Soulworm, my first published novel (originally released by Royal Fireworks Press in 1997), is now available in a brand-new, lightly revised edition from Shadowpaw Press Reprise.
You can purchase it at one of these links or directly from Shadowpaw Press.
Soulworm was shortlisted for Best First Book at the Saskatchewan Book Awards the year it came out.
I wrote the book while I still lived in Weyburn, and that’s where it’s set: Weyburn, Saskatchewan, in 1984, the year I became news editor of the Weyburn Review. People familiar with Weyburn will note that I took some liberties, moving the hospital up onto Signal Hill to the location where the Signal Hill Arts Centre is today. There was a hospital up there at one point, but it was moved a long time ago. But, poetic license!
Here’s the blurb:
She was never meant to be sent into the strange parallel world known as Earth . . . but now, trapped inside the mind of a teenager like herself, she must find a way to save it from destruction.
For years, Liothel has waited in vain for her powers to manifest themselves, so that she can become a full-blown Warder, defender of the realm of Mykia from the mind-controlling spirit-creatures known as soulworms. But when a soulworm escapes from the Warden’s citadel through a magical portal into the parallel world of Earth, it is her spirit that, entirely by accident, is sent in pursuit.
She finds herself, a helpless, unsuspected observer, in the mind of Maribeth, a teenaged girl in the small Canadian prairie city of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, in 1986—and discovers the soulworm has possessed Maribeth’s best friend, Christine.
Somehow, she must find a way to save Earth from the plague of death and destruction the soulworm and its offspring will release if allowed to spread across the unprotected planet. Only she knows the danger—and only she can stop it.
A couple of reviews:
“A wonderfully entertaining, imaginative, and well-crafted book for young adults . . . This book is well-paced and controlled and never becomes moralistic . . . A great read! Highly recommended.” – Saskatchewan Book Award Judges
“This is a complicated bit of writing. The characters are involved in a variety of strong relationships which help create the drama . . . the writing is fast-paced and readers will be amazed at just how wild Weyburn gets.”- Jocolyn Caton, The Regina Sun
