I’ve been writing all my life — from weekend school essays, that the teacher would sometimes read out to the class on Monday mornings, to writing medical articles for journals, and full medical books or chapters in other peoples books, all the way to novels, which are my main writing activities these days. The medical books (The Bedford Murder, and Sex on Yuwer Street) had medical themes written in narrative form. It was my first attempt at writing stories. But they were medical books written for health professionals.
I seem to be writing novels in series of three. The first series, which I call The Beothuk Series, were published in 2010 (Belle Maro), 2012 (The Mark of Time), and 2017 (The Warm Place). I did research on the Beothuk people for nearly two years before I started writing that series. The three books are works of historical fiction. They have been well received and I think the series would make a good Christmas gift for friends and family who like to read about the Beothuk. For those reading this blog who are not familiar with Newfoundland history, the Beothuk were the indigenous people who were living on the island of Newfoundland when Europeans first arrived. By 1829 they were gone, dead from sickness brought by white people from Europe, a policy of shooting them on sight by the whites, and conflict between them and the Mig’maw, the other native people on the island.
My second series, I call The Newfoundland Series, were published in 2018 and 2019. The three books are Home to Liza, Charlie Freake from Scilly Cove, and On The Wharf. It is a series in that the stories are all set in Newfoundland, primarily in rural Newfoundland … the outports. The stories and characters are not related. They are three independent stories, but the larger setting is the same…Newfoundland.
The first four books were traditionally published through DRC Publishing, a small publishing company located in St. John’s. In late 2018 I decided to move to self-publishing — I became an Indie publisher. I discovered Amazons KDP system and went from there. It leaves me in full control of my books. So Charlie Freake and On The Wharf have both been self-published. They are also available on kindle. If it is eBooks you like, you can access the Kindle versions here for Charlie Freake and here for On The Wharf
Where am I going from here?
I am far from finished my writing career, unless I am taken prematurely from this worldly realm. But I am 65 years old so who knows what will happen.
I have three more series planned.
Charlie Freake from Scilly Cove is one of the Newfoundland Series but it is also the backstory for a series about two St. John’s based private investigators. The series will be called Charlie and Mary: Private Eyes. Each book will have its own name. The first is called The Case of the Man with the Hat. I have it about 2/3 finished but I have put it aside for awhile because I am having a bit of a writing block about the story and also because I am working on another book.
The Lives Lived Series will be three books based on the lives of real people in Newfoundland. The first one will be about the life of my maternal grandmother. She was born Mary Jane Drakes in Coombs Cove, Fortune Bay. She was married twice. An amazing life with a story worth telling. I have the first chapter written.
The third series will be a historical-future fiction series with a science fiction slant. The first book, called 2066, is started. Don’t have a title for the series yet.
I’ll stop there for today. Have a good one.