YORKTON - With the recent release of Haunted, Kelvington author Ruth Chorney wraps up her Deer Creek mysteries series.
The series began in 2019 with Chorney’s debut novel, Buried, a murder mystery set in northeast Saskatchewan, was short-listed for a High Plains Book Award in Billings, Montana.
"My first novel, Buried, is a murder mystery which was inspired by a 'challenge' (story starter) at a Tisdale Writers’ Group meeting: 'The prisons are filled with innocent people',” Chorney explained in a 2021 Yorkton This Week interview.
She published a second novel, Conspiracy in 2020, was also set in rural northeastern Saskatchewan, near the fictional town of Deer Creek, this is the story of Joel, a young man who always hoped to be a farmer.
And now Haunted has hit the shelves.
Chorney provided a little about her latest effort which she noted is filled with realistic characters you might at your local Co-op, Haunted follows women of all ages bonding in mutual support.
It’s post COVID-19, 2022. In dire financial straits, and without available housing, Marny Elliot and her young family move from Vancouver to her grandparent’s long-vacant farm in northeastern Saskatchewan. Their move sets in motion a series of events which unravel unsolved mysteries in the community of Deer Creek.
The story sort of closes the circle in terms of the author’s trilogy as it ties back to her initial book.
“Readers of my first novel, Buried, suggested the main character, Tera, might be ‘haunted’ by how that story ended. They wanted to know how Tera was coping. And, so, with new characters and a new plot entwined into the lives of Tera Jones McAllen and her neighbour Gloria, I integrated Tera’s story with that of Marny and her family,” said Chorney.
Moving from Vancouver to an abandoned, possibly haunted, rural property lends itself to circumstance of urban-rural ‘culture shock’, she said. Marny, who comes across as independent and a bit ‘prickly’, ‘not a people pleaser’, finds herself in need of help from her neighbours. The story relates how she and her husband Chase (who goes to work at a potash mine near Saskatoon) and her kids (Griffin, 5 and Faith, 4) discover the joys and challenges of country living. Marny has ‘issues’ with her mother Saige, an environmental activist turned psychic. And young Faith has brought along a(n) (imaginary) dragon named Esmeralda who seems to know things a 4-year-old couldn’t possibly know.
Chorney, who was born and raised in the Kelvington area, said she drew inspiration for her latest book from “immigrant families adapting to a new country and a friend commenting that moving to ‘the prairies’ was ‘like being in a foreign land’.”
For Chorney who admitted to a lifelong passion for farming; even as a university student, she spent summers working on the family farm south of Kelvington, hauling hay and working with chuckwagon ponies and saddle horses, that element of her life reflects in the book.
“I love the opportunity to showcase the land and people of northeastern Saskatchewan -- yes, even the weather, which has its fair share of ink in this novel,” she said. “I want readers to ‘get over’ the idea that Saskatchewan is flat and treeless ‘without a whole lot goin’ on’ -- (to quote Corner Gas) -- and to appreciate what I consider to be the most beautiful part of the world.”
Chorney said her works reflect her love of the land and people of Saskatchewan.
“My story is character-driven,” she said of Haunted. “If we can look inside the lives and struggles of other human beings, we become more compassionate. I hope that my novels inspire readers to consider that we have no idea what others are dealing with day to day and to open themselves to empathy.
“The story is multi-generational. Showing bonding between various generations is much healthier than limiting all interactions to one small age group. I’ve even included a dragon! She’s ageless.”
Now into her third novel Chorney said her readership has expanded.
“My readership started out quite local, but is spreading,” she offered. “I’ve had feedback from people in all the western provinces and one in the Maritimes. Both men and women enjoy the novels. Recently, I’ve done readings for schools and several students 14-plus have shown interest.
“I was thrilled to hear that a Grade 12 student in Tisdale chose one of my novels (Buried) for her Novel Study in Canadian Lit class.”
Haunted and other Deer Creek novels are available from SaskBooks, McNalley Robinson in Saskatoon, SaskMade Marketplace in Saskatoon, Simply Prairie in Wadena, and directly from the author at her website: ruthchorney.ca
