Featuring another fantastic Canadian author, Reed Stirling!

 

Featuring another fantastic Canadian author, Reed Stirling!    Reed and I are both authors with BWL Publishing. 

Reed Stirling lives in Cowichan Bay, BC, and writes when not painting landscapes, travelling, or taking coffee at The Drumroaster, a local café where physics and metaphysics clash daily. Before retiring and taking up writing novels, he taught English Literature. Several talented students of his have gone on to become successful award-winning writers. 

Literary output:

Shades Of Persephone, published in 2019, is a literary mystery set in Greece.

Lighting The Lamp, a fictional memoir, was published in March 2020.

Set in Montreal, Séjour Saint-Louis (2021), dramatizes family conflicts.

The Palimpsest Murders, a European travel mystery, was published in September 2023.

Shorter work has appeared over the years in a variety of publications including Dis(s)ent, Danforth Review, Fickle Muses, Fieldstone Review, and Humanist Perspectives.

 Intrigue is of primary interest, with romantic entanglement an integral part of the action. Greek mythology plays a significant role in underpinning plots. Allusions to art, literature, philosophy, and religion serve a similar function. 

LINKS:

reedstirlingwrites.com

reedstirling@gmail.com

          https://bookswelove.net/stirling-reed/

                    Reed Stirling@Facebook

                    Reed Stirling@Instagram

                    Reed Stirling@LinkedIn

                    Reed Stirling@ X 

How many hours a day do you write?

When working on a project, my next novel, for instance, I busy myself at the keyboard every morning, often for three or four hours. I try to come away from the desk having achieved at least a workable page. In the evening, I review what I have written and see to emendations. Frequently what comes of my effort amounts to no more than a paragraph, a single sentence, or a metaphor that might work in a context yet to be imagined.

Having coffee out or nursing a beer in a pub can lead to observations that connect to themes I’m developing. I make note of them, adding them to the material for the next day’s effort. 

Favourite childhood book?

          Hardy Boys. I also collected Classic Comics that gave me insight into important works of literature, for example, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Caesar’s Conquests. 

What inspired you to write this book?

          In response to this question, I will focus on my latest published novel, The Palimpsest Murders. The plot revolves around thirty or so characters who have embarked on a week-long Boat and Bike excursion. The storyline begins in Amsterdam, continues in Paris, and ends in Greece. During this time, two murders happen in real time and other suspicious deaths are uncovered as part of the backstory. All are reflected in events that echo the classical past. Significantly the name of the boat is The Iphigenia.

I subtitled this novel, which is literary in tone, A European Travel Mystery. In some ways it fits the cozy mystery genre but in no way is it all that cozy because it necessitates travel, even in the imaginative sense, and a basic familiarity with characters in Homer’s The Iliad, especially with the royal murders involved in the aftermath to the Trojan War.

The idea for this novel arose when I took a one-week Boat & Bike excursion through the Lowlands. All was agreeable among the thirty guests onboard. Very enjoyable. But why not, my imagination prompted me, introduce the clash of different personalities in close quarters and have that lead to inevitable conflict that would result in two murders? Geoff Canter, a sound editor with a penchant for figuring things out, became protagonist and narrator.

Most fun in moving the plot along: what songs to have salient characters sing, when the group engages in a karaoke session onboard the Iphigenia, that points them in the direction of either victim or perpetrator. For instance, given his paternal persecution, Boyd Alexander’s rendition of Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” or Flex’s version of “Mack the Knife” following shortly after his sudden and unexpected arrival. 

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

I plan to see my current WIP, another European Travel Mystery, published. Eros, the Greek god of love and desire, is my narrator. I think he will prove the most interesting character of the lot I’m calling into being. He will certainly have much to say about himself and the individuals he feels impelled to observe, eavesdrop on, and take shots at with his arrows.

 I also see myself continuing to promote my literary output where best I can, and getting back to the easel, brush in one hand and glass of Irish whiskey in the other. As far as all that goes, I don’t see myself living off the proceeds of my novels or my landscapes.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

          I have one abandoned novel begun in 1970. I eventually came of age! Working on it taught me much about writing full-length fiction.

          I have one unpublished novel. It proved to be too controversial in content for my publisher. Its themes are playing out in real time even as I write these words.

Was there a person who encouraged you to write?

          I can’t say any one person encouraged me to write. As a teen in high school, I wrote poetry, mostly about girls I felt attracted to. I never sent the poems to the person(s) in question. Imagery! I just didn’t get it.

