2/07/2019

Jacqui Nelson’s North of the Border with guest Sharon Ashwood


Who's next on my North of the Border guest blog series? Today we have  Sharon Ashwood, author of Frostbound: the Dark Forgotten!

Where does Sharon get her inspiration? How is Canada part of her inspiration? Read on and see...

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 Am I paranoid, or is that snowdrift staring at me?

When I took literature in university, the prevailing theory of my CanLit course was that nature was trying to kill us. At least, Canadian weather was—with a little help from our hungry four-footed neighbors.


Personally, I thought the early morning lecture time was far more likely to do me in, but that’s another story. For more on the death-by-cold-and-chipmunk issue, see Margaret Atwood’s Survival: a Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. Yes, the same ever-cheery Atwood of The Handmaid’s Tale fame. Apparently when the patriarchy is done with us, Mother Earth gets a shot.

Once I graduated, I didn’t give that class much thought. After all, I now live on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, where there are palm trees and the most ambitious snowfall might reach the hem of my jeans. My herb garden is peaceable, the parsley free of murderous intent.

For the longest time, I believed my weather-induced paranoia was put to rest. But then I wrote Frostbound: the Dark Forgotten, which features that most Canadian of environmental moments, a freak blizzard. There’s a murder and a mystery, not to mention a host of paranormal goings-on, but the plot is deeply impacted by the paralyzing effect of ice and snow. While writing this story, I drew on my experience of growing up in real snow country. Memories came flooding back—including the one where I decided to live in a much warmer climate!


Footfalls in snow sound different when it’s really cold, when the air is so dry and frigid that the snow is more like salt than the sticky makings of a snowball. Voices carry differently, the silences between words profound.  Stars are sharp and clear as gemstones and the crusted drifts like carpets of diamonds. I remember northern lights crackling over the house and snow piled up to the eaves. One winter the newspaper issued a certificate for survival because the daytime high temperature stayed well below zero degrees Fahrenheit for a month. It makes belief in a hostile environment far more reasonable once you’ve make it through that kind of winter. Did I mention I moved to a part of Canada that has palm trees?


But I was writing about Frostbound, which I’ve just re-edited and re-released in a brand new edition. As a writer, sense memories are pure gold, and I was able to fold many wintery details into my story. Besides the cold, there’s also the need for comfort and community, of neighbor helping neighbor, and the dull claustrophobia of being stuck indoors. Frostbound is my tribute to that experience and, even though it’s urban fantasy with shape-shifters and magic, the story is grounded in a lot of direct experience. The best fantasy is just an inch away from truth, after all. That’s what makes us believe in fairytales.

Giveaway

Comment on the blog and tell me your childhood weather memory—I’ll randomly draw a winner to receive a copy of the ebook Frostbound. Contest will close at midnight (Pacific Time) on February 10, 2019.

Every dog might have his day, but the hellhound guards the night …

As a snowstorm locks down the city, more than the roads are getting iced. Someone’s beheaded the wrong girl, and vampire-on-the-lam Talia Rostova thinks it was meant to be her. Now she’s the prime suspect in her own botched murder—and the prisoner of her smoking-hot neighbor.

Lore is a hellhound, bred to serve and protect, so he’s not freeing Talia until he’s sure that she’s the prey and not the hunter. You’d think a beautiful woman in his bedroom would be a good thing, but trouble-prone Talia has run afoul of someone more sinister than your average lunatic killer. An ancient Undead is wreaking vengeance on the city—and on her—and Lore will have to go far beyond a stake to put him back in his grave …

BUY LINK:  https://books2read.com/Frostbound

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USA Today Bestselling Author Sharon Ashwood is a novelist, desk jockey and enthusiast for the weird and spooky. She has an English literature degree but works as a finance geek. Interests include growing her to-be-read pile and playing with the toy graveyard on her desk. As a vegetarian, she freely admits the whole vampire/werewolf lifestyle would never work out, so she writes her adventures instead.

Sharon is a winner of the RITA® Award for Paranormal Romance. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and is owned by the Demon Lord of Kitty Badness.


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Photo by Joy Real on Unsplash (street scene)
Photo by Andy Falconer on Unsplash (Church)
Photo by Vincent Guth on Unsplash (Northern Lights)

17 comments:

  1. Welcome back, Sharon. The book sounds Excellent !!

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  2. So many snow memories as a kid... one house on our block was abandoned, but it had a slight slope down its driveway to the street and us kids would take our sleds and slide on down... another memory was trying to make an igloo... piled the snow and then tried to dig in... did not get far... instead made it into a big snowman! :) greenshamrock atcox dotnet Such great memories! :)

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    1. That sounds like so much fun! All kids need is an empty lot and they can build an entire kingdom.

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  3. Ah, I remember "man vs man," "man vs himself" "man vs nature." CanLit certainly has a disproportionate share of the last one. I remember being so excited at the first snowfall of the year and then being one step away from madness when it was still snowing in April. Congratulations on your re-release.

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    1. I'm eating my words now with this sudden snowfall! I shouldn't have gloated about the palm trees!

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  4. making a snow angel
    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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  5. So many weather related memories, where to start? When I was seven or eight we were living in Kingston, Ontario. It snowed so much that it reached the roof of our house. My dad shoveled a walk way to the car and then started building a snow house. He cut out snow bricks and made this semi-round structure that I used as my very own snow hut. I only remember how much fun it was to play in the snow that day.

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  6. Wow it was in 1961 when i was in my foster home in Ca and when hail came down i thought what is this and i was so scared and crying and not one person came to me and help me settle down i was 6 i went under my bed and cried . I missed dinner as i was crying and noone came to check on me that is how i feel about foster homes even now so few good ones. This was in Calif.. Peggy Clayton I am not in the running for an ebook as i can only do print which i do review every one i read.

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    1. Thank you for sharing that, Peggy, it must have been terrifying for you.

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  7. I have a memory which is not from childhood but as a young bride in High Level AB back in 1967. We lived in a trailer in a forestry camp and the thermometer outside my kitchen window registered -57 F. I remember how cold it felt to step out the door, even dressed in layers and layers. I adopted two kittens and a big stray tomcat called Boots. One night our oil furnace stopped working and we had to evacuate quickly. In 20 minutes the temperature inside would match the temperature outside. So we did, leaving the three cats to cuddle up together. When we returned the next morning Boots was spread-eagled face down on the living room carpet covering the two kittens to keep them warm. Up to that point he had refused to have anything to do with them. Cats are wiser than we give them credit for.

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    1. Great work, Boots! It's hard to understand how deadly winter can be until you live in a place like that. Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Thank you for everyone who left a comment, and especially our gracious hostess for inviting me to visit! The winner of an ebook copy of Frostbound is Colleen C. Colleen, watch your email.

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    1. Thanks Sharon! I received the book! ��

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  9. Thank you for everyone who left a comment, and especially our gracious hostess for inviting me to visit! The winner of an ebook copy of Frostbound is Colleen C. Colleen, watch your email.


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