Taking a Trip North

Having lived and worked in Seattle for several years, one of my absolute favorite spots to visit has long been British Columbia (especially the cities of Vancouver and Victoria). Before Covid, I used to visit nearly every year, so I was excited to read about today's guest in My Writing Corner, Frank Talaber. He writes as Felicity Talisman for some of his books as you will see with today's feature book, Autumn's Summer.

Born on the wild Canadian prairies but tired of the winter months in Edmonton, Frank tells us he migrated to the more temperate cedar forests of coastal British Columbia. Yes, they get snow in Chilliwack during the winter months, and on that odd occasion Frank is forced to search out the snow shovel, dust off the cobwebs and have a go.  At the snow, (not the cobwebs).

He says that while his run-of-the-mill day job of auto technician/service advisor may seem at odds with being an inspired, off-the-wall author, his zest for life, the environment, and the little muses that won’t let his pencil stay still, spring from his mother’s Hungarian ancestry. It’s the Gypsy blood, he says, which pounds through his veins with wild abandon, driving him to the realms of fantasy.

This is the muse inside, the essence of Frank Talaber. He says people who have read his books describe him as a natural storyteller who writes like his soul is on fire and his pencil is his voice. They go on to say that they find his books grabbing, intense and hilarious at times, screaming everyday life from such a realistic viewpoint you’re drawn into his world, hook, line and plum bob, unable to stop; almost cursing that they can’t set the book down, page after page.  Frank admits he takes great pride in the realism of his work, painstakingly visiting most of the locations, (obviously, only the “real-life” ones!) and he is so thorough that many readers have remarked that they can hear, taste, visualize, smell and feel the essence of the place. “It really is like being there,” one remarked. Says Frank, "There isn’t a greater compliment to be made." 

His tagline is Canada's Foremost Off-beat Author (also the name of his YouTube channel; check it out for his witty and informative videos) who writes in urban fantasy, science fiction, crime, spiritual, romance, erotica and comedy genres. Well, anything that comes to him, basically! Except westerns. Although he does like to ride Gangnam style; does that count?

Literature written almost beyond genres, whose compelling thoughts are freed from the depths of the heart and subconscious before being poured onto the page. Or, as he often says, “you don’t have to be mad to be a writer, but it sure helps”.

To date Frank has more than fifty articles/short stories, sixty blog posts, over ten interviews and fifteen novels written or published. 

Frank, what do you enjoy about being an author?

To be honest, getting reviews from people overjoyed by reading my novels. Here are a few examples:

“I thought I’d have a quick peek at Autumn's Summer and then finish the book I was currently reading! I was entranced and spellbound from that moment, my current read neglected! Couldn't put it down, read it in one day. Yes, the love scenes were intense, passion blossoms in many forms! I enjoyed this immensely!”

-Shelley

“Oh my goodness!! Frank Talaber, I cannot even begin to describe how much I love your book The Joining. I am in the middle of reading it right now and I am LOVING this book! Honestly this is one of the best books I have ever read and I am so excited to read more books by you. I love that The Joining is set in Victoria. I live on the mainland and I recognize names of some places in this book and I was honestly so ecstatic to be reading a book that takes place in BC. You are an amazing writer I have no idea how you came up for the concept of this book but it is fantastic. Also, are the legends featured in this book actually real legends?" 

-Ava 

(And yes, they are real legends; the other think I really enjoy is extensive research, which then often leads to plot lines for other novels.)

Review from, The joining

"I hate you! My wife, who is off on medical leave, won't get out of the bathroom. Can't put your book down. LOL."   

-Bruce 

(I also like quirky reviews. I usually describe myself as an off-the-wall writer.)

What do you find is the most challenging part of being an author?

I love challenges. Someone once said to me, “most men can’t do romance, let alone write it.”

So, I wrote Autumn’s Summer, and also another romance, more mainstream, called Shuttered Seductions.

I also love getting into the head of unusual characters. What makes them do the things they do? And why?

When I get reviews like this for The Lure, I know I’ve done my job: 

“Your book was a rollercoaster ride thorough my emotions which, when I got off, left me stunned and breathless.

Your portrayal of sociopaths and the criminal mind in the pursuit of the sexually willing was so disturbing I had nightmares and had to set the novel aside for days. But the writing was so compelling I had to finish it, and I'm glad I persevered. I literally cheered "go get them!" when Charlie used his protectors to deal rather uniquely with the antagonists. I was enlightened to the Native spiritual culture for which I now have a greater understanding and respect.”

-Carol G.

The other thing I find most challenging is finding different ways of promoting my novels in this day of constantly changing social media and platforms. 

How do you come up with your plots?

