New Brunswick Christmas novel supports McAdam Railway Station restoration

A Press Release


When he sat down to begin writing his latest work of fiction, Fredericton author Mark Walma knew he wanted to create a Christmas story “about New Brunswick, for New Brunswickers”.

The 49-year-old transplanted Ontarian is responsible for the successful Abigail Massey at McAdam Station children’s stories which, over the past two years, have sold more than 2,000 copies in support of the restoration of the historic McAdam Railway Station and Hotel in southwestern New Brunswick.

When it came to penning the next instalment in the Abigail Massey series, however, Walma decided he wanted to write a broader tale that not only would feature the characters he brought to life in the original three story books but would also bring together New Brunswick’s three major cultural groups – French, English and First Nations – in a Christmas story.

“This province has a rich literary tradition, with many wonderful poets, playwrights and authors, both past and present,” Walma explained. “I’m hopeful that my new Abigail Christmas novel will be considered worthy of taking its place with some of the wonderful New Brunswick Christmas stories that have been written in the past.”

Mark spent much of the latter part of 2013 researching and planning his new novel, culminating in A McAdam Station Christmas, a thrilling but heart-warming tale set against the background of a blizzard that paralyzes the province the day before Christmas.

The new book is, like the earlier Abigail Massey books, beautifully designed and illustrated by the author’s sister, Lynn Walma. Net proceeds, after printing costs have been paid, go to the McAdam Historical Restoration Commission.

“It’s an adventure story, first and foremost,” Walma said. “As a result of the massive storm, a varied group of people from different backgrounds is thrown together and forced to work together to attempt a daring rescue.”

Like all of the Abigail stories, the new novel takes place in 1941, with Canada at war and the McAdam Station serving as the gateway to the east for Canada’s war effort. It is written for young people (ages 8 and up) but, Walma hopes, adults will enjoy it too.

“I like to think it has something for everyone,” he said with a smile. “And the proceeds are still going to help restore one of New Brunswick’s historic and architectural treasures – the McAdam Station – so everybody wins.”

The novel is priced at $15, GST included, and is available at Artful Persuasion (York Street) and Covey Basics (Prospect Street) in Fredericton, at Simply Local, Eh (Water Street) in Saint John, in Woodstock at the Farm and Craft Market and Covey Basics, at W.W.E. Smith Store in Harvey Station and at several locations in McAdam (the Village Office, the Scotiabank and the Station itself).

There will be a pre-launch event, held in cooperation with Artful Persuasion and NB Liquor’s Saturday Sips wine-tasting event, on Saturday, November 1 from 11 to 3 at The Station on York Street in Fredericton.

The official launch of A McAdam Station Christmas will take place the following week, on Sunday, November 9 at 2 p.m. at the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel.

The author will also be making book-signing appearances on specific dates in November and December at the Boyce Farmers’ Market in Fredericton and at the special Sunday Christmas Markets, also at the Boyce Market. Check out www.abigailmassey.ca for details.

Big events loom for the Abigail project

The new Christmas novel (left) with its elder siblings

The next three months look to be busy ones for the Abigail project. With the launch of the new Abigail Christmas novel, A McAdam Station Christmas, set for November 9 in a special event at the McAdam Railway Station, author Mark Walma says he's gearing up for an exciting time.

"We've gotten the proof copy of the new novel back from the printer and it looks great," Walma said. "Now it's just a matter of convincing the public to be as excited about this book as we are."

Walma admits that the part he enjoys most about the whole creative project is the writing itself but, he adds, "there is certainly a thrill to meeting people who have purchased and enjoyed the books as well."

The process of promoting and selling a book is an intense one for the author. "A good friend of mine, Ross Pennie, is the author of a successful series of medical mysteries and he gave me some of the best advice I've ever received as a writer," Walma said. "He told me that I can send out all the press releases, hang up all the posters I want, but people want to buy a book from someone they feel they know. So it's up to me to get out there and meet people and sell myself as much as I'm selling the books and the McAdam Railway Station."

To that end, Walma has planned a series of public appearances for the next three months, leading up to Christmas.

