A Dangerous Commitment

Woot, woot. Yesterday I signed a contract with Renaissance Press for the third book in my Dating Coach Mystery Series. It is titled A Dangerous Commitment and goes with A Killer Match and A Lethal Proposal. Not sure when it will be out yet.

Sleuthing the Klondike

 

Helen Castrel and her lady’s maid, Mattie Lewis, have just arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, from England. Helen hires Detective Baxter Davenport to go with them to Dawson City and help find her brother David, who was sent to Canada as a remittance man ten years ago. Mattie has come along to look after Helen and also because she has her own motive to find David.

     The last word the family had from David, he was on his way to the Klondike gold rush at Dawson City. Before they leave Victoria Helen and Baxter discover that a man had been killed the summer before and had never been identified. They wonder if he was David.

     But Helen is determined to find her brother alive and the three head north armed with an old photograph and a recent description provided by David’s former landlady. When they arrive in Dawson City, the gold rush is in full swing and they are challenged by deceit, fraud, and danger in their quest to find David.

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/p/sleuthing-the-klondike

https://books2read.com/Sleuthing-the-Klondike

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0228624762?tag=books2read02-20

A Killer Match-Book One of The Dating Coach Mystery Series

 

Jenna Hamilton is a dating coach and the co-owner of a bookstore, with Adam Owens, in the Net Loft on Granville Island in Vancouver. Hillary Greenwood is her best friend and owns a hair salon in the Net Loft. Hillary’s car is being repaired and one of her hairdressers, Bruno King, offers her a ride home after work. It is dark and raining heavily as they leave Granville Island in Bruno’s vintage car. A truck comes up behind them and rams them three times—the third time sends them crashing into a streetlight pole. Bruno is killed.

     At first this looks like a case of road rage until Bruno’s condo, and Hillary’s house and her salon are trashed. Jenna had set up her part time worker and Bruno through her dating coach business and she helps Michele adjust as the life Bruno had presented to everyone begins to unravel.

https://www.amazon.ca/Killer-Match-Joan-Donaldson-Yarmey/dp/1990086241

https://renaissance-107765.square.site/product/killer-match-a/217?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=2

https://renaissance-107765.square.site/product/killer-match-a-by-joan-donaldson-yarmey/217?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=2

The Hudson's Bay Company

 

https://books2read.com/West-to-the-Bay-Yarmey

https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/p/west-to-the-bay

https://www.amazon.ca/West-Bay-V2-Joan-Donaldson-Yarmey/dp/0228630568

https://books2read.com/West-to-Grande-Portage-V2

 https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/p/west-to-grande-portage

https://www.amazon.ca/West-Grande-Portage-Joan-Donaldson-Yarmey/dp/0228630479

https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/p/west-to-fort-edmonton

https://books2read.com/b/West-to-the-Bay-Yarmey

https://www.amazon.ca/West-Fort-Edmonton-Joan-Donaldson-Yarmey/dp/0228636000

The beaver fur trade began in Montreal, originally founded as a French missionary centre, in the 17^th century. After a few decades, two fur traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Medard des Groseilliers, heard the best furs were further north on a frozen sea, the Hudson’s Bay, and they wanted to investigate. They asked for backing from the French Governor but he didn’t want to fur trade to move away from the St Lawrence River area and refused.

The traders went to England and received funding from Prince Rupert, cousin of King Charles II. In 1668 two ships, the Nonsuch with Groseilliers and the Eaglet with Radisson, left London. However, the Eaglet had to turn back so only the Nonsuch sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to what is now James Bay on Hudson’s Bay. There, Groseilliers founded Charles Fort on the Rupert River. The fort was later named Rupert House. The ship returned to England in October 1669 laden with prime beaver furs to be made into the waterproof felt hats that were popular at the time.

The charter for the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was granted by King Charles II on May 2, 1670. It included all the land surrounding the rivers that drained into the Hudson’s Bay. This reached as far west as the origin of the North Saskatchewan River in the Rocky Mountains and was named Rupert’s Land. The company’s headquarters were in London and by 1717 there were six forts on the bay. The company controlled the fur trade throughout most of North America. However, they relied on the natives to transport the furs to their posts by canoe to trade for muskets, gunpowder, shot, and kettles and other articles.

