Ellie

Ellie is a story about losing your way and finding it again.

Ellie, the youngest navigator in the fleet, challenges the authority of her uncle Astreya, the Grand Commander. Only hours later, cannon shots cripple her boat, she falls overboard and is lost ashore. Ellie tries to return home to Matris, but unexpected friends and threatening foes intervene. As her uncle, sister, and cousins search for her, Ellie is forced to travel by foot, horseback, and land crawler to the Castle, where the Governor is fomenting war.

I was born in England in 1941, during an air raid. My father was a British naval officer, my mother a singer from New Zealand. In 1949, we immigrated to Canada. After acquiring degrees in English literature, I taught at Canadian universities and then worked as a writer/editor for government and industry. I retired in 2003, and shortly after completed The Astreya Trilogy which I had begun many years earlier. All three volumes were published by Fireship Press, Tucson, Arizona in 2011.Next I wrote The Laughing Princess, a collection of 12 interrelated stories that concern dragons. It is beautifully illustrated by Ottawa artist, Shirley MacKenzie, and first published under the imprint Colophon in 2016.Back in the 60s, I was a little too old to be a hippie, but I visited folk who lived on the North Mountain of Nova Scotia in those years, and have kept in touch with some of them. For them (but not about them) I wrote The Hippies Who Meant It, published under the imprint Colophon in 2016. In 2020 I returned to the world of The Astreya Trilogy to write River of Stones, a stand alone story which takes place 20 years after the conclusion of the Trilogy, published in 2020 under the imprint Colophon. Then as a lockdown project during the Covid pandemic, I wrote Angel's Share, a novella set in the same world, chronologically a century before the Trilogy. It is a stand alone story that is also an introduction to all five books. It was published under the imprint Colophon in 2020.Ellie continues the saga three years after the close of River of Stones. It was first published in 2021.

Shirley MacKenzie was born in Halifax Nova Scotia in 1959, and by 1961 she was adopted away from her family of origin. Adoption played a significant role in Shirley's life, the likes of which she has shared in her book, Orphan Sage, published in 2010.Leaving Nova Scotia in 1965, Shirley lived and schooled most of her life in Montreal and Ottawa. She studied Arts Plastique in Montreal, and Museum Studies in Ottawa, earning two diplomas. She credits much of her skill to having studied under established Canadian artists such as, Gerald Roach, Raymond Brown, Frieda Baine and Andrew Dukowicz.Studio development became Shirley's next focus, continuing on with art exhibitions and commissions. She was invited by Saint Catherine School in Metcalfe, Ontario to create an art program for children in grades one to six. This was such a popular class for children that she opened her studio to teach privately on weekends. This position gave her enormous insight to the incredible need there is for art in early education; encouraging children to explore new ideas, take risks, and contribute with their own unique voices.Today, Shirley's focus is on developing her skills, experimenting with materials, exhibiting when she can, and enjoying the great fun book illustration can be. A large body of her work was given to museums, through exhibits, advertising, graphics - then to book illustration and private art commissions. She has illustrated and/or provided cover art for Seymour Hamilton's stories: The Laughing Princess, The Hippies Who Meant It, River of Stones, Angel's Share, and Ellie.