Dear Reader,

Today’s guest author, Christine Hill Suntz knew she wanted to write as soon as she finished Anne of Green Gables, and she’s been lost in her imagination ever since. In 2022, she won the ACFW Genesis Contest and the WCCW Goldie Award. When she’s not writing, she teaches high school French and tries out historical recipes on her (mostly) willing family. Follow her adventures in writing and historical farming at www.christinehillsuntz.com or on Instagram at christinehillsuntz.

Christine’s new historical novel is ‘The Heiress and Woodsman’: Canada, 1837. Charlotte Carruthers must find her brother. Joshua Robertson needs the funds to free his. On the road into the Canadian wilderness, they become reluctant allies in a race to save their siblings before brewing rebellion tears the colony apart.

Christine is giving away three copies of ‘The Heiress and Woodsman’ to three readers. To enter the drawing, send an email to Christine: admin@christinehillsuntz.com Please include your shipping address in case you’re a winner.

Wilderness Lessons

Do you like camping?

Like cilantro, camping tends to divide the room. It’s either your favorite way to vacation or a special kind of torture.

I didn’t grow up camping, but early in my marriage, my husband convinced me to give it a try. I was reluctant. I like quaint bed-and-breakfasts and historic cities. No showers? No bed? Yikes.

Much to my surprise, I loved it. Cooking over a campfire, spending my days outdoors, even sleeping in a tent. It became our favorite way to travel when our kids were little. As they grew older, we planned our first backcountry camping trip.

If backcountry camping is new to you, allow me to explain. You pack up everything you’ll need for a week away, put it in a canoe and paddle to a site with no neighbors and no cell service. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to portage (i.e. carry all your stuff a few kilometers through the bush and then come back and carry your canoe). You keep ALL your food in a bear barrel and tie it in a tree overnight. You filter lake water to drink. The toilet is called a thunderbox. Need I say more?

It’s rough and simple. Active yet peaceful. I loved it. I found the perfect reading log. I sipped my coffee early in the morning, staring out on a misty, deserted lake. (Yes, coffee was deemed a necessity and made it into the bear barrel.) We spent a week without seeing anyone outside our family group. A week with no screens of any kind. It was great.

Of course, it wasn’t all perfect views.

Twenty years ago, I almost said no to that first camping trip. If I had, I would have missed one of the best things our family did together. The most important lesson I learned while camping had nothing to do with navigation or survival skills. The most important lesson was this: when challenged to try something new and slightly scary…why not say yes?

Once we were stranded on an island for two days when windy storms prevented us from leaving. We ran out of food and had a harrowing canoe trip back to the car. Several times we’ve woken up in the night to the sound of ‘something’ sniffing around outside. We did not open the tent flap to find out what it was. These experiences weren’t funny at the time, but now they are among our most treasured family memories.

— Christine Hill Suntz

Christine is giving away three copies of ‘The Heiress and Woodsman’ to three readers. To enter the drawing, send an email to Christine: admin@christinehillsuntz.com Please include your shipping address in case you’re a winner.

Thanks for reading with me. It’s so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com