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SANDI PLEWIS
Sandi’s third novel, DANCING WITH THE SHADOWS, was published in December of 2022. Three years prior to this, her second novel, BEYOND REACH, came out in December of 2019. Her debut novel, BROKEN CHAIN, was showcased at the end of June 2016 and she now has a following of readers. Prior to this, Sandi finished in win, place and show positions in several short story contests. Most notably, she won first place in the Alice Munro Short Story contest and also had two third-place wins in the same contest. Sandi has been honoured with several top ten finishes in the Ten Stories High anthology. She’s had short stories accepted into literary journals including The New Quarterly and The Windsor Review, as well as numerous smaller publications. As well, she’s had poetry published in The Saving Bannister and The Price of Eggs anthologies.
Sandi also taught creative writing and reviewed plays for area newspapers. She currently edits and critiques for selected clients and has co-written a World War Two screenplay, along with a one-hour family-based television series, the pilot episode for a one-hour comedy/drama, and an eight-part mini-series based on her novel Broken Chain. She is currently writing her fourth novel.
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Purchase books locally at:
-Fincher's (Goderich)
-The Village Bookshop (Bayfield)
-Seaforth Artisan Emporium (Seaforth)
-Rural Reading Room, North Huron Publishing (Blyth)
-Take Cover Books (Peterborough)
BROKEN CHAIN
A fast-moving small-town family story in the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark. Brody Rivers faces three obstacles: he's part Native in a bigoted town; there's been family violence and his father is in jail for murder; and he's inherited an eerie and unwelcome psychic "gift" from his addled grandmother. At sixteen, Brody takes over a rural grocery route and the advances from a lonely, married woman threaten to destroy his life. He also feels a strange but undeniable connection with a young girl on his route, Tricia Porter.
As a series of events torment him, Brody struggles to understand his ability as an empath. Equally, over the next few years, he's forced to deal with repercussions that threaten to break him while being haunted by a vivid and recurring nightmare that leaves him deeply concerned for Tricia's safety. When a January blizzard comes out of nowhere, so does the spirit of a woman who triggers a terrifying, past life memory.
BEYOND REACH
Rae McKeon spent most of her life trying to reach her emotionally absent mother, Fern. Now that her mother has died, Rae seeks to discover the reason for Fern’s suffocating silences, the barriers she erected between herself and her family. The only person who could reach Fern was Rae’s daughter Hannah, but Rae has never been able to connect with Hannah either.
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From unruly child to defiant teenager to unwed mother, Rae always seemed to find the most self-destructive means of coping with her life’s challenges. But even though Rae could defy her strict, disapproving father, protecting herself from her mother’s chronic depression proved to be her toughest challenge. When Rae finds a box of her mother’s diaries, she is suddenly able to decode the path of Fern’s life, even while she tries to sort out her own life, including her strange relationship with her long-term boyfriend and her estrangement from her daughter Hannah.
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Through three generations, Beyond Reach explores the oppressions that have silenced women for centuries. Fern is crippled by fear, Rae by shame, and Hannah by judgment. Just like the main characters, the answers often seem beyond reach.
DANCING WITH THE SHADOWS
Abby was eight when her grandmother’s spirit first appeared on the back lane of the family farm. Although Abby had never met her grandmother Gwynth, she was certain of the woman’s identity. Her spirit began to appear more often, leaving Abby with the conviction that Gwynth wanted something from her.
Both the visits and Abby’s reaction to them were equally disturbing. She developed migraines every time she saw her grandmother, along with another syndrome: the merging of smells and colours, and the intensification of noises. Later in life, Abby identified this condition as synesthesia, but as a young girl, she absorbed the word that others used to describe her—“strange”.
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Now in her forties and living in Burlington, Ontario, Abby sets out to find the truth about Gwynth Herriott: why she disappeared and left a young son behind, why no one will talk about her, and what Gwynth was trying to tell Abby so many years ago.
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Every second chapter takes us back to Gwynth’s story in Huron County, Ontario. We follow her from 1918 through to 1925. While Abby, in the 1990s, tries to untangle her grandmother’s story, she must also concentrate on her career as a photojournalist, devoted to the plight of endangered animals.
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Dancing With The Shadows has two main themes. Gwynth and Abby’s lives clearly show the stigma faced by children and adults who are labeled as different, along with the resulting damage that can affect families for decades. As well, the novel highlights the importance of pursuing the truth to reach closure.