Elmsdale author completes novel

In reading any of Ivan Ashley’s novels, it’s clear the Elmsdale author writes from a place and a lifestyle he knows well, the country farm and rural living.

His fourth, and what the 78-year-old author says might be his last, novel, “Voices in the Poplars: Listening to the Leaves” focuses on a different farm family – and in a different fictional community, although still near Charlottetown – than what readers would remember from the three books in his Red Island Clay series.

Those fictional communities, however, are very near to the Union Road area that he moved to with his family as a young boy.

The author concedes he is a lot like the main character in the book and his wife, Dot, is a lot like one of the other characters, but the story is not about them, he assures.

There was an urgency to his latest book, he said, pointing out he already knew how it was going to end before he put pen to paper about two years ago, but health issues had him worried he might not get to finish the work.

“It was something I had to write,” he said.

The story revolves around farm boy Adam Moore, his passion for farming and his love for his family. He faces some challenges in his adult life but all turns out well in the end. Ashley said he wanted to convey how things used to be, a simpler way.

The story also touches on religion, faith in a higher power and the value of good neighbours. The book champions characteristics and a way of life passed on from one generation to the next.

“It’s meaningful to me, some truth embellished to make it an interesting story,” Ashley described his self-published novel.

Early feedback, he said, suggests “Voices in the Poplars” is the most-liked of his four books.

He perks up when asks if he considers himself to be a romantic at heart.

“Oh, definitely. Everybody tells me that, too. What better way is there to be than to be a romantic at heart?” he says, adding that he got that trait from his father.