Amazon Customer on December 10, 2016

A wonderful tribute by the author to her family, especially her father. As someone who has watched the decline of a parent, I felt myself right alongside her in her journey. It is so easy to picture the places and people that she describes. Definitely worth the read!

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Letter from Retired Canadian Editor, Marion I. Duke, received December 11, 2016

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Dear Vicky:

 

Your book, Path of the Turquoise Warrior, was loaned to me to read by my brother, Malcolm (Mac) Duke. He made a quick trip here from Dryden in order to attend the funeral of a first cousin in Tweed, ON, near Ottawa.

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I read your book with great interest. Knowing the Dryden region quite well from almost yearly visits with my brother from 1976 onward. In more recent years, I’ve enjoyed visits with both Malcolm and his wife Adrienne, whom you mention in your book. It was Adrienne who suggested I write you a note. Now retired, I spent 41 years as a full-time journalist, working mainly in print (newspaper) with some work in radio and on cable TV. I was a reporter/photographer and for many years, also an editor.

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Vicky you have considerable skill as a writer – and a storyteller, and those two skills don’t always go together. Your sentence structure is straight forward and lucid and you use words effectively. Moreover you are economical in your use of language, which in this day of babble is a rare skill. Perhaps most important, your writing flows, which in my opinion is a skill which one has or does not have. It is difficult to teach anyone how to compose writing that flows – that is the skill of a natural writer.

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I hope you keep on writing. As a suggestion, here in Canada, where we are finally waking up to the fact that generations of Canadians and their governments have not observed Treaty rights, any insights someone with your talent and background can provide on your indigenous culture would be invaluable.

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In closing, I would say that you have written most effectively on a topic that is most difficult for the human race – the death of a loved one.

 

Good luck to you in your future endeavors, whatever they may be – and I hope they include writing.

Sincerely,

 

Marion I. Duke

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