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Peter E. Fenton January Newsletter – An Excerpt and a SNAK!

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Welcome to 2025. This year is going to be an exciting one as I release a new novel, attend several conferences, and continue to connect with readers around the world. I’m deep into editing on The Burnt, the third book in the Declan Hunt Mysteries series, and I thought it would be fun to share a small excerpt to give you a hint of the tone of the book. To read the excerpt make sure you go all the way to the bottom of the newsletter. If you are reading in gmail, the bottom will likely be cropped, so make sure you click on the “read full message” prompt at the bottom. But first, here’s some other news.

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I was delighted that Not Not Normal made the American Library Association Booklist. This monthly publication goes out to libraries and institutions across North America and acts as a way of recommending work to key decision-makers. To get a gay youth novel onto the list is a huge achievement, and hopefully this will allow many younger and older readers to enjoy the book.

Another lovely review in January came from the Love Bytes blog who wrote –

I know it’s the first week of the year, but this is one of my favorite stories so far and if I had read it last year, it would have made my list. It’s a wonderful story of overcoming hard things, focusing on the things that make us unique and recognizing those are our superpowers. Being different isn’t what makes us unlovable, or not enough – it’s exactly what makes us human and lovable and more than enough. Yes, it’s YA, but it’s really good YA. Highly recommended.

For the full review click here.

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And speaking of reviews, I’m in the process of trying to build a larger following for the book by asking readers to share their reviews. If you have read Not Not Normal and have the time, please leave a review on Goodreads by clicking here or on Amazon by clicking here. If you’re in Canada, go to the Amazon.ca site by clicking here. One of the challenges of getting a youth novel out to its intended audience is that many of the young readers don’t leave reviews. Outside of libraries, most of the purchasers for the book are parents. So if you read the book and enjoyed it, please take the time to put up even just a star review without text. Every review counts.

And if you haven’t purchased the book yet, there is another way you can read a review copy through a campaign with Book Sirens. To find out how to read and review the book for free, click here.

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I was honoured to be featured on SNAK, which is a YouTube show that does four minute mini-interviews with Canadian artists. The hosts always make it fun, and they really do their research (including a clip of me when I was working in paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum). To watch the clip, click the image above.

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It’s the beginning of conference time, and the very first conference of the year will be the Ontario Library Association Conference. I’ll be signing copies of Not Not Normal at the Ontario Book Publishers Organization author table on January 31st at 1:20 PM. While this isn’t a public conference, it will be a chance to interact with lots of school and public librarians and get signed copies into their libraries.

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I am still in the process of finishing the draft of The Burnt, and the editor will likely dive in and make corrections, but I thought it might be fun to share the work in process. Here’s an opening chapter to whet your appetite for Declan Hunt and Charlie Watts’ latest mystery.

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Simon Griffin reclined on a large leather chair in the sun room of his home in Banff—a home that was somewhat unimaginatively called Mountainview when it was constructed in 1943. After he’d purchased it, Simon had renamed the house The Paddock as a tribute to his favourite bar in Toronto, the city he had grown up in.

He never tired of the view from this vantage point, especially in the evening as the sun set behind the mountains of Sundance Ridge which spread out before him beyond the Bow River. The mountains carried a heavy coat of white January snow, that had slowly faded out of view as the darkness had enveloped the surrounding property. It was six-thirty in the evening. The only light visible now was from the backyard lamps which flooded the property as a security measure against intruders and sight-seers who wanted to get a look at Simon’s famous house.

Simon was proud of the fact that The Paddock was one of the largest private properties within the confines of the town of Banff – a property which lay within the national park boundary. When he’d bought it, he had wanted a place away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was ridiculously big for his needs—over seven hundred and fifty square metres in size with six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. He had joked about having one bathroom for every day of the week. His friends thought he was nuts to leave the faster pace of the big city.

Visiting Banff on a holiday, sure, but who actually lives there other than the kids who wait tables at the tourist restaurants?

If Simon wanted big city life, Calgary was only an hour way. He kept an apartment there in case he was in town late for business, but for the most part, he liked Banff…except for the tourists. When he had moved here in 1984, it wasn’t as bad. Back then he’d been able to keep the gates to his driveway open and walk about the streets without having to dodge around people. But in recent years, things had gotten out of control, and now during the summer they even closed down Banff Avenue to cars in an attempt to control the flow of visitors. Ironically, thanks to its natural beauty and wide-open spaces, Banff was now overwhelmed with tourists. They walked blindly out into the streets. Some even parked their cars in front of his driveway (“It’s okay, I’ll only be a minute”). Simon sometimes felt like he didn’t want to leave his property due to the swarms of picture-snapping sight-seers.

Through the window Simon saw a young man playing with the latch on the back gate. It was another tourist caught out too late while snowshoeing along the well-worn trail which ran between the property and the Bow River. The man was persistent, rattling away at the gate latch.

Simon went to the back door and opened it.

“This is private property,” he called out, trying not to sound annoyed. “The gate’s locked. You’ll have to keep going along the river ‘til you come to the street.” He waved the man in the right direction.

“Sorry,” the fellow yelled back. “Nice place. I thought this was my hotel.” The man shrugged and headed off in the wrong direction.

Idiot.

Once he was sure the man was gone, Simon headed back and flopped into his chair. If he had any real clout in this town he’d have that damned pathway fenced off and the tourists would stop disturbing his peace.

His thoughts were interrupted as Jasmine brought him his after-dinner coffee. Jasmine had worked as his housekeeper ever since his wife had left.

He glanced up at her. Her short curly grey hair, and careworn hands and face were more familiar to him than his own features. She gave him a weak smile. Her glazed eyes and furrowed brow signalled to him that she was working through one of her migraines.

“Thank you, my dear,” he said. “Why don’t you just call it a day and go and rest that head.”

She gently rubbed her temples. “Thank you, sir. I’ll be fine.”

Jasmine was the closest thing Simon had to family, although he hadn’t always been alone…

“By the way, a boy dropped this off for you,” she said pulling out an envelope from her left pants pocket.

Simon didn’t remember hearing a car on the drive, and a visitor would have had to buzz through on the intercom to gain access.

“A boy?”

“That’s what I said.”

“At the front door?”

“Yes sir.”

“But Jasmine, the gates are locked. How did he get in to knock on the front door?”

She shrugged. “Probably he climbed the fence. You don’t have to be Spider-Man to get into the property.”

She turned and left him with the envelope. Just as she was closing the door she added, “He said someone asked him to deliver it.” And then she was gone.

Simon looked at the envelope in his hands. He turned it over and examined the back. Nothing. No identifiers. He opened the envelope. Inside he found a single letter-size piece of white paper with a simple hand-written message on it.

I ’m watching you and I know what you did.

Simon’s hands began to shake when he saw the signature.

Milo.

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Who is Milo? And what did Simon do? You’ll have to wait until August to find out when The Burnt is released. Next month, I’ll have more information on the Spanish translation of Mann Hunt, more teasers from the new book and information on the larger public conferences I’ll be attending. I’ll also share some links with information on ways that YOU can attend. In the meantime, here’s a wish that your January is going well. As always, thanks for reading.

Warmest Regards,