Thursday 2 November 2023

Early Release of "Murder, Buy Cheeses"

Austin Macauley Publishers (London, New York) were eager to publish "Murder, Buy Cheeses".  They are a hybrid publisher and their share would have involved printing, advertising and distrubution of the book. This would have been wonderful. However, I could not come up with the 1/3 publishing fee of over $4,000 Cdn. 

Nevertheless, they wrote that the book is “…a most suspenseful and immersive mystery story, very well written, with an intriguing emphasis on a cheese store that hides many secrets… [It is] lighthearted and whimsical while still maintaining the sensibilities of a murder mystery.”

So, once again, Amazon Books is producing the book, and it will be posted in e-book and paperback format on November 6, 2023. A book launch is tentatively scheduled for December 6 in Annapolis Royal. This is dependent on the author's copies of the book arriving in time to do the publicity.

Tuesday 3 October 2023

Murder, Buy Cheeses

When a new independent cheese store wants to open in a small Nova Scotia town in the Annapolis Valley, the area bristles with intrigue. Murder and mayhem ensue. 

But, the Good, the Bad and the in-between are mostly likeable, or at least understandable, if not downright loveble. 

A cheese shop, a church and government bureaucracy make for strange bedfellows.

The book is now in the hands of test readers and the feedback is excellent. Next stop, the publisher.

Hopefully the book will be out early in 2024.

Sunday 16 April 2023

Now Published - A Whimsical Murder Mystery

 Yes, "Murder on the Pony Express Way" is now available as both an e-book and a paperback. Visit Amazon Books on the net.

If you are fortunate enough to live in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, the book is also available at the Mad Hatter Bookstore in Annapolis Royal, the Endless Shores Bookstore in Bridgetown, and the Bees Knees General Store in Lawrencetown.

Monday 5 December 2022

Murder in Grandvue-au-Rive


There is murder on the horizon in a sleepy village in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. 

And it's hopefully coming to a bookstore near you in the near future: "Murder on the Pony Express Way". 

Stay Tuned.

Tuesday 12 April 2022

Travel Ain't Fun No More No More

The Canadian government removed the "72 hours before" PCR test requirement  just before our return flight from Cuba. But it replaced it with a "one day before" rapid test. Now we did discover we could get this at the medical clinic in our town rather than have to travel into Havana and get it at the International Hospital there. 

We were told this could be paid for by credit card. We actually went the week before to make sure of this and get an appointment. Now, if "day" meant day, then there was no issue,  but if day meant "24 hours", we were in trouble. My lawyer's mind kicked in. If they said 72 hours in one instance rather than 3 days and said day in the other, rather than 24 hours, then the 2 distinct designations had to be different. 

Our scheduled flight was 3pm on a Tuesday. The medical clinic closed at 3:30 Monday and did not reopen until 8:30am Tuesday morning.  But we had to be on the road from our town to the airport two hours away no later than 10am Tuesday in order to make the 3 hour before flight requirement. And as nothing happens on schedule in Cuba, we would have been SOL. 

The doctor wasn't 100 percent convinced of my legal argument uttered in faltering Spanish, but she understood our dilemma. She marked on the form 3:10pm for our Monday test, which we had actually had at 9am. 

But, before we got to that hurdle, we had to pay in advance by credit card as we had been advised. However, to do that we had to use our cell phone to access a QR code. But our phones use WIFI. We have no mobile data. There was no WIFI at the clinic. Fortunately, the doctor, seeing my despair, offered me her own phone to access the payment method. 

We were picked up by our taxi the next day on time, but 20 minutes from the airport we got a flat tyre! Luckily, there was a gas station around the corner and we actually squeaked in just ahead of the 3 hour deadline. I checked my bag, as I always do, because I have a metal collapsible music stand in it. We were all checked in and ready to settle in for our two hour wait, but we discovered that there no beer in the airport to have with our sandwich!!!  

Eventually boarding was announced and we are about to enter the bridge to the plane when I heard in a strong Cuban accent "Paul Stuart Rapsey report to customs". Panic. Off I go after telling my partner to go on without me if need be. Down to customs I rushed. 

In Cuban style, no one greets you or acknowledges you or tells you why you are there, But I notice my checked bag sitting there on the floor outside a mysterious doorway. The plane is boarding. Time passes. Eventually, they call me in and ask me to open my suitcase . They make a mess of it and discover the music stand. They ask what it is. I show them the fiddle case I am carrying with me. They smile, shake their head, make some notations on a form and tell me to go. I hastily re-stuff my formerly neatly packed bag and run. They thought it might be a bomb!

