Kim Bannerman's Blog

Hi everyone! If you’re new to my newsletter, let me remind you how we met: I’m the lady that writes about circuses on Vancouver Island, who popped up at markets and craft fairs all summer. I had high hopes that this would be a monthly newsletter, but… well… best laid plans of mice and men, etc etc. Happy November! Good to see you again!

For the last few months, I’ve been busy writing the next Circus Salmagundi mystery, Maker of Widows, which is scheduled for release in spring 2026. Plus, I’m work...

It has long been said that there are ‘cat people’ and there are ‘dog people’, and somewhere along the progression of our lives, we each get divided into one camp or the other. I have always belonged firmly in the canine camp. I love dogs, especially big dogs. This would come as no surprise if you met our first dog Loki (a rambunctious and silly 98-pound Great Dane X who died in 2014) and our second dog Daisy (a clever and thoughtful 120-pound Great Pyrenees, who left us last February, and for wh...

The sun has quite suddenly turned to rain, and I’m reminded (once again) that living on the West Coast keeps you on your toes, especially in the spring months. Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes.

I’m only (a little) grumpy about the rain because this Saturday is my first outdoor market of the year, and I have no interest in selling books in the middle of a thunderstorm. Metal tent + flammable paper products + lightning bolts = an adventure I don’t particularly want to experience.

However,...

Oh, my goodness, we are into March 2025, and the days just keep flying by. I suppose that’s what happens when you live in interesting times?

I'm working on the sixth book in the Circus Salmagundi series, ‘A Bitter Tide’, which is due out this summer. Because of this, I’ve been spending time in Nanaimo, strolling along downtown streets and studying old photographs, and trying to re-create the city as it existed in the autumn of 1921.

I won’t give too much away, bu...

Once upon a time, many years ago, a clever monkey smashed a stone into pieces and, discovering one edge was quite sharp, used it to cut some meat. With this small act, that monkey created the very first tool.

The universe just hasn’t been the same since.

I like making things. I’m sure you do, too. And just like loads of artists and writers, I’ve spent years enjoying social media, but (as you may have noticed) these avenues have become increasingly fractured and distracted, with no clear path to r...

The fifth book in the Circus Salmagundi series, ‘Under a Copper Sun’, has been released just in time for Christmas, and let me be perfectly honest: this book was a doozy to research! The story is set in Anyox, and I found myself ensnared by the town’s remarkable history, spending hours looking at photos or old maps as I attempted to recreate it. I’m going to let Miss Rose describe it:

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I saw you first, not with my mind, but with my body.

Above, the Milky Way was a silvery path bisecting the midnight sky; mirrored below, the rural street separated the park from the dark forest. I was very busy, strolling along and thinking of humdrum everyday things, when suddenly every muscle in my legs froze. An invisible thread yanked my body backwards. Forward momentum ceased. I stumbled. My first fear: oh god, someone’s grabbed me!

Frightened breath rasped in a dry throat. I couldn’t move bu...

After the Great War and the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918, people were desperate for a bit of levity. Roads on Vancouver Island were still dodgy at best — non-existent at worst — and many communities remained fairly isolated from major centers like Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. But people were craving a fun diversion from the hardships of everyday life, and that’s where Robert W. Buller of Victoria saw glittering opportunity.

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I grew up near the ocean and spent a lot of time on the beach as a child. After powerful winter storms, the remains of dead animals would often wash ashore, and I loved to drag these half-rotted, half-eaten blobs home with me, so I could get a better look – hurray, science!  Fins, skulls, fleshy bits of things tossed up from the briny deep… oh, my poor patient parents. In retrospect, our yard probably smelled pretty bad. Most were so decomposed that you were never certain what it had been in lif...

This week has been a busy one.

Firstly, my daughter is graduating this month from high school, which has sent the household into a chaotic whirlwind of (1) studying for exams, (2) accepting awards and bursaries which have made her parents VERY proud, (3) seeking gainful summer employment, and (4) embracing an existential crisis of pending adulthood and/or growing old, depending on which family member is in the middle of feeling overwhelmed*. Secondly, I’m going grey, which isn’t making this mont...