Ebb & Flow

As I sit comfortably at my word processor, the East River flowing through the centre of New Glasgow is but a minute away from my apartment building. It was the river that led the early settlers to our town and sustained the town in its early development. The river was woven into our daily lives as we enjoyed its beauty and the prosperity it brought. Later, the river was almost forgotten, abandoned through neglect. It is only in the last few years that we have returned to the source of our legacy, to reclaim a part of our vitality.
This collection of short stories is entitled, The Ebb and Flow: The Dream Continues. Most of the stories in the collection were inspired by the river which is called "the barometer of our souls" in the short story entitled, The Barometer, and "the quiet observer of our lives" in the story that concludes this collection [and lends its name to the entire collection of stories].
Many of the short stories have their fictional setting in Northumbria located along the East River in Nova Scotia, Canada. As the muses continued to inspire, other more global settings such as a fictional resort town, Flanders Cove in New England or Kensington Gardens in England provided a setting for a short story. The locations for the most part could be in any small community that is nestled near water, where the beauty and the value of the water are appreciated and protected so that its legacy will continue to give pleasure to future generations. Gardens and flowers are also intertwined themes.
Several of the stories are extracted from my novel, With Love, With Connie, which tells the story of Robert Mascaux and Rachel Turner who share a unique relationship spanning thirty-eight years before they are eventually united in marriage. It is Robert who lives in Northumbria at the nursing home run by his mother. Rachel lives in Flanders Cove on a large estate with her somewhat eccentric aunts. One of the Flanders Cove aunts is a writer of children's literature. Her fanciful story of Those Inquisitive Raccoons is placed in this collection to appeal to the young and young at heart.