Today Sigrid Macdonald author of the mystery novel, Finding Lisa, is joining us at Ascroft, eh? to talk about the Canadian setting for the book.
Welcome Sigrid. I’ll turn the floor over to you:
Thank you for having me on your blog, Dianne. Much appreciated.
I understand that you are a Canadian writer living in the UK. My novel, Finding Lisa, takes place in Ottawa, Ontario. I chose Ottawa for many reasons. First, I lived in Ottawa for almost 30 years. Second, I grew up in New Jersey and am currently residing in Florida. It is mind-boggling to me how many times I tell Americans that I lived in Ottawa, and they have never heard of it. They can’t spell it, they don’t know what province it’s in, and they have no clue that Ottawa is the capital of Canada.
This is shocking. Ottawa is one of Canada’s best-kept secrets. It is large enough so that you can partake of any kind of culture from jazz concerts to musicals to university lectures to trivia nights at the pub, but unlike Toronto or Manhattan, it is small enough to be affordable; have much greenery preserved by the government in the middle of the city; as well as beautiful monuments; and a beautiful canal, which in winter, becomes the world’s largest and second-longest skating rink and was initially built on the backs of Irish labor.
Ah, but can there be any crime or mystery in such a delightful city? Of course, because cities are populated by people, some of whom do bad things. Finding Lisa is the story of two best friends. It opens in downtown Ottawa where the women are at the ByTowne Theatre seeing a documentary about a prominent architect. They go across the street to Nate’s Deli, which has photos on the wall of famous Canadians who have eaten there, such as Keifer Sutherland from the hit TV shows 24 and Designated Survivor. Sutherland actually dropped out of a Catholic boarding school in Ottawa at the age of fifteen. He was born in England to Canadian parents and was part of what we Canadians like to call the brain drain – talented people who leave Canada in pursuit of fame and move to the US.
In Finding Lisa, one of the women disappears after the night out at the movies, and the other launches a search party to find her in conjunction with the police. I made several visits to the police station to discover the proper procedure in such circumstances, just as I visited a pool hall on a number of occasions because I have a scene where my protagonist is shooting pool with a young guy she has a crush on, and she is ridiculously bad at the game. While they are playing pool and my character is losing, crowds are crouching around screens at the bar, drinking Labatt Blue and eagerly watching the hockey playoffs. What could be more Canadian?
I hope that in addition to enjoying the mystery aspect of my story, readers will also learn about Ottawa and want to visit there one day. It is truly a spectacular city, especially if you are not are not kidnapped or have not gone missing!
Thanks for telling us about your novel and Ottawa, Sigrid. I’m originally from Toronto though I’ve now lived in Northern Ireland for 30 years. I’ve visited Ottawa several times and I have fond memories from my childhood of skating on the canal in Ottawa. I look forward to reading Finding Lisa.
Sigrid Macdonald will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. To enter the draw click here: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3226
You can find a list of the rest of Sigrid’s tour stops here:
https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2019/10/nbtm-finding-lisa-by-sigrid-macdonald.html
Why not drop by some of the stops? You’ll have a chance to enter the draw again at each stop.
Readers can learn more about Sigrid and her writing by visiting her website and her Facebook page.
Finding Lisa is available online at the following retailers:
About Sigrid Macdonald: Originally from New Jersey, Sigrid Macdonald lived for almost thirty years in Ottawa, Ontario, and currently resides in Weston, Florida. She has been a freelance writer for years. Her works have appeared in The Globe and Mail newspaper; the Women’s Freedom Network Newsletter; the American magazine Justice Denied; The Toastmaster; and the Anxiety Disorders Association of Ontario Newsletter. Her first book, Getting Hip: Recovery from a Total Hip Replacement, was published in 2004. Her second book, Be Your Own Editor, followed in 2010. Although Finding Lisa is written in first person, Macdonald only resembles her character in the sense that she once had a neurotic fixation on her hair, and she has always been called by the wrong name; instead of being called Sigrid, people have called her Susan, Sharon, Astrid, Ingrid and, her personal favorite, Siri.
Macdonald is a social activist who has spent decades working on the seemingly disparate issues of women’s rights and wrongful convictions; she has worked at the Women’s Center at Ramapo College of New Jersey and Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and was a member of AIDWYC, The Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. She owns an editing company called Book Magic. Sigrid is a public speaker and a member of Mothers against Drunk Driving, Ottawa Independent Writers, the American Association of University Women, and the Editors’ Association of Canada.
I went looking for Jolie last year during the Thanksgiving holiday season, and to my surprise, my first interaction with her, she pegged me as a suspect to a murder. I had recently accidentally learned that my dad had family in Leavensport, Ohio. It was shocking, saying the least, to learn I’d had family less than sixty miles from me my entire life.
