Oickle is set to launch the latest chapter in the series at Lane's Privateer Inn on July 12, starting at 7 p.m. in the pub.
"The atmosphere is really perfect for these kinds of things. It's sort of rustic and mystic," says Oickle about Lane's.
Oickle says they wanted to launch it during the week, partly for a change and partly so as not to interfere with people's summer plans. Also for a change it won't just be him reading that evening. A selection of friends and supporters will be reading out loud as well.
Oickle says he never thought the first book, One Crow Sorrow, would turn into another book, let alone a series. However the first book was received well enough the publisher encouraged him to follow it up with the next line in the poem, Two Crows Joy.
"My challenge now is to find stories that go with the lines in the poem," he says.
The story needs to fit the theme of the verse, but it also still has to be interesting to the reader.
"You want the reader to buy into it, and think 'there's a story here, but it's a bit different.'"
The fun part is to take the phrase and let his imagination go, he says. At the same time he says you have to weave the threads together for the other characters, adding new characters and coming up with a new plot.
Each book is a self contained story, and he says he would not write a book that didn't resolve itself at the end. However now that the books have turned into a series, he says there are clues and hints dropped on what the next book will be about.
"To keep the storyline flowing and pulling it together was the challenge, but the fun part"
The book again returns to a fictional version of Liverpool, with many of the same characters as part of the story. It also follows a different protagonist as well, trying to unravel the mysteries of the small town.
This time it follows Amy Bishop, a movie producer looking into the death of her friend Hannah Simms, the protagonist from Two Crows Joy. Questions will be answered, but new ones will come to light as well.
Though unusual to have a series of books with different protagonists, Oickle says he did it because small towns have that tendency to bring in new people and new stories. Once the story is told, the person moves on.
"You have your main setting, the town, and you have your locals, the people you see every day. That's how I was thinking of these stories," he says. "In the middle of that you will have strangers come to town or things out of the blue you didn't expect."
Oickle says he is very grateful for the support the community has shown for the books. When the first book launched, he didn't know what kind of reception he would get, and his greatest worry was nobody would come out. However those fears were quickly quashed when he turned up to a full house for One Crow Sorrow.
"From a local person doing this, it's very rewarding to get that kind of support," he says.
The second book was launched in October, and at the time Oickle was well in the process of writing number three. Even as the third book is published, the fourth is already with the publisher says Oickle.
Oickle was born and raised in Liverpool, graduating from high school in 1979. After training as a journalist in Lethbridge Alberta, he started working full time with The Advance in 1982. The original summer position turned into a full time position, and he moved into the editor role in the late 1980’s. In 1994, he moved over to the Bridgewater Bulletin as editor, and has remained there ever since.
This is Oickle's 17th book in total, which have been a mix fiction and non-fiction titles.
