You
know that Three Dog Night song, “Never Been to Spain”? From their 1971 album,
Harmony? While I was working on my latest novel, Ghosts of Morocco, that’s the song that floated through my mind
constantly.
I’ve
never been to Morocco, but I set Ghosts
of Morocco there. Or big chunks of it, anyway. Was I being presumptuous?
Maybe. But that’s where the story had to be: partly in Morocco, in the past,
and partly in the Yukon, a little more recently.
I
didn’t want to insult anyone, or make a fool of myself, so I read travel books and
history of Morocco books, read travellers’ blogs, looked at thousands of
pictures on line, grilled my well-travelled friend… anything I could think of
to add depth and realism to the Morocco scenes. I even asked a writer who was
housesitting in Morocco to describe olive trees for me. I was especially
interested in the sensory details of the country – what did it smell like? How
was the quality of the light? How was the humidity level?
It’s
not as good as if I’d been there myself to experience the country, but I think
I did okay. (And now, of course, I really want to go.)
I’m
a lot more nervous about the Yukon setting – home. I took liberties. Outrageous
liberties, sometimes. I can defend that, but Lord help me if I got anything
flat out wrong. You can be sure I’ll hear about it...
Ghosts of Morocco was released this
week. Here’s the cover blurb:
Fifteen years after a traumatic event in
Morocco, Hope Adler has reinvented herself as a cautious, dependable
businesswoman back home in Canada. No more impulsiveness. No more risks. No
more Wild Child. But when Meddur, the young son of her Moroccan friend, lands
on her doorstep, running from murderous Berber radicals, she must reach deep
into her past and bring back the Wild Child, because that’s the only way she
and Meddur will get out of this alive.
Just as she thinks she’s found a safe
place to hide the boy, Sam Walker, the bane of her youth in Morocco, suddenly
appears. Can she trust him to help her keep Meddur safe? Or is he working with
the radicals?
In a departure from her Mendenhall
Mysteries series, Marcelle Dubé’s Ghosts of Morocco is a standalone novel
featuring Hope Adler, a woman tormented by her past and willing to do anything
to make amends. Ghosts of Morocco is
a wild, exotic ride from the sands of Morocco to the deep snows of the Yukon.
It’s
available everywhere e-books are sold and is also available in print.
And
now, because I know you’ve been humming it, here’s a link to “Never Been to Spain.”
