I’m delighted to unveil this gorgeous new cover for Bird’s Eye View, my wartime novel, coming in November.
Welcome to Letters From Windermere, where I write about:
- HISTORY: mostly Western Canada history, but I love it all.
- WRITING: info about my writing and publishing journey.
- BOOKS: I recommend a good book every month.
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New Bird’s Eye View Cover
My debut novel Bird’s Eye View, about a farm girl from Saskatchewan named Rose who joins the air force during the Second World War and becomes an interpreter of aerial photographs, was first published in 2014. This was the first novel ever written in which the main character is a Canadian woman in uniform.
Today there are dozens of wartime novels on the shelves, but what makes mine different is that my heroine Rose studies aerial photographs to find out what the enemy is doing in Europe, and her success is due in part to her rural Canadian background.
The story also highlights the Canadian home front, because through letters Rose learns what’s happening in her own country, where the war effort involved every man, woman and child.
The novel is both educational and heartwarming. Did I mention there is also a romance? Read the first pages here: Bird’s Eye View, Chapter One.
This new cover not only matches the lush, historic “brand” of the covers for Finding Flora and Wildwood, but it bears an image of the white cliffs of Dover — deeply symbolic for all members of the Allied forces, including Canadians, Americans, Australians and others — who yearned for the safe haven of England’s shores.
For a dash of real sentimentality, click here to listen to Vera Lynn’s famous rendition of The White Cliffs of Dover.
The book will be reissued in November, just in time for Remembrance Day, but you can preorder it now either as a print book or e-book from your favourite bookseller.
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Wildwood Here in April
The countdown is on to the launch of Wildwood on April 28, 2026.
This is the book that inspired Finding Flora, because I originally wondered if a young woman from the city could survive the pioneer lifestyle.
In this novel, single mother Molly Bannister of Phoenix, Arizona, accepts the condition laid down in her great-aunt’s will: to spend one year in an abandoned farmhouse deep in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta. She and her little girl face many challenges, but the journal written by her Irish great-aunt, the original homesteader, inspires her struggle.
It was while I was reading pioneer memoirs in order to prepare the journal entries that I became intrigued by homesteading, and decided to research and write an entire novel about a woman homesteader.
Wildwood can be preordered now as a print or e-book from your favourite bookseller. An audiobook is also on the way!
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Finding Flora Turns One
Both my previous novels should appeal to readers who enjoyed Finding Flora, which was released exactly one year ago on April 1, 2025. I’m including the cover again so that you can see how well it matches the other covers. I can’t wait to see all three of them together (soon to be four, when Touching Grass is published in spring 2027).
Finding Flora made the national bestseller list THIRTY-SIX TIMES in the past year. The book is still very popular but has been knocked off the top ten rankings by the unbelievably popular Heated Rivalry series. Author Rachel Reid has six hockey romances in the top ten!
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Touching Grass, First Draft
I’m very happy to report that the first draft of Touching Grass is finished! It’s still a long way from the finished product — it is no more than a formless lump of clay that now needs to be shaped into something my readers will enjoy. But at least I have the digital lump sitting on my desktop!
This is my master document, with a list of scenes and word count. A typical novel is about 100,000 words.
From here, it will go to my editor and then through multiple rounds of revisions, fact-checking, proofreading and formatting before it finally goes to print.
The plot involves a young English woman who travels to Western Canada in 1890 to search for her missing sister. The book is set in the spectacular grasslands of the southern prairies.
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First Big Ranch in Canada
Here’s an interesting fact unearthed during my research: The first guy ever to sign a ranching lease in Canada was Matthew Cochrane, a livestock breeder and senator from the Eastern townships of Quebec.
In the 1880s the West was largely uninhabited. Cochrane convinced his buddy John A. Macdonald, who also happened to be the prime minister, that the federal government should issue long-term leases for huge tracts of land to potential ranchers. In 1881 he signed the very first lease for 100,000 acres, good for twenty-one years, at one cent an acre per year!
Cochrane purchased thousands of cattle and hired American cowboys to drive them up from the United States (they could not come from the east, since there was no railway, or from the west, because of the Rocky Mountains). The Cochrane Ranche was the first large privately-owned ranch in Canada. As you may have guessed, it lay between Calgary and the Rocky Mountain foothills, where the town of Cochrane, Alberta now stands.
