North Island artist-author Yvonne Maximchuk has a new book out, and this one is a real mystery.
Many readers are familiar with her paintings, pottery and nonfiction books, but now she’s ventured into the fiction genre with her brand new novel, Murder Rides A Gale Force Wind that was self published back in February.
Maximchuk says this book was eight years in the making. She drew on her love of the environment, thirty-five years of observation and experience, along with tales from her Echo Bay neighbour Bill Proctor, to imagine a story that weaves the past with the present, and the various communities of the North Island with the social, political and personal issues that demand our attention.
“I’ve found the residents of this island wilderness are so unique, so creative in their problem solving and approach to the issues that challenge us that I wanted to explore what might unfold if they - or fictionalized versions of them - were confronted with the mysterious disappearance of one of their own,” said Maximchuk. “For the characters peopling my story, life by the sea may mean death by the sea; this is truth for the real residents as well as the imagined.”
The back cover asks the question ‘Was it Really Murder? Big crime comes to a town too small to merit even that title. Residents of the loose-knit coastal community of Echo Bay struggle with the same issues as the world at large: drugs, mental health, racial friction, sexism, you name it. But everyone signs on to the code: ‘whether you like them or not, you always help someone in need.’
Entering into the fiction genre for the first time, Maximchuk says the book was a lot of fun to write, and yes, there is another book gestating, although, she added, she hoped it wouldn’t take as long to deliver.
Maximchuk added her mystery novel transcends the great divide between BC’s coastal fiction and non-fiction genres, and it features a cast of characters as diverse and believable as those in The Curve of Time, who must engage with not only each other but the environment within which they ‘sink or swim’. Murder Rides a Gale Force Wind is a fabulous addition to your library of coastal stories and has already garnered enthusiastic praise from its readers.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yvonne Maximchuk is still exploring the Broughton Archipelago in her sixteen-foot speedboat SeaRose from her off-grid home on Gilford Island, still learning the secret world of islands and inlets from which she draws her inspiration. She is a life-long working artist in acrylic, watercolour, drawing media and clay, and author of a memoir; Drawn to Sea – From Paintbrush to Chainsaw, Carving out a Life on BC’s Rugged Raincoast (Caitlin Press 2013) about her life in the Broughton Archipelago wilderness.
She is co-author of Full Moon Flood Tide, Bill Proctor’s Raincoast (Harbour Publishing 2003) nominated for the Bill Duthie’s Booksellers Choice award in the BC and Yukon Book Awards. A follow-up, Tide Rips and Back Eddies, Bill Proctor’s Tales of Blackfish Sound was published (Harbour Publishing) in 2015.
She created a colouring book, Colour the British Columba Coast; within its pages are forty drawings, along with a brief description of the scene and artist tips. Released June 2016 (Harbour Publishing) it quickly went to a second edition.
Murder Rides a Gale Force Wind, An Island Mystery ~(SeaRose Publishing 2022) is available from the author, searosestudio@hotmail.com in Echo Bay, Gilford Island, BC and the following BC bookstores ~The Mulberry Bush Bookstore, Qualicum Beach; Laughing Oyster Books, Courtenay; Blue Heron Books, Mermaid tales Books, Tofino; Comox: Book Bonanza, Quadra Island, West Coast Community Craft Shop, Port Hardy; Shop Rite at Home and Harbourside Pharmacy in Port McNeill and Bill Proctors Gift Shop near Echo Bay, Gilford Island; also available in the Vancouver Island Regional Library system.
Go to www.yvonnemaximchuk.com or e-mail Yvonne at searosestudio@hotmail.com to purchase books, artworks or to arrange a reading or art retreat.
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