My new book with the working title Touching Grass is no more than a twinkle in my eye, but I’m busy researching another Western historical adventure. Can you guess the theme by looking at this image?
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 BOOK HERE IN 2027
I’m excited to share the news that my new novel, with the working title Touching Grass, is scheduled to appear in spring 2027.
Briefly, my heroine leaves her comfortable home in London, England and travels to Canada in a desperate attempt to find her missing sister, who has married a missionary and disappeared into the Western wilderness. The action takes place in the enormous grasslands of the southern prairie, where the ranching industry sprang to life in the late 1800s.
Here’s a photo of the stunning landscape in southern Saskatchewan, near Eastend. The Frenchman River carves through the prairie, and the round rocks in the foreground are part of a historic teepee stone circle, formed when the Indigenous people used stones to keep their teepees anchored.
The novel is so nebulous at this point that I truly can’t tell you anything more. I have a fairly tight deadline, so until the book is finished, I’ll be up to my stirrups in ranching history!
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OLDER BOOKS RETURN IN 2026
Along with a contract for the new book, I’m also delighted to report that my publisher Simon & Schuster Canada, the same company that published Finding Flora, will reissue both my previous novels next summer!
Bird’s Eye View, about a Saskatchewan farm girl who joins the air force in the Second World War and serves overseas as an aerial photo interpreter; and Wildwood, about a single mother who inherits an abandoned farm in northern Alberta, will hit the bookstores next summer — complete with brand new covers!
For those of you who want to purchase a signed first edition, I still have copies of Bird’s Eye View. Email or message me if you want one, perhaps as a Christmas gift. (Unfortunately, I’m fresh out of Wildwood.)
I’ll share both of the new covers here when they are completed. I haven’t seen them yet, but they will reflect the same “branding” that makes the cover for Finding Flora so appealing to readers.
Flora has now been on the National Bestseller list for twenty-three weeks!
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MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE
People sometimes ask me which of my three novels is the best. That’s like asking a mother to choose her favourite child!
I have a special affinity for Rose, my heroine in Bird’s Eye View, because she comes from a Saskatchewan farming community similar to mine.
I’m also deeply attached to the idea of living in a beautiful old foursquare farmhouse, like Molly does in Wildwood.
Finally, in another lifetime I would have been an eager homesteader, like the main character in Finding Flora.
So I love all three books, for different reasons!
And I’m now busily creating a fourth heroine, another young woman who faces adversity with great strength and courage.
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TWELVE YEARS OF BLOGGING
This month marks twelve years of writing this blog, although I call it a newsletter because I dislike the word “blog” (short for web log, in case you didn’t know).
My blog was titled Wartime Wednesdays for the first five years, based primarily on the research I had done for my wartime novel.
All those wartime stories, many of them never told before, are filed and indexed on my website under the heading Lest We Forget.
In 2019, I widened the scope of my subject matter and changed the title to Letters From Windermere.
Since then I’ve written about history, books, and travel.
For the new subscribers who may not know me yet, here are four previous Letters From Windermere posts that are very personal in nature. To read them, click on the title.
1. My Thousand Dollar Wedding
We saved a small fortune by doing most things ourselves in preparation for our wedding day on New Year’s Day 1993.
2. My Lifelong Quest for Curly Hair
Through the decades I have tried everything to make my straight hair curl, and I still haven’t give up the quest!
3. The Shadow of the Berlin Wall
My husband grew up inside the tiny blue dot indicating West Berlin, deep inside the borders of the Soviet-controlled East Germany.
4. My Mother Chose Her Own Death
In 2017, my mother June Florence was one of the first Canadians to use this service, and she urged me to advocate for medically assisted deaths.
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Thrifting Update
Last month I wrote about my love of thrifting in this post titled Top Ten Thrifted Treasures, and long-time subscriber Ken Silcox in Cochrane, Alberta, sent me this story about his brother.
Thank goodness Louis Silcox of New Hamburg, Ontario, had such a good eye! He was sorting donations for the local Mennonite Thrift Shop when he spotted this painting.
Would you have recognized the value of this artwork? It’s an original by Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, valued between $10,000 and $16,000!
Here’s a link to the story: Lost Painting Found in Thrift Shop.
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BOOK OF THE MONTH
Set in a small Ontario farming community, the award-winning novel Crow Lake tells the story of two teenaged boys who decide to raise their little sisters after their parents are killed. A mystery gradually unfolds over the course of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and highly recommend it to book clubs everywhere.
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My friends, I am deep into ranching history, and I can’t wait to share my newfound knowledge over the coming months, both here in my newsletter, and in my new novel Touching Grass. Please refer Letters From Windermere to anyone who might be interested. And now, I’d better get back to work!
All the very best, Elinor
