T-rex inspires two careers for author
A trip to Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum as a child sealed Kara Bartley’s fate.
“There was a beautiful Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton on display when you walked in,” she recalled.
“It had me … hook, line and sinker.” What followed was an obsessive interest in all things paleontology.
“I fell in love with dinosaurs,” the Niagara Falls resident recalled. “I wanted to study them, it was such a big hobby for me.”
Bartley went on to study science and biology at University at Buffalo. In 2002, she attended a fossil dig in Kansas as part of her research for her masters in vertebrate paleontology.
“One day, my hands were in the ground and I had an idea for a story,” she said. “I started writing but I kept it quiet at first because I was supposed to be there doing research.”
That first archeological dig became the catalyst for The Siamese Mummy, her first novel. The teen-driven supernatural mystery was released in 2006.
Flash forward to 2017 and Bartley has now unveiled to readers Rise of the Sandshadow, the second instalment in the Mummy series.
A book launch was held Sunday at Niagaraon-the-Lake Public Library. Rise of the Sandshadow is currently available from publishing company Xlibris and will soon be offered through Barnes and Noble.
Illustrator Tammy Dunlavy, Bartley’s class-mate at university, was also in attendance at the book launch.
“We met as scientists. After graduation, she went off to art and I went off to writing and our teachers were left scratching their heads, wondering what happened,” Bartly quipped.
Rise of the Sandshadow is Bartley’s sixth book.
She dedicated her latest novel to her father Richard Bartley who died in 2014.
“This book is for him. He was my biggest supporter.”
When not working on her next novel, Bartley shares her love of paleontology with children through her Paleotales school educational program. alangley@postmedia.com twitter.com/nfallslangley