Smashwords is the first website to pre-release my new novel, Winter’s Rage. You can purchase the e-book here: Smashwordshttps://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/BWLCalder. My three earlier novels are also 50 % off on Smashwords until the end of July. Winter’s Rage will officially release in August.
Canada Day 2021 will be subdued or cancelled in most Canadian cities due to COVID-19 and the investigations of graveyards at former indigenous residential schools. My small effort at reconciliation has been to re-read my friend Joan Crate’s novel, Black Apple (Simon and Schuster Canada, 2016) about a Blackfoot girl taken from her family on the reserve to a residential school in southern Alberta in the late 1940s. Black Apple deals with all the horrors we’ve heard about the residential schools — children separated from their families and culture and given Christian names; subjected to brutal beatings, sexual abuse, and infectious illnesses that ripped through the institutions. Black Apple is fiction, but I found the story characters and situations gave me a depth I miss from current media reports.
I like BWL’s process for designing book covers. It begins about six months before a book’s release, when we authors fill out a Cover Art Form. This includes factual information, such as the book title and author name to appear on the cover, a back cover book blurb, details about story, keywords for online searches and — my favourite part — ideas for cover images. After we submit the CAF, Art Director, Michelle Lee, designs our covers from purchased stock images. She combines and manipulates the images and adds background and other elements to create covers that hint at the story inside.
I published my first BWL novel, Ten Days in Summer, in 2017. At that time, the CAF stated that most of the covers would feature at least one person. When I searched for people images on the stock images website, I discovered a few problems. My main character, Paula Savard, is an insurance adjuster. A keyword search for her gender and job popped up images of women meeting with clients or examining construction sites and damaged cars. In this story, Paula investigates a building fire with a suspicious death. I searched ‘female detective’ and got pictures of young women holding guns and magnifying glasses. Paula was fifty-two. My search for professional women in their fifties unearthed a few possibilities, although none looked like my image of Paula.
A basic problem with people images on novel covers is that writers and readers form their own images of fictional characters. I realized a full picture of Paula would interfere with reader engagement, although partial images still maintained enough mystery. This explained why rear-view images of women had become popular in novel cover art, but so common they were now considered cliché.
For the CAF, I chose the best of the images I could find for Paula, plus female images shrouded in mystery — a woman’s legs in cowboy boots, eyes peering through a hole, and a silhouetted woman in a cowboy hat. Since the story backdrop is the Calgary Stampede and the second most prominent character is a self-styled cowboy, I added images of cowboys in silhouette, the Calgary skyline, and fire, for the incident that sets the story in motion.
I sent the CAF to Michelle, who found images for the cowboy, fire and skyline that were different from the ones I’d suggested. She meshed them together to produce a cover better than any I could have dreamed up myself.
Two years later, BWL reissued the first book in my Paula Savard mystery series. During this time, the trend in cover design moved away from people to symbolic images. Now the CAF stated that most BWL covers would not feature people unless we insisted. I searched for people images anyway, since I found this fun, but was glad to focus on images related to the story setting and mood. For the new cover of A Deadly Fall, I sent Michelle images of the Calgary skyline, falling leaves, fall trees, and pathways through fall woods. The murder takes place on a Calgary walking path. Michelle scored another hit with a cover design of leaves framing the Calgary skyline in glorious fall colours of gold, orange and yellow, along with the red of Calgary’s Peace Bridge.
In February I completed my CAF for Winter’s Rage, book # 3 of the Paula Savard mystery series. This time, Paula investigates a hit-and-run collision that resulted in a woman’s death. Images of a tire on a snow-covered road, broken windshields, and car headlights in the dark would suit the story, but I wanted this cover to continue the series style. One problem. A Deadly Fall’s autumn time frame and Ten Days in Summer’s building fire resulted in covers with similar colours. Yellow, orange and red don’t evoke winter in Alberta. On the CAF, I suggested we bend the brand and go with white, blue or black winter shades. Michelle agreed. She created a scene of snow falling on a Calgary skyline draped in snow, the Bow River shining ice. Yellow letters echo the two earlier novels.
The front cover of Winter’s Rage gives the first hint of the story. The back cover blurb reveals a little more https://bookswelove.net/calder-susan/ You can read what it’s all about this August.