          Later, at university I wrote prose poems and dedicated them to co-eds that I felt attracted to. Those ersatz lyrical overtures are still in the box. I had to get outside of the box, get over my shyness and reticence.

          Novelist Joyce Carol Oates oversaw my MA thesis. She was an inspiration. No poems for her, however, just essays. But she did lead me into the realm of serious fiction. Subsequently, John Fowles took hold of my brain with The Magus. My muse got closer to me and eventually I got a short narrative published. I was off and running. Over the following years, I’ve had many literary pieces published in journals and reviews and more recently four novels with BWL Inc.

 

THE PALIMPSEST MURDERS 

Day one: check-in on the Iphigenia, a Boat & Bike home for thirty guests of diverse backgrounds on a one-week excursion through Holland and Belgium. Personalities clash, conflicts arise.

Day seven: a body is found in canal waters at the stern of the boat. And then a second body is discovered.

Who among the cyclists is hateful and motivated enough to kill? Twice. In what ways are the two murders related? How does the gold death mask of Agamemnon lead to resolution?

Determining the truth entails travelling from Amsterdam to Bruges to Paris to the ancient site of Mycenae in Greece where what’s past is shown to be prologue. 

https://books2read.com/The-Palimpsest-Murders

 

 

SHADES OF PERSEPHONE 

A literary mystery: the fusion of history, philosophy, espionage, and romance, the centre of the mystery being the contemporary identity of mythological Persephone. 

https://books2read.com/Shades-of-Persephone

Reed Stirling releases his new novel Sejour Saint-Louis

 

Welcome to Canadian Author Reed Stirling, also published by BWL Publishing!

Reed Stirling, my authored self, lives in Cowichan Bay, BC, and writes when not painting landscapes, travelling, or taking coffee at The Drumroaster, a local café where physics and metaphysics clash daily. Before retiring and taking up writing novels as a past time, I taught English Literature. Joyce Carol Oates oversaw my M.A. thesis. Several talented students of mine have gone on to become successful award-winning writers.

My wife and I built a log home in the hills of southern Vancouver Island, and survived totally off the grid for twenty-five years during which time the rooms in that house filled up with books, thousands of student essays were graded, and innumerable cords of firewood were split.

Shades Of Persephone, published in 2019, is a literary mystery set in Greece. Lighting The Lamp, a fictional memoir, was published in March 2020. Séjour Saint-Louis (2021) resolves the drama of father-son conflict through lyrical, mythological, and biographical allusion. Shorter work has appeared over the years in a variety of publications including Hackwriters Magazine, Dis(s)ent, The Danforth Review, Fickle Muses, The Fieldstone Review, Humanist Perspectives, StepAway Magazine, and most recently in Mediterranean Poetry. 

Find me at the following:

reedstirling@gmail.com

https://bwlpublishing.ca

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bookswelove

https://authorcentral.amazon.comgp/home

            linkedin.com/in/reed-stirling-575062216

Facebook

Smashwords

Instagram: @reedstirling.com

https://www.reedstirlingwrites.com/

Do your characters come before or after your plot?

Characters evolve after the idea for the story has been established. Main characters tend to be protagonist-narrators in pursuit of truth as they understand it or as plot and theme define it. Simple observation of real people in real life exchanges (a young couple in a hospital waiting room, a tête-à-tête in a bar or restaurant, someone behind the wheel of a luxury automobile noticed at an intersection) will give birth to characters whose voices demand to be heard. That man wearing a Panama hat or that tiny woman wearing bright red shoes — very interesting! Imagination informs them with a personal history, with particular traits, with relevant choices. Action (plot) reveals character, true; but conflict implies decisions and consequences. Providing them with creditable motivation is essential. Verisimilitude is the objective of the exercise no matter the setting. The character I want the reader to identify with may not be likeable at all. As long as he or she is interesting, has a voice worth listening to, and is capable of reflecting authentic human instincts.

How do you choose a villain and how do you make them human?

The term villain is too black and white for me. I prefer the term antagonist. Antagonists in my fiction can be born out of the observation that people, despicable politicians, for instance, lie repeatedly. Antagonist can be well-meaning in their contrariness or destructiveness. They can have malicious intent in their apparent goodness. Realistic personal histories go a long way towards giving them standing. They help move the action along from crisis to crisis. To humanize them, grant them plausible voice, mannerism, idiosyncrasy, tic, flaw, aspiration, success, failed amorous affair, ham hands, and diminished size of shoe. A golf game might indicate how downtime is enjoyed. A black hat might just be in vogue at the time of the story, and not symbolic of a really bad dude with a .45 in his hip pocket. Eschew the stereotypical. A scar might be emblematic of love or a badge of honour. A penchant for odd-ball humour can lighten what appears to be nothing but dark and sinister. The antagonist can be a force-field of repudiation or disdain. A troublesome memory. I favour antagonists that arise from within main characters and shadow their every move.

