I’m a hoot!

Hello!  Allow me to introduce myself … I am Odessa!

What am I doing here (I can hear you asking)? Well I decided to take over Colin’s blog. Here’s the problem you see …”The Odessa Chronicles” (note my name in the title) has not sold a copy for quite a few weeks now. I could just leave it to chance (aka Colin and Carolyn), but I have little faith in that having any impact, or I could take charge … hence why I am here!

So what”s  the book all about? Glad you asked! It’s about a very clever Barn Owl (me), and a few other characters, one of which (sadly) is a human.  One of the other characters is a Jackalope named Jaxon, and then there is a cat named Dewey …  and of course we cannot forget me (note my name is in the book title).

We three (Jaxon, Dewey and I) came together as a result of unfortunate circumstances and I (the main person in the book, hence the book title) managed to find us an old and abandoned farm to live in. Things quickly went south when a human moved into the farm (the cheek!). He had apparently just retired, and so dreamed about an idyllic life on a rural farm, but we were about to change all that! I was surprised at how easy it was to train him to be relatively acceptable to us, and we soon started having the adventures that are written in the book.

Of course it was always up to me (Odessa … the book title?)_ to get them out of trouble. Dewey was a typical cat. He was either sleeping or eating. Jaxon was a typical Jackalope (is there such a  thing?) with magic at his finger tips. In reality it was probably at his tail, given the mistakes he made. The human soon became known as the man-servant (good training eh!) … and then, of course there is “Moi!”, whose name is featured prominently in the book title.

So what else do I think you should know? Well, from my perspective (being the only one that matters really … the book is named after me after all), the book is a collection of stories suitable for young, middle-age, and senior children (I believe  it is promoted as “suitable for ages 4 to 104”).

We have lots of adventures, and I made sure that there were lots of good messages to get from the various stories. The importance of friendship; how four totally different beings can get along well together;  the frustrations when things go wrong, and the celebrations when they go right!

I think the most important part of the book … is me! That is why I am in the title, in case you had not noticed. My book is available from any on-line book retailer, and also direct from the FriesenPress Bookstore (Sssh…. don’t tell anybody, but the paperback and hard-copy versions are probably cheaper at the FriesenPress Bookstore).

So there you are. If you have never met a really nice, sensitive, compassionate, understanding, well educated, warm and friendly Barn Owl, then get the book and allow me (and those others) into your life. You won’t regret it. You have the word of Odessa. What more could you possibly want?

Odessa.

The “Big Water”

To my more recent Followers, and to anybody/everybody who is not familiar with a Barn Owl named Odessa, the link below goes to an earlier Post which covers an excerpt from the book “The Odessa Chronicles”. Whereas the book is, for the most part, a collection of short stories, the excerpt in the Post linked below is from a quite lengthy adventure as Odessa tries to find answers to some questions about her past. Continue reading

“The Odessa Chronicles”

Writing fiction can be a very interesting experience, particularly when the fictional characters start talking to you! As soon as I realized that there was a dialogue possibility between the characters and myself, I decided to take advantage of the situation and proceeded to arrange for two interviews with the namesake of the book … Odessa! Continue reading

The “Odessa” Evaluation.

Getting any book ready for publishing is challenging for many reasons, but one key one is simply the thought “Is it good enough for publishing?” I have heard of a number of writers who just blindly go ahead, but I really thought that there were considerable potential benefits with having the manuscript professionally evaluated.

We subsequently submitted “The Odessa Chronicles” to Friesen Press … and waited! Continue reading

“The Pumpkin Games” Part 2

When she woke up, it was morning! She was lying on the sofa in the farmhouse with a blanket over her. “What happened?” she asked. “How did I get here?” Continue reading

“The Pumpkin Games” Part 1

With Christmas imminent, and knowing that all of you have a child (by definition … a fun person aged 4 to 104) inside you, here is Part 1 of a story which is a little out of season … but fun all the same. Continue reading

“The Odessa Chronicles” – a new review.

Reviews are so important for book sales, and so it is always exciting to see/read a new one. Below is the latest review, which includes a slightly different perspective of “The Odessa Chronicles”. Continue reading

“The Greenwoods Election.”

Some of you may be aware that there are some political “sensitivities” around here at the moment at both our Provincial and Federal levels of government. Most of you are probably aware of the “sensitivities” in the UK regarding Brexit. All of you are no doubt aware of the “sensitivities” in the USA. Probably none of you are, however, aware of the issues surrounding the Greenwoods election. Continue reading