Today, on the BWL Author’s blog, I write about how my novels got their designs https://bwlauthors.blogspot.com/
Last summer I noticed a cloudiness in my left eye. I thought it might be due to cataracts, which run on both sides of my family. My husband had them a few years ago, with similar symptoms. When my eye doctor confirmed the problem in both eyes, she said that she likes referring severely near-sighted people for cataract surgery. In most cases, the treatment significantly improves their vision and they’ll need thinner eyeglasses, and sometimes, none at all.
Cataracts are one thing that make me glad I don’t live in the past. My relatives who had the surgery in the 1970s were hospitalized for a week, and afterward they had to wear Coke-bottle-bottom eyeglasses. My grandmother was an early recipient of lens implants in the 1980s. They worked well for her after her month of bed rest. Today, recovery is quick–minor restrictions like no swimming for a week.
After cataract surgery, I hope to snorkel without prescription googles. I used to think cataract surgery was a 20th century invention and people who lived earlier simply went blind. But it goes back to the fifth century BC. The treatment then involved striking the eye with a blunt object, dislodging the eye fluid and restoring limited vision. Centuries later the surgery evolved to inserting a needle into the eye and extracting the cataract. According to my cataract information sheet, today’s treatment involves inserting a fine probe into the eye, removing the cataract and then injecting a lens implant.
The year after my husband’s cataract surgery, we took a holiday in northern France. On the way to Paris, we stopped at Giverny, the former home of impressionist painter, Claude Monet. We were intrigued to learn that Monet had cataracts for almost twenty years before they were treated with surgery. Knowing this added to our appreciation of Monet’s works painted during that time. His failing vision led him to use larger brushstrokes. He saw some colours differently with cataracts. Fog increasingly shrouded his view of everything. Post-surgery he destroyed or redid some of the paintings he created when he saw his world through cataracts.
Water Lilies by Claude Monet, painted in 1920, three years before his cataract surgery, hangs in The National Gallery, London Due to my high astigmatism, my eye surgeon recommended I upgrade to a lens that corrects this problem. I further upgraded to a multifocal lens that handles distance, intermediate (computer) and reading vision. The standard lens sets vision to only one level, making glasses necessary.
It’s now two weeks after surgery on my second eye and my vision isn’t perfect. My right eye is 20/20 for distance, but the left works much better for reading. The left also sees halos and glare when I watch TV. They say this should diminish in time and my eyes will take 4-6 weeks to settle. I see well for most activities, which is a huge change after wearing glasses since I was ten years old. I’m still getting used to my naked face and find myself trying to remove or put on imaginary glasses. I wear sunglasses on windy days so grit doesn’t blow into my eyes. But it feels great, if a little strange, to wake up every morning and see the world clearly.
Monet’s garden, Giverny, France
Amazon has finally decided to recognize Canada as the originator of paperback books. This means BWL no longer has to publish my books on Amazon.com with the higher USA conversation prices. BWL can now publish the books on Amazon.ca and price them to the Canadian marketplace. My books will still be available in the USA and worldwide.
Here’s a page of books on Amazon.ca with writings by Susan Calder and more. Amazon.ca : Susan Calder I’m not the Susan Calder who wrote the book on microwave cooking, although her name prompted me to buy her book years ago. The page doesn’t include e-books for A Deadly Fall and To Catch a Fox, but you can find the kindle formats by clicking on the titles. I’m pleased to see a couple of short story collections that include my writing: Passport to Murder, Coast Lines and Coast Lines 2.
One of my projects this spring has been cataract surgery. Today, I write about my own and painter Claude Monet’s experiences with this on the BWL author blog https://bwlauthors.blogspot.com/
During this past winter of staying home, I looked forward to a spring getaway with my husband Will and our son Matt. With travel outside of Canada and our province of Alberta restricted this month, we booked a four-night stay in Canmore, an hour a half drive from our Calgary home and just outside the entrance to Banff National Park.
Easter Monday, we drove directly to Banff and ate our turkey sandwiches on a bench by the Bow River. Despite the sunshine, a breeze made the 3 degrees Celsius (37.4 F) temperature cool for sitting out. We soon warmed up on our hike up Tunnel Mountain. Sections of mud and ice typical of early spring made us glad we’d brought our cleats. At the top, we rested on Muskoka chairs half buried in snow and enjoyed the panoramic views of Banff.
