilburn series or Anthony Bidulka's Russell Quant series. Of course no trip to Canada is a trip without a visit to the Rockies. Vicki Delany's Constable Molly Smith's series takes you right into their magnificence. William Deverell, Sam Wiebe, L.R. Wright, Don Easton are only a few that set their mysteries in what I believe is Canada's most beautiful province, British Columbia.

My plan had been to write about the settings of my Meg Harris series, but I've decided to leave this for another blog.

So what about you? Which authors do you like to read to transport you to another world?

Thank You

Bringing a new book into the world is always a nerve wracking time. You never know how your baby that you have put your heart and soul into is going to be received. It's like tossing it into the big black anonymous hole of opinion. Sometimes you are even afraid to look at that opinion, preferring to pretend it doesn't exist.

But hey, I'm brave so I have been following the reviews being posted on Goodreads.

I'd like to thank you for your honest and objective opinions. I'm so glad so many of you like A Cold White Fear. Even though a few of you weren't impressed, they were your opinions and I value that.

I look forward to reading more.

Thanks again.

Reawakening old memories

Are you a re-reader of books like I am? I love to visit again and again with books I have enjoyed. Amazingly each time I still get the same amount of pleasure as I did with the first reading.

I recently picked up Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago from my bookshelf, a book I might add, that has been on my bookshelf since 1978, the date of this edition. I think I've read it at least twice, but many years ago. And of course I've seen the movie several times. Love the movie, the music and Omar.

This visit with Doctor Zhivago is also more than just a re-read of a beloved book. It takes me back to the time I lived in Moscow in the late 1970's when Russia was the Soviet Union and the Glorious October Revolution was celebrated with a massive display of armaments, the revolution by the way, which unfolds in Pasternak's book.

In the book Zhivago walks along streets I walked along, like the Arbat and Starokonyushenny Pereoluk, meaning Old Stable Lane, where my husband worked at the Canadian Embassy, or visits Serebryany Bor, the Silver Woods, where we would enjoy summer picnics after work when the sun didn't set until after 10:00.

It also reminds me of the visits we made to Boris Pasternak's grave in Peredelkino, a charming village of artists' dachas a short drive from Moscow. Pasternak spent his last days there more or less in retreat after Moscow made him refuse the Nobel Prize for Literature. On one of our visits a family member and his young daughter were tending the grave. I remember her cute little pet hedgehog with its bristling coat crawling over the stones surrounding the grave.

Unfortunately the reread of this old edition is probably the last. A paperback, the pages are gradually breaking away from the spine. I just hope it stays together long enough for me to finish the book.

Do you have a favourite book that brings back memories?

Almost here!

It's getting rather exciting around here. Just a little over a week before A Cold White Fear is officially released. I've received my box of books from my publisher which is still a big thrill, despite this being the 7th book in the series. There is something about seeing those hard fought words bound up in a book that is very magical.

I'm getting ready for its official launch in Ottawa on Nov. 17. Vicki Delany will be joining me for the launch of the first in her Christmas book series. Linda Wiken aka Erika Chase will be our emcee. We're going to have a blast. If you live in the Ottawa area, come join us at the Heart & Crown in the Market at 7:00 pm

And the reviews are coming in. Always a nervous time. Because you have no idea how the baby you've coaxed and nurtured, spilled blood over is going to be received. You don't even know if anyone will even read it, let alone whether they like it....or not.

But hey, they are looking good. You can read many of them here on Goodreads. I particularly like the quote from Vince Darcangelo, "A Cold White Fear is like a rough acid trip. You know you’re going to survive it, but you’ll have to white-knuckle it all the way."

Thanks everyone for taking the time to make your views known. I really appreciate it.

Winter

Winter is a fact of life in Canada. Some might even argue that it defines our vast country. It can last anywhere from three to ten months, depending on where you live.

Temperatures plunge below freezing levels, often way below and can lock the land in a deep freeze that lasts for days, weeks and sometimes months. But hey, if you bundle up in lots of warm clothing, it's no so bad.

White becomes the dominant colour. Snow hides the memories of summer and its imperfections, covering every exposed surface, be it a bed of moss or a fence post. Ice transforms every drop of water into a solid flat plane or a rigid crystal.

Though the ice and snow can transform the land into a mirage of beauty, danger lurks within every blizzard, every drop in temperature, every gust of Arctic wind.

Since winter is such a force in Canada I wanted to make it a central theme in A Cold White Fear. I wanted my readers to experience the full onslaught of winter's rage; a pummelling, land-burying blizzard.

Only 20 more days before A Cold White Fear is released. Pre-order your copy now.

P.S. It is recommended reading it in front of a blazing fire.

