Bernadette Calonego's Blog: Eventful - Posts Tagged "wilderness"

When one of my beta readers (what a word, not my invention) had finished my new crime novel "Murderous Morning", she said that what impressed her most was how I had captured life in a small town. The gossip, the backstabbing, the living-in-each-others-pockets, the intrigues, the pettiness, the jealousies, the hidden conflicts. Of course, that is not all there is, and I am witness to that. I grew up in a village on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Our neighbours were a farmer and a nursery. I have fond memories of my childhood in that village. I was not totally sheltered, for which I am thankful, because my days were full of small adventures.
I`m sure that there are intrigues in cities, too, but because a village is more transparent and everybody knows everybody, the conflicts are more out in the open. Even today, I remember a lot of dramas in small town life. And tragedies, too. A girl in my class was raped at age 14, and I was one of the the young pallbearers for babies who were buried in tiny white coffins. In school, I was taught by a Catholic nun who told us girls not to go swimming in the lake (she probably didn`t like our bathing suits).
In "Murderous Morning", the drama is heightened by murder and the fact that the mining town of Whatou Lake in Northern British Columbia is surrounded by wilderness. The people there are facing a whole range of challenges that make life precarious and different. Every year, I spend many months in an isolated village in Northern Newfoundland and I can see how the forces of nature, the weather and the wilderness shape people`s mind sets and reactions.
I like my books not only to be a source of suspense but also a source of knowledge about other cultures and other ways of life. Next time, I will tell you how I am staring down winter in Northern Newfoundland. Maybe the winter and cold will be staring me down...

Recently I read that book ads with the word "missing" in them are very successful. I have no way to verify this claim but what I know is that stories of missing persons fascinate and scare me. People go missing all the time. Many, many people. In the isolated region in Northern Newfoundland where I am spending the winter, five people have gone missing in the last thirty years. One case is probably a murder.
I have read several books about people who went missing in the wilderness because I am surrounded by the vast barren tundra. One thing strikes me over and over: It is easy to get disoriented and lost in the wilderness. One doesn`t even have to make a huge mistake. A wrong turn, then another one, and soon you cannot find your return path anymore. Most lost persons keep going, first with hope, then in panic, putting distance between their starting point and the trail they are on. Which makes it more difficult to locate them.
Bad weather especially works against you when you are out there in the harsh unknown. Or the heat. I read an incredible story from 2006 about a young couple who drove up a mountain in Southern California on a train, hiked a short distance to a view point with other tourists and to a waterfall and got lost. They spent three hot days and three cold nights in the wild. They had no food, no cell phones and no adequate clothing. Eventually they found the camp of a dead hiker who also got lost. With his matches they started a forest fire that would be seen from a helicopter. It worked: they were rescued. What an amazing story. But it could easily have ended with their deaths. Here is a link to the story: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12737512
My advice: Always tell somebody where you are going to.
If you like to read more about my life in a tiny village in Northern Newfoundland, you can subscribe to my monthly newsletter on my website www.bernadettecalonego.com/eng

Murderous Morning: A heart-stopping crime novel with a stunning end.

My German editor told me recently she had noticed that there are a lot of cabins in my mystery thrillers. She's right. Cabins play an important role im my stories. How could they not: My crime novels are set in northern and other remote areas where a lot of people have cabins. Fishing cabins, hunting cabins, weekend cabins, party cabins, icefishing cabins, cabins along snowmobile trails, cabins in the woods, cabins on the lakes, cabins in the wilderness, cabins to get away from everybody.
There is a distinct cabin culture in isolated and rural areas. It is part of people's lifestyle and traditions. In my small community in northern Newfoundland, not many people can afford to go on cruises or beach holidays in Cuba or even to cities like Halifax or Montreal. But they do build a cabin to enjoy a getaway, especially in the winter when they can reach these wild locations on the snowmobile.
As it is tradition to visit people in their cabin, the cabin dwellers aren't alone for any stretch of time. Usually, visitors are welcome. They are offered tea and some cookies or they bring a bottle of rum or "screetch" with them and the chatting and hollering can begin.
Everything is simple in the cabins: old sofas, used cutlery, worn blankets, ancient calendars on the wall. But it is a great way to spend a day or two, to forget about village life and chores, to gossip and relax.
For me as an author of mystery novels, cabins are a fitting location for crimes, hideouts or eerie encounters. For this reason alone, I cannot promise there won't be any cabin in my next book. There is certainly one in "Missing in the Dark", my latest crime novel! And morbid things are happening there, I can tell you.