A lot of them will be based on true stories related to me by people I’ve met, as I mentioned earlier. I’ve often said you can’t make up the crap that some people have lived through, like this story that formed the basis for my novel, The Mystery Of Ms. Teak, while waiting for the valet to return our car after a stay at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria. (Victoria, by the way, is one of the most haunted cities in the world; they have more ghosts than most cities has transit buses.)

“So, I know The Empress has several resident ghosts, have you any ghost stories?”

The head doorman scratched his head, “yeah, a really unusual one. A couple, like you, were waiting a few years ago to have their car brought around and they didn’t look very happy. I asked if they enjoyed their stay. They said ‘NO’. They were leaving after staying only one night. They had walked into their locked hotel room to find his wife’s suitcase had been opened up, her clothes taken out, and ghost clothes put in.”

Like most are thinking right now I asked. “What do you mean by ghost clothes?”

“Real old clothing, Victorian.”

So, in the novel, my “what if” twist is that I have a Victorian ghost, none other than Sir Francis Rattenbury himself, builder of the BC parliament buildings and the Empress Hotel, walking around in modern-day clothing.

I often will take one or two of my short stories and expand them and weave them together to form a novel. I also love weaving two or more plotlines together and figuring how to make them work.  Also, I believe the good person must win in the end, otherwise this would be a bleak world. 

Tell us about your road to publication

I always remember the first day of a creative writing class I took way back in high school, thinking “here’s five easy credits”.

The course binder was handed out and I stuck up my hand. “But it’s empty!”

The teacher replied, “Yeah, it’s your job to fill it.”

We had to write half-an-hour non-stop on anything and everything. Staring at the blank, lined pages I could only ask “I have to write for half-an-hour non-stop? About what????”

The teacher replied, “About anything and everything. The idea is to begin writing sub-consciously; you just let go and write.”

So used to being told what to do in school in those days, the idea that I could just do something on my own and be let loose, seemed beyond bizarre. 

“And I’ll give you a zero if you don’t fill one page a week.”

Incentive, then. The muse in me wrung her hands in mirthful glee. I simply stared in bewilderment at the blank page and wondered what moment of insanity made me sign up for a supposedly easy five-credits. 

My hand shook as I held the pencil to the paper and very thoughtfully wrote, ‘the walls are beige; the girl in front of me is a blonde; I wonder how old the gum stuck under my desk is; I am so frigging bored. (I thought if I can put anything down, then the odd cuss word should be acceptable).

But at some point, after about three weeks, the muse lost patience and snapped. She (I know it’s a woman), whacked me upside the head and took over. Controlling bitch. But the flow began, just as the teacher had said it would. By the end of the course I’d filled four to six pages every week, my pencil a blur trying to keep up with the whirling dervish inside my subconscious. She hasn’t shut up since, and I don’t intend to have her stop either. You’ll probably find me on my deathbed, pencil in hand, and there will be a long-jagged line scribbling down the page, stating… 

To Be Continued.

Because some stories never end.

It took nearly four hundred rejections before my first novel was accepted and the journey continues after fifteen novels, over fifty short stories accepted for publication, and nearly that many blogs.

What is your book that you will feature today and how did you come up with the idea to write it?

My newest release, entitled Autumn’s Summer. The original idea was based on something that someone once told me at a book-signing event. Every Mothers’ Day, this lady used to join her then fiancé to visit his deceased mother’s graveyard. Whenever she passed one of the other gravestones, she’d stop and stare at it, drawn to it, feeling weird sensations.

On their wedding day, of all days, her “parents” chose to tell her that she was adopted. This prompted her to research the name of the lady on that grave and she discovered that it was, indeed, her birth mother. She eventually met her brother and sister, to whom she bore an uncanny resemblance, and they confirmed she had been given up for adoption. 

My creative muse always asks me the question; “what if?” so I wove that into a tale of an empty-nester mother, Autumn, feeling like her life is worthless after the kids leave the home. She encounters a spiritualist in, of all places, her local corner grocery store. 

To prove she’s for real, the spiritualist, Summer, tells her she’s adopted, and unknown to her husband, she begins to have a relationship with this woman. 

The premise is this. “What if your mother gave you up for adoption, not because she didn’t love or want you, but because she was protecting you from an ancient family curse?”, the curse being based on Celtic myths and the novel encompasses many Celtic traditions. 

Let's get a blurb:

Great loves come and go,

profound ones mark your soul,

in ways that take the rest of your lifetime to comprehend.

What if you were given up for adoption NOT because your mother didn't want you, but because she was trying to protect you from a curse?

A mysterious package is delivered by Richard’s solicitors one year after his wife Autumn’s death. What he expected to find, he didn’t know, but he would never have guessed in a million years what was about to unfold.

