Archive for the ‘Books by Jane Tims’ Category
Launch of my new book
Hi. I’d like to invite you all to the official launch of my new book, ‘Open to the Skies.’ Published by Merlin Star Press, it is the story of a woman who decides to save an old church from destruction, for reuse as a writers’ retreat. I will be reading from the book and there will be snacks and a chance to see a few of my paintings of old buildings in peril. It will be at the Gallery on Queen in Fredericton (406 Queen Street) from 3:00 to 4:30 on Saturday December 6, 2025. Here is the poster! I would love to see you there!
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All my best,
Jane Tims (.k.a. Alexandra)
Winner of the Blue Toy Truck!
During the month of November, when I was at a book fair and a signing, selling my new book ‘Open to the Skies,’ I displayed a blue toy truck at the booth. The ‘blue toy truck’ is a major symbol included in the book, a way of showing how community stories are a part of every church. Churches are more than just stained glass windows and candlesticks—they are places of faith and keepers of community mythology.
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Each time someone bought a copy of ‘Open to the Skies,’ they entered into a draw for the blue toy truck on display. Yesterday, at Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, I drew for the winner of the toy truck. And the winner is Jeremy T. from Fredericton. I let Jeremy know today about the results of the draw and he was pleased to be the new owner of the little truck.
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I will be running another draw in December when I sell books in person. This will include the official launch of ‘Open to the Skies’ at the Gallery on Queen, Fredericton, on Saturday, December 6, 2025. There will be readings from the book, a chance to see a few of my paintings of older at-risk buildings, and some snacks. Also a chance for a glimpse of the beautiful gallery and artwork on display there. I would love to see you at the launch!
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All my best,
Jane Tims (a.k.a. Alexandra)
a blue toy truck
Every child who attended the Landing Church knew what was hidden under the loose floor board in aisle four on the right hand side. When the sermon and hymns became too tedious, a child could coax the floor board up and reach in to find the small blue truck. Always fun to run along the backrest of the pew.
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Open to the Skies, my new mystery, tells the story about a woman who falls in love with a church building and vows to save it from demolition. What she learns is that churches are more than stained glass and candlesticks. They are repositories of faith and community mythology. And when an older building is saved from demolition, that mythology is preserved as well.
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I will be at Dog Eared Books in Oromocto (11:00 AM to 3:00 PM) on Saturday (November 15 this week) to show you my new book. Anyone who buys a copy of Open to the Skies at this book signing (and other signings in November) will have their name entered in a draw for a small blue toy truck. The winner will be announced here at janetims.com on November 30.
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Hope to see you on Saturday!!!!!!!
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All my best,
Jane Tims (a.k.a. Alexandra)
Open to the Skies: a new novel by Jane Tims
Since I retired, one subject has particularly interested me – the loss of older church buildings from our landscape. As new buildings are constructed to house congregations, and older buildings become less useful because of small size, aging construction or antiquated heating systems, decisions are made to retire and deconsecrate historic churches. As with other older buildings, the choices are few: rehabilitation, repurposing, or demolition.
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My new book, published by Merlin Star Press in New Brunswick, is the fictional story of one of these churches. In ‘Open to the Skies,’ a couple in transition to a simpler way of life, encounters an old church about to be abandoned and perhaps demolished. Sadie and Tom decide to purchase the church and move it, a few kilometres down the road, to their new property. They intend to turn the church into a writers’ retreat.
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In the process, they encounter a community uncertain about how it wants to proceed. Some want to give the church a new life, others are dead set against repurposing a building where their children have been baptized and married. Others in the community are motivated by a conservationist mentality and one very difficult fellow has an ownership claim against the property where the church has stood for over one hundred years.
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The church itself has a history and mythology, to be understood by anyone taking it over. In the church’s story includes a mysterious blue toy truck and a young boy who turns up at strange times. The threats of fire and violent protest also haunt Sadie and Tom as they undertake repurposing of the church.
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I will be presenting my new book at launches and signings in the coming months. These will include a signing event at Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, New Brunswick on November 15th and a reading in Fredericton later in November. I would be so happy to see you there! The book is now available from Dog Eared Books in Oromocto and from Merlin Star Press https://www.merlinstarpress.com/home/bookstore
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I’ll be keeping you up to date on my book, its availability, and any readings.
All my best!
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
soundscape and birdsong
These last two weeks have been fun for bird watchers. I saw my first dark-eyed junco, just back from a winter spent to the south. I also heard that lovely, impossible-to-imitate song of a winter wren. And I have cleaned up our feeding area so the spring birds will be easier to watch.
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This weekend, I am looking forward to talking with other bird watchers about my new poetry book ‘mnemonic – soundscape and birdsong.’
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I am looking forward to the event, hosted by the folks at the L.P Fisher Public Library, who have been so supportive of my writing through the years! Wish you could come and hear me read …
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All my best!
Jane
My Table at the Book Fair
On April 22, I’ll be with my books at the
First Annual Greater Moncton/Riverview/Dieppe Independent Book Fair.
Over 35 tables. Lots of local authors. Books, books and more books!
April 22nd. 10am – 4pm. Riverview Lions Club
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I’ll have all my books with me:
The Kaye Eliot Mysteries…
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My poetry books.
The collection a glimpse of water fall was shortlisted for the 2022 New Brunswick Book Awards…
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My science fiction series Meniscus…
the story of building a new Human community on a dystopian alien planet…
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and my new children’s book,
Wink in the Rain...
