A graduate of Memorial University in Biology and Geography, Snow spent over 35 years in the fisheries sector with the Canadian government and private industry in resource management and harvesting through the market, consulting those in government and industry and travelling to international markets over the course of three decades.

Snow did his research, and kept notes, and as such had more than a few stories to share.

“All of my fishing career, I had gathered a lot of documentation and oh jeez, I don’t know how many years it took before I got around to writing the book called From Fishing Boat To Ottawa,” shared Snow, a proud Newfoundlander who now calls Ottawa home. “I pretty well told the whole story of the fishery off Newfoundland as it pertained to Canadian fisheries and also foreign fishing as well.”

Trio of tales

Snow’s From Fishing Boat To Ottawa applied his vast experience in government and industry as a manager and consultant to reveal hidden features of Eastern Canada’s fishing industry. It would follow An Atlantic Trilogy, a trio of tales of survival and tragedy centered on a fishing family, pilot whale disaster and a unique take on an Atlantic salmon’s life story.

Most recently, Snow made his debut foray into fiction with Foreign Danger, a novel of drama, suspense and intrigue that applied Snow’s own real world fisheries expertise and examines fisheries surveillance on Canada’s East Coast.

“I used to have a chance to explain to a lot of people here in Ontario about what happens offshore in Newfoundland with foreign fishing. They only know what they see sometimes in the news. So a friend of mine said ‘you should write a novel about that,’” Snow recalled. “I thought about it for a couple of years before I got around to it. And then in 2021 I managed to put it all together and got a publisher over in the U.K. and that came out. And of course, it’s called Foreign Danger.

“When I was in Newfoundland I was director of resource management there. I was involved in all the offshore activities related to foreign countries and whatever. So based on that, I wrote a novel. Now, a lot of it of course is true. It’s very realistic, there’s no doubt about that. But there’s a lot of parts of course that are not. I used my imagination on a lot of it as well.”

‘It was catastrophic’

Reflecting on three decades since the cod moratorium rocked the foundations of the province and Snow, who was in a real world position to see the ins and outs of the devastating deal, pauses.

“It was catastrophic, and it should never have happened,” he admits, explaining that warning signs were there long before ‘92.

“Back in the ‘84 and the Kirby report came out saying that we were going to have 465,000 tons of cod available and all this kind of thing, my information didn’t agree with that. And I sat down with some people and sort of explained to them and the final answer they used to give me was ‘well, this is what the scientists say.’ But you see, there were other things happening as well. I was talking with fishing vessel captains from all across the south coast who were out on the Grand Banks fishing for years. I talked with many fishermen, and the information they were giving me certainly didn’t justify that there was going to be this big influx of cod, for instance, and other ground-fish as well.

“Of course that could never last,” he adds somberly. “When I got out of university in 1970, I knew one thing for sure: unless we change management in fisheries, it couldn’t last. It just could not last. And of course, it took till ‘92 before it was completely fished out. It’s a sad story. Of course, what kills me is I was part of it. It was a sad, sad state. I mean, a lot of fishermen and a lot of people were out of work. Thousands, 30-40,000. So that’s catastrophic. It was a sad day, there’s no doubt about that, when John Crosbie had to announce that.”

For more on the written works of Gordon Snow and much more visit gordonsnow.com

Number one international and USA Today Bestselling Author Candace Osmond captivates her readers once again with her most recent book release, marking her 24th published novel, A Kingdom of Iron & Wine. Osmond is best known for her Dark Tides Series including 2018 novel The Devil’s Heart. 

Born in North York, Osmond has Newfoundland roots and grew up on Fogo Island. Influenced by creativity as far back as she can remember, the established author spent a large portion of her childhood drawing, writing, and painting. “While it’s definitely a beautiful place to live, there’s not a lot to do, especially with no other kids around who were my age,” she shared in a one-on-one interview with The Newfoundland Herald.

A Writer at Heart 

“I often found myself sitting on a rock, staring out at the sea as I dreamed of mermaids or other fantastical creatures. Some days, I’d see how far I could venture into the woods and discover giant burrows or small caves to crawl into.” The young writer had no limits to her imagination, and once a high school graduate she received acceptance letters to three different universities for creative writing. For fear of never making a career out of it she chose to study interior design instead, but continued to play around with the idea of writing a book. 

Osmond kept a handwritten plot in a journal and placed it aside, only to pull it out years later and have it become the reason her love for writing was re-ignited. The journal becoming the inspiration behind leaving the design world and diving head first into the world of freelance writing. 

