For the entire month of August, the first book in the Castle Keepers series, Shadows in the Stone, will be 99 cents. It’s regular price is $4.99.
Here’s what a few reviewers on Amazon had to say about Shadows in the Stone by Diane McGyver.
It’s like an award-winning movie director telling the person behind the camera to lower or raise the picture in the viewfinder for a new angle. The fantasy world McGyver has created has the magical beings you might expect, but you’ll see them in new ways and see their story with fresh insights.
This may be fantasy but the characters are very real. Ms. McGyver has created characters you care about as they deal with their personal demons, suppressed feelings, secrets, magical powers and unrequited love.
This story took me to a different place and even yet some things have stayed with me. Diane Lynn McGyver created a whole new world, with characters the reader quickly cares about, and suspense, drama and mystery to keep the pages turning.
Northern Survival by Diane McGyver will be on sale for the next week. Read it now for only $2.99.
“Best story I’ve read in awhile. Interesting..unusual..well written. Loved the way their relationship developed as they learned to respect and trust each other.” AMAZON REVIEW
“This was the kind of story that sounds real. I like those. I could see this happening.” AMAZON REVIEW
“The best adventure/romance I’ve read in many years. Best of all, no irrelevant padding of the word count.” AMAZON REVIEW
At midnight December 31st, the epic eBook and paperback sale for The Coldest December – a Short Story Collection to Remember the Halifax Explosion ends.
Original Stories by Nova Scotia Authors: Sheila McDougall, Phil Yeats, Lawren Snodgrass, Catherine A. MacKenzie, Polly J. Brown, Diane Lynn McGyver, Cheryl Lynn Davis, Bronwen Piper, Barbara-Jean Moxsom, Liana Olive Quinn and Annemarie Hartnett.
To learn more about this book, including the authors who contributed, visit The Coldest December’s page at Quarter Castle Publishing.
There’s only one week left of the blow-out sale of both the eBook and paperback for The Coldest December.
The Coldest December
a Short Story Collection to Remember the Halifax Explosion
On December 6, 2017, Nova Scotia will commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. More than two thousand people were killed and another nine thousand were injured from the largest man-made explosion of its time.
To pay tribute to the many victims, survivors and heroes who emerged from the disaster, Quarter Castle Publishing has gathered a collection of fictional short stories connected to the Explosion. Stories are set immediately before it, during it or in its aftermath.
Pick up a copy today at the following online outlets.
From December 2nd to December 6th, the Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes by Diane McGyver is on sale for 99 cents. That’s a $4.00 savings. This sale takes place only in Canada.
Reviews are starting to appear for the novel classified as Women’s Fiction / Inspirational / Mid-life Awakening / Romance.
She reserved the most convenient lies for herself
Mary Lola Barnes has everything: a loving husband, two wonderful grown children, good friends and a lovely home. She has no business asking for more. It doesn’t matter if she feels something is missing. She’s just being silly. After all, what could she ask for? When new friends enter her world, she’s ill prepared for the harsh light that shines on the imperfections in her life. It reveals the emptiness she refuses to acknowledge.
One of the stories in The Coldest December is “Business as Usual” by Phil Yeats. It’s about a man who joins the police force in Halifax. Under normal circumstances, his application would have been rejected due to poor eyesight. However, given the shortage of men because of the First World War, he was accepted. This is his story. Here’s the first few paragraphs.
Business as Usual
Phil Yeats
“Jenkins,” Morrow, the duty sergeant, called out as I followed two other patrolmen into the Halifax Police Station. “Get over here. Now!”
After finishing school in the spring of 1916, I’d volunteered for the army. I’d been declared unfit for service because of my poor vision and thrown back onto the streets, an outcast as I’d been through my school days. I’d always been excluded from sports and treated as an invalid because I wore spectacles.
