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Author draws on personal history for Canada 150 novel

An area author’s personal family history has inspired her latest novel, to be featured in a series showcasing Canadian women’s stories over the last 150 years.

An area author’s personal family history has inspired her latest novel, to be featured in a series showcasing Canadian women’s stories over the last 150 years.

“I’ve always known that I had a lot of family history that someday I would like to write about,” said Mahrie Reid. “All these stories then came to fruition.”

Reid is the author of three novels in the Caleb Cove Mysteries series, including Came Home Dead, published in 2014, along with Came Home to a Killing and Came Home Too Late. Cochrane’s Tea … And Other Things carries the books in its local authors section.

Reid has made fast work of her second career, given the Didsbury-area woman really started fleshing out her fiction only after she retired from her job as a teacher in 2013.

“The first two (Caleb Cove) books were partially written (while still working),” Reid said, adding she has been with a writers’ group for 25 years and previously dabbled in poetry and short fiction. “I always knew that once I reached retirement that I would then write seriously, for publication.”

Last fall, Airdrie publisher Books We Love approached Reid to pen one of 12 historical novels in their Canadian Historical Brides series to honour Canada’s 150th birthday.

The first book, titled Brides of Banff Springs, was written by Calgary author Victoria Chatham and released in January. The second featuring an Ontario story was released in March. Fictional archival stories of immigrant brides and grooms from all provinces and territories will continue to find their way into bookstores until July 2018.

Reid’s novel, titled The Left Behind Bride and set in Nova Scotia, is the 10th in the collection and will hit shelves next April.

The main character, yet unnamed, is a bride for just 10 days when her husband is shipped overseas and does not return. The widow is then courted by a fisherman – who gets lost at sea.

“In this book, she’s decided that she’s going to have to take care of herself,” said Reid of her heroine. “It’s about survival.”

Reid’s own mother was widowed at 24 years old, and she said her mom’s experiences were inspiration for the fictional bride’s challenges in the novel.

“She had quite the story of survival of her own,” said Reid, adding her mother’s first husband “drowned in a river you can walk across.”

“She had another incident with a guy that courted her – they were about to be married and she found out he had no intention of taking her two children.”

Reid said she won’t give away too much more of the plotline – but she’s excited in general to share stories about such a rich time in Canada’s history about women who haven’t yet had a spotlight shone on them.

“You don’t hear about the ordinary, everyday women,” she said. “It took a lot of digging to find any books to find about the days of everyday women.”

Reid will continue to write The Left Behind Bride, and in the meantime is about two-thirds of the way through the fourth Caleb Cove book – entitled Came Home from the Grave – which is due out in June.

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