“Getting paid to write for others while I worked on my own book? Yes, please! I finished the book, naively self-published it, and then got to work on my next book. I never really looked back, never gave the first title much thought or care,” she shared.

From creative writing classes and learning the ropes of the industry, to publishing short stories, trilogies, and novellas, Osmond’s love for writing was well reflected in her work. Today, Osmond has published over 20 books, hitting international bestselling lists including USA Today bestselling author, and even adding award-winning screenwriter to her long list of accomplishments. 

With years of knowledge and experience now under her belt, Osmond dusted off that original journal entry manuscript during the pandemic. Reforming and rewriting her first self-published work, she turned it into the book she had always wanted but lacked the proper skills to produce so many years ago. 

The finished product landed us here, covering the official release of A Kingdom of Iron & Wine in its final form. 

Mythical Existence

The title A Kingdom of Iron & Wine comes from the duology found throughout the novel, and will continue to flow throughout The Ironworld Series. The main character, Avery Quinn, is human. She stumbles upon a hidden mythical existence of fae, vampires, and shape-shifters.

“She straddles the line of both worlds; the tempting magic–like the alluring aroma of wine. And the harsh reality of the mortal realm–full of buildings and weapons of metal,” Osmond explained.

“I’ve never written a book or series with such a huge cast of characters. That was the most challenging part of this project, making sure they all have epic backstories, but also that those backstories connect to one another and mean something to the overall plot and future of the series. Most of all, I hope my readers find a character they can relate to. We’re always looking for ourselves in things; books, TV, movies, etc. And I think I represent many walks of life in this book/series. There’s really something for everyone.” 

This most recent release is similar to Osmond’s previous work in the sense that it’s in her chosen genre, fantasy romance, and is based in a Canadian setting, this one being Halifax. Twice as long as her usual novels, it holds a tremendous amount of thought, detail and adventure to keep readers hooked to the massive cast of characters, and a plot woven together with the past, present, and future. 

“I’ve always been drawn to fantasy and the paranormal, mostly because the possibilities are endless,” Osmond explained. 

“I have a huge imagination, I’m always thinking and dreaming of plots, themes, and magic systems. The smallest thing could ignite a massive idea. For example, I once saw an old ship-in-a-bottle at a thrift store, and it sparked the idea for a time travel fantasy about Newfoundland pirates that became six books.” 

Fantastic Tale of Magic

A Kingdom of Iron & Wine embraces the magical world of fantasy and throws us into the fantastic tale following Avery Quinn and her crew of misfit friends as she uncovers a secret society of werewolves selling fae blood to vampires on the black market. The epic and unexpected plot is balanced with romance as Quinn falls for Cillian, a vampire, as she navigates a hidden mythical world and uncovers all of its dark secrets. 

“Newfoundland has such a fantastical history of pirates, Vikings, and ghosts. The province is a breeding ground for Fantasy ideas, and I hope to bring as many as I can to life.”  

Purchase your kindle edition of A Kingdom of Iron & Wine and all of Osmond’s books on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited! 

There’s so much about writer Darrell Duke to admire. He’s passionate about nature, for one thing, and his friendship with a beluga this past fall made headlines here in The Herald and beyond. 

Duke not only adores the sea, but also its history, and can be found puttering around bays and harbours near his Placentia hometown or his Clarenville home in one of many dories he’s restored, with love, on his own time and dime. Duke is a musician too and can be heard performing at White Hills near his home. He’s a writer as well, and his literary works can be historically captivating – like An Irish Tale of Leaving or The Garden Gate – or they can be fun family reads, like The Adventures of Crunch and Munch, a book Duke penned alongside his two daughters. Duke’s latest, Swept Away, follows along the (in parts) true-to-life-yarn spun in his book The Garden Gate, but there’s so much to this tale from the cover to the concept and inspiration that deserve to be shared. 

Keeping it Local 

The cover of Swept Away features MacKenzie Reading-Wakeham, 22, a young woman from Jerseyside, Placentia. “Keep it local,” Duke opened with a laugh. Duke also keeps things, quite touchingly so, in the family. The hand holding the photo image on the cover of Swept Away is Duke’s Uncle and friend, Jack Duke, 81.

“When Dad was dying, I was at the end of his bed, sketching. Jack came over and asked what I was drawing. I showed him a pencil sketch I was working on from memory – a coping mechanism, no doubt, to distract me from the current reality,” Duke shared. The image was of Duke’s fishing stage. 

