Tag Archives: Canadian authors

Setting as Character (Guest Post)

Setting as Character

by Steph Beth Nickel

We’ve all read books where the setting has a personality all its own. Not only does it provide the perfect backdrop to the story; it is a living, breathing character in its own right.

In September, my husband and I spent three weeks exploring Scotland, Iceland, and Ireland with our eldest son and his wife. (They live not far from Glasgow.)

As you can see from the pictures below, our surroundings came alive and could easily become characters in a book. (I took all except the path with the autumn-coloured leaves while we were away.)

While I would appreciate acknowledgment if you share one or more of these images, feel free to do so and/or use them as writing prompts or inspiration for your work.

All photos: credit: Steph Beth Nickel

And if you get the opportunity to visit one or more of these locations, I encourage you to do so. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that will provide years of memories—and inspiration.


Photo credit: Jaime Mellor Photography

As an editor, Steph Beth Nickel has the honour of coming alongside writers to help them polish their work. As the coauthor of Paralympian Deb Willows’s memoirs, Steph has been blessed to work with this amazing woman. And as a future self-published author, with the Lord’s help, Steph has taken brave steps toward publication.

If you would like more information about her services, you can contact her at stephbethnickelediting@gmail.com.

You’re invited to visit her website: http://stephbethnickeleditor.com/.

You can join her Editing Tips Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/418423519384351.

Deadly Burden: Winner of a Word Award

Deadly Burden won a Word Award!

Winner in the 2024 Word Awards: Deadly Burden. Image includes book cover, winner's sticker, and text: a female amateur sleuth, a dead busybody, small town secrets, unexpected reunions, her sidekick's a geeky writer, Christmas events & treats, too late for romance?, books2read.com/deadly-burden, Mystery-suspense meets Christian women's fiction.
Gold and black seal: The Word Awards Winner

These annual awards, sponsored by Canada’s The Word Guild, recognize “unpublished work as well as work published in 2023 for both Christian and general market audiences. Entrants from across Canada received awards in over 40 genres and categories.” [From the official press release, found here: https://thewordguild.com/media/]

Each of my other novels have been shortlisted for the awards, which I count as validation in its own right. But this win is sweet, and it encourages me to keep going with the next Green Dory Inn mystery.

If you haven’t read Deadly Burden, you can find it online in paperback and digital versions. All buy links are here: https://books2read.com/deadly-burden.

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Short-listed for The Word Awards

Short-listed for The Word Awards: Deadly Burden. With book cover image (cabin in snowy woods) and descriptive text.

Deadly Burden has been short-listed for The Word Awards! Winners will be announced September 14, 2023. To learn about The Word Awards and view the short-list, visit thewordguild.com/the-word-awards-winners-finalists.

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What’s better than Book 1 in a series for 99 cents?

Answer: Books 1 and 2 🙂

Book covers for Unknown Enemy and Hidden Secrets. Text: Summer ebook sale ends Aug. 2, 99 cents each, Start the Green Dory Inn Mystery series today! Link address: books2read.com/janetsketchley
Click the image to reach the buy links.

If you haven’t read my Green Dory Inn Mystery series, now’s the time to get started! 

And if you have, now’s the time to share this sale with your mystery-reading friends.

The digital versions of books 1 and 2 are reduced to 99 cents each until August 2 (AU, CA, NZ, UK, US). Find them wherever* you buy ebooks, or use these links:

Unknown Enemy https://books2read.com/unknownenemy

Hidden Secrets https://books2read.com/hidden-secrets

*[Kindle, Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Smashwords, and more.]

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Review: The Bad Reputations, by Karen V. Robichaud

Book cover: Three young women in 1920s clothing, a fishing village, and the title: The Bad Reputations, by Karen V. Robichaud.

The Bad Reputations, by Karen V. Robichaud (Word Alive Press, 2023)

In 1929, desperate to provide for themselves in a small town that’s turned against them, three young women choose to become rum-runners. They know it’s illegal and dangerous, and it doesn’t sit well with their faith, but they see no other way.

Local superstition blames Duska for the accidental death of her fisherman husband—because she’d been helping him on his boat and superstition marks a woman on board as bad luck. Larkin’s rum-running father has been killed by the mob, leaving her to care for her young brother. And Jolene is fleeing an abusive relationship when everyone tells her to stay and be a submissive wife.

