A multi-generational pack of werewolves, led by the “Alpha of Creemore.” A fairy pond in the middle of town, home to a door to another realm.
While these may not be features on your mental map of Creemore, they feature prominently, believe it or not, in The Trouble With Fate and The Thing About Weres, the first two installments in the Mystwalker series of paranormal novels by Toronto writer Leigh Evans.
And while she’s been writing the books for a few years and has made several covert trips to town for inspiration, her appearance at Curiosity House for a reading and signing on Saturday, August 10 will be the first time she faces the residents of Creemore and explains why she chose their village as the settings for her tale of werewolves and “faes.”
“I’m really nervous,” said Evans in a phone conversation this week. “But also excited… I love Creemore, and I really want to be part of the community.”
Evans was a mom-at-home whose kids had moved on when she struck up an online friendship with Charlaine Harris, the author of the Southern Vampire Mysteries, the books on which the popular HBO TV series True Blood were based.
Harris encouraged Evans to take some writing classes and entertain a long-standing desire to write. Around that time, about seven years ago, as Evans was starting to formulate a plot, her sister came back from a day trip to Creemore and told her she just had to visit.
“I took a drive up and said, ‘this is the place,’” remembers Evans. “It’s off the beaten track, it has all kinds of old-world charm, there’s all these artistic vibes that could easily trigger the paranormal. And besides, once I started saying ‘the Alpha of Creemore’ over and over in my head – how perfect is that?”
While the first book in the series features the main character Hedi Peacock, a native of Creemore, eluding the werewolves that originate in the village, the bulk of the action takes place in and around the University of Toronto.
The second installment, just released last week, however, is set almost entirely in Creemore. And it’s a Creemore that readers will recognize, as well.
“If I say a book is set in Toronto, I’m going to put as many Toronto landmarks in there as possible – and the same goes for Creemore,” said Evans. “Early on, I decided that since most fantasy novels are set in the United States, I was going to make these very obviously Canadian. It’s time that readers saw us up here as well.”
Leigh Evans will be at Curiosity House at 10 am on Saturday, August 10. For more information on the Mystwalker series, visit leighevans.com.