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Adventure On A Frozen Island

by Dianne and Vincent Barnes

379 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); black and white photography; catalogue #06-1175; ISBN 1-4120-9420-8; US$25.17, C$28.94, EUR20.67, £14.47

Dianne and Vincent survived the winter isolated on an island against tremendous odds. Would they be able to travel frozen lakes and bush trails? Get water when the lake was frozen?

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About the Book

About the Author

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Excerpts

About the Book

This is book two of the Happiness story. It begins with Dianne's thoughts of going back to the island with a feeling of dread. She remembers the family history, all the problems that beset the family.

The elderly couple decided to spend the winter on the island. They would be completely isolated during winter freeze up, again during spring break up. It would be necessary to cut six bush cords of firewood. How were they to get water from the frozen lake? November 23rd, the change-over from boat to snowmobile. The long wait for the ice to freeze. On December 30th they finally made it to Mactier, crossing three lakes and miles of bush trail.

Dianne and Vincent were making regular trips to town, by snowmachine, pulling a sleigh for necessities. "Another fun trip to town!" They seldom got out without several dives into deep snow, or running off the obscure trail.

One day after a trip to Gravenhurst, pulling a heavy sleigh home with a load of propane, gasoline and food, Vincent ran off the trail on Duffy Lake. They were buried in 16" of slush. Dianne almost panicked, remembering previous, similar ordeals. They had to dig away the slush. Getting the machine started, revving the engine, the belt threw out a cloud of slush. Dianne driving, Vincent pulling, the machine jumped up on the hard trail. They returned to their cottage home before dark.

Spring finally came. The ducks, loons, robins, cormorants came home. Beavers welcomed the arrival of spring. On Easter Sunday, April 20th they watched the phenomenon of the ice leaving. It was the most unusual experience of their lives. They were isolated again for a period to be decided by mother nature.

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About the Author

Diane and Vincent Barnes began as co-writers on their first book Our Long Road to Happiness. They have written some short stories together - The Ghosts of Roderick Lake and Searching for the Spirits of My Ancestors.

Dianne uses her secretarial background and good command of the English language to nitpick through the practical, but uses her experiences and emotions to write from the heart. Adventure on a Frozen Island is a sequel to the Happiness story.

Vincent Barnes was a columnist for a union newspaper The Voice of the Worker where he wrote the Doings From Davenport column for ten years. Topics he covered included grievances, safety, health problems, why workers should join a union. Because of his nose for news, his column was the most read in the newspaper. Then, Barnes put his writing and research interests on the back burner until 1994 when he bought a computer. Since then he has written a proliferation of slice-of-life short stories, poetry and books. His short story, Frozen Roots, was published in the Wordscape 4 Anthology and his poem, The Beauty of Writing, was published in Wordscape 2.

Vincent's first published book is co-written with his wife, Dianne. Our Long Road to Happiness, was published by Trafford in Victoria, British Columbia and can be ordered at the Trafford online bookstore.

The River Otonabee of My Boyhood. This book was also published by Trafford.
It is the story of his life along the Otonabee River and the City of Peterborough, Ontario, during the 1920's and 30's in the context of the times and conditions that existed then.

What Was That War All About, Anyway? is the third book published by Trafford, about the army life of Vincent Joseph Barnes in World War Two, 1939 -1945.

Soon to be published - a book of short stories and poems.

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Excerpts

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Reviews

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