Meg's Best Friend

I am often asked if any of the characters in Meg's world are based on real people. Though I might incorporate the odd personality trait of someone I know, it is done more unconsciously than intentionally. But there is one character that is wholly based on a real individual.

When I created Meg's world, I couldn't leave her all alone in her rambling Victorian cottage, Three Deer Point. I had to give her a companion, and what better one than a dog. So I gave her Sergei, a very wimpy and not totally well behaved, black standard poodle.

But he didn't materialize out of thin air. He was based on a dog who was very much a part of my life and was lying at my feet when I added Sergei to Meg's life. His name was DeMontigny and like Sergei, a black standard poodle. Most of the antics Sergei gets up to DeMontigny did at one time or another. To immortalize DeMontigny who has since gone on to his own doggy cloud in the sky, I named the river in The River Runs Orange after him.

At the time DeMontigny was the latest in a long line of poodles who have been a part of my life. As a child my first dog was a tiny black toy poodle I called Pom Pom, because he looked exactly like one. The first dog my husband and I brought into our small family was a black miniature poodle we named Dmitri because we had acquired him while living in Moscow.

And so you have the origin of Sergei's name. Though how Meg came to give him a Russian name I'll leave for another book.

Sadly Sergei's days came to an end. Though Meg was very reluctant to replace him in Silver Totem of Shame, dogs have been too much a part of her life. So in A Cold White Fear a new family member enters hers and Eric's life. And guess what, this ball of fluff is based on the latest poodle in my life, Miss Molly, who was just eight weeks old when she came to us.

You will meet Shoni, a ten week old squirmy standard, mostly black, but who will turn to silver when she is older. Shoni, short for Shóníyá means silver in Algonquin. Unfortunately I can't post a photo to this blog, but if you go to R.J. Harlick Meg Harris Mysteries you will see how irresistibly cute Shoni is.

The cottage of my dreams

One of the fun aspects of being a fiction writer is you get to give your characters things you have always wanted. I love the rambling century old 'cottages' of Bar Harbour, Charlevoix and other turn-of-the-century playgrounds of the wealthy. Intended to house large extended families and their servants, they were filled with bedrooms, parlours, dining rooms, libraries, any sort of room you wanted. Views were essential. So large wraparound verandahs and multi-window turrets were the norm.

Thus Three Deer Point was born. Perched on a high rocky point overlooking Echo Lake, it was built by Meg's Great-grandpa Joe in the late 1800's on land he'd won in a poker game. He used the building materials at hand, massive pine timbres and field stone. And of course it wouldn't be a 'cottage' without a wraparound verandah and a turret.

Meg inherited the rambling Victorian cottage and it's 1500 acres of wilderness from her Great-aunt Agatha, who lived there in isolation for more than fifty years. Though Meg does get out and about, she does love the peace the remoteness offers, spending many an hour in the screen porch overlooking the lake, rocking back and forth on Aunt Aggie's old rocker as she ponder's life's challenges.

In A Cold White Fear most of the action takes place in this lonely cottage whose closest neighbour is the Migiskan Reserve five kilometres away as the crow flies. Its sturdy timbre walls are being buffeted by a raging blizzard, when a sudden loud knock reverberates through the dark empty hall. And so Meg's night of terror begins.

Pushing the envelope....

As a writer of a series, it is easy to get trapped in the same old, same old and find yourself writing the same kind of story over and over again, because it is comfortable. With Meg Harris mysteries I've strived to avoid this trap. It is one of the reasons behind Meg's travels to other Canadian wildernesses in every other book. Not only does the change in location and people add an extra dimension, but it challenges me as a writer and thereby keeps me excited about the story being written.

With A Cold White Fear, I have pushed the envelope, so to speak, even further. All the action takes place during less than a twenty-four hour period. As a writer, I knew I couldn't rely solely on the action to move the story. I had to rely on the characters and so I delved deep into the major characters and let them move the story along. And so A Cold White Fear became a character driven thriller.

But the characters took me places that were very difficult to write particularly as they related to Meg. There is one scene that took me three revisions to advance it to where it needed to go. I so didn't want this to happen to a person that has almost become part of me.

A life of its own

When I started out on this writing venture, I thought I was just writing a book. Seven books later and well into the writing of the 8th book, I realize I am creating a world, the Meg Harris world. And I am having great fun doing it.

Meg has taken on a life of her own as have Eric, Teht'aa, Jid and other people whose lives weave in and out of the Meg Harris mystery series. I enjoy watching them grow and overcome the challenges I throw at them. I will plant seeds in one book only to have them come to fruition in later books. Often these lives go where I least expected them to go. And sometimes they go to places I don't want them to go, as happened in A Cold White Fear.

But I am only the writer and if Meg, Eric, Teht'aa, Jid and the others want to go there, then go they will.