The French, known as voyageurs, continued their fur trade with the indigenous peoples but they were the ones who went inland with the goods and built posts to trade for the furs. Eventually, in 1779, the independent traders formed their own company, The North West Company. The Hudson’s Bay Company began to open their own inland posts in competition. In 1821 the two joined under the name The Hudson’s Bay Company. It was the government of the land until 1868, two years after Canada was established.

Over the decades the company opened 80 retail stores across North America and employed over nine thousand workers. However, times changed and in March of 2025, the oldest continually operating company in North America filed for credit protection. It closed its last store in June 2025.

I have written three Canadian west historical novels for young adults. Two, ‘West to the Bay’ and ‘West to Fort Edmonton’, a novella, are based on the Hudson Bay Company. The third, ‘West to Grande Portage’ is based on the voyageur’s life. I am researching for a fourth which is tentatively titled, 'West to Fort Selkirk.'

Book Reviews

https://books2read.com/West-to-the-Bay-Yarmey

Review: A delving into history and the Hudson Bay Company. Tells the story of one young man Thomas and his experiences after leaving his home to travel to the New World. Full of adventure and history. I enjoyed the book and the ease of reading.

Review: I have visited Churchill on the Hudson Bay and this book took me back 300 years to what it was like? A good read cannot put it down

 

https://books2read.com/West-to-Grande-Portage-V2

Review: This book was exactly what I needed to read. It took me away to a completely different world in another time. I followed along, very intrigued by the detail Ms. Donaldson provided about Quebec and the voyageurs of the 1700s all the while creating a very compelling story. I loved this book so much that I immediately began West to the Bay after I finished it. I look forward to reading more and more of Ms. Donaldson's stories.

 

Book Reviews

Book reviews are very important for writers especially in today’s flooded book world. In the past there were traditional publishers, and a few writers who self-published, who send their new releases to book reviewers working on the newspapers. The reviewers would then read them and write reviews for the public. Or the publisher sent the manuscripts (ARCs) to other authors before the book was published and would get a review to add to the front of the book.

But things have changed drastically. While the big five publishers still do a lot of the publicizing and marketing, the smaller publishers are now requiring their authors to take over that job. With the Internet making self-publishing cheap and easy, there are a lot more books on the market. So this is why reviews are so important—authors need readers to tell others why they should read that particular book. And most of that is done on Amazon. The algorithms on Amazon don’t care how long or what was said in the reviews, they just look at the number of reviews. The more reviews, the higher up the book is placed.

Unfortunately, many readers seem reluctant to leave a review. And there are many reasons for that. They think they have to write a long one giving some of the storyline. But that’s not necessary. All they have to say is that they liked the book and hoped the author was writing another. Some get busy and forget or they don’t think their opinion is important. Also, if they didn’t like the book or it wasn’t what they expected, they feel a little uncomfortable leaving a three star or less review. But, just because one person didn’t like the subject of the book, that doesn’t mean the next person will think the same way. Liking or disliking a book is subjective. And, hopefully, readers realize that when they look at the reviews of a book they are interested in.

So, it has become necessary for authors to actively ask for reviews. Publishers and self-published authors now add a note at the end of the book reminding the reader to leave a review. Also, writers who send out newsletters prompt readers to go into their book’s Internet site and write a quick assessment of the story.

Even though this way of getting reviews is all free it does seem like a lot of work and seldom pays off. In the end, some authors opt for another way to get reviews, and that is to pay for them. There are businesses that accept books for review and authors can submit their work to them. But it costs and some charge up to $450.00. The questions I have about this are: Is this ethical; does it mean that the more you pay the better the review; does this give the reader a true, objective opinion of the story and of the writing?

The thing is that it is easy for readers to leave a review of my, or any author’s, books on Amazon. And you don’t have had to purchase it through Amazon. Just go to the book’s Amazon page, scroll down to review this product, select the number of stars you give it, and click on the write a customer review button. You can write as many or as few words as you wish.