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Coming Events
Found Books, Cochrane, AB April 25, 2026
SPEAKING OF COCHRANE, Canadian Independent Bookstore Day will find me at this bookstore from 1 to 4 p.m., chatting with readers and signing advance copies of Wildwood. The novel will not appear anywhere else until April 28, so here’s your chance to grab an early copy, plus a signed copy of Finding Flora. For info 586-788-3248. Preorder your copies now.
Four Points Books, Invermere, BC May 2, 2026
I’ll launch my novel Wildwood at my home bookstore from 2 to 5 p.m. when I will chat with patrons and sign copies, plus copies of Finding Flora. For more info: 250-341-6211. Preorder your copies now at Four Points.
Saskatchewan Festival of Words, Moose Jaw, SK, July 16-19, 2026
1-4 p.m. Thursday, July 16. Finding Flora will be the book of choice for an afternoon event called the Great Big Book Club. I’ll read from my novel and discuss the book with host Angie Abdou, and participate in other book events throughout the four-day event. Contact the Saskatchewan Festival of Words to preregister.
Winnipeg Free Press Book Club Interview
Winnipeg is a city dear to my heart, and my great-grandparents homesteaded in Manitoba. I was interviewed in February for this lovely book club, and you can watch it here: Winnipeg Free Press Book Club Interview.
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Happy Homecoming
People sometimes send me their historic photos and I had to share this one with you. This is Pat Stretch of Edmonton, Alberta greeting her Dad, William John McLennan (Bill), in June 1945 at the end of the Second World War, one of the first group of men to be returned from overseas, after serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery, 8th Regiment, in England, Italy, North Africa, and Holland.
Married to the former Joan Rennison, Bill worked in the maintenance department at the University Hospital in Edmonton after the war. “My Mom had done an amazing job of preparing me to love my Daddy,” Pat wrote. “I was so excited to have him home, whereas several of my friends were afraid of their Dads at first!”
I added this photo of Pat and her father to a post that I wrote ten years ago. You can see more heartwarming photos here: Home for Christmas.
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Puerto Vallarta is Safe
Finally, thank you to all the readers who messaged to make sure we were safe after the Great Cartel Fire in Puerto Vallarta on February 22, 2026. Since our rented condo is on the south end of the city, we spotted one of the first vehicles to be torched, on the street just below our building, in this photograph taken from our deck.
Here’s how it went down: on this quiet Sunday morning, motorcycle riders wearing helmets with face shields fanned out over the city, torching some 200 cars and buses, along with 65 corner stores. This show of force was made in retaliation for the killing of El Mencho, leader of the New Jalisco Cartel, hundreds of miles away.
The demonstration was diabolically clever because the smoke from the burning vehicles and shops made for some very impressive photographs which were shown around the world and made the city look like a war zone, but NO ONE WAS HURT.
There are many stories about the cartel guys helping passengers off the buses and retrieving their luggage before setting the buses on fire. Since the authorities were under orders to stand down, there was no armed conflict. Even the fire engines did not show up.
We watched the fires unfold in perfect safety from our deck, although it must have been frightening to observe the arson attacks if you were in the immediate vicinity.
By late afternoon, the bad guys zipped away on their motorcycles and the fires burned out.
During the week that followed, city workers did a stellar job of cleaning up the damage and four hundred members of the Mexican Navy arrived in town to wave the flag. Since then there has been no whiff of criminal activity.
The sad thing is that the city’s tourism industry has taken a terrible hit. The cartel punished nobody except the Mexican people who rely on visitors for their livelihoods. Hopefully the federal government under President Claudia Sheinbaum (a very interesting character) can provide some financial assistance, or many businesses will be bankrupted.
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Book of the Month
Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of the wildly successful children’s author, J. K. Rowling. She of Harry Potter fame has written a series of crime thrillers set in London featuring a British ex-soldier named Cormoran Strike who works as a private detective alongside his professional (and romantic) sidekick Robin. This is the EIGHTH book in the series, and it is more than 900 pages long (I guess no editor dares tell Rowling to keep it short). The first couple of books were made into an excellent television series.
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Friends, I have been so busy working on Touching Grass that I have barely had time to admire the ocean view. Happily my husband not only makes the meals, but he is always willing to offer an opinion when I get stuck.
By the time you receive your next newsletter on April 15, we’ll be back in our mountain home and preparing for Wildwood’s launch. Please share this newsletter with your own contacts. If you have any questions or comments, drop me an email!
As always, Elinor