Rejection by the army turned me into a different sort of pariah. Everyone saw me as a big, strong lad shirking my responsibility to fight the Hun. It didn’t matter that I squinted at them through thick lenses and protested that I’d attempted to join the army. I was seen as a failure, a weak, passive coward who wouldn’t fight for his country.
That fall, I joined the police force, thinking it was one way to do my patriotic duty and help protect the home front. The police wouldn’t normally accept spectacles-wearing recruits, but they were short of men after the exodus of young constables to the army and navy. They accepted but didn’t welcome me, and I joined patrolmen who were mostly too old for war service. Finally, in the days following the explosion of the French munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc on December sixth, 1917, I became part of the team.
“Yes, sir,” I said as I turned toward the sergeant’s desk.
Sergeant Morrow stared at the duty roster posted on the wall beside him. “The police are no longer needed for rescue duty, and tomorrow is your day of rest. In recognition of the extra hours you’ve put in, I’m also giving you the rest of this day. Report for work at 0800 hours, Friday, when you will return to your normal schedule.”
“Sir, does that mean we are no longer part of the rescue effort?”
“That’s what I said, Jenkins. Friday you return to regular patrolman’s duties.”
After leaving the Duke Street station, I walked to Gottingen Street and headed for the centre of the Richmond district and the house where I rented a room. The explosion that had levelled more than a square mile of Richmond must have destroyed the house, but I hadn’t been back since I left for work on the morning of the sixth.
…To continue reading, pick up a copy of The Coldest December.
Book Sale
Both eBook and paperback editions of The Coldest December are on sale until the end of the year.
Pick up a copy today at the following online outlets.
Scarlett and her friends were caring women, who enjoyed each other’s company. Their regular visits to the tavern were innocent and good for the soul. She would go again, and she would wear the burgundy dress she had bought at work. She’d also get her hair cut. The other women used getting out together as an excuse to dress up, and she would, too. As Sonya said, Nowadays, the only time we dress up is to attend a wedding or a funeral. We deserve more than that. Mary agreed.
Nodding off to sleep, she thought about the women around the table. Combined, they’d lived more than four hundred years. That was a lot living, loving and laughing. She smiled and allowed sleep to take her away.
From the Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes by Diane McGyver.
From now until Friday November 27th, the Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes is on sale for 99 cents in the United States and United Kingdom.
Most recent review for Northern Survival at Amazon.
“This story hit all my buttons for enjoying a story. It wasn’t too long for the time I had, it was adventure, it was dramatic (plane crash), not too much about blood and gore, two strangers having to learn to adapt and share strengths and weaknesses. And a hea to boot.” (hea is happily ever after)
This is a fast-paced read for a snowy weekend at the cabin or while lounging on the beach enjoying the sun. Download it today and save $4.00. Read it this weekend or save it for that snow storm we all know that’s coming.
One of the stories in The Coldest December is “Harboured in Time” by Lawren Snodgrass. During wartime, Halifax Harbour has always been a bustle of activity. Activity during the First World War resulted in the Halifax Explosion.
With this horrifying tragedy in the minds of survivors, when the Second World War began, bringing an increase in military traffic, they worried a similar event would happen.
On December 22, 1944, smoke rolling from a ship in the harbour no doubt triggered memories of the SS Mont-Blanc on fire. However, the Governor Cornwallis ferry was not laden with explosives, only diesel fuel and passengers. It made it safely to port, where passengers disembarked. The Nova Scotia Archives website has a photograph of the Governor Cornwallis ferry engulfed in flames.
The smaller Halifax Explosion of 1945, involving volatile explosives, caused more damage, lasted longer and shook those who saw the rising smoke. The series of explosions from July 18 to the 19th originated at the ammunition depot in Bedford near the Harbour shoreline.
These two events – the ferry burning and the ammunition depot explosion – were used by Snodgrass in his short story.
