… and with characters who are in tribute to fallen Fredericton police officers Burns and Costello, as well as a nod to the Queen. The latter poignant point, just discovered this week because of HM’s death, arose in that, despite the fact that my grandmother first drafted this novel 75 years ago, and I started re-writing it (and dragging it across the ocean and across the continent in hard copy form!) 30 years ago, it’s taken me, slow on the uptake indeed, until all the publicity about Philip’s and Elizabeth’s engagement and marriage in 1947 (the year Just A STILL LIFE was started by Victoria Ivanel Johnson) to realize that THIS MUST BE WHY SHE CHOSE THE NAMES FOR HER TWO CHARACTERS: Phil and Beth! Wow, have I ever been dense about that one!
Want to hear yet another kind of freaky coincidence? Besides the exact numbers game we’ve seen with the 75 years ago, the 30 years ago, the Phil/Beth discovery, the fact that the month in which the book is set is September, and the publishers’ available date was Sept, plus this being my grandmother’s birthday week as well as release week, I was just ready to make this blog post ‘public’ when I noticed the time: 2:22 on Sept. 22nd of 2022 AND there were exactly 22 people who’d liked my FB meme. All at the same instance! Well, you have to see signs in every little crack in the big black pavement of Life, don’t you?
Doesn’t look like one of Canada’s
first serial killers could be at work here, does it?
more on the life, setting and characters of the book: https://mckencroftproducti.wixsite.com/jivanelauthor/still-life
But yes, today’s the ‘book birthday’ of our debut novel, Grandma’s and mine. If you haven’t already, you might want to read about my death-bed promise to her, in the Voices of Experience section of this Grief-Healing blog: https://www.griefhealingblog.com/2022/05/voices-of-experience-promise-at-passing.html The below two photos utilize my grandmother’s lace tablecloth, silver napkin ring (actually HER mother’s!), tea strainers and tea cup and saucers. Some historians might be interested to note that those Adams china pieces were made BEFORE the tea cup ring was molded into the bottom of the saucer. These are the types of deep saucers from which many in Europe and the UK pour their tea and slurp it directly out of the dish!
Or, before you decide if this book might interest you, read the early reviews of the Advanced Reader Copies, all compiled here for you in this relaxing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jun2uWMPBYA
Just A STILL LIFE is the first in a series in which the second, Just A STALE MATE should be out next June (signing contract this week!) So you won’t have long to wait if you really love these characters! P.J., Phil’s elderly godmother/sleuth Polly Jane Whistler, who lives peacefully in the NB-Appalachian village of “Victoria” safely ensconced in her cedar-shake post-office home of ‘chintz, gingham, stained glass and comfort food‘ (BestThrillers.com review), is a favourite among my Beta readers and reviewers. She exhibits a trim and graceful dancing figure under the September Harvest Moon, but has the unfortunate fashion of tinting her hair blue – and constantly getting her glasses lost in its nest.
And as with all my writing, there’s a culturally-diverse crowd of others, too: “All of Johnson’s work features and highlights members of culturally-diverse communities. Johnson is also launching a mystery novel this autumn set in the Nackawic area, released by Black Rose, of Castroville, Texas. As characters, the novel has a Black policeman, a Cuban finger-print expert and a Wolastoq post office attendant, all struggling with racism in 1971.” The Brief, NB MEDIA Co-op https://nbmediacoop.org/2022/08/01/disabled-playwright-pens-historical-n-b-musical/
There’s a couple of interviews coming out today. This one, with another mystery writer on behalf of the International Thriller Writers organization, also discusses my musical Rough Notes, my passion for eventing and horses and all gold animals, and even touches on my activism for the environment… Plus there’s a funny little surprise that appeared in it that those of you who know me may be surprised about. It promotes some pumpkins… 😉 See if it’s still there when you read this: https://www.themysteryofwriting.com/2022/09/22/just-a-still-life-mystery-debut/
I love that our own NB’s TMR, The Miramichi Reader, which is considered the best-regarded source for newly-released-book reviews in all of Canada, shared my meme with the att’d note today.
Here are a slew of places to purchase, with direct links for your Kindle or paperback copies. If you live close, I’ll be glad to sign and inscribe with a message, your soft cover copy. Come join us at the launch of this book, at Dog-Eared Books, in the Sour Grapes cafe mall (and OH, how those names well suit curmudgeonly old me!) of Oromocto the evening of Nov. 17th, or at Upper River libraries near Christmas and next spring. I’ll have some books to sell at these events, and also at some markets next season. OR – if you live a distance from me, I’m happy to mail out sticky-backed bookplates, personally inscribed and signed as well. Thank you, enjoy it, and PLEASE remember to leave a review (even a sentence helps!) when you’re finished. It’s your reviews which put us into the ‘numbers’ on these big online stores: https://www.amazon.com/Just…/dp/B0B981Y88K/ref=sr_1_2…
or:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/…/62687307-just-a-still-life
or Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/…/just-a…/1141989428…
or Alibris (England) https://www.alibris.co.uk/Just-A-Still…/book/51889077…
or from the publisher, Black Rose, in Texas
https://www.blackrosewriting.com/mystery/justastilllife
You can find other links, including some of my published works for FREE, at https://linktr.ee/J.Ivanel
My publishers also just sent this handy all-linker:
https://geni.us/JustaStillLife
I’d like to think that ‘genius’ reference is to the author, but alas…
As a final note, but one which should really be always top and centre, I’d like to thank my mother Joy, the greatest proof-reader/editor EVER for helping get this book and its sequel to the quality all books should be in before being published. And to my partner Richard, much gratitude for the fabulous photos he’s taken for book jackets, interview pics and a variety of social memes for promotional purposes. He’s also a great Beta reader, but in a different way than Mom – she looks for the tiniest of grammatical errors or missed commas, etc. and he, being a suspense reader, is wonderful at discussing plot ideas, what works, what doesn’t, what maybe COULD happen instead… Thank you to you both, I’m so lucky to have supportive and talented family members right here at Blue Belldon Farm with me! Here’s a recent photo taken of Richard and me by my dear visiting high school pal, Nancy Chesterman. There’s those views in a wider vista shot! The same mountains and orchards which appear in Just A STILL LIFE, too – just a bit further ‘down river’…
bluebellmountainblog 