Bernadette Calonego My crime thrillers are always set in places that I know personally. The detective Calista Gates series for instance takes place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Some of you might know that every year I live several months in a tiny fishing community in northern Newfoundland. Detective Calista Gates is the police chief in St. Anthony, a town about half an hour from the village where I`m staying.
For my next crime novel, I have set my eyes on a very remote but stunning northern region between Labrador and the province of Québec. I love remote areas in the North: I was in the Arctic twice and also in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. But this time, I really have to get creative to be able to travel to my desired destination. There is a tourist lodge that offers accommodation and exploratory trips with seaplanes and hiking guides. But like everything that is far up in the Great North, it is expensive. Very expensive. A seven-day trip (two days for getting there) would cost me around 16000 Canadian dollars or 12000 U.S. dollars. How many books do I have to sell to make that kind of money? I know that there are really great novels written by authors who had never been in the location they wrote about - but you could never tell because the book is that good.
I`m torn between using my life savings to make the trip of my dreams in order to write the book that I want. Or maybe I just stay put and do a lot of research and let my fantasy go wild. In my new mystery thriller "Bay of Evil" (out on January 20, 2023), part of the action takes place in the Torngat Mountains in Labrador, another area that I would have loved to visit but it is very expensive, too. Luckily, Covid 19 made the decision for me: the destination was closed. I was allowed to use the experiences of a couple who trekked through the area a few years ago. It worked splendidly for my mystery thriller.
Isn`t reading to live on borrowed life? When we read about far-away places that are unattainable, don`t we go there in our imagination and they become very real?
Hey, maybe I make a lot of money with my new book and then I pack my bags and just go North! I will let you know, one way or the other. A Dark Chill