Genealogist Lois Magahay chronicles the lives of the 50 men who became Lindsay’s Mayors from 1857-2000 in her book “Mayors of the Town of Lindsay”.  Her presentation will be held on Thursday, June 6 at 7 pm.

For more information about the Spring Local Author Series pick up a brochure at your local library.

If you are interested in taking part in the Fall Local Author Series, please contact Diane Lansdell at 705 324-9411 ext. 1265.

From Kawartha Lakes This Week: Lindsay’s leaders help educate author about home town

On May 23, 2013, the Kawartha Lakes Public Library hosted Dorothy Thompson, author of Threads From The Loom Of Time, as part of the Local Author Series. Chief Librarian Linda Kent introduced Thompson to a crowded, eager roomful. Thompson captivated the audience with passages read aloud from her book and photos of her ancestors.

Threads From The Loom Of Time is a fictionalized account of the life and times of Thompson’s ancestors. Her book could be considered part of a genre with the freshly-coined term “faction”, meaning fiction based on facts, for Thompson’s book is made up of the stories about her grandparents handed down through the generations.

Her story also covers a fair bit of history in Ontario. Ever heard of The Battle of Crysler’s Farm? When Thompson’s Casselman ancestors emigrated to Canada, they owned land along the St. Lawrence. They sold this land to a man named Crysler.

Another of Thompson’s ancestors was Elizabeth Ware, who Florence Nightingale helped get a job as a nurse, and who then went on to become the first woman to be named head of a hospital. At the age of 52 she married Richard Thorton and moved to Muskoka. She always envisioned the land they owned in Muskoka as vacation land. When she got too old to see that dream happen herself, she sold the land to a developer interested in creating a resort. You’ve perhaps heard of it: the Deerhurst Resort.

Then there was Thompson’s grandmother, Beatrice, who was stillborn, but her father, a brilliant man who was a doctor, a surgeon, a dentist and many, many other things, wouldn’t give up. Beatrice recovered miraculously, and with a gift of accurate premonitions and a startlingly near-perfect memory. In one such premonition, Beatrice saved her family from fire.

These were just a few of the interesting details about Dorothy Thompson’s family. There are many more stories like this in her book, Threads From The Loom Of Time. You can purchase the book at Kent Bookstore, or borrow it from the Kawartha Lakes Public Library.

Read more about Dorothy Lenore Thompson.

The City of Kawartha Lakes Library presents Dorothy Thompson as part of the Local Author Series on Thursday, May 23 at 7 pm.

Dorothy Thompson’s book Threads From the Loom of Time is the history of Huntsville, Muskoka, as seen through the eventful lives of two grant land pioneer families from disparate backgrounds.

In the early 1860’s, the government of Upper Canada advertised free grant lands in the district of Muskoka and anyone could apply. Two intrepid families, the Casselmans and the Wares, took up the challenge and became neighbours on the twin sister lakes, Fairy and Peninsula. In 1901, their granddaughter, Beatrice Casselman was born with the gift of second sight in the burgeoning pioneer town of Huntsville. She was an eager receptacle for both her paternal and maternal grandfather’s family histories, taking us back to the 1700’s in Germany and the 1800’s in England and Ireland. Beatrice spent a lifetime collecting the stories of the early settlers. Now her daughter has taken the family histories and her mother’s memories of her remarkable life and woven it into a compelling epic celebrating the courage and determination of the people who built the new world.

Copies of the book can be ordered from the Kent Bookstore.

Read more about Dorothy Thompson. 

Last night the City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library (CKLPL) hosted Virginia Winters as part of the Spring session of the Local Authors Series.

The evening began with an introduction by Diane Lansdell of the CKLPL, and then Virginia Winters took the stage and spoke about her newest book, how she writes, writing advice, and the book she’s currently working on.

Virginia Winters has always had a love for literature, but she began writing in 1998 after being disappointed in the latest offering from a favourite author. She thought she could do better. Though the result was terrible, she’d been bitten by the writing bug and decided to learn to revise and make her story better. The final product was her debut novel, Murderous Roots, published by Write Words, Inc. in 2010.