The first such event is scheduled for Saturday, November 1 and will take place at the Station in downtown Fredericton from 11 to 4. "It's a joint event with our artist and craftspeople friends from Artful Persuasion and with the Saturday Sips wine-tasting event put on by NB Liquor," Walma explained. "It's a sort of pre-launch celebration to thank all of the people here in Fredericton who have supported the Abigail project and Artful Persuasion itself."

Then, on Sunday, November 2 at 2 p.m., the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel will host the Launch event for the Christmas novel itself. "That's always a fun event," Walma said. "We usually get more than 100 people to come to celebrate with us, honouring not just the Abigail books but also all of the wonderful work that has gone on throughout the year to support the Station."

Following that, Walma will be at the Boyce Farmers Market in Fredericton for several Saturdays in late November and December and also the special Sunday Christmas Markets as well.

"It will be a busy time for me but a fun time too," Walma said. "If we can spark some media interest, maybe it will be even busier!"

Video trailer is now online

The new Abigail Massey promotional video (or "novel trailer") is complete. Author Mark Walma announced that the video was posted this afternoon to Youtube. It can be found here.

"It's a tongue-in-cheek parody of the current political ads that are getting so much play here in New Brunswick," Mark said. "I'm quite hopeful that it will help to raise the profile of the Abigail books in general and the upcoming Christmas novella in particular."

So far, Mark has been working on promoting the video through Facebook, Twitter and the various blogs and websites to which he is related.

"Things have gone pretty well," he said. "In just four hours, the Facebook announcement of the posting of the video has been seen by more than 300 people and we've already had more than 15 views of the video itself."

Busy times as book launch looms...

Two months until launch!

It’s amazing to think that suddenly we are just two months from the launch of A McAdam Station Christmas, the new Abigail Massey Christmas novella. The official launch event is scheduled for Sunday, November 9 at the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel and that means the project team is currently busy, busy, busy.

“To be honest, now that we’ve already launched three Abigail books, the launch itself is not that difficult to plan,” author Mark Walma said recently. “Sure, we want to keep things fresh and include new wrinkles each time out but the basic planning is already done.”

It’s the other aspects of the fall program that have people hopping.

First, there is the final preparation of the book itself: finalizing the layout, checking (and checking again) for typos, formatting errors and other small problems with the galleys, and arranging for a sample book to be printed so that it can be checked once more in its final form.

“Things got more complicated when we found out that significant changes at our original publisher mean we might need to find a new place to have the books printed,” Mark explained.

With illustrator/designer Lynn Walma taking care of the printing details, including scoping out new printing companies to compare price, quality and service, Mark has been focusing on promotions for the new book.

“I’ve been reading about a new concept in book marketing – video trailers – where you basically make the equivalent of a film trailer for your novel,” Mark said. “It’s an interesting idea that, I think, could really help to bring the book to life online and perhaps attract more people to it.”

As a result, Mark has been busily working on a short promotional video for A McAdam Station Christmas, which he hopes to have posted to the web soon. Then it’s a matter of making sure it gets seen by as many people as possible.

“In other words,” Mark laughed, “you have to find ways to promote the video that you’ve created to promote your book.”

And finally, since interest in the Abigail books is so high in New Brunswick’s capital city of Fredericton, the idea was put forward for the Abigail team to work with its principal sales partner, Artful Persuasion (an arts co-operative store located in the city’s downtown), to hold a joint event: a Christmas sale of the beautiful art and crafts produced by Artful’s many members and a second launch event for the Abigail book.

“We’ve been very lucky to have found so many wonderful partners among the local artists and crafts people who are members of Artful Persuasion in Fredericton, Simply Local Eh in Saint John and the Woodstock Farm and Craft Market,” Mark said. “People like Sarah Robichaud Smith-Stewart, Veronica Perrin and Carrie Allen-Golding have been staunch allies from the start, carrying our books in their various sales venues and including us in their promotional events. A joint event is a great way to join forces with them to bring our often different customer groups together.”

The details of the Fredericton event are still being worked out. Watch this space for more news and information as it becomes available.

Author to appear at McAdam Railway Station this Sunday

With the new Christmas novella well into production and the audio-book version of Volume 1 now available, things seem to be humming along in the Abigail project.

Author Mark Walma is now preparing for an appearance at the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel this coming Sunday, July 27 from 1 to 3 p.m.