“He asked what kind of boat I had and I said ‘neither one yet.’ He asked, ‘what kind of a boat do you plan to get?’ I said ‘just something I can row, no motor, something old-fashioned.’” 

10 months after his father’s death, Uncle Jack came calling. “He showed up in Clarenville – he’s from Southeast, Placentia Bay – with the most beautiful ‘flat’ I’ve ever seen. It was October, windy and bitterly cold, but it was the best day of my life. It began my total love of old rowboats and the sea. And, of course, he would not take a cent for it. So, to say he lent me a hand is quite the understatement,” Duke said of having his Uncle’s hand on the cover of his latest novel. 

To have Loved and Lost

On the theme of Swept Away, is it really better to have loved and lost? Duke didn’t hesitate. 

“I would say absolutely. This woman that’s lost, she was the best thing that’s ever happened to this young man. For anyone who’s read The Garden Gate, there’s historic facts (like burnt out homes) there, but this woman is swept overboard from (her beau’s) dory this day and he spends every moment out looking for her.”

Because Duke has spent so much time on the sea, just rowing, meant that he could become one with the main character of his latest novel. “The sound of a splash or the sound of movement as you adjust or my feet on the bottom of the boat. Sometimes you get up and you fall. How does that feel as you land?” 

All those things he experienced, he shared. “I used to go out at night if the conditions were right. The Moon. You cannot get it out of your head once you see the moon literally painted there in strong contrast to the water. No matter where you go in that boat, you’re always in the moonlight and then stopping you hear something and it’s dark and you have no idea what that was.”

It’s just you and the sea, he added.  “You have the feeling like there is just a lot of mystery in the ocean. You only know what you see on top and you don’t see very much in comparison to what’s on the bottom.” That experience, and the mystery, he brought to Swept Away. It’s long been said to write what you know, he added.

Duke went to sea “at all hours of the day as a form of research for this book,” he shared.

“I kept challenging myself and I went out in different weather conditions –safely and not far – just to see what it was like. I had to find out how hard it was to get out of certain situations or what it felt like to be at sea alone so I could write about it.”

Duke hopes Swept Away becomes a fast fan fav, and by the look of sales so far, that seems to be happening. It’s well deserved it seems. 

“I put a lot into this one. I really lived what the character lived to the extent that I could, and I hope that shows.”

For a copy of Swept Away, visit amazon.ca

At 77 years of age, Grandpa Pike (real name Laurie Blackwood Pike), says he’s lived a good life. He’s an accomplished author with many books under his belt, including Grandpa Pike’s Outhouse Reader, Number Two, and Pea Soup for the Newfoundland Soul, for one thing. 

Now, as he faces the biggest battle – a terminal illness – he shared how his  latest book, Sick in Bed, Across Two Chairs, With My Feet Out Through the Window, is the latest in a literary legacy he feels honoured to leave behind. The ‘Sick in Bed’ line is something his father always said, he recalled. 

A Chance Encounter

“Dad was a minister and he’d be in his office working and he’d say ‘if anyone comes, just say I’m not here,’ when he was busy. And we’d say, ‘well, what if anyone comes and says they see your car there and they know you’re home,’ and he’d say, ‘just tell them I’m sick in bed, across two chairs with my feet out through the window.’ It’s a Newfoundland saying, I’m thinking, but I knew it from him,” Pike shared.

Pike, who was not timid when it came to the fact that he has a terminal illness, says he has his sixth book “ready to go” but offered that “chances are good it will never see the light of day publishing-wise” because his illness has advanced. Beaton Tulk’s memoirs, A Man of my Word, was penned by Pike. In fact, it was their shared illnesses that united the two in the first place, Pike shared.   

“(Tulk) and I bumped into each other at the Health Science (Centre) one day and that’s how we ended up getting together to write the book. We both told the other  so we knew all along that we both had a terminal condition.”

Pike has been fighting a metastasizing carcinoma. “There’s no known cause and has nothing to do with lifestyle. Apparently it’s just a random thing that hits. And there’s no known cure, just different courses of medicine that can slow down the spread of it throughout the body,” he shared. With“terrible side effects” to deal with, nothing known to modern medicine seemed to help, he added. 

‘I’m still around’

“I decided in February of last year that there is just no point in putting the body through any more turmoil without any hope of improvement and with the risk of very serious side effects. So I was told I’d be lucky to make it to Christmas. And now, Christmas is over, and I’m still around,” he offered positively.

His only daughter is home visiting, he added, and life is “very much worth living.” In fact, he added, it’s “good to the last drop.” 