The Bad Reputations is a compelling tale of courage, loyalty, and friendship in a fictional Nova Scotian town during Prohibition, when women’s options were limited. It takes an honest look at how people of integrity, including Christians, can find themselves making the wrong choices out of fear. The results we see are characters whose guilt makes them feel separated from God, avoiding Him instead of drawing close.

A different type of turmoil honestly addressed is Duska’s unexpected attraction to one of the police officers when she’s still grieving for her husband.

As well as strongly-defined characters, there’s some evocative description. Here’s one of my favourite samples:

The moon is hidden behind clouds in a charcoal sky. Darkness falls like a blanket over the ocean. Far out, green buoy lights flash, but nothing else. The vast blackness makes me uneasy. …I drive through the quiet streets of town. Yellowish-white fog slithers over the road like long, fat pythons. [paperback, pages 62-63]

The Bad Reputations is award-winning author Karen V. Robichaud’s seventh novel. Previous works include Tears in the Desert and The Unforgiving Sea. For more about the author and her books, visit her Author Page on Facebook.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

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Review: Crafting Deception, by Barbara Emodi

Crafting Deception, by Barbara Emodi (C&T Publishing, 2023)

“Help me.” The words, spoken to Valerie Rankin as a man she trusts is arrested for murder, leave her wanting to help without knowing how. Circumstantial evidence and a criminal past make Rankin’s General Store employee Duck MacDonald the prime suspect in a murder.

In the small fictional town of Gasper’s Cove, on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic Coast, everybody knows everybody’s secrets… or so they think. Yet past generations’ rumrunning and other illegal acts have influenced the present. Suddenly it seems to Val that strangers and friends alike are on the search for hidden treasure. And nobody’s concerned about clearing Duck’s name.

Author Barbara Emodi has a keen sense of descriptive details that bring the town and its characters to life. As an example, chapter 12’s scene at a fundraiser with “church-basement, made-by-the-women’s auxiliary sandwiches” will have Atlantic Canadians of a certain age nodding and remembering. She also includes a fair sprinkling of humour.

Protagonist Val is a sewing instructor and an empty-nest single mother. Her way of solving a mystery is to jump to a series of wild (and wrong) conclusions, embarrass herself by insisting the police should act on what she says, be proven wrong, and try again. Until she accidentally stops the killer and solves the case. She’s persistent, determined, and she genuinely cares for the people in her community.

She’s also a character I need to take in small doses. By hyper-focusing on her current stress or idea, she misses social cues and responds inappropriately. Like the brisk brush-off to a date invitation from a man she likes. Or like dashing off to confront her son in person when he sends a text asking for a bit of space.

Book 1 in the series is Crafting for Murder. As well as her Gasper’s Cove mysteries, Barbara Emodi has written instructional books on sewing. To learn about the author and her work, visit babsemodi.com.

[Review copy from the public library.]

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Review: A Tiding of Magpies, by Steve Burrows

Greyscale book cover featuring two black and white birds in flight.

A Tiding of Magpies, by Steve Burrows (Dundurn Press, 2018)

This time, DCI Dominic Jejeune (a Canadian working in England) and his team work to solve a local murder while he’s involved in an investigative review of the high profile case that launched his career. Jejeune is not the only one with regrets about that case… or with a suspicion all might not have been as it seemed.

I’m really enjoying the Birder Murder Mystery series. Each book has a strong sense of place, engaging characters with depth, clever turns of phrase, and complex crimes. The characters and plots keep me thinking about them when I’m not reading.

I’m not a birder (although I do like birds) but it’s interesting to see how they keep finding their way into the books. Also interesting are the environmental and social threads that appear.

A Tiding of Magpies is Book 5 in a series I’d heartily recommend you start from the beginning (A Siege of Bitterns). Or you could dive into this one and then go back to the start.

It’s rare for me to find a longer series that I feel committed to finishing, but this is one of them. Clean and not gory, brutal, or creepy. No risk of nightmares or vicarious trauma. Just good reads mostly set in the British countryside. I’m trying to ration them so I don’t finish too quickly. Thank you, Steve Burrows!

For more about the author and his work, visit steveburrows.org.

[Review copy from the public library.]

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Review: Renaissance, by Susan Fish

book cover: huge tree, stone wall, golden grass, blue sky

Renaissance, by Susan Fish (Raven, 2023)

First things first: this cover, on the paperback held in my hand, is absolutely gorgeous. The golden light (especially on the grass), the huge tree, the stone wall and clouds. It speaks rest to me, and warmth.

