About
Kay McCracken
Kay McCracken closed her bookstore on Shuswap Street in Salmon Arm on December 31, 1998. Since then she has had three books published with Gracesprings Collective: A Raven in My Heart: Reflections of a Bookseller (literary memoir), and A Spooktacular Halloween (a children's book to coincide with the annual Spooktacular held at Haney Heritage Village, and Beyond the Blue Door: a writer’s journey (sequel memoir to A Raven in My Heart).
One of her poems appears in radiant danse uv being: a poetic portrait of bill bissett (Nightwood Editions). Her poems and short stories appear in various journals and she's given readings all over BC, including at the Vancouver International Writers' Festival.
Kay was president of the Shuswap Writers' Group for a year and organized the monthly SWG Coffee House. She maintains that perhaps her greatest legacy is that she co-founded the successful Word on the Lake Writers' Festival in 2003.
Kay's new novella, No Cure for Longing is available as an
e-book and as a print book from Amazon.com
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No Cure for Longing is about two lives driven by love and longing
A friendship develops between Tobias, an 18-year-old young man, and Olivia, a 93-year-old woman. Tobias is just starting out on his life, while Liv seems to be nearing the end of hers.
A longing for love and acceptance has driven both their lives. Set apart from normal society in the deep embrace of the woods, beautiful and enchanting as all natural spaces tend to be, a profound trust builds between the two wayfaring strangers.
Storytelling and art serve to connect Olivia and Tobias, and the bond between them holds strong as they flee from imminent danger.
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"...a delightful novella. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I fell in love with the characters. Friendship, nature and storytelling, were all captured in McCracken's novel. She has a marvelous way with words. I felt a kinship with the main character, Olivia. There's hope for us yet."
Shirley Bigelow DeKelver,
Author of the Climate of Fire Trilogy
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"Kay McCracken is a gifted story teller, and her new book, No Cure For Longing, is an uncommon good story. Uncommon firstly because this is definitely not my normal reading genre, but I couldn't help being drawn into the story right from the first page. I love a good original turn of phrase. From the first paragraph--"Not long as this day has not yet surrendered to night"--tickled my imagery senses. This story's theme is so incredibly uncommon, yet reading along brings the protagonists' unconventional friendship to life, making it real and believable. I found myself thoroughly enjoying it! A lesson for me is don't be afraid to break out of your usual reading material. Reach for this short but delightful novella and be prepared to enjoy an uncommon good story that will stick with you for days.."
Rob Winters
