Category: Book Recs

6th Anniversary of the Release of THE CAMINO CLUB!

Today is the anniversary of the release of my most successful novel, THE CAMINO CLUB.

I was obsessed with this story when I walked the Camino de Santiago back in May of 2014. I began my pilgrimage on the Camino with the kernel of an idea. I wanted to create an homage to THE BREAKFAST CLUB, but I wanted it to be fresh. Instead of a Saturday in the school library, make it a couple of weeks walking across Spain. Instead of a fully straight white cast, make it gay and diverse. I walked with these 6 characters I created in my head, and I breathed life into them with every footstep.

It was my first time walking the Camino de Santiago. I did not know what to expect, so I went with my good friend, SUE KENNEY. She had, by then, been organizing yearly group pilgrimages on a portion of the Camino. I thought I would try it on for size…to see if the Camino was really my thing.

Sue Kenney, walking into Monte de Gozo…MOUNT OF JOY! May, 2014. Sue was my intro to the Camino de Santiago. It was the greatest gift she ever gave me.

Spoiler Alert! The Camino, as it turned out, was definitely my thing. It has since become a part of my identity. I actually dream of organizing groups of my own to do a portion of the Camino…but as a group of writers, writing and sharing our words along the way. I can envision this, but I do not, as of yet, have the bandwidth for such an endeavour. Never say never, though.

I walked that first Camino–from Ponferrada to Santiago de Compostela–with my characters in mind. I built the story up along the way. This is the first time a novel came to me in this way. I didn’t write anything down, apart from a few point form notes, but I felt like it was forming in stone with every step I took.

I finished The Camino Club circa 2017/18/19…depending on what you call finished. There were tinkerings and rewrites and edits.

It was released on this day in 2020. October 6th! By Duet Books, the YA imprint of the LGBTQ+ publisher Interlude Press. Interlude was later bought by Chicago Review Press…which is why THE CAMINO CLUB‘s home is now Chicago Review Press. It’s been on a journey.

You can pick up a copy of THE CAMINO CLUB wherever books are sold! Or give your local library a shot. At last count, it was in over 3,000 libraries across North America.

I LOVE this book! I know you’re not supposed to have favourites, but of my 9 novels this is my favourite. I think because of the way it evolved…and because of the journey I went on to research it and bring it into being. The Camino de Santiago is a magical place that I want to share with EVERYONE. That’s why I wrote about it. If ONE SINGLE PERSON reads the novel and puts the Camino on their bucketlist, that’s enough for me!

Here’s the synopsis:

THE CAMINO CLUB (Duet Books/Chicago Review Press) – After getting in trouble with the law, six wayward teens are given an ultimatum: serve time in juvenile detention for their crimes, or walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route across Spain over the summer holidays with a pair of court-appointed counselor guides. When it becomes clear the long walk isn’t really all that much of an option, they set out on a journey that will either make or break who they are and who they are to become.

The Camino Club was a SILVER WINNER in the Teen Fiction category of the 33rd Annual IBPA Benjamin Franklin Book Awards!

Happy 6th Anniversary, little book of mine!

 

Have You PRE-ORDERED I WILL TELL THE NIGHT Yet?

Self-publishing is a lot of work! I have been so coddled by the publishers who dealt with my eight previous releases (9?). I know it probably seems odd to not be completely sure how many titles you have out in the world, but that’s me.

Okay, I just went and checked. I WILL TELL THE NIGHT will be my 9th novel. I have three books out that are not novels, too. Two are short stories and one is a short story collection.

Anyway, enough with the digressions. As I was saying, it’s really quite a job to release a book on your own. But I’m almost there. ARCs (advance reading copies) are arriving soon. Once those are approved, I will be ready to go!

I’m absolutely in love with the cover, btw.

The main character, FINN BARKER, is the boy on the cover. The story starts when he is a man of almost-fifty. He discovers his estranged mother is dying and he makes a quick decision that has him speeding from Toronto to New Brunswick in a car with his boyfriend, in the hopes that he makes it in time for a reunion, apologies, and goodbyes.

I WILL TELL THE NIGHT won the hearts of the 2016 Muskoka Novel Marathon panel of judges. They voted the then unfinished novel with the 2016 MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON BEST ADULT NOVEL AWARD.

Lori Manson and I, at the 2016 Wrap Party for that year’s Muskoka Novel Marathon. Lori won for Young Adult/Juvenile novel, and I won for Adult.

I thought long and hard before I set about getting this novel ready to publish. It was rejected by a great many publishers. I thought I would be upfront about this. Reader beware, they say. I honestly had so many wonderful (actually mind-blowing) compliments about the story…each and every time I received a response from a publisher on my full request. Each glowing review came with a sentence at the end of the response announcing that they were going to pass (REJECTION), and a few sentences about WHY they were going to pass.

This is a literary novel. The main character is gay. There is no heat level. I don’t think any of the publishers I approached knew where to put this novel on their list. Granted, some probably just didn’t like it. A book doesn’t have to sing to everyone who reads it. But I could tell that some were genuinely perplexed about how to market a book like this. It would seem that the lack of a heat level hurt its chances just as much as a family saga story with a gay lead character did.

Anyway, I really love the story. I recently had a decision to make…let it die, send it to the trunk forever…or bring it to life on my own. I chose the latter. Maybe it’ll find a few readers. Maybe the story will speak to a few of those readers. It spoke to me.

It releases JAN 7th, 2025. I would appreciate all the help I can get on this one. If you feel so inclined, I would love it if you would share the news about my newest novel in your social media feeds. This would REALLY HELP! I’m one person. I have a little bit of a reach, but I’m hoping for word of mouth here. Anything you can do will be appreciated.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Pre-Order I WILL TELL THE NIGHT today! I have high hopes for this little engine who thinks it can…

CANADA PRE-ORDER LINK

USA PRE-ORDER LINK

UK PRE-ORDER LINK

SYNOPSIS:

Finn Barker escaped his family in Miramichi, New Brunswick, decades ago for the anonymity of Toronto. When he learns of his mother’s impending demise, he decides to make the trip back home to say goodbye. But going back will awaken all the sleeping ghosts Finn’s not quite sure he’s willing to stir. With no time to decide, his split-second decision to jump back in has him driving across the country, with his boyfriend Steven behind the wheel. Along the way, Finn begins to unpack the mess he left behind. There’s the grandmother, MyImogene, he adored, and the twin brother who died of cancer when his own parents would have preferred to lose the other twin. There’s also the huge scandal Finn orchestrated with a teacher that gave him the Dutch courage he needed to flee. It was almost all bad.

Finn makes it in time for goodbyes, but then there’s the still very active strife between him and his father, the funeral, the family, and the secrets that shed new light on the cause of the rift between his parents and his beloved MyImogene. Every family carries secrets. Finn discovers they’re the one thing you can’t escape, no matter how far away you run. Secrets always catch up. Often, it’s death that has a way of bringing them back into the light of day. He was able to make peace with his dying mother, but can Finn make peace with all the rest…or is it time to run away for another thirty years?

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!