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”
Nature’s beauty can be found anywhere – even in the middle of the frozen Saskatchewan prairies. Here are some winter pictures taken by Clarissa. Enjoy!
Picture by Clarissa FehrPicture by Clarissa FehrPicture by Clarissa FehrPicture by Clarissa FehrPicture by Clarissa Fehr
October is over but I’m not quite finished with pumpkin flavours this fall (I am enjoying a pumpkin spice latte as I type this…). I had some leftover pumpkin puree in the freezer so I decided to try my hand at making a pumpkin cake from scratch. Continue reading “Still Savouring Fall”
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.
Ordinarily we focus on our creative endeavours in our blogs, but this story was too good not to share.
Our pup is almost 15 months old. She has been a wonderful addition to our family, being very sociable and eager to please. She appears to want nothing more than to be by our side as we go about our day, sharing our activities and our moods.
A cup of water at the coffee shop.
Given our pup’s gentle nature, we were not surprised when she became friends with a stray cat that took up residence under our front porch. Feeling a responsibility for the cat, we took it in only to find ourselves with an additional four kittens when the mother cat gave birth a couple of months later.
Our dog was immediately taken with the kittens, watching them through the days and nights and helping clean them. She would grow anxious when Mama cat absented herself from the nest for any length of time.
As the kittens grew, our pup became an active participant in their playtime.
Today is Thanksgiving, and we are wrapping up a weekend of cooking, harvesting produce, and eating plenty of turkey and pumpkin pie. I decided to make these chewy ginger molasses cookies this Thanksgiving Monday to add a little spice to the week ahead.
Something about summer screams out for fruit desserts.
That being said, I’m not sure this pineapple square from the Mennonite cookbook actually counts, given that it’s mostly whipped cream and butter. It also calls for canned pineapple, which won’t showcase your horticultural expertise or even your ability to obtain fresh produce. And yet somehow, it’s refreshing and somehow very suited for summer barbecues. My mom used to make it for family gatherings, and it was always one of my favourites.
It’s actually a fairly simple dessert. A traditional graham cracker crust with a buttercream filling and topped with whipped cream speckled with crushed pineapple. It’s quite attractive when all is said and done, and serves a crowd, although it does tend to go quickly.
Side notes: the crust tends to go soggy after a couple of days in the fridge, so plan appropriately for your crowd size. I would estimate that the 9×13 inch pan (one full recipe) would feed about 20-25 (depending on how many go for seconds…). Also, it’s a chilled dessert, so it’s likely best not to leave it on the buffet table for too long, especially given the heat we’ve been having this month (38 degrees last week!)
Pineapple Squares
Original recipe from “Squares and Slice” in The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes, 1961
This version has been adapted from the original based on personal preferences.
Yields one 9×13 inch pan
Base:
3 cups graham wafer crumbs
¾ cup melted margarine
Mix crumbs with margarine, press into pan. Bake 12-15 minutes in 350° oven. Cool.
Filling:
¾ cup butter
2 ½ cups icing sugar
2 eggs
Cream butter. Add sugar and eggs. Beat until fluffy and spread over base.
Topping:
1 can crushed pineapple (well-drained)
1 ½ cups whipping cream
Mix pineapple with whipped cream and spread on top of filling. Chill before serving.
Notes
Make sure that the crushed pineapple is verywell drained before mixing with the cream. Otherwise, the dessert will get soggy from the excess moisture. Squeeze out the juice thoroughly and pat dry.
This dessert contains raw eggs.
This dessert is best after it has been chilled for several hours, but the crust may get soggy if left for more than a day or two.
In other news, we pulled in another basket of strawberries from our little patch in the garden last night, and I’ve had my eye on a recipe for strawberry buttermilk cake for a few days now. Stay tuned, perhaps it will make an appearance in the coming weeks (that is, if I get to baking them before they are eaten straight from the bowl…)
