You're invited to a book launch for One Spring at Ril Lake by Margery Reynolds

Hi, Brian:

I wanted to let you know of my latest book release. One Spring at Ril Lake, the last in the Muskoka Cottage Novel Series, came out this summer in both e-book format and paperback. E-books can be purchased wherever people buy them - kindle, kobo, barns and noble etc. Paperback copies can be purchased through amazon: One Spring at Ril Lake: Reynolds, Margery: 9781069182036: Books - Amazon.ca

Also, I have a launch party coming up in the Niagara Area:

Saturday September 20^th
2 to 4 pm
Lakeside Books and Art
341 Ridge Road North, Ridgeway, Ontario (Map here)

Thank you!

Wishing all your students, success in their writing goals!

In Gratitude of your support,

D. M. Rutherford/Margery Reynolds

One Spring at Rill Lake by Margery Reynolds

When Helen Claybourne is gifted a two-week vacation at a luxury cottage on Ril Lake, her only thought, driving north through the beautiful Muskoka Region, is of rest, relaxation and some much needed alone-time.

Tessa Field knows she’s getting on her sister’s last nerve and Pat is getting on hers too. Separated since their twenties, by geography, they are discovering that life and the past has changed them, and living together now, isn’t exactly working. When Pat wins a two-week holiday at a luxury cottage on Ril Lake she cannot use, she gives it to Tessa instead.

When a mistake in a booking at Serenity Lodge, brings Helen and Tessa together, the spring storm they’ve both just travelled through is nothing compared to what’s coming. What secrets has Helen been hiding from her daughter? What ghosts lie in Tessa’s past she doesn’t want to face?

For two ladies hoping looking for serenity in their golden years, life at Ril Lake is about to be anything but.

Set in the beautiful Muskoka Region of Central Ontario, on the tranquil shores of Ril Lake, this is the fourth novel from Margery Reynolds, in the Muskoka Cottage Novel Series.

Note: If you miss the book launch, the Ril Lake series is available at Chapters/Indigo here.

See more books by your fellow authors here (and scroll down).

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

“When a Cuppa Won’t Do” by Margery Reynolds

The whirling flash of red and blue emergency lights across the street drew my attention to the kitchen window. Two cruisers pulled up alongside the ambulance and unmarked car already in the driveway across the street. An army of police officers spilled out of the vehicles and surrounded the house, while the plain clothes officials went inside.

The whistling of the kettle pulled my thoughts back to the kitchen, and Jenny who sat at my table, her head buried between her trembling hands.

“What if…?” Jenny asked.

“A bit late for ifs,” I said.

Jenny’s husband of twenty-two years had been having an affair. I would never have believed it. Sid just wasn’t the type. I’d said as much when Jenny first mentioned she suspected something was going on. “He’s a family man, a brilliant father, devoted to you and the kids,” I’d said.

I was wrong. Five years later, things came crashing down and now Jenny sat at my table, waiting, wondering, worried.

I dropped three tea bags into Granny’s porcelain pot, poured in the boiling water the way I’d done a hundred times before, because that’s what you did, when someone’s world was caving in. You made tea.

“There’s nothing a good cup of tea can’t fix,” Granny used to say. “A cuppa cures all.”

But then I realized something. Jenny and I weren’t children anymore, and this wasn’t a skinned knee in the playground. A cup of tea just wouldn’t do. This called for something other than tea. I reached into the cupboard above the stove and hauled down a bottle of the good scotch.

Jenny slid back her chair, fetched two of my best tumblers from the cabinet and set them on the table, her eyes flitting to the scene unfolding across the street at her house. “Now you’re talkin’,” she said, a slow smile spreading over her face as I poured the amber liquid.

Jenny slid back her chair, fetched two of my best tumblers from the cabinet and set them on the table, her eyes flitting across the street to her house, and back again.

“Now you’re talkin’,” she said. A slow smile spread over her face as I poured the amber liquid.

The first sip burned all the way down and when it hit the pit of my stomach, it lay there smoldering. I ventured a look out the window when I heard the ambulance doors slam shut. A woman in handcuffs, flanked by uniformed officers, was escorted out of Jenny’s house and into the back seat of a cruiser. In less than a minute they were gone, nothing left but ribbons of yellow crime scene tape flapping in the breeze.

My eyes met Jenny’s. I raised my glass in a mocking toast. “To freedom, because Sid will never darken your doorstep again.”

Jenny’s lips curved into a wicked smile. “To Mary. It’ll be twenty-five to life before she ever ruins another marriage.”

Dale Margery Rutherford aka Margery Reynolds gave up her bookstore and tea shop, called Novel-Teas, in 2016 to pursue her interest in writing. In 2022 she published her first novel, followed by her second in 2023, and will have two releases in 2024. One Autumn at Ril Lake (the third in the Muskoka Cottage Novel Series) and the first in her Dotty Hamilton Series; A Tapestry of Lies.

Besides writing, Margery is also a freelance developmental editor and facilitator of a local writing group. Her personal reading choices lean toward historical fiction, family drama, women’s fiction, cozy mysteries, and the occasional suspense. When she isn’t writing, she’s researching her family tree, doing jig-saw puzzles and watching binge-worthy TV shows.

This story, “When A Cuppa Won’t Do,” started from a writing prompt at one of Brian Henry’s writing retreats at the Briars.

You can find Margery’s books in e-book form anywhere you usually buy e-books, or on loan through Overdrive or Hoopla at your local library. Print copies are available on Amazon or Ingram Spark.

You can follow Margery on Facebook here, on her website here, or on her Substack here.

Read more short stories, essays, and reviews by your fellow writers here (and scroll down).

See upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day  retreats here. 

New book: One Summer at Ril Lake by Dale Rutherford writing as Margery Reynolds

Hi, Brian: 

I am happy to announce the release of One Summer at Ril Lake, under my pen name Margery Reynolds. It is the first in my Muskoka Cottage Read Series and is something entirely new from the manuscripts I was working on in class. The lessons learned and knowledge gained were invaluable and apply to writing of any genre. And so, inspired by the atmosphere during visits to a cottage on Ril Lake, many trips to the Huntsville area and by your writing retreats at The Briars and Algonquin Park this novel falls into the light romance genre.

It was described in a review by author J. J. Richardson as a, “gentle love story about family dynamics, secrets kept and secrets revealed. The characters are likeable, the plot isn't rushed and there are a few twists to keep the reader guessing. Great debut for this author.”

Here is a short synopsis:

Dale aka Margery Reynolds

All Felicity Jefferies wants is a little serenity and some alone time at her cottage to regroup after her husband’s passing. But her son’s endless questions give her anything but what she went to Ril Lake to find. Instead, they force Felicity to delve into, and reveal, family secrets she hoped would never come to light. 

All Ben Pierce wants is to mend a wounded relationship with his estranged daughter, but she wants nothing to do with him and cannot forgive him for walking away over a decade ago.

Newly acquainted neighbours at cottages on Ril Lake, Felicity and Ben unpack the baggage of their respective past relationships, while kindling a new relationship of their own. Will this new and unexpected friendship stand the test of the final secret Felicity must reveal to her family and to Ben? A secret kept buried for more than twenty years that has the ability to either heal the past or tear apart the present. The future is anybody’s guess.

The book is available in e-book or paperback format on Amazon here.

One Spring at Ril Lake, the second in the series, is slated for a May release.

With appreciate and with gratitude,

Dale M. Rutherford

Aka Margery Reynolds

See Brian Henry’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and weekend retreats here.