Emails with Anthony on Home Fires Burn

After reading Home Fires Burn by Anthony Bidulka, I exchanged emails with Anthony. I cherish our exchanges.

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Dear Anthony,

I finished reading Home Fires Burn to Sharon yesterday.

We had been proceeding at a stately pace until we started the final 60 pages at noon. We could not stop. I read as we were waiting for our sandwiches at the Balance Cafe. (We are currently at the Grand Mayan resort in the Vidanta complex in Puerto Vallarta.) When we went down to the beach I read some more while we were sitting under a thatched roof beach hut. After ordering Chinese food for dinner at Gong I read some more as we sat on the patio beside the mini-lake. When we went upstairs to our suite Sharon said can we keep going? She lay down beside me and the pages went by until we were done.

I asked Sharon her thoughts on the book. She said she enjoyed Home Fires Burn. The cliffhangers in the final chapters kept her wanting more.

She told me she thought the pace made it suitable for being an audible book. She said it did not drag, that the plot never stalled and was not repetitive. She continued that there was enough description to keep her interested and let her form a picture in her mind of what was happening.

She was concerned about Merry wearing her Christian Louboutin boots with narrow 4” heels on the icy streets of Livingsky. She worried Merry would have a bad fall.

Her comments were not prompted by my remarks on the first book, Livingsky, about those impractical boots.

She did wonder how tall Merry was without her heels. You spoke of her being tall but I do not recall her height being set out in the books. Did you have a height in your mind for Merry?

Sharon was patient about me reading aloud the last few days. She said it would have been better if I had not interrupted reading periodically by coughing. I have a lingering cold. 

My thoughts are in the review that I posted today. A link is below. If you can reply I will post this message and your response a few days from now.

As with the end of the Russell Quant series I express my regret there will be no more Merry Bell adventures. I thought the third to be the strongest of the series.

I have not always found the endings of your books to be a strength. Home Fires Burn had a strong, credible finish.

I believe Merry Bell and Roger/Stella Brown have become a formidable sleuthing team. It would be interesting if they had more mysteries to solve, especially if they ventured into rural Saskatchewan. 

I do not think I have seen or heard where your writing may take you next. If you are sharing then Sharon and I would be glad to know.

When Russell went on his “indefinite hiatus” I thought he was not really settled. I did see Merry’s life in a good place at the end of Home Fires Burn.

In a final plea I would love to see you write a mystery in which Russell joins Merry and Roger/Stella. I think it would be a grand adventure.

Sharon and I look forward to your next book. Fifteen are not enough!

All the best to you and Herb.

Bill

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Hi Bill,

I hope this finds you well and the two of you enjoying more of the delights of Puerto Vallarta.

As far back as when Amuse Bouche first came out in 2003, I have always enjoyed imagining how readers experience my books. Over the years, some have been so kind as to send me photographs of them reading one, on a beach, in bed surrounded by pillows, on a favourite chair, in front of a fireplace, on an airplane. I love them all. In that same vein, I've greatly appreciated your telling me about reading Home Fires Burn aloud to Sharon.

One of the commonalities in your thoughts about any of my books is your ability to see beyond the mystery (perhaps that's the "More" in "Mysteries and More"?). Identifying "relationships" as the overarching theme of the trilogy is interesting and probably quite accurate. Before Merry was Merry, she was Joey. It's fascinating to think about whether Joey's relationships expired along with Joey or do they continue on with Merry in some form or format? And further, how much of Merry's life prior to transition influence relationships post-Joey? Relationships in general--and you identified many that are investigated in this series--are rarely straightforward. As a writer, I find that a wonderful aspect of character development to dig into.

Oh those Christian Louboutin boots. Not dissimilar to the wonderpants in the Russell Quant series, I've been surprised how often they are referenced by readers and reviewers, and in widely varying ways. Those boots were never made for Saskatchewan and, at first, the same might be said for Merry. She resists and sometimes denies their unsuitability because of what they represent to her and her transition. For me, the beautiful payoff of the boots comes in Home Fires Burn when the boots are irreparably damaged. As for Merry's height, you are correct that I never go beyond saying she is tall. I imagine her being somewhere between 5'8" and 6', but details like this I like to leave up to the reader for whoever it is they see in their mind's eye when they think of Merry.

At the outset of this trilogy I took on the responsibility of telling the stories of not only Merry Bell, but of Roger and Brenda Brown, very seriously. Quoting you, the Merry Bell books are at times "emotional, moving...wrenching, and compelling".  I've done my best to never shy away from the challenging aspects of their lives, yet still remain open to the possibility of hope, love and a happy life. It was bittersweet to write the final pages of this book, but, thankfully, very satisfying. I hope readers feel the same way.

On to the next.

