Come to Breakwater Books this Saturday afternoon for tea and a treat–two generations of novelists!
Friends, House, and BSG on Steroids!
Katje van Loon began writing Bellica at the age of thirteen. Twelve years later–imagine how many revisions!–she is ready to launch this flagship narrative of her series of tales of Zarqon, a planet whose history is mysteriously tied to a long-ago Terran past. This first book, an action-packed adventure that is yet keenly observant of interrelationships of both love and hate between people, is set in Athering, a country run by valiant women whose male cronies and partners are the men we on earth have so longed to meet. Swashbuckling Bellica Yarrow, who fancies herself hard as nails and twice as sharp, stands at the center of this tale of a death-defying duel between the forces of light and darkness–and its remarkable ending.
Future books in the series will touch on other times and continents on Zarqon–the second volume is well underway. Here’s your chance to own a first edition of the foundation volume, signed by the young author, at a special price. When Zarquon is on re-runs on TV (or whatever it is we’ll be watching in another twenty years), you’ll be guarding this well thumbed souvenir copy from your envious friends!
La Chiripa is a Costa Rican word meaning the stroke of luck. Could be good luck; could be bad luck, but the fugitives, Alma and her daughter Pira, hang onto the little brown wooden bird that symbolises luck for them through thick and thin.
Praise for La Chiripa
“A piercing look at the psychology of the main characters, especially insightful into the mind of a Canadian pre-teen abducted by her mother. Inventive plot, language and structure make La Chiripa enjoyable on many levels. Sparkling dialogue and all-too-human vignettes bring together Japanese tourists, the peoples of Guatemala and, best of all, the sparky character of precocious Pira, on the run with her kooky mother from her estranged—and strange—father. A feat!”
—Tanis Helliwell, Decoding Your Destiny
“This, the tale of a young girl’s struggle to create meaning, is not a young girl’s book. It is a book for adults, a cautionary story about the chaos we weave and for which we must ultimately bear responsibility.
“Its heroine, Pira, is the not-so-quiet centre at the book’s heart. What to say about Pira? In describing her, I’m driven to cliché: a tough shell guarding a tender, hidden heart—a heart that can be, and is, wounded. But Pira herself is no cliché. She is, in the author’s own words, ‘Ix, the jaguar girl!’
“The plot embodies the same twists as the roads of Todos Santos, where it is impossible to guess what is coming around the next corner. Know only that the author’s sure hand will guide us through the most frightening of mountain passes. Some books have a straightforward plot that takes us decorously from beginning to end. This is not a decorous book: it twists, it turns, it flings us into the air, and cares little where we may land. But there is truth at its core. Simple, profound truth, if we take the time to discover it.
“[A]ll children must reclaim the stolen parts of their lives. The glory is that it can indeed be done. That is the lesson Pira has come to teach us.”
—Susan Young de Biagi, Cibou
“Fantastic! I’m not an avid reader but I couldn’t put it down. And I really couldn’t—I was glued to that bench in the kitchen for two days.”
—Carla Soregaroli
“I have finally finished reading La Chiripa and must say it was the best (and I do mean the best) book I have read, ever! WOW! I’m going to re-read it, again (Mom can wait her turn)—it was that good! It definitely should be a movie! Thank you so much for letting me read it! I LOVED IT! You did wonderful describing Guatemala! I felt, even though I haven’t been there, I’ve been there. Well done! I can’t wait to read the next one—I’m hungry for more reading!”
—Luis Zajac
Please attend to support your local writers and the Community Heritage Publishing Project Powell River!
If you received this email more than once, please accept our apologies and enjoy again the beautiful artwork on the cover of La Chiripa, a painting by Powell River painter Autmn Skye Morrison.
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