Do your reading choices reflect your writing choices?

Absolutely, reading influences my writing. I read widely, and have done so for decades, the classics included. The muse visits me most often when I read the novels of John Banville — style, irony, imagery. Shakespeare continues to be a source of inspiration in terms of character and theme. Jonathan Swift rules in the domain of satire.

In particular, Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandrian Quartet provided the impetus for Shades Of Persephone. John Fowles’ The Magus gave me the Greek setting, specifically Chania, Crete. Here I created plausible characters of varying backgrounds, foremost among whom, Steven Spire, a young expat as narrator and central character of artistic temperament in need of purpose. Bar and café conversations led to hints of foreign intrigue. Ancient ruins gave way to Nazi runes. Crooked laneways led to mountain retreats and buried secrets. Hydra-headed truth demanded a place on the table along with the ouzo and artichoke hearts. And love, naturally, raised all expectations with the birth, mirroring Aphrodite’s rise from the sea, of Magalee De Bellefeuille.

Joyce’s Portrait inspired more than one scene in Lighting The Lamp, as did the philosophical musing of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Marcel Proust plays a part here as well, as do Richard Dawkins, Emily Dickinson, and Albert Camus. The poems of Émile Nelligan  worked thematically into Séjour Saint-Louis.

I attempt to write literary fiction that entertains while being socially relevant. I sit down to write every day and try to leave the desk having achieved at least a workable page. Frequently what comes of my effort amounts to no more than a serviceable paragraph, a single sentence, or a metaphor that might work in a context yet to be imagined.

Which type of characters are your favorite to write?

A favourite character is an elusive character. What that character might be depends on how the plot evolves and the themes that emerge from it. Having a very definite voice is more important than being tall, dark, and handsome, or beautiful in a stereotypical fashion. He or she possess a voice that is engaging, exhibits a sense of humour (or sense of the absurd), and betrays a philosophical frame of mind if not an ironic view of life in this world. That character need not be heroic, just be ordinary within the framework of human possibility. He or she has to be entertaining and intellectually stimulating in the fictional settings they enter and exit. My favourite characters tend to be articulate about the nature of the quest they have set for themselves. They seek to understand, often what is totally incomprehensible; to know, often what is beyond knowing.

What sort of research do you do for your work?

More recently I research things online. However, the reference books I consult (be they literary, philosophical, or architectural) I find on my own shelves or on those of our local library. Most enjoyable is research done in situ, Greece for Shades Of Persephone, for example, and Montreal in large part for Lighting The Lamp and Séjour Saint-Louis. Reading other fiction can also be a source relevant information. Simple observation of everyday human exchanges helps inform. I lean towards mystery in my writing, with romantic entanglement often an integral part of the narrative. Allusions to mythology, art, literature, philosophy, and religion underpin plot development. Irony is pervasive.

What are you working on now?

Besides making revisions to a fourth novel, I am presently working on a many-layered, multi-dimensional, non-cosy mystery. It may take some time!

 

Séjour Saint-Louis 

Montreal in late nineteenth century, a gifted young poet falls victim to madness.

Today, a struggling father is driven to drink over the intransigence of his music-obsessed teenage son. An equally conflicted wife and mother threatens separation.

What connects these two worlds?

The Victorian fountain in Square Saint-Louis, a series of seemingly random incidents in the city, and a school reunion where myth, art, and mysterious e-lixar fuse into dramatic reflections of family dynamics. Through mirroring, resolution proves possible. 

https://books2read.com/Sejour-Saint-Louis

 

SHADES OF PERSEPHONE 

Shades of Persephone is a literary mystery that will entertain those who delight in exotic settings, foreign intrigue, and the unmasking of mysterious characters. Crete in 1980-81, more specifically the old Venetian harbour of Chania, provides the background against which expat Canadian Steven Spire labours in pursuit of David Montgomery, his enigmatic and elusive mentor, who stands accused in absentia of treachery and betrayal. The plot has many seams through which characters slide, another of them being the poet Emma Leigh, widow of Montgomery’s imposing Cold War adversary, Heinrich Trüger. In that the setting is Crete, the source of light is manifold, but significant inspiration for Steven Spire comes from Magalee De Bellefeuille, his vision of Aphrodite and his muse. “Find Persephone,” she directs him, “and you’ll find David Montgomery.”  Her prompts motivate much of the narrative, including that of the Cretan underground during the Nazi occupation, 1941- 45.