Despite what you may think about authors, or even how other authors might work, Virginia doesn’t sit in front of a keyboard for eight hours a day. She rises early and begins her day with a cup of coffee, the Globe and Mail, Facebook and Twitter. Then, once caught up with reality, she reviews the writing she completed the day before and plunges in. On a good day, she’ll accumulate 1000 words, but when the writing is not flowing, she finds other writing-related tasks: submitting a manuscript, or working on a short story. Though she stops writing at noon to carry on with her daily life, the book is always on her mind no matter the task at hand. She enjoys reading every afternoon, usually mysteries, literary fiction, nonfiction for research and books about writing.

Virginia makes a daily commitment to write and in this way has been able to see three novels to publication. While she is happy with her publisher in general, she didn’t feel the covers of her first two novels adequately represented the books, so for her third book in the Dangerous Journeys series, No Motive For Murder, she designed the cover herself.

At last night’s event, Virginia read a passage from No Motive for Murder, a book for which she received the following compliment from an audience member: even though the book is part of a series, No Motive For Murder reads well on its own. A reader doesn’t have to read all the books in the series to understand what’s going on in the story.

At the moment, Virginia Winters is not working on the next book in the Dangerous Journeys series. Her latest project has an art historian for a protagonist and involves theft, art history and restoration, centring around a painting lost in 1945 in the last days of the War.

Visit Virginia Winter’s website and find her on Facebook.

Read our biography of Virginia Winters.

Thursday, May 9th, the Crime Fiction Book Club will be meeting at the Lindsay Library in attendance for the Local Author Series presentation with Virginia Winters. This month the Crime Fiction Book Club is highlighting Canadian crime fiction.

New members always welcome! Join us Thursday May 9th at 7pm in the Lindsay Library.

Thursday, May 9 at 7 P.M. at the Lindsay Library meet Virginia Winters, author of genealogy mysteries featuring Canadian heroine, Doctor Anne McPhail.

MURDEROUS ROOTS: Anne McPhail is a Canadian doctor and amateur genealogist, who find a dead body on the floor of the public library in the small town of Culver’s Mills, Vermont. The dead librarian, Jennifer Smith, was a gifted genealogical resercher, who used the information she collected about her clients, to blackmail them. Anne takes a dangerous journy, trying to find the murderer amongst Jennifer’s victims.

THE FACEPAINTER MURDERS: Anne McPhail is back in Culver’s Mills, Vermont for a quiet holiday. But Culver’s Mills is an unlucky spot for her vacation. She finds the dead body of a naked man, and is soon helping her friend Adam Davidson to investigate the murder. Who is the dead man and what was his involvement with the theft of a painting and a sampler from the art gallery? Who owns the art, James Trevelyan, an elderly man whose genealogy may hold the key, or the owners of Evan’s, the restaurant where they were found? More bodies turn up as the murderer kills the others in his criminal gang. Then he turns his attention to Anne.

NO MOTIVE FOR MURDER: Anne McPhail is on holiday in Bermuda, visiting her sister. She stumbles upon a murder in progress and this time, she is more than just a witness, she is a suspect, dealing with a police officer who decides Anne is guilty, and sticks to it in face of the evidence or lack of it. But more is going on than a random murder. Anne is caught in the middle a dangerous assassination plot. When she inadvertently upsets the killer ’s plan, he turns his attention to her. The risk spreads to her family and friends and then Thomas Beauchamp arrives on Bermuda. When his role is revealed, Anne’s life takes a dangerous turn.

About the Author: Virginia Winters was born in Arnprior, Ontario, Canada and raised in the Ottawa Valley. After high school in Renfrew, another Valley town, she went down to Queens to study medicine, graduating in 1970. Fellowship in Pediatrics followed, with graduation in 1976. That year she and her husband, Internist George Winters, moved to Lindsay, Ontario with their two children, and have lived there ever since. Virginia’s interests, besides writing, are genealogy, gardening, photography, and studying languages (currently Spanish).

PUBLICATIONS
Murderous Roots. 2009.
The Facepainter Murders. 2011.
No Motive for Murder. 2012.

The Local Author Series is a series of presentations by the City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library in which local authors have an opportunity to share their writing experiences and books with readers.

For more information or if you are interested in taking part in the Spring Local Author Series, please contact Diane Lansdell at 705-324-9411 xt 1265.