Harboured in Time
Lawren Snodgrass
The warm breeze rustled the leaves on the potato plants as Wilber Coulson pulled weeds with a long-handled hoe. The showers the evening before and the warm July day had made the pesky plants explode overnight. Although Mathilda planned to weed, he insisted she rest instead. In her condition, she needn’t be in the sun working when he could tidy the garden after work. Their son Everett also helped with the chores while she recovered from the most recent bout of bronchitis. Doc Fraser left little doubt her illness would not clear unless she rested and avoided her womanly chores.
Wilber paused for a moment, wiped his brow and leant onto the hoe to stare off at the harbour a few miles away. From his vantage point on Break Heart Hill, he could see the growing cities of Dartmouth and Halifax, their streets divided by the deep body of water. From this distance, he could not make out people, but he knew they were there. Given the hour, most workers had gone home for the night, yet many remained on the docks, loading or unloading and tending to ships either bound for overseas or arriving from there. The war created traffic jams in the harbour he had not seen for more than twenty years.
The ferries between the cities carried all traffic that needed to pass from one shore to the other—trucks, carts pulled by horses or oxen and passengers—to avoid the long trip around the Bedford Basin. He watched the Dartmouth approach the dock on this side of the water, its stack pumping black steam into the almost clear mid-summer sky, and memories from last December drifted into his mind: the smoke, the terror in the passengers’ eyes, the frantic actions of the ferry crew.
He had been waiting to make the crossing when he heard shouts and looked to see thick black smoke pouring from the Governor Cornwallis ferry. It was still quite a distance from the dock, and onlookers speculated about the cause and whether or not help would go out to the ship or the ship would put ashore for assistance. Wilbur’s first concern was Would it explode? He recalled staring at the flames, unable to move or respond to questions. Once again, he was a fifteen-year-old boy shocked by terrible sights, sounds and smells and running for his life. The horrid taste of burnt oil resurfaced and sweat beaded on his forehead.
A sudden thud and cries for help jolted him from his nightmare, and he sprang into action as he had in 1917. The Governor Cornwallis had docked. Passengers scrambled for shelter, and workers directed the trucks off the burning ship. Wilbur helped an elderly couple to safety, then returned to help a mother and her four children, then a wounded soldier on crutches who had returned from overseas only the week beforehand.
Book Sale
Both eBook and paperback editions of The Coldest December are on sale until the end of the year.
Pick up a copy today at the following online outlets.
Several reviewers that have read Northern Survival by Diane McGyver share their thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Here are two of them.
The Wow Factor
Wow: A really good adventure story and romance. This was my first book by this author, and I’m looking forward to reading another asap! The fact that the two leading characters were in their 50’s was terrific.
A Great Read
Thoroughly enjoyed this book…….kept me on the edge the whole way. What a great story showing the strength you can exhibit when necessary. Loved the progression of the feelings of the characters. Shed a few tears near the end…….will remember forever.
“When I looked back to shows I watched in the 80s to conjure up a similar show the main character in Northern Survival had starred in,” said Diane McGyver, “I thought of Young Riders. I had watched every episode and dreamt many times I was one of those riders delivering the mail in the wild west.”
This hour show was on television from September 1989 to July 1992.
“I was horse crazy long before Young Riders,” said McGyver. “It’s a girl thing. I’m led to believe there is a special connection between women and horses.
“My daughter has that connection, too. Where she took lessons at more than ten years ago, every student was female. The coach tried to persuade my son to take lessons and even threw him on the back of a couple of horses. But it didn’t happen. My sons are not riders.”
McGyver used inspiration from Young Riders and her love of horses to write the following that appears in Northern Survival. These are Olive’s thoughts.
Countless times she’d daydreamt of running away with that handsome boy, mounting a horse and riding into the sunset where adventure and romance waited. He was the reason she took riding lessons when she was 19. It put her that much closer to her dreams.
This week, the eBook for Northern Survival is $4.00 off, making it 99 cents. Grab your copy today. Exclusively at Amazon.