The story also brings rest. Evocative prose draws us into Liz’s struggles and into the beautiful Italian setting. If you haven’t (yet) experienced any mid-life reshapings of your identity, you’ve likely felt the hurt of being left out, misunderstood, or betrayed.

This is literary women’s fiction with an almost languid feel to it… never boring, just slowly and gently inviting readers in.

It’s a story of self-discovery, family, and forgiveness, with a thread of faith—wrapped up in a virtual tour of Florence, Italy. My only caution is there are a few pages of profanity near the end, catching both Liz and the reader off-guard. I understand why Liz surprises herself by lashing out in this way, and how she finds it entirely appropriate to the situation, but it jarred my peace and could be a deal-breaker for some.

Favourite line:

His words fell into a deep place in me, like olive oil finding every hole in a piece of bread, saturating it.

[page 57; context: Italian gardener was talking about pruning olive trees, while Liz sees a meaning for her own life from his words.]

For more about Canadian author and editor Susan Fish and her other books, visit her website. You can also see my reviews of two of her other books: Seeker of Stars and Ithaca.

[Review copy from the public library.]

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Review: The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival, by David Kitz and Dr. Ed Hird

Book cover with lightning striking a burning bush.

The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival, by David Kitz and Dr. Ed Hird (Word Alive Press, 2023)

If John the Baptist fulfilled the role of the Old Testament prophet Elijah, was there a corresponding prophet Elisha to follow him with a double blessing of power? The authors of The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival point to Jesus as a type of second Elisha—not in the sense of denying His deity, but as continuing and building on John’s call to repentance and allegiance to a new Kingdom.

They are very clear in affirming that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. Their call is for readers to be “Rediscovering Jesus’ Blueprint for Renewal” and to follow in His way.

The opening chapters of the book trace a number of parallel miracles between Elisha and Jesus (those of Jesus being greater). I’m familiar with comparisons between Jesus and Moses, and Jesus and Joshua, but this connection with Elisha was new to me.

The book also delves into past spiritual awakenings, outpourings, and renewals. For Christians praying for revival, it echoes that longing and points us to inspect our own hearts: are there aspects needing repentance and to come (back?) under the Kingdom authority of Christ?

Despite possible first impressions of the title and cover, this is no trendy, hype-driven “new” revelation. The truth it contains may well be a catalyst, but as the natural result of considering Jesus and His work.

In fact, the introduction explains, “To fulfill its divine mission, the church of the twenty-first century does not need to discover new and different truths for this current age. It needs to return to and rediscover lived truths taught by Jesus and the apostles of the first century church, and put into practice by leading men and women of God down through the ages” [Introduction, page 3 Kobo version].

The book’s premise is that the key to revival is the “return to a Holy Spirit-powered church growth” [chapter 18, page 4 Kobo version]. As readers accept the challenge to seek God and be found by Him, and to prepare their own hearts for what He may be about to do, may we see results in keeping with the truth of the Gospel.

David Kitz is an award-winning author and Bible dramatist. Dr. Ed Hird is a writer and speaker and former pastor. Each is an ordained minister in his respective denomination. This is their first book collaboration.

[Review copy from my personal library.]

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3 Fun Mysteries Set in Nova Scotia

Out of the many mysteries set in Nova Scotia, here are three I’d suggest you try (in alphabetical order):

Book cover with crafting supplies, dressmaker's form, and a large dog.

Crafting for Murder, by Barbara Emodi

Secrets and schemes and small-town murder. Read my review.


Book cover with small yacht and crime scene tape.

Murder in Hum Harbour, by Jayne E. Self

Mystery and romance in a small coastal town. Read my review.


Book cover with ocean waves, trees, locket.

Oak Island Revenge, by Cynthia d’Entremont

Coming of age in the 1950s. Small-town secrets–with rumours of treasure. Read my review.


Hmm… sensing a “small coastal town” theme here… and that’s what I write in my Green Dory Inn mysteries too. I’d better go on record as stating that Nova Scotia is more than just a string of villages along the Atlantic coast! We have a city, Halifax (current population 423,000), as well as a number of large towns and inland agriculture.

Come see what we’re all about at the Nova Scotia tourism site, then maybe plan a visit! Or at least you’ll be better able to picture the settings when you read our fiction.

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