“I could go on and on about my complaints. Things that keep me from travelling or from doing other things, but why? I can deal with all that stuff, especially when you were told you might not make it to Christmas and you think, ‘well, it’s all borrowed time now. Every day is a blessing.’ You don’t dwell on the negative you focus on the positive.”

Like the fact that his daughter, an emergency room nurse, was able to spend three weeks over the holidays with her family. “I’ve accepted things, and I think family are quite pleased that I have. I’m 77 and lived a good, long life and I’ve accomplished pretty well everything I wanted to. So, I’m ready,” he said.  

Pike reflected. “I started making notes and writing things down when I was a teenager and while I lost most of those notes when we had a flood in our basement, I found that once you commit something to paper, you sort of remember it,” he shared.

Look at the up-side

Pike’s writings are usually small stories, and with rare exception, they are true tales.  “One of the things that I always wanted to do was write and tell my story. Share some funny stories and hopefully some that may be inspiring or thought-provoking or whatever. I’ve changed names and locations and places to protect somebody who may still be alive or wouldn’t want to be identified, but it’s pretty much autobiographical otherwise.”

 One chapter in his latest book is people he won’t forget. “Every story is about people who meant a lot to me. I don’t know if they’re my favourites of the whole book, but they’re certainly very personal,” he said.

We ask if he feels that he’s leaving a little bit of a legacy behind. He paused. 

“Yes, I do. I do. My daughter has every one of my books, and there’s a lot of stuff in these books that she didn’t know as there were stories she never heard about. So it’s sort of like a history thing for her and for my wife as well. I was 37 when I met my wife so I had quite a bit of life lived before I met her.”

Pike said he always went with a humourous angle when it came to sharing his tales. “I’m not a sports star or a politician. I’m just someone with a story to share. I always felt that people would be more likely to want to read things if I took a lighter approach. That’s how I tackle my illness too. I can focus on the negative, or focus on the positive. I always try and look at the up-side. The reality doesn’t change, but how you feel about it does, and that’s what matters.”

For more, visit grandpapike.com

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In Arnold’s cove, the town where Ray Guy was born and raised,  friends, family and fans of the late writer and satirist gather in his memory to celebrate Ray Guy: Portrait of a Rebel, a new book written by Ron Crocker. 

Crocker, who worked with Guy at The Telegram in the late 60s and early 70s, has long lectured on Guy and used, in part, much of those personalized and sought-after speaking notes to pen Portrait of a Rebel.

With chapter titles like Colouring Outside the Lines, Lions’ Den and Friends of my Enemy, anyone either bit acquainted with who Ray Guy was – a thorn in the side of one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s most colourful former premiers, Joey Smallwood for one thing – would be chomping at the proverbial bit to get their hands on a copy.   

Guy’s sister, Iris Brett, is at the gathering and she generously shared a comical yarn that involved her brother releasing (and darn near sending to the great bird paradise in the sky) a chatty – and very much treasured by their boarding  house mistress – budgie bird. 

‘Difficult Things’

Crocker, when asked why  now is the right time to release a book on his late friend, shared that, if anything, it’s quite late coming. 

“The better time would have been a couple of years after (Guy) passed away in 2013, but I didn’t get started on it until about 2015 or so, and it took me a long time to get it in order,” he admitted. 

It was time well spent, it seems. Crocker spent much of the past few years talking to those who knew Guy best, as well as pouring over past writings of one of this province’s most treasured characters to ever hold a pen or pound away at a keyboard. In hindsight, now might be just the perfect time, Crocker continued as he signed copies of his book. 

“Maybe it’s a pretty good time because the memory of (Guy) has not faded, but it could use some strengthening, and I think the book will help. I hope it does anyway, because part of the objective is to make (Guy) better known to younger people,” he shared 

With Guy’s sister there for support, it’s clear the family were on board. 

“Iris (Brett) in particular, was absolutely critical. I know it’s a cliché to say it could not have been done without her, but in this case, it’s absolutely true, and she’s very important.”

Kathie Housser, Guy’s wife, was also key, he continued. “In fact, one of the difficult things about writing this book is that it was about half done when (Housser) passed away in 2017, and it took me a long while to get going again because she was so integral to the project.” 

She was ill, he explained, and as the interviews progressed, she grew tired. 

‘A Major Component’

“She was a major component of my ability to get it all together, and I’m sorry she didn’t get to see it finished,” he said.

When asked if he had a favourite Guy yarn to share, he paused in thought, looking out across Arnold’s Cove for –  perhaps – inspiration. 