Just a note: if you are a friend of the author on any social media, Amazon may reject your review and may even delete previous reviews left by other readers.

Paranormal Sightings

Coming June 2026

Paranormal Sightings

In the past, my publisher, Books We Love, has brought out the Canadian Historical Brides Series and the Canadian Historical Mystery Series. There are twelve books in each series, each one set in a province to territory of Canada. Starting this year and continuing into 2026 and 2027, Books We Love is publishing the Canadian Historical Paranormal Series.

I chose the Yukon for each series and wrote Romancing the Klondike for the first series and Sleuthing the Klondike for the second. I am now researching and writing Haunting the Klondike for the third series.

As far as I know, I have never seen a ghost. However, I did live in a haunted house, although without my knowledge. When my husband and I and my brother and sister-in-law first moved to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island we bought a house that had been converted into a duplex. My sister-in-law told me that she was continually seeing a man coming and going from their side. I saw no one on our side.

When I returned to Alberta to visit family and friends I described where our place was to a friend. She began asking questions about it and said that a friend of hers had lived in that house years earlier. She also asked me if I had seen the ghost who occasionally wandered through the house there. I said no, but my sister-in-law had.

My friend said a man had died in that house and her friend had seen his ghost often while living there. I wondered if that was the same man who my sister-in-law was seeing.

I’m not sure if the reason I did not encountered that ghost nor any other ghosts in my life is because I don’t believe in them or because I have been lucky. So I have nothing personal on which to base my novel. I will have to do it all by research.

However, if a ghost is reading this, this is not an invitation to come to me and tell me your story or start moving things around to prove you are real.

Canada's Rainforest

https://books2read.com/Sleuthing-the-Klondike 

Canada’s Rainforest

I am a Canadian and all my mystery, historical, romance, and young adult novels are set in Canada. Canada is the second largest country in the world and has almost twenty-five percent of the world’s temperate rainforest.

A rainforest is characterized by a dense, damp forest that receives up to 254cm (100inches) of moisture (rain, snow, drizzle, fog, or mist) each year. The trees are tall and form an overhead canopy.

There are two types of rainforest: temperate and tropical. A rainforest close to the equator is tropical; one between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic in the northern hemisphere or between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle in the southern hemisphere is called temperate. Therefore, Canada’s rainforests are temperate.

New Zealand, Chile, and Norway also have temperate rainforests. These forests all have much the same characteristics but may have different plants and animals. While most of the temperate rainforests in other parts of the world are a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees, Canada’s rainforests are made up of coniferous trees such as pine, fir, and spruce.

Some of the similarities of rainforests are: trees that range from new saplings to tall, centuries-old growth; large logs lying on the forest floor; an abundance of bright green moss, ferns, and other vegetation hiding the forest floor; plants growing on other plants; and many layers of canopy overhead. Some of the dead logs will have seedlings to tall trees growing on them and are sometimes called a host or nurse log.

Canada’s rainforest ranges along the west coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Their abundant rainfall comes from being close to the Pacific Ocean and coastal mountains. They are part of the Pacific Temperate Rainforest ecoregion which runs from Alaska to Northern California and is the world’s largest temperate rainforest.

Canada also has the world’s only temperate inland forest called the Interior Wet Belt. It runs from Fort George southeast to Revelstoke and further south to the United States border and owes its rain to weather systems that begin in the Pacific Ocean and flow west to rise over the Columbia Mountains.

The Great Bear Rainforest covers 32,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq miles.) along the central and northern coast of British Columbia. It is one of the largest remaining areas of unspoiled temperate rainforest in the world. Besides being home to grizzly bears, wolves, salmon, bald eagles and cougars, it is also home to the Kermode or Spirit Bear, which is a species of black bear. It is called the Spirit Bear because of its white-coloured coat caused by inheriting the genes of both parents. One in ten black bear cubs is born with this coat.

Rainforests cover less than ten percent of the world’s land surface but contribute to one-third of the world’s oxygen production.