Joan Donaldson-Yarmey likes to travel and began her career with seven travel books, the research for which took her throughout Alberta, B.C., the Yukon, and Alaska. She switched to fiction and has written nine books: three mystery novels, Illegally Dead, The Only Shadow In The House, and Whistler's Murder in a boxed set called the Travelling Detective Series; Gold Fever her stand alone novel which combines mystery with a little romance; West to the Bay and West to Grande Portage, the first two novels in her Canadian Historical series for young adults; Crazy Cat Kid, a contemporary story for young adults; and The Criminal Streak and Betrayed the two sci-fi books in her Cry of the Guilty-Silence of the Innocent series.
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It is 1937 and Pearl Owens Beckwith is now a widow and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her husband Andrew died a year ago and she has finished her mourning period. She visits his grave and tells him she is finally going to return to Dawson City, something they had planned to do together before his heart attack. Pearl makes the trip by train and a ship north, just as she had in 1897, and arrives in Dawson in July.
Paul Gamon has lived in Dawson City since its establishment at the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush. Rather than stake a gold claim, he earned money by supplying residents and businesses with wood for their stoves. He remained in Dawson after the gold rush ended and slowly built up a property management business. When he begins renovations on the Palace Grand Theatre strange things being to happen: tools are moved; lights are turned on; footsteps are heard.
He fell in love with Pearl when he first met her in 1897 and remained friends with her after she married. Will the paranormal happenings in the theatre bring them together in an attempt to solve who is behind the phenomena?
Afterher ninth grade class served tea to a bus load of visiting seniors who were to be the students adopted grandparents for the afternoon, Joan Donaldson-Yarmey decided she didn’t want to grow old and have to be adopted by someone. So at the age of fifteen she resolved that she would end her life when she reached sixty-five.
Over the years, Joan read books, surfed the Internet, and watched documentaries about aging and learned that human beings have the ability to live to be over one hundred years of age and to be healthy and alert while doing it. This book is her journey from that decision at age fifteen to realizing that she didn’t have to grow old, that at a certain age some sick, decrepit person would not step into her shoes and take over her life. She is now in her mid-seventies and so healthy that she never gets any sympathy from her family and friends because she has nothing, health wise, to complain about. She has no illnesses, no aches or pains, and takes no medication, not even ASA or ibuprofen.
Read about Joan’s journey in what she playfully calls her futuristic aging memoir and find out what it is that she believes is her fountain of aging.
Editorial Review
Nancy M Bell
Worried about growing older? Worry no more. Joan Donaldson Yarmey takes the reader through her own life journey and along the way shares her experiences and offers advice on how she plans to live to 120. An interesting read.
West to the Bay: In 1750, Thomas Gunn, along with three friends, join the Hudson's Bay Company and sail from Stromness on the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland to York Factory fort on Hudson's Bay. They believe they are starting a new and exciting life in what is called Rupert's Land, but tragedy follows them, striking for the first time on the ship. At the fort Thomas finds his older brother, Edward, who had joined four years earlier. He also meets Little Bird, sister of Edward's wife, and her family. During the first year Thomas takes part in the goose and duck hunts, the fishing, the woodcutting, Guy Fawkes Day, the Christmas celebrations, and the burial of a friend. He also deals with the snowfall, the cold, the boredom, and a suicide, and learns how to survive in the lonely and sometimes inhospitable land. Five Star Review from Amazon Canada I can't imagine many boys at fifteen years of age leaving their families to go work overseas in a foreign land on the other side of the world for five years. Yet they did in the 1700's. So begins Thomas Gunn's journey into manhood. Meanwhile native girl, Little Bird, is old enough to become married and must begin picking a husband soon and starting her family, only none of the native men appeal to her. So begins the love between these two, what we would call kids today, but back then were already adults in a harsh world that left no room for the weak. Joan does excellent at portraying the two very different worlds, both long gone and the bitter reality of the 1700's and even better at the blossoming love between Little Bird and Thomas. A must read for historical buffs, be prepared to be thrust into a past that created strong characters, where survival was never remotely guaranteed and where finding your true love was even harder.
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West to Grande Portage On his sixteenth birthday Phillipe Chabot is told that his brother-in-law has hired him to be a voyageur. He will be paddling west from Montreal to Grade Portage to trade supplies with the Indians for furs. He is overjoyed and receives all the appropriate clothing from his family as birthday gifts, even a tobacco pouch. As the loaded canoe brigade gets ready to leave, his cousin, Jeanne, accepts the proposal of marriage yelled at her by the clerk who is going along to keep track of the trading. Unfortunately, disaster strikes the brigade as the men paddle the rivers, make their portages, and get onto the sometimes violent and unforgiving Lake Superior. In Montreal, the city is ravished by a fire and many people die.
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Simone Bell-Watson owns a literary agency in Vancouver, B.C. It is just before Christmas and she has discovered her husband is cheating on her. This sends her into a frenzy of starting a divorce, changing her name, selling their condo, and moving in with her mother. She also has to contend with her sister trying to set her up on dating sites to get her back in the dating scene. Serena Bell owns a popular pub in Richmond, B.C. After many years of dating she is still hopeful of finding the ideal man or at least a man who doesn’t try to change her or who doesn’t point out her faults. She has a profile on many dating sites and has her own rules about when to take texting with a man to the next level of actually going on a date with him. Their mother, Patricia Reed-Bell is a widow who writes historical romances. Join the sisters and their mother in this holiday romantic comedy as Simone deals with her new life, Serena dates a number of men, and Patricia flirts and freely talks about sex. Click here to purchase this book  |
Stacy Martin, who has been married three times and had many relationships, doesn’t want a man in her life right now but her friends have other ideas. As a forty-ninth birthday present they pay for her to join three dating sites on the Internet. She just has to fill out the forms and pick the men she wants to meet.