A beautiful leather-bound diary written in his wife’s hand contains many secrets; that his lonely empty-nester wife’s life changed profoundly after a purely-by-chance meeting in, of all places, a normal, mundane, corner grocery store. She embarks on a voyage of discovery with the spiritualist, Summer, to find new meaning to her life, that, once commenced, transports her to realms and dimensions she never knew existed.

He also learns of a heart-breaking secret she kept from him until after her death. 

Which leads her into an alternative life in the next book in the series.

How about a book excerpt.

But another ad caught my eye, and my spirit, as I picked up the heavy shopping bags. A hand-drawn picture of someone meditating, legs crossed and a heart erupting over them. ‘Yoga classes, meditations, spiritual readings, etc.  Sign up and find your inner voice and spirit. Fulfill the deeper meaning of your life.’ The words hit rather hard. I had no deeper meaning, other than cooking, washing, cleaning the house and looking after the kids that were no longer there. I realized right then and there how empty I was inside. I should be happy; your well-paying job provided very well and had bought the lovely house on a gorgeous lake. And I was very happy, or so I thought. But perhaps there was something more? 

The words called to me again and again as I stared like a deer dazzled by headlights. I stood lost in the knowing that what I was about to do, no, wanted to do, would change something inside me. The weight of the shopping bags pulled at me, calling me back to my humdrum, yet peaceful life. Go now! Cried out from my mind as I put them down.

Did I want to complicate it? Still a part of myself called from within. At the moment I had nothing, was nothing, only a housewife. 

Most likely some crazy hippy chick doing woo-woo stuff to make a buck out of us richer folk out here at this lake. Or, perhaps, a more down-to-earth person connected to herself and the planet. Since college, marriage and two kids I'd not had much time to indulge in what I liked or wanted to do with myself. Quite frankly I wasn't really sure what that was or who I really was anymore. 

I picked up my bags ready to turn and exit the store, allowing that cynical voice to take control once again.

"I see my ad has caught your attention." Her voice, soft, sincere, washed into me and something inside jumped as I turned to stare for the first time into soft blue eyes of oceanic depths. A moment of sheer co-incidence, only as I learned later, nothing is co-incidence.

****

This was the meeting that prompted the computer diary. For the first time in an age, I was compelled to write, wanting to put down my thoughts while they were still fresh. Meeting Summer had awoken my muse and questioning realizations. This was a positive start.

I stared into her eyes as rivers ran into me, through me, waves thundered into the cliffs of my existence. Journeys never traversed in this lifetime, but I’ve dwelled in others, calling to this life in the serenade of water splashing on my canoe or the dust of an old country road humming along the heat of a summer’s morning. Time, love, and ultimately death come to us all. Amongst the haunt of lilacs wafting in a warm breeze and crackles of a cozy winter fire, seduced by acrid smoke and chilled wine there is a need or want that calls hauntingly to our souls. To mine.

At that moment I was utterly stunned, those words came to me again and again, later after a couple of lessons. I heard them calling like being dared to fly and thrust off a cliff’s edge. I remember being scared and thrilled at the same time, but more scared at finding out the true me; the me I’d never really known.

What’s your next project or what are you working on now?

My next project is entitled Into The Darkside. It involves my female lead police detective, Carol Ainsworth, on the trail of a serial killer. My “what if?” twist is, “what if all of the high number of drug deaths aren’t all because of overdosing? What if a person is out seducing and abusing women and making it look like they inadvertently took overdoses?”. 

I’m also working on my first non-fiction book called Trust Me, I Didn’t Make This Sh**t Up, about all of the findings that don’t fit into the accepted beliefs of our scientists and archaeologists.

What advice do you have for beginning writers?

Don’t give up, I had 398 rejections before I got my first novel accepted. If writing is what you love to do, keep writing and putting your stories and novels out there. Another true story is what happened to Stephen King. He dumped his novel Carrie into the trash and said, "I give up. I'm going to stick to being an English teacher." Thank God his wife had the guts to say, "You tell me you're a writer. Dust off that blown, crumpled and withered ego and put it out there. AGAIN."

The very next publisher accepted the book and the rest is history.

Following is the buy link for Autumn's Summer and Frank's social contact information to learn more about Frank's other novels:

Buy Link

Canada:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1738658376

USA:

https://www.amazon.com/Autumns-Summer

Social Contact Information

Email: twosoulmates@shaw.ca 

My webpage

https://franktalaberpublishedauthor.wordpress.com/

My novels on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Frank-Talaber/author/B00UC407R0

My Youtube Channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx5ki4gpdokN-9KAIZzu53w

Twitter

https://twitter.com/FrankTalaber

Linked In 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-talaber-6a594481/

Ebooks on Smashwords: 

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Frank38

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/franktalaber58

tictoc

https://www.tiktok.com/@franktalaber

Thank you, Frank, for being my guest today.  I hope you keep bringing readers from British Columbia! Any questions or comments for Frank?