Shades of Persephone presents a story of love and sensuality, deception and war, spiritual quest and creative endeavour. The resolution takes an unanticipated turn but comes as no surprise to the discerning reader. Like Hamlet who must deal with his own character in following the injunctions of his ghostly father, Steven Spire discovers much about the city to which he has returned, but much more about himself and his capacity for love. 

https://books2read.com/Shades-of-Persephone

 

 

Reed Stirling talks about

Welcome to this week's author Reed Stirling!!

Reed Stirling lives in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, and writes when not travelling, or painting landscapes, or taking coffee at the Drumroaster, a local café where metaphor and metaphysics clash daily. His shorter work has appeared in Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Nashwaak Review, Valley Voice, Out Of The Warm Land II and III, StepAway Magazine, PaperPlates, Eloquent Atheist, Senior Living, Green Silk Journal, Fickle Muses, Fieldstone Review, Ascent Aspirations, Feathertale, Filling Station, Hackwriters Magazine, Dis(s)ent In Words, The Danforth Review, Montreal Writes Literary Magazine, and Humanist Perspectives. 

Shades Of Persephone is his first published novel, 2019. Lighting The Lamp will be published in March, 2020. He is presently working on a third novel tentatively titled Square Saint-Louis.

1.LIFE OUTSIDE OF WRITING

Before retiring and taking up writing fiction as a past time, I taught English Literature. (Several talented students of mine have gone on to become successful writers.) My wife and I built a log home in the hills of southern Vancouver Island, and survived totally off the grid for twenty-five years during which time the rooms in that house filled up with books, thousands of student essays were graded, and innumerable cords of firewood were split. Life outside of writing now includes painting landscapes, reading, fishing, cycling, skiing, and travel.

2. WORK IN PROGRESS

I am working on a first draft of a work tentatively titled Square Saint-Louis, where the troubles in a contemporary family mirror those of the tragic poet Émile Nelligan.

Brendan Young, a Calgary based businessman who travels more than he’d like, admits to having absolutely no patience for the intransigence of his music-obsessed, teenage son, Elliot. Ongoing domestic disputes have intensified over the years: antipathy now verges on hostile rejection. Elinore, an equally conflicted wife and mother, is threatening separation, a source of great anxiety for Brendan who turns to alcohol for the understanding that eludes him on the home front. His sojourn in Montreal, a city not unfamiliar to him, leads him incident by surreal incident, towards greater understanding through familiarity with the tragic story of Émile Nelligan, who, as a nineteen year-old, enjoyed a successful entry into the artistic community of Montreal in the last decade of the 19^th century, and then fell victim to madness. Reconnecting with Emery St James Montesquieu, among old antagonists he encounters at a Yamaska College reunion, proves not only enlightening for Young in its mirroring effect — the troubles in his family are reflected dramatically in those of the young afflicted poet — but also redemptive. Elliot, the musician, will have his apotheosis.

  3. MOST DIFFICULT PIECE

The most difficult piece I’ve had to deal with, a chapter, in fact, from Lighting the Lamp titled “Glorious Disorder,” was published in Humanist Perspective (Fall 2019).

On the one hand, the selection deals in a straightforward manner with the nature of metaphysical belief, which can be a very sensitive topic for some readers. On the other hand, my characters have to come to grip with the destructive nature of the Guillain-Barré syndrome. Deeply conflicted about the whys and wherefores of the devastating illness his granddaughter suffers, my protagonist explains that the tragic situation facing the family is not divinely sanctioned but “is simply a disorder arising out of the seeming randomness of the evolutionary process that the cosmos contrived, one that brought us into being, and one that can take us out.”

In reality, my neighbours’ young daughter suffered for months at the hands of this insidious affliction. The whole family was displaced and suffered much. In time, the girl recovered, as does my imagined character.