The only stipulation is that she must find a man by Christmas Eve so that the two of them can join Kate, one of her friends, and her boyfriend in Hawaii for New Year’s Eve. “All you have to do is pick twelve men to date in December,” Kate said. “After the first date you can decide if you want to see each again. In the end you should be able to choose one for our Hawaii trip.” Stacy has a full life with owning a flight attendant school, owning a rental condo, and owning a cat. Will she choose a man from a dating site, the man who has accused her female  |
Canadian Historical Mysteries (Yukon) - Book 2
Helen Castrel has just arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, from England and she hires Baxter Davenport of the Davenport & Son Detective Agency to go with her to Dawson City and help find her second oldest brother, David, whom she hasn’t seen since she was eleven years old.
David had been trouble to the family since he was young and was sent to Canada as a remittance man ten years ago. The last communication her father, Charles Castrel, received from David was late last summer when he sent a telegram from Victoria, British Columbia, saying he was on his way to the Klondike gold rush at Dawson City. Since then Charles Gastrel has heard nothing from his son, not even a letter stating where his remittance money was to be sent. Helen needs to find David to make sure he’s alive and to deliver a message from their father.
Baxter Davenport isn’t sure about travelling north with two women. He will have a job to do and doesn’t need to be looking after them. Plus, he doesn’t like the idea that Helen Castrel is excited about being a sleuth along with him. He soon finds out that both women can look after themselves.
Mattie Lewis, Helen Castrel’s lady’s maid, insisted on accompanying Helen, not only to look after her but because she has worked for the family for years and remembers David better than Helen does. She also has her own motive for wanting to find David.
The three head north armed with an old photograph and a recent description they obtained from David’s former landlady. They arrive in Dawson City where the gold rush is in full swing. There they are challenged by deceit, fraud, and danger in their quest to find David.
In this sequel to Romancing the Klondike, it is 1898 and Pearl Owens has been in Dawson City for two years. She’d originally come north with her cousin Emma to write about the people and places along the Yukon River for her hometown newspaper and had stayed to write about the Klondike Gold Rush and Dawson City.
Pearl has been unlucky in love. She fell in love with a man named Joseph Ladue, the founder of Dawson City, but he loved another woman and returned to his fiancée in New York in 1897. Another man, Paul Gamon, has expressed his desire to court Pearl, but Pearl wishes only to be friends with him.
Pearl’s best friend, Florence, and her older brother, Andrew, cross the Chilkoot Trail and arrive in Dawson in search for gold. Pearl remembers Andrew as the scrawny boy who threw snakes and spiders at her and Florence when they were children. She is taken by the handsome man he has become.
It is 1896 and nineteen-year-old Pearl Owens wants adventure just like her idols Anna Leonowens and Annie “Londonderry” Choen Kopchovsky. In the 1860s, Anna Leonowens taught the wives, concubines, and children of the King of Siam, while during the years 1894-1895, Annie “Londonderry” Choen Kopchovsky became the first woman to travel around the world on a bicycle. She was testing a woman’s ability to look after herself.
To fulfill her dream Pearl is on her to the Yukon River area with her cousin, Emma, to write articles and do illustrations about the woman and men who are looking for gold in the far north.
Sam Owens, Pearl’s cousin and Emma’s brother, has been searching for gold with two friends, Gordon and Donald, for five years without success. Gordon and Donald have decided their quest is futile and it is time to return home. But Sam wants to stay a while longer. Then they hear word of a new gold find on Rabbit Creek.
Over the next ten months, the lives of all five are changed due to love, gold, and tragedy.
Elizabeth Oliver is a travel writer who somehow gets drawn into a mystery each time she is researching an article for a travel magazine.
Illegally Dead: Elizabeth happens upon the discovery of a skeleton in an old septic tank. Although she tells herself she doesn't have time to get involved, it isn't long before she is digging up long-buried secrets. When a second murder victim is found, Elizabeth's travel research provides clues to the disturbing truth behind the murders.
The Only Shadow In The House: In this fast paced sequel to Illegally Dead, Edmonton travel writer Elizabeth Oliver is excited to get back on the open road to research a new article when, suddenly, an unexpected romance leads to a new murder mystery. Though she is determined to stay focused on her writing, Elizabeth can't ignore the familiar goose bumps she feels when handsome wheelchair basketball coach asks for her help to find out the truth about his mother's death.
Whistler's Murder: Elizabeth Oliver has tagged along with her best friend Sally Matthews to Whistler where Sally is attending a science fiction/fantasy writing retreat.
Elizabeth plans on spending the first week working on an article about Whistler for a travel magazine and then relaxing and enjoying being in the famous resort town for the second week. However, her well laid plan immediately begins to fall apart with the discovery of a body in a newly demolished house. Then she is again sidetracked when one of Sally’s fellow students asks her to solve the mystery of her cousin’s death and is then murdered herself.
"I like how author Joan Donaldson-Yarmey sets her books in obscure places in Alberta. This time it is Redwater...a small town outside of Edmonton that not many people have heard of...I only have because the company I worked at for many years built a cogeneration plant there. This is the second book in her Travelling Detective Series. It is an enjoyable read particularly if you want to learn more about Alberta. The author is a travel writer and her experience and expertise about the area shines through." Kathryn Poulin of Mysteries Etc
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