Ella Harvey reveals A Time of Light and Shadow, a travel memoir.

 

Welcome Ella Harvey, a fellow member of The Writers' Union of Canada! Her amazing new book comes out September 2022, but you can check out her first book, Encounters on the Front Line!

                     

Ella Harvey is a retired nurse with a B.Sc in Nursing from the University of Victoria. Her diverse career and adventurous spirit have taken her to remote regions of the world, with experiences in Asia and Africa marking her world view. She has lived on five continents and worked on four. Ella presently lives in beautiful Victoria on the west coast of Canada, yet is frequently found dreaming of elsewhere.

Links:

My website www.ellaharvey.ca

FB  https://www.facebook.com/Ella-Harvey-Author

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-harvey

Publisher: www.rmbooks.com

Amazon author page for Encounters on the Front Line (first book)

https://www.amazon.ca/Encounters-Front-Line-Cambodia-Memoir/dp/1927559669

How many hours a day do you write?

My writing habits are irregular. At home, I may write very little, when travelling I write a lot. At home, I like to transcribe from my journal to the computer, sharpen the story, and edit, many times over. My most creative writing happens when there is a little background chatter, or I am watching the world go by. Coffee shops, at home or abroad are great.

What is your favorite childhood book?

As a young child, I loved The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff. Then there was Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. The stories that most captivated and inspired me were the Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene. Nancy was my childhood heroine.

What inspired you to write this book?

Travel, often solo travel, and the passion to explore the road less traveled inspired both of my books. In 1980 I worked in a Cambodian refugee camp as a nurse with the Red Cross, which inspired my first memoir, Encounters on the Front Line. My second memoir, A Time of Light and Shadow covers a wider terrain, the quest of a young woman, seeking her way in the world. Writing a book gives voice to the stories of my life. And every time I returned from my travels friends would say: “You should write a book.”

Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

I may write one more book. It will be creative nonfiction and knowing me, it will be set in a foreign country. I waver – do I really want to write a third book or do l listen to another voice that says ‘Yes.’  Each book has taken seven years, from inception to release, so it is a big commitment and a leap of faith.

 

 

A Time of Light and Shadow is an inspiring travel memoir that explores a young woman’s quest to live life on the front lines, chasing adventure, and confronting the harsh realities of crisis work in Asia and Africa during the 1970s. Four decades later Ella returns to India and reflects on poverty and privilege, youth and aging, longing and belonging.

 

What readers say:

Ella’s willingness to be touched and changed by the people she meets—both as a young woman and as an older woman is a wonderful tonic for cynicism. Reading A Time of Light and Shadow reminded me of how to walk through our beautiful, wounded world: open-eyed, open-hearted, mindful of both gifts received and debts incurred.

--Karen Connelly author of The Lizard Cage, Burmese Lessons and Touch The Dragon

A Time of Light and Shadow is a courageous story of compassion, self-discovery, and cross-cultural immersion, amidst a backdrop of some of the world’s most fascinating wonders and devastating humanitarian crises. Ella Harvey’s expansive journey seamlessly weaves the exploration of the external and internal, opening new perspective into the depths of the human spirit and what it means to live a meaningful life.

— Michael Schauch, author of A Story of Karma: Finding Love and Truth in the Lost Valley of the Himalaya

This lyrical, big-hearted book is about a woman living in the moment - whatever that particular moment is. A Time of Light and Shadow is multi-layered, combining sobering experiences of humanitarian work with wanderlust… and the vivid intensities of life on the road.

~~ Louisa Waugh, author of Hearing Birds Fly, Meet Me in Gaza, and nomadic humanitarian.