Andrea travels to a remote community on the B.C. coast looking for love and adventure.
She finds both but in forms she never imagined. Will her happily ever after dream — or even Andrea herself — survive? Author Anneli Purchase leaves the reader wondering right up to and beyond the end.
Purchase will sign copies of The Wind Weeps at Laughing Oyster Books in Courtenay on March 10 at 2 p.m.
A longtime Comox Valley resident, Purchase taught at Arden and Courtenay elementary schools and is now a copy editor. She’s also spent many summers touring the B.C. coast by boat. And that’s where the idea for her novel was conceived.
“My husband has been a commercial fisherman for 33 years. Having a boat allowed us to explore and experience the BC coast in ways most people never can” says Purchase.
“I met a lot of colourful characters with intriguing stories. I also noticed a lot of young women, particularly from Quebec and Ontario, looking for boyfriends and excitement.
“The characters are composites of people I’ve met over the years — bits and pieces are true — but a lot of it is my imagination, too.”
The Wind Weeps is the story of love gone awry and a woman’s courage under seemingly insurmountable odds. The lively plot has numerous twists and turns and some humour as well.
Purchase worked on her book for about three years. And even though it’s her first published novel, it’s the third she’s written.
“In some ways I’m doing it backwards,” says Purchase. “But I’ve also heard that often a writer’s work isn’t good enough to be published until they’ve written three books.
“I know I certainly learned a lot as I went along. When I compare my early writing to what I’ve done now, I’m glad I went back and did the tweaking and editing.”
Learning a lot meant at least three major rewrites and countless smaller revisions. And Purchase got support and help along the way.
For many years she was a member of the Comox Valley Writers’ Society, belonged to a critiquing group and attended writing conferences.
“The conferences were really helpful,” says Purchase. “I attended one in Portland last year and decided to take two preliminary master classes. They were so intense I was exhausted before the conference even started.
“But I also knew even if I didn’t learn anything else — which I did — the cost was already well worth it.
“If you go to a conference just to flog your book you won’t learn anything,” warns Purchase. “It really pays to pick and choose your classes carefully. And to be honest with yourself and zero in on what you’re weak in.”
It was the writing conferences that persuaded Purchase to publish in a print on demand format.
“A lot of the experts told me my work was good and ready to be published,” she says. “But they also said that unless I had already been published and had an established author platform it could take a very long time to find a publisher.
“I had my doubts,” confesses Purchase. “Self-publishing is still tarred with an ugly brush but this is a time of great change in the publishing industry. I did some research and discovered that a self-published book can be good quality and very professional.”
The secret to Purchase’s success? She hired professionals every step of the way, including a copy editor.
“Yes, even a copy editor needs a copy editor,” she says. “It is impossible to catch every typo and mistake on your own.”
Now that honed her skills, Purchase plans to rewrite her two previous novels and publish them as well.
“One is set in the Baja, the other in post-war Europe,” she says. “The theme is love story and human interest but other than that are quite diverse.”
Purchase has been published in Canadian Stories Magazine and The Canadian Fly Fisher, now called The New Fly Fisher E-zine.
The Wind Weeps is available locally at Laughing Oyster Books in Courtenay, Blue Heron Books in Comox and as an eBook from amazon.com and smashwords.com. To find out more about Purchase visit www.anneli-purchase.com.
