Alumni Book Nook: Dr. Betty Ternier Daniels (BA’75, BA’86, MA’86, PhD’95)

University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate Dr. Betty Ternier Daniels (BA’75, BA’86, MA’86, PhD’95) is passionate about English literature. She pursued her undergraduate and graduate studies in English at USask’s College of Arts and Science, earning her PhD in 1995. She then went on to teach English as a sessional lecturer until her retirement in 2019.

Ternier Daniels, who lives on a farm near Cochin, Sask., has been actively writing since her retirement. Her first novel, Grounds for Murder, was published on Sept. 24, 2024, by ECW Press. She is now working on the sequel, A Clear-Cut Case, which, like Grounds for Murder, is set in the fictional community of Bunchgrass.

Ternier Daniels is a member of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and the Crime Writers of Canada. The Green&White asked her about her new novel and her advice for other people who are considering writing their first book.

Jeannie is in trouble. After the loss of her husband, everyone around her is pressuring her to leave her precious farm, including an incredibly persistent realtor who won’t name her client. But when that realtor ends up dead, killed by mistake when she borrows Jeannie’s car, it becomes clear that her client won’t take no for an answer. Who wants Jeannie’s land so badly that they are willing to kill her for it? And why her farm, when there are plenty around her for sale?

To find the answer, Jeannie joins forces with off-duty cop Derek and finds refuge with the young back-to-the-land tenants who rent a section of her farm. Set in her ways at 60, Jeannie must learn to open her mind—and her heart—in her quest to find the killer, all while grappling with ghosts from her past and wrestling with the question of land transfer and ownership. Will the next generation love her farm as intensely as she does? And will she survive long enough to find out?

I set this book on a farm in northwest Saskatchewan because I wanted to portray rural life for an increasingly urban readership. I explored issues important to me, and to other farm people—the need to preserve farmland for farming, the challenge of transferring land to the next generation, the social injustice that makes land ownership impossible for many people. These issues are not widely dealt with in recent fiction.

The response I've received from readers has been positive. I avoided being didactic by using the popular genre of crime fiction to tell my story. A few people commented on the social content, but I suspect that a lot of readers simply enjoyed reading a mystery that offered a nostalgic view of rural life.

I enjoy the freedom and creativity of writing. I enjoy the control I have over the world I've created. And I enjoy the privilege of having an interesting occupation that will see me well into old age.

My advice to people who are considering writing their first book:

• read of lot of good, recent books in your genre;
• read some of the best books on writing;
• join an organization like the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and use its services (workshops, mentorships, manuscript evaluations); and
• if you plan to self-publish, hire an editor to review your work. Most beginning writers are way too wordy!

It portrays a vanishing rural way of life in the province in which they obtained their degree(s).