I have heard a few comments now regarding “the ending” of The Light Attendant, Part I (which, of course, is not actually the end of a three-part story). What I am hearing is: it is abrupt, it is unexpected. One reader “hated it”.
Good. That is exactly what one ought to be thinking and feeling at the end of Part I of my story.
Let me explain:
What was intended to be one simple and short manuscript turned into two long and somewhat involved narratives once I became entrenched in my research. In the end, the book was too long to be a manageable read in one sitting.
I had to break up the story into its respective parts but to do that, I had to decide where to place the section breaks.
I chose the breaks in the story intentionally, each having a purpose.
I don’t want any spoilers here so let me simply ask this: how do you think Abbigail and Henry felt at the conclusion of Part I—a situation common to many, many people at that time and in those circumstances?
THAT—that—is what I want readers to feel and consider while waiting for Part II.
Of course, as I have indicated, the “ending” of Part I is not the “end” of the story—there are still two acts left and the next is coming out in June, 2022.
Our team is proud to present the Cover of our latest work, The Light Attendant: A Canadian Bluebird Novel!
The Light Attendant: A Canadian Bluebird Novel
Thank you Sarina for your sewing talents in making the costume. Thank you Callan for your assistance with both photography and cover art. Thank you Mason for you rendering of the cover. Thank you Stuart for your expertise in putting it all together.
The Light Attendant: A Canadian Bluebird Novel, is the story of a Canadian Nurse and her experiences in Wold War I and the pandemic of 1918.
We are diligently working on our latest project: The Light Attendant: A Canadian Bluebird Novel (working title). The story follows a Canadian Nurse through her experiences in Wold War I and the pandemic of 1918. The book has been a long time in the making and I am thrilled to see the project in its final phase.
Concept Artwork by Clarissa Fehr
This story actually began as an anecdote told by one of the characters in our first trilogy: Horizons, Winding Roads, and Coming Home, initially published in 2014. I had long been interested in World War I and the Spanish Influenza pandemic which followed at the end of the war in 1918. As a result, I used that bit of history in one of my character’s background stories in Coming Home, never knowing it would go on to become so much more. (For those of you familiar with Coming Home, you might just recognize the “guest appearance” by two of the characters as they help out in our new book.) Continue reading “The Light Attendant: A Canadian Bluebird Novel – story origin”
I knew exactly what I wanted for the cover of The Light Attendant and The Bluebird which is why I knew it would be a challenge to put such a cover together. The concept involved an actual human in the picture. Beyond that, said person would need to be wearing a Canadian World War I army-issued nursing uniform.
Tall order.
That sort of original image could not be fashioned by sitting at a computer, no matter how many hours one spent doing it. At least, it was not something any of our team could conjure digitally. Continue reading “The Making of a Cover”
It has been a number of years since our Creative Collective published our first book: Horizons, Part I of the Renate Saga and the first of the trilogy. While I still love the original covers for the series, I feel it might be time to freshen up the look of the work.
We are planning to re-release an updated version of the Renate Saga early in 2022. Stay tuned…
After a couple of passes through our editing team, I am thrilled to be working on the final draft of my upcoming historical romance novel: The Light Attendant and the Bluebird.
Set in World War I, The Light Attendant and The Bluebird tells the story of Private Henry Ryzack who battles not only the Germans, but also his own personal vices and demons on the battlefields of France as he struggles to keep promises made and become a man worthy of Nursing Sister, Abbigail Grieves.
I am very excited to share this story with you. So eager, in fact, that I cannot help but give you a “sneak peek” into the first two chapters of the novel.
My latest work in progress began quite some time ago. I have always had a fascination of the World War I era and the ensuing Spanish Influenza outbreak—a pandemic that wreaked as much devastation as the war itself in some parts of the world. One could think endlessly on the parallels between man-made destruction versus the destruction of nature…talk about a battle between two colossuses.
Spanish Flu Newspaper Article
In addition to my interest in the Spanish Flu pandemic, I have always had a great respect for the men and women who fought and worked in the first world war. I am completely in awe of their deeds. These men and women accomplished a monumental task with equipment and tools—both military and medical—that were in their formative stages and they did so in the worst of conditions. They endured hardships and circumstances we have not seen since and they did it so we could have the life we now enjoy.
I cannot comprehend the sacrifices they made.
I have worked with the elderly and have always been amazed at the wealth of stories and knowledge they have collected over their lives. It disturbed me to think we were losing the generation of knowledge-keepers from the first world war and an early pandemic experience. One could only guess what significant information would be lost along with them. I feared the disappearance of stories that told of gritty fortitude, determined sacrifice, and breath-stopping adventures. The stories of those who had served in the war and had survived the pandemic were far too rich and far too consequential for them to be forgotten. After all, those acts of courage form the underpinnings of what each of us have become. And, thus, I began doing some research, gleaning what stories I may—and there are a great many indeed.
20th Century Physician Reference Book
The Light Attendant and The Bluebird (working title) evolved over many years, its beginnings tracing back to an anecdotal story mentioned briefly in the third book of the Shifters trilogy. My resolve hardened into firm research in the summer of 2019 when I mis-read a book title in some dyslexic moment of scanning a book store shelf too quickly. The title as I had read it stuck in my head, attached itself to my musings of WWI and the Spanish Influenza and turned those thoughts into a story. Over the summer and fall and into the next year, I researched the war and developed my characters and plot.
Timing is everything, as they say, and in March, 2020, I was re-deployed to the COVID Assessment and Testing Centre as our very own, real-life pandemic took hold of our country. I began a fascinating journey of writing about the war and the following 1918 pandemic as our own pandemic matched pace with my story.
It was an interesting year.
I have now finished the first draft of my story and have turned it over to other members of our Creative Collective for a first edit. I already know there are a few changes to be made—I thought of one addition at 04:00 one night, an occurrence with which most authors will be familiar. The manuscript will take a bit of refining, but I am excited about this work and wanted to begin sharing it with others.
We at ShiftersPress Collective are very excited about the upcoming release of our latest work: Read This Quickly (Or We All Die). We are so excited, in fact, that we couldn’t quite wait until the book is out and just had to share a bit of it with you. Enjoy the first chapter!
My most
professional apologies. The story you were expecting to read cannot be found in
this book. Plot, characters, and syntax have all escaped via an
inter-dimensional portal and have now become hopelessly tangled with reality
(that, and we got blood all over the cover). Your only choice is to accept the
good with the bad, taking the heroes with the villains. If you choose to shut
this book and place it back on the shelf, simply pray that they do not find
you.
We never meant
to wreck the universe. Of course, nobody ever does. If you must blame someone,
the vast majority of the fault lies with fantasy novelist Reese Richardson. She
was the one, after all, who dreamed up the means for the creative world to
suddenly flood over into this perfectly proper existence we call the
twenty-first century. Thanks to her efforts, the villains are now running
about, wreaking havoc in the streets and causing nearly as much damage as the protagonists.
Once more it is
up to average people like you and me to don our grown up underwear and do what
needs to be done—the very difficult task that nobody seems to want to do: wade
laboriously through the uninspired writings of Reese Richardson and face down
her poorly developed characters. It’s that or flee to an exotic beach somewhere
and await the coming onslaught of terror with a drink in one hand and a sappy
romance novel in the other. Your choice really.