"The McAdam Historical Restoration Commission has planned a series of appearances by local artists to complement its already very popular Railway Pie Sunday events," Mark explained, "and I'm quite honoured to have been invited to take part."

Mark said his role is to set up his table and then chat with the people who drop into the Station for pie.

"Many of the people who come out are likely from McAdam and the surrounding area so they likely already have purchased the original three Abigail books," Mark said. "My appearance there is not really about the sales of the books but more about thanking people for their support for our project and the Station, adding even more interest to their visit and getting them excited about the upcoming book."

Artist and designer Lynn Walma is currently working very hard on the drawings and layout of the new Christmas novella, "A McAdam Station Christmas", which is due out in November.

"We're very excited about this new book and looking forward to the launch late this fall," Mark said. "We are thinking of having two different launches -- one at the Station and a second in Fredericton -- so watch out for that!"

An awesome Canada Day for Abigail

Canada Day in McAdam turned out to be an awesome experience, Abigail author Mark Walma said.

"What a great day we had," he said recently, his face still showing the slightest hint of sun from the day spent outside the McAdam Railway Station. "Lots of people, lots on interesting conversations, lots of kind words about the Abigail books and even a few sales."

Mark spent six solid hours staffing a table at the Canada Day event, taking the project's new point-of-sale book display and audio book out for a test drive and catching up with a lot of friends out in McAdam.

"They've got a great bunch of people out there," Mark said. "The group who make up the McAdam Historical Restoration Commission, people like Gail Swan, Elsie Carroll, Elaina Goss, Kim Dunphy and Dave McInroy, are just wonderful, hard-working, supportive people. And they get great support from the Village mayor, Frank Carroll."

Despite the fact that it was one of the hottest days of the year, Mark said he thoroughly enjoyed the day.

"I was lucky," he said. "My table was in the shadow created by the eaves of the Station and got a nice breeze off the pond. It was quite comfortable."

He said he was especially delighted with the many compliments he received from people from all over (some from as far away as Toronto, Edmonton and even California) about the first three volumes of Abigail stories and the excitement that greeted the news that a fourth book, A McAdam Station Christmas, will be coming out in November.

"One woman actually did a little dance when she saw the poster," Mark said, laughing. "She told me she'd enjoyed the first three volumes but had been worried that there wouldn't be any more coming out. She was absolutely thrilled."

And then there was the little boy from Toronto who complained that he just couldn't wait until November to read the next book. "He was eventually convinced to settle for a photo with the author that his mom could post on Twitter for him," Mark explained.

Next appearance for Mark will likely be at the First Anniversary/Moving Party for Artful Persuasion, the fabulous Fredericton artists' co-operative store that was one of the first sales partners for the Abigail books.

The Artful Persuasion party was planned for this Saturday, July 5 but has already been postponed due to the fact that Arthur (be he a Hurricane or a Tropical Storm by then) is expected to roll into town and dump up to 100 mm of rain on the city throughout the day on Saturday. The new date will be announced soon.

Canada Day brings new Abigail items

This is what all the hard work was about: a brand new CD, with recordings of author Mark Walma reading the four stories from Abigail Massey at McAdam Station, Volume 1.

Plus a fantastic new display box for all four of the Abigail books (the first three collections of stories and the new Christmas novella, "coming this November").

"I'm pretty happy with the results," Mark said as he prepared for his appearance at the Canada Day celebrations in McAdam on Tuesday. "Lynn did an awesome job with the designs of the display case, the CD cover and the novella."

Mark explained that, even though the red stickers for the CDs themselves are beautiful, Lynn has expressed a concern that they might peel off and damage people's CD players. "So we've decided to forego them for now," he said. "They're beautiful, to be sure, but I'd rather sell unadorned CDs than do any damage."

The entire Village of McAdam celebrates Canada Day in style, with local artisans and crafts people setting up tables around the Train Station for the day and a big parade through the community, starting at 10:30 a.m.

"It's always a lot of fun," Mark said. "It will be a beautiful day so we hope we have huge crowds to come out and get to know the Station and the Village of McAdam."