4. RESEARCH 

More recently I research things online. However, the reference books I consult (be they literary, mythological, philosophical, architectural, psychological, historical, scientific, geographical, linguistic) I find on my own shelves or on those of our local library. Most enjoyable is research done in situ, Greece for Shades Of Persephone, for example, and Montreal in large part for Lighting The Lamp and the novel I’m presently working on. Reading other fiction can also be a source relevant information. Simple observation of people helps in many ways, verisimilitude being the objective of the observation whatever the setting. I lean towards mystery in my writing, with romantic entanglement an integral part of the plot development. Greek mythology and literary allusion underpin a great deal of what unfolds. Irony is pervasive.  

5. BOOKS, AUTHORS, & SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

      

I read widely, and have done so for decades, the classics included. At present, works by Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, and John le Carré await. The muse visits me most often when I read the novels of John Banville.

My reading has definitely influenced my writing. Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandrian Quartet provided the impetus for Shades Of Persephone. John Fowles’ The Magus gave me the Greek setting. Joyce’s Portrait inspired more than one scene in Lighting The Lamp, as did the philosophical musing of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Marcel Proust plays a part here as well, as do Richard Dawkins, Emily Dickinson, and Albert Camus. The poems of Émile Nelligan are working thematically into Square Saint-Louis.

Teaching literature has had an influence on my writing. When you introduce young minds to the great works of great artists, (e.g., Hamlet, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Portrait of the Artist As A young Man, Gulliver’s Travels, The Handmaid’s Tale), you are constantly challenging yourself to get it right, to understand not only who, what, and when, but also how, and to elucidate on these considerations as discussion ensues. In your own writing, you want to emulate, difficult though it is to do so, but you have to try.  

6. ENCOURAGEMENT

      Greatest support and understanding comes from my wife, travel guide and firewood organizer supreme.

WEBSITE & LINKS: 

reedstirlingwrites.com

reedstirling@gmail.com

Books We Love Publishing — http://bwlpublishing.ca

BWL authors group Facebook

Shades of Persephone

Shades of Persephone is a literary mystery that will entertain those who delight in exotic settings, foreign intrigue, and the unmasking of mysterious characters. Crete in 1980-81, more specifically the old Venetian harbour of Chania, provides the background against which expat Canadian Steven Spire labours in pursuit of David Montgomery, his enigmatic and elusive mentor, who stands accused in absentia of treachery and betrayal. The plot has many seams through which characters slide, another of them being the poet Emma Leigh, widow of Montgomery’s imposing Cold War adversary, Heinrich Trüger. In that the setting is Crete, the source of light is manifold, but significant inspiration for Steven Spire comes from Magalee De Bellefeuille, his vision of Aphrodite and his muse. “Find Persephone,” she directs him, “and you’ll find David Montgomery.”  Her prompts motivate much of the narrative, including that of the Cretan underground during the Nazi occupation, 1941- 45. 

            Shades of Persephone presents a story of love and sensuality, deception and war, spiritual quest and creative endeavour. The resolution takes an unanticipated turn but comes as no surprise to the discerning reader. Like Hamlet who must deal with his own character in following the injunctions of his ghostly father, Steven Spire discovers much about the city to which he has returned, but much more about himself and his capacity for love.

Buy links:

http://bwlpublishing.ca

Shades Of Persephone/Amazon.ca/Reed Stirling/Books

            https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bookswelove

wwwbarnesandnoble.com>shades-of-persephone-reed-stirling

            wwwgoodreads.com>Reed Stirling

            wwwchapters.indigo.ca>Reed Stirling

Lighting the Lamp

 Lighting The Lamp dramatizes the efforts of Terry Burke, a sympathetic, at times caustic and critical, but ordinary old guy, to come to grips with who he is and what his life has been. His struggle to accept retirement and to interpret the iterations of the voice in his head spreads to concern over the mysterious death of a wanderer. Terry’s obsession to solve the mystery fuses directly with his personal history and leads him in and out of fascinating, half-remembered mythological landscapes. 

A restive Terry is enjoined to revisit the haunts of his youth. Family dynamics of the present, mirrored in Irish heritage of the past, come into play as do contrarian opinions encountered among cronies, distant friends, and lost loves. Motivated by his muse to tell all, what he seeks in addition to understanding is truthful voice and the purest possible point of view. Aware that remembrance of things past in not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were, this quixotic Everyman eventually reaches beyond self, beyond mystery, and beyond theodicy to a philosophical embrace of cosmic apotheosis. In Lighting The Lamp, Montreal provides more than a background for potential jihad-sponsored terrorism, or ghosts out of the past, or a romantic trip down memory lane; the many-layered city takes on the function of a defined and demanding character and declares in a voice Terry hears clearly: “Know me and know yourself!”