Day two of our trip was sunny and warmer. Will and Matt went skiing at Lake Louise, while I spent a summer-like day in Canmore. In the morning, I checked out the local stores and bought a salad and bread for our lasagna dinner. My afternoon walk followed part of the town’s extensive trail network. The rest of the day I read on our balcony, looking out at the Three Sisters and HaLing mountain peaks. Will and Matt had a perfect ski day — sunny, warm, uncrowded, fresh snow from a weekend snowfall. I didn’t envy them, since I’d preferred my lazy time.
Balcony view from our AirBnb apartment
Lake Louise ski hill
The weather turned cooler on our third day and cloud mingled with sun. We stayed close to Canmore and hiked up to Grassi Lakes, an icy trail we couldn’t have managed without cleats. At the top, we were surprised and pleased to find the ice on the lakes had melted to reveal their clear, green colour. After lunch, we walked the riverside portion of the trail I’d done the previous day and continued farther. We talked about returning later this spring with our bikes to explore the whole Canmore pathway network.
Grassi Lake
Former railway bridge on Canmore path – Will didn’t hold the camera straight
Rain blew in that evening and we woke up to a snow-draped town. Matt’s weather app forecast a relatively nice day at Lake Louise with only 17 percent chance of snow. We drove west. As we approached the village of Lake Louise, we hit steady snow and low cloud that made the mountains almost invisible. Hoping the sky would clear later, we opted for a morning hike through a wooded area. The snow continued, but we drove up to the famous lake anyway. Everything was so white, we could hardly tell where the lake ended and the mountains began. We gave up on a viewpoint hike and walked along the lakeshore. When we returned, blue sky started to appear and we left the lake in sunshine.
Winter conditions at Lake Louise, summer on our Canmore balcony, in-between temperatures the rest of the time. That’s spring in Alberta.
Lake Louise village trail
Will and Matt on our Canmore balcony
Like millions of people in North America and Britain, I watched the recent Oprah Winfrey interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. When the couple married almost three years ago, my husband and I happened to be in the UK on vacation. We visited the church at Windsor Castle, where the wedding would take place and watched the preparations underway. On May 19, 2018, the day of the event, we took a train from the Lake District to Edinburgh. At the train station, we watched a woman set up a festive table with afternoon tea for sale.
Meghan and Harry’s honeymoon with the press and public deteriorated quickly after that, as did their relationships with people in the royal family. A year ago they gave up their duties as senior royals and moved to Canada, a Commonwealth nation where Meghan had lived and worked as an actress. When the UK and Canada refused to pay for their long-term security, they settled in California with plans to pursue non-regal ventures. In their interview with Oprah, they said that unfair and hurtful treatment by members of the royal family, the palace establishment and the British media forced them to take these steps.
Everyone I know, including me, has watched the Netflix series The Crown, which chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II from girlhood to recent times. A theme I take from the series is that the personal lives of royal family members come second to protecting and preserving the institution of The Crown. In the Oprah interview, Harry said that all of his relatives are trapped in their royal roles. The Netflix show suggested the Queen might have been happier living a simple life in the countryside with her horses and dogs. But then she wouldn’t have fame, fortune and a place in history. Many would choose the trap.
The media loves drama. It sells newspapers and gets people to watch shows like the “bombshell” and “explosive” Oprah interview. The UK tabloids exploited and maybe created the Meghan vs Kate conflict. This narrative serves The Crown if Kate generally comes across better, since she’s a future queen. Harry told Oprah that the royal family needs positive coverage by the press. The monarchy isn’t secure forever and the country has many anti-royalists. While the Queen is beloved, her successor Prince Charles isn’t. But Will and Kate look on track to replacing the Queen in people’s hearts. They also have three children ahead of Harry in the line of succession. Harry’s drop to the # 6 spot makes him less important to The Crown. That’s why their son wasn’t made a prince and the palace made little effort to protect Meghan from media criticism and lies, as she said in the Oprah interview.
Both Harry and Meghan made a point of telling Oprah they still get along well with the Queen. Harry followed up the interview by making it clear that the Queen and Prince Philip weren’t the unnamed royals who made racist remarks that were arguably the interview’s biggest bombshell revelation. This shows that the young couple’s intentions haven’t strayed completely away from their prime roles as members of the royal family—to protect and preserve the person who embodies The Crown.
On today’s BWL author blog I offer my 2 pence on the Meghan and Harry’s infamous interview with Oprah Winfrey. The couple has come a long way since their wedding almost three years ago at Windsor Castle.