“I wish I’d had a better answer to that question, but the answer is; I’ve got literally hundreds. But I’ll give you one that’s not in the book,” he said.

It was around 1970, he continued, and the provincial Conservative Party were electing Frank Morris as their leader. “There was a convention held in a church hall on Craig Miller Avenue. I think the church was called St. Mary’s and the speeches were all in the early evening.”

He and Guy were living together at the time, he continued, and they arrived late. “For some reason, when we arrived, there was absolutely no parking anywhere except in front of a no parking sign, which was very large. (Guy) pulled in and parked in front of the no parking sign, and there was a constabulary guy on the other side of the street shouting, ‘You can’t park there, you can’t park there. That’s no parking.’ (Guy) shouted back, ‘Would you mind putting the ticket on it for me?’” We laugh.

What does Crocker think the key was to Guy’s success?  “I’m pretty confident in saying that Newfoundland has not produced a better writer than Ray Guy in all genres. It’s produced, perhaps, people in more narrow genres like novelists and so on. Or poets. But in terms of being able to write in many, many different categories, many different genres, many different voices, many different ways, I don’t think (Guy) has an equal. And I also think that no other writer has had such an impact on Newfoundland politics and society as (Guy) did in the 60s and 70s. And even beyond,” he said. 

Bob Wakeham, a coworker and friend of Guy’s, was in Arnold’s Cove to honour his late friend and to support the book’s release. A fine writer in his own right, Wakeham generously shared his thoughts on what made Guy the writer – and the person –  he was. 

‘Only one Ray Guy’

“There was only one Ray Guy and there never will be another Ray Guy,” Wakeham began. “He was a good friend and he was my journalistic hero. One thing I remember about him when I first met him in ‘72 was that I was just a raw rookie and he was already a legend. He was a journalistic superstar. What I remember most is that he treated me as an equal. He was taking down government and I was covering roaming dogs in Torbay. And it didn’t make any difference to him. We were two journalists.”

Later, when Wakeham became Executive Producer of CBC’s Here and Now, he asked Guy to do some television commentaries for the station. “They turned out to be one of the most popular segments that we ever had on the show, at least during my tenure there.”

Wakeham proudly shared that he “never touched a word of what Guy had written,” though that doesn’t mean the two never interacted before the cameras came on. “I think the only piece of advice I ever gave him was, just before he went on air one day I went over and I said, ‘Ray, you’re going to have to wipe that mustard off that sweater.’ He was not in tune with the television world, I’ll just say that,” Wakeham laughed.

We ask Ray’s Sister her thoughts on her late brother. Brett paused. 

“He was very kind and compassionate. He was inclusive. He treated everybody the same,” she shared.  While she offered the family were always proud of Guy, to them, he was simply ‘Ray’ – always comical. Always teasing. 

“He used to tease my parents so much they didn’t know whether to believe him or not. In fact, when he was getting married, he called me in a panic and he said that he was getting married in three weeks but our parents didn’t believe him so could I please try and convince them to do so,” she said, laughing at the memory.

No Support for Joey

We ask if the family, while living in Arnold’s Cove during the Joey Smallwood days, felt any pressure or fall out from her brother’s satirical anti-Joey writings. “Yeah, but they were able to handle it, so they were good. We were raised in a very political family. Did we support Joey? No my dear, we did not. Back then, my parents weren’t fond of being part of Canada, so (Guy) came by that honestly, I guess you could say.”   

As Crocker prepared to read an excerpt from his book to those gathered, it had to be asked; do you miss Guy?

“I think, during the research and writing of the book, I felt (Guy) was around and it was like I could have a chat with him. But of course, he wasn’t and I couldn’t,” Crocker said. Still, writing Portrait of a Rebel meant that Guy was around all the time. “He was constantly in my world and in my life for the last five years or so. In that sense, I guess our friendship carried on through that. But obviously he wasn’t there to let go with one of his patented silly giggles.” 

The final words go to Guy, as taken from Crocker’s book in Guy’s own words as written in The Northeast Avalon Times in March 2013. 

“Hail and Farewell. My thanks to you, and to one heck of a patient publisher. This is my last crack out of the box anywhere, at any time. No apologies and no silly excuses. I was born April 22, 1939. I began this journalizing racket in 1962. So, I have settled Mr. Hitler’s hash, defrosted the Cold War and pensioned Joey Smallwood. Come Robin. Our work here is done.” 

 For more visit www.boulderbooks.ca