Podcast CDs of Abigail finally completed

"I'm feeling a combination of excitement and relief right now," Abigail author Mark Walma said Sunday afternoon. "After a lot of work and a lot of worry, I'm very pleased to be able to announce that the books-on-CD version of Abigail Massey at McAdam Station, Volume 1, is now completed and bring printed."

Walma has worked throughout the weekend, ironing out final technical problems, editing the recorded versions of the stories, and preparing to record, just to make sure the new release will be ready for his appearance at the McAdam Station on Canada Day.

"It became a bit of a race against time, unfortunately," he admitted. "I think I underestimated the complexity of the project when I first launched into it but I'm pretty pleased with the result."

Mark explained that he feels the new version of the Abigail stories will help people with vision impairments, children and elderly people enjoy the stories too.

"I've had a lot of really positive feedback from people when they hear about this new project," he said, "and I was committed to getting it launched by Canada Day."

Mark said he expects to give away the copies of the new CD to people willing to make a donation to the Station's restoration fund at the Canada Day celebration, rather than selling it for a set price.

"My thinking is, if someone is willing to donate ten dollars or more to the Station, I'm happy to give them a copy of the CD," he said with a smile. "It's all for a great cause."

The difficulty pod-cast journey

Creating podcasts and books-on-CD is turning out to be harder than expected, Abigail author Mark Walma now admits.

"I got into it on a whim, to be honest," he said. "A person with a vision impairment emailed Abigail some time ago saying that, although she has heard the Abigail Massey books are pretty good good and although she had purchased copies for friends and family around the world, she still hadn't been able to enjoy the stories herself."

Mark first sent the woman the stories in their electronic (Word) format, so that a program on her computer could read them to her.

"But I thought, 'maybe I can do better'," he said with a laugh. "I didn't realise what I was getting myself into."

First, there's doing the recording itself. Mark had to bring together the right equipment and software just to get started. Once that was done, he needed to find quiet time to read the stories into the computer.

"All it takes is for the dog to bark or a loud truck to drive by and you have to stop and rewind," he said. "I had one 'take' ruined when someone flushed a toilet!"

Then came the actual reading part of it.

"Reading like that isn't as easy as one might expect," he said. "There's nothing like a digital recording to show you how many ums, ahs, coughs and sniffs you commit in a single minute of reading. And then there's the problem of stumbling over words, mispronouncements and stuff like that."

It took him more than two hours to record each of the four stories from the first volume in any kind of decent shape and editing each one has taken many hours more.

"You want to remove the blemishes, sure, but you also want to make sure you get the pacing right," he explained. "You have to deal with the fact that, when you do so many 'takes' in the course of reading a single story, you're going to have sometimes significant differences in volume as well."

And then there's the problem of time. Mark's goal is to fit the four stories from the first volume on a single CD. Well, most CDs handle only 80 minutes of recording. And not a minute more.

"Each story turned out to be between 18 and 25 minutes in length," he said, laughing. "So, when all was said and done, when I had the recording of each story in pretty good shape, I found out I was still about two minutes over the limit."

So now it's back to the editing booth.

"I'll get there, I'm sure," Mark promised. "It's just a much more difficult journey than I expected."

First four podcast recordings are complete!

The podcast recordings of the first four Abigail stories are now in the bank. Or in the hard-drive's memory, at least.

Author Mark Walma has completed the readings for "Passing the Test", "In Trouble", "Behind Bars" and Canada's Sweetheart", the four stories that make up Abigail Massey at McAdam Station, Volume 1.

"It's a lot harder work that I thought it would be," he said, his voice sounding a little hoarse from all the vocal exercise he's put in.

"There's so much to focus on when you're recording for a podcast: from keeping your voice at a consistent volume to making sure you don't read too quickly to trying to create and maintain interesting voices for each of the major characters."

Artist and designer Lynn Walma has already completed designing the cover package for the promotional CD the project team plans to make out of these four recordings. Fans of the books will find that the new CD cases look remarkably familiar, as Lynn has been careful to carry the same design elements from the book covers into the CD envelopes.

So that leaves Mark to iron out the final challenges he faces with converting his vocal recordings into a format that will fit onto a standard CD and play in your average CD player.

"I'm no techno expert," Mark laughs. "I'm learning as I go and, even though I'm pleased to have the recordings themselves put to bed, I still have a lot of work to do to actually 'write' the CDs themselves."

