2025 AtoZ Theme

    

This post is supposed to set the theme for the April AtoZ challenge. Doing a post a day is difficult even when you have nothing else going on. Health issues can make focusing impossible, steals the energy to write, and chases the muse away. However, I'm going to give 2025 a shot. Additional impacts this year are a work in progress, learning to use a new tablet as my old labtop dies, and making the swag and all the details for a major reader / signing event. Hint: I am an attending author at Books By The Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

The posts for the 2025 Challenge will showcase the characters and worlds of the Windmaster Novels, Dragshi Chronicles, the Tearstone Collectors. A few thoughts on my non-fiction history books and personal insights might also sneak in.

A note on my approach. Since I did the AtoZ in April Challenges from 2019 through 2022, and in 2024, I didn't want to duplicate the earlier years' posts.

Here is the master list of the themes joining me in singing the alphabet song. 

~till next time, I'm off to start singing the alphabet song. Hope you'll join me April 1st for "Archaeology." Helen

The Fallen, Fire and Redemption, #wewriwa

 

 

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write ... and read. From Fire and Redemption, Book 2 of the  fantasy series, The Tear Stone Collectors. This week's snippet continues the scene begun in Help Summoned and Danger. Sickness has struck the caravan. Karst has been watching Brial, who has been exposed more than anyone else. Not only is she driving a wagon where nursing is going on within it, but she has helped nursed all her kin. The fear is that by the exposure, Brial has caught the sickness.

Excerpt: 

Feldt reached out and wrapped his large hands around Brial’s waist. Only her grandfather’s strong grasp kept her from falling underneath the wagon wheels. A single tug lifted her from the ground. He stepped into the saddle and with Brial cradled in his arms returned to Karst in a trail of dust.

Feldt’s hand on his shoulder pulled Karst from his vision. “You know what to do?”  

Unsure of his voice, Karst merely nodded.

“Do what you can for Brial. Food will be sent over.”

* * * *

Available in Ebook or Paperback at Amazon
Additional sites at Books2Read

​I hope you like the snippet. Be sure to read the other Weekend Writing Warriors blogs and the #SnippetSunday authors for more great reads.

~till next time, Helen

A Killer Whisky by Susan Caldar

Notes and a Review of A Killer Whiskey (Canadian Historical Mystery Series)

Author: Susan Calder

Date of Release: 12/1/2024
Genre: Historical Fiction World War I

Publisher: BWL Publishing
Buy Links:   Amazon  / Barnes&Noble /  Apple iTunes  / Kobo  / More Sites

Blurb:

The 1918 influenza pandemic strikes Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Great War rages overseas. While her husband fights in Europe, Katharine works in a doctor’s office to support her children and her brother, a wounded veteran. One night their neighbor suddenly takes sick and dies. The attending doctor concludes the man died from influenza, but Katharine suspects someone laced his whisky with a drug that mimics the deadly flu’s symptoms.

Katharine convinces the police to investigate. Worried about her brother’s involvement with a suspect, she delves into his secrets and comes to fear he’s connected to the murder. She grows disturbingly attracted to the investigating detective who returns her affections. He’s convinced her brother or someone else close to her is a killer and risks his career to pursue the crime. Katharine must discover the truth so she can move forward in a world that has changed forever.

 
My Review:

5 Stars ... Author Susan Calder transports the reader back in time to the Canadian homefront during the turbulent times of World War I and the Spanish flu. Her personal knowledge of the time and environs brings a reality to the tale. Her characters are your family, friends, and neighbors and brings you into their lives. What I enjoyed most was after the plot is wrapped up, Calder hints at their futures, but leaves it to the reader to decide which couples have their HEA ending.

Author Bio:

A native of Montreal, Susan Calder worked as an insurance claims examiner before taking up writing at the age of thirty-nine. Susan moved west to Calgary in 1996 with her husband and two sons. She is the author of six novels as well as non-fiction articles, poems, and numerous short stories. Her most recent novel, A Killer Whisky, is her first venture into historical fiction. A Killer Whisky is the twelfth and final book in the BWL Canadian Historical Mystery Series.

Susan has taught fiction writing courses and workshops at the Alexandra Writers Centre Society, spoken on panels, and given presentations on various writing topics. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. When Susan isn’t writing, she is likely to be traveling, biking, or hiking in the beautiful mountains near Calgary

For more on Susan and her works, find her on the web at: 

Website  | Goodreads | Publishers Author Page |