January was an exciting time for local author, Tanya Reimer of Bellegarde, who saw the release of a new book, “Can’t Dream Without You,” the first in her series, The Dark Chronicles.
The Dark Chronicles is a series focused on Whisperers who are on a journey back to immortality following The War of 2019. The Whisperers also made an appearance in a previous novel by Reimer, “Petrified.”
“It shares the same concept of magical Whisperers haunting the prairies, but it's part of an adult collection set in the near future after a war in 2019,” Reimer explained.
In, Can’t Dream Without You, Reimer’s character Steve is no ordinary person. “[Steve] plays with demons, his soul travels to a dream realm at night using mystical butterflies, and soon he’ll earn the power to raise the dead,” a press release from Elsewhen Press states.
Steve’s father, Al, is determined to make the world a better place, but to do this it appears he must kill his own son. So, on Steve’s sixteenth birthday, Al conducts a ritual transferring the dark magic his son was wielding to a girl he could kill instead.
Steve discovers what his father has done and is determined to prevent the murder, so he takes Julia’s soul to the dream realm. Spending five years there, Steve begins wondering what’s real and what’s a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare.
“This is actually a little story I started many years ago, in fact, the first draft saw the light over 18 years ago,” Reimer explained. “It was originally planned to be a horror story about someone who was kidnapped from their job, escapes and returns to kidnap her attacker. In a sense those elements are still in the book, but now with different twists. During that first draft, I had no idea Steve and Julia were Whisperers and I'm glad I revisited the magic.”
“The collection [Dark Chronicles] follows the journey of several different Dark Whisperers as they struggle to see the Light. Steve and Julia were a great way to open this collection of dark stories as well as introduce adults to the darker side of Whisperers.”
“I had three influences for this particular story from the Dark Chronicles. One was Cannington Lake, not far from Carlyle. I went there a few times while working on this story, and found the area inspired a lot of the scenes. The other was my job when I wrote the first draft. I was, at the time, working in a grocery store. The owner gave me a warning to never unload freight alone when the store was closed, for safety reasons. Of course, my imagination took off and I got thinking about a bunch of bad things that could happen! What if I was kidnapped by the driver while unloading freight and tossed in the semi!? The last bit of inspiration came from my own still unpublished works of Whisperers.”
The book is currently out in digital form and will be published, in print, this April.
Reimer has always been interested in writing, which began when she was in high school, at the age of 15, for the Redvers Optimist. Reimer had a weekly column and her love of writing grew, leading to Reimer successfully writing to completion a book at the age of 18-years-old. Although it was never published, and Reimer has said in the past that “it wasn’t very good,” it was an essential piece of the puzzle in Reimer pursuing her passion of writing and growing as an author
Reimer has now successfully published three books with the release of, Can’t Dream Without You. Her other novels include the first in her series Sacred Land, titled “Ghosts on the Prairies” which focuses on the Francophone history and pioneers in the 1900s, although it comes with a paranormal twist. As well as the aforementioned, Petrified.
“It feels like the next step,” Reimer said of successfully publishing her third novel. “ These stories I worked on for years. They've been part of my journey for a long time and I look forward to getting more of these stories into the hands of readers.”
Reimer holds a diploma in Journalism/Short Story Writing and continues to submit to newspapers, publishes the local Francophone newsletter in Bellegarde, and writes a blog Life’s Like That, while she continues writing her speculative fiction novels.
Having been working hard on her passion, Reimer explains, “To an aspiring writer, I would say, All artists should create what moves them with passion and without fear of judgement. Go places with your work that others tend to avoid, stand out by seeing the small things not the big pictures, by that I mean don't write about the flood, but write about the water rushing over the perfect blade of wheat, crumbling it, crippling it, destroying all it promised. Show the struggle against the torrent.”
“To someone who wants to be published, I would share my two cents from a past interview: While writing might be art, publishing is business. Writing and publishing are often thought about as one, but they aren't the same. Many write and never publish. Some write to sell. Others fall somewhere in between. I'm glad I gave myself the freedom to create without the worry about selling. In other words, I wrote with dreams, and now, I publish with goals. When you start writing, you learn about the creative side, (everything from grammar to plots) and when you're ready to journey into that business aspect of writing, you must take the time to learn all you can about the business (everything from the market trends to which stories will complement and drive your sales). Understand it as well as you did the creative aspect. This will allow you to stay in control of your work and make the right choices for your career.”
Reimer is excited to share this new story and adds that fans can be “on the lookout for another Sacred Land Story!” in the near future.
