Showing results by author "Joyce Derenas" in All Categories

Nazaire Poulin, a grain grower from Quebec, wants his old life back, but the sudden death of his spouse and the removal of his children have flipped his world upside down. He can’t afford seed money for his coming summer crop. He is a man lost. The Klondike Gold Rush has been over for a decade. Is it too late to find gold or a job rumored to pay six dollars a day? A spark of hope flashes in Nazaire’s body. Dare he go? Everything that Nazaire has is at risk as he ventures thousands of miles from home on a long shot. Many men have gone. Most returned broken. Some starved on the way.

The Lynn Canal has collected victims in the thousands over the centuries. At 90 miles long, it is over 2,000 feet in depth, bordered by rocky reefs that have taken down many a ship. Of the few shipwrecks that were not disasters along the wild Alaskan coast, the rescue of the S.S. Princess May in 1910 remains a chilling account of courage and determination by radio operator W.R. Keller. Faced with one obstacle after another, Keller was hailed a hero when he effected a rescue of nearly 150 souls.

In 1937, Mary Johnnie, a First Nations woman, considers marriage with Romeo Poulin, a pioneer and Stampeder turned small mill owner in Dawson. They have known each other for three decades and each has lost loved ones to the rugged territory that defines the Yukon.

A young immigrant is abandoned in Dawson at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush. She’s penniless and unready to be among 100,000 stampeders. Circumstances soon force her to move to the cribs of Klondike City to survive.

A daguerreotype photo. A forbidden kiss. A shipwrecked steamer. Dangerous ocean crossings. A drunk bear, and murder. Romeo Poulin, a Dawson gold miner visits his friend Ben Johnnie in Alaska and meets his niece, Becca. An attraction grown in the young Dawson miner as he returns once a year to visit, hoping to marry her. However, the shy Becca doesn’t share his feelings. Meanwhile, a violent man, Rain has set his sights on Becca and kidnaps her uncle knowing that she will follow. A few years later, Romeo rescues Becca who favors him with a forbidden kiss, undoing his steady thoughts.

Gaudias Poulin is a pioneering Stampeder who has worked gold claims in Dawson all his adult life. Courage and insurmountable odds are all a normal part of life in the Yukon, a cruel country where every living thing wants to kill you. Although he always believed that the next pan would bring a huge strike, his hard-earned sweat has only brought sore bones and a niggling illness. Time has left him sick and friendless. His heart is filled with bitterness and regret. Perhaps it’s time to go back home.