If there's one time of year you want to lose yourself in a book that will make you shiver, it's October, when the light is fading and the spirits raise their voices loud enough that we can hear them. 

It's also the month that I was thrilled and honoured to be a finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards in the English fiction category for my YA horror, Shantallow. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists in the event which happened on Zoom and was aired on Facebook live this past Wednesday!

 

Award night jitters in my apartment before signing in!

Enormous thanks to the Ottawa Book Awards and the Ottawa Public Library for including me! Here's the jury statement for Shantallow: "With its sparring prose, inclusive cast and difficult themes, Cara Martin’s Shantallow  is crackling YA. It addresses themes of revenge porn, abuse, drugs and sex, but at its heart is a message all young people should hear: there’s life after transgression, and while it may not include forgiveness, personal amends can be made, behaviour changed and community rediscovered."

I was incredibly thrilled to learn my latest novel, Shantallow (published under the name Cara Martin), has made the longlist for the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic! Incidentally, I started reading Karen McBride's debut novel, Crow Winter, nominated in the adult category, the day before hearing the good news and am relishing Hazel's emotional journey. Congratulations to all the nominees!

 

As people across the U.S., Canada and numerous other countries around the world protest racism and police brutality, Chantel Moore, a young Indigenous woman from B. C., was shot dead by a police officer during what has been referred to as a “wellness check” in Edmundston, New Brunswick Thursday. "Nora Martin, Moore’s aunt, told Global News that her niece’s boyfriend called the police because somebody was harassing her and she felt scared."

Chantel was a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, on Vancouver Island BC,  living in New Brunswick with her 5 year old daughter and mother. Her mother and daughter are in need of family support during this tragic time and 6 members of her family are planning to travel to New Brunswick to support her and practice traditional Nuu-Chah-Nulth grieving protocols. 

Thousands of Indigenous women and girls have been murdered or disappeared across Canada in recent decades. Twenty-six-year-old Chantel Moore should still be with us today, instead she died alone with the police officer who shot her five times. If you can offer financial support to Chantel's surviving family members, please visit the Go Fund Me for family of Chantel Moore. "The funds are for the family travel, funeral costs, and any remaining funds will be given to her mother and daughter. The family has received authorization to travel to New Brunswick amidst provincial Covid restrictions."

Also please sign the Justice for Chantal Moore petition demanding the city of Edmundston hold this officer accountable for not attempting to deescalate the situation.

About six months have passed since I finished up my previous cover version of Just Like You Said It Would Be. Between the coronavirus pandemic and other worrying things going on in my life it's been pretty difficult to write. Progress on my WIP has been sadly negligible.

I see some hopeful signs that's beginning to change but in any case, somehow working on covers always feels like some kind of vacation or escape. When I can't write I can STILL work on cover art. So here we go again, again, again—voila the newest cover of Just Like You Said It Would Be.

If you want to read about messy first love, movie love (God I miss going to the movies!) and falling in love with Dublin, Ireland, this might be your kind of book.

Here's another new cover design, this one for the Yesterday duology packaged together as one book.

Finally, Finn Kavanagh is still one of my favourite characters so of course she deserved a cover change too. This one retained alot of the elements from the previous One Lonely Degree redesign.

I hope you're keeping safe and well wherever you're seeing out the first phase of this global pandemic. Also that you're taking it easy on yourself if you're not able to get certain things done during this worrying, strange and intense time. We'll get through this day by day, doing whatever we're doing, even if that means spending an inordinate amount of time designing new book covers while we should be writing! 

Bill Withers, 1976 | public domain photo

I was so sad, this morning, to hear of the passing of the great Bill Withers. I was feeling edgy walking down narrow pharmacy aisles yesterday trying to pick up all the things on my list. Some of the aisles were closed off for restocking and there were people in others so I had to circle around and come back when they'd gone. All in all it was taking ages and the longer I had to remain at the store the more nervous I felt about being out among even a small number of people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then Lovely Day came on over the speakers and it felt like a sign, I relaxed.

Thank you, Bill Withers, for all the amazing music. It's made a difference in the lives of so many people and will continue to do so. In fact, in this crazy, uncertain and terrifying time we need your music more than ever.