I’m selling my ebook about a raven from the Northwest Territories and donating the profits to the Fort Smith Animal Society.
The Raven Named Flight and How She Learned to Fly - $4.99 CAD
Recent Wildfires
The recent wildfires in Canada shattered records, in terms of wilderness and property they destroyed — but more importantly, they shattered people’s worlds. Many people lost homes, livelihoods, objects that held memories and places that held stories. Nova Scotia, British Columbia (B.C.) and the Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) are still reeling because of the fires .Some people are still unable to return home. I can’t imagine how they must be feeling.
It’s not much but I’m going to donate the proceeds of any future sales of my book The Raven Named Flight to the Fort Smith Animal Society. I’ve lived in Nova Scotia, B.C. and the N.W.T. but it was the ravens in the north that caught my imagination.
Northern Ravens
The Raven Named Flight and How She Learned to Fly is about a raven from Fort Smith, a small town where I lived for about three years in the mid-2000s. In Smith, I was the editor of the newspaper, played hockey and cross-country skied under the northern lights. I also started helping look after the cats and dogs at the animal shelter. It’s where my cat Tomas was staying when I met him.
The Fort Smith Animal Society is run by a group of hardworking volunteers with no limits to how much they give to the animals in their care. With the fires blazing closer and closer to town, when I heard that the residents of Fort Smith were being told to leave, I thought of the shelter. Then I thought of all the animals in the forest, the birds, the bison, the fish, the bees, that couldn’t be moved to a safer place. I thought about the ravens.
Northern ravens are amazing creatures. They steal food from dogs, do aerobatic flips in the air and talk to each other in loud croaking voices. My raven, Flight, loves her family and hanging out in their comfy, cozy nest. When it comes time for Flight to spread her wings, she first has to overcome her fear of flying. Thanks to her parents, she finally leaves the nest.
Fort Smith animal shelter
While many of the evacuees leaving Fort Smith took their animals, some were left behind. Shelter volunteers, as well as others, have been looking after more than 60 animals in the past few weeks. Needless to say, the animal society will need financial support in the coming weeks.
One of the first places that put Flight on its shelves was Winnie’s Dene Art Gallery and Gift Shop in Enterprise, N.W.T. Enterprise is at the highway junction connecting the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta. Winnie’s, owned by Winne Cadieux, was a popular stopping place on the way to Fort Smith. Tragically in August, 90 per cent of Enterprise — including the gift shop — was destroyed by the wildfires.
I’m hoping Flight will, in her small way, give back to the community where she was born.