HAMILTON READS

Maxie Dara is now working on the second installment of her modern-day grim reaper tale that includes definite Hamilton vibes. 

Kathy Valence likes things boring and predictable. She’s mid-divorce, pregnant with her ex’s baby, and is terrified she doesn’t have what it takes to be a mom. Yet, there’s something decidedly different about her. She’s a modern-day grim reaper who works for S.C.Y.T.H.E. — Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences.

“Kathy definitely isn’t your run of the mill grim reaper! But that was always my goal,” says Hamilton’s Maxie Dara, who released A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer in October. “When I was first playing around with her character, I knew I wanted to contrast the extraordinary nature of the job with a very ordinary person. Death is this big, scary subject, so I wanted to make its representative anything but,” she says.

Dara, a writer, actor, and freelance journalist, says the book gave her the unique opportunity to explore the contrast between life and death through one very messy, very human package. During what’s supposed to be a routine transportation of a recently deceased soul to the afterlife, Valence finds herself searching for Conner Ortiz, a teen who insists he didn’t die of natural causes – he was murdered. Kathy has only 45 days to find out the truth before he is doomed to roam the earth as a ghost forever. 

Dara’s path to publishing A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer is unique. After querying literary agents and getting nowhere, she answered an open call for submissions from the Berkley imprint of Penguin Random House. “Essentially, Berkley had opened their doors (and their emails) for authors without agents to submit their work,” she says. “This was a rare opportunity, and a total long shot, but on a whim I submitted.” 

Fast forward a year, Dara had all but forgotten she’d sent the email that would land her a deal. Then Berkley asked for her full manuscript, soon offering her a two-book contract. “I’d been one of four or five authors selected out of around 5,000 submissions,” she says, adding that she’s still pinching herself. 

“I truly feel like the luckiest person. This is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid, so the fact it’s actually come true is very surreal,” she says. 

While A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer is set in an unnamed town, Dara says Hamilton vibes have “definitely snuck in,” especially in the town’s architecture and atmosphere. 

“Hamilton is such an inspiring place to be a writer,” she says, adding that she prefers to write in local cafés and parks instead of at home. “The fact that the arts community is so vibrant and thriving in Hamilton makes being a writer here such a joy. Because it’s such a solitary, self-directed job, it can be easy to feel like what you’re doing isn’t real, but when you’re surrounded by other artists and writers, it grounds the experience in such a lovely way.”

So, what’s next for Dara? She’s giving her book some siblings. S.C.Y.T.H.E. Mysteries is becoming a series, with the second book coming out later this year. 

“I’m absolutely over the moon that I get to live in this weird little world of corporate grim reapers for a while longer,” she says. “This is also a heads up to anyone who frequents cafés that they’ll be seeing a lot of me over the next few years.”

OTHER LOCAL READS

Back Where I Came From: On Culture, Identity, and Home
Edited by Taslim Jaffer and Omar Mouallem

Back Where I Came From: On Culture, Identity, and Home is a collection of personal essays that takes readers to mountainous terrain, tropical beaches, bustling cities, and remote villages around the world. But there are Hamilton connections, too. Mariam Ibrahim’s essay, “Bullets, Soldiers, and Checkpoints: A Family Vacation” shares her family’s journey to become one of the first Arab families to settle in Hamilton. And another, “Mother, Land” was written by Lishai Peel, Hamilton’s first Poet in Place. In all, 26 essays navigate the intricacies of hyphenated identities, sharing nuanced stories of heritage and a re-defined sense of home. 

Broken: How Far Would You Go for a Dog That You Love
By Michelle Stark

When Michelle Stark, a Waterdown-born lawyer who practised civil litigation for almost two decades, decided to buy her first dog, she chose a fancy purebred, a silken windhound she named Raisa. Her powerful new memoir Broken shares the heartbreak she felt when Raisa is confronted with serious health issues, suffering her first devastating and unexpected leg break as a young dog. In her quest to uncover what’s happening to her beloved companion, Stark stumbles upon disturbing revelations about the dog breeding industry. 

Windy Acres Workshop: Art, Nature & Literature Edition
By Sarah Uren 

Working alongside families for over 25 years, Sarah Uren has worked as a Montessori, kindergarten and ESL teacher, nanny, and art instructor. She now lives in rural Ontario, just outside Hamilton, devoting her days to homeschooling her four children at Windy Acres, their “little slice of paradise.” She’s turned the family’s kid-tested activities from Windy Acres’ home workshop into a book of tried-and-true eco-friendly art activities for creatives of all ages that turn everyday items into works of art.