Crime novel spoof to be launched Saturday
‘I didn’t think I had a novel in me,’ says author
While well-known Island author, Kathy Birt, has penned nine books to date, getting her first novel to print is what she terms a “major accomplishment.”
“I didn’t think I had a novel in me,” says Birt when talking about this book that came about when she wished she had garden space while living in a basement apartment in Charlottetown.
“I saw a wegelia in front of a government building and thought I’d like to have it. Right away my imagination went to work and I wrote the first two chapters of ‘Lady and the Plant(s)’,” she explains.
That was in 2012 and it was not until 2015 that Birt began to work on this novel again.
“I was getting emotionally bogged down working on my memoirs and needed a break. The spoof was the perfect way to do that.”
Birt says there is a lot of herself in this novel — she is a staunch environmentalist and wishes to banish plastic from the earth, which she admits is impossible.
“But it doesn’t hurt to try,” she says, adding that the main character is a 60-something woman named Corrigible, who is the head of the Plastic Police Unit in Charlottetown.
“The unit is simply called, in most cases, the PPU or phew!”
Other characters include Constable Hawkins, who approaches local businesses, along with Corrigible, to get rid of plastic. In addition, Corrigible, in her after-midnight-disguise, adds to Hawkins’s law enforcement duties when she embarks on a crime spree around government buildings in the wee hours.
“You’ll meet a few other characters in this novel … some good, some not-so-good. As well, the police chief plays a major role, and we might even hear from the mayor,” says Birt, who notes that despite the fact her novel is a spoof, she had to interview city police and RCMP officers to be accurate on charges and sentences.
The launch for “Lady and the Plant(s)” is June 10, 2 p.m., at the Haviland Club.
Copies will be available at local books stores, the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market and some gift shops as the summer tourist season unfolds.
Some people have already had an early look at the novel as Birt’s writer friends in TWiG (The Writer’s in Group) have enjoyed all chapters and notes.