To celebrate Canada’s
150th birthday Books We Love Ltd is publishing twelve historical
novels, one for each of the ten provinces, one for the Yukon Territory, and one
combining the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. We Canadian authors were asked
to pick one of the provinces or territories to write about or to do the research
on for a non-Canadian author. I chose the Yukon because I have been there twice
and love the beauty and history of the territory. The following is a quick introduction to the bride of my novel Romancing the Klondike.
In 1896,
nineteen-year-old Pearl Owens and her cousin, Emma, are on their way up the
Yukon River to Fortymile. Pearl is on an adventure to the north where she will
be writing articles about the area for her hometown newspaper. The two women
meet up with Sam Owens, Emma’s brother, and his two friends, Donald and Gordon,
in Fortymile. The men, who have been searching for gold in the north for five
years, have just returned from staking a claim on Rabbit Creek.
Sam and his friends move to their claims
on what is now known as Bonanza Creek. Against Sam’s instructions Pearl and
Emma follow them, setting up a tent on a bench at the mouth of the Klondike
River overlooking the Yukon River.
Pearl meets Joseph Ladue, the first man to
ever set her heart aflutter, while Emma’s teenage feelings for Donald are
rekindled. Pearl spends her time speaking with the men and women of the north
and sketching the scenery. She writes about what it is like to be in the middle
of a gold strike. She also describes the early development and growth of a town
eventually known as Dawson.
During the ten months they live in the
north Pearl and Emma make friends, celebrate holidays, and suffer through
tragedy. One of them finds love, one does not. Of the three men two get rich,
one does not.
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