It was an offer that Meg couldn’t refuse. When her brother George asked if she wanted to go to Paris during the Tour de France she immediately jumped at the opportunity.
All she had to do was deliver a package to George’s friend at a hotel in the City of Lights (easy-peasy right?) and then go on a European vacation where she could watch the world’s most famous cycling race. As an avid cycling enthusiast Meg was in heaven.
From the start of her trip, however, there were signs that everything was not as it seemed. After boarding the plane to Paris, she noticed that the last name on her boarding pass said Marais, even though her surname was Griffin. Then on arrival in France, she discovered that George’s friend was not at the designated hotel.
When Meg’s backpack is subsequently stolen, she realized that her brother had not been truthful with her, and that her European sojourn was actually a front for something much more mysterious.
This fun premise is the basis of Stage 11, a new novella by local writer Jill Landry, whose day job is teaching English as a second language.
“An idea I had a long time ago was about a Canadian girl who went to Europe for the first time and fell in with a crowd that she didn’t know,” says Landry in a phone interview. “I starting wondering what she would do.”
Photo of Jill Landry by Bust it Away Photography
The result is a fun novella (the story runs for 72-pages) that is a quick read. Like many new writers, Landry released Stage 11 on her own.
“I was motivated to self-publish because I discovered that two of my favourite authors started as self-published,” she says, referring to Torre DeRoche and Claire Burlinski. (After self-publishing her novel Love With a Chance of Drowning, DeRoche sold her novel to five publishers and a movie producer who bought the film rights).
While clearly a first-time effort this novella is easy to read. The accessible writing, in fact, is quite deliberate, as Landry sees a potential market among foreign students who are studying English. (She has shared the book with some of her ESL classes).
“Some of (my students) had never read a book in English before, so it was exciting that my book was the first book that they read in English,” she says.
Looking forward, Landry says that she is musing with writing sequels in which Meg has a series of overseas adventures.
“I have done a bit of travelling because I teach ESL,” says Landry, who has been to such countries as Russia, China, Turkey and Colombia. This international experience, she notes, could be put to good use for follow-up stories.
.gif)