About Jodi Rath: Moving into her second decade working in education, Jodi Rath has decided to begin a life of crime in her The Cast Iron Skillet Mystery Series. Her passion for both mysteries and education led her to combine the two to create her business MYS ED, where she splits her time between working as an adjunct for Ohio teachers and creating mischief in her fictional writing. She currently resides in a small, cozy village in Ohio with her husband and her seven cats.
My grandfather is wonderful. He’s wise and witty and very sympathetic. Since I’m his only granddaughter among more than a dozen grandsons, I’m his favorite. He’s the head of our family and the family business, which I take no part in.
I love to write quirky characters and characters full of their own attitude. Hopefully, fans will be excited about Gladys’s new series.
About Katherine H. Brown: Katherine is from the tiny community of New York, Texas. Booklover (some might say book addict) and weaver of words, Katherine desired to be a writer from childhood, embarked on her first publishing adventure in 2017, and in 2019 said audios to her cozy office job to leap into a career as an author full-time. When not found between the pages of a book or tapping keys on her laptop, Katherine loves to watch baking shows with her stepdaughter or cuddle up with her husband Patrick. Katherine and family prepare to welcome a new baby girl into the family in March 2020.
I’ll never forget the first time I met her. I took the train from Manhattan up to Westport, Connecticut to do party prep for an event she was catering. A cab took me to Martha’s now-famous home on Turkey Hill Road. I stepped inside, looked into a gorgeous, antique-filled living room, and saw a woman using a crème brulee torch to assemble a gingerbread townhouse.
AD: Under the Radar is the 9th in the Zoe Chambers Mystery Series, which follows a paramedic/deputy coroner in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. Zoe is a caregiver at heart and fights to save the lives of her patients. If she fails at that, she fights to find them justice. In Under the Radar, she responds to a shooting and discovers her longtime friend, Horace Pavelka, has gunned down a man who’d bullied him mercilessly for decades. Ruled self-defense, no charges are filed. When another of his tormentors turns up dead in Horace’s kitchen, Police Chief Pete Adams questions the man’s innocence in both cases…especially after Horace and his girlfriend go into hiding.
About Annette Dashofy: She is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. A former EMT and lifelong resident of the area about which she writes, Annette lives with her husband and one very spoiled cat on what was once her grandfather’s dairy farm. UNDER THE RADAR (February 2020) is the ninth in her series.
SEG: Murder at the Million Dollar Pier is the second book in the Three Snowbirds series. It’s set at the height of the land boom in 1920s Florida, and our intrepid trio are among the early snowbirds who decided to winter in the Sunshine State. During their travels, they encounter opportunists, gangsters, and dead bodies.
SEG: We visit the places we write about. Gwen and I have been to the Vinoy Hotel many times, we found what remained of The Gangplank (Saint Petersburg’s first nightclub), and we even drove to Sarasota to see the locations of Professor Pettijohn’s search for a witness. Gwen brings the sensory qualities and gritty details to our story, while I’ll tell you what was playing at the speakeasy, what people were eating, and explore the local attractions.
About Sarah E. Glenn: Sarah loves mystery and horror stories, often with a sidecar of humor. Several have appeared in mystery and paranormal anthologies, including G.W. Thomas’ Ghostbreakers series, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, and Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology. She belongs to Sisters in Crime, SinC Guppies, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.
A Solicitous Wife by Madeleine McDonald, No One Knew by Larry Farmer, Pinochle by Brenda Whiteside, The Tuesday Night Meeting by Peggy Jaeger, 911, What’s Your Emergency? by D. V. Stone, Tall Tales by Laura Strickland, Fare Gain by Alexandra Christle, The Note by Stephen B. King, 
Che Gelida Manina by M. S. Spencer, 
The Pilot’s Son by CJ Zahner, 
I always develop my stories to music. When I re-read through certain scenes I have written, I can actually hear my “soundtrack” playing in the background. Along the same lines, when I hear certain songs, I’m immediately transported into the middle of one of my books, right inside the scene as if I were actually there. When I begin plotting a novel, I like to put on some music and relax, letting my mind wander. The music has to fit the mood of the story, and sometimes if I find the perfect song, I wear out the replay button.
About Caroline Fardig: Caroline is the USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR of the Java Jive Mysteries series and the Lizzie Hart Mysteries series. Fardig’s BAD MEDICINE was named one of the “Best Books of 2015” by Suspense Magazine. She worked as a schoolteacher, church organist, insurance agent, funeral parlor associate, and stay-at-home mom before she realized that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Born and raised in a small town in Indiana, Fardig still lives in that same town with an understanding husband, two sweet kids, two energetic dogs, and one malevolent cat.
months before the Iowa Presidential Caucus. I have stories that take the four women central to the story through an entire year in the tourist community of Lake Livonia, and beyond. So I hope this will be the first of a series.
About Rae Katherine Eighmey: She is an award-winning author and cook with blue ribbons from both the Iowa and Minnesota State Fair cooking contests. She is the author of a dozen books about food and history including Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen and Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin.
