MILFORD: An author from East Hants has penned a book that has a tie in with the Tree for Boston.
Barbara-Jean Moxsom’s latest released book A Tree for Boston: FOREVER GREEN is connected to the first tree that went to Boston from Nova Scotia.
Moxsom said at a book event in the spring of 2024, a fellow writer and friend, Linda Atkinson, read Forever Green, and was pleasantly surprised to discover the tie-in to the first tree for Boston.
“She felt this should be in the description on the back cover, and it also needed to be included in the title,” said Moxsom.
“She said it was a key ingredient to the story, and it would stir readers’ interest if they knew about it.”
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Moxsom said she struggled with the suggestions.
“As a writer I like to take my readers on a journey filled with emotions and unexpected, yet believable, surprise endings,” she said.
“The tree for Boston was my surprise ending. I didn’t want to ‘give it away,’ in the title.
She said once she considered the change she was able to understand it is a selling feature.
“If I wanted to market my book I needed to provide clear information, so readers know what to expect,” Moxsom said.
Moxsom is also an Author and Illustrator of children’s books; Calming the Storm; Did You Call For Me?; Twenty Froggies Went to School; and her most recent, Mertle the Turtle Wore a Purple Mitten.
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Moxsom, who has been a member of the East Hants Writers Group since 2014, was asked about being a children’s author and illustrator, and what made her pursue writing a fictional story.
“Most of my stories, whether it is for children, or for theatre, I begin in the same fashion. I have the basic outline in mind,” she said. “I know what the ending will be, and I have an idea about most of the characters. Then I like to plot my way through constantly asking ‘what if’ questions.
“The same goes for this story, A Tree For Boston, Forever Green.”
She said she drew personal experience.
“Maybe that’s why I like this story so much – it’s personal. I recalled my father’s experience in palliative care at Camp Hill, he had pancreatic cancer and passed in 1983,” she said. “Then, while writing my story, my family learned that my mother was not well, and we were warned we probably only had six months.
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“I knew I would be writing about a particular person’s death, and I kept putting it off. I couldn’t face it. It was just too raw.
“The deadline was approaching, and I knew it was a now or never situation. I felt so guilty writing that death scene – it seemed so callous, but I made it through.”
And Moxsom and family had two-and-a-half mor years with her mom before she passed away.
A Tree For Boston; Forever Green is available on Amazon.ca.
To purchase any of Barb’s Children’s Books you can contact onceupontyne@gmail.com .
