The book I’m currently working on, which is book 3 in my Ebb and Flow series (a spin-off of Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat that takes place primarily in Nova Scotia), is rapidly becoming a love letter to the summer cottage my Canadian grandparents (my mother’s parents) owned until I was 14 or so. I spent a week or two nearly every summer visiting those grandparents, and until they sold the cottage, that time was mostly spent there. (This is a picture of a photo I took sometime around 1983 or 1984 of that cottage.)
In Ebb and Flow, one of the main characters, Malachi William Powers, is a 130ish-year-old werewolf from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia…who, in fiction-land, would be an ancestor of mine. My grandmother was a Powers; William is a name given as first or middle name to a few of my relatives on that side of the family. (I just really like the name Malachi.) Because of that, when I needed a relatively isolated place for lone wolf Malachi to live, I chose my grandparents’ cottage. I believe, though I may be incorrect, that the cottage was built by my grandmother’s father, meaning it was a Powers family cottage.
In real life, the cottage was sold when I was in my teens. I haven’t been inside since, and the exterior doesn’t resemble the cottage I remember visiting. But in fiction-land, in the Ebb and Flow series proper, the cottage’s appearance is what I recall from the late 1970s-early 1980s. In Malachi’s prequel to the series, Hooch and Howls, the cottage isn’t as clearly described but resembles what I imagine it would have looked like if it was there around 1930, when Hooch takes place.
The first two books of the series, Ebb and Flow, and Future and Past, have the Canada-set parts of the story taking place at the home of Silas Creighton, the Anax (werewolf ruler) of Canada, who lives on a private island in Mahone Bay. Creighton being another name from my childhood; though not related to me as far as I know, the Creighton family was close with the Powerses and Pykes, and as in the books, the Creightons owned the cottage next to the one my grandparents owned. (I think Creightons bought the cottage when my grandparents sold it, but again, I can’t remember for sure.) In Ebb and Flow, Malachi briefly brings his mate Quinn to the cottage just to show it to him and pick up some clothes, but we don’t get the full picture of it.
This third book, Storm and Shelter, which I’m currently working on, starts in Massachusetts, where nearly the first half of the story takes place, then goes briefly to Silas’s…and then the rest of the book takes place in and around Malachi’s cottage when Quinn finds himself unable to tolerate staying at Silas’s after the events of Future and Past. Which means I’ve spent the past three and a half weeks diving into my admittedly not entirely accurate memories of the cottage and its appearance and trying to put the description into words. I do have a few pictures of the interior and exterior of the place from my childhood, but a lot of the writing is just relying on my memory.
In my childhood, that cottage was one of my safe places. One of the places where I knew I would be treated with love, and where the parent who constantly criticized and yelled at me would be shut down by my grandparents. Where I learned how to construct a wooden bench that was so rickety that only my then-2-year-old cousin could sit on it. Where I spent hours in the sand and the salt water.
In writing this book, I’m giving my inner child back that safe place, at least for a little while, as well as giving the home in fiction-land to one of the favorite fictional couples I’ve created, Malachi Powers and Quinn Boucher. Some of the description in the first draft of Storm and Shelter will probably be cut out for length and pacing, but for now, I’m indulging it.