Dan McEwen may have left Sudbury three decades ago, but the landscape of his youth is very much present in his first novel, A Force of Nature.
The book, released in June by Vancouver's Friesen Press, features Claire Chandler, a Toronto PR guru visiting Bay Harbour, a Georgian Bay tourist town McEwen modelled on Killarney.
There she runs into Tom Katz, a treasure-hunting bush pilot, and the two end up solving a 50-year-old mystery. The protagonists visit local communities, including Sudbury, Parry Sound, Manitoulin Island and the La Cloche mountains.
McEwen, who worked most of his career as a Toronto freelance corporate writer, is now retired in Ridgetown, a small farming community in southwestern Ontario.
He started his career as a television journalist in Sudbury, and often worked with legendary bush pilot Rusty Blakey to get the shots he needed, thus the novel's focus on bush pilots.
Time hasn't diminished his love of this area — he still considers himself a Sudbury boy, although he's been gone many years. “All of the very best memories of my life are being in that bush and having fun with it,” McEwen said.
Although he made his living as a corporate writer, he always felt he had a novel in him. He's been trying to write this book for about 30 years, always with the same main characters and basic premise.
“I tried it, got 12 chapters done, and just couldn't do anymore," he said.
"About 15 years later, I tried again, got the same 12 chapters, and quit and couldn't figure it out.
“At the time, I wanted to blame the busyness of my life for it, but I realized it just really wasn't cooked properly in my head yet. I kept telling myself this will be kind of thing you write when you're retired and have the time.
“It became a case of careful what you wish for, because my wife passed away five years ago, and suddenly I had all the time in the world to write. I finally got the discipline it takes to sit down and work at it every day.”
He said he thinks people will enjoy the novel. “The book is designed entirely as an easy-reading, summer kind of novel,” McEwen said. “It's not heavy literature. It's just a fun read.”
A Force of Nature is available for purchase online at Amazon or at www.friesenpress.com for $2.99 for the eBook, $8.03 for the paperback and $16.49 for the hardcover.