This is the last time in 2020 Northern Survival by Diane McGyver will be on sale for 99 cents. If you haven’t already downloaded your copy, get it now before it returns to its regular $4.99 price.
Description
Adventure Mixed with Survival and Laced with Romance
When Olive is called home unexpectedly from her research assignment at Summer Beaver, she never dreamt the chartered plane she boards would crash, leaving her alone with a man who knows nothing about surviving in the woods. The struggle to put their differences aside threatens their life at every turn.
More than 2,800 nurses served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC), as fully-enlisted officers in the specially-created all female rank of Nursing Sister, with relative rank and equal pay to men – the first women among the Allied forces to do so. Nicknamed “bluebirds” because of their blue uniforms and white veils, Canada’s nursing sisters saved lives by caring for wounded and sick soldiers as well as convalescents, prisoners of war, and even civilians on occasion.
The main character, Lorena Brody, in “Bluebirds and Daisies” was training to be a nursing sister when the Halifax Explosion happened. Here’s how the story starts.
Bluebirds and Daisies
Bronwyn Piper
Lorena Brody adjusted her white veil, then fastened the top button on her overcoat. The brisk breeze blowing off the water sneaked beneath her long coat and skirt and brought a chill to her core. It brushed against her cheeks and cooled them in spite of her earlier thoughts of the handsome sailor who had caused them to warm. The crossing from Dartmouth to Halifax was almost completed, and soon she’d be in a warm building, listening to lectures on how to attend the sick and injured and then putting those lessons into practice in the afternoon as she worked alongside an experienced nurse.
The eBook for Quarter Castle Chronicles, Volume 1, is regular $4.99. Between Friday October 23rd and Friday October 30th, it will be on sale for various prices. The lowest will be 99 cents. It will increase by $1.00 every 40 hours.
To get the cheapest price, grab it today. By Sunday morning, it will be $1.99.
A Collection of 13 stories by 12 Canadians
Quarter Castle Chronicles, Volume 1, showcases 13 short stories by 12 Canadian authors. They take place in settings across the country, both in the present and the past. From the rugged coast of Newfoundland to the streets of Vancouver, we are flung to far off places like Romania and Swaffham Prior. The authors spin tales of life, survival, death and the realm beyond.
7-Day Sale Schedule
October 23, 2020 at 8:00 AM (PDT) – $0.99 – save 81%
October 25, 2020 at 12:00 AM (PDT) – $1.99 – save 61%
October 26, 2020 at 4:00 PM (PDT) – $2.99 – save 41%
October 28, 2020 at 8:00 AM (PDT) – $3.99 – save 21%
October 30, 2020 at 12:00 AM (PDT) – returns to its regular $4.99 price
Starting today and ending October 5th, the eBook Northern Survival by Diane McGyver will be on sale for 99 cents. This will be the final 99-cent sale of the book launch. On October 6th, the price will rise to the book-launch price of $1.99. Then, on October 15th, it will rise to it’s full-time regular price of $4.99.
They’d left the shelter at 7:30 with thick clouds concealing the sky and billowy white fog on the lake. The silence of the early morning trek through the forest with reduced visibility made Olive feel like she walked through a mysterious land where fantastical creatures sat just out of sight, watching her pass, stalking her moves.
From September 17th until December 31st, The Coldest December eBook will be on sale for 99 cents, and the paperback copy will be drastically reduced.
The Coldest December
a Short Story Collection to Remember the Halifax Explosion
On December 6, 2017, Nova Scotia commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. More than two thousand people were killed and another nine thousand were injured from the largest man-made explosion of its time.
To pay tribute to the many victims, survivors and heroes who emerged from the disaster, Quarter Castle Publishing gathered a collection of fictional short stories connected to the Explosion. Stories are set immediately before it, during it or in its aftermath.
Pick up a copy today at the following online outlets.
Quarter Castle Publishing 