There was something for every taste – at the SDG & Area Book Fair.

Twenty-seven veteran and first-time authors and book groups led readers on a literary voyage of discovery, at  the Lost Villages Museum first book fair, this past Sunday, July 21st.

As seen in the header photo, the Book Fair’s participants are in front of Sandtown Advent Christian Church.  Organizer Joy Seguin, is in the front row with a yellow shirt just right of centre and left of Jim Brownell.  (Photo courtesy,  Joy Seguin.)

Covering the gamut from children’s books to spiritual works, with cooking, history, mystery, poetry and social issues in between, the Fair had something to satisfy every taste.

THE INSPIRATION

Organizer and author Joy Seguin said that the inspiration for the event came about in her attempt to return to “some semblance of getting back among the living,” after COVID passed.  Joy continued, “I volunteered at the Lost Villages Museum last year,” and was assigned by Gloria Waldroff to greet visitors  “…at the Sandtown Advent Christian Church.  I was struck by such a beautiful location.  I asked Gloria if the LVM had ever had a book fair?  They had not.  She asked me if I would be willing  to organize one?  ‘UMM, sure,”  I answered.

In the photo above, Fair organizer Joy Seguin is seen holding her book ”Is Advocating a Crime?  Trust Everyone Trust No One,” a passionate call to action for the protection of Seniors in Long Term Care and the residents of Ontario’s Group Homes, as learned from firsthand experience.

Set on focusing on local authors, Joy discovered our wealth of talented writers, encompassing all ages, starting with 12 year old Ithaca Silva’s s book “Thoughts,” to  senior historians.

THE AUTHORS

In photo above is Stormont County’s  raconteur, and author, Murray Barkley displaying his latest work, “My Life So Far. The View From 75 Years”.

Former educator and film producer, Bill E. Byers, originally from Winchester, is shown with his first book, “A Stone’s Throw,” “a coming-of-age story,” about a boy and the loss of “property, heritage, family and love,” as a result of the flooding due to the flooding of the Seaway Valley, and “his search to regain” some of his past.

In the above photo is Author and painter Martha G. Klimek displaying her book “Embracing the Supernatural and Paranormal Phenomena With Developing Your Physic Abilities,  “a journey” that will teach the reader, “…how to embrace the Supernatural.  A firm believer in the paranormal, her business card reads “Looking for True Ghost Stories.”

Stuart Lyall Manson, SD & G’s  leading historian, is pictured above, displaying the first two volumes of his thoroughly researched and entertaining “Sacred Ground, series”, highlighting the area’s historic cemeteries and their occupants.   Of United Empire Loyalist descent, Stuart is sitting in front of the “Loyalist Flag,”  which differs from the present Union Jack, which did not depict Ireland’s St. Patrick’s cross until 1801.

Cornwall’s mystery crime writer, Ginette Guy Mayer (in the photo above) displaying her “Elizabeth Grant, private eye series” based in Cornwall.  The  author of the biography of Cornwall’s first lady of politics, Mary Mack, this fall, Ginette will be releasing “The Women of SDG & Akwesasne”, in support of The United Way of Cornwall and Area.

If you are a fan of the Letters to the Editor in the “Standard-Freeholder,” you have run into John Milne’s writings.  Here authors John and Jan Milnes (in the above photo) are shown offering  several of their works, including “For Long as We Live”, a fictional account of the lives of British Home Children, and “Education and Society in Crisis”. To  quote John, “Once a teacher always a teacher.”

Poet Bobi Leufschaft Poitras (above) displayed her book “Fragments”, focused on simultaneously reflecting the “beauty and ugliness of life.”

Lost Village’s historian Rosemary Rutley (above) displayed a number of her books covering local history and the Lost Villages.  Her book “Of Curds and Whey”, a history of the local cheese industry could serve as a template for agricultural history.  Her current work “A Place By The River”, “is a collection of historical fiction stories inspired by the lost riverside villages of the St. Lawrence River before and after the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Development Project.”

Twelve year old Ithaca Silva, with her first book of short stories “Thoughts”.  Possessing a keen social conscience, Ithaca is donating the proceeds of the sale of her book to the Cornwall and Area Children’s Treatment Centre.

Alison Wert (above) from Avonmore, displaying her first book of poetry Words from Within,” an exploration of  our inner challenges and feelings.

Melissa Yi, (Yuan-Innes), (above) currently residing in Glengarry, is an emergency doctor, who “escapes” through writing “Hope Sze medical thrillers.”  Yi also penned the bestselling memoir, “I Am The Most Unfeeling Doctor in the World” (And Other True Tales From the Emergency Room.)

Author, historian, storyteller Cynthia Young, (above) has strong Loyalist roots to SD & G and uses “creative license to imagine how their lives unfolded” from the stories from her ancestor’s stories.  Cynthia’s works include, “After Clouds, Sunshine” – The Story of Grace Evelyn Loucks, and “In the Shadow of Mount Royal”.  Growing  Up in Montreal’s Golden Mile, visitors to Cynthia’s tent were also treated to some of her  Lost Villages related collection of momentos.