Anthony

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** Bidulka, Anthony – Russell Quant series and Adam Saint series and Merry Bell series and standalones:

(2021) - Anthony Bidulka and Hesitation Over the Cover Photo

Russell Quant books - (2004) - Amuse Bouche (Most
Interesting of 2004 – fiction and non-fiction); (2005) - Flight of Aquavit (2nd Best fiction in 2005); (2005) - Tapas on the Ramblas; (2006) - Stain of the Berry; (2008) - Sundowner Ubuntu;   (2009) - Aloha, Candy Hearts; (2010) - Date with a Sheesha; (2012) - Dos Equis; Paperback or Hardcover

Adam Saint books - (2013) - When the Saints Go

Marching In and (2015) - The Women of Skawa Island

Merry Bell books - (2023) Livingsky and Merry Bell - Saskatchewan Transgender Sleuth and Exchange with Anthony Bidulka on Livingsky; (2024) From Sweetgrass Bridge and I Am Excited to Become a Fictional Character and Poetry in Football - Fictionally and Real Life and Anthony Bidulka at the Melfort Library; (2025) - Home Fires Burn and Reading to Sharon

Standalones - (2017) - Set Free; (2022) - Going to Beautiful and Stellar Book Launch for Going to Beautiful

Home Fires Burn by Anthony Bidulka

(12. - 1255.)  Home Fires Burn by Anthony Bidulka - Merry Bell is tentatively reaching out to her father, Samuel. It has been 12 years. She calls him on the landline of her parents. He answers the wall mounted phone. He calls her Joey. She says she is now Merry
Bell. He instantly realizes the names as her grandmother’s first name and Bell as the English translation of Dzvonyk, their family surname.

The first call is abrupt. Merry makes more calls. Though short in time, emotion fills every call as Merry deals with her feelings about her parents when she was Joey and told them 12 years earlier “that she was actually a girl and wanted to become one”. They are a powerful series of calls.

Anthony provides a candid and credible portrait of a family relationship for a transgender person coming out. Forgiveness comes hardest in families.

Merry meets her first love, Evan Whatley. Since they finished high school he has become a famous rockstar. While he is startled by her transition they resume easy conversation. 

Their relationship is complicated. As a teenager Evan was a gay boy loving another boy, Joey, who did not want to be a boy. Now Evan is a gay man and Joey is Merry, a transgender woman. Anthony addresses their uncertainties. They are friends. Can it be more?

Evan hires Merry. His father, John Whatley, was found dead a year earlier in circumstances all too real for Saskatchewan residents. On a bitter winter night with the temperature at -33C and a wind chill of -42C he is locked out of his car on a country road outside Livingsky and cannot find his keys.

The police conclusion of “death by misadventure” troubles Evan. Merry undertakes to find out what happened that night.

Merry sees her father in a memorable meeting shortly before Christmas. It is organized by Merry’s high school classmate/office neighbour/unexpected friend, Brenda. It was emotional and moving.

The emotions of Christmas seasons past and present are wrenching and compelling. 

Orientation and gender affect families at special occasions. Christmas is the most complex time of the year. Merry’s Christmas experience left me almost as drained as Merry. 

I noted Anthony’s personal passion for themed Christmas trees made its way into this book with a spectacular 20 foot tree beautifully decorated by Brenda. It is “champagne coloured”, slowly rotating, with “boughs heavy with shiny ornaments of gold, brass and white and at the top the largest star Merry had ever seen, so bright the Three Wise Men would need sunglasses”. That is a Christmas tree!

Merry’s investigation into John Whatley’s death proceeds slowly. Dead ends keep requiring Merry to go deeper and deeper into his lfe.

Merry and her landlord, Gerald Drover, continue to have an unlikely relationship. Anthony caught me totally offguard when Gerald meets Merry at the Mayor’s Boxing Day Breakfast for the citizens of Livingsky for both are wearing Christian Louboutin footwear with signature red soles  (Merry in her signature boots and Gerald in “shiny black leather lace-ups).

I regretted that Merry’s sidekick, Brenda’s cross-dressing husband Roger/Stella, did not join the investigation until late in the book. They are such a fascinating sleuthing duo.

By going through the tapes of the crime podcast, The Darkside of Livingsky, which is hosted by Stella, there are a couple of leads for Merry.

It takes Merry and Roger/Stella working together to solve the mystery of John Whatley’s death.

The final chapters flew by.

Anthony’s books have themes that dominate the book. I see the overarching theme in the Merry Bell trilogy as relationships.

I saw Under Sweetgrass Bridge as his best exploration of vulnerability. 

In Home Fires Burn the relationships include parent/child, teenage love, teenage rejection, a cross dressed man with a happy marriage and transgender/straight relationships. The mystery has some challenges competing with the exploration of past, present and future relationships.

I found Home Fires Burn most powerful in its exploration of the angst in the relationships of straight parents with gay or transgender children. I was grateful that love triumphed.

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Bidulka, Anthony – Russell Quant series and Adam Saint series and Merry Bell series and standalones:

(2021) - Anthony Bidulka and Hesitation Over the Cover Photo

Russell Quant books - (2004) - Amuse Bouche (Most
Interesting of 2004 – fiction and non-fiction); (2005) - Flight of Aquavit (2nd Best fiction in 2005); (2005) - Tapas on the Ramblas; (2006) - Stain of the Berry; (2008) - Sundowner Ubuntu;   (2009) - Aloha, Candy Hearts; (2010) - Date with a Sheesha; (2012) - Dos Equis

Adam Saint books - (2013) - When the Saints Go

Marching In and (2015) - The Women of Skawa Island

Merry Bell books - (2023) Livingsky and Merry Bell - Saskatchewan Transgender Sleuth and Exchange with Anthony Bidulka on Livingsky; (2024) From Sweetgrass Bridge and I Am Excited to Become a Fictional Character and Poetry in Football - Fictionally and Real Life and Anthony Bidulka at the Melfort Library

Standalones - (2017) - Set Free; (2022) - Going to Beautiful and Stellar Book Launch for Going to Beautiful