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Hope to see you there!!!!
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All my best,
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
New Bookstore for Oromocto
Amazing! A new bookstore, Dog Eared Books, is opening in Oromocto! Grand opening April 30, 2022. Located just behind the Sour Grape Cafe at 281 Restigouche Road.
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The bookstore will sell second-hand books (lots of good reads remaining!) and book-related items, and will include a section dedicated to new books by New Brunswick authors. Books by Chuck Bowie, Alan Hudson, Vanessa Hawkins, Pierre Arseneault, Peter Gillet, Joe Powers, and others.
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All four books of my Kaye Eliot Mysteries will be there, with a few signed copies. Join the Eliot family as they chase down mysteries in rural Nova Scotia!
How Her Garden Grew
Something the Sundial Said
Land Between the Furrows
Stained Glass
Every book tracks down a mystery suggested by messages from long ago: diaries, old letters, building stones and stained glass.
Drop by and wish owner Emily Mercer all the best in this new venture. A new way for book lovers to realize their dreams of being surrounded in books!!!!
All my best,
Jane Tims
stained glass
Of all the media I have tried, working with glass has been the most satisfying, the most dangerous, the most fun, and the most dangerous. Did I say I think this medium is dangerous?
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In 1995, I took a course in making stained glass. I had visions of completing a box light for above our bar. Something with parrots fluttering among broad Monstera leaves. In those days I was in full decorating mode and the home bar was to be called ‘le parroquet.’ It had a large artificial tree, vines from the ceiling, a three-panel diorama of African plain, a life-long collection of Tarzan books, and dozens of parrot bric-a-brac: parrot-shaped mugs, stir sticks and cushions. Some of this still exists, but the only part of the bar light completed was a lone parrot, unfettered by vines and leaves.
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As I worked with the glass, I dreaded my sessions more and more. First I worried about being cut by the glass. Part of the process means scoring and breaking the glass into needed shapes. I actually never cut myself, but I worried that I would.
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For ten years of my professional career, I worked in the field of air quality, so I was sensitive to issues of inhalation of particulates and gasses. As I honed the edges of the pieces of glass, I was aware that the process sent a fine glass powder into the air. I wore a mask, but felt lingering glass particles might be a result of the process. Next, the process involved laying down of lead solder between the bits of glass: use of flux and solder added to my air quality concerns.
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In the end, I worked with stained glass less and less, and today, I have only a few pieces to represent my foray into making of stained glass. I know there are many stained glass artisans who work safely with beautiful results. But the medium was not for me.
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Nevertheless, I can continue to ‘work’ with stained glass in my writing life. The next Kaye Eliot Mystery will be titled Stained Glass and will feature a stained glass artist who uses his medium to tell the story of a mystery four decades old. Working with stained glass may be dangerous, but hanging around with this particular stained glass artist might be dangerous too!
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Stained Glass is now in the proof and beta-reading stage, so it will be published by March, 2022. For those who have enjoyed the previous Kaye Eliot Mysteries, this will be an enjoyable read. If you haven’t followed the mystery-loving family before, have a look at How Her Garden Grew here.
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All my best,
and no cut fingers!
Jane
now available: a glimpse of dragon
a glimpse of dragon, second poetry book in the ‘glimpse of’ series, is now available at Westminster Books in Fredericton.
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The book is illustrated with my black and white drawings and considers extraordinary things in ordinary life. These are poems about comets in the sky, ghost cars in the covered bridge and dragons lurking in the campfire.
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campfire dragons
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dragons prowl
in balsam
backcrawl in amber
blisters of pitch
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dragons lurk
under mantles of smoke
blacken the stones
spurt throatfuls of fire
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dragons leap
to the Draco sky
watch us grow small
with sparking eyes
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close their lids
and sleep in flight
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You can also order a glimpse of dragon at Amazon, click here.
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I hope you enjoy ‘a glimpse of dragon.’
Jane
a glimpse of dragons
This year, I am continuing to gather my various poems into categories for publication. I intend to publish three books of poetry in the ‘a glimpse of…’ series.
So far, I have published ‘a glimpse of water fall,’ a collection of poems about waterfalls and the way lives can sometimes take a ‘downwards’ turn. In 2012, the manuscript for a glimpse of waterfall won Honorable Mention in the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick’s competition for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize.
Next year, I will publish ‘a glimpse of sickle moon,’ poems journeying through the various seasons of the year. In 2020, the manuscript for a glimpse of sickle moon won Third Prize in the Bailey competition.
Later this fall, I will publish ‘a glimpse of dragons.’ This poetry collection is about the mysterious events in my life that take imaginative reasoning to understand. The title comes from the idea, in the Dark Ages, that unexplainable celestial events were the actions of dragon-kind.
I have gathered six types of poems into this collection and I illustrate many of the poems.
1. those ordinary things in my life that seem imbued with magic;
2. my ‘observations’ of dragons;
3. unexplainable events in my life that would fall into the category of ghost stories;
4. my encounters with magical people;
5. poems about my deep appreciation of sky and the awe that accompanies trying to understand the reality of space;
6. a tribute to the crow, an animal I feel kin to, and the dark women I associate with crow-kind.
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The poetry book ‘a glimpse of dragons’ will be published by kdp and available in paperback on Amazon in December. The book will also be available from Westminster Books in Fredericton.
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Take care in these days of pandemic,
all my best,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 