And then he'll turn his attention to putting samples of the recordings online as podcasts for Abigail readers around the world.

"I'm a writer by training," he said. "I loved writing the Abigail stories and I've enjoyed much of what has followed from their publication. But this technological stuff is really testing my ability to learn new skills and master the computer-related aspects of promoting a book."

Mark said his goal is to have the CD ready for release at his Canada Day appearance at the McAdam Railway Station in two weeks.

"But there's still a lot of work to do to meet that goal," he said, shaking his head. "I can only do my best..."

The challenge of the voices

The recording of a podcast in a dramatic reading style is a fairly challenging task.

Not only do you have to read the story in a clear, articulate voice; you also have to create consistent voices appropriate for the recurring characters in the story (or stories).

Abigail author Mark Walma is currently in the process of creating recordings of the first four stories in the Abigail Massey collections, the stories contained in Volume 1. He has built his own personal recording studio in his home, using two computers, the Apple "Garageband" program and a special, professional quality USB microphone he received as a gift last Christmas.

But building the studio was nothing compared to the challenge of coming up with distinct voices for the many characters in the stories.

"Yes, it's been tough," he laughs. "I'm a writer, not an actor or a voice-over specialist. I'm no Mel Blanc so I have been finding it a bit of a struggle."

He says the fact that the stories contain more female characters than male makes the challenge even more difficult. "Every story features Abigail, Martha and Miss Pierce. Plus you've got Jenny and Alice to account for. That's a lot of women's voices to create and keep consistent."

Mark reports that, despite these challenges, he has finalised the pod casts for the first three stories and, after doing a little polishing, is pretty happy with them.

"I got 'Passing the Test' done first and then played it for my partner to get her take on it," he says. "She really liked it, at least most of it. She didn't like the voice I had created for Miss Pierce, though. 'It's too nasal sounding,' she said. So I had to go back and re-record all of Miss Pierce's dialogue and then stitch it into the main recording. That was a fun experience!"

He plans to record the fourth story, "Canada's Sweetheart", in the next week or so and hopes to have a CD of the recordings for the entire fourth volume finished and ready for sharing before his appearance at the McAdam Railway Station on Canada Day, July 1.

"It would be great to have it ready for Canada Day," he said, "just to have something new to offer people in the long break between last Christmas' release of Volume 3 and the launch of A McAdam Station Christmas, our new Abigail Massey novella, this November."

Mark will be on hand at the Station on July 1 to take part in the Canada Day festivities. Come out and say hello!

It's Railway Pie time at the McAdam Railway Station...

Summer's here and that means it's Railway Pie time at the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel!

Every Sunday, the Station's gorgeous fifties-era lunch counter comes alive with the sound of laughter and clinking forks as people come from far and wide to tour the historic building and savour the selection of home-made pie served in the biggest slices around!

Abigail author Mark Walma will be appearing three times over the course of the season to greet the readers of the Abigail Massey at McAdam Station books and talk about everything from writing to trains to local history.

And Mark has some special surprises in store for people who drop by! Watch this space for details.


Meanwhile, reader Joanne Muys sent along this photograph of her cupboard, showing off her three Abigail Massey mugs that hang over the rest of her mug collection. Thanks Joanne!

Help us to choose a podcast reading style

Okay, it's time to help us choose a reading style for our Abigail Massey podcasts and books-on-CD projects!

Just click on the link to our Youtube video: Abigail Podcast Style.

What did you think? We know, it's a bit raw and the pictures don't quite match what is being read but, to be honest, we're not the most technosavvy people and couldn't figure out how to put a simply sound recording here or on the Abigail website: Abigail Massey.

We promise the final podcast product will be more slick and well produced but we wanted to get these samples up so that people like you could listen and give us your feedback.

There are three ways for you to provide feedback on which reading style you prefer:

1. Use the little chooser buttons at the end of this post;
2. Take part in our poll on this website; or
3. Send us an email at abigail@abigailmassey.ca to tell us your preference and provide any other feedback or advice you may wish to include.

Thanks again for your help. Watch this space for more exciting news about the Abigail project, coming events and the launch of the Abigail Massey Christmas Story, coming this fall.