Saskatchewan Nurse Practitioner Releases WWI Canadian Bluebird Nurse Historical Fiction Novel

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Feb. 3, 2022 - PRLog -- Saskatoon Nurse Practitioner, Wendy Fehr, is launching her new book, The Light Attendant: A Canadian Bluebird Novel March 18, 2022 (eBook pre-order available now).  Inspired in part by her experiences at the start of our current pandemic, The Light Attendant is set against the backdrop of World War I and the Influenza pandemic of 1918. The story follows Abbigail, a wartime nurse, and Henry, a soldier, as they leave their homes on the Canadian prairies, each for their own reasons, and meet amidst the chaos and desolation of Europe at war.

The novel had its origins in a another story she was writing in 2014 but began to take shape in the spring of 2020 when she was redeployed from her chronic disease management clinic to a local COVID-19 assessment and testing center.  Her experiences on the frontline brought to mind research she had done in 2018 on the 1918 pandemic and lead her to wonder about the people who had survived previous pandemics and wars.  This interest turned into serious research on wartime nursing, soldiering and engagements that she then wound together through the alternating journal entries of the two characters.  The result is a true-to-life representation of two people as they move through world-changing events and each other's lives.

The characters themselves are fictional but the locations, battles, deployments and especially the nursing depicted are all historically accurate and are based on actual events turned up in Fehr's extensive research which she has listed in the Reference section included at the end of the book.  Nursing Sister Abbigail Grieves' No. 7 Canadian Stationary Hospital, and Private Henry Ryzak's 78^th Winnipeg Grenadiers regiment were both real units that saw real-life action and movements as  depicted in the novel.  While it may seem unlikely that two such characters should meet in such circumstances, they could have.  It may also seem unlikely that they should develop a relationship that would ultimately mend them both, but that also could have happened.

The Light Attendant: A Canadian Bluebird Novel is published by Shifterpress.ca and is available now for pre-order in eBook format from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.  The novel will become available for purchase in both eBook and paperback formats on March 18, 2022.

For more information about Wendy and Shifterpress, go to www.shifterspress.ca.  You can also send email to Wendy at thecollective@shifterspress.ca.