A Letter from Caitlyn Paxson

Dear Reader,

There’s always one remarkable evening as summer shifts to autumn, when the setting sun and the cool air somehow turn my overgrown, scraggly garden into an enchanted place, pink-tinged on the border between the worlds, full of liminal magic. A few days ago, molten light poured through the kitchen window just before dusk, and I knew that magic evening was upon us.

Summer has been so busy, so full of excitement and fretting and running around, and I feel a bit distant from the part of myself where the enchantment lives – and perhaps more notably where the stories come from. I want very badly to retire back to that place for a while and I’m fairly certain that this evening in the garden was my doorway.

Writing

A Widow’s Charm has now existed in the world for six months. I have been a published author for half of a year, and it still feels every bit as wild and difficult to comprehend as it did the very first day. After so many years of wanting a thing and working toward it, I think I expected there to be this moment of... well, narrative climax, I suppose. We do want our lives to be story-shaped. But I find that what I'd heard other authors say is true - at the top of the mountain, there is always another path to climb. And I'm eager for the journey to continue! My second novel, Rogue Charmers, is coming out next spring, so over the next few months, there will be a number of exciting developments, like revealing the gorgeous cover that I can’t wait to show you. And in the meantime, I will sit on this first summit and have a cup of tea and ponder the gratitude that I feel for everyone who helped me climb this far.

Have you ever grown dahlias? If you have, you know that if you want them to look like the picture on the package, you have to plant tubers that look like sweet potatoes. If you plant dahlia from seed, you never know what you will get, because each seed creates a unique plant. And because each plant is unique, you get to name your new varieties! So I did what any reasonable gardener/author would do and picked out my two favorites from this year’s seed-sown dahlia crop and named them Lady Hildegarde Croft (the simpler bloom with subtle iridescence) and Lord Erol Elmwood (the ruffly pink bloom that looks a bit silly but has surprising longevity) after my main characters. Was it self indulgent? Yes. Did it make me happy? Very. Being an author is a true rollercoaster of emotion, and my best advice to any fellow author is to celebrate your work in every way you can.

I felt very fortunate to be invited to some lovely events this past month. I went down to Saint John, New Brunswick for a delightful Atlantic Author Showcase at their Indigo Books, and also paid a truly lovely visit to Tidewater Books in Sackville, which has an amazing selection for a little shop and the sweetest staff. And this past weekend, I moderated a couple of events at the Cavendish Literary Festival. The best part of both events was connecting with other authors from the Maritimes and across Canada and getting to talk about my favorite thing – books!