Ever wonder what the featured celebrities think when they see the tabloids? What about their friends, family, and neighbours? How much truth is in those headlines? These are the things I think about when waiting in line at the grocery store.
My curiosity, sense of humour, and impending deadline for the final assignment of my Creative Writing Masters–a full-length novel–led to my debut novel: The Inquirer.
“When an accident jeopardizing the family farm draws Amiah Williams back to Kingsley, Alberta, population 1431, she doesn’t expect her homecoming to make front-page news. But there she is in The Inquirer, the mysterious tabloid that is airing her hometown’s dirty 
laundry. Alongside stories of high school rivalries and truck-bed love affairs, disturbing revelations about Amiah’s past and present are selling papers and fuelling small-town gossip. As the stakes get higher, Amiah must either expose the twisted truth behind The Inquirer or watch her life fall apart again.”
For me, novels are opportunities for communicating something intricate or otherwise difficult to communicate. Punctuated by headlines, The Inquirer is literary fiction that explores when to speak up and when best to be quiet.
Surrounded by social media, perhaps this book will have readers think twice about posts and tweets as well as the tabloids at the grocery store. More than a social experiment, The Inquirer is dedicated to every woman–to anyone really–who has ever hidden behind a smile. At the very least, I hope readers are entertained.
Published by NeWest Press, The Inquirer officially hits shelves on October 1, 2019. To find out more, you can check out www.jaclyndawn.com or connect with me on Facebook (@authorjaclyndawn) and Twitter (@readjaclyndawn).
Book Launches
St. Albert @ The Cajun House
Oct 1, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Join Jaclyn at The Cajun House in St. Albert for a night of good eats and good drinks.
Triple Header in Calgary @ Shelf Life Books
Oct 9, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Joined by authors Randy Nikkel Schroeder (Arctic Smoke) and Wendy McGrath (Broke City).
Triple Header in Edmonton @ The Almanac on Whyte
Oct 22, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Hosted by Claire Kelly and with authors Randy Nikkel Schroeder (Arctic Smoke) and Meaghan Marie Hackinen (South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels).
Banana Bread
The characters in The Inquirer and I make a lot of banana bread. It’s my son’s favourite, and overripe bananas are Kingsley Grocery’s specialty.
1 cup Sugar 1 cup Chocolate Chips
2 cups Flour 1 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 cup Butter, soft ½ tsp Vanilla
3 Bananas, overripe ¼ tsp Nutmeg
2 Eggs ¼ tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda, dissolved in 1 Tbsp cold water
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine all ingredients
- Place batter in a greased bread pan or muffin tins.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool on wire rack.
- Enjoy!