Travel ain't fun no more.

Monday 29 March 2021

A Prince and a Paper Princess

Once upon a time there was a kingdom that was struggling to recover from a long war. A young princess was about to become Queen and she gave birth to a son who would be heir to throne. He was a quiet, pensive young lad. He loved being outdoors. He enjoyed nature and all it offered. He was a cultured boy who enjoyed sitting peacefully in the countryside painting, or hiking. He played the cello and rode horses. He was a good sportsman. And as he grew, he joined the Navy for a period of service.

As a young man, he became concerned about harmful changes he was seeing in the environment. He was an observer. The world was dying and people were killing it. Killing their own future. People thought his warnings were those of a mad man. He was a voice crying out in the wilderness: A man ahead of his time. They thought he was a bit daft and said he talked to the flowers. They liked to make fun of him.

He was a working Prince who was disturbed by urban sprawl and the dehumanizing affect it had on the people. He devoted much of his time to neglected urban youth and advanced the rights of people of all colours and faiths. He advocated for sustainable agriculture and industry, and practiced it. He worked with those who wanted to make cities and towns more friendly to its citizens, and designed and built model towns.

He enjoyed people who were thinkers and doers. He did not like to be idle or frivolous in his ways. And then he met a young woman who was educated, a thinker in her own right, with a wicked sense of humour. She shared his interests and had her own. He fell I love. But, she was not of Royal or Aristocratic blood and, at the time, she was not deemed a suitable consort for a future King. The relationship was deemed unacceptable.

But the Prince was ageing. He was expected to marry and have children. The Queen expected it. The people expected it and the Press expected it. It had to be. The young daughter of an ancient noble line was deemed suitable. She was shy, not very intelligent but she was very demure and beautiful. She was young, much younger than the Prince, but her dreams of life as a princess were based on fairytales, not reality. She was an urban girl enamored with money and privilege and the things she thought they would provide. She liked fancy clothes and parties and the life of the jet setters. She wanted to be loved and spoiled. She wanted to be the centre of attention. She wanted a life that her prince could never provide her.

And so the marriage was doomed from the start. She did not like the outdoors or country living. She wanted nightclubs and glamour. Hers was a Hollywood vision. She did not like the Royal discipline. Her temper flared. She became hostile. She did not want to walk behind her husband. She wanted centre stage. And the media gave it to her. She courted them and they followed her. The marriage was a prison both for her and the Prince. She rarely joined him at his work and never supported him in it. He was not a movie star prince. He was a worker prince. She felt imprisoned and she struck out on her own. She felt let down. And she sought to undermine her husband.

It is hard to say they drifted apart, because in reality they were never together. Their worlds were separate. Their aspirations were different. And their interests were irreconcilable.

The Princess sought out friends of her own liking, and teased the press. Meanwhile, the Prince had retreated and found comfort in the woman he had loved as a young man. Both were locked in unhappy marriages. They had remained friends and were true soul mates. They could comfort each other, even if only as friends.

It is unclear who was unfaithful to the other first. In reality, neither had been faithful to the other from the start. They existed on different plains. They were an irritation, the one to the other. But the media, loved the Hollywood-style princess as she struck out on her own and at the old-fashioned Prince. She was good press. They played her and she played them. She became the jet setter she had always wanted to be. And soon enough it killed her.

It is a sad story. But the Prince kept at his task. It became acknowledged that his foresight was indeed accurate. The laugh was on the world, which had reluctantly awoken at a time that may be too late.

Eventually, the Prince married the woman he had always loved. The soap opera public wanted to despise her. But she became his devoted partner, shared his work, suffered the slings and arrows of a shallow media and brought a stalwart dignity back to their lives.

Monday 16 November 2020

Solstice - a Little Solace










A
s the solstice approaches at the end of this year

When Covid has taken its toll

The lives of our time may have been greatly altered

But goodwill shall keep us whole.

The times are strange, yes indeed I must fairly admit

When masked we must so often be

But the eyes still sparkle brightly above it all

Will a vaccine set us free?

Those of us who live away from the dulling crowds

Are more fortunate than most

Life seems almost normal and relatively free

Here on the Atlantic coast.

But I think of those people all over this planet

Living locked in a red zone

Hungering ever for the company of friends

Far too much time spent alone.

May we all reach out, lending a hand or an ear

Even by phone or email

It doesn’t take much to give a little relief